This week of learning is sponsored by my very dear friend Zachary Schreiber in honor of Tova Bachevkin.

Yes, that is my wife.

Because, and Zach wrote this in his message, behind every great man is an even greater woman.

I could not agree more.

This month of learning is sponsored by our dear friend, Matt and Molly Landies of Riverdale.

L'Iloi Nishmas, David Jehounisan, Ben Yitzhak Yehuda.

Thank you so much for your friendship and support. Hi friends and welcome to the 1840 podcast where each month we explore different topic balancing modern sensibilities with traditional sensitivities to give you

new approaches to timeless Jewish ideas. I'm your host, David Bischofkin, and today we're

exploring Purim, our annual Purim episode. Hooray, this podcast is part of a larger exploration

of those big, juicy Jewish ideas. So be sure to check out 1840.org. That's

1-8-F-O-R-T-Y.org where you can also find videos, articles, recommended readings, and weekly

emails. I have wanted to do this episode that you are about to hear for close to five years,

and I want to explain why this episode means so much to me

and what we're going to explore. There was a time when America had what's now called a monoculture.

Mono, meaning one singular culture. It was basically what people would talk about at the water cooler at work.

It's been a while since I heard somebody use that phrase. But growing up in the 90s, we basically

had a much more shared culture than what we think of nowadays, where everybody has their own

streaming service and their own, you know, kind of pet show that they like. It used to be that kind of everybody was watching the same thing. You just look at the numbers, the weekly Nielsen ratings, how many people were tuning into, you know, a regular season episode of Seinfeld or Friends or the must-see TV on Thursday nights. Most people were really tuning in and watching the same things or not watching the same

things you know oh i don't i don't like that show i never got it but people knew what each other

were kind of engaging in so this monoculture is when kind of everyone was watching the same show

listening to the same music laughing at the same jokes on monday morning at work you'd have a

couple of channels you had one or two

...