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Tablet Studios

Chag Sameach, Obama: Ep. 108

Tablet Studios

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2017

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our Jewish guest this week is David Litt, author of Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, a memoir about his time as a speechwriter in the Obama White House. He tells us about teaching President Obama to say 'chag sameach' for a Passover video, writing jokes for the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and the time his grandpa sent him a water pipeline proposal to show the president. Our gentile of the week is U.S. Naval War College professor Thomas Nichols, whose latest book is The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. He explains how experts today have been branded as out-of-touch elites and experience itself is being shunned—and how President Trump is the avatar of this cultural shift. We also discuss how his students' view of him changed after he was on Jeopardy, and why Jews feel such an affinity for Greeks. Come see us live on October 25 at the Manhattan JCC! Get your tickets here. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air. Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism. This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set—including razor handle, blades, and gel—when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

Transcript

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0:00.0

What better way to be proudly Jewish right now than with our book, the Newish Jewish Encyclopedia?

0:07.0

It's the perfect coffee table book for your proud Jewish home,

0:10.0

and it covers everything from Jewish history pop culture holidays and of course food

0:14.2

all with our trademark irreverence and love our publisher is offering a special

0:18.8

20% discount on newest Jewish and their entire Hanukk shop. So head to Artisan Books

0:23.3

and use the code unorthodox at checkout. That's Artisan Books.com discount code

0:28.6

unorthodox all caps.

0:31.6

Hey J crew the Book of Life has been closed for a whole other year, a whole another, as they say.

0:38.0

So we might as well swear a little.

0:40.0

You know, we've got time.

0:41.0

We're not going to make it all years.

0:42.0

We might as well swear now. So this has been your obscenity warning.

0:45.2

You guys I have to get sinus surgery you do really?

0:49.4

Eft up yeah that is a f-. Is that cover for an...

0:53.0

So is that a deviated septum?

0:55.0

He's like, but it has nothing to do with your problems.

0:57.0

And I'm like, that's like pretty bittersweet to find out now.

0:59.0

That's right.

1:00.0

I'm sorry, it's just like, sinus problems, eh? problems a deviated septum no literally

1:07.6

Hello J crew this is unorthodox the world's leading Jewish podcast. I am your host Mark Oppenheimer, joined this week by

1:13.8

Tablay senior writer Leel Leibouets.

1:17.0

Hello, hello. And Deputy Editor Stephanie Buttonet.

...

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