X’s and O’s: Ep. 77

This week on Unorthodox, we’re getting into the Valentine’s Day spirit. Or as we call it around here, Secular Tu B’Av.

Our Jewish guest is Israeli-American novelist and essayist Ayelet Waldman, whose latest book, A Really Good Day chronicles her experience taking microdoses of LSD to treat her mood disorder. She explains what microdosing is and how it helped her and her marriage, and tells us what it’s like to be married to another writer.

Our second guest is a self-described “pizza bagel”—half Jewish, half Italian. Andrea Silenzi is the host and producer of “Why Oh Why,” a podcast about dating and relationships. She tells us how people use emojis to signal their Jewishness on dating apps like Tinder, whether it’s hard to date while hosting a podcast about dating, and the challenges educated women in New York City face when seeking a partner.

Our Gentile of the Week would call us gentiles, too. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a history professor at Harvard and a practicing Mormon. Her latest book is A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism. She tells us the unexpected ways in which plural marriage empowered the women involved in it, and why the practice was ultimately abolished.

We're also joined by Noam Osband, who performs some original love-themed songs on the ukulele.

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Music Credits:

“Mack the Knife” by Louis Armstrong

“Chervona Ruta” by Golem

“Lysergic Bliss” by Of Montreal

“Why, Oh Why” by Woodie Guthrie

“Tomorrow is a Latter Day” from The Book of Mormon

“The Luna Moth Song” by Noam Osband