Can We Talk?

In this special Mother's Day episode, Nahanni interviews her mother, Emma Rous, who died this winter. They talk about how Emma's teenage activism in a Protestant youth group influenced her politics, her conversion to Judaism in 1971, memories of her first Yom Kippur, what it was like to invent her own Jewish identity, and how Judaism eventually became her home.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our newsletter.

In honor of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, we're sharing a podcast episode from Making Gay History's current series about the Nazi era.Frieda Belinfante was a Dutch musician and underground activist who risked her life to help save hundreds of Jews from the Nazis. She's one of several LGBTQ people whose testimonies are featured in this Making Gay History series. Check out the rest of the series at makinggayhistory.org.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our newsletter.

At the Jewish Women's Archive, we're closely following the attacks on democracy unfolding around us every day. In this special Can We Talk? audio essay, our own Judith Rosenbaum, JWA's CEO, calls out President Trump's moves to erase the histories of women and other marginalized groups. A version of this piece first ran on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's website.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our newsletter.

The climate crisis has entered an alarming new era. Since President Trump started his second term, the Environmental Protection Agency has fired scores of climate scientists and is trying to roll back climate protections and slash clean energy funding. For organizations like Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, it's been a giant step backward.In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak with Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, CEO of Dayenu, about how climate activists are navigating a new political landscape, how Jewish values fuel her work, and how the fight for climate action echoes the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt, which Jews will soon mark at our Passover seders. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our newsletter.

As the war between Ukraine and Russia enters its fourth year, Nahanni checks in with Vlada Nedak, the CEO of Project Kesher Ukraine. While American officials try to broker a temporary ceasefire, attacks on the ground in Ukraine are intensifying. Dozens of people have been injured and killed in the past month, including children. According to Reuters, over 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia invaded the country in 2022. Vlada Nadek lives in Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine, which is frequently the target of Russian missile and drone attacks.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our newsletter.

In this special Purim episode, Talmudic TikToker and storyteller Miriam Anzovin joins us to talk about the darker side of the Purim story, especially the role of gender. We start with a dramatic retelling of the Megillah, with Miriam's very contemporary spin on the traditional tale. Then we take a closer look at the story's gender dynamics, which still resonate 2,500 years later. Happy Purim!Content warning: This episode includes explicit language and references to sexual assault. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Just over eight years ago, Judith and Nahanni were looking for solace after Donald Trump rode a xenophobic, misogynistic and hate-filled campaign to his first presidential victory. In a November 2016 episode of Can We Talk?, we turned to the poet Emma Lazarus, the Jewish woman who gave the statue of liberty a voice and transformed her into the symbolic mother of exiles. Now, as President Trump turns refugees and asylum seekers away, tightens our borders, and orders the deportation of thousands of immigrants, that conversation feels relevant all over again. We begin our spring season in March. For now, we're sharing that 2016 episode about Emma Lazarus, "Sonnet for America."You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

On August 4, 1869, a Jewish baby girl named Josie became Alaska's first pioneer daughter. Josephine Rudolph was born in Sitka, Alaska to German immigrants, and returned to Germany when she was 6 years old. Seven decades later, her American birth saved her life when the Nazis came to power.Josie's story takes us from the muddy frontier town of Sitka to Hitler youth parades in Nazi Germany and finally to postwar New York, where her family tried to find their place. It's a remarkable tale of the survival of one Jewish woman and her family, but it's also part of a much bigger story—about antisemitism, refugees, and settlement, about who belongs, and where.First we'll hear from Tom Kizzia, the journalist who reported Josie's story, and then from Susie Hoffman and Amy Weiss, Josie's great-granddaughters. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

It's a Can We Talk? party! Welcome to our 120th episode

Toronto R & B musician Erez Zobary was always proud of her Yemenite Jewish identity, but didn't explore it in her music - until now. Her new album, Erez, is a soulful, personal collection of songs that draws on her family's stories of life in Yemen and Israel. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Erez helps us kick off Mizrahi Heritage Month, when we celebrate the cultures and contributions of Jews from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Erez talks about her family story, the troubled history of Yemenite Jews in Israel, and her feelings about her identity—and we hear songs from her brand new album.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This Sukkot, we're welcoming a special guest into Can We Talk?'s virtual sukkah: the Talmudic “femme fatale” Homa. In this episode, Talmud scholar Gila Fine tells Homa's story, reinterprets it from Homa's perspective, and explains why she thinks Homa makes a fitting symbolic guest for Sukkot.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

A year after Hamas' brutal October 7 attacks on Israel, the war is far from over. Israel is fighting on multiple fronts—with Hamas in Gaza, with Hezbollah in Lebanon—while war threatens to explode with Iran. Hamas is still holding 101 hostages in Gaza, 33 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF. In this episode of Can We Talk?, three Israeli women—Lee Hoffman Agiv, Stav Salpeter, and Ruby Russell—share thoughts about marking the first anniversary of the attacks in the midst of an ongoing and escalating war. We also speak with Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed, Hebrew University professor of Zohar and Jewish mysticism, who discusses atonement and redemption and what her Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group has meant to her during the past year. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Before Joan Rivers, there was another Jewish woman who broke ground as a stand-up comedian. Her name was Jean Carroll, and although she was a household name in the 50s and 60s, today she has been mostly forgotten. Grace Kessler Overbeke hopes her new book about Jean Carroll, First Lady of Laughs, will change that. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we talk to Grace about why Jean Carroll deserves to be remembered for changing both the face of comedy and people's ideas about what a Jewish woman could be. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

The iconic Dr. Ruth Westheimer died earlier this year at the age of 96. Dr. Ruth was a trailblazer for her candid and joyful talk about sex, regularly using words like "masturbate" and "vibrator" on the air, and talking about sexual pleasure— including women's sexual pleasure—at a time when few others did. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we remember and celebrate Dr. Ruth. Historian and author Rebecca Davis explores Dr. Ruth's radical legacy and actress Tovah Feldshuh reflects on their friendship. Plus, archival tape of Dr. Ruth herself dishing out sex advice to her devoted listeners. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

In this bonus episode, Nahanni Rous shares stories from a trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Nahanni visits a solar energy training center, a skateboarding competition, and the annual Oglala Nation powwow, and meets people who are trying to build a better future, both by innovating and by reclaiming tradition.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

In this episode of Can We Talk?, Jen, Nahanni, and Judith recap the past two seasons of the podcast, in which we entered the uncharted territory of a post-October 7 world. We discuss our approach to creating episodes about Jewish women's responses to the attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, while still making space to tell stories about other aspects of Jewish life.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Since Hamas's brutal attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, Can We Talk? has focused on Israeli women's responses to the war. In this episode, we turn our attention to Gaza, where Israel's sustained bombardment has taken a terrible toll—tens of thousands of people have been killed, nearly two million people have been displaced, and the medical system is in ruins.Over a hundred thousand Palestinians have fled Gaza for Egypt in the past eight months. Human rights activist Jen Marlowe has been raising money and working to help people with the expensive, bureaucratic and logistically complicated border crossing. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak to Jen about her recent trip to Egypt to meet with some of the people she has helped get to safety, the conditions people face in Gaza, and what it's like for her, a Jewish woman, to do this work. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode!Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter at jwa.org/signup

Dr. Mollie Wallick didn't set out to be a gay rights activist; she stumbled into the role in 1983, when she was a guidance counselor at Louisiana State University's medical school in New Orleans. In this episode of Can We Talk?, you'll hear excerpts from Mollie's 2005 interview for the “Women Who Dared” oral history project. As we kick off Pride Month, Mollie's story reminds us how much has changed in just a few decades—language, attitudes, and policies. And it offers a glimpse of what it was like to be an advocate for gay students at a time when their school, and society in general, offered few resources and many obstacles.You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode!Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter at jwa.org/signup

Segun el tiempo, se abolta la vela. That's a Ladino saying that means, “According to the weather, shift your sail.” And it's an apt way of describing Ladino's recent comeback. Ladino—or Judeo-Spanish—the language spoken by Sephardic Jews in Turkey, Greece and North Africa, saw a major decline after the Holocaust destroyed communities of native speakers. But like a sailboat shifting course when the wind changes direction, Ladino has adapted to the times. In this episode of Can We Talk, you'll hear how from Naomi Spector and Nesi Altaras, two Ladino enthusiasts, and from Hannah Pressman, one of the people spearheading Ladino's resurgence. Additional resources: The American Ladino League Ladinokomunita (online Ladino discussion group)Documenting Judeo-Spanish (solitreo documents and reading guide) Ladino Linguist (Bryan Kirschen)Hannah S. Pressman (selected writing)Enkontros de Alhad (weekly Ladino talk show)You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode!Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter at jwa.org/signup

Segun el tiempo, se abolta la vela. That's a Ladino saying that means, “According to the weather, shift your sail.” And it's an apt way of describing Ladino's recent comeback. Ladino—or Judeo-Spanish—the language spoken by Sephardic Jews in Turkey, Greece and North Africa, saw a major decline after the Holocaust destroyed communities of native speakers. But like a sailboat shifting course when the wind changes direction, Ladino has adapted to the times. In this episode of Can We Talk, you'll hear how from Naomi Spector and Nesi Altaras, two Ladino enthusiasts, and from Hannah Pressman, one of the people spearheading Ladino's resurgence. You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also now on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode!Love Can We Talk? Please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. You can also drop us a line at and let us know what you think or suggest ideas for future episodes. We just might read your email on the air!Want even more Can We Talk? Sign up for our monthly newsletter at jwa.org/signup