Descendants of local Jewish populations in North Africa and the Middle East
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This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment reacts to Target's decision to name fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi as its first-ever Creative Director at Large, a brand new role in which Mizrahi will advise on product design, mentor Target designers, and help the retailer reclaim its iconic cheap chic identity. Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn aren't exactly wowed. While they agree that creativity never hurts, both question whether a lack of design vision is actually what's holding Target back right now or whether the real issues are operational, from store execution to service to merchandising. Chris draws on his Target background to push back on the nostalgia play, invoking the legendary Missoni sellout as a reminder that you can't go back to the well and expect the same magic twice. They also wonder aloud where Mizrahi's influence will begin and end across a portfolio this broad and whether this headline is more about buzz than genuine strategic direction. ⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q
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Fashion legend Isaac Mizrahi has spent decades making the world brighter- literally. As a colorful designer, performer, host, author, and cultural icon, the creative has always favored playfulness. But before the runways, Broadway stages, and standing ovations, he was a kid who often felt like an outsider. This week on The Art of Kindness, Isaac joins Robert Peterpaul for a funny, moving, and surprisingly vulnerable conversation about bullying, belonging, creativity, therapy, Broadway legends, and the people whose kindness changed his life. Plus: Broadway, fashion, Patti LuPone, New York City, compliments, eyebrows, and why nobody is paying nearly as much attention to your appearance as you think they are. This positive podcast covers: Why kindness starts with noticing people who feel unseen The teacher who changed Isaac's life forever Lessons from Broadway legends like Gwen Verdon and Liza Minnelli Why therapy matters and what he's learned from it Broadway backstage culture and kindness The truth about fashion rules, self-expression, and authenticity, plus more ISAAC MIZRAHI has spent more than 35 years at the intersection of entertainment, media, and fashion, earning acclaim as a performer, host, writer, designer, producer, and cultural commentator. Performing with his acclaimed jazz band, Isaac brings his signature blend of music, storytelling, and comedy to concert stages across the country. His annual multi-week residency at New York City's legendary Café Carlyle consistently sells out, and in 2022 he made his Broadway debut as Amos Hart in Chicago. The New York Times hailed him as “a founding father of a genre that fuses performance art, music and stand-up comedy.” In 2025, the cult-classic documentary Unzipped—which Mizrahi co-created and stars in—celebrated its 30th anniversary with a screening at the Sundance Film Festival. He hosted the Emmy Award-winning The Isaac Mizrahi Show for seven seasons, served as a judge on all seven seasons of Project Runway All Stars, and continues to appear across television, film, and digital media. Beyond the stage and screen, Mizrahi has directed productions for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera, and annually directs and narrates Peter and the Wolf, a production he originally created for New York City's Guggenheim Museum. A celebrated force in fashion, Mizrahi currently serves as Creative Director at Large for Target. Through his company, IM Entertainment, he develops original projects for television, theater, publishing, and live entertainment. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir I.M. For more information, visit HelloIsaac.com. Got kindness tips or stories? Please email us: artofkindnesspodcast@gmail.com Follow Isaac: @IMISAACMIZRAHI Follow us: @artofkindnesspod / @robpeterpaul Support the show! (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theaok) Music: "Awake" by Ricky Alvarez & "Sunshine" by Lemon Music Studio. Additional music licensed through Soundstripe. Code: MZU7IMLYX3T5WFFI We are supported by the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/language
I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture (Pegasus Books, 2026). Our discussion explored not only the story of a disappearing language, but also the broader questions of memory, identity, and what it means to inherit a fragile cultural legacy. At the heart of Ellis's book is Judeo-Iraqi Arabic—also known as Baghdadi Jewish Arabic or Hakimalna—a language once spoken by the Jews of Iraq. Rich with layers of Hebrew and Judeo-Babylonian Aramaic, it reflects over two millennia of Jewish life in the region. Today, however, it stands on the brink of extinction. As Ellis shared, a language is considered endangered when it is no longer passed on to children, and Judeo-Iraqi Arabic may have only about a thousand speakers remaining worldwide. Within a generation, it could fall silent. Ellis described a powerful turning point in her own awareness: a casual question from another parent about why she was not sending her son to a nursery that spoke “her language.” Her spontaneous response—“my language is dead”—became the catalyst for the journey that led to this book. That moment captures the quiet grief of linguistic loss, but also the