Binah: Recent Episodes
David Kwan
Binah features creative voices from the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. In this series, we bring you remarkable artists and thinkers who’ve come to speak at the JCCSF as part of their Arts & Ideas program.
Alt-rock icon Amanda Palmer shares advice and inspiration for creative people or anyone who wants to learn to ask for what they need.
On today’s episode of Binah, we examine the origins and methodology of QueerCore Talmud, the study of ancient Jewish wisdom texts through the lens of queer experiences.
On today’s encore edition of Binah, legendary guitarist and co-founder of The Smiths, Johnny Marr discusses his personal story and successful and varied career.
Food writer, chef and YouTube presenter Claire Saffitz shares all-new recipes that are crafted to be as streamlined as possible.
Multiple Grammy-winning singer–songwriter Angélique Kidjo tells the story of her harrowing escape from Communist Benin into France, her rise from poverty to become an international sensation, and her tireless advocacy work for the education of African girls and women’s rights.
Author Tommy Orange discusses the plight of the urban Native American, coupled with a complex and painful history but also an inheritance of profound beauty and spirituality. Also, former US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo performs her poetry in song.
Psychotherapist Esther Perel talks about reconciling the closeness needed for intimacy with the separateness that fuels desire as the central paradox of love.
Violence against Jews in this country is rising sharply yet again. Where is all this hatred coming from? Historian Deborah Lipstadt examines the hate that will not die and what can be done about it.
Multi-hyphenate actor-writer-producer-author Iliza Shlesinger shares her new book, All Things Aside, a collection of personal essays about the exasperating issues of everyday life.
Child psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy advocates moving from old parenting approaches based on shaping behavior to a model that prioritizes connection.
Novelist Salman Rushdie talks about his life in hiding in the aftermath of the fatwa issued against him in 1989.
Musician Taj Mahal talks to rock music journalist Ben Fong-Torres and performs songs from his extraordinary career.
Musician Taj Mahal talks to rock music journalist Ben Fong-Torres and performs songs from his extraordinary career.
Musician Taj Mahal talks to rock music journalist Ben Fong-Torres and performs songs from his extraordinary career.
Culinary historian and chef Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora.
Culinary historian and chef Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora.
Culinary historian and chef Michael W. Twitty considers the marriage of two of the most distinctive culinary cultures in the world today: the foods and traditions of the African Atlantic and the global Jewish diaspora.
Rabbi Batshir Torchio of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Aleksandra Makuch of the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning in Warsaw, and Marta Saracyn of the JCC in Warsaw report on the Ukrainian aid response in Poland.
Crystal Wahpepah of Wahpepah’s Kitchen and Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino of Café Ohlone talk about Native American cuisine and reflect on the future of Indigenous cultures and identities.
Activist Cleve Jones talks about his four decades in the center of movements for AIDS, LGBTQ, and labor rights. His memoir is, When We Rise.
Blondie’s Deborah Harry and Chris Stein share stories of their astonishing musical career, including touring San Francisco in early years.
San Francisco writer Rebecca Solnit explores people’s capacity to rise to major disasters with creativity and courage.
Nadine Epstein shares stories of Jewish women from biblical to modern times, selected in collaboration with the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Today’s edition of Binah features an unaired interview with comedian, actor, and television host Bob Saget, who died in January at the age of 65.
Dr. Natan Meir discusses the complex historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine and its impact on Ukraine’s Jewry. Also, Meylakh Sheykhet, speaking from Lviv in western Ukraine, gives an update on the wartime challenges to Jewish life and the heroic struggle in the face of the humanitarian and refugee crisis.
Zack Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, thoughtfully shifts from asking why be Jewish to why do Jewish, and provides a roadmap for anyone looking to live a more meaningful Jewish life.
Los Angeles street rat turned world-famous rock star Flea, the bassist and co-founder of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, tells his origin story.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, the 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States, warns of the dangers of loneliness and the lasting impact it can have on our health.
Tracy K. Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019, talks about traveling the country on a quest to bring poetry to people living in rural America.
Novelist and young-adult writer Alice Hoffman brings us the conclusion of the Practical Magic book series.
Author Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time.
Author and host of the Unorthodox podcast, Mark Oppenheimer gives a piercing portrait of the struggles and triumphs of a singular community in the wake of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that highlights the hopes, fears, and tensions all Americans must confront on the road to healing.
The renowned author of 13 cookbooks and winner of five James Beard awards, Dorie Greenspan, celebrates the sweet, the savory, and the simple in baking.
Andy Cohen, host and executive producer of Bravo’s late night talk show Watch What Happens Live and executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise, shares quotes and lessons from the larger-than-life women that defined his life.
New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks talks about moving from material gain to spiritual satisfaction, to focus on building character rather than attaining status.
Paul Geduldig of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, Ilana Kaufman of the Jews of Color Initiative, Rabbi Sydney Mintz of Temple Emanu-El, and Manny Yekutiel talk about the path forward for Judaism in the modern age.
Revered Israeli author David Grossman, shares his newest novel, More Than I Love My Life, about multigenerational and geopolitical divide and familial trauma.
On this encore edition of Binah, television actors, writers and producers Issa Rae (Insecure) and Justin Simien (Dear White People) talk about their work and career and the changing face of Hollywood.
Billie Jean King recalls the cultural backdrop during her groundbreaking tennis career, and the profound impact on her worldview from the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, and the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Musician (Sleater-Kinney), actress (Portlandia and Transparent) and writer Carrie Brownstein talks about the dawn of the underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture, from one of its founders.
Author Francine Prose turns the story of the trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg into an improbably funny examination of distortions in the fictionalizing of history.
Novelist, poet and essayist Margaret Atwood discusses her latest work of fiction, “Two Scorched Men,” her seminal novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, and writing in the time of dystopia.
Actress, neuroscientist, and new host of prime time specials for Jeopardy!, Mayim Bialik talks about what it means to grow up into a woman biologically, psychologically and sociologically.
Artist Judy Chicago discusses her life and career, from her Jewish roots, to her interest in human rights, to her search for feminist aesthetic forms and beyond.
Grammy-winning singer–songwriter Angélique Kidjo talks about her rise from poverty to become an international sensation and her advocacy work for the education of African girls and women’s rights.
Peter Toren spent years pursuing an art collection that was stolen from their family by the Nazis during WWII, including the painting “Two Riders on the Beach” by artist Max Liebermann.
Twitty is the creator of Afroculinaria, the first blog devoted to African-American historic foodways. His book, The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South, won the 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award for Book of the Year.
Psychologist and Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman, management professor and former McKinsey partner Olivier Sibony, and legal scholar and behavioral economist Cass Sunstein offer remedies to reduce bias and ultimately make better decisions.