Authors, Podcast Hosts

Joel Waldman is the co-host of the hit true-crime podcast Surviving the Survivor and an Emmy Award-winning broadcast journalist who worked most recently as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for Fox News, covering national politics from Capitol Hill. He has also worked as an investigative reporter for Fox 5 in New York City and for TV-news programs in West Palm Beach, Miami, and Tucson. He lives in Miami Beach with his wife, Ileana, and his three children, Vida, Zizi, and Judah.

Karmela Waldman, Co-Host of Surviving the Survivor
Karmela is best known as Joel’s mom (Joel wrote this). But, she’s so much more!
A graduate of the University of Geneva, Karmela went on to get her masters in Social Work at Rutgers University. She’s both a licensed marriage therapist and Holocaust survivor. Hence, the podcast’s name, Surviving the Survivor.

As a 4.5-year-old girl growing up on the border of Yugoslavia and Hungary, she was separated from her parents as the Nazis invaded Europe. As there was an ominous knock on her front door, she ran on foot from her house and was hidden by a nun in an all-boys Catholic school until it was safe to re-emerge more than 8 months later. Karmela was reunited with her mother Vera, however, her father Latci wasn’t so lucky as he was led to the Auschwitz gas chamber.

Karmela dedicated her life to raising her two children, Arden and Joel. And, she’s now reaped the rewards basking in the glory of her 8 grandchildren (9 if you include Joel’s dog). Her only grandson came courtesy of her Joel back in 2019. Karmela has been married to her true love’s kiss, Roy, for more than 60 years. She’s screamed at him at least one time a day for those 6 decades.