Good, more than everybody, the temperature here in New York City is 37 degrees, traffic is good.

This is Unorthodox, the universe's leading Jewish podcast.

I am your host, and one of your hosts, Leah Lieberwitz, joined as ever by my co-host,

Tablet, title to be determined. Stephanie Batik, what's the title?

I'm going with Deputy Editor Ameritrix. That's where I am now.

Ameritrix, starring Kiana Reeves, Ameritrix 4. Our second co-host, Mark Oppenheimer, is at home in

Oppenshire Manor, having gotten food poisoning from some, probably, I don't know, bad caviar or

oysters or whatever they eat in Oppenshire Manor. Kosher and Vegan, of course, today on our show.

Our Jew of the Week is writer and cultural critic, Bill Dorestoitz. He is so, so brilliant and

always a pleasure to talk to. He joins us to talk about his new essay collection, The End of Solitude,

which is pretty much what I anticipated, although at high school. Our Gentile of the Week is

audiobook narrator and author, Julia Whalen, whose voice might recognize from one of the nearly

500 books that she's narrated. So if you listen to Gone Girl on your commute, that is the voice

in your head. If you join us to talk about her own new novel, thank you for listening. But before

we get to any of that good stuff, Stephanie Botnik, I think we're alone now. What's going on?

Okay, I want to tell you a story. It was a dark and stormy night. It was a Saturday night on

the Upper West Side. The sun had set. Shobbis was over. Ben and I were out to dinner with new

couple friends, basically. And you know, the stakes are high when you're sort of on these early

friend dates type of thing. I'm sorry, the stakes could never be higher than new friends in your 30s

and 40s. Yeah, it's like the most pressure you'll have because when you're eight, it's like,

oh, you like on my leg. I'm too. It will be best friends for life. When you're 40s, there is

like a seven page form that you need to fill out to see if we're compatible. And it's funny,

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