Episodes

Mark is delighted and honored to welcome his friend, Rick Pino, to the podcast today. Rick is the founder of the Heart of David Movement, a community passionate about seeing Jesus glorified through day and night worship manifested through internships, schools, conferences and summits. He is a world famous Christian musician who performs concerts all over the world, and, in fact, he and Mark met through Eagles’ Wings in Jerusalem about a year ago when Rick performed in a concert that Mark describ...

Mark is delighted to welcome Zachary Karabell to the podcast today. Zachary is an author, columnist, podcast host, founder of the Progress Network at New America, and president of River Twice Research and River Twice Capital. He is also the most thoughtful commentator in the United States about macroeconomics, broadly defined, and his books and columns consistently articulate his distinctive philosophy of American economic optimism. The passage he has chosen to discuss today is Genesis 41:46-53....

Prosecutor, professor, and proven criminal justice reformer, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, is Mark’s guest on the podcast today. Tali came to America as a refugee in 1979, having fled the violence and ant-Semitism of revolutionary Iran, and went on to earn degrees from Yale College, Oxford University where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School. She has served as a Law Clerk for Judge Merrick B. Garland at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice S...

Dr. Rick Hodes, Medical Director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is Mark’s very special guest today. Rick has dedicated his life to helping the people of Ethiopia through his work with both Mother Teresa’s Mission and the JDC, has adopted five Ethiopian children and raised countless others over the years. He is also the subject of the HBO documentary, ‘Making the Crooked Straight’, and the book, This is a Soul: The Mission of Rick Hodes, by Mar...

Mark is delighted to be joined by Dr. Amy-Jill (AJ) Levine and Dr. Marc Brettler, the editors of the Jewish Annotated New Testament, on today’s episode. AJ is a Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, and Marc is a Professor in Judaic Studies at Duke University. Both prolific authors, Marc has taught at Yale University, Brown University, Wellesley College and Middlebury College, and AJ has taught at Swarthmore College, Cambridge University, and in 2019 was the fir...

Mark is so delighted to welcome his very good friend and partner in United Hatzalah, Eli Beer, to the podcast today. As a young man, Eli identified the importance of receiving medical care within the first few minutes of an incident, and he has dedicated his life to addressing this fact, leading him to become the Founder and President of United Hatzalah. This organization now has several thousand medics throughout Israel who treat 1,900 emergency calls a day, saving easily 200 lives every day in...

Mark is delighted to welcome his good friend and humanitarian hero, Dr. Lance Plyler to today’s episode. As the Director of World Medical Missions for Samaritan’s Purse, Lance treats victims of war, typhoons, infectious diseases, almost anything, really, in places as diverse as, but definitely not limited to Haiti, Nepal, Liberia, and New York City. In Mark’s opinion, Lance is the star of Facing Darkness, a genuinely great documentary regarding Lance’s work in Liberia in 2014 that brilliantly de...

Mark is absolutely delighted to welcome his great friend, Rabbi David Wolpe, to the podcast today. Perhaps the greatest Torah commentator in the world, David is the Max Webb Senior Rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, and he has been named the ‘Most Influential Rabbi in America’ by Newsweek, and one of the ’50 Most Influential Jews in the World’ by The Jerusalem Post. Over ten years of his sermons can be found on the Sinai Temple website, and together they form an anthology of how the deepest T...

Mark is thoroughly delighted to welcome Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, to the podcast today. Through his work with this Center, he engaged clergy, professional, and volunteer leaders in interfaith efforts in pursuit of social justice. Rabbi Pesner has also sat on the Boards of the NAACP, JOIN for Justice, the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, and other such organizations, and has been a congregational rabbi at Temple Israel in...

Mark’s good friend, Logan Beirne, joins him for today’s episode. In addition to being Mark’s partner in, and CEO of, Matterhorn Transactions, a company that provides data analytics to law firms across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, Logan is also a professor at Yale Law School and the author the critically acclaimed book, Blood of Tyrants: George Washington and the Forging of the Presidency. The passage he has chosen to discuss today is Micah 4:4. Logan begins by sharing his s...

Attorney, investor, and one of the great Jewish leaders in the United States, Richard Sandler, is Mark’s guest on the podcast today. Richard has been the Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, and has served on the board of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Milken Institute, as well as a number of companies. The passage he has chosen to discuss today is Deuteronomy 30:12-13, a passage which holds special meaning for M...

Mark is delighted to welcome his friend, Pastor Teo Hayashi, to the podcast today. Teo is the founder of the Dunamis Movement, a Christian student movement in universities throughout Brazil, and he also has one of the world’s greatest followings. He has been a missionary and Pastor around the world from Asia to North Carolina and now back home in Brazil, and he and Mark first met and became fast friends while in Jerusalem with Eagles’ Wings. The passage he has selected to discuss today is Esther...

