Best Joshua Spodek Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 505: Jewish Music -- What's "Mi-Sinai?" - Mark Kligman 56:47

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3d ago56:47

56:47

Frequently you might hear someone claim that a particular Jewish melody is "mi-Sinai" (literally: "from Mount Sinai," implying "dating back to when Moses received the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai")? Mark Kligman, an ethnomusicologist who directs The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience, joins Dan and Lex to explore what th…

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Bonus Episode: Aderaba -- Jewish Studies on the Contrary ("What's Bad about Being in the Image of God?") 45:33

5d ago45:33

45:33

We’re thrilled to offer a bonus episode here on our feed, where we shout out an awesome new podcast created by friends of Judaism Unbound. It's called Aderaba: Jewish Studies on the Contrary and it’s co-hosted by Rafe Neis – a past teacher in Judaism Unbound’s UnYeshiva – and Gilah Kletenik. We’re featuring their second episode, entitled What’s Bad…

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Episode 504: The Torah of Music - Joey Weisenberg 1:00:20

10d ago1:00:20

1:00:20

Is Jewish music a form of Torah (spiritual wisdom)? Joey Weisenberg, a musician, composer, and founder of Hadar’s Rising Song Institute, thinks so. He joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about contemporary singing communities, the history of wordless melodies (nigunim) and unbound approaches to prayer. This episode is the second …

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839: Saabira Chaudhuri: Consumed: Throwaway Plastic Has Corrupted Us 48:34

12d ago48:34

48:34

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Episode 503: Jewish Music - Elana Arian 1:03:58

17d ago1:03:58

1:03:58

Elana Arian, a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and prayer leader, is one of the most important voices in contemporary Jewish music. So when she emailed Judaism Unbound with an entire vision for a mini-series of episodes exploring Jewish music, we of course paid attention! She joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about what the ph…

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838: Zach Rabinor, part 2: What if your business and values clash? 1:01:27

22d ago1:01:27

1:01:27

Zach and I got so into our first conversation that we had to take a second one to get to the Spodek Method. Listen for yourself, but I hear Zach working with three motivations: His surfer, outdoors self wants to conserve, protect, and enjoy nature and enable others to do the same by experiencing it. His CEO self wants to deliver what his customers …

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837: Zach Rabinor, part 1: Getting serious about sustainable travel? 1:03:40

23d ago1:03:40

1:03:40

I met Zach at an event I spoke at sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization, whose members tend to be successful in business. The criteria to join require it. I knew the people would be friendly, but suspected they would pollute and deplete more than most without realizing it. Zach plays a leadership role in the local chapter and was one of th…

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Episode 502: Yom Kippur 2025 - Angela Buchdahl 1:01:54

24d ago1:01:54

1:01:54

Yom Kippur is here! For the past few years, Yom Kippur has been the single most popular day — all year — for folks to listen to Judaism Unbound. To those of you incorporating our podcast into your observance of this holiday, wishing you a beautiful and unbound Yom Kippur. In this episode, Angela Buchdahl -- senior rabbi at Central Synagogue in New …

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836 Dr. Robert Fullilove, part 5: Unsustainability is upstream of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and racism 1:34:47

26d ago1:34:47

1:34:47

Since our fourth recording, Dr. Bob and I spoke at length about what's driving me and keeping me going beyond where nearly anyone else does on sustainability leadership. We cover in this recording most of that conversation, plus we go in other directions. He shares the commonalities of what he sees in me and my work with the people he's known and w…

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Episode 501: Elul 2025 IV - E(cho)lul - Lex and Wendie 24:31

1M ago24:31

24:31

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this final Elul episode of 2025 (and 5785), Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the month (and the upcoming holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) through …

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Episode 500: 500 Weeks of Unbound Judaism - Dan, Lex, Miriam 1:08:36

1M ago1:08:36

1:08:36

500!!!! We made it. Somehow, someway, a wild idea that was once a figment of our imagination...has now been around for 500 weeks. In this episode, Dan, Lex, and Miriam celebrate that incredible number -- and take this as an opportunity to look back on the founding and evolution of Judaism Unbound, first as a podcast and then as an organization with…

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835: At last! I can access my roof to charge solar for the first time in 18 months. 30:21

