Teach Your Children Well

This week on Unorthodox, Sia gets sued for underwhelming Tel Aviv concertgoers.

Our Jewish guest is Justin Sakofs, creator of MagneticShul, a lunchbox-size toy designed to engage kids in ritual Jewish life. He tells us how he went from being a Jewish educator to a toy inventor, why kids should be encouraged to have fun in synagogue, and when we can expect MagneticSukkah, MagneticSeder, and MagneticShabbat.

Our Gentile of the Week is Paris-based writer Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of the memoir Losing My Cool: Love, Literature, and a Black Man’s Escape From the Crowd. He tells us about being one of Ta Nehisi Coates’s most vocal critics, his perspective on American politics as an ex-pat, and his next book, a reckoning with how we define race in America, based on his 2015 essay “Black and Blue and Blond.” His question for us: Are Jews white?

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Unorthodox is a smart, fresh, fun weekly take on Jewish news and culture hosted by Mark Oppenheimer, Stephanie Butnick, and Liel Leibovitz. You can listen to individual episodes here or subscribe on iTunes.