The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

Impossible choices haunt every war. John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, joins Live from the Table to confront the hardest questions raised by Israel’s war against Hamas. How are civilian deaths justified in war? Can Israel defeat Hamas ? What does it mean to fight an enemy that will not protect its own people? Is Israel held to a different standard than other nations D...

Charlie Kirk’s assassination has sparked a firestorm of conspiracies. The Live from the Table crew, joined by journalist Ross Barkan, exposes how antisemitic tropes are spreading on the right—from Candace Owens’ tweetstorms and Max Blumenthal’s “sources” to Holocaust denier Ian Carroll’s overt accusations. And why is Megyn Kelly - staunchly pro-Israel - hesitant to call out Candace Owens, even at...

Journalist Michael Tracey and Epstein mega-expert Michael Tracey stops in to tell us what is and isn't true about this remarkable story. Subscribe to Tracey's awesome Substack: https://substack.com/@mtracey

University of Chicago Professor Robert Pape maintains that Israel is passing "historic thresholds of civilian punishment" and is risking its own future existence. Please Note: This PDF contains the post-show conversation between Noam and Pape. It contains many links to articles and videos that Pape draws from. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rk9NJ6BEYx6qa7JUEjuwzKG7R2MUOus4/view?usp=sharing Here...

Noam Dworman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Gregory Lyakhov, America's the youngest nationally syndicated columnist. He serves as a columnist for Newsmax, The Gateway Pundit, and Townhall Media, regularly contributing to major outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and The Hill. His work has appeared in dozens of other publications and has been cited by top institutions,...

Social and political critic extraordinaire Richard Hanania joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on Israel, Epstein, and whatever else he's thinking about these days. 📖 Get his book The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics on Amazon: http://bit.ly/4lA4hH5 📰 Read his Substack: https://substack.com/@richardhanania 🐦 Follow him on X: https://x...

Suzy Weiss is a co-founder of The Free Press. Before that, she worked as a features reporter at the New York Post. There, she covered the internet, culture, dating, dieting, technology, and Gen Z. Her work has also appeared in Tablet, the New York Daily News, and The Wall Street Journal among others.

Matt Welch is the Editor-at- Large at Reason magazine and co-host of The Fifth Column podcast.

Omer Bartov discusses his recent article in The New York Times accusing Israel of genocide. A contentious conversation. Links: https://newrepublic.com/article/96369/hitler-wwii-middle-east-islam https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2004/12/19/an-end-full-of-horror/f62352ab-2561-45bf-ad33-e1368d1e81cd/ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/israel-gaza-holocaust-genocide-p...

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand discuss using notes on stage, Dan's cruises, the adult obsession with the weather, Ozempic, Periel's new show and whether or not Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. Live from the Table Bonus Episode: Ozempic, Stand Up and Jeffrey Epstein.

Noam Dworman and Dan Naturman are joined by Tom Nash, a self described storyteller and vagabond. Noam gets nostalgic, Dan gets philosophical and Tom explains anti-fragility. Nash is a Global Keynote Speaker and has graced the stages of some of the world's largest conferences and festivals including TED and SXSW. He is also a club DJ, author. He lost all four of his limbs after a devastating brush...

Noam Dworman unexpectedly joins Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand despite the fact that he had a colonoscopy earlier in the day. They discuss his procedure, the recent Diddy Verdict and what it means to globalize the intifada. Live from the Table Bonus Episode: Colonoscopies, Diddy, Mamdani and Bob Vylan

Comedians Modi and Eric Neumann join Periel Aschenbrand. They discuss the history of the Comedy Cellar, Eric's new girlfriend and what it's like performing stand up for a room of seven people.

Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MhxjO0q9vmkhttps://youtu.be/MhxjO0q9vmk 2 hours of debate (plus another hour over drinks after) and we didn't settle it. Discussed: Is It Genocide? Does Hamas maximize civilian deaths? Comprehending martyrdom - does Hamas consider all civilians to be combatants? Does Hamas have "no choice" but to break the rules? Does Israel break the rules? Why all the name-c...

Two Zionist Jews discuss: "Until Israeli politics can radically reorient itself, it’s time to construct a vision of Jewishness that’s independent of the state that pretends to act on our behalf. It’s time for Jews to reclaim the moral mantle of our ancestors. For the Palestinians, but also for the future of the Jewish people, it’s time for Jews to abandon Israel." https://uncomfortableconversation...

Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand discuss Noam's absence, the war with Iran, the Mossad and stage fright.

The pandemic playbook was ripped up in 2020—but did the replacements work? Was Great Barrington/Sweden the better way? In this deep-dive conversation, Comedy Cellar owner Noam Dworman goes head-to-head with Princeton political philosopher Stephen Macedo over the empirical record and moral calculus of COVID-19 policies. Here is the Israeli study Noam refers to: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...

Rabbi Yishai Fleisher is the International Spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron - a Middle East hotspot, King David's first capital, and home of the Mearat Hamachpela - the Tomb of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs. He is also an elected Councilman in one of the largest Jewish community in Judea - Efrat - and an advisor for international affairs to Minister of National Security Ita...

Daniella Greenbaum Davis is an Emmy-award-winning producer, writer, and social media strategist with bylines in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Daily Beast, Commentary, and Washington Post. She executive produced the first ever holocaust-edu-series for TikTok, How to: Never Forget, which garnered 20M views and was profiled by ABC, NBC, Deadline, Variety, PBS, and E!.

Sarah Rose Siskind is a science comedy TV writer, psychedelic comedian, roboticist, and founder of Hello SciCom, a science comedy and communication agency that helps smart people get their message across.

Noam Dworman invites Ross Barkan and Jesse Singal join to reconcile their Twitter feud . Ross Barkan is a columnist for New York Magazine and a contributing writer to the NY Times Magazine. He's the editor in chief of The Metropolitan Review, a new books and culture review magazine, and his new novel, Glass Century, is out now. Jesse Singal is a former writer-at-large at New York Magazine, cohost...

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is the head of Realign For Palestine, a project of the Atlantic Council, where he is a resident senior fellow. He is a Gaza native and a political analyst who writes extensively on strategic affairs in the Middle East. Links to what was referenced in this episode:  https://x.com/trackingisrael/status/1877801096275431758 and  https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/...

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by  Anna Rascouët-Paz, a French-Colombian journalist who reports for Snopes. She's also worked at WNYC for the show Radiolab, as an independent research publisher Annual Reviews and Bloomberg News. She recently produced a documentary podcast series on statelessness called Citizens of Nowhere.

Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013, where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Born and raised in Israel, Dr. Wilf served as an Intelligence Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice...