Tablet Magazine
Unorthodox

Mad Mahj

Ep. 297: Joshua Malina on Mel Gibson, plus interviews with Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi and mahjong scholar Annelise Heinz

December 9, 2021
Tablet Magazine

This week on Unorthodox, we’re prepping for the great cream cheese shortage of 5782.

First we call up friend of the show Joshua Malina, who wrote an impassioned essay in The Atlantic asking why, after such a public history of antisemitism, Mel Gibson is still getting work in Hollywood.

Then we talk to Yonit Levi, Israel’s Channel 12 evening news anchor, who recently launched the podcast Unholy with The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland.

Our gentile of the week is University of Oregon professor Annelise Heinz, whose new book, Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture, delves into the Jewish community’s enthusiastic embrace of the tile game.

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