Finding Favorites with Leah Jones

Where are you leaving? Egypt Where are you going? Jerusalem What are you carrying? The bread of freedom Pesach (Passover) starts on Friday night and Caroline Musin Berkowitz joined Leah to talk about how she gets organized for the holiday. We talk about recipes, family traditions, finding the right haggadah, additions to the seder plate, and how to give gift to your future self with a good spreads...

Deborah Greenhut, author of The Hoarder's Wife, joined Leah on Finding Favorites to discuss her debut novel, baking challah, and the music of Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro.  Deborah's debut novel is available on April 5, 2022, in print and digital. DeborahGreenhut.com The Hoarder's Wife Woodhall Press Children's travel books by Deborah Gentle Art Swedish Death Cleaning The Settlement Cookbook Joni...

Shai Korman, host of Friday Night Movie Podcast, joins the Finding Favorites team this week as guest host. He's talking to Katie Jones about her love of Reality TV. Follow @findingfavspod on Instagram and Twitter . Rate and review on Apple Podcasts Follow Shai AKA @pancake4table on Twitter and Instagram . Subscribe to Friday Night Movie Podcast

Host Leah Jones is the guest this week - talking about all of her favorite podcasts, TV shows, movies and other random stuff that kept her comfortable during primary cancer treatment. She rang the gong after her final radiation treatment on March 18, 2022, so this is a recap of just some of the stuff that she liked since her diagnosis. Follow @findingfavspod on Instagram and Twitter . Rate and rev...

Steve Higgins, an award-winning English professor at Lewis and Clark and your favorite poetry professor on Tik Tok, has loved The Nightmare Before Christmas for 30 years. We talk about merchandise, music and lessons for aliens in the Tim Burton classic. Follow Steve on Twitter and Tik Tok where he does one minute poetry lessons. Follow @findingfavspod on Instagram and Twitter . Rate and review on...

California-based author Jayne Martin's favorite place is Paris, France, and we settled in to talk about the bread, the Eiffel Tower and people watching. Jayne's newest book, The Daddy Chronicles, is available for pre-order and will launch on March 15, 2022. Follow Jayne Martin online and pre-order The Daddy Chronicles The Daddy Chronicles: Memoir of a fatherless daughter   Jayne Martin's website  ...

Esther Kustanowitz, co-host of The Bagel Report, is back with another one of her favorite things - finding Jewish moments in pop culture! We talk about what representation meant to her as a kid and how it has changed over the last 15 years as Jewish moments on TV increase. How TV has embraced dybbuks, golems and other Jewish lore Twitter: @ estherk @ thebagelreport  @ tvgonejewy IG: @ estherkustan...

Author Sarah M Anderson, who also writes as Maggie Chase and Sally Sultzman, joined Leah this week to share the story of how she became a prolific published author. With well over 40 romance books available, Sarah shares recommendations for all types of romance genres, YA romance and cozy mysteries. Follow Sarah online SarahMAnderson.com/ Twitter @sarahmanderson1 Twitter @SallySultzman SallySultzm...

Jess, a Wisconsin-based world-traveler, loves... well, she loves travel! In this episode, Jessica shares her story of how two week vacations turned into a three month trip and set the stage for her to travel abroad for one year and eight months. COVID may have brought her back to the States early, but it hasn't dampened her desire to share how to make long trips work. Follow Jessica, aka @ bayjb ,...

Adal Rifai, a legendary Chicago-based podcaster, loves Chicago restaurants and joined guest host Shai Korman to give recommendations. Adal is Chunt on Hello from the Magic Tavern , hosts Hey Riddle Riddle and Siblings Peculiar . Shai is joining us from the Friday Night Movie Podcast. Follow Adal Rifai online Hello from the Magic Tavern   Instagram @adalrifai Twitter @adalrifai   Chicago Food Tour...

Erika Valenciana, a Chicago-based filmmaker, loves making her own clothes. She joins guest host Amy Güth to talk about documentary films, sewing and more. Catch up with Erika in Mexico City in March for the premier of her documentary La Mitad del Mundo! Follow Erika on Instagram and online with Diverse Voices in Docs, Stowe Story Labs . Erika and Magdelena Hernandez "La Mitad del Mundo" documentar...

Scott “ToyGuru” Neitlich knows and loves toys. If you look around your house, you might have some that he helped bring into the world. Guest host Shai Korman sat down with Scott to learn more about his career, philosophy and why he loves Arbor Day so much. Shai brings over the Friday Night Movie Podcast signature game Buy, Rent, Meh for some tough choices. Follow @findingfavspod on Instagram and T...

