Chutzpod!
Chutzpod! is a frank and wide-ranging conversation on how to build a good life, using real-life quandaries and millennia-old Jewish wisdom. Each week, Rabbi Shira Stutman and journalist Hanna Rosin bring a Jewish lens to life's toughest questions, asked by our listeners: Do I offer forgiveness to a friend who refuses to apologize? Am I right to be annoyed at all the service dogs on the plane with me? How do we work to heal this broken world? It's a podcast for people of all or no faiths; Hebrew school truants and proud yeshiva graduates; those who want to be inspired but don't want to schlep to synagogue; basically, anyone trying to live a meaningful life during these trying times. One part advice column, one part reflection on what Judaism teaches on how to build a good life, using real-life stories and ancient wisdom.
Episodes
What should you look for when shul shopping besides “that feeling”? How do you know a synagogue is right for you? And what role should a temple play in our modern lives? As we celebrate Sukkot and Simchat Torah, Rabbi Shira and Hanna offer one congregation consumer their advice.
Visit a BASE Jewish Community
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Rabbi Shira and Hanna welcome former White House speechwriter and author Sarah Hurwitz for a conversation about her latest book As a Jew, an urgent exploration of how antisemitism has shaped Jewish identity, the complexities of modern Jewish life, and what lessons Sarah learned from being a hospital chaplain.
More about Sarah Hurwitz
Listen to Sarah on Chutzpod
Make malawach!
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Shana Tova Chutzsquad! Welcome 5786 with Rabbi Shira’s annual high holiday message.
Study the Unetaneh Tokef
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Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesWe're back with new episodes for the new year!
A self-professed “nice Jewish boy from New York City,” Jake Cohen is the New York Times bestselling author of Jew-ish and I Could Nosh, star of A&E’s Jake Makes It Easy. He talks about his new book Dinner Party Animal, why Jews are so obsessed with food and helps us all with our food and entertaining questions.
Learn more about Jake Cohen
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Listen to a special live event held at Aspen Jewish Congregation on August 13, 2025.
In a time of deep division, what does it really mean to belong to the Jewish people? And how do we stay in community when our beliefs, priorities, and red lines conflict? This session draws on the idea of the “big tent” as both a moral aspiration and a real-world challenge, exploring how we navigate differences while maintaining a sense of...
Listen to a special live event held at Aspen Jewish Congregation on August 13, 2025.
The Jewish experience has always been bigger than survival. Yet too often, the public stories we tell center on trauma and loss. This session explores how we might reclaim stories of resilience, creativity, and contribution, and how new narratives could help us build a future rooted in strength.
Listen to a special live event held at Aspen Jewish Congregation on August 6, 2025.
For decades, American Jews enjoyed unprecedented safety, success, and cultural influence. But beneath that prosperity, many became disconnected from Jewish tradition and meaning. Was that truly a golden age, or just the foundation for what could come next? This session reckons with the story of Jewish life in America and asks what a deeper,...
Chutzpod is coming back with new episodes and new real-life questions September 17th! Rabbi Shira and Hanna will answer questions about "shul shopping," tattoo taboos and rabbis using AI. Plus they talk to Jewish foodie Jake Cohen and author and White House speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz. Subscribe to automatically get all new episodes.
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Listen to a special live event held at Aspen Jewish Congregation on July 30, 2025.
Jewish ideas offer a framework for thinking deeply and living purposefully. But in a world flooded with content and opinion, what does Judaism offer that is distinctive and worth sustaining? This opening session explores what gives Jewish ideas their enduring relevance and why they’re worth learning from and living by today.
Back by popular demand, Rabbi Shira and Hanna cap off this season with a Shavuot celebration and Torah study Back by popular demand, Rabbi Shira and Hanna cap off this season with a Shavuot celebration and Torah study. They help a young listeners preparing for his Bar Mitzvah and lead us us through Sh’lach L’cha, which Rabbi Shira loves because it’s one of the stories that has the most to teach us about our lived experienc...
Beyond face masks and candles is there such a thing as “Jewish Self-Care”? Rabbi Shira and Hanna admit they are allergic to the lavender-scented concept and respond to a listener who wants to know more about Judaism’s notion of taking care of oneself.
Read the story about surviving in the desert.
Read the story about bathing while mourning
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A listener tells us she loves the show – it’s funny, it’s wise (aww shucks), but oy such language! She says feh to the vulgar cursing and prompts Rabbi Shira and Hanna to wonder what Judaism says about “working blue.”
Read about Nivul Peh
Read about Derech Eretz
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A listener’s friend committed a heinous crime and is now in prison. She wonders if remaining friends and visiting him dishonors his victim’s memory. Tune in to hear Rabbi Shira and Hanna’s advice.
Are There Things That Can’t Be Forgiven?
A Prayer for Those Not Ready to Forgive, by Rabbi Jill Zimmerman
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Rabbi Shira shares her live conversation with New York Times' Opinion columnist David Brooks.* And on Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) she talks about the importance of voting in the World Zionist Congress.
*This event was hosted by Sixth & I, a center for arts, entertainment, ideas, and Jewish life in Washington DC.
Vote in the World Zionist Congress
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On the eve of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Rabbi Shira asks a surprising question: Do we actually have to teach our kids about the Holocaust? (Spoiler Alert: She didn’t.)
She looks back at her own choices about Holocaust education and finds a way forward.
More resources for talking to your kids about the Holocaust and Antisemitism:
Guidelines for Teaching The Holocaust
As we celebrate Passover during the current climate, Rabbi Shira talks to Hanna about what Judaism says about violence, resistance and freedom. And they speak to a Jewish gun owner about his choice to protect himself.
More on preventing harm and stumbling blocks in the Torah
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Hanna asks the questions this week as we prepare for Passover. How do we tell and interpret the Passover story when it feels like we’re firmly stuck at the beginning of our own contemporary plight? Do we have the opportunity to have perhaps the most authentic seder any of us have had in our lived experience? Rabbi Shira has tips and wisdom for you as you prepare your own seders.
Add to your own Haggadot
Are you Jewish enough? Too Jewish? Why are we Jews so judgy of one another? Rabbi Shira and Hanna receive a letter from a listener whose embrace of Judaism as an adult is making her less religious mother bristle.
Read an example of Jewish judging in the Torah
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Ever wondered what an actual rabbi thinks about the temple board? What makes some temple communities work and others fail? Rabbi Shira and Hanna help a listener figure out whether or not to join her temple board.
Read more about Jewish responsibility to the community
Read more about Jewish leadership
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Hanna talks to Rabbi Shira about her new book The Jewish Way to a Good Life. She distills thousands of years of Jewish wisdom into practical, time-tested strategies for living a more meaningful life and reminds us: You don’t have to be Jewish to do Jewish. And she tells us how.
Get Shira’s book!
See Shira in conversation with David Brooks
Read the story about crashing your rabbi's marital bed
Read more about Shabbat and rest
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