Chai on Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the Chai on Life podcast! 

I’m Alex Segal. I’m a writer, editor, wife, mom and inspired Jewish woman. As I’ve gone through life, I’ve become so much more connected to my Jewish identity. I’ve fallen in love with what it means to be Jewish. As I’ve become a Shabbat-observant Jew, and taken on many other mitzvot, it was really important to me to not to lose who I was throughout the process. I would not be where I am without the women who have guided me and shown me what’s possible. They have taught me that my unique self can only shine brighter through this life I’m choosing.

That being said, as we move through our day-to-day tasks, it’s easy for life to become well, routine. We need to maintain our inspiration, connect with each other, and through that, we thrive. This is a podcast dedicated to both of those things — an inspired Jewish life and the power women behind it all. The goal? For all of us to become more "chai on life."

Want to nominate a guest? Email me at [email protected].

Hi everyone! I'm so excited for you to listen to my episode with Rivkah Fox (@rivkahfox). She's a matchmaker who has set up tons of couples and is at your service!

In this episode, we talk about:

-How Rivkah got into matchmaking

-How she made her first match

-How she organizes her matches

-The do’s and don’ts of working with a shadchan

-How often to reach out to a shadchan and what to say

-How Rivkah decides who to match up

-How to make the best first impression on your matchmaker

-How to ensure a matchmaker remembers you

-How the time we’re in has affected her job as a matchmaker

-How Rivkah met her husband and what you can learn from her story

-How to plan the perfect first date

If you want to reach out to Rivkah, you can WhatsApp her at 

516-666-2465. Send her a bio, a few photos of yourself and a dating resume if you have one.

If you have a guest you'd like to see on the Chai on Life podcast, email [email protected] or send us a DM at @chaionlifemag. Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today we have a really exciting episode to gear up for Shavuot with Esteemed Educator, Speaker and Kallah Teacher Nalini Ibragimov.

If you know Nalini, you already know how special she is. I had the privilege of meeting her nearly 12 years ago now when she co-founded a group called Souled, which was a weekly class for young professional women who had been on Israel trips or other programs and wanted to continue their learning while working in New York City. She is a role model to maybe thousands of women at this point through her work on college campuses, as a kallah teacher, someone who prepares brides for their upcoming wedding, Souled and other Jewish organizations.

Here’s some more formal info for those who aren’t familiar with Nailni and her work:

Nalini Ibragimov attended Barnard College and Moreshet Institute and studied Jewish history in Touro’s master’s program. She lived in Israel for four years where she taught in various institutions. 

For the following five years, she and her husband worked at Brooklyn College for JLIC, a joint program of the OU and Hillel, where she taught and ran various programs for Jewish students on campus. Nalini taught in Ateres Naava seminary in Brooklyn for 15 years until moving to Long Island a few years ago. Additionally, Nalini has taught hundreds of kallot and is a speaker for My Gift of Mikvah. She is also part of the educational staff of Core. 

Today, Nalini is the director of the Olami Women's House, which provides a living space for young professional women who seek to live in a nurturing, Torah immersive environment. If you want to apply to live there, click here!

If you're a young professional woman, you can also hear Nalini speak Wednesday nights at Safra Synagogue on the Upper East Side at 7:30 p.m.

Nalini resides in Woodmere, New York with her husband and takes great pride in her six children and the families they are building.

Now, let’s talk about our episode. In our conversation we speak about:

-Nalini’s Jewish journey and how she got to where she is today

-How she manages and balances all of the work she does with being a wife and a mother of six children

-How she decides what professional responsibilities to take on

-What Shavuot really means and the perspective we can have going into it

-How we can manage the heaviness all around us right now and channel that pain we’re still feeling into the holiday and use it to create even more connection with Hashem

-What a miracle actually looks like and how we can see more of them in our daily lives, right now

-How we can use the time we have left before Shavuot to prepare for the holiday — and why the process and the preparation are key

-How to connect on Shavuot when you’re home with little kids and not going to learn all night

-How the holiday of Shavuot is like a wedding and a beautiful lesson that we can all infuse into our marriages and our relationship to all of klal Yisrael

…and SO MUCH MORE

If you have any questions for Nalini, you can reach out to her at [email protected].

If there's someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast or a topic you want featured, send me an email at [email protected] or a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag.

Thanks so much, see you next week!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we are speaking with Dating Coach and Former Today Show Psychologist Jackie Glaser.

I’ve known Jackie for 12 years. She was really influential on my Jewish journey. I was on a trip to Israel the summer after I graduated college which is when I met her — she taught us at the seminary Neve Yerushalayim and then she basically convinced me to stay in Israel and do another program for six weeks. That fall, after I was back, she was in New York and started a program that we called Souled — which was a weekly Jewish learning class which changed my life and introduced me to some of my best friends.

