Ginna Green and Lynn Harris
Ginna Green and Lynn Harris are the hosts of A Bintel Brief. Follow Ginna on Twitter here, Lynn on Twitter here.
Why is the show called A Bintel Brief?
Lynn: A Bintel Brief means “bundle of letters” in Yiddish. The O.G. Bintel Brief was the iconic advice column in the Jewish Daily Forward (now The Forward). The Forward, originally published in Yiddish and English, was founded in 1897 by the Jewish Socialist Press Federation in order to inform, support, and bring together Jewish immigrants from Europe. A Bintel Brief, launched in 1906, was designed to help people in these communities figure out...everything about life, love, work, and more in their very new world. The column has appeared in books and online, and now we’re honored to team up with the Forward to bring it into the audio age and an even wider audience!
Why are you two the perfect hosts for this show?
Lynn: Well, I think Ginna is the perfect host because she is both warm and sharp, and (if you think of advice as a form of strategy) she’s basically strategist by day (for advocacy work) and strategist by night (co-managing a household of 4 children).
Ginna: Lynn is the perfect host because advice-giving is in her genes, and all over her resume. Everyone went to her mom for advice throughout her life, and Lynn picked up the tradition answering pleas for help all over the print magazines of yesteryear.
Who is A Bintel Brief for?
Ginna: A Bintel Brief is for anyone who finds humans interesting. We’re the Jewish Advice Podcast, but we’re really a people podcast at our core. So we’re going to make references to Shabbat, and Torah and Talmud, and also Michael Twitty, Brooklyn and Broadway--and have a lot of fun doing it--while we craft individual advice to universal questions that we can all appreciate.
How does your chemistry come together on the show? How are you similar and how are you different?
Lynn: Ginna and I hit it off immediately, and not just because we both enjoy bourbon. (We’ve actually never met-met.) For one thing, we are able to blend and balance immutable, rock-solid VALUES (Jewish values, human rights values) with real-world practicality. That said, we have different backgrounds: she’s a southerner and I’m a northerner (though my dad is from Atlanta); I am more than a decade older, and my Zoom filter does not lie; she is of color and I am of pallor; I like bugs and she REALLY DOES NOT. One great thing I’ve noticed about our chemistry is that we both toggle between BIG PICTURE and ACTIONABLE TACTICS, and when one of us goes in one direction the other very naturally. When it comes to advice podcasting, SHE COMPLETES ME.
Ginna: We are really quite a natural pair. I harbor some suspicion that we both could have found other co-hosts with whom we also got along famously, but we get along SO famously because we are both people who get along with lots of people!
How is A Bintel Brief the podcast different from the publication that was born in 1906?
Lynn: Some of those answers would have been real different if they’d had access to Tindr. And OSHA.
Ginna: I think we’ve got the same spirit and affection for humanity that has guided Bintel for 115 years, but on a tactical level, the advent of email and phones and voicemail means we can have a conversation with a letter-writer that wasn’t possible in the era of anonymous letters sent with a stamp. We can follow up, check in on our people, and our advice … stay tuned for season two if you want to know what happened to episode one’s Mr. Not-Dad!
What podcasts do you listen to?
Lynn: Different ones for different moods, but an all-time favorite is Dolly Parton’s America.
Ginna: I pop in on a bunch but a few off the top: Lady Don’t Take No; The Sarah Silverman Podcast; The Fader Uncovered; The Daily; The Ologies; This American Life.
What are the qualities of a good advice-giver?
Lynn: I don’t think giving good advice is about being RIGHT. I think it’s about really listening to and hearing what the person is asking, and taking your own agenda (as opposed to your own experience) out of it. Beneath even that, good advice comes out of a set of core values: This is how you treat people; this is how you treat yourself.
Who from the Bible do you wish had a podcast?
Ginna: I bet a podcast with Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah--the daughters of Zelophehad--would be a really good time.
What does it feel like to be part of the rich history of The Forward?
Lynn: Ooh! It’s just an honor it almost gives me the shivers. Not everyone’s relatives read the Forward around the table like mine (and many others’) did, but it is an indelible part of American Jewish history, the history of immigration and socialism, so much more. Also, it feels like a way to honor my mom (z”l), who was one of the great advice givers of her time.
Ginna: It feels ground-breaking to be a Black woman behind The Forward’s most recognizable features. The Yiddish-speaking immigrants of Eastern Europe represent the largest proportion of Jews who came to America in the 1800s, and their culture and lives and story is what shaped Jewish America, even though Jews worldwide--then and now--represent a tapestry of languages, ethnicities, races, traditions and observances. Sitting around that kitchen table reading A Bintel Brief in Yiddish, early readers wouldn’t have believed it was me behind the typewriter. Sitting at my desk behind the mic today, I can hardly believe that I get to be a part of this rich thread of American history.
Thanks, Ginna and Lynn!