Summer Reading

This week on Unorthodox, three books to add to your summer reading list.

Our first guest is historian and UCLA professor Sarah Abrevaya Stein, who is the author of Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century. She tells us how she pieced together the Levy family story across generations and continents through their correspondence, what this family’s journey can teach us about the global Sephardic experience, and what the records we leave behind today might look like to future historians.

Next we talk to David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter and, most recently The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth. He explains the value of analog products and ideas in today’s tech-saturated climate, argues that true entrepreneurs aren’t the Silicon Valley disrupters we read about in the news, and makes the case for entrepreneurship as an often necessary Jewish habit.

Our final guest is Daniel Torday, who teaches creative writing at Bryn Mawr college and whose latest novel is BOOMER1, a tale of ageist angst taken to farcical and violent extremes. He tells us why our current cultural and economic moment is ripe for resentment toward baby boomers (Americans born roughly between 1946 and 1964), why intergenerational strife was such a compelling topic to take on, and what it’s like to have his novel exist in the world alongside memes like ‘OK Boomer.’

Let us know what you think of the show! Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more.

Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram.

Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies here.

Sponsors:

Masa Israel: Whether you’re interested in making a career change, volunteering, or just finding a new adventure, join young professionals from around the world and experience Israeli society firsthand through one of Masa Israel’s career development programs. If you or someone you know is looking to make next year meaningful and productive, visit masaisrael.org/unorthodox.