Larry David doesn’t do podcasts. So when he agreed to appear on Elon Gold’s new “Stars of David” podcast, the anticipation felt like a prime-time television season finale.
When asked why he agreed, David told Gold, “Because you are a persistent asshole! You wouldn’t stop the texts!”
In the hour-long video preview of the episode screened by the Journal, Gold calls David “godol hador,” meaning “the great one of this generation.” It sounds like a joke, but Gold is absolutely sincere in his praise.
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David has said in past interviews that when he rubs the back of his neck, he’s done and wants to leave. That’s the tell. In this episode, he never does it. The sight of David slouching for most of the hour adds so much. You can watch David’s hilariously irreverent posture and all of the show’s episodes on YouTube.
Gold softens him up early with impressions. His Johnny Carson impression draws the first real belly laugh from David.
Gold told the Journal that he models his interview style after Howard Stern. “I’m only doing Howard Stern,” he said. He calls Stern the greatest interviewer ever and said he studied him closely. David Letterman and Carson round out his top three.
Gold’s co-host is comedian Eli Leonard, who was also a writer on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and briefly appeared on the show as “the pin guy” in Season 11.
Fans will be delighted to hear David came to the podcast studio that day and shared a multitude of gripes he has with a world that never fails to frustrate him. At one point, David questions the logic of Shabbat restrictions, asking why you can read a book but not watch television.
Last fall, David and his wife had Shabbat dinner at the Gold home in Los Angeles. The next day, David sent a “thank you” text. On the podcast, Leonard reads the text aloud while impersonating David. Eli, as Larry, reads:
“Thank you again for a fabulous dinner. Sometimes at these things the food is great but you’re bored. Other times the company is great but the food stinks. This one hit on both. Very rare. Could it have been a little warmer? Sure. Of course. Was it cold enough to ruin my evening? Maybe a little! Could I have done without Eli? Absolutely! But overall…I give it 4 “prettys” on the “pretty, pretty, good” rating. And you can’t do better than 4 prettys! So thank you yet again. And your kids are fabulous. And you’re hilarious. And I was completely joking about Eli on the thousand to one chance you took that seriously.”
“Stars of David” is produced by Unpacked, a brand of OpenDor Media. Episodes drop on Thursdays, so listeners have ample time to prepare to discuss the latest episodes on Shabbat.
“Shabbat is always coming,” Gold told the Journal. “When things are tough, don’t worry. Shabbat is always coming. You frame your whole week around that break.”
The conversation moves into familiar David territory, like the time a booker once told him at The Improv that “Carson wouldn’t like you.” David’s reply: “Maybe I wouldn’t like Carson.” He dismisses award culture as well. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has received 11 Emmy nominations for Best Comedy and had zero wins. He no longer attends award shows, explaining that “if you lose, you feel like a loser.” They revisit the “Seinfeld” finale backlash and a “Saturday Night Live” censorship fight. No matter how many times “Curb” and “Seinfeld” fans hear these stories, David dishing it with his buddies still slaps with each retelling.
Gold also talks about filming a scene for “Curb” in Season 10 that was later cut. David personally called him to say it wouldn’t make the episode. This is a rare occurrence, not for David, but for any actor in Hollywood who has been crushed by their scenes getting axed.
In season 11, Gold was a recurring character on “Curb” as Jake Blum, the head of Hulu (or as he called it “JewLu”). Gold’s performance throughout the season was irritatingly funny. As Jake, Gold asks David, “How we doin’ so far, I mean, J to J?” The term is short for “Jew to Jew,” which became the basis for the title of a Journal cover story on Gold titled, “Talking ‘Jew to Jew’ with Comedian Elon Gold.” He said then and today that David belongs on “the Mount Rushmore of comedians.” That admiration doesn’t get in the way on screen, where their “J to J” chemistry is palpable and hysterical.
On the podcast, Gold pitches to David a film: it would star David and Albert Brooks traveling to Israel for the first time. The working title is “Birth Wrong.” In Gold’s imagined scene, they are at the Kotel, surrounded by Jews crying and praying. David looks around and asks, “Should I be crying? Is everyone performing this? What am I supposed to feel?”
They cover a lot of topics. Yet still, Gold told the Journal that he wanted the interview to dive even deeper into Israel, Oct. 7, and antisemitism with David. But in pure David fashion, the conversation kept returning to comedy.
“His entire brain is wired to see and regurgitate comedy,” Gold said. “If he hasn’t internalized something about the situation in Israel, he can’t express it.”
When asked whether that makes him like David any less, Gold said, “No, it makes me want to be his friend even more.” He added, “Life is dead serious. So if you focus on that, it makes it tougher. If you’re just joking and laughing and doing bits and voices all day and all night, you get to handle it. I’ve said this to other people: I don’t know how everyone’s not a comedian, because if I wasn’t a comedian, I don’t know how I would handle life and the world.”
He said that “Larry David does this to the millionth degree,” and explained, “that is why I can show more humanity — because I’m not at his level of comedic genius.”
Another recent guest on Gold’s “Stars of David” podcast is comedian Tiffany Haddish, who talks about Jewish identity and her first visit to the Kotel. New listeners should go back to the first season and listen to the episode with Howie Mandel — one of the comedians Gold says inspired him to pursue stand-up. And Gold discusses Jewish pride and antisemitism with Montana Tucker, and how to handle the public backlash and losing some fans over it.
With so many comedy podcasts available in 2026, fans often have to put even their favorite comedians to the test to see whether the show works for them. The entire “Stars of David” podcast gives the listener everything they hope to feel before they commit to hitting the subscribe button. Sure you can listen to episodes out of order, but for this show, start with the season two premiere featuring comedian Yohay Sponder. When you’re asked to allow notifications, agree. Then on March 5, remember that Larry David doesn’t do podcasts, but he did this one. And that episode is pretty, pretty, pretty pretty good.
“Stars of David with Elon Gold” is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon, PodBean, and iHeartRadio.