If you know Jackie, you know she is a powerhouse. She has changed so many lives with her teaching and now is helping so many through her dating coaching. She is using her psychology skills and her own experience of working on herself to help other singles do any work that could help them become more ready to meet and marry their soulmate. She also coaches married women in her courses.

In this podcast, we speak about:

-Jackie’s experience being single and how she worked on her relationship with Hashem to find peace in that and ultimately, meet her husband

-What it really means to surrender to Hashem and she shares real exercises you can do today in order to help you get there

-How to know what type of therapy is right for you and if you’re stuck in talk therapy, where you can go from there

-Why we may experience trauma and how to work through it so we can heal

-Why you should run away from someone who is trying to tell you reasons why you’re single

-How to deal with the pain of being single without turning it into suffering

-More about her course offerings and why the work she does is so powerful

-Practical tools and resources we can turn to to work on our trust in Hashem

…and so much more!

Other resources mentioned in the podcast:

-Jackie's website and Instagram (@datingbyjackieg) — follow her there for more dating advice and support!

-Listen to Jackie on The Inside Out Podcast to learn even more about her journey and get more wisdom from her

-Build your strength in Hashem with dailybitachon.com

-Watch Tzipora Grodko's content for more support

If there is a topic or person you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag or send an email to [email protected].

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast, I’m Alex Segal and today we are so privileged to have Rachel Tuchman, licensed mental health counselor on our podcast.

Rachel has worked with many diverse populations including incarcerated women at Riker's Island Correctional Facility, kids and adults with developmental delays, kids with behavior issues, overwhelmed parents looking for skills and support, teens struggling with the pressures of adolescence and life in general, adults going through difficult life circumstances (divorce, infidelity, phase of life challenges), individuals struggling with their relationship with food and their bodies and women experiencing infertility.

Rachel is a Health At Every Size aligned clinician and dedicates a lot of her time out of office to educating parents and kids on the importance of body respect and the behaviors that truly honor our health. 

Rachel also does speaking engagements for schools, synagogues, and various community organizations.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-What managing your mental health looks like right now in a post October 7 world and how we can do more of that

-How we can feel closer to each other through feeling this collective pain

-How we can deal with any survivor’s guilt we may be feeling living our day to day lives when some of our brothers and sisters are in such a horrific situation

-How to deal with the influx of difficult news that comes at us regularly

-How to deal with the uncertainty of life in America and what a better mindset might be

-How to manage anxiety you may be having right now, work on getting rid of it and working on not passing it down to your kids

-Practical things we CAN do to take action when we’re feeling helpless, or just to boost our mental and emotional state

-How to create better boundaries in our lives to actually live the life you want to be living

…and SO MUCH MORE

It definitely turned into an important conversation and an emotional one — maybe have some tissues nearby. I cried, Rachel cried, I cried again while editing it but it was one of those good cries where you’re allowing your emotions to come to the surface, so I’m excited for you to hear it.

For more from Rachel, follow her on Instagram at @rachel_tuchman_lmhc.

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag.

Thanks for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today we have a big topic to dive into: Motherhood.

For this conversation, I got connected with Yael Sunshine who is a parenting coach, special educator, speaker and yoga therapist with more than 15 years of experience. She helps parents through many different challenges that come with raising kids like behavior issues, addiction, learning disabilities, relationship challenges and more.

She is the creator of Soulful Mothering, a holistic parenting framework that supports mothers so they can manage overwhelm, trust their parenting and develop thriving support networks.

We really got into it in this conversation and covered so many different topics related to parenting including:

-Strategies to manage tantrums with a young child

-How to model the behavior we want to see in our kids

-How to avoid perfectionism as mothers

-How to make sure your needs are being taken care of

-How to help kids through a personal or family trauma they may be experiencing

-How to bring more joy into parenting

…and so much more!

For more from Yael, check out these resources:

Instagram

Facebook group

Facebook business Page

Facebook Digital Creator Page

If there's someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag or an email at [email protected].

Thanks so much for listening!

Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am so excited to be speaking with leadership and high-performance coach, athlete and all around amazing human, Tania Friedlander.

Tania is an ICF and Gallup Certified Global Strengths Coach who specializes in leadership & high-performance coaching. She has worked with more than 350 executives and emerging leaders from Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Neiman Marcus, Morgan Stanley, and The Federal Reserve among other leading companies.

A former champion athlete and attorney by training, Tania is driven by her passion for helping individuals break through their professional or personal challenges to find clarity and direction, leverage their strengths, achieve their goals, and become the best leaders and professionals they can be.

Full disclosure — I am actually working with Tania as a coach and she has been so instrumental in the launch of this podcast and honestly my mindset around the whole experience.