urgency of preservation. Our conversation traced the long arc of Iraqi Jewish history, beginning with the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE. Iraqi Jews lived in the region long before the arrival of Arabic, shifting over centuries from Hebrew to Aramaic and later to Arabic, while preserving distinctive linguistic features from earlier eras. This layered history lives on in the language itself. Yet the mass departures of Iraqi Jews in the mid-20th century—particularly the 1950–51 airlift—fractured this continuity. Today, only a handful of Jews remain in Iraq. And yet, as Ellis emphasized, culture does not disappear all at once. Language may fade, but other forms of transmission endure. Food, in particular, becomes a powerful vessel of memory. Ellis initially resisted including recipes in her book, but came to understand that cooking is itself a kind of language—a sensory bridge to the past. The image of her mother carrying three rolling pins from Iraq is emblematic of this continuity: tangible objects that hold intangible heritage. Even the book's title gesture—“always carry salt”—evokes protective practices familiar across Mizrahi communities, small rituals that encode belief, memory, and identity. We also discussed the remarkable story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, discovered in 2003 in the flooded basement of Saddam Hussein's secret police headquarters. The archive contains hundreds of thousands of documents—school records, letters, communal registers—offering an intimate portrait of everyday Jewish life in Iraq. Today, innovative projects are using AI to transcribe and translate these materials across multiple scripts, making them accessible to descendants and scholars alike. Yet the archive's ultimate fate remains uncertain, raising complex questions about ownership, memory, and cultural restitution. A particularly resonant theme in our conversation was Ellis's struggle with authenticity. As a second-generation Iraqi Jew raised in the UK, she grappled with whether she had the “right” to tell this story, especially without having visited Iraq herself. Her resolution—to be “authentic to me”—offers an important model for thinking about diasporic identity. Preservation, she suggests, does not require perfect replication. It allows for adaptation, creativity, even reinvention. One can honor tradition while also “messing with it,” whether by adjusting a recipe or reimagining inherited practices. Ellis introduces a beautiful concept she calls “milk language”—the language absorbed in early childhood, through intimacy and care, even if it is not the dominant language of one's environment. This idea invites us to reconsider how language lives within us, not only as a tool of communication but as a carrier of emotional and cultural memory. As an educator, I was especially struck by Ellis's closing insight and her implicit call to action: to speak with our elders while we still can. There is a profound difference between hearing fragments of family stories in childhood and sitting down, as an adult, to listen fully and intentionally. These conversations do more than preserve history; they create connection, continuity, and a deeper sense of self. Always Carry Salt is not only a memoir. It is an invitation—to remember, to document, and to carry forward what might otherwise be lost. In a time when so many cultural threads are at risk of unraveling, Ellis's work reminds us that preservation begins with attention, with curiosity, and with the willingness to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies
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Morgan Mizrahi is the Co-founder and COO of Rebillia, a subscription management platform that helps e-commerce, SaaS, and recurring revenue businesses automate billing, reduce churn, and grow revenue. An experienced e-commerce and retail leader, she brings hands-on insight into the challenges merchants face when scaling subscriptions. Morgan helped build Rebillia to provide flexible billing infrastructure, lifecycle management, and customer-centered workflows. She is also a podcast guest and industry voice on subscription commerce and long-term customer growth. In this episode… Traditional subscription models often lock customers into rigid plans. As expectations shift in the AI era, merchants need billing systems that adapt to customer behavior, changing preferences, and new revenue opportunities. What does a modern subscription model look like when it is built around choice instead of churn? For Morgan Mizrahi, a subscription commerce and e-commerce technology leader, the answer is flexibility. She explains how Rebillia challenges the old subscription playbook by helping merchants offer adjustable plans that customers can update throughout the subscription lifecycle. Instead of forcing buyers into one-size-fits-all recurring plans, this approach gives customers more control while helping businesses improve retention and increase lifetime value. Morgan also shares how flexible subscription infrastructure can support e-commerce, SaaS, AI-powered applications, and partnership-driven revenue models. In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Morgan Mizrahi, Co-founder and COO of Rebillia, to discuss the anti-subscription model for modern commerce. Morgan explains flexible billing, reducing churn through customer choice, and how AI agents and vibe coders are reshaping monetization. She also shares how partnerships create new revenue opportunities.
Philippe Mizrahi is the CEO and Co-Founder of Linkup, a Paris-based startup building the web search layer for the AI era. Previously a Group Product Manager at Lyft, Mizrahi co-founded Linkup in 2024 alongside Denis Charrier, whose prior company Niland — one of Europe's first vector search engines — was acquired by Spotify, and Boris Toledano (ex-McKinsey). The company has raised over $10M in funding, including a seed round led by Gradient, and is backed by Seedcamp, Motier Ventures, and angel investors including founders from Mistral, Datadog, and Deel. Linkup's API powers AI agents at enterprise clients including KPMG, and holds state-of-the-art results on OpenAI's SimpleQA benchmark.AGENDA:• 00:00:55 - Phil Mizrahi and the bet that became Linkup• 00:04:07 - Why Linkup's original vision was wrong• 00:07:00 - The MVP mistake most founders never catch• 00:10:05 - Fundraise or bootstrap: what Linkup chose and why• 00:13:08 - What Phil looks for in a founding team• 00:15:50 - Why Linkup wins in a crowded AI market• 00:19:07 - How Linkup got its first customers• 00:21:55 - The market bet Linkup is building toward• 00:36:22 - The pricing psychology behind Linkup's strategy• 00:39:05 - Why most startups target the wrong customer• 00:42:07 - The growth loop that scaled Linkup• 00:44:40 - Running a global team before you're ready• 00:46:45 - What separates founders who execute from those who don't• 00:50:09 - What most founders still get wrong about AI• 00:53:25 - How AI rewrites the zero-to-one playbook• 00:56:36 - What Phil tells every early-stage founder
Our GuestLinda Dangoor is a designer, painter and ceramicist, and the author of two cookbooks. Flavours of Babylon (first published 2011) celebrates the recipes of her Baghdadi Jewish heritage. Her second book, From the Tigris to the Thames (Green Bean Books, 2025), is part memoir, part cookbook, tracing her journey from Baghdad through Beirut, London, Ibiza and Paris. Praised by Yotam Ottolenghi, Claudia Roden, Giles Coren and Nigella Lawson - and Eylan (!). Linda studied painting and graphic design at the Central School in London and is a member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.Website: lindadangoor.com | Recipes: lindadangoorcooks.com | Instagram: @lindadangoorcreativeliving Key Topics• Food as identity: Why Linda argues food belongs to the place it comes from, not just the community that cooks it, and why she resists the label 'Jewish food'• Fear and concealment: What it meant to be Jewish in mid-century Baghdad, the word Israel banned at Passover, and the cost of decades of keeping Jewish identity quiet• Nostalgia versus memory: The distinction Linda draws between looking back with longing and simply saying how it was Your GuideShort definitions and terms referenced in this episode: • Babylonian Jews: A Jewish community from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) who trace their origins to the exile of Judahite captives to Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Distinct from Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, though often grouped under the broader Mizrahi label• T'beet: A traditional Iraqi Jewish Shabbat overnight dish. Recipe here• 'Our identity is at once plural and partial': A phrase from Salman Rushdie's 1982 essay Imaginary Homelands, published in the London Review of Books. Want to learn more?Explore past episodes that also reflect on displacement, Baghdadi Jewish heritage, and food as identity:• S2E5: Endangered, Not Erased with Samantha Ellis: Iraqi Jewish refugee heritage and the author of Chopping Onions on My Heart• S2E9: I Tick a Lot of Boxes with Shelley Silas: Baghdadi Jewish and Indian identity, playwright• S1E6: Other Within the Other with Carol Isaacs: Iraqi Jewish heritage and The Wolf of Baghdad References and Resources• From the Tigris to the Thames by Linda Dangoor (Green Bean Books, 2025)• Flavours of Babylon by Linda Dangoor (Green Bean Books)• Linda Dangoor's recipes at lindadangoorcooks.com• Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie, London Review of Books, 7 October 1982• Nigella Lawson's Cookbook Corner review of From the Tigris to the ThamesFind us elsewhere, here!Show creditsHost / Producer: Eylan EzekielPost-production: Communicating for ImpactArtwork: Emily TheodoreMusic: Aleksafor utransndr KarabanovSound effects: Serge Quadrado Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode of Ami's House, I am joined by the legendary Tal Oran, better known online as "The Traveling Clatt." As a Mizrahi and Sephardic Jew, Tal brings a unique and often ignored perspective to the fight against anti-Semitism. We dive deep into why traditional institutional approaches to advocacy often fail and how Tal uses his background to directly engage with the Arab and Muslim worlds to flip the narrative.From discussing the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Iraq to exploring the shared DNA between Israelites and Palestinians, this conversation challenges mainstream perspectives on the Middle East conflict. Tal explains his "slap and kiss" method of debate—tearing down false identities with logic while offering a shared story to find a path toward genuine coexistence.