Vicki Güth is an avid gardener who loves growing her own food. She's also guest host Amy Güth's mother. This week they got on the phone to talk in depth about gardening and more. Amy is the host of Unconventional with Amy Güth and Crain's Daily Gist . She also produces cultural events at 5959 in Chicago . Follow Amy on Instagram for yoga writing prompts and subscribe to her weekly email newsletter...

To close out 2021, I asked friends to send me voice memos about their favorite things in 2021. This clip show is made up of those voice memos covering all things personal, pop culture and professional. You've met most of the guests before and everyone is bringing a new favorite thing or an exciting update to their episode! Act 1 Shai and Lily from Friday Night Movie Podcast ( Cats , Cereal ) Monic...

Rachel Swanson , a Chicago-based creativity coach and yoga instructor, takes us with her on her journey from "weird yoga" to trauma-informed yoga certification. We talk about post-partum depression, Kundalini yoga, body neutrality, and creative classrooms.  This is a special Christmas Eve release (because you have a long drive ahead or a chill day without any new podcasts). Follow Rachel on Twitte...

Cameron MacKenzie, a Virginia-based professor and author, loves to use dream interpretation to teach his students how to understand poetry. We talked about Freudian and Jungian interpretation, Joseph interpretating the Pharaoh's dreams, and Black Elk Speaks. Cameron's new book River Weather: Stories is now available through Alternating Current Press. Keep up with Cameron MacKenzie on Facebook and...

Hailey Dezort, a Chicago-based book publicist, is here to share her love of fountain pens. We talk about stationary stores, pen conventions, pen after dark sessions, and where to get special inks. We also chat about her newfound love of comic books! Follow Hailey on Youtube and Instagram: Chi Comic Girl YouTube , Chi Comic Girl Instagram and Ephemeral Lines on Instagram Follow @findingfavspod on I...

Taylore Nicholl, host of the podcast Extra... Ordinary , loves the podcast Armchair Expert and is here with an introduction to the popular interview show hosted by Dax Shepard. Taylore talks about how she started with an interview with Mae Whitman (one of Dax's co-stars on Parenthood ) and eventually found herself in a green room at the Ellen Show with Dax ! We talk about childhood trauma, finding...

Patty Morrissey, a New York-based coach and master Kon Mari consultant, loves to go thrifting on Long Island. She grew up thrifting and garage sale-ing with her grandparents and still goes to the same shops today. She's also a Kon Mari consulant and coach who knows a thing or two about how to help people find what sparks joy. (In fact, she's in my house helping me organize during the pandemic thaw...

Mahyar Amouzegar , a New Orleans-based author and academic , joins us this week to talk about reading, writing and Zombie movies. Mahyar shares the story of immigrating to the United States shortly before the revolution in Iran, how he gets to know the characters in his books and what he would do in a Zombie apocalypse. His newest book The Hubris of an Empty Hand is available on November 18th. Fol...

Coincidence is neutral, serendipity has a good outcome. Joan Schweighardt , a New Mexico-based author, joined Leah to talk about her love of serendipity and how allowing serendipity to play out led to her trilogy of novels. The River trilogy is set between the worlds of Hoboken, New Jersey and the jungles of South America during the rubber boom of the the early 1900s, the third book River Aria is...

Alexis P. Morgan, my neighborhood village witch, joined me to talk about how she kept being called to learn magic and sorcery. We talk about the differences between hoodoo and voodoo, her Tarot card collection, and her primary community service - The Juno Jar. The winter Juno Jar is available starting on November 1, 2021, on a sliding scale. Happy Birthday Alexis! Thank you to Dave Coustan for edi...

Darrin Doyle , a Michigan-based author and English professor, loves when he can head into the recording studio with friends or collaborate using Garage Band from home. We talk about his newest novel The Beast in Aisle 34 , the bands his been in over the years and what it might be like to record with Pink Floyd. Follow Darrin Doyle on Twitter and Facebook And bookmark his website . Follow @findingf...

Monica Reida, a Wisconsin-based journalist, loves the Murdoch Mysteries . She became a fan of Canadian TV at Michigan State (Go Green, Go White!) when it was included in the residence hall's basic cable package. We talk about copyright laws and intellectual property of podcasts, the Murdoch Mysteries, and Canadian news options. Keep up with Monica on Twitter , Instagram , Alma and other online pub...

Trish McDonald, a Florida-based author , has done a lot of research about nutrition and longevity, which she shared with Leah this week. We also talk about her RV-lifestyle, tiny homes, and publishing her first book at the age of 77. Paper Bags is now available in digital and paperback through Woodhall Press Follow Trish online @TrishMc_Writer on Twitter and @TrishMc305 on Instagram Paper Bags: Af...