1M ago30:21

30:21

This week, I charged my solar panel and battery on my roof for the first time for over 18 months. My building had to do maintenance during which no residents could access the roof. They told us the job would take 5 months, but it took over 18. They also didn't say exactly when it would start until one day I got an email that said I couldn't access …

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Bonus Episode: Elul 2025 III - Chiasm - Lex and Wendie 23:32

1M ago23:32

23:32

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this episode, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the notion of chiasm (for "what is a 'chiasm' -- which is a great question -- click here), along with what i…

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Episode 499: Elul 2025 II - The 13 Attributes of Mercy - Lex and Wendie 23:07

1M ago23:07

23:07

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this episode, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore the 13 attributes of mercy, traditionally associated with Elul and the High Holidays. This Elul podcast is t…

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Episode 498: Elul 2025 - Lex and Wendie 22:27

2M ago22:27

22:27

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this conversation, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash kick off this year's Elul Unbound experience. This Elul bonus episode is the first in a series of four that wil…

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834: Do Americans Know How to Prepare Food From Scratch? 14:10

2M ago14:10

14:10

Late summer means produce at peak ripeness, especially peaches and heirloom tomatoes. Regular readers of my blog and subscribers to my newsletter have read of how my volunteering to bring overstock food from stores to places that give it to anyone for free has led to my getting for free amounts I can barely keep up eating that people turn down. Thi…

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Episode 497: Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness V - with Gemara/Commentary from Lex and Rena Yehuda 1:02:10

2M ago1:02:10

1:02:10

Miriam’s well sustained her people step by step in the wilderness. In this episode of Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness (featuring Judaism Unbound Gemara/commentary from Lex and Rena Yehuda), to tap into this wellspring of belonging. In addition, connect to the Tao de Ching, what it means to be a “Miriam person,” twilight creations, the mys…

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833: Aaron Blaise: A Master Disney Director and Animator on Self Expression, Leadership, and Nature 1:06:47

2M ago1:06:47

1:06:47

Aaron and I met after I got to see a screening of his recent short animated film Snow Bear. I knew about Aaron's achievements from participating in some of the biggest animated movies of all time. I expected to talk about art, creativity, and expression, topics I love. We did, after first hitting on leadership, especially empathy. He started by sha…

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Episode 496: Smashing the Tablets - Sara Lippmann, Seth Rogoff 56:05

2M ago56:05

56:05

Sara Lippman and Seth Rogoff believe that "foundational texts must be read anew or they become tools of conservatism and reaction." But it's not just a belief they hold -- together, they actualized it into a new book, entitled Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible. This book offers a wide variety of new texts, radically revis…

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Episode 495: Israel-Palestine - Conversations Across Generations - Amy Eilberg, Penina Eilberg-Schwartz 52:20

2M ago52:20

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Even the most intimate relationships can experience strain around the topic of Israel-Palestine. Dan and Lex are joined by Amy Eilberg and Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, who share their experience discussing and processing their conversations about Israel-Palestine across generational divides. -------------------------- Judaism Unbound's offerings for 3-…

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832: Robert Fullilove, part 4: Action in the Center of Civil Rights in the 1960s 1:06:21

2M ago1:06:21

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Dr. Bob worked in the heart of the US Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. He shares stories of his interactions with Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), John Lewis, and more. In earlier conversations with him, I shared what brought me to him. I had been telling people who acted as if acting on sustainability was a burden. I pointed out that peop…

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831: Glenn Hubbard: Dean of Columbia Business School on Adam Smith and Leadership 36:31

3M ago36:31

36:31

I can't help but call Glenn "Dean Hubbard" since I met him as a student at Columbia Business School. That was 2005, making him one of the guests I've known the longest. I invited him to the podcast after seeing a talk he gave on the 300th birthday of Adam Smith. My recent learning more about Smith and other Enlightenment thinkers led me to find rel…

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Episode 494: Tisha B'Av (The 9th of Av) 2025 - Dan and Lex 1:00:17

3M ago1:00:17

1:00:17

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg discuss the inherent potential, along with the limitations, of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av (the 9th of Av) — understood by many to be the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. What does it mean to mourn a past pain in the present? In this week’s episode, Dan and Lex consider the meanings of grief and reflection as t…

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830: Jo Nemeth, part 2: Nature improves time with loved ones 58:20

