The Frieda Vizel Podcast

Frieda Vizel

Welcome to in-depth conversations on Hasidism, Judaism, NYC, culture, education, religion and more!

This podcast is hosted by popular Youtuber Frieda Vizel, who has been studying the Hasidic community for more than ten years.

This is the podcast version of the video conversations which are also published on Youtube. Please reach out with feedback.

Here's the youtube channel if you prefer to see the host and guests! :)

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20 episodes
Updated Sunday

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Episodes20

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Sunday · 33 min
Alone but not lonely; inside this Hasidic woman’s world | Gita Katz
Video link: https://youtu.be/xBBW-b4yNfw Gita got married, like many Hasidic Williamsburg girls did. In an arranged match, when she was not yet twenty. Her marriage lasted until death did them part. Decades together, seven children, forty...
July 26 · 41 min
We had ONE date & got married! | Brach and Avi
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/LV99eySK-24 Fifteen years after their marriage was arranged, a couple reflects on their lives together. They met once for forty minutes and then got married a year later, without any contact during the...
July 19 · 51 min
Expelled from school and their world destroyed | Pessy Unstressing
Link to video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/7CBHWJwmAJI Many people know Pessy from her popular Yiddish comedy videos, where she lovingly and hilariously captures the world of Hasidic women. She was one of the first creators to bring...
July 12 · 52 min
The National Desertion Bureau | Eddy Portnoy
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/ixZOxV5BuCI Eddy Portnoy is back by popular demand, after our wonderful discussion on the history of Yiddish language. Eddy is the exhibit curator at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and does amazing...
July 8 · 15 min
Jews and Poland; how we tell Polish Jewish history | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/KCS9vAundms How do you tell the history of Jews in Poland? Why is there so much debate about this from Polish people? I ask the curator of the Polin museum about her work at the crux of this debate:...
July 5 · 54 min
At 83, this Jewish icon has a story to tell | Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
Video link: https://youtu.be/qdQi26lBQ7Q Today I have the great honor and pleasure of speaking with Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a renowned scholar of Jewish culture, folklore, and performance studies. She is best known for her work exploring how...
June 28 · 1 hr 12 min
What is anti-semitism? | Doran Shafrir
Video link to this episode: https://youtu.be/gwCyNjr2vU0 Today I am talking to Doran from the channel @TheEasyWayDMS about philosophical subjects. What is antisemitism? How does it form and change? What are the guises it comes in? In a world in...
June 21 · 1 hr 13 min
Hasidic Bubby shares their wedding traditions
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/uQ8YqHA_id8 📸 Videography: Upperdeck Film / https://www.instagram.com/upperdeck_film/ ✂️ Edited: Lee Kupac / @mayo.nap 👰 Wedding footage: Shmilly Feldman /...
June 17 · 43 min
Everyone is talking about Jews
Video link to this monologue: https://youtu.be/A1aOTCsYQfM
June 14 · 14 min
She doesn't regret her comments | Satmar anti-zionist Pearl
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/92Q4LAxh_Ug A year ago, Pearl sparked one of the most heated discussions on this channel. As a Satmar Hasidic woman, she shared her views on the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, Israel, and Zionism—views...
June 7 · 1 hr 14 min
When life is like weaving a quilt | Dovid Bashevkin
Link to video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/aeVekOqP7-Y The tables have turned! The wonderful, renowned Orthodox Jewish podcaster Dovid Bashevkin, host of 18forty, who interviewed me for his podcast, returned the favor and joined me for a...
May 31 · 1 hr 41 min
From Orthodox in Israel to an Academic studying the community | Yossi David
Video link to this interview: https://youtu.be/fV8LeAiQQe8 Join us for an insightful conversation with Dr. Yossi David, a leading researcher in social biases, migration trauma, and media influence. We delve into how leaving insular communities...
May 24 · 24 min
Inside an Amish school day | Lovina Zook
Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/vUl5DjWhCBk Lovina's personal story: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHs Former Swartzentruber Amish teacher Lovina Zook takes us inside the world of Amish education, sharing detailed insights into what a...
May 17 · 43 min
From Amish life to millions of followers on social media | Lovina Zook
Link to the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/GHF0lQS2CHs Lovina Zook, a former Swartzentruber Amish woman who left her community at age 18 with only $24 to her name. Lovina shares her compelling story of growing up in one of the...
May 10 · 12 min
Raw thoughts while sitting in my car in Kiryas Joel [on Mother's Day]
video link: I feel I am completely incoherent here but also raw in a way I felt I wanted to share anyway. I’ve organized my thoughts in many videos in ways that I think (hope) is clear and accessible. Here’s where you see a bit of the me behind the...
May 6 · 1 hr 7 min
Riki Rose on the Frieda Vizel Podcast live! 5/5/26 5pm ET
Video link: https://youtube.com/live/XDNed30Yqng?feature=share Riki and I recently talked children's games and had fun on my living room floor: https://youtu.be/uvwSkTZbjOo She will come over to my place, hopefully on May 5 and at 5pm we will go...
May 3 · 21 min
Riki Rose and Frieda Vizel play nostalgic Hasidic children's games
Link to the video version: https://youtu.be/uvwSkTZbjOo You can buy kugelech here: https://amzn.to/3YbJPTH Can you play this game? Do you know these chants? In this video, I explore kugela (plural: kugelach)—a simple game of five stones that carries...
April 30 · 1 hr 11 min
Naomi Seidman on Frieda Vizel Podcast, LIVE 4/29/26 3pm ET
Video version of this segment: https://youtube.com/live/_5ZJi2noZOg?feature=share Naomi Seidman shares about her research on Jewish love and romance, her own marriage and the loss of her beloved pet. We discuss her book "The Marriage Plot" which you...
April 19 · 45 min
Meet this INCREDIBLE young Jewish collector | Samuel Marks
Video link to this conversation: https://youtu.be/qjtlgrLe92w Meet Samuel Marks, a young collector whose passion for rare Judaica brings overlooked corners of postwar Hasidic history vividly to life. In this first interview, we get to know Samuel...
April 19 · 1 hr 33 min
An amazing collection of Rare Talmuds! | Samuel Marks
A 26-year-old collector opens his personal library to reveal the dramatic, human stories hidden inside antique Jewish Talmuds. In this video, Samuel Marks takes us through his personal collection of Talmuds from different eras, using each volume to...