Live From Queens

This episode was recorded live at the Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center in Queens.

Our Jewish guest is Leon Neyfakh, who hosts the new podcast Fiasco, which tells the story of the 2000 election. He previously hosted two seasons of the hit podcast Slow Burn—the first focused on Watergate, and the second on the Clinton impeachment. He tells us why he focuses on what it was like to live through these explosive moments in American history as they slowly unfolded, and what he’s learned about today’s political dramas by digging into recent history.

Our gentile of the week is Clare Malone, a senior political writer at FiveThirtyEight, where she covers the 2020 presidential election and appears on the weekly FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast. She accepts our challenge to name all 24 Democrats running for president, and gives us her predictions of what’s to come in the 2020 campaign. Following in the footsteps of her sister Noreen, who in 2017 inquired about the phrase “Jewish American Princess” and inspired an entire special episode on the topic, Clare asks what the deal is with the word “shiksa.”

Tell us what you really think! Fill out our listener survey for a chance to win an autographed copy of our forthcoming book, The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia.

Email us at [email protected] or leave a message at 914-570-4869.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies here.

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.