3M ago58:20

58:20

We jumped in to talking about her Spodek Method commitment. She lives in a suburban area. There's a place near her that borders on bush, which I guess is Australian for undeveloped land. This spot with a bench designed for experiencing nature has been a short walk away from her for a long time, yet until now she never experienced it. Even this time…

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Episode 493: Tarot and Teshuva - Mandie McGlynn 56:31

3M ago56:31

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For Mandie McGlynn, founder of Selah Spiritual Care, tarot can serve as a deeply meaningful modality for Jewish experience. McGlynn joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg on this week’s episode to discuss her use of tarot as part of the preparatory work of the month of Elul (the on-ramp month before the High Holidays), through an initiative she create…

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829: Adam Galinsky, part 1: Do you love being inspired? He wrote the book on it. 55:18

3M ago55:18

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Adam teaches leadership at Columbia Business School, where I learned there were classes in leadership, which changed the direction of my life. Regular listeners know I consider leadership the most important missing element in sustainability. To change the environmental effects we're barreling into, we have to change the causes, which are our behavi…

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828: Richard Reeves: For Boys and Men: support and love over misunderstanding 48:07

3M ago48:07

48:07

When people talk about helping men, a lot of people think any and maybe every man might just have latent misogyny, so helping him risks augmenting misogyny. Richard Reeves has researched the situation extensively and for whatever advantages they (we) once had in some areas, still have in some of them, society has been kicking us down, especially in…

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Episode 492: The Torah in the Tarot - Stav Appel 52:07

3M ago52:07

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Tarot is known to be a practice of reading, of uncovering important meaning behind the symbols each card evokes. But what if there’s an even deeper, secret connection to not just our lives as a whole, but our lives as Jews? For data scientist and author Stav Appel, happening upon a 17th century forgotten tarot deck took him on a journey through Tor…

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827: Chris Berdik: Scientific American loved his book Clamor (so did I) 48:44

3M ago48:44

48:44

Sound pollution is pollution. You know it's been growing for your whole life with little sign of decreasing. I wish I lived in a world with less sound pollution, but given that I do, I'd rather be aware and conscious of it than not know. Ignorance of how much sound was affecting me wasn't blissful. Noise still affected me. Awareness enables me to a…

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Episode 491: Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness IV - Shiru L'Adonai - Sing Right -The F*ck] Now 1:04:31

3M ago1:04:31

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We are proud to introduce the 3rd podcast in the Judaism Unbound family of podcasts: Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness, hosted by Jericho Vincent. "We are the ancestors of the future." This new podcast offers a spiritual home for listeners seeking to connect Jewish ancestral, feminist wisdom with their own svara: moral intuition. Each episo…

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826: Jo Nemeth, part 1: Living without money frees her to do what she loves 48:28

3M ago48:28

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Can you imagine living without money? Humans lived without money for 250,000 years, so it's not necessary for life. Money seems like an invention on par with the big ones, like fire, the wheel, writing, and language. Right off the bat, Jo shares how her life before choosing to live without money was stressful, with less freedom or free time. If you…

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825: Ryan Mandelbaum, part 2: Rising to the challenge of random acts of friendliness 27:19

4M ago27:19

27:19

Ryan shares his experience approaching people to share in his joy. The task is not easy anywhere, least of all the Bronx, where he doesn't live but was visiting. Do people in the big city want to hear why some guy is walking around looking at trees and the sky? They wouldn't know he was bird watching until he told them. Do you think they'd welcome …

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Episode 490: Trans Torah for Our Terrible Times - Lexi Kohanski, Liana Wertman 1:00:17

4M ago1:00:17

1:00:17

In Pirkei Avot, one can find the Hebrew teaching to “carry the burden with your friend.” In today’s episode, Torah Studio leaders Lexi Kohanski and Liana Wertman join the Judaism Unbound podcast to discuss their latest offerings in keeping with this lesson, including a class on personal torah and stewardship called Trans Torah for Our Terrible Time…

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824: Dr. Rob Reed, part 2: Learning to love leading effectively 41:39

4M ago41:39

41:39

Rob starts by sharing his experience from leadership coaching in the context of a hospital with people in intensive care as well as their families. Situations are often emotionally intense. Treating just facts doesn't work, or can work against you. It can be "terribly ineffective" (not unique to medicine). He recounts learning to lead through emoti…