A word in your ear about our favourite Jewish podcasts
Candice Krieger pops on her headphones to connect with her favourite Jewish podcasters – some of which are racking up millions of followers
The podcast. Once the humble launchpad for those wishing to share their journalism, comedy or travelogues beyond traditional media, it is now the must-have digital accessory for the famous, infamous or wannabe host. Literally anyone with the wherewithal to launch and build an audience from scratch can have their own podcast, and no subjects or opinions are off-limits. Politics, entertainment, lifestyle, health and even crime-solving are but a part of the limitless mix, available on audio files to download and listen to (and even watch!) on different devices. They are more popular than ever, and reaching record numbers, with a reported 465 million podcast listeners around the world.
Jonathan Freedland and Yonit Levi: Unholy: Two Jews on the News
Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland presents Unholy: Two Jews on the News, together with well-known TV anchor Yonit Levi of Channel 12 News Israel. Each week, Levi in Tel Aviv and Freedland in London give their take on developments in politics and life in Israel, the US, the UK and beyond.
Launched in 2021, the pod has covered topics from Netanyahu’s judicial reform to the recent King’s coronation. Guests have included novelist Howard Jacobson, author Malcom Gladwell, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, Israeli historian Professor Yuval Noah Harari and American author David Remnick.
Freedland says: “The idea was hatched during Covid when we realised that geography and distance need not matter and one could do these things via Zoom, and all sorts of opportunities opened up. Yonit felt there was a gap for a forum where the Diaspora and Israel can talk to each other.”
Unholy is credited as the most listened-to English language podcast in Israel and has attracted a loyal following. Released every Friday, it has become “part of people’s Friday pre-Shabbat ritual,” says Freedland.
Freedland’s wife Sarah Peters is an award-winning podcast producer. Her Series 2 of Bed of Lies won Best Limited Series & Publisher Podcast 2022.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108
Emma Levy: When Life Gives You Lemons
Physiotherapist Emma Levy conducts interviews with high performing individuals across the sporting, corporate and cultural worlds who have been through adversity but come back stronger. Emma found her own shift in perspective on life following her diagnosis and subsequent treatment for breast cancer, aged 36. Emma says: “I questioned whether it was my positive mindset, or something deeper, which enabled me to bounce back and train for a triathlon just one month following completion of cancer treatment. The podcast explores how individuals have dealt with adversity and used it to their advantage to achieve incredible things. The goal is to inspire others to thrive.”
Launched earlier this year, When Life Gives You Lemons has featured Olympic gold medallist Matty Lee, world record holding adventurer Vicki Anstey, actor Louisa Clein, breast cancer campaigner Carly Moosah and Holocaust survivor Ruth Posner, among others. Another Olympic gold medallist, a popstar and a broadcaster have been lined up for Season 2.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/when-life-gives-you-lemons-with-emma-levy/id1668697394
Natalie Silverman: The F Word at Work
Broadcaster, voiceover artist and veteran podcaster Natalie launched the UK’s first fertility podcast, The Fertility Podcast, in 2014 after needing fertility treatment to have her son. Last year, she launched The F Word at Work – an insight into the impact of people’s fertility struggles in the workplace with a view to educating managers, HR professionals, D&I and wellbeing leads. It shares people’s stories plus thought leadership on wellbeing at work and best practice from organisations such as Selfridges and Cadent Gas, who are becoming fertility-friendly.
Natalie says: “With one in six people affected by infertility, how they are treated at work through this is really significant as the reality is, good talent is leaving the workplace because they’re not being looked after.”
Natalie is one of three female co-founders of Fertility Matters at Work, a CIC (Community Interest Company) launched to educate the workplace about the many struggles people have when trying to build a family.
Daniel Geey: The Daniel Geey Podcast
Sports and entertainment lawyer Daniel Geey hosts two shows podcasts under The Daniel Geey Podcast umbrella: The Dan and Omar Show, where he (mainly) talks football with footie expert Omar Chaudhuri, and Build the Invisible, a career and self-development series where he chats to high-achieving individuals about their career paths. His podcast attracts around 30,000 listeners a year.