So this episode is here to now help you. In our conversation, we speak about:

-How she got into coaching and why she made the switch from a law career

-How she helps people understand their yearning for more and actually do the thing they’ve been dreaming about

-Why you may be experiencing overwhelm and how to work through it so you feel more in control of your own life

-How your limiting beliefs may be holding you back and what to do about it

-What to do if you’re experiencing imposter syndrome

-What so many people regret at the end of their lives and how you can make sure not to get to that place

-The biggest lesson she took away from her years as competitive athlete

…and SO MUCH MORE.

You can learn more about Tania's work on her LinkedIn page and website. If you'd like to get in touch, you can email her directly at [email protected].

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram @chaionlifemag. Thanks again, see you next week!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today I’m so excited to be speaking with home management and organization expert, Leora Blumenthal. 

Leora is one of those women who has her life together. Not that the marker of a good life is how well you run your home by any means but it just feels so good when your life is running efficiently.

Speaking with Leora made the whole process of managing a home feel way less daunting. She has a way of breaking things down that really simplifies everything and once you take that time to focus, everything can change.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-How Leora got into teaching others about home management, which by the way is her side profession — she has a completely other full time job

-Why home organization is so important and how it can impact our lives in other ways

-Why good home management and organization is the truest form of self care

-Why having good systems in place can actually allow you to accept more help

-Her grocery shopping routine

-Her Shabbos and weekday meal planning hacks

-Ways to tackle the neverending piles of laundry so you don’t lose your mind

-How to get kids more involved with home maintenance

…and SO MUCH MORE.

If you would like to get in touch with Leora for private coaching or to stay up to date on her next course, you can email her at [email protected] or contact her by phone at 718-705-8662. (Please note, she is on an Israel time zone!)

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag. Thanks again, see you next week!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we are speaking with Rena Cohen, a registered dietitian and behavior change coach.

Food is a big topic. For me, learning more about food and the way the items that I choose impact my body is something I’ve gotten really into in the last year. I actually worked with Rena last summer, a year after I had my second child and was just really confused about the best way to feed myself after my body had changed a lot and I was readjusting after birth. 

In the last year, I’ve only expanded my palette, introducing new and exciting foods that I hadn’t really had regularly before. I’ve added more movement, more sleep, more time to de-stress and I feel like I’m honestly the healthiest I’ve been maybe ever because of it — and I still eat dessert and french fries!

In the episode, Rena and I talk about:

-How she got into nutrition and its importance in our lives

-Why our psychology is so messed up when it comes to food and how we can start to fix that

-One thing you can add in today to make a huge difference in your health

-Getting more in touch with mindful eating

-Helping our kids create a better relationship with food and not pass down negative mentalities or patterns

-How to actually start doing the positive habit you have been dreaming to add to your life like meditation, a morning walk, exercise, or anything else.

…and SO MUCH MORE!

Food is supposed to be our fuel. When we are fueled and feeling good, we’re able to do all the other things we need to do with such a greater state of simcha, or joy.

If you want to learn more from Rena, visit her on Instagram @thesanctuaryrd, Facebook or on her website sanctuarycoaching.ca.

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag.

Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we are speaking with Dr. Hilla Aboody, an amazing teacher, mother, wife and mentor currently living in Eretz Yisrael who I invited to come on to speak about this heavy time on the Jewish calendar.

Hilla has such a beautiful way of explaining things — it’s so deep and profound yet easy to comprehend at the same time.

A little background on her:

She is a wife and mother of five, living in Eretz Yisrael after making Aliyah 7 years ago from Brooklyn, NY. She is a teacher and Em Bayit (house mother) at Midreshet Eshel, a Sephardic seminary for post High school students from around the world. Her educational background includes studying at Michlalah and receiving her bachelor’s degree from Bar-Ilan University and a Master’s and PhD in Jewish History from New York University. She has published her study on Eliyahu the Prophet in Talmudic literature and midrashim in her book, “Through the Prism of Wisdom”. As an educator and kallah teacher, Hilla dedicates her time in guiding students to creating a relationship with Hashem and tips and tools to thrive in their marriages and in life.

In our conversation, we speak about:

-What the Jewish perspective is on sadness and pain

-How we can connect to Hashem during this time and in this unique way, especially if it feels daunting for you right now

-Why this particular time period brings about more heaviness and actually the reason why we take more precautions

-The rich energy that lies in the months of Tammuz and Av — what the letters associated with each month mean, why the sense of each month is important and what we can individually and collectively take from all of that

-Why crying is actually a sign of bravery

-Practical things you can do now to get through this time with more faith, in a more connected way to yourself, Hashem and those around you

-How to deal with difficult emotions with your kids

…and SO MUCH MORE

This podcast with Hilla is basically an hour long shiur. I got chills like 17 times as I was listening to her and it’s definitely one of the most important ones I’ve done so far in terms of our spirituality.

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag. Thanks again, see you next week!