Tov! A Podcast About ”The Good Place” and Jewish Ideas

Chapters 29-30: A Threefold Cord Is Not Easily Broken

On The Good Place, the group assembled in Australia is tested by Trevor’s efforts at sabotage and Eleanor’s frustration at sharing Chidi, and Michael and Janet come up with new ways to keep the four from leaving. On the podcast, Rebecca and Jon discuss how the group is a biblical threefold cord, something different from both pair relationships and a bigger community. We also explore the Jewish teaching about the absolute and equal value of lives even though people are so different, and how the characters are learning to believe that about each other and themselves. Click here for show notes.

Chapters 27-28: Nudge

It’s a new season of The Good Place! On the show, Michael keeps sneaking down to earth to intervene in the four humans’ lives without their realizing, in order to get them all to Australia to learn with Chidi and participate in Chidi’s and Simone’s new study. On the podcast, Geoff Mitelman and Jon Spira-Savett explore nudges, neuroscience, and near-death experiences (and whether Michael thinks “nudge” and “noodge” are the same thing). Click here for show notes.

Special Episode: The Midpoint

It’s halfway through The Good Place and therefore this podcast too! We mark the occasion with a reflective conversation among Rebecca Rosenthal, Dan Ross, Lela Spira-Savett, and Jon Spira-Savett. Settle your Season 2 bets about which characters the podcast’s co-hosts resemble today and wish they would be more like. Then we muse personally about the premises of the podcast – Jon’s envy of the TV show's creators, how learning actually shapes our ethical growth, and the ingenious ways The Good Place spins what we call teshuvah. We check in on Maimonides’ definition and give it a bit of critique in the process! Click here for the episode page.

Chapter 26: Motivations and Rewards; Or, A Little Bit of Everything!

On the season 2 finale of “The Good Place”, the Judge and Michael agree on a new way to assess the four humans’ improvement. They send Eleanor back to the day she died but this time she doesn’t, and she sets out to change. On the podcast, Rebecca and Jon circle back to discuss different types of motivations and rewards that encourage or result from ethical behavior. And, the idea of teshuvah as literally going back in order to change, and relationships and time frames and apologies… if “The Good Place” can weave together so many threads in a single episode so can the podcast! Click here for show notes.

Chapter 25: Six Scales, Any Better Than Just One?

On “The Good Place”, the humans meet the Judge, who gives each of them an individualized test that they all must pass or none of them can go on to the real Good Place. On the podcast, Elliot Goldberg and Jon stress test the Talmud’s six-part afterlife questionnaire on Eleanor, Tahani, Jason and Chidi, and wonder why all-knowing beings love binge-watching more than reading the New Yorker. Click here for show notes.

Chapter 24 Encore: Mask, Costume, True Self

We recorded this originally out of chapter order and released it to coincide with the holiday of Purim! Re-releasing it now in "Good Place" sequence. On “The Good Place”, the humans and Janet put on costumes and assume new identities to pass through demon headquarters on their way to the Judge. On the podcast, Ilana Schachter (rabbi), Daniella Risman (hazzan=cantor), and Jon Spira-Savett talk about how costumes relate to, obscure, or help bring out our true selves, and how from the Bible to “The Good Place” 45-year-old men create impossible messes and tell women only they can fix it. Click here for show notes.

Chapter 23: Yom Kippur Should Be a Dance Party

On “The Good Place” the group spends a last night listening to music and dancing and reflecting individually and in pairs, before leaving the neighborhood and resolving to make their way to the actual Good Place. On the podcast, Rebecca and Jon talk about teshuvah as looking back; consider Hillel’s teaching about self, others, and the importance of now; and wonder if Yom Kippur wouldn’t be better if it were less solemn and more of a dance party. Click here for show notes.

Chapter 22: Faith Is Just Another Word for Looking Out for Clues

On “The Good Place” Shawn offers Michael a promotion, and among the humans only Eleanor has faith that Michael is actually still on their side. On the podcast, Leah Jones and Jon talk about how little they know about Kierkegaard – but how a leap to faith opens you to clues, lessons, and ethical possibilities you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Click here for show notes.

Chapter 21: Soulmates Reconsidered

On “The Good Place”, Janet makes and reabsorbs Derek, her rebound guy; Tahani and Jason almost get married; and Eleanor reveals to Chidi their love from a previous reboot. On the podcast, David Shyovitz and Jon roam through Talmudic and medieval Jewish texts about soulmates – whether they are earthly or for the next world, whether they are decreed on high or discovered in life, and what the stakes of those questions really are in Jewish thought. Click here for show notes.

Chapter 20: Because Friends -- And Lying Reframed

On “The Good Place”, Janet’s glitching prompts Michael and Janet to talk about the lies at the beginning of their relationship and now, and Michael realizes that they are friends. On the podcast, Myra and Ben and Jon overinterpret paper clips. Then they look for a broader view of lying and truth-telling, and discuss how friendship relates to speaking in error and learning truth. Click here for show notes.