Sep 25, 2026 · 56 min · 12 segments
**Daniel Maté is an award-winning songwriter, lyricist, composer, and musical theatre writer, with work that has been performed at places including the Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. He’s also the…
Daniel MatéGuestBrandonHostWell, that's a great, hopeful way to start things off here.
And I know that's what I really appreciate from what you and how you convey things and what you talk about within your own show.
And I do have to add, you know, it's interesting to hear and have you be honest about complicated feelings with Brad Lander, you know, in this, I'm guessing it sounds like a relatively progressive synagogue experience that you were at.
And then the outdoor service, which was organized by that synagogue, but also with groups like Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, was just out and out radical.
So there were like five kefiyas in the synagogue and there was talk of Israel's genocide, but it was not an explicitly political service.
But outdoors, the afternoon sort of morning service, like morning with a U. service, which is, which is sometimes part of Yom Kippur.
Mahmoud Khalil spoke, a Palestinian woman spoke quite fiercely about what's happening to her village at the hands of the Zionist army.
So it was quite, and so Brad Lander was this, he also, he kicked things off And he kicked things off by being like, look, I know a lot of you here, if not most, identify as non or anti-Zionist.
And to his credit, he was out at the Netanyahu protest today at the U.N. I'm not sure if he got arrested along with Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon and Chelsea Manning, but he was there and I appreciate that.
But at this particular service, I was like, why are you kicking us off on this kind of milquetoast note? You know, like it just didn't.
And some of the things he said, I just thought were transparently political at an event that should not have been political.
Well, that's a great, hopeful way to start things off here.
And I know that's what I really appreciate from what you and how you convey things and what you talk about within your own show.
And I do have to add, you know, it's interesting to hear and have you be honest about complicated feelings with Brad Lander, you know, in this, I'm guessing it sounds like a relatively progressive synagogue experience that you were at.
And then the outdoor service, which was organized by that synagogue, but also with groups like Rabbis for Ceasefire, Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, was just out and out radical.
So there were like five kefiyas in the synagogue and there was talk of Israel's genocide, but it was not an explicitly political service.
But outdoors, the afternoon sort of morning service, like morning with a U. service, which is, which is sometimes part of Yom Kippur.
Mahmoud Khalil spoke, a Palestinian woman spoke quite fiercely about what's happening to her village at the hands of the Zionist army.
So it was quite, and so Brad Lander was this, he also, he kicked things off And he kicked things off by being like, look, I know a lot of you here, if not most, identify as non or anti-Zionist.
And to his credit, he was out at the Netanyahu protest today at the U.N. I'm not sure if he got arrested along with Hannah Einbinder and Susan Sarandon and Chelsea Manning, but he was there and I appreciate that.
But at this particular service, I was like, why are you kicking us off on this kind of milquetoast note? You know, like it just didn't.
And some of the things he said, I just thought were transparently political at an event that should not have been political.
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