Food should be all about nourishment and joy and satisfaction, right? But why is it often about guilt and shame and restriction? Our relationship with food often is more complicated than we think, and we’ve invited Rachel Goodman, RDN to explore the topic with us on DMC and help us stop the food guilt. Because we really want food to make us feel good and healthy, not guilty and stressed. In this episode, we discuss: How Rachel’s food journey inspired her to become a registered dietitian...

One of the modern-day challenges of parenting is knowing which parenting method to apply when! Parents today typically have various tools, tips and tricks at their disposal. But sometimes it all gets overwhelming and confusing. What if there was a chart you could stick on your fridge that would give you all the guidance you need? Well, there actually is: One Chart Parenting. Mrs. Mindi Hauer has developed a “catch-all” parenting approach based on years of her parenting journey and teaching....

Live from the Chizuk Retreat in Cleveland, we sat down with two former DMC guests, Barrie Feld (Episode 36, “Why We all Need Chizuk”) and Slovie Jungreis-Wolff ( 44, “Finding Focus on Rosh Hashana”) for a wonderful reunion and to get some insight into how to prepare for Rosh Hashana, for real.  On this DMC we discuss: The challenge of balancing the physical and spiritual preparations What women are looking for in advance of Rosh Hashana and during this yamim noraim season How we...

There's lots to prepare this Rosh Hashana with a 3-day yom tov. So whether you’re on your 6th run to the supermarket or staying up late in the kitchen cooking, we have a DMC for you. Because there’s nothing like walking into Rosh Hashana feeling like you did something to prepare for the day spiritually. We’re so grateful to have Mrs. Michal Horowitz share her favorite Rosh Hashana insights on this episode of DMC. In her unique style, Michal blends Torah sources and relatable hashkafic...

Life is complicated, and with life experiences come complex emotions. But embracing conflicting emotions with strategies such as paradoxical thinking can make all the difference. This is the topic that therapist, dating coach and columnist Sara Eisemann wanted to DMC with us on this episode because she knew the life-changing impact of “both/and” thinking, which looks something like this: “I’m both so grateful for my son’s bar mitzvah and overwhelmed hosting my family.” Instead of fighting...

We all know that strengthening our bitachon will improve our lives, but how do we actually do it in real life? Enter Esther Kurtz. Esther went on her own search to boost her spiritual connection and found it in the daily study of Chovos Halevavos. Now she shares the gems she discovered through learning Shaar Habitachon on her podcast, Emunah for Non-Rebbetzins. And she’s also sharing it with us on DMC! On this podcast we discuss: Why Esther started Emunah for Non-Rebbetzins Why...

Can we be honest for a minute? Of course we can, we’re having a DMC! So let’s get real about being honest about communal issues. In other words, we know our community isn’t immune to its share of societal challenges, but is it possible to be sincere in acknowledging the issues while sincerely trying to improve them? And while we’re being honest about the problems, how can we maintain emunah and positivity as we’re face-to-face with those challenges? We discuss these questions and more with...

We’ve entered the Three Weeks, and the Jewish calendar instructs us to have mourning on our mind. Yet it can be challenging to embrace the meaning of mourning smack in the middle of summer barbeques and road trips. We knew that Sarah Rivkah Kohn, founder of Links Family, would help us find the meaning in mourning. Links Family is an organization that provides support to children and teens who have lost a parent. Through her own personal loss, and her work with Links, Sarah Rivkah has learned...

Jewish women have many superpowers – talents, abilities, and mindsets. We speak with Lori Palatnik, the founding director of Momentum, to learn more about these superpowers that we can each tap into. Lori has seen her fair share of incredible Jewish women under her leadership. And it takes one to know one. Lori models strength of conviction and passion for Yiddishkeit and the Jewish people. This is one powerful DMC that reminds us of our strengths as Jewish women. On this DMC we discuss: ...

We often throw around the word “perfectionism”, but what does it actually mean? What’s the difference between perfectionism and being meticulous and conscientious at work or at home? What is perfectionism, and how does a person become perfectionistic? We ask all these questions and more to our guest, Dr. Danielle Dragon, a psychotherapist in Chicago who has her finger on the pulse of the challenges so many of us grapple with.  On this DMC we discuss: Why Dr. Dragon feels that this is an...

Here’s your spiritual prep for Shavuos, DMC style. We get deep and meaningful with Shannon Nuszen, a former evangelical missionary who discovered the truth in Judaism when…wait, we won’t spoil it for you! Shannon now works with her organization Beyneynu to confront missionary influence. She recently started speaking publicly about her Jewish journey, and we’re honored to share it with you on DMC, just in time for Shavuos. On this DMC we discuss: How Shannon grew up and the influence her...

Marriage is one of the most popular topic requests we get at DMC. So we’re thrilled to bring you seasoned educator and dating coach Debbie Greenblatt to share her insight, wisdom and experience with us.  Debbie is the founder of the women’s division of Gateways, a marriage columnist in Mishpacha Magazine, and the Director of Education- Mentorship program for Core. She’s also come out with a new book, Secrets of a Connected Marriage, and we’re here to DMC all about it. On this DMC we...

