Vox Tablet show

Vox Tablet

Summary: This is Vox Tablet, the weekly podcast of Tablet Magazine, the online Jewish arts and culture magazine that used to be known as Nextbook.org. Our archive of podcasts is available on our site, tablet2015.wpengine.com. Vox Tablet, hosted by Sara Ivry, varies widely in subject matter and sound -- one week it's a conversation with novelist Michael Chabon, theater critic Alisa Solomon, or anthropologist Ruth Behar. Another week brings the listener to "the etrog man" hocking his wares at a fruit-juice stand in a Jersualem market. Or into the hotel room with poet and rock musician David Berman an hour before he and his band, Silver Jews, head over to their next gig. Recent guests include Alex Ross, Shalom Auslander, Aline K. Crumb, Howard Jacobson, and the late Norman Mailer.

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Podcasts:

 The Life and Good Times of Norman Lear | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Archie Bunker, George Jefferson, Mary Hartman, Maude Findlay are just a handful of the iconic characters Norman Lear created for television. In his storied career, Lear tackled abortion, cancer, racism, rape, abuse, interracial relationships, single motherhood, alcoholism, and poverty—subjects many shows today won’t even consider as viable fodder for entertainment. Now 92 years old, Lear got his start writing bits for showmen like Danny Thomas and Jerry Lewis before moving into television and film and then embarking on a second career as an activist (he co-founded People for the American Way). Now Lear has moved into a new medium—print. He has written Even This I Get To Experience, a memoir, and joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss how his father, who was in jail for several years during Lear’s childhood, inspired and deviates from Archie, what compelled him about writing shows about racial and economic disparities, and why Transparent is the best show on television now.

 Don’t Mess With a Missionary Man | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Visitors to Israel—or at least Jerusalem, or, OK, the Old City in Jerusalem—can reasonably expect to bump into a missionary or two. Chances are, though, those missionaries hail from elsewhere. In this, our fourth episode of Israel Story, called “A Man on a Mission,” we introduce three Israelis who are not religious but have pursued unusual hobbies with missionary zeal. One is a hitman-for-hire, another collects a highly specific classification of autographs, and the third is a professional whistler. This has earned them, variously, animus, accolades, and celebrity in far-flung places (here’s the video to prove it, about three and a half minutes in). Listen to the full episode here, or download from iTunes. (You can find all episodes of Sipur Israeli, the Hebrew version of Israel Story, here, and all our English-language episodes here.) Prologue: Got a Place To Go Tonight? Act 1: Mr. Female Members of Knesset Act 2: Birds of a Feather Act 3: Whistle-Stop Tour

 Have a Good Sex Life? Thank These People. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

A little more than 50 years ago, the idea that a woman could have intercourse for fun, and without worrying that nine months later she’d give birth, was a radical proposition. Then the birth control pill arrived. It was an innovation that changed how families expand, how women see themselves at home and at work, and how we as a species interact. Margaret Sanger, a reluctant wife and mother, made the creation of the pill her lifelong pursuit. But she didn’t work alone. She toiled alongside three other vital missionaries, including a brilliant and off-beat Jewish doctor named Gregory Pincus. What drove Sanger, Pincus, and their colleagues John Rock and Katherine McCormick? What challenges did they face in their work? These are the questions writer Jonathan Eig set out to answer in The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution. Eig joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the questionable methods the team used to convince women to take early versions of the pill, the particular prejudices Pincus (a Jew) and Rock (a Catholic) faced in their careers, and whether the pill has liberated women or led to the destruction of the family unit.

 From Etgar Keret to a Lovelorn Student in Dimona, Tales of the Book-Obsessed | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Are Jews still “the people of the book”? Are Israelis? What does that even mean today? In the third episode of Israel Story, we’ve got three stories that all revolve around people who rescue books, chase after books, or otherwise allow books to determine their destiny—from a Yiddish book collector based in the Tel Aviv central bus station to a lonely college student to bibliophiles in search of the lost fragments of the Aleppo Codex. And we chat with Israeli writer Etgar Keret, who has some original thoughts on where the “people of the book” tagline came from. (Listen to the full episode here, or download from iTunes. You can find all episodes of Sipur Israeli, the Hebrew version of Israel Story, here, and all our English-language episodes here.) Prologue: People of the Whaaa? Act 1: Yung Yiddish, reported by Danna Harman Act 2: The Most Beautiful Book Ever Written, by Chaya Gilboa and performed by Dana Ruttenberg Act 3: The Codex Underground, reported by Mishy Harman and Matti Friedman

