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Ep. 115: Mark Bittman’s new cookbook and ‘By the Book’ podcast host Kristen Meinzer on embracing self-help books
This week on Unorthodox, we’re live at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City.
Our Jewish guest is food writer Mark Bittman, whose latest cookbook is How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Completely Revised Tenth Anniversary Edition. He tells us why we should be paying attention to the agricultural industry’s contribution to global warming, makes a case for us to simply eat real food, and, despite all that, admits to the occasional trip to McDonald’s.
Our gentile of the week is Kristen Meinzer, co-host of the podcast By the Book. On each episode, the hosts live by the rules of a different self-help book, including The Secret, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and French Women Don’t Get Fat. She explains why women, historically neglected in conversations about “wellness,” are understandably drawn to self-help books, why she thinks The Secret is bogus, and what her self-help book would espouse. A Christmas obsessive, her question for the hosts is whether Jewish parents warn their children not to tell their gentile classmates that Santa isn’t real.
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This episode of Unorthodox is brought to you by PJ Library, the program that sends FREE Jewish books to more than 200,000 children around the world. Sign up at pjlibrary.org/unorthodox and they’ll send you a new book each month.
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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.
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