Daniel says: “I’d been blogging and tweeting for quite some time but I wanted to engage a different audience and I to see if I could amplify my own content through audio as well as the written word. I have recorded more than 100 episodes of conversations, which has been incredibly fulfilling for me and hopefully of some value to the listeners.”
Daniel is also the author of Done Deal: An Insider’s Guide to Football Contracts, Multi-Million Pound Transfers and Premier League Big Business, and Build the Invisible, a guide to help people achieve fulfilling and successful careers.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-daniel-geey-podcast/id1488606643
Kate Moryoussef: The ADHD Women’s Wellbeing Podcast
Kate has conversations with experts, authors and thought leaders about the complex way ADHD presents in women and girls, and offers insights and techniques. The aim is that they move forwards in life with more clarity, hope and new awareness of ADHD.
Launched in January 2022, the podcast was nominated for the best wellbeing podcast the same year at the British Podcast Awards, and is consistently in the health and well-being charts on Apple and Spotify. It has 750,000 downloads.
Kate says: “I was diagnosed with ADHD aged 40, alongside my daughter, in November 2020. It helped me understand why I had always felt anxious and why my nervous system never felt settled. There were many other factors but I didn’t have the awareness to be connect the different issues, which are multi-layered and hard to spot if you don’t understand ADHD in girls. I wanted to help other women to manage and thrive with ADHD with the tools I’ve learnt along the way, but also bring in guests and experts to pull the conversations together and get more answers for women around the world.”
Guests have included Dr Ned Hallowell – world-leading doctor and author on ADHD – and other high-profile guests talking about their own late in life diagnoses.
Sarah Ellis and Philippa Ross: Twinset Unzipped
Stylists and best friends Sarah and Philippa, founders of the popular fashion and lifestyle blog We Are Twinset, have recently launched Twinset Unzipped. Sarah is a former stylist on ITV’s Lorraine and Philippa was a stylist for The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine.
Sarah says: “The podcast celebrates our friendship, our daily musings, thoughts and experiences of mum life, work life and everything in between. We really wanted the space to talk about more serious things and things that are important to us.”
Philippa adds: “It’s something we have dreamed of doing for a long time. Now it’s genuinely the highlight of our week.”
https://wearetwinset.com/watch-listen/
Andrew Gold: On the Edge with Andrew Gold
Robbie Williams, Jon Ronson and Amanda Knox are just some of the high-profile guests that have appeared on YouTuber Andrew Gold’s popular podcast in which he chats to them about a variety of quirky topics, from scientology and cults to royals to Chasidic Judaism.
Andrew, a former award-winning BBC journalist, says: “I’d been trying to get a documentary career off the ground and had a list of people lined up. But it became unsustainable and then Covid hit and I thought it was a shame not to use the people and documentary ideas, so I turned it into talking to them for a podcast instead.”
Some 350 episodes later and Andrew has pulled in some remarkable guests – he even flew out to Barcelona to meet Robbie Williams. “We spoke for three hours, discussing lots of things including addictions and his belief in UFOs.”
Other notable episodes include the one with My Unorthodox Life star Julia Haart and with skier-turned-poker-host Molly Bloom of Molly’s Game. Some have attracted close to 800,000 views.
Lauren Mishcon and Nicole Goodman: Self Care Club
Women’s coach Nicole Goodman and doula Lauren Mishcon came together for the first time in 2020 to host Self Care Club. Three years and over 380 episodes later, the popular podcast has had 1.5 million downloads.
Each week, Lauren and Nicole trial a different self-care practice for women, reporting back on the results. Whether it’s face yoga, self-love, body positivity, a week of saying no or not people pleasing, listeners can decide what might work for them.
Nicole is a certified CPCC women’s coach and has worked supporting women for 25 years. She says: “Lauren and I each had our own podcast and a mutual friend felt we would be good guests on each other’s. We met for a coffee, where we moaned about the women’s mental load, and about how self-care had become yet another ‘job’ for women. Lauren had the idea for a podcast of our own.”
Lauren is a broadcaster, writer and has been a birth doula since 2006. She says: “We wanted to create a hub where women could look after themselves without struggling to do so.”
https://www.theselfcareclub.co.uk/podcast
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