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Intro, Summer Heat, and Weekend Recap with Ben Soffer
At 7:20 · chapter starts 0:00
The episode opens with Claudia introducing Ben Soffer — her husband and podcaster — as the mystery co-host filling in for Jackie. The first order of business is complaining about New York City summer: Claudia's real trigger, she has discovered, is not hunger but heat, and the city runs 7–15 degrees hotter than the surrounding suburbs. A weekend trip to the Natural History Museum descended into sweaty chaos when they dressed for cold weather and arrived to find it packed and overheated. The couple then pivots to their Shabbat phone-free ritual — roughly 25 hours of disconnecting — which they filled with card games, a grid-box game Ben mastered immediately (scoring 25/25 on his second try), and mahjong, at which Claudia insists she is excellent despite Ben's gentle skepticism. Claudia admits she deliberately plays mahjong with weaker opponents so she can remain the best player in the room — a 'big fish, small pond' philosophy she defends without apology.
Claudia and Ben disconnect from their phones for roughly 25 hours each Shabbat, filling the time with card games and mahjong.