What does our DNA reveal about who we are as a people? In this episode of Remember What's Next, we explore the genetic history of the Jewish people and what it teaches us about our shared origins, our journey through history, and the family-turned-nation we've become.We begin where it all began: in the Levant. The genetic evidence is clear — all Jews trace back to Judea, with roots firmly planted in the land of our ancestors. From there, we follow the threads of our story outward, examining how exile and survival shaped not only our culture and traditions, but our very biology.We trace the Ashkenazi journey through the Rhineland, the Sephardic experience in Spain and Morocco, and the long, rich history of Mizrahi communities across the Middle East and North Africa. We look at how being enslaved and dispersed by the Roman Empire scattered our family across continents, and how centuries of life in different lands left their mark on visible traits like skin tone, eye color, and hair — even as our core genetic identity remained remarkably intact.This is a story of one family that became a nation, a nation that endured exile, and a people whose genetic memory still carries the fingerprints of Judea after thousands of years. Join us as we connect the science to the soul of our shared Jewish story.Support the work: https://ko-fi.com/rememberwhatsnext Want the full story? Start from episode one.As Winston Churchill said, "The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." That's exactly what we're doing — going all the way back, so we can understand the present and shape what comes next.
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Entrevista a Alain Mizrahi - CEO de Grupo Radar que realizan el Perfil del internauta uruguayo 2025 by En Perspectiva
Ghazal Mizrahi, International Singer & Vocal Artist, makes her debut on the morning show with Sid live in-studio to talk about her music and her advocacy for Israel and the Jewish homeland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 2,541
Guest hazzan Yoni Avi Battat and Sarah Bunin Benor in conversation at IKAR's Lunch & Learn from our Sephardi / Mizrahi Shabbat on January 17, 2026.
In this episode, we continue our discussion of scientism. We talk about 6 problems with scientism that have been raised by Susan Haack, if we should feel bad about having some sympathy for scientism, and whether the contributions of all scientifici disciplines deserved the label of 'knowledge'. Enjoy. References: Haack, S. (2012). Six Signs of Scientism. Logos & Episteme, 3(1), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20123151 Brown, N. J. L., Sokal, A. D., & Friedman, H. L. (2013). The complex dynamics of wishful thinking: The critical positivity ratio. American Psychologist, 68(9), 801–813. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032850 Peels, R. (2023). Scientism and scientific fundamentalism: What science can learn from mainstream religion. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 48(2), 395–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2022.2152246 de Ridder, Jeroen. “Science and Scientism in Popular Science Writing.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 3, no. 12 (2014): 23-39. https://social-epistemology.com/2014/11/03/science-and-scientism-in-popular-science-writing-jeroen-de-ridder/ Meehl, P. E. (2004). Cliometric metatheory III: Peircean consensus, verisimilitude and asymptotic method. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 55(4), 615–643. Mizrahi, M. (2017). What's so bad about scientism? Social Epistemology, 31(4), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2017.1297505 Hayek, F. A. (1952). The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press. Rulkens, C. C. S., Peels, R., Stols-Witlox, M., Meloni, S., Lechner, I. M., & Bouter, L. (2025). The attribution of two portraits of Rembrandt revisited: A replication study in art history. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1347. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05523-2
