Totally Unexpected!
by Chavie Bruk
Latest episode
Chanie Wilschanski's Story: Trapped By My Own Success
Chanie Wilschanski's Story: Trapped By My Own Success
About this podcast
Join Chavie as she discovers the one totally unexpected moment in her guests’ lives that changed everything. These are real stories about pain, joy, and struggle, the moments that make us human. Chavie is obsessed with personal growth and doesn’t shy away from the hard conversations. She covers topics like Jewish astrology, parenting taboos, health and wellness, adoption, race, and sexuality inside the Orthodox Jewish community and beyond.
Chavie Bruk is a mother of five adopted children and the co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana together with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Bruk. On Totally Unexpected! Chavie doesn’t just interview her guests, she sits with them for long, unfiltered conversations where they laugh, cry, and share the stories that shaped who they have become. Chavie also writes a weekly essay on Substack about the unexpected moments in her life, the one’s happening in real time that are challenging her, stretching her, and helping her grow. Sign up for free here: www.TotallyUnexpected.blog.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 58 episodes
- Chanie Wilschanski's Story: Trapped By My Own Success · 2 h 19 min · Episode 57Leadership advisor Chanie Wilschanski, author of This Can’t Be Normal, joins Chavie to talk about being successful and still feeling like she was barely surviving. As the oldest…
- Erica Pelman's Story: What the Abortion Debate Misses About Mothers · 1 h 53 min · Episode 56Chavie and Erica bond over being two Texas girls, and Erica shares how a call from a friend planning an abortion eventually led her to create SHIFRA, a Jewish organization…
- Blimie Heller's Story: The Illusion of Control - A Parent’s Dilemma · 1 h 47 min · Episode 55Parenting educator Blimie Heller joins Chavie to discuss growing up in Toronto, reading parenting books as a child, and how her oldest daughter’s refusal to comply forced her to…
- David Aaron's Story: Kabbalah Demystified - The Science of Judaism · 1 h 29 min · Episode 54Rabbi David Aaron tells Chavie about growing up in Toronto hearing his Holocaust-survivor mother scream in her sleep, and questioning how G-d could be good amid so much…
- Shevach Tamir's Story: Parenting Through Trauma · 2 h 28 min · Episode 53Shevach tells Chavie about growing up in Miami Beach as the youngest of seven, sometimes feeling like an only child, but later recognizing the freedom and attention he received…
- Naomi Salfati's Story: AstroTorah - Reclaiming Nature's Manual · 2 h 20 min · Episode 52Naomi starts off by telling Chavie how she became an artist, why she was drawn to Hebrew letters, and how studying Jewish mysticism eventually led her into astrology. She…
- Dena Schusterman's Story: Facing the Stories I Carry · 2 h 17 min · Episode 51Dena Schusterman tells Chavie about growing up on shlichus, first in Berkeley and then Albuquerque, where her childhood was filled with skiing, wide-open landscapes, and saying…
- Julia Makowsky's Story: When Religion Becomes Anxiety + EP 50 BONUS · 2 h 11 min · Episode 50Julia Makowsky grew up in Los Angeles with baal teshuvah parents who became increasingly passionate about Torah as she was growing up, while Julia often felt that she was simply…
- Sonia Daccarett's Story: Palestinian Father, Jewish Mother, & a Search for Identity · 2 h 1 min · Episode 49Sonia begins by telling Chavie about the memoir-writing class that unexpectedly became her book. Then, they trace her childhood, starting with her Jewish grandparents who fled…
- Sorella Abrahams' Story: From Love In London To Terror In Bondi · 2 h 46 min · Episode 48Sorella shares what it was like to grow up in London as the eleventh of twelve children in a big, Chabad family, and how her school and community experiences were shaped by a mix…
- Yisroel Bernath's Story: The Forgiveness Experiment · 2 h 20 min · Episode 47Yisroel tells Chavie about his childhood in Des Plaines, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, where he was raised by parents who were still in the process of becoming more observant…
- Paola Feher's Story: From Yoga to Ayurveda - A Guide to Breath, Body, & Self · 2 h 10 min · Episode 46Chavie and Paola open by reminiscing about how they first connected when Paola walked into Chabad of Bozeman for a Passover seder 18 years ago and instantly felt at home. Paola…
- Aimee Baron's Story: I Was Supposed To Have a Baby · 2 h 42 min · Episode 45Aimee opens up to Chavie about her childhood in Lakewood, where her Holocaust survivor grandparents had a chicken farm. She shares how she became religious and didn’t go to prom…
- Dassi Zar's Story: In Between Selves - The Act of Rebirthing · 1 h 59 min · Episode 44Chavie sits down with Dassi, who starts out by sharing how she was born in Iran in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war, where her mother delivered her by emergency C-section during a…
- Elin Cohen's Story: Meet Chavie's Book Buddy · 2 h 24 min · Episode 43Chavie sits down with her long-distance book buddy Elin for a special episode where they review their book buddy picks but first, Elin shares what it was like growing up in…
- SPECIAL EPISODE: A Day In the Life of Chavie Bruk · 53 min · Episode 42In this episode, Chavie sits down with her producer, Elie Benhiyoun, to break down what a day in the life of Chavie Bruk looks like. She walks through a recent Friday, from the…
- Rivkah Slonim's Story: Chassidic Feminism - Could It Be? · 2 h 13 min · Season 1 Episode 41Chavie sits down with Rivkah Slonim — author, lecturer, and self-described Chassidic feminist — and walks through her childhood growing up in Crown Heights in close proximity to…
- Chaim Bruk's Story, Part 2: Our Infertility & Adoption Story · 2 h 28 min · Episode 40Chavie sits down with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Bruk, the podcast’s first returning guest, just ahead of their 20th anniversary. For the first time, they walk through their entire…
- Anna Sherman's Story: Life After Brain Surgery · 2 h 11 min · Episode 39Chavie and Anna begin with Anna’s roots in Toronto and what drew her toward becoming more religious in high school, navigating the tension between the world she grew up in and…
- Mushky Yiftach Hashem's Story: Becoming the Duct Tape Queen · 2 h 32 min · Episode 38Chavie starts off by diving into Mushky’s early relationship with creativity. She talks about her mother noticing her artistic tendencies and her love of crafts being nurtured by…
