Gidon has lived a very long life and his adventures just never seem to stop unfolding! When the pandemic first began, Gidon and I took advantage of the (spooky) quiet of the first lockdown and began recording the audio version of The True Adventures in our mamad (the bomb shelter in our building) but later, we completed the recording in a professional studio.
Many months passed and lockdowns came and went when we were finally able to take these recordings and create a new, more immersive version of Gidon's story. The format of the podcast is that of a series. There are 14 episodes total, 9 of which have been released.
To create the podcast series, we created podcast "chapters" that are each two chapters of the printed book. We added music, singing and even some fx to really create a three-dimensional experience for listeners. We found that we were creating something quite different from the book, something even more immersive and impactful.
A wonderful American-Israeli actor, Eli Rahn, read most of Gidon's journal writing, as it was a bit hard for Gidon to get all of that done. Composer Nigel Groom composed an original theme for Gidon. Victoria Sampson edited the dialogue and Andrew Macht put it all together. Israeli composer Adi Goldstein gave us access to his huge catalog of music. So, as you can see, it really does take a village.
Importantly, the podcast is a historical document in and of itself. In the podcast you can hear Gidon's voice as he recalls particular incidents, memories and even songs. You can hear the voices of authors like Yossi Klein Halevi and Lewis Hyde and you can hear tour guides like Laura Nelson Levy, and historians like John LeStrange. Everybody came together to paint a picture of Gidon's story that can be learned from, enjoyed and even incorporated into Holocaust education curricula.
You can find The True Adventures of Gidon Lev on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Audible and just about every other podcast platform you can imagine. An audiobook, without the music, interviews and asides will be available by mid-summer 2022.
We hope you check it out and help share Gidon's story, which is more important than ever.