The Dybbukast
Jewish Podcast | Jewish Diaspora | Jewish Arts | Jewish Literature | Jewish History
What do poems, plays, and other creative texts from throughout history tell us about the times in which they were written? And what do they reveal about the forces still at play in our contemporary societies?
Using interviews with artists and scholars combined with performed readings by actors, The Dybbukast examines and gives context to creative works while exploring their relationships to issues still present today.
While we are no longer producing full seasons, we will continue to present live recordings of our illuminated lectures – which share The Dybbukast format – as they are available.
Listen here, on YouTube (captions available), or on your favorite podcast app.
Season 1
-
S1 E1 "I-Tell-You"
-
S1 E1 bonus "I-Tell-You...More"
-
S1 E2 "The Book of Enoch"
-
S1 E3 "The Death of My Aunt"
-
S1 E3 bonus "Translation and The Death of My Aunt"
-
S1 E4 "The Murdered Jewess"
-
S1 E5 "The Protocols, Henry Ford, and The International Jew"
-
S1 E5 bonus "A Fine Ford Vehicle"
-
S1 E6 "How to Hide"
-
S1 E7 "Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives"
-
S1 E8 "In Defense of Women"
-
S1 E9 "The Book of Bovo"
Season 4
-
S4 E1 "The Merchant of Venice: Ghetto"
-
S4 E2 "The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare in Performance"
-
S4 E3 "The Merchant of Venice: Annotated"
-
S4 Guest "Primary Source: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"
-
S4 E4 "At Newport"
-
S4 E5 "The Marvelous Puppet Show"
-
S4 E6 "Fiction without Romance"
-
S4 E7 "Lilith"
-
S4 Bonus "Hymn of the Majestic"
Season 2
-
S2 E1 "I Sing and I Pray"
-
S2 E2 "The Book of Job"
-
S2 E3 "Sing This at My Funeral"
-
S2 E4 "The St. Thomas Split"
-
S2 E5 "The New World"
-
S2 E6 "The Temple Bombing"
-
S2 E7 "Sound in the Silence"
-
S2 E8 "Adapting Exagoge"
Season 5
Season 3
-
S3 E1 "Years Have Sped By"
-
S3 E2 "Why I Was a Zionist and Why I Now Am Not"
-
S3 Guest "The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages"
-
S3 E3 "The Chronicles of the Rabbis"*
-
S3 E4 "The Imagined Childhood"*
-
S3 E5 "The Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers"*
-
S3 E6 "The Book of Tahkemoni"*
-
S3 E7 "Studying Sacred Texts"*
Season 1 of The Dybbukast was started with seed funding from The Covenant Foundation.
Seasons 2, 3, and 4 are generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
*Episodes 3-7 of Season 3 were co-produced as a limited series with the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.
Latest Episode
"Radio, Propaganda, and The War of the Worlds"
Season 5, Episode 1
This illuminated lecture features Professor Paul Lerner as he discusses the famous 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles of "The War of the Worlds" vis-à-vis analysis from Austrian Jewish media researcher (and later advertising exec) Herta Herzog, who studied audience reactions to the broadcast and argued that the tensions of the time – the rise of fascist movements, the growing likelihood of war – agitated listeners and predisposed them to believe the fabricated threat from the skies, despite Welles’ assurances that the broadcast was a hoax.
This episode was recorded as a live presentation on September 1st, 2024 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
Season 4
Season 4 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 3
Season 3 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 2
Season 2 of The Dybbukast is generously supported by a grant from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.
Season 1
Thank you to The Covenant Foundation and Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah for their support of The Dybbukast and related educational resources.