 A Grandfather’s Hidden Love Letters From Nazi Germany Reveal a Buried Past | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In 2007, journalist Sarah Wildman discovered a hidden cache of letters in her grandfather’s home office. By that time, her grandfather Karl was no longer living, but he had been a strong presence for most of her life—a worldly bon vivant and successful doctor whose smooth escape from Vienna in 1938 was part of the family lore. The letters, written mostly in German, came from people he’d left behind—people Wildman had never heard of before and, in particular, one young Jewish woman named Valy, whose letters made clear that she and Karl had been much more than friends. The letters—sent between 1939 and 1941—overflowed with love and yearning, but also conveyed that her situation was becoming increasingly dire. Who was this woman? What were the particular circumstances under which she wrote? And what became of her? Those questions possessed Wildman, and so she set out to find answers. Wildman traveled from Vienna to Israel to Ann Arbor and elsewhere in her search. In a new book, Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind, she tells the story of her journey and her discoveries. Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry speaks with her about how the research complicated her understanding of the Nazi occupation, and of her beloved grandfather.

 Royal Contradictions: The Flawed, Paradoxical Heroism of King David | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In the annals of biblical kings, David stands out. A humble shepherd, he slew Goliath, wrote poetry, dethroned his predecessor, and reigned in Israel for 40 years. His heroics inspired artists throughout history from Michelangelo to Shakespeare to Leonard Cohen. But David’s achievements in helping unite the Jews did not come without costs—he had innocent people killed, looked away at violence among his children, bedded married women. In David: The Divided Heart, out from Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives Series, Rabbi David Wolpe takes a look at this Jewish hero—warts and all. Wolpe joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the first time Wolpe encountered this legendary figure, the importance of looking at David’s flaws alongside his triumphs, and why the world’s most famous underdog wasn’t really facing such great odds when he drew his slingshot.

 Basya Schechter Mixes Prayer Songs With Brass, Oud, and Radiohead | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Growing up in a Hasidic community, Basya Schechter heard music all around her—not rock music or even folk—but religious nigguns, or tunes. There were the zmirot–songs sung after Sabbath meals; the communal singing at Hanukkah; the prayers recited in unison in holiday liturgies. In her late teens, Schechter abandoned that world and its music. After college, she traveled extensively through the Middle East and North Africa and learned to play instruments from the region like the darbuka and oud. In 1998, Schechter formed the band Pharaoh’s Daughter, which ventured into all sorts of musical genres. Now with Pharaoh’s Daughter Schechter returns to the religious songs that were her first introduction to music. On their new album Dumiyah, the band transforms prayers and religious poems usually sung on specific holidays into lush, epic music to relish any time. Basya Schechter was a Vox Tablet guest in 2011. She’s back again and speaks with host Sara Ivry about harmony as a form of self-expression for Ultra Orthodox Jewish girls, about her love of stadium rock, and about what she’s reclaiming, and rejecting, through her interpretations of sacred prayers.

 Love Syndrome: Israel Story, Episode 2 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This month’s episode of Israel Story is devoted entirely to Chaya’s story. Chaya Ben Baruch grew up as Enid, in a Conservadox family in Far Rockaway, N.Y. Midway through college, she left that world behind to study sea otters in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fast-forward a decade: Enid is now married to a nice Catholic salmon fisher named Stan. She’s just given birth to her sixth child, and discovers he has Down syndrome. Many parents in her position would be devastated. Some might place their baby in an institution, or put him up for adoption. For Enid, the birth of Angkor started her and her family on an incredible journey—to Tzfat, Israel, and from there to court rooms, hospitals, ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, and wedding halls, all so she could do right by her child and the other special-needs children she picked up along the way. Host Mishy Harman brings us this remarkable story. Produced by Israel Story, with help this week from Pejk Malinovski. Music for this podcast is by Rob Burger. (Listen to the full episode here, or download from iTunes. You can find all episodes of Sipur Israeli, the Hebrew version of Israel Story, here, and all our English-language episodes here.) Act 1: Sea Otters Act 2: Tzfat Act 3: Kirin and Avichai Bonus feature—the wedding video:

 Leonard Bernstein: A New Look at His Rise, His Foibles, and His Impact on Music History | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

This is a sponsored podcast on behalf of Yale University Press and their Jewish Lives series. When the composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein died nearly 25 years ago he left a broad legacy. He wrote music for Broadway. He devoted himself to education through the Young People’s Concerts. He conducted the world’s finest orchestras. He wrote poetry. And he wrote classical pieces. While some critics cheered the range of his engagements, others argued that in spreading himself thin he squandered his compositional talents. In Leonard Bernstein: An American Musician, a new biography out from Yale University Press’ Jewish Lives Series, writer Allen Shawn examines Bernstein’s life and career. Shawn, a composer and professor at Bennington College in Vermont, joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss what distinguished Bernstein’s music, how Jewishness affected his world view, and the reasons Bernstein’s oeuvre didn’t register in Shawn’s own musical education—and why it should have.

 How a Reporter Dispelled Myths About Ultra-Orthodox Jews Gaming the System | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Around the country, kids are settling into their classrooms for a new school year, unaware of the wars over curriculum, teacher evaluations, school funding, and other hot-button education topics. Just north of New York City, in the district of East Ramapo in Rockland County, one such battle has been brewing for nearly a decade, churning up racial and ethnic tensions as it goes. In 2005, the school board in East Ramapo underwent a change when Hasidic Jews living in the area voted enough Orthodox Jews into office to make them a majority. Yet by and large the children in the public schools the board oversees come from African American, Caribbean, and Latin American households, while the children of the area’s Hasidic Jews get private education. When the school budget was severely cut in 2009 and 2010, some community members said the board was siphoning money to support programs for Jewish kids at the expense of everyone else in town. Indeed, tempers grew so hot that some community members joined a lawsuit filed against the board in 2012. That suit is still making its way through the legal system. Did Hasidic Jews in East Ramapo stack the school board so they could siphon money from public schools to subsidize their own children’s education at the expense of poor, mostly non-white children? That’s what Batya Ungar-Sargon wanted to find out. This past spring and summer she repeatedly visited East Ramapo to try to separate myth from reality. She wrote an in-depth investigative story about the school-district battles there for Tablet Magazine, and she joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss what the mainstream media gets wrong in their reporting on East Ramapo, what it got right, and why you have to do the math, and visit cafés, supermarkets, and libraries to find out the real story. Subscribe to Vox Tablet on iTunes and never miss an episode!

 Elvis Was Our Shabbos Goy | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

We’ve all got our go-to story about brushes with fame, but Harold Fruchter’s is truly a conversation stopper. Fruchter, a singer and guitarist in a Jewish wedding band, and the son of a rabbi, was born in 1952. When he was a baby, and up to the age of 2, his family lived in the upstairs apartment of a two-story flat in Memphis. Their downstairs neighbors were the Presleys. The two families formed a friendship, and the future King of Rock, just a teenager then, learned to pick up the cues when the Fruchters needed someone to turn on a light or unlock a door on Shabbos. The Fruchters, for their part, helped Elvis out materially (if not spiritually) on occasion. Here’s the story of that friendship, told by Harold Fruchter. The piece was produced by Rob Sachs, with help from Bob Carlson, and first aired on KCRW’s UnFictional. Subscribe to Vox Tablet on iTunes and never miss an episode!

