In episode 17, I talk with writer and podcast host David Naimon about his vexed relationship with listening, his childhood experiences of antisemitism, and his decision to leave medical practice behind. Digging into three episodes of his acclaimed literary podcast, Between the Covers, that have deeply affected me—his conversations with Isabella Hammad, Anne de Marcken, and Daniel Mendelsohn—we talk about the ethics of encounter, the stranger within the self, the “others” at the heart of Judaism, and language itself as an other that makes us and is not ours. Along the way we wind ourselves through many writers and topics, from Derrida to Pádraig Ó Tuama, from Edward Said to Judith Butler, from Hélène Cixous to Lyn Hejinian. What Jewish stories might guide us toward an ethical response to Palestine now? What is it to face our own wrongness? Is there such thing as a radical humanism? How are our wounds also our genius? And how might we find ourselves less alone?Texts, interviews and events mentioned and discussedMartin Buber, I and ThouJudith Butler, “Violence, Mourning, Politics,” in Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and ViolenceJulie Carr, Real Life: An InstallationHélène Cixous and David Naimon, “Rêvoir” in Between the Covers podcastAnne de Marcken, It Last Forever and then it’s OverJacques Derrida, The Ear of the Other: Otobiography, Transference, Translation and “Tympan” in Margins of PhilosophySigmund Freud, Moses and MonotheismNatasha Gill, “The Original “No”: Why the Arabs Rejected Zionism and Why it Matters”Isabella Hammad, Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and NarrativeIsabella Hammad and David Naimon, “Recognizing the Stranger” on Between the Covers podcastEdmond Jabès, in Rosemary Waldrop’s Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond JabèsNaomi Klein and David Naimon, “Doppelganger: Part Two” on Between the Covers podcastUrsula K. Le Guin, “Telling is Listening”Emmanuel Levinas, “Ethics and Politics” in The Levinas Reader, edited by Sean HandDaniel Mendelsohn, Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and FateDavid Naimon, “Let’s Feel the Pain Together”Pádraig Ó Tuama and Glenn Jordan, Border and Belonging: The Book of Ruth: A Story for Our TimesPádraig Ó Tuama and David Naimon, “In the Shelter * Borders and Belonging” on Between the Covers podcastEdward Said, Freud and the Non-European—“A Middle East Mediator’s Murder in Palestine 1948” video from UN StoryOperation Cast Thy Bread (Wikipedia)“Israel Poisoned Palestinian Land To Build West Bank Settlement in 1970s” in HaaretzMartin Buber’s cultural Zionism—Music composed and performed by Ben Roberts: [email protected] and ideas to: [email protected]

Ver todos los episodios