Tablet Studios

This week, Unorthodox celebrates Christmas—or as we call it, Christian Hanukkah—the only way we know how: binge-watching Netflix (the new ‘going to a movie’) and eating Chinese food. We’re joined by Orange is the New Black’s Yael Stone, who tells us about playing the memorable Lorna Morello, a compulsive shopper and lovable stalker, on the hit Netflix show. Her newest role is as Peretta Jones on t...

This week on Unorthodox, a special live taping from the nation's capital featuring Jewish food maven Joan Nathan and New Republic writer Elizabeth Bruenig, and much, much more This week, Unorthodox heads to our nation's capital for a special live episode at the Washington DCJCC. Our Jewish guest is food maven and Tablet contributor Joan Nathan, who discusses her Yemenite chicken soup recipe and ex...

On this week's episode: America’s most badass Supreme Court Justice and TV’s most visible rabbi. Our Jewish guest is MSNBC reporter Irin Carmon, whose new book, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is a smart, entertaining biography of the Supreme Court justice. She tells us about RBG’s recent turn as a feminist pop culture icon, her important role on the Supreme Court today,...

This week, we're, we’re ringing in the Festival of Lights with a special episode filled with Unorthodox holiday cheer, Adam Sandler’s updated “Hanukkah Song,” and a whole lot of latkes. We’re joined by Jewish competitive eater Don Moses Lerman, who comes out of retirement to see how many Russ & Daughters potato latkes he can eat in five minutes on the air. Tablet columnist Marjorie Ingall, who pre...

This Thanksgiving, we're thankful for good health, cats, and Drake. But mostly, dear listeners, we're thankful for you. Over the past 17 weeks, you've not only listened to our humble podcast, you've gotten your friends to listen, showed up at our first live taping, and, best of all, written to us to tell us exactly what you think of the show. A lot. We so appreciate you taking the time to write us...

Our Jewish guest, Bat Sheva Marcus, is a sex counselor, podcast host, and president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance. She tells us about the most common issues her patients face, the challenges of finding rabinically-approved erotica for observant Jews, and the importance of maintaining a sexual connection in long-term monogamous relationships.  Our non-Jewish guest is Mallory Ortberg, fou...

This week on Unorthodox: Preaching to the unconverted. Our Jewish guest is our very own editor-in-chief, Alana Newhouse. She talks to us about Tablet’s new print magazine and shares exclusive details from the first issue, which comes out next week. Our non-Jewish guest is Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a prolific writer and podcaster. The evangelical...

This week on Unorthodox, our Jewish guest is journalist Alyssa Katz, a member of the New York Daily News editorial board. Her new book, "The Influence Machine," is about the vast political influence—and lobbying money—wielded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She tells the panel what the Chamber of Commerce actually is and how it got so powerful, and explains why, in today's social media-filled pol...

This week marks the thirteenth episode of Unorthodox, and we’re ready to party like it’s our bar mitzvah all over again. Our Jewish guest is Wayne Hoffman, executive editor of Tablet and the author of several novels. His latest is An Older Man, which follows 42-year-old Moe Pearlman (the protagonist from Hoffman’s first novel, Hard, about New York City’s gay scene in the 1990s), as he deals with g...

This week on Unorthodox, James Franco’s star-studded bar mitzvah for charity (seriously, it raised $2.5 million); a viral video celebrating—with spoken word poetry—the diversity of the Jewish people; and how Malcolm Gladwell can help us understand the recent rash of violent stabbing attacks in Israel. Our Jewish guest is Shulem Deen, whose moving memoir, All Who Go Do Not Return, describes his jou...

This week, we present first-ever Unorthodox live show, recorded at the Slifka Center at Yale University. Our Jewish guest is Shelly Kagan, Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale. He talks about his reputation as Tough Grader on Campus, and explains what it means that he’s a non-welfarist consequentialist. Our guest gentile of the week—who told us he preferred the term “token goy” or “goykin”—is hum...

This week on Unorthodox, host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz discuss Amy Schumer's $8 million book deal, Ralph Lauren stepping down as CEO of his namesake brand, and Mahmoud Abbas's speech at the U.N. General Assembly. Our Jewish guest is best-selling essayist Sloane Crosley, whose first novel, 'The Clasp,' tells the story of college friends who reunited...

This week on Unorthodox, host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz discuss Ann Coulter's ill-advised tweet during the Republican presidential debate about "f---ing Jews"; the Pope's visit to the U.S.; and a campaign to end the little-known Jewish practice of Kapporos, in which chickens are ritually slaughtered before Yom Kippur. Our Jewish guest is defense lawy...

This week on Unorthodox, host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz ring in the year 5776 with the latest news of the Jews. They sound off on a controversial New York Times feature that listed the Democrats in the House and Senate who voted against the Iran nuclear deal--and indicated which of those politicians were Jewish. (The 'Jewish?' column was quickly ​ re...

Host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz sound off about public schools closing for Jewish holidays, and discuss a New York Times opinion piece about how some of the most violent West Bank extremists are from the United States. Rabbi Avi Shafran explains why he dislikes like the term ultra-Orthodox, why secular Jews shouldn't feel hostility towards more observ...

This special Yom Kippur episode of Unorthodox features stories about apologies from host Mark Oppenheimer, writer and Harvard Divinity student Shira Telushkin, and Tablet's Esther Werdiger. What happens when an apology goes wrong? What happens when we’ve done something so awful we can’t face the other person? What happens when somebody apologizes to us—and we can’t forgive? Special guest Marjorie...

Tablet staffers Mark Oppenheimer, Liel Leibovitz, and Stephanie Butnick sound off on the news of the week, including the death of the world’s oldest living Jew and a Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike. New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman discusses Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, and the new Jewish comedy. Dan Savage, this week's guest non-Jew, asks a question about a long-ago romance lost i...

Tablet staffers Mark Oppenheimer, Liel Leibovitz, and Stephanie Butnick sound off about Jewish rapper Matisyahu getting booted from a Spanish reggae festival for refusing to condemn Israel; Jews in Hollywood signing off on the Iran deal; and former NWA manager Jerry Heller's portrayal in the new film "Straight Outta Compton." Katha Pollitt, longtime columnist for The Nation, discusses being portra...

Tablet staffers Mark Oppenheimer, Liel Leibovitz, and Stephanie Butnick sound off about the (legal) battle of the Jewish dating apps, a crowd-funded effort to reelect Canada's Jewish prime minister, and a Nazi-themed romance novel. Ophira Eisenberg, stand-up comic and host of NPR's quiz show 'Ask Me Another,' discusses the politics of strangers touching pregnant women's bumps, and why her NPR cele...

Host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz discuss this year’s European Maccabiah Games—a Jewish Olympics of sorts—which are being held this week in Berlin at the stadium Hitler built for the 1936 Olympics. They also sound off on Mike Huckabee’s ill-advised Holocaust analogy, and an investigation into academic rigor at New York City’s Orthodox yeshivas.  Celebri...

Host Mark Oppenheimer and Tablet staffers Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz sound off about gay marriage in Israel, the suicide of a formerly Orthodox young woman, and Adam Sandler's latest movie. New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs discusses his latest project: hosting the world's largest family reunion and compiling a massive family tree that includes President Obama, Judge Judy, an...

Your first listen to the new podcast from the editors of Tablet Magazine.