The Jewish futurism Lab

Episode 32: Judeofuturism Is Exile, Rewritten, with Jacob Hasse Albino

In this episode of the Jewish futurism Lab, Mike Wirth talks with Jacob Hasse Albino, the Jewish Brazilian storyteller and chazzan (cantor) behind Judeofuturism. Jacob’s

Episode 31: Black Jewish Futures, DEI, and Belonging with April Powers

Mike Wirth talks with April Powers, a leading voice in Black-Jewish identity, inclusion and belonging, contemporary antisemitism education, and a pioneer in DEI practice.

Episode 30: The future of Jewish Advocacy with Leat Corinne Unger

Before October 7, 2023, Leat Corinne Unger was a speech-language pathologist and Jewish educator in New York, spending her days helping children and families find languag

Episode 29: The Future of Ritual in Motion with Douglas Rosenberg

What makes a work of art Jewish when it does not announce itself with familiar symbols, dialogue, or plot? In this episode of the Jewish Futurism Lab, Mike Wirth speaks w

Episode 28: The Future of Jewish Stickers with Elisha Fine

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, Mike sits down with historian, social worker, and activist Elisha Fine, founder of the Hatikvah Sticker Collective and a centr

Episode 27: Filming our future with Noam Leibman

In this episode of Jewish futurism lab, host Mike Wirth sits down with Jewish filmmaker Noam Leibman, founder of Kavana Films, to explore how the camera can become a kind

Episode 26: The Future Song of Cantors with Hollis Schachner

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth sits down with his cousin, Cantor Hollis Schachner, to explore her future vision of cantors, community, and cr

Episode 25: The Future Is a Torah Story with Rabbi Danny Burkeman

Mike Wirth sits down with Rabbi Danny Burkeman, Senior Rabbi at Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, Massachusetts, and host of the award-winning podcast Two Minutes of Torah. D

Episode 24: Reclaiming the Future of Zionism with Eitan Chitayat

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth sits down with writer and creative director Eitan Chitayat, creator of the viral I’m That Jew project, to talk

Episode 23: Jewish futurist Learning Spaces with Rabbi Charlie Schwartz

In this episode, we sit on the patio at Lehrhaus, a Jewish tavern and house of learning in Somerville, in front of a mural by Boston based Jewish artist Chloe Rubinstein,

Episode 22: Future Judaism on Campus with Rabbi Daniel Levine

In this episode, Rabbi Daniel Levine, Hillel rabbi, podcast host, and Jewish history professor at UC Irvine, joins us for a wide ranging conversation about the future of

Episode 21: Psychology of the future with Shely Rachel Esses

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth sits down with therapist Shely Rachel Esses, LMFT, to explore the psychology of the future self and what it ta

Episode 20: Painting Herzl in the Age of AI with Avraham Vofsi

Mike Wirth talks with Israeli realist painter Avraham “Avi” Vofsi about classical oil painting, Jewish identity, and his AI assisted Theodor Herzl project. They explore h

Episode 19 -Designing Shabbat: A UX Approach to Jewish Ritual Design

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, host Mike Wirth shares the story behind a UX‑driven case study in Jewish ritual. Mike talks about creating the High and Low Ri

Episode 18 – Here I Am: The Hineni Project, Bar Shechter z”l, and Painting Through Grief

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, I share how the Hineni Project carried me from the shock of October 7 into a deeply personal relationship with one family in I

Episode 17- Recoding the Lehrhaus: Jewish Learning in the Future Tense

This episode explores Franz Rosenzweig’s radical vision for Jewish education through the Frankfurt Lehrhaus (1920) and traces its influence into contemporary experiments

Episode 16: The Digital Worlds of Erez Cohen

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab: Torah, Tech, Tomorrow, host Mike Wirth sits down with his friend, Israeli digital artist and projection‑mapping creator Erez C

Episode 15- Hiddur Olam: The Creative Torah System for Jewish futurist Living

In this episode, Mike unpacks Hiddur Olam, his creative Torah system and multi‑volume art book series that reimagines Genesis through Jewish futurism, design thinking, Mu

EP 14- Papayas on the Moon- My Chat with Alejandro Glatt

In this episode of The Jewish futurism Lab, I sit down with Mexican artist and papaya visionary Alejandro Glatt, the first Mexican artist to send a papaya to the Moon as

Episode 13: How a Jewish Immigrant Named Hugo Created Sci-Fi

Before science fiction was a genre, Hugo Gernsback was already building the infrastructure for it: radio magazines, hobbyist communities, wild speculative stories, and th