Pesach is over and that means one thing (besides laundry and dentist appointments) – challah! Whether we’re making fresh new batches or enjoying the bakery’s, challah takes on added appreciation the weeks after Pesach. On this DMC, Anat Ishai, A.K.A. The Challah Mom, shares with us even more ways to appreciate challah, in addition to eating it. Her insights about challah and life left us inspired and hungry for more! On this DMC we discuss: How Anat became “The Challah Mom” Anat’s...

Pesach is coming, and DMC is here for you with this replay of last season's pre-Pesach episode! Whether you’re defrosting your freezer or packing all the suitcases, we’re back to share conversations about the upcoming yom tov and help us get focused on the meaning of what we do. In this episode, we DMC with Esti Hamilton, a very relatable rebbetzin, to give us some chizuk and inspo for Pesach.  We discuss: Her personal relationship with Pesach, from childhood until today The stereotype...

Many months ago we saw that Miriam Pascal Cohen was putting out a brand new Pesach cookbook, and we knew we had to snag her for DMC because she’d be everywhere promoting her book! But we also knew that with a cookbook called Real Life Pesach Cooking Miriam would be a perfect guest for our podcast. At DMC, we’re all in when it comes to anything “real life”! You might know Miriam as the Overtime Cook, having built this amazing kosher cooking brand. Her cookbook comes out just in time for...

So many of us in Chutz LaAretz want to understand what it’s like for the women who are holding down the fort in Eretz Yisrael with their husbands off fighting this war. These mothers and wives are true heroes, taking care of everything without the support and presence of their husbands who are risking their lives to protect our Holy Land. We want to learn and know more about what these special women – our Jewish sisters in Eretz Yisrael – are going through. So we asked Nina Tokayer on the...

Purim is on its way, so we’ve invited who we think are two of the funniest (and maybe cleverest) ladies to grace the pages of Mishpacha Magazine, and that’s Chani Judowitz and Bracha Stein, the masterminds of The Kichels’ comics. We say that The Kichels is social commentary in its best form. They manage to point out silly things about frum life in a way that’s highly relatable, while doing it in such a loving and playful way. It’s like mussar and validation all in one hilarious...

So often the situation in Israel can feel dispiriting. We want to make a difference and contribute, but we don’t know how. Meira Kolatch, otherwise known as “The Official Meira”, shares with us how out of her desire to keep her friends and family informed about events in Israel, she accidently created a following of over 35k people on social media who come to her for  real-time, verified information from Israel about Israel. She shares with us her empowering message of how we can each stand...

We all want to lead happy lives, but what about living beautiful lives? Gila Ross shares with us her favorite relatable lessons from Pirkei Avos that help us bring meaning, joy and love into our lives – all the things we need now more than ever. In this DMC we discuss: How Gila became the person she is today Why she wrote her book Living Beautifully and what she hopes it accomplishes What the title means to her and for us Gila’s favorite tools for life from her book We...

Tziri Preis is one of those people who is living her dream. Classroom teacher turned podcaster and “General” of the Tehillim Army nightly Zoom and livestream, she reaches thousands of children (and their parents) each night. The Tehillim Army was Tziri’s response to October 7th, and little did she know what a need it would fill and the impact it would make. Tziri’s story has so much to teach us about doing our part to fill a need as well as making dreams come true. On this DMC we...

These days, it seems Geula is very much on our mind. Geula, as our guest Faigy Blumstein explains, is very much a mindset as well hat needs developing. Geula, redemption, will happen with Hashem’s help in the future, but it isn’t something that we passively wait for. Every day we yearn for the Geula, and there are things we can do right now to put into place as an expression of that yearning – and as a means to an end to bring the Geula closer! Faigy, with her signature Thank You Hashem...

Welcome to episode 51 as Season 3 of DMC comes to a close! It’s time for a little recap of our year as we reflect on our experiences as the hosts of Deep Meaningful Conversations. We released 23 episodes this year and have had over 120k downloads. We’ve had on average 4000 listeners per episode. So thank you to all our loyal DMC listeners! Here’s to continued growth and many more DMCS in 2024! On this episode, we discuss: Stats and listener demographics Our top-rated episodes What...

We hope all our listeners had a wonderful Chanukah! With any holiday or yom tov, there is that week after when we’re trying to get bedtimes back to normal, work schedules back to normal, and our eating schedules back to normal. But this year, we haven’t really had the luxury of “getting back to normal.” Nonetheless, taking care of ourselves during stressful and disruptive situations is extremely important. We can’t get completely consumed and not be able to take care of our responsibilities –...

We all know the frightening reality facing Jewish students on college campuses today. The stories are horrifying and unbelievable. We want this episode to be somewhat uplifting as well, and that’s why we’ve invited Mariel Goldstein to speak with us. Mariel is the director of women’s education at MEOR Maryland, a campus-based organization dedicated to extending Jewish learning opportunities to the broadest spectrum of Jewish students at the University of Maryland, College Park. University of...