Evolve

Bryan Schwartzman

Bryan Schwartzman has hosted 86 episodes.

Bryan Schwartzman is an award-winning journalist, critic and fiction writer. He has approached the question of “What does it mean to be Jewish in today’s world” as a 20-year reporting project. His search for deeper understanding has taken him from his cultural Jewish upbringing in Queens, N.Y., to the mystical northern Israeli city of Tzfat, a kibbutz chicken coop, the mountains of the southern Sinai, the Tunisian Island of Djerba, a Jewish enclave in Johannesburg, post-Katrina New Orleans, the slot canyons of south central Utah, the classrooms of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the newsroom of Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent and, now, Reconstructing Judaism in Wyncote, Pa., where he’s a member of the communications team. In his spare time, he writes fiction that’s occasionally published and seeks inner peace in the lap pool.

He was co-creator and co-host of #TrendingJewish: The Jewish Podcast About Everything. (Archives from the show remain available on this site.) He is a blogger for The New Normal, a New York Jewish Week online publication focusing on issues of inclusion. He and his wife, Amy, live in suburban Philadelphia and are the parents of two daughters.

Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D.

Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D. has hosted 45 episodes.

Rabbi Jacob Staub, Ph.D. is the director of Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations. He is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Philosophy and Spirituality at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pa., where he directs the Program in Jewish Spiritual Direction. He served as editor of The Reconstructionist from 1983 to 1989 and co-authored with Rebecca Alpert Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist Approach (Reconstructionist Press 2000).

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Sam Wachs

Sam Wachs has hosted 40 episodes.

Sam Wachs is a member of the communications team at Reconstructing Judaism, where he directs videos and produces and edits the Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations and Hashivenu podcasts. In his spare time, he performs as part of The Pizza Collection, the world’s most prolific pizza-based band.

Rachael Burgess

Rachael Burgess has hosted 27 episodes.

Rachael has an unquenchable curiosity and has a passion for learning about people and culture. She packed up her '96 Ford Crown Victoria and drove from her home town of Sierra Vista, Ariz. to the East Coast where she studied film and radio production at Rowan University in New Jersey. While she served as the college radio station’s public affairs director, she won a Gracie Award (an award presented by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation) for her radio interview with Miss America 2010 Caressa Cameron.

Rachael has dedicated her career to helping other curious Jews connect to each other and to a movement that opens doors rather than shut them. She has also helped provide resources and consulting for Reconstructionist communities looking to reach the success they want to achieve.

But when she’s not burning the midnight oil at 1299 Church Road, she is spending time with friends and family, posting too many pictures of her cat on social media, practicing her Hebrew or looking for something else to learn.