What Would God Say? A Comedy Date with David Javerbaum and Michael Krasny

How would God spin 21st-century problems? Emmy award-winning comedy writer David  Javerbaum, former head writer and executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has a few ideas! Javerbaum serves as “God’s ghost writer” in his new book, The Book of Pslams: 97 Divine Diatribes on Humanity’s Total Failure and is a veteran of other “God collaborations”—the Broadway show An Act of God and the popular twitter account @TheTweetofGod. He is in conversation with Michael Krasny, an award-winning journalist and retired public radio host of KQED Forum and the author of Let There Be Laughter: A Treasury of Great Jewish Humor and What It All Means. Come prepared to laugh your heart out!

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The Politics of Being Gay with Congressman Barney Frank, Eric Orner and Ann F. Lewis

Barney Frank was the first member of Congress to voluntarily acknowledge being gay in 1987. Frank will join his former congressional aide, Eric Orner, author of the new graphic novel Smahtguy: The Life and Times of Barney Frank, in conversation about his lifelong crusade for civil rights and his 30+ years in the U.S. House of Representatives. With Ann F. Lewis, a champion for women’s rights, a former White House Director of Communications, and the congressman’s sister.

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The indomitable Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop with Mallory Lewis, Nat Segaloff and Sarah Breger

Famed ventriloquist and creator of the iconic puppet Lamb Chop, Shari Lewis was one of the few women to run her own television production company at a time when most women were shut out of the industry. Lewis and Lamb Chop entertained generations of children with their many television shows, including specials about Hanukkah and Passover. Mallory Lewis, Emmy Award-winning performer and daughter of Shari, and TV writer-producer Nat Segaloff, join Moment editor Sarah Breger for a conversation about Lewis’ stage and TV career, how Judaism influenced her work, the challenges of being a businesswoman in a male dominated field and how she and her puppet became iconic stars loved by millions. Mallory Lewis and Segaloff are the authors of the forthcoming book Shari Lewis & Lamb Chop: The Team That Changed Children’s Television.

This program is in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.

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The Story of Art Rupe and Specialty Records with Nadine Epstein and Billy Vera

Art Rupe, who died in April at the age of 104, was an independent record producer known for launching the musical careers of Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Sam Cooke and others, paving the way for Black music to crossover to White audiences and the new genre of rock n’ roll. Moment editor-in-chief and Billy Vera, a singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, Grammy Award winning music historian and author of Rip It Up: The Specialty Records Story is in conversation about Rupe’s impoverished childhood in a Pennsylvania town, his early affinity for gospel music, and how he turned down a scholarship to become a rabbi and instead headed to Hollywood, his legendary career, life philosophy and more.

This program is in celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month.

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The Thrilling World of Brad Meltzer

Brad Meltzer is a New York Times bestselling author known for his legal thrillers, including the recently released The Lightning Rod. His non-fiction work includes a biography series for children with such titles as I am Anne Frank as well as the upcoming The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. He is also the host of the tv shows Lost History and Decoded. Meltzer is in conversation with former CBS News correspondent and Moment contributor Dan Raviv about how his law school experience has helped him develop his stories, the extensive research that goes into each book, his commitment to educating children through his “I Am” series and how his concern about antisemitism has influenced some of his work.

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Letters from the Lingerie Drawer: A Daughter’s Journey with Eleanor Reissa and Yehuda Hyman

What if you could suddenly see your parents’ lives before you were born? And they were Holocaust survivors, who had suffered greatly but still somehow found each other. This is what happened to Tony-nominated director and Broadway/television actor Eleanor Reissa when her mother passed away, leaving behind 56 letters she’d received from Reissa’s father in the years after he survived a death march. It took Reissa 30 years to have them translated from German and discover her parents’ story. She discusses what she learned and her recently released memoir, The Letters Project: A Daughter’s Journey, in conversation with playwright and artistic director Yehuda Hyman. Reissa also reads several selections from her book.

This program is in commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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The Jews of Iran: Antisemitism and the Great Exodus with Roya Hakakian and Sarah Breger

While Jews have lived in Iran for centuries, today’s Jewish community numbers around 10,000, down from 100,000 Jews prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Roya Hakakian, author of Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran and A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious, shares what life was like prior to the revolution, the antisemitism that caused most Jews to flee and what life is like now for the Iranian Jewish community. Hakakian is in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger.

This program is part of a Moment series on antisemitism supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation.

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Memories and Stories of RBG on What Would Have Been her 89th Birthday with Nina Totenberg and Nadine Epstein

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s birthday was March 15th. To remember her, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, author of the forthcoming book Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, and Moment editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein, author of RBG’s Brave & Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone, will share their memories of the late Supreme Court Justice and discuss her legacy.

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The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel with journalist Kati Marton in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz

Angela Merkel, who just stepped down as German chancellor after a remarkable16 years, has redefined the image of a woman leader. A pastor’s daughter raised in Soviet-controlled East Germany, Merkel worked as a research chemist before entering politics and rising to become the unofficial leader of the West. Award-winning journalist Kati Marton, author of The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel, shares how Merkel helped shape Germany into what some call the world’s moral center, and explores her legacy—including allowing Middle Eastern refugees to enter Germany while the world looked away. She also discusses the rise of the far right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) and Merkel’s complicated relationships with other world leaders such as Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Marton is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book & Opinion Editor.

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Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy book cover with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy with Martin Indyk and Dan Raviv

Henry Kissinger laid the groundwork for American diplomacy in the Middle East almost 50 years ago through his efforts to end the Yom Kippur War and his “shuttle diplomacy” with Israel, Egypt and Syria.

In his new book, Master of the Game, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations under President Obama, takes an in-depth look at how American diplomacy operates behind closed doors and how Kissinger’s design for Middle East peacemaking remains key to brokering peace in the region. Indyk is in conversation with former CBS News correspondent and Moment contributor Dan Raviv, coauthor of Friends in Deed: Inside the U.S.-Israel Alliance.

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Anita Diamant

The Wonderful World of Anita Diamant. Period!

Anita Diamant’s latest book, Period. End of Sentence, which “explores the cultural roots of menstrual injustice,” goes boldly where no writer has gone before. The New York Times bestselling author of The Red Tent is in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, Moment’s Book and Opinion editor, about misogyny, her books—both fiction and nonfiction, her writing process, as well as her connection to Judaism that led to her founding the Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Community Mikveh.

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Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon

QAnon’s Antisemitic Roots with Mia Bloom, Sophia Moskalenko and Sarah Posner

In their new book Pastels and Pedophiles, cybersecurity expert Dr. Mia Bloom and Dr. Sophia Moskalenko, a psychologist specializing in radicalization, show how much the recent QAnon movement owes to antisemitic tropes and, most notably, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Bloom and Moskalenko are in conversation with journalist Sarah Posner, author of UNHOLY: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.

This program is part of Moment’s Antisemitism series supported by the Joyce and Irving Goldman Foundation.

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