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

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Mark Oppenheimer is the author of Judy Bloom, A Life.

Mark has been covering American religion for 25 years, holds a PhD in religious studies from Yale,

and has taught at Stanford, Wesleyan, Wellesley in religious studies from Yale, and has taught at Stanford,

Wesleyan, Wellesley, NYU, Boston College, and Yale, where he was the founding director of the Yale

Journalism Institute. He also wrote the beliefs column for the New York Times for six years,

and as written for many publications, including The New Yorker, the nation, GQ Slate, and more.

He created Unorthodox,

a show that I was actually on. It's the world's most popular podcast about Jewish life and culture with over 7 million downloads. Most recently, he hosted an eight-part podcast called Gate Crashers

about the history of Jews and anti-Semitism at Ivy League schools. He is the author of five books, including

the newest Jewish Encyclopedia. I had his co-author on to talk about that, Stephanie Butnik,

and most recently Squirrel Hill, The Tree of Life, Synagogue, Shooting, and the Soul of a Neighborhood.

He edits Ark Magazine and lives in Connecticut with his wife, four daughters, one son, and one

dog. Welcome, Mark. Thank you so much for coming on to talk about Judy Bloom, a light. So exciting. Thanks for having me. Yeah, my pleasure. By the way, I posted about the book, and then I realized you were not on social media. What is up with that?

It was a sanity saving measure about eight or nine years ago. Do you want the story? I have a 30-second

story. I would love to say. And I should preface this by saying some of my best friends and favorite

people are on social media and I'm not a scold about it. But, you know, everyone has their own social

media journey. I was, I think on Facebook engaged in some utterly trivial neighborhood dispute having to do with, I don't know, you know, snow removal or the school playground or something in my neighborhood with some person I liked.

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