For nearly a century, the Mizrahi family has shaped western apparel through craftsmanship, innovation, and a deep commitment to retailers and manufacturers across the industry. In this episode, Lane Mizrahi reflects on his father Roland's legacy, the evolution of Sidran Inc., and the timeless values that continue to guide their family business.Hosts: Jennifer Hebert, Morgan Nicole ZipperlenContact: Sophia Jagella, WESA Marketing SpecialistGuest: Lane Mizrahi, CEO Sidran Inc.Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cripplecreekapparel/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cripplecreekapparel/
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Send us a textThe strength of self confidence
Isaac Mizrahi joins Kevin Fallon on Obsessed for a fast, funny, and candid post–Golden Globes conversation that jumps from his scene-stealing, outrageously dirty line in ‘Marty Supreme' to why Timothée Chalamet has genuine old-school movie-star magic. Mizrahi weighs in on Jennifer Lawrence's sheer dress, Ariana Grande's grown-up glamour reset, Parker Posey's color misstep, Ozempic-era red-carpet aesthetics, and the sudden coronation of Hollywood's newest hot boys, along with plenty of classic Mizrahi digressions on Gwyneth Paltrow, supermodels, suits, and the eternal heels-versus-flats debate.Follow Kevin Fallon on Instagram @kpfallon Follow Matt Wilstein on Instagram @mattjwilsteinNew episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; early drops on YouTube. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Rosh Hashanah Guided Meditation with Rabbi Katie Mizrahi by Jewish Reconstructionist Communities
I was truly inspired by today's guest and her courage to follow her inner guidance, which served her not only on her personal journey but also led her to found a beautiful company with a sacred mission. Osi Mizrahi is the founder and visionary behind OSI Oils—a wellness brand rooted in slow beauty, Ayurvedic ritual, and the art of coming home to oneself. Born on a farm in Israel, Osi's connection to the natural world began early, shaping her journey as a medical intuitive, Ayurvedic artisan, and guide in the healing arts. With over 30 years of experience in yoga, Ayurveda, Reiki, Kundalini, and Theta Healing, Osi blends ancient wisdom with feminine embodiment. Her work is inspired by Kabbalah, breathwork, and intuitive practices that support deep transformation. Osi believes in slow beauty and slow aging—practices that honor the body's rhythms and nourish vitality over time. Oils, for her, are more than skincare—they are vessels of self-love, sensuality, and spiritual healing. Each OSI Oils formula is handcrafted in small batches using traditional Ayurvedic methods, turning everyday routines into sacred rituals. Whether soothing the nervous system with her belly oil or igniting life-force energy with Radiance Hair Oil, her products are designed to restore from the inside out. Osi's upcoming book shares her own journey through heartbreak, healing, and the power of ancient rituals. Through her storytelling, mentorship, and botanical creations, she helps women around the world reconnect to their spark—and live with more pleasure, purpose, and presence. Connect with Osi via: Email: osi@osioils.com Website: Osi Oils IG: @osioils YT: @OsiMizrahi Linked In: Osi Mizrahi Use My Special Promo Code RAWFORK20 for 20% off orders on osioils.com Visit https://marinabuksov.com for more holistic content. Music from https://www.purple-planet.com. Disclaimer: Statements herein have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products listed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.
