Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  In his 2022 book, The War on the West, the British journalist Douglas Murray argues that many now-prominent cultural ideas unfairly single out Western sins, discounting the good that Western civilization has brought about and […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  The idea of equality has a long and intricate history, one that the philosopher, rabbi, and writer Zohar Atkins joins this podcast to discuss. In conversation with Mosaic Editor Jonathan Silver, he looks at how […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  There is the argument and there is the context in which that argument is made. It’s easy to sing the praises of American life when you’re sitting in the United States, but you’d likely express […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  On May 9, the cultural commentator Midge Decter passed away. Author of essays and books, editor of magazines, and mentor to generations of writers, Decter was subtle, clear, and courageous in her thinking. Though a […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Since its first issue twelve years ago, the Jewish Review of Books, a beautifully-designed quarterly that was founded and supported by Tikvah, has produced 49 issues of high-level Jewish discourse. Much of that success can […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  When Jews celebrate the upcoming holiday of Purim, they’ll also study the Book of Esther, named for the young queen whose Jewish identity was unknown to her husband—Persia’s king—and his court. The Book of Esther […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  The reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel changed the Jewish people, giving them a place to live in their historic home, if they wanted it. But what about the Jews who remained, […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  In a previous podcast, Professors Benjamin and Jenna Storey explored a habit of mind that frustrated their very best students, a sentiment they called restlessness. As the Storeys saw it, their exceptional students had countless life […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Every week, on the seventh day—the Sabbath—observant Jews rest. They perform no labor and they dedicate the day to serving God. This idea, the Sabbath, has another application in the Hebrew Bible: God also commands […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  This week, Jews celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, during which it is traditional to read one of the most philosophically interesting books of the Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes. The narrator of the book, identified by Jewish […]