 Faking It: Israel Story, Episode 1 | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In our very first episode, the Israel Story team delves into the realm of fakes, forgeries, and mimicry. Three stories, from different periods and places, of people pretending to to be something they are not. (You can find Sipur Israeli, the original, Hebrew version of Israel Story, here.) [Listen to full episode here, or download from iTunes.] Prologue: The Israeli This American Life?! Mishy Harman talks to Ira Glass, host of the popular public radio program, about what it feels like to have an Israeli copycat. [Listen.] Act I: Truly Fake. In 19th-century Jerusalem, Moses Wilhelm Shapira created fanciful forgeries of ancient Moabite artifacts that shook the world. But even today, 130 years later, no one is quite sure what to make of them. Are they fake? Real? Or both? (A version of this story first aired on PRI’s To The Best of Our Knowledge.) [Listen.] Act II: Buzz Kill. An IDF cadet proves that there basically isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for love. [Listen.] Act III: Disharmonia. Noa Guy was a promising Israeli composer and world-class pianist. When she came to New York 21 years ago to rehearse for a concert with Isaac Stern at Carnegie Hall, she never imagined the city would become her permanent home, or that her relationship to music would change forever. [Listen.]

 The Israeli ‘This American Life’ Will Surprise Even Those Who Think They Know the Land Well | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

Several years ago, a group of four young Israelis—friends since childhood—got to work making a Hebrew-language radio show inspired by This American Life, the public-radio show two of them had grown to love while living in the United States. On the airwaves in Israel all that was available was talk radio and music, and the guys wanted something to listen to that was akin to the Ira Glass-hosted program with which they’d become obsessed. So, though they had never before made a radio story, they rolled up their sleeves to create what eventually became Sipur Israeli. This year, the men—Ro’ee Gilron, Mishy Harman, Yochai Maital and Shai Satran—decided they wanted to make their show available to English speakers, too. They went back to many of the people they had interviewed for stories and spoke to them again, this time in English, for a miniseries, called Israel Story. Israel Story launches as a podcast next week on Vox Tablet and is filled with surprising, suspenseful, and entertaining tales of the weird, the absurd, and the poignant. The four brains behind Israel Story join Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about how re-reporting stories in another language changes their dynamics, how the recent war in Gaza has affected their work, and whether Ira Glass knows he’s being ripped off. UPDATE: YOU CAN LISTEN TO ‘ISRAEL STORY’ HERE.

 A Hasidic Girl Band Gears Up for Its Debut at a Storied Rock Venue | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In 2011, adventure-seeking rock drummer-turned-Hasidic mother of four Dalia Shusterman became a widow. At about the same time, Perl Wolfe, born and raised in the Lubavitch sect of Hasidism, married and divorced, was living with her parents and beginning to write her own music. A few months later, the two women would meet in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and soon after that begin recording their first EP, titled “Down to the Top.” Their band name, Bulletproof Stockings—a somewhat derogatory term used to refer to the opaque stockings worn by some Orthodox women—hints at their insider status as Hasidic women and also at a kind of freedom or irreverence they bring to their enterprise. Bulletproof Stockings, which also includes Elisheva Maistser on cello and Dana Pestun on violin, performs for women only, in keeping with kol isha, the prohibition on men hearing women sing that is adhered to among Orthodox Jews. They also dress modestly, as is customary in the Lubavitch community to which they belong. But when playing music, they are not contained. They can be loud and raucous and sooner find common ground with the likes of Jane’s Addiction or the Throwing Muses than with Keren Ann. For that, they’ve attracted attention well beyond their Crown Heights enclave. This week, they take their show to Arlene’s Grocery—a musical mainstay of Manhattan’s Lower East Side—for the venue’s first-ever women’s-only show (see Rishe Groner’s review of the concert here). Last summer, they talked with Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry about their musical backgrounds, about ways their faith gets expressed in their music, and about why it’s so important for women to have opportunities to rock out without any guys around. [Running time: 24:46.]

 How a British Museum Curator Discovered Noah’s Ark Would Have Been Round | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: Unknown

In 2009, a visitor to the British Museum presented curator Irving Finkel with a fascinating artifact—a 4,000-year-old Babylonian cuneiform tablet that told of a flood, and an ark, but with mysterious details unfamiliar from previously discovered tablets of that period. Finkel’s official title is Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian script, languages, and cultures; a discovery like this was right up his alley. He spent the next several years turning the tablet over and over (literally and figuratively), trying to decode its message, and to forge a path between that text and the story that would appear in the Book of Genesis some 1,000 years later. His new book, The Ark Before Noah: Decoding the Story of the Flood, is the result of those efforts. On a recent visit to the museum, Hugh Levinson paid a visit to Finkel to find out what sorts of conclusions he drew, and how he arrived at them.

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