Episodes

Mark is delighted to welcome Rabbi Joshua Davidson to the podcast today. A graduate of Princeton, and, like Mark’s wife, a graduate of Hebrew Union College as well, Rabbi Davidson is currently the Senior Rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York, having previously served as senior rabbi of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester in Chappaqua, New York. He is involved in numerous social justice issues and organizations, and, in 2009, was honored for his interfaith efforts by the Westc...

Solomon Choi, Founder and CEO of 16 Handles, NYC’s largest frozen dessert franchise, is Mark’s guest on the podcast today. Solomon has worked in Food and Beverage and Foodservice management for more than 15 years as an executive, advisor, and investor, and has served as an Advisory Board member for Rescuing Leftover Cuisine- a non-profit dedicated to eliminating food waste and hunger. If you are in the Tri-State area or Boca Raton, Mark highly recommends visiting your local 16 Handles - you and ...

Master of immersion journalism, A.J. Jacobs, joins Mark on the podcast today. Through his work, A.J. has immersed himself in topics ranging from the Bible to the family, to his most recent topic, gratitude, which he recounts in his book, ‘Thanks a Thousand: A Gratitude Journey’. He is also the author of a book about one of Mark’s heroes, Elvis Presley, and all told, he has written four New York Times bestsellers that, in his words, ‘combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help’. The pa...

Mark is both delighted and highly honored to welcome Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Steven A. Schaick, the US Air Force Chief of Chaplains, to the podcast this week. In his role, Chaplain Schaick is the senior pastor for more than 685,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian forces serving in the U.S. and overseas. He leads a Department of the Air Force Chaplain Corps of approximately 2,000 chaplains and religious affairs Airmen from the active duty and Air Reserve components. The passage he has chose...

This week, Mark is delighted to welcome Pastor Jesse Bradley to the podcast. After graduating from Dartmouth College, Jesse went on to become a professional soccer goalkeeper in Zimbabwe, Aberdeen, and Minnesota, before a life threatening illness ended his career. With his Master's Degree in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, Jesse is now the Pastor at Grace Community Church in Washington State, and, recently, his brilliant sermon series on the Book of Jonah caught Mark’s attention and a...

Mark is delighted to welcome Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl to the podcast today. Rabbi Buchdahl is the first woman to serve as the Senior Rabbi of Central Synagogue in New York City in its 180-year history, and she is also the first Asian American to be ordained as cantor or rabbi in North America. Having been nationally recognized for her innovations in leading worship, which draw large crowds both in the congregation’s historic Main Sanctuary and via live stream and cable broadcast to viewers ...

Jonathan Tobin, Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), joins Mark on the podcast today. In addition to his role of leading the JNS in its syndication of Jewish articles and essays to Jewish newspapers all across the country, Jonathan also writes articles, essays, or columns, for the JNS on a daily basis, which are almost always its best content. On top of all that, he is also a contributing writer for National Review and a columnist for the New York Post, Haaretz and other publicati...

Pastor Gerald D.A. Murphy is Mark’s very special guest on the podcast today. Gerald received his Master’s Degree in Christian History and Theology from Ashland Theological Seminary, and he currently serves as the Director of Community Development with Catalyst For Columbus, and is the Pastor of the Columbus Dream Center. The passage he has chosen to discuss with Mark is Genesis 15:1. Gerald begins by sharing his summary of the passage, its meaning for him, and the notion of how God wants to be u...

Mark is absolutely delighted to welcome his great friend, Doron Spielman, to the podcast today. Since 2000, Doron has served as a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit, and he continues to serve in this unit for frequent reserve duty. He is also one of the founders and leaders of the City of David, the ancient Jerusalem tourist and archaeological site, which Mark and his wife, Rabbi Erica, consider ‘the most important place in the world, perhaps’. The ...

Technology entrepreneur, Ryan Williams, is Mark’s guest on the podcast this week. Having started his first business at age 13, Ryan went on to graduate from Harvard College, and is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Cadre, a highly successful online marketplace that provides institutions and individuals access to previously inaccessible quality real estate and alternative investment opportunities. Along the way, he has worked at The Blackstone Group in its real estate private equity division, a...

Mark is delighted to welcome Pastor Max Wilkins, to the podcast today. Max is the President and CEO of TMS Global, an organization that exists to mobilize and deploy the body of Christ globally to join Jesus in His mission, especially among the least-reached people. Prior to taking on this role, Max served as a Pastor in Florida and Hawaii for 26 years, and he has also served and taught in more than three dozen countries around the world. The passage he has chosen is Daniel 5, which is one that ...

Mark is delighted to welcome Rabbi Brandon Bernstein to the podcast today. Having grown up in Palmdale, California, Brandon received a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He has served as the Campus Rabbi at Northwestern Hillel, and is currently the Director of Jewish Learning at Moishe House. He has chosen Genesis 4:1-12, the story of Cain and Abel, to discuss ...

Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen is Mark’s very special guest on the podcast today. Currently the Rabbi of Congregation Ohr Torah in North Woodmere, NY, Rabbi Cohen is also an attorney and a Senior Relationship Officer at YACHAD, a thriving global organization dedicated to addressing the needs of all Jewish individuals with disabilities and ensuring their inclusion in every aspect of Jewish life. He has a law degree from Columbia Law School, a Masters degree in Family Therapy from the University of North Te...

Senior editor at the Washington Examiner, David Mark, joins our host for today’s episode. Among many other roles, David has also been a senior editor at Politico and at CNN Digital Politics, is the author of two books, and appears regularly as a political analyst on television, radio and other forums. The passage he has selected to discuss today is Genesis 45:5-7, which recounts one of the most famous stories in the Bible. The conversation begins with David sharing his summary of the passage, th...

Pastor Jerry Gillis is Mark’s very special guest on the podcast today. Pastor Gillis is the Lead Pastor of The Chapel, a multi-complex church network in the Buffalo area, and he is also involved with ‘Christ Together’, a network of churches which aims to ‘empower the whole Church to bring the whole Gospel to the whole nation’. The passage he has selected to discuss with Mark today is Leviticus 19:1-2. Pastor Gillis begins the conversation by sharing his summary of the passage and the significanc...

Mark is delighted to welcome Michael Medved, a legend in the world of American thought and political discourse, to the podcast today. Starting his public life as a left-liberal political organizer, Michael has gone on to become a historian, movie critic, nationally-broadcast talk radio host, podcaster, and best-selling author. One of his books, What Really Happened to the Class of ’65?, is actually the first book Mark remembers seeing around his house as a child. The passage that Michael has cho...

Mark is delighted to welcome the President and CEO of the Hadar Institute, Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, to today’s episode. In addition to his work with this great institution of adult jewish learning in the world, Elie has also been named one of the top fifty Jewish leaders by The Forward, and one of Newsweek's top fifty rabbis. When asked to guest on the podcast to discuss prayer, the topic of his upcoming book, Elie chose Genesis 15:1-8 to discuss with Mark. He begins the conversation by summarizing t...

Rabbi Levi Welton is Mark’s very special guest on the podcast today. As a modern exemplar of the ancient Rabbis who held occupations, Levi not only works as the spiritual leader of Lincoln Park Jewish Center, but also as a healer for low-income patients in NYC, and as a chaplain in the United States Air Force. The passage he has chosen to discuss is Exodus 5:22. Levi begins the discussion with his summary of the passage, why it is his favorite, and the lesson that God wants us to take away from ...

Mark is delighted to welcome Phyllis Costanza, Head of UBS in Society and CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation, to the podcast today. In her role, Phyllis applies an investment-based approach which makes it simpler for clients and their families to manage their philanthropy in order to tackle some of the world's most pressing social and environmental issues. Mark’s African Mission Healthcare is one of the only 5% of charities that applied to work with Phyllis’ organization to have been approved, an...

Mark’s friend, Senator Marco Rubio, joins him on the podcast today. The son of Cuban immigrants, Marco grew up in Miami and Las Vegas, entered public service as a City Commissioner, and was elected to the United States Senate in 2010. In his current role, he has become a leader on a variety of issues from United States support of Israel to immigration to Latin America, earning himself the title of a ‘virtual Secretary of State for Latin America’ from The New York Times. Having known him for ten ...

Jim Copland, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and director of Legal Policy, joins Mark for today’s episode. During his storied career, Jim has testified before Congress as well as state and municipal legislatures, and his writing has appeared in a variety of publications such as the Harvard Business Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He is also the author of The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America, his latest book, wh...

Today’s edition of the podcast is the first to not involve a discussion of a biblical verse, but is instead a special discussion with returning guest, Ambassador Michael Oren, regarding his new book The Night Archer: and Other Stories. In addition to having served as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Michael counts serving as a Member of Knesset and as Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, among his many achievements. This book marks his first collection of short stories, and t...

Mark is delighted to welcome Jewish public intellectual, attorney and author, Jonathan Neumann, to the podcast today. A graduate of Cambridge University and the London School of Economics, Jonathan has been a fellow at Commentary magazine and has served as assistant editor at Jewish Ideas Daily. He is also the author of To Heal the World? How the Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel, and he discusses this book along with his selected passage of Numbers 14:22 with Mark here today. Jo...

Award-winning American presidential historian and leading Zionist activist, Gil Troy, joins Mark on the podcast today. Gil’s many books include The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland – Then, Now, Tomorrow, as well as The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s, and Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight against Zionism as Racism, and he is also a Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University. The passage he has chosen to discuss with Mark today is Genesis 12:1-3. The ...