In this two-part episode, we delve into the topic of scientism. Is science the best way to generate knowledge? Or are we giving too much deference to science if we believe this? In this first part, we discuss what scientism is, what - if anything - is wrong with scientism, and whether it is bad to be a scien-ti-sim-ist? References: Haack, S. (2012). Six Signs of Scientism. Logos & Episteme, 3(1), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20123151 Brown, N. J. L., Sokal, A. D., & Friedman, H. L. (2013). The complex dynamics of wishful thinking: The critical positivity ratio. American Psychologist, 68(9), 801–813. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032850 Peels, R. (2023). Scientism and scientific fundamentalism: What science can learn from mainstream religion. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 48(2), 395–410. https://doi.org/10.1080/03080188.2022.2152246 de Ridder, Jeroen. “Science and Scientism in Popular Science Writing.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 3, no. 12 (2014): 23-39. https://social-epistemology.com/2014/11/03/science-and-scientism-in-popular-science-writing-jeroen-de-ridder/ Meehl, P. E. (2004). Cliometric metatheory III: Peircean consensus, verisimilitude and asymptotic method. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 55(4), 615–643. Mizrahi, M. (2017). What's so bad about scientism? Social Epistemology, 31(4), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1080/02691728.2017.1297505 Hayek, F. A. (1952). The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press. Rulkens, C. C. S., Peels, R., Stols-Witlox, M., Meloni, S., Lechner, I. M., & Bouter, L. (2025). The attribution of two portraits of Rembrandt revisited: A replication study in art history. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1), 1347. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05523-2
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I was truly inspired by today's guest and her courage to follow her inner guidance, which served her not only on her personal journey but also led her to found a beautiful company with a sacred mission. Osi Mizrahi is the founder and visionary behind OSI Oils—a wellness brand rooted in slow beauty, Ayurvedic ritual, and the art of coming home to oneself. Born on a farm in Israel, Osi's connection to the natural world began early, shaping her journey as a medical intuitive, Ayurvedic artisan, and guide in the healing arts. With over 30 years of experience in yoga, Ayurveda, Reiki, Kundalini, and Theta Healing, Osi blends ancient wisdom with feminine embodiment. Her work is inspired by Kabbalah, breathwork, and intuitive practices that support deep transformation. Osi believes in slow beauty and slow aging—practices that honor the body's rhythms and nourish vitality over time. Oils, for her, are more than skincare—they are vessels of self-love, sensuality, and spiritual healing. Each OSI Oils formula is handcrafted in small batches using traditional Ayurvedic methods, turning everyday routines into sacred rituals. Whether soothing the nervous system with her belly oil or igniting life-force energy with Radiance Hair Oil, her products are designed to restore from the inside out. Osi's upcoming book shares her own journey through heartbreak, healing, and the power of ancient rituals. Through her storytelling, mentorship, and botanical creations, she helps women around the world reconnect to their spark—and live with more pleasure, purpose, and presence. Connect with Osi via: Email: osi@osioils.com Website: Osi Oils IG: @osioils YT: @OsiMizrahi Linked In: Osi Mizrahi Use My Special Promo Code RAWFORK20 for 20% off orders on osioils.com Visit https://marinabuksov.com for more holistic content. Music from https://www.purple-planet.com.
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 2,512
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 2,503
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 2,503
