Living30

Josh and Max talk about addiction, shame, destructive danieling and passover. Chag sameach v' kasher!

Josh and Max do their fuckin' thing week in and week out baby!

Josh and Max talk about dating

Things Fall Apart...and out of us

Josh and Max catch up on personal finance and other shit.

Josh and Max introduce the new podcast format and lament the fact that everyone has a podcast.

Uplifting interview with Noam Shuster, a comedian and peace builder who was living her dream...until the pandemic hit and she was forced to adapt and be flexible. Her show at the Kennedy Center in NYC was cancelled. She flew back to Israel only to get Covid on the flight, be quarantined in one of Israel's infamous corona hotels, and then have to deal with all the symptoms of her new normal. Throughout it all she's learned to rest, have patience, and continue to create. We talk comedy, peacebuilding, becoming an online creator, feelings of doubt and self-worth and much more. 

Noam is a freelance comedian, performer, peacebuilder and activist. She grew up in Neve Shalom Wahat Al Salam, the only intentional Jewish and Arab village in Israel. Noam performs in 3 languages, and through her cutting cynicism and humor, she is a natural bridge-builder. In 2018, she was named the “New Jewish Comedian of the Year” in London. The same year, she was also the first Jewish performer in the Palestine Comedy Festival. Noam spent 2019 on scholarship at the Harvard Divinity School developing her one woman show.

See her latest video inviting Arab tourists to visit Israel, which just got 1 million views in a few days. 

Here's a piece she wrote about her experience in the Corona hotel. Also see about her experience on CNN and hear about it on NPR.

This article has two of my favorite jokes from her: 

“I care about the political causes, but I’m 31 and single, so I go to the demonstrations mainly to look for dates. And when I go to the demonstrations, the problem is the only people who look like they have taken a shower are the police officers.”

She downloaded Tinder and immediately swiped two cousins in a row. She was horrified, but her grandmother said, “If we were in Iran, you would have married your cousin a long time ago".

Follow Noam on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook. 

Like this episode? Check out another interview with comedian Katie Burrell.

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Mackenzie (Macky) Donaldson is a Toronto and Los Angeles based director, producer and writer. She recently finished producing her first feature documentary, Citizen Bio (see the trailer), about biohackers aka citizen-driven biomedical research. It premiere's on Showtime October 30th. She is actively involved in The Producer Pledge and Impact.  Macky and I talk about the importance of getting more minorities and people of color telling their stories in the film industry, the microchip that's been inserted in her hand, emulating her father and being aware of death in everyday life, her daily routines and work as a producer, what to do when at a crossroads, the importance of saying yes to everything early in your career, how she's now trying to focus in her 30's, the pressure and balance of biological clocks and wanting children, and how to ask for what you want. Find Macky as @mackiegd on Twitter and Instagram. 

Recently released, Mackenzie just finished producing the first season of Snowpiercer for TNT/HBO Max, also available on Netflix. Named “One to Watch” by Playback’s Top 5 in 2015 and a 2016 TIFF Emerging Canadian Filmmaker, Mackenzie is most well known for her work producing the critically acclaimed; Emmy, Peabody and CSA award-winning; and Golden Globe nominated show Orphan Black. Mackenzie executively produced the award-winning digital series Whatever, Linda, which she is now adapting into an hour long TV drama for Bell Media, through her production company The Donaldson Company. It will be Executively Produced by her producing partner Graeme Manson. She released her first feature film, and directorial debut, The Definites - here's the trailer - in 2017 through Mongrel Media and Turn Key Films. She has directed and produce multiple other short films - too many to put here! 

Photo cred: Daniel Hewett 

Interested in more episodes about female filmmakers? Listen to Alison Klayman - What are you Willing to Bleed for 

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Heavy, REAL and life-affirming interview with Benjamin Hackman, frontman for the Holy Gasp and composer-in-residence at the Historic Kiever Synagogue in Toronto. We talk about our father's deaths, the grieving/mourning process, grief in today's culture, losing a parent, choosing life and much more. 

The upcoming show, The Holy Gasp presents Grief, is on Wednesday, July 1, at 9:03pm – 5:41am Eastern Standard Time. Link to the livestream on Facebook and Youtube or on www.theholygasp.com. The public is invited to record the names of their deceased loved ones in the Database of the Dead. Each name entered into the database will later be inscribed into a scroll, from which Benjamin will read throughout the evening as the ensemble of 10 vocalists, 2 pianists, and percussion, performs Grief. The performance will be considered complete only after every name has been read, and the sun has come up.

Here's a quote from Benjamin as part of his motivation 

"In the last five years, my father died of a heart attack; my therapist died of pancreatic cancer; my brother-in-law overdosed; my oldest friend hanged himself—then another friend died in a car accident, and my grandmother, God bless her, died of good ol’ fashion old age. Death is happening all over. Indeed, it always has. It is awkward, and painful, and it unites every last being who has ever lived."

Find Benjamin on Twitter and Facebook. 

About The Holy Gasp: Formed in 2011 by front man Benjamin Hackman, The Holy Gasp make music for fans of theatrical, darkly comical, genre-defiant entertainment, with instrumentation and personnel changing regularly to meet the needs of each new project. At its core, The Holy Gasp is concerned with renegotiating the parameters of a “band,” and seeks to find the intersections between music, literature, theatre, and performance art. Their most recent release, Mmm Urkh But , is a 16-minute work of musical fiction, written for bass clarinet and percussion. Readers my also be familiar with The Holy Gasp’s orchestral performance of The Love Songs of Oedipus Rex back in 2018, the making of which was the subject of a CBC Short Doc by director Luke Sargent.

Quotes Mentioned

"Better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of merriment, for death is the destiny of every man, and the living should take this to heart."
Ecclesiastes 7:2

Books Mentioned

The Book of Job

Photo Cred: Alex Gray 

If you like this post and others and want to consider supporting the blog and podcast, click here to help me keep making this stuff.

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Moving discussion with Ariel Lefkowitz, a friend and young doctor, who was recently the attending physician on the Covid ward at one of Toronto's major hospitals where he quickly realized that the situation required a more significant and evolving level of compassion and humanity than he and any of his co-workers had ever experienced. It's a fascinating look at what it's like to be a doctor and a leader during these tumultuous times. We talk about his experiences on the ward, worrying about colleagues, staff and infecting family at home, and more generally about love, family, mentors, and knowing and committing at a young age to spend a decade becoming a doctor. 

Ariel was also just featured on the front page of Toronto Life with a powerful memoir of his 14 days on the ward. There's detailed accounts of each day and the minutiae that goes on in his mind as he, his family and his colleagues navigate this unknown disease. 

Photo cred to Toronto Life and Christopher Wahl. 

Books Mentioned

How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen