76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 60. J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot

Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee talks to The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman about their experience as the first nonbinary performer to win Best Actor in a Musical, living life as your most authentic self, and performing in a hit musical on Broadway.

J. Harrison Ghee Broadway/International Tour: Some Like it Hot, Kinky Boots, Mrs. Doubtfire. Regional: The Color Purple, The Sting. Television: “High Maintenance” (Charles), “Raising Dion” (Kwame). Industrial: Tokyo Disney Sea’s Big Band Beat, Norwegian Cruise Line.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 59. Brian Selznick, Big Tree

Caldecott winner Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret) talks to the Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman about how his latest book, Big Tree, started as a Steven Spielberg film, and about the legacy of gay and Jewish children’s book authors.

Brian Selznick is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret, winner of the Caldecott medal and the basis for the Oscar-winning movie Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. Kaleidoscope, a novel in short stories, was called a “lockdown masterpiece” by the New York Times, and his newest book Big Tree,  inspired by an idea from Steven Spielberg.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 58. Camille Kellogg, Just As You Are

First-time author Camille Kellogg talks to The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman about her novel, Just As You Are, a queer rom-com inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Camille Kellogg is a queer writer based in New York City, where she works as an editor for children’s and young adult books. She studied English and creative writing at Middlebury College and attended the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference on a fiction scholarship. She’s passionate about queer stories, cute dogs, and bad puns.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 57. Steven Rowley, The Celebrants

Bestselling author of The Guncle Steven Rowley talks to The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman about all sorts of things, including working as a gay author and, of course, his newest book, this month’s TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna pick, The Celebrants.

Steven Rowley is the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus, a Washington Post Notable Book of 2016; The Editor, named by NPR as one of the Best Books of 2019; The Guncle, a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist for 2021 Novel of the Year and winner of The 22nd Thurber Prize for American Humor; and The Celebrants, a TODAY Show #ReadWithJenna pick. His fiction has been published in twenty languages, and all of his books are in development for feature film or television adaptation. Originally from Portland, Maine, he is a graduate of Emerson College and currently resides in Palm Springs with his husband, writer Byron Lane.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 56. Emily St. John Mandel, Sea Of Tranquility

Bestselling author of Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel, talks to The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman as her final event for the paperback release of her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility. They also talk about why we’re drawn to post-apocalyptic fiction, what it’s like imagining the future of our world, and what she’s working on next.

Emily St. John Mandel‘s five previous novels include The Glass Hotel, which has been translated into 25 languages, and Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, was the basis of a limited series on HBO Max, and has been translated into 37 languages. She lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 52. What is the Value of a Story?—Jenny Jackson, editor and author

Jenny Jackson, executive editor at Knopf, talks The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman through the book publishing process, from acquiring a title to hitting the shelf. Jenny also talks about her experience on the other side as an author—her upcoming debut novel, Pineapple Street, will be released in March.

Jenny Jackson is a vice president and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. A graduate of Williams College and the Columbia Publishing Course, she lives in Brooklyn Heights with her family. Pineapple Street is her first novel.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 48. Will Chef Einat Admony Redefine “Balaboosta”?

Chef Einat Admony, founder of the beloved falafel chain Taïm, as well as the acclaimed Israeli restaurant Balaboosta, talks to The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman about where her love of cooking comes from, tricks to feed picky eaters, and her newfound passion for performing stand-up.

Einat Admony is author of the cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk and chef/owner of New York City’s popular Balaboosta and Taïm restaurants, which have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and New York Magazine, among many other outlets. When Einat is not at her restaurants, she can be found at her home in Brooklyn, cooking for the crowd of family and friends who regularly gather around her dining table.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 44. Elissa Sussman, Funny You Should Ask

Author Elissa Sussman and The Lambert Center’s Jason Blitman talk about Sussman’s new book, Funny You Should Ask, the importance of Jewish representation in fiction, rules of romance novels, and more.

Elissa Sussman is the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask and three young adult novels. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA from Pacific University. She lives in her hometown of Los Angeles with her husband.

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76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 34. The Save Darfur Rally, with Rabbi Joy Levitt, Ruth Messinger, and Sarah-Kay Lacks

On April 28, 2006, a rally in Washington, DC urged the Bush administration to take action against genocidal atrocities in the country of Darfur. Leading the charge were Ruth Messinger and American Jewish World Service. Rabbi Joy Levitt, then chief program officer, and one of Ruth Messinger’s closest friends, had decided the JCC would take the lead in organizing participants from New York, and enlisted the help of Sarah-Kay Lacks to organize buses to travel to DC. In today’s episode of 76West, you’ll hear the story of how a single utterance in temple led to one the JCC’s largest, and most successful advocacy efforts to date.

76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 24. Colson Whitehead and Ruth Messinger

On the season finale of 76West, we’re listening to two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead in conversation with Ruth Messinger, former Manhattan borough president, global ambassador for American Jewish World Service, and current activist in residence at the JCC’s Joseph Stern Center for Social Responsibility. In this podcast, Whitehead discusses his New York Times best seller, The Nickel Boys, in which a strand of American history is dramatized through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. Recorded live on February 5, 2020, this event was presented in partnership with The Stern Center for Social Responsibility. Production note: the introductory and concluding audio was recorded in a home living room in April 2020 following the building closure due to COVID-19; we apologize that it is not up to our usual high standards.

76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 13. Secretary Madeleine Albright with Abigail Pogrebin

76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 7: Ellie Kemper with Abigail Pogrebin

76West: A Podcast from the Marlene Meyerson JCC · 4: Roxane Gay with Abigail Pogrebin