In today's episode, I'm opening the first chapter of what I believe is the most important series I've ever created — a deep dive into progesterone and why it became the heart of my medical practice. For more than 20 years, I've watched this “simple, humble hormone” transform women's lives in ways most conventional medicine overlooks. What started in two small treatment rooms has grown into a 25,000 sq ft facility, and the core of our success comes down to understanding progesterone's impact on the female brain, stress response, and emotional resilience. In this episode, I break down: Why progesterone is far more than a reproductive hormone How it regulates the female stress response (amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex) Why anxiety, insomnia, irritability, and emotional overwhelm often map directly to progesterone decline Why so many women feel “unraveled” in their 40s — and why it's not their fault The science behind oral vs. sublingual progesterone (and why I use troches) How conventional medicine often misses the root cause The importance of physicians showing their work, their data, and their citations The lived stories and clinical outcomes that changed how I practice medicine If you've ever felt dismissed, unseen, or told that your anxiety or mood changes are “just stress,” this episode is for you. This is the beginning of a 7-part series where I break down the neurobiology, endocrinology, testing, dosing, delivery methods, breast health, perimenopause, and more. Citations: Brinton, Roberta Diaz, et al. “Neurosteroids and Brain Function.” Steroids, vol. 81, 2014, pp. 61–78. Epperson, C. Neill, et al. “New Insights into Perimenopausal Depression: A Neuroendocrine Vulnerability Framework.” The Lancet Psychiatry, vol. 9, no. 2, 2022, pp. 110–118. Frye, Cheryl A. “Neurosteroids—Endogenous Modulators of GABA_A Receptors.” Pharmacology & Therapeutics, vol. 116, no. 1, 2007, pp. 58–76. Genazzani, Andrea R., et al. “Progesterone, Stress, and the Brain.” Human Reproduction Update, vol. 16, no. 6, 2010, pp. 641–655. Meeker, John D., et al. “Environmental Endocrine Disruptors: Their Effects on Human Reproduction and Development.” Reproductive Toxicology, vol. 25, 2008, pp. 1–7. Mellon, Stanley H. “Neurosteroid Regulation of Central Nervous System Development.” Pharmacology & Therapeutics, vol. 116, 2007, pp. 107–124. Mizrahi, Romy, et al. “The Role of Allopregnanolone in Stress, Mood, and Trauma.” Neurobiology of Stress, vol. 11, 2019, 100198. Paul, Steven M., and Graziano Pinna. “Allopregnanolone: From Molecular Pathways to Therapeutic Applications.” Current Opinion in Neurobiology, vol. 48, 2018, pp. 90–96. Pluchino, Nicoletta, et al. “Progesterone and Allopregnanolone: Effects on the Central Nervous System in the Luteal Phase and in Perimenopause.” Gynecological Endocrinology, vol. 36, no. 6, 2020, pp. 441–445. Rasgon, Natalie L., et al. “Perimenopausal Changes in the Brain and Mood: A Review.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, vol. 107, no. 4, 2022, pp. 1120–1134. Reddy, Doodipala Samba. “The Neurosteroid Allopregnanolone and GABA-A Receptor Modulation in Epilepsy and Mood Disorders.” Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 12, 2018, 933. Schiller, Crystal E., et al. “The Neuroendocrinology of Perimenopausal Depression.” Trends in Neurosciences, vol. 44, no. 2, 2021, pp. 119–135. Schumacher, Michael, et al. “Neuroprotective Effects of Progesterone and Its Metabolites.” Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, vol. 33, 2012, pp. 415–439. Selye, Hans. “The General Adaptation Syndrome and the Diseases of Adaptation.” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology, vol. 6, no. 2, 1946, pp. 117–230. Sheng, Jun, and György Buzsáki. “Neuronal Firing and Theta Oscillations in the Amygdala During Fear Conditioning.” Neuron, vol. 53, 2007, pp. 653–667. Smith, Sheryl S. “Progesterone Withdrawal Increases Neuronal Excitability in the Hippocampus: A GABA_A Mechanism.” Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 28, 2008, pp. 10171–10179. Snyder, Jonathan S., et al. “Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Stress Regulation.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 12, 2011, pp. 1–9. Stanczyk, Frank Z., and Jerilynn C. Prior. “Progesterone and Progestins: A Review of Pharmacology, PK, and Clinical Use.” Steroids, vol. 82, 2014, pp. 1–8. Tu, Ming-Je, et al. “Oral, Vaginal, and Transdermal Progesterone: PK, Metabolism, and Tissue Distribution.” Drug Metabolism Reviews, vol. 52, no. 2, 2020, pp. 1–28. Wang, Jun, et al. “Stress, Amygdala Plasticity, and the Neuroendocrine Interface.” Nature Neuroscience, vol. 10, 2007, pp. 1093–1100. Weinstock, Marta. “The Hippocampus and Chronic Stress.” Neurochemical Research, vol. 42, 2017, pp. 1–12. World Health Organization. Progesterone and Reproductive Function: Clinical Perspectives. WHO, 2019. Dr. Brendan McCarthy is the founder and Chief Medical Officer of Protea Medical Center in Arizona. With over two decades of experience, he's helped thousands of patients navigate hormonal imbalances using bioidentical HRT, nutrition, and root-cause medicine. He's also taught and mentored other physicians on integrative approaches to hormone therapy, weight loss, fertility, and more. If you're ready to take your health seriously, this podcast is a great place to start.
