Finding My Religion, a Podcast

Arnold Eisen a professor and author and is one of the foremost experts on Amerian Judaism today. He recently finished serving as the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary for the past 13 years, the first non-rabbi to hold that position. 

Arnie sits down with us to talk about his childhood in Philadelphia, his own spiritual development, and the issues facing all of us in 2021. 

Mac Brandt is an actor who has appeared in several hit television shows. In 2020 he starred as the villain in Lovecraft Country on HBO, produced by Jordan Peele. He was also a regular on the show Kingdom.

 I've had the privilege of knowing Mac for many years. In this episode we talk about his upbringing in Chicago, his spiritual development, and what motivates him to always be helping those less fortunate. 

I have had the privilege of knowing Mary Jo Barrett for the last ten years. She is one of the wisest people I know, and it was an absolute blessing to sit down and have her share her wisdom with our audience.

Mary Jo is a nationally prominent expert in the treatment of trauma and traumatic violence in the family. Her model is a collaborative, resilience-oriented approach that helps families create healing plans that can provide lasting change. Mary Jo also works extensively with helping therapist prevent Compassion Fatigue and heal from Vicarious Traumatization. She is a leading authority on family violence, including the physical and sexual abuse of children, neglect, incest, and spouse abuse, and has been working on these issues since 1974.

Tahil Sharma is the Regional Coordinator for North America for the United Religions Initiative, the world's largest interfaith network. Tahil has been doing interfaith work for 8 years and has been continuously exploring the intersection of religion/spirituality with themes of human rights and social justice. He sits down to talk to us about his interfaith work, growing up as a Sikh/Hindu man in the United States, and what is demanded of someone who considers themselves to be religious. 

Paul Adelstein is an American actor, known for the role of Agent Paul Kellerman in the Fox television series Prison Break and his role as pediatrician Cooper Freedman in the ABC medical drama Private Practice. In addition to supporting roles in films such as Intolerable Cruelty and Memoirs of a Geisha, he is also known for his recurring role as Leo Bergen on ABC's Scandal and as Jake Novak in the Bravo television series Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce. He joined us to talk about his childhood in Chicago, his meditation practice, the role of Judaism in his life how he discovered his passion for theater, and how he maintains balance in his life while living in Hollywood.

Welcome back to another season of Finding My religion. It's been awhile since we've had a new podcast released, find out what's been happening in the meantime, where Ben has been and what's new for season 2. 

Plus a New Year sermon about living our lives in Covenant. 

Rabbi Mychal Springer founded the Center for Pastoral Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary in 2009,  allowing students to learn the art of pastoral care as they serve marginalized populations. She began her career as a chaplain in New York City’s top hospitals, and in the 1990s became the director of the Department of Pastoral Care and Education at Beth Israel Medical Center. Mychal returned to JT S in 2002 as The Rabbinical School’s associate dean and director of Field Education. 

The first Conservative rabbi to be certified as a supervisor by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), Mychal has built a program that uniquely equips graduates to meet the spiritual needs of all the people they serve. She holds the Helen Fried Kirshblum Goldstein Chair in Professional and Pastoral Skills at JTS and oversees the Certificate in Pastoral Care & Counseling. She teaches the First Year Rabbinical School Seminar in Theology and courses on topics including Sexuality & Gender for Religious Professionals. Mychal also serves as chair of the JTS Committee on Sexuality and Gender. Mychal received her BA in Judaic Studies and Religious Studies from Yale College magna cum laude.

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Mona Fishbane to discuss, neuroplasticity, wise aging and the intersection between spirituality and psychology. Dr. Fishbane shares with us some secrets to being mindful and living a more attuned life. 

Rabbi Mark Borovitz is the Rabbi at Beit T'Shuvah, a residential treatment facility for addiction, based in Los Angeles. Rabbi Mark has been featured in articles in the Los Angeles Times, Moment Magazine, Jewish Journal, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2004, Rabbi Mark was one of seven people invited to a round table discussion with President George W. Bush about faith and recovery. 

 His biography, The Holy Thief: A Conman’s Journey from Darkness to Light (Harper Collins), tells the story of his life from hopelessness to redemption, for which the rights were recently optioned. He also recently released his newest book, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah: A Daily Spiritual Path to Wholeness (Jewish Lights Publishing).

We sit down to discuss his journey from being a felon to a spiritual leader,  the brokenness of humanity, the role of religion and text in our lives, and the path out of our own personal darkness. 

Rabbi Sharon Brous is a leading voice in reanimating religious life in America, working to develop a spiritual roadmap for soulful, multi-faith justice work in Los Angeles and around the country. Rabbi Brous is the senior and founding rabbi of IKAR which was started in 2004 and has become a model for Jewish revitalization in the US and beyond. She sits down with us to discuss what it means to be comfortable or uncomfortable in a religious community, what role religion plays in our political and personal lives, and the nature of faith. 

Aziza Hasan is the Executive Director of NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change. In this episode we discuss Aziza's experience growing up in Jordan and moving to Kansas at the age of 17, her time in a Mennonite college, and what she has learned from her encounters with different faiths. 

In this episode we sit down with Alx Utterman, a spiritual healer and founder of The Universal Church of Baba's Kitchen. 

Trained in India in the disciplines of Reiki, healing and meditation, Alx sits down with us to talk about the journey that led her to studying in India for five years and her life as a healer. 

In this episode, we sit down with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles California. The two of them discuss the nature of life in the 21st century, the current political and ideological climate and how to find our way back. They discuss how science, religion, and spirituality can help lead us into a new era of cooperation. 

In his Yom Kippur sermon, Ben Goldstein talks about the distinction people make between spirituality and religion. This sermon contains a lot of the principles that we will explore throughout the episodes of our podcast.