Eli Sharabi, HOSTAGE
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.5 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, on the anniversary of the attacks of October 7th, I'm releasing my conversation with Eli Sharabi who I interviewed yesterday about his new book HOSTAGE. If you only read one book all year, read this one. HOSTAGE is a story detailing everything that happened to Eli from his being abducted from his home on October 7th to after his release at a time when he hit bottom and vowed to really live. The book -- and our short conversation were inspiring beyond measure. As we pray for the release of the hostages, two years later, Eli's calm, optimistic, practical, and utterly inspiring message will buoy our spirits. And during a time of incomprehensible societal division, Eli's words are the balm we all need. May his human story of overcoming the odds with the help of his massive intellect and dogged determination to survive help everyone navigate the challenges ahead. Never forget. Again.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive |
| 0:24.0 | look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't |
| 0:29.3 | have to. |
| 0:30.3 | Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. |
| 0:36.2 | For more information, go to zibbimedia.com and follow me on Instagram |
| 0:40.1 | at Zibby Owens. |
| 0:44.3 | Today is October 7th. It's the second anniversary of the horrific attacks in Israel. |
| 0:52.6 | And I've had the honor of interviewing Ellie Shirabi just yesterday, |
| 0:57.8 | which was unbelievably moving to talk to a former hostage. It was the first time I just, |
| 1:05.2 | I could barely even speak. I was just in so much awe of him, his resolve, his determination, his strength. It was like talking to |
| 1:13.6 | God. Anyway, our interview was quite short. That's all the time he had, but I took it, and I will |
| 1:20.9 | share it with you here to all the families of hostages, the victims of October 7th, all of the Jewish people in Israel and the |
| 1:31.6 | diaspora who have been attacked and hated so much as I have in the aftermath of October |
| 1:40.8 | 7th as the world split in two and suddenly the ancient anti-Semitism that we thought |
| 1:47.9 | was buried came roaring back to everyone who has gone through this, the 180 as Ellie says in our |
| 1:56.5 | interview, I just want you to know that I am with you and have tried to do my part to help, as I know so many of you out there have done as well. And that the most important thing we can all do, Jewish, non-Jewish, whatever, is remember we are all human and just draw on our strength as people, our love of family, our love of each other to heal, |
| 2:22.3 | because that is what we are all in dire need of doing, as Ellie's interview shows. |
| 2:28.0 | Here's his bio. |
| 2:29.5 | Ellie Shirabi is a former hostage who survived 491 days in Hamas captivity following his abduction from Kibbutz-Bairi on October 7, 2023. |
| 2:40.5 | Sharabi has since become a global advocate for the remaining hostages, meeting with world leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking at the United Nations and sharing his story with audiences around the world. |
| 2:51.1 | His memoir hostage, the first published account by a released Israeli hostage, became an |
| 2:56.0 | instant number one bestseller in Hebrew and the fastest selling book in Israeli history. |
... |
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