Mark’s friend, Representative Josh Gottheimer, joins him on the podcast today. Josh represents New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District, making him the first Democrat to represent that district since 1933, and he has been cited as one of the most centrist members of Congress, and also the most bipartisan House freshman. He is the Co-Founder and C0-Chair of the bipartisan ‘Problem Solvers Caucus’, where he works to bring a group of Democrats and Republicans together across party lines to find ar...

Mark is delighted to welcome his friend, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, to the podcast today. Rabbi Steinmetz has been a congregational Rabbi for nearly 30 years and has previously served pulpits in Montreal, Quebec, and Mount Vernon, New York. Currently, he is the Senior Rabbi at KJ, the legendary Modern Orthodox Synagogue on New York’s Upper East Side, and he also has a blog which Mark strongly recommends, where he explains complex Jewish concepts and their very practical significance in videos and es...

Tevi Troy, the best-selling presidential historian and former White House aide, joins Mark for today’s episode. As Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Tevi was the chief operating officer of the largest civilian department in the federal government, and as a Domestic Policy Advisor, his portfolio included relations with the Jewish community. He is the author of Fight House: Rivalries in the White House, from Truman to Trump, as well as What Jefferson Read, Ike W...

Leading political scientist and distinguished Jewish communal leader, Dr. Andrew Rehfeld, joins Mark on the podcast today. Andrew’s illustrious career has bridged both the academic and professional worlds as Associate Professor of Political Science at Washington University, and as President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis. He is currently the President of Hebrew Union College, which has ordained most of the Reform Rabbis in the world, including Mark’s wife. The passage he has chose...

Mark is delighted that the man he believes is ‘the world’s most foremost humanitarian’ is his guest on the podcast today. Ken Isaacs has worked with Samaritan’s Purse, has more than 30 years of experience working in the relief and development communities, and this work has taken him to 150 countries in response to global emergencies resulting from wars, complex crises, famines and natural disasters. Among his many other achievements, he has worked in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, coordinated ...

Mark is absolutely delighted to welcome Super Bowl-winning tight end, Benjamin Watson, to the podcast today. In addition to his great success with four different NFL teams, Benjamin is the proud father of seven whose family is deeply devoted to their Christian faith. He has been a finalist for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award on multiple occasions, is an author of two books, and leads a charitable initiative entitled Freedom Friday. The passage he has chosen to discuss is Jeremiah 9:22-23...

One of America’s leading public intellectuals, John Podhoretz, joins Mark on today’s podcast. In addition to contributing to various publications from the Wall Street Journal to the Weekly Standard, serving as speechwriter for two American Presidents, and appearing as a political commentator on CNN and Fox News, John has, for the past 11 years, been the editor for Commentary magazine, one of the most important sources of ideas in the digital world. He is also a Rabbi’s son-in-law, and his friend...

Dr. Mort Fridman, Past President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), joins Mark on the podcast today. Mort has been a doctor and psychoanalyst for several decades so he brings a unique perspective to the passage he has chosen to discuss with Mark which is Micah 6:8. Mort begins by summarizing the passage, its meaning for him, and by sharing a quick summary of Jewish history in order to put the passage into its historical context. He and Mark then discuss the true role of a p...

In today’s episode, Mark is delighted to welcome Jake Cohen, chef, food writer, and culinary influencer, who has also held the position of Food Editor of TastingTable.com as well as Food Critic for Time Out New York. Jake is currently the Editorial and Test Kitchen Director at The Feedfeed, the largest food driven social media publication, and is working on his first cookbook, JEW-ISH. The passage he has chosen to discuss with Mark is Exodus 16:5. Jake starts off by explaining why this passage i...

Mark is delighted to be joined by his friend, Bill Simon, for today’s episode. Bill has had a remarkable career in law, business, philanthropy, and authorship, and, for Mark, he is the epitome of what it means to be a thoughtful businessperson living the examined life in the marketplace. He has been an Assistant United States Attorney, a merchant banker, a gubernatorial candidate in California and is the leader of the most important prize in philanthropy. Bill has discovered a theme within the c...

On today’s episode, Mark is joined by legendary Wall Street trader, Peter Borish. In addition to his success in business, Peter is also a founding member of the Robin Hood Foundation, an organization which funds New York City educational projects for disadvantaged children, and a founding board member of Math for America, a non-profit whose goal is to improve mathematical education in U.S. public schools. The passage he has chosen to discuss with Mark is Leviticus 25:35-38. Peter begins by expla...

Mark’s guest today is his great friend and NFL legend, TIki Barber. During his career with the New York Giants, Tiki’s many accomplishments included being a 3-time All Pro, leading the league twice in yards from scrimmage, and setting dozens of Giants franchise records. Since retiring from football, Tiki has moved into broadcasting with NBC, BBC, and now CBS, and has become a great entrepreneur with several businesses and non-profit ventures to his credit. The passage he has chosen today is Deut...