72 Miles til Kentucky

Apr 22 2024 9 ep. 28 mins 1

72 Miles til Kentucky Podcast artwork

72 Miles features the stories of three separate interfaith Jewish families–two real, one not, and one mine. Together, they trace 150 years of Kentucky history, with experiences that resonate today—about being Jewish in America. About being Jewish and southern at the same time. About being Jewish, being interfaith, and the blending of the two.

This isn’t a podcast about the right way to be Jewish. Or what being Jewish even actually means. Mostly, this is a podcast about the lived experience of what it means to be Jewish in Kentucky. Along the way, I’ll speak with some folks who were there, or have been there, or can help bring context to these stories. And you’re invited too, because like all stories these experiences are meant to be shared.

So strap in, and take a ride with me, up and down I-65, or back and forth on the L&N railroad. In the end the when and the who don’t make as much difference and you might think. But the where sure does. My name is Nathan Jordan Vaughan. It’s 72 Miles til Kentucky. Let’s get moving.

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Chapter 8: The Holidays

Apr 22 2024 30 mins

When you’re Jewish, it seems like the holidays are always around the corner, and there always seems to be some sort of competition. Whether it’s the High Holidays just as school gets into full swing, or how Chanukah and Passover often, but confusingly not always, overlap with Christmas and Easter. There’s a lot of explaining to do, and partnerships to be built. That’s what

Chapter 7: Back & Forth

Feb 08 2024 31 mins

From Sunday School in Nashville to Sunday dinner at Granny's, my family bushogged our way towards a cohesive religious identity. Even as my mother was returning to the faith of her childhood, my father was moving further away from his, and towards an unlikely home — The American Society of Friends. Introducing a third faith in our household seemed to solidify our identity, rather

Chapter 6: Choosing Judaism

Jan 18 2024 40 mins

My mother passed away on September 14, 2021 after a years-long battle with cancer that cost her control of the left side of her face. We had been recording for just over a year, but there was still so much more she wanted to say. After she died, I went through her journals, to learn the perspectives that she was hesitant to share with me even at the end of her life. My father contr

Chapter 5: Are We Jewish or Are We Christian?

Jan 03 2024 25 mins

My family moved to Bowling Green in 1989. My brother was turning six, and I was turning three. We rented a house in the country for a few months, then bought the red-brick home on Garrett Drive where we lived for 16 years. We joined the local Presbyterian Church, but didn’t quite fit in. It was too conservative, or maybe we were too liberal. My parents struggled to make friends,

Chapter 4: I'm Jewish, You're Not!

Dec 20 2023 33 mins

My parents met at Walnut Street Baptist Church in 1979. My father was there for services, at his mother's request. My mother was there working, as a sign language interpreter. They were married not long after in a different Baptist church, by a group of friends, using an interfaith wedding ceremony they wrote themselves. As a young couple, my parents found their a home at Central P

Chapter 3 – The Untold Jewish History of Bowling Green, KY

Dec 14 2023 34 mins

My family moved to Bowling Green in 1987, but we weren’t the first Jews to live there, far from it. Jews had been settling in Bowling Green for over 150 years, drawn by economic prosperity. Jewish merchants helped open up the American frontier, wherever they could a stream or railroad to follow. They learned to adapt their faith and traditions to a new place, one where there wasn

Chapter 2: Meet the Fam

Dec 06 2023 31 mins

Every interfaith family has at least two sides to its story. Mine features a poor white boy who was the odd duck in his devout Baptist family, and a Detroit Yankee who was raised in a tight-knit Jewish community until she rebelled and ran away to Kentucky. This episode also introduces the second of three families featured in 72 Miles, one that’s make-believe. Conjured from the im

Chapter 1: Tell a Really Good Story

Dec 06 2023 21 mins

My family has a motto, “We are making memories.” It’s a motto that’s led us through life’s more chaotic moments. The secret to making memories, of course, is how you tell the story. And in my family we strive to tell, and retell, really good stories. And we’re not the only ones. Storytelling is a southern folk tradition, and I come from a long line of master storyteller

Start Here

Nov 14 2023 6 mins

Every story needs a starting point. For years, my mother and I had been talking about how to tell our family’s story, and whether our experiences as a Jewish interfaith family would have value for anyone but us. First we imagined a blog, then a life-coaching business, a book, and even a cookbook. Then she was diagnosed with cancer, and suddenly the whole project seemed more impor