The College Commons Podcast

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The College Commons Podcast, passionate perspectives from Judaism's leading thinkers, is produced by Hebrew Union College, America's first Jewish institution of higher learning.

  1. Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode)

    30 APR

    Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode)

    Jessica Roda: Sacred Drugs - Jews, Psychedelics, and Healing (An HUC Connect Crossover Episode) 2026 Fritz A. Bamberger Lecture As interest in psychedelics grows once again, people from many backgrounds—biomedical researchers, religious leaders, spiritual practitioners, and healing communities—are exploring their potential in new ways. Unlike the early psychedelic movements that emerged before the War on Drugs, today’s revival is strongly focused on legitimizing these practices through the lens of mental health and well‑being. Within this broader movement, ultra‑Orthodox Jewish communities have begun engaging with psychedelics in surprising and innovative ways. For many participants, these psychedelic practices reveal a desire to detach from the suffering produced by highly controlled societies and an attempt to find better alignment with one’s inner self. Biography: Jessica Roda is Associate Professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. An anthropologist and ethnomusicologist trained in Europe and North America, her research explores the intersections of music, religion, cultural heritage, gender, health, and media. Her latest monograph, For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy through the Arts in the Digital Age (NYU Press, 2024), analyzes how ultra-Orthodox Jewish women, and women who have left religious life, mobilize artistic practices, performance, and digital media to negotiate, challenge, and transform religious authority and gendered norms. The work has received multiple distinctions, including the Cashmere Award from the AJS Women’s Caucus (2021), the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award (2021), the 2024 Society for Ethnomusicology Jewish Music Special Interest Group Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2025 Religion and the Arts Book Award from the American Academy of Religion. Her current research examines altered states of consciousness, breathwork, and psychedelics, focusing on how global wellness cultures and plant-based healing practices are translated and reframed within Jewish theological and communal contexts.

    35 min
  2. Charlie Scheidt - Hidden in the Armoire: Living History of the Shoah

    15 APR

    Charlie Scheidt - Hidden in the Armoire: Living History of the Shoah

    Charlie Scheidt follows the forgotten trail of his family from Europe to the United States. Charlie Scheidt is the chairman emeritus of Roland Foods, the company founded by his parents in 1939. Among his leadership roles, he is active with the Leo Baeck Institute and sits on the board of the Auschwitz Institute for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. On her deathbed, Charlie’s mother, the last survivor of the generation of the Holocaust, directed him to files from the armoire. 20 years later, Together with Austrian filmmaker, Kat Rohrer, Charlie began to investigate those files. Together, the two began a journey of discovery, retracing his family’s steps through Germany, France, Holland, and ultimately to the US. The result is the book Inheritance: Love, Loss and the Legacy of the Holocaust which came out in March 2026 from Rutgers University Press.

    21 min
  3. David B. Oppenheimer: Great Minds, It Turns Out, Think Differently

    30 MAR

    David B. Oppenheimer: Great Minds, It Turns Out, Think Differently

    David Oppenheimer traces the diversity principle back two centuries. Biography: David B. Oppenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Law, Co-Director of the Pro Bono Program, and the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at a number of universities, including the Sorbonne and University of Bologna, and published widely, including, among others, his most recent book, The Diversity Principle.

    24 min
  4. Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking)

    17 MAR

    Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking)

    Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein: The rabbinate is changing faster than it’s shrinking (but it’s also shrinking) Description: Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein breaks down a landmark study of road to the rabbinate. Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein is the Executive Director of Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation. Previously, Rabbi Epstein served as Executive Director of the 14th Street Y in Manhattan, and as a member of the faculty of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. Rabbi Epstein publishes and teaches widely in the Jewish community, and has served at various congregations, Jewish youth groups and summer camps as an educator. In her current role at Atra: Center for Rabbinic Innovation, she oversaw the publication of a landmark study that came out in November of 2025, titled “From Calling to Career: Mapping the Current State and Future of Rabbinic Leadership.”

    26 min
  5. Rabbi Michael Zedek: Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story

    3 MAR

    Rabbi Michael Zedek: Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story

    Sit by the Fire and Tell a Story Description: Rabbi Michael Zedek shares his stories and the values the drive them. Biography: Michael Zedek is rabbi emeritus of two wonderful synagogues: Emanuel Congregation in Chicago and Temple B’nai Yehudah in Kansas City, Missouri. After his retirement from Emanuel, he served as senior advisor to the CCAR and now serves as rabbi-in-residence at the St. Paul School of Theology. A dedicated community activist, scholar, and teacher, Rabbi Zedek received a Fulbright-Hays Grant, and he was honored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In 2025, Rabbi Zedek published the book titled “People Are Like…” with the subtitle “Stories for young readers and readers who wish to stay young.”

    18 min
  6. Hannah L. and Rabbi Harvey Winokur: Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction

    17 FEB

    Hannah L. and Rabbi Harvey Winokur: Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction

    Jewish and Twelve-Step Traditions at the Crossroads of Addiction Description: A Jewish ethical tradition called Mussar and a uniquely Jewish approach to twelve-step recovery. Hannah L. is the author of Mussar in Recovery: A Jewish Spiritual Path to Serenity and Joy, which is the topic of today’s conversation. Mussar in Recovery offers an approach to recovery from addiction based in a complementary approach between the 12-step program and Mussar, a Jewish program of ethical development and self-improvement through the balancing of personal character traits. Rabbi Harvey Winokur, collaborator on Mussar in Recovery, is the founding, and since 2018, emeritus rabbi, of Temple Kehillat Chaim located in Roswell, Georgia. Rabbi Winokur is a Jewish spiritual director and facilitator of Mussar.

    28 min
  7. Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews

    3 FEB

    Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews

    Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Adam Ferziger: A Patchwork of Jews Opinions and approaches inhabit the entire spectrum of Jewish thought and practice, but how do they speak to each other? Biography: Adam S. Ferziger is an historian of religion, and he holds the Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Chair in the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He researches Jewish intellectual, social, and spiritual responses to modern and contemporary life. His book Beyond Sectarianism, won a National Jewish Book Award and his newest work, Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism, was published in July by NYU Press.

    36 min
  8. Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism

    20 JAN

    Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism

    Advancing Ellenson's Legacy Series Arnold Eisen: Dimensional and Complex Judaism More than a religion, resisting extremes, but also hard to pin down, Judaism and Judaism’s God inspire Arnold Eisen’s spiritual search. Biography: Arnold M. Eisen, a foremost authority on American Judaism, is professor of Jewish Thought and chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary. He previously served on the faculties of Stanford, Tel Aviv, and Columbia universities. He has contributed regularly to print and online media, including the Wall Street Journal, The Jewish Week, Huffington Post, and Tablet, on topics of Jewish education, philosophy, and values. He is a prolific scholar and author, most recently, of Seeking the Hiding God: A Personal Theological Essay.

    33 min
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The College Commons Podcast, passionate perspectives from Judaism's leading thinkers, is produced by Hebrew Union College, America's first Jewish institution of higher learning.

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