The Book of Life Podcast

[Heidi Estrin]

Hi! I'm the host of The Book of Life, a monthly podcast about Jewish books, music, film and web. As a synagogue librarian, this podcast helps me to promote the kinds of materials that can be found in my library. It also gives me a great excuse to call up authors, musicians, etc, and bug them with nosy questions! I hope you'll check it out at www.bookoflifepodcast.com.

My latest episode explores the concept of "tribe" - as you know, Jews sometimes refer to the in-group as "members of the tribe," plus I thought it was seasonal, with the focus around Thanksgiving on family as well as on Native American tribes. I interviewed Tiffany Shlain, director of the film "The Tribe" (which explores Judaism by way of the Barbie doll!), Aaron Kula, music director of the Klezmer Company Orchestra (their new CD is called Beyond the Tribes), and Rafael Goldchain, author of a funky photography book called I Am My Family, in which he dresses as his own ancestors and creates photographic portraits.