Writer, musician, air guitar legend…
In this Wall Street Journal Travel article I write about the best vacation I can recall since my parents took me to Hawaii when I was 4. And actually, now that I think about it, that trip wasn’t so great…
Here’s a link to the story (requires a WSJ subscription) or view a PDF.
Soil is at the center of many of the most important stories of our time. It’s where we grow our food. It’s where we find our medicines. The microbes in soil outnumber the stars in the galaxy, and without them life above ground would be impossible. Climate change, desertification, colonizing Mars, the biggest pandemic you’ve never heard of—soil’s the unsung hero, or the villain hiding in plain sight.
There’s a saying: “Man has only a thin layer between himself and starvation.” It’s true, and it’s also about much more than that. Let us guide you on this journey through dirt.
Yes, I’m digging deep and scratching the surface on my next podcast. It’s about soil. There will be puns. But there will also be cool science-y stuff about all the crazy things going on in that thin layer of dirt that separates us from life and death: soil.
Like, did you know that there are more microbes living in a hand full of soil than there are stars in the galaxy? Pretty much every antibiotic we’ve ever found was first discovered in soil. And one-fifth of the world’s population is infected with a soil-borne parasitic worms. ONE-FIFTH!
More info about The Thin Layer, here.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Scottish actress Karen Gillan (Avengers: Infinity War, Jumanji, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Who) for American Way, the American Airlines in-flight magazine, and she had the pleasure of watching me nearly choke to death on horseradish… Click here for a PDF.
I got naked and sweaty in Finland and then wrote about it.
Can religion exist without God? Is Jewish atheism an oxymoron? Find out on The Kibitz podcast.
I wrote this piece for Men’s Health magazine, which explains that women aren’t the only ones who need to get healthy when trying to conceive. The link between sperm health and fertility may be in sperm epigenetics…
I tell the story of two strangers in the night, a bag full of cash, and a ship full of weapons bound for the fledgling state of Israel in this special episode dedicated to Frank Sinatra’s jewish activism.
In 1945, Frank Sinatra made “The House I Live In”, a short film in which he confronts a gang of kids bullying a Jewish boy and tells them to stop being Nazis and start being American. It’s disturbingly relevant today. In this episode I also talk about the film, and Frank’s lifelong commitment to #antisemitism.
Guests: Anthony Summers, David Lehman, Shalom Goldman, Paul Karolyi, and Tony Michaels.
The House I Live In (1945) – shockingly relevant today, considering what’s been going on in the world…
There’s no air in outer space. Or is there?
Jump ahead to getting the air circulating, with the help of some locals and Nordic Thunder:
This is a piece I wrote about a new, very cool NASA program in development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.
My band Ray & Remora has a new full-length album of 11 original tunes coming out September 16. Here’s what BuzzBandsLA had to say about it:
“It’s smart, evocative dream-pop that at times recalls the likes of Camera Obscura, Saint Etienne, (certain periods of) Yo La Tengo and, on the opening track “The Happening,” Belle & Sebastian…File under: New indie-pop sophisticates.”
— BuzzBandsLA (Kevin Bronson)
With British nationalism on the rise in England, I tasted my way through four of London’s oldest, most gustatorily patriotic restaurants—and learned to eat ‘stewed cheese’ along the way. Here’s your guide…
David Wain – (Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models) who reveals the origins of his beefy-calved Israeli character Yaron in Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, and gives a shoutout about his summit experience.
Kasher vs Kasher – comedian Moshe Kasher and rabbi David Kasher square off on why jews are funny. Moshe dismisses the popular notion that comedy is about “finding truth” and unearths a little-known fact about Noah and his genitals in the bible.
Dan Patterson (Whose Line is it Anyway, Mock the Week) talks about the rise of anti-semitism in the UK.
Andrea Rosen (Episodes, Stella) talks about how being half-jewish influenced her comedy, and how she hates kugel.
Nana – my 95-year-old grandmother goes blue and tells some hilarious jokes
Ever wondered if kosher meat is more humanely raised and slaughtered than non-kosher meat? Want to know whether the eggs you’re buying are from humanely-raised chickens?
The 9th episode of The Kibitz features an exclusive tour inside Teva Foods, one of the few remaining kosher slaughterhouses in the LA area. We’ll discover how the kosher slaughter process takes place and examine whether kosher is a more or less humane method of processing beef for food.
I also interview Yadidya Greenberg—a Jewish Animal Welfare Advocate, Shochet, and Blogger who works with the Jewish Initiative for Animals—and Devora Kimelman-Block, the founder of KOL Foods, the only purveyor of pasture-raised grass-fed kosher beef in the US.
