Joy of Quarantine
Introducing
The Joy of Quarantine
Hi. My name is Jena Friedman. Prior to the pandemic, I was a touring comedian. Now, like many of you, I’m trapped in my home, with ample time to let my mind wander to the darkest places. Something I’ve found that distracts me from my own thoughts and our grim new dystopian reality is cooking.
I just want to preface that I’m not a chef, and I’m not great at following directions. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I’m going to walk you through some easy recipes that I’ve discovered in my first few weeks in quarantine with my boyfriend Josh Epstein of the band JR JR and his Chihuahua, Potato. I’ve decided to start with recipes that have Eastern European Jewish roots, like myself. That way, if I mess them up it will be less offensive. Want to learn how to cook babka, kugel, or a dynamite everything bagel?
In the premier episode, Jena takes a shortcut to make the quintessential everything bagel. You’ll have to tune in to see if it passes for the real thing.
Jena Friedman is an American stand up comedian, writer and filmmaker. She was a field producer at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has written for Late Show with David Letterman. She developed the television project Soft Focus with Jena Friedman for Adult Swim (where she interviewed John McAfee), the first installment of which premiered in February 2018. Friedman has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Nat Geo Explorer, MSNBC and BBC Two. She has been a contributing writer to The New Yorker. In 2015, Friedman's solo show American Cunt premiered in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Her critically acclaimed Edinburgh show Miscarriage of Justice premiered in 2019.