In this episode of Judaism Demystified, Alan Niku—better known as The Dreamy Kalimi—shares what first pulled him into preserving and spotlighting Persian Jewish history through his Instagram and YouTube work. He gives a clear snapshot of what makes Iranian Jewry so distinct within the broader Jewish world. Alan highlights a core theme in his research: Persian Jewish heritage was never one-dimensional. It included rationalists, mystics, poets, philosophers, halakhists, and community leaders whose voices shaped their communities but were later forgotten or overlooked. He explains why that diversity faded from memory and what is lost when those voices disappear. The conversation then turns to two figures who capture this intellectual range—Rabbi Yehuda ben Elazar (the Riba) and Mollah Siman-Tov Melamed. Alan discusses why these hakhamim resonate with him and what their teachings reveal about the depth of Persian-Jewish thought. Before we wrap up, he gives us a look at the projects he's working on to revive, translate, and reintroduce these texts and ideas to a new generation. You don't want to miss this riveting discussion.---*This episode is dedicated to the refua shelema of Sarah Miriam bat Tamar, Binyamin ben Zilpa, and our dear friend Yaakov ben Haya Sarah Malakh---• Bio: Alan Niku is a filmmaker, writer, and scholar of Mizrahi culture from San Luis Obispo, California, based in Los Angeles. A native speaker of Persian, he spends his time learning related Jewish languages, deciphering Judeo-Persian manuscripts, and interviewing community members about their stories. He is also a musician and an amateur chef, teaches history and Jewish heritage at various levels, and seeks to educate the world about the underrepresented cultures of the Middle East through his writing and films. He is widely known online as “The Dreamy Kalimi,” where he shares and celebrates the richness of Persian Jewish heritage on his highly entertaining and informative Instagram and YouTube channels.---• Check out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/ @Dreamy-Kalimi and his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_dreamy_kalimi/---• Welcome to JUDAISM DEMYSTIFIED: A PODCAST FOR THE PERPLEXED | Co-hosted by Benjy & Benzi | Thank you to...Super Patron: Jordan Karmily, Platinum Patron: Craig Gordon, Rod Ilian, Gold Patrons: Dovidchai Abramchayev, Lazer Cohen, Travis Krueger, Vasili Volkoff, Vasya, Silver Patrons: Ellen Fleischer, Daniel M., Rabbi Pinny Rosenthal, Fred & Antonio, Jeffrey Wasserman, and Jacob Winston! Please SUBSCRIBE to this YouTube Channel and hit the BELL so you can get alerted whenever new clips get posted, thank you for your support!
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Noam Weissman and Mijal Bitton dive into the first national study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States — directed by Dr. Mijal Bitton at NYU in partnership with JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa). Mijal and Noam discuss a missing chapter in the American Jewish story. Through new research and personal reflection, they explore what Sephardic and Mizrahi experiences and communities reveal about Jewish identity, belonging and traditions. Here is a link to Mijal Bitton's study: Sephardic & Mizrahi Jews in the United States: Identities, Experiences, and Communities conducted at NYU . https://sephardicstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/5.-Demographic-study_Understanding-Sephardic-and-Mizrahi-Identity.pdf Get in touch at our new email address: WonderingJews@unpacked.media and call us, 1-833-WON-Jews. Follow @unpackedmedia on Instagram and check out Unpacked on youtube. ------------ This podcast was brought to you by Unpacked, an OpenDor Media brand. For other podcasts from Unpacked, check out: Jewish History Nerds Unpacking Israeli History Soulful Jewish Living Stars of David with Elon Gold
Send us a textSara's shock - and the Secret of Strength
What happens when you have a profound loss, but no grave to visit? In this episode, Danielle shares her unique fertility journey — one that challenges our assumptions about what "fertility struggles" look like. From the joy of welcoming her third child to the unexpected trauma that followed, Danielle opens up about grief that doesn't come with a funeral, the profound loss of her ability to have more children, and the moments when her pain felt invisible. We explore how her body carries memory and trauma, how medical care and community influenced her recovery, and the ways she has found growth and meaning in the aftermath. Danielle's story reminds us that resilience isn't about pretending nothing happened — it's about choosing how to live with it, learning from it, and finding new ways to move forward. More about Danielle Mizrahi (LCSW): Danielle Mizrahi is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and certified perinatal mental health specialist (PMH-C) with a private practice in West Hempstead, NY. She currently specializes in maternal mental health and working with women throughout the reproductive lifespan. Danielle was drawn to IWSTHAB because of her own personal experiences with infertility. She is committed to supporting others through their own journeys to creating a family. Danielle lives in West Hempstead with her husband and 3 miracles, Reuben, Jacob and Sarah. Connect with Danielle Mizrahi: -Visit her Instagram: The Motherhood Collective -Contact Danielle via email Connect with us: -Check out our Website -Follow us on Instagram and send us a message -Watch our TikToks -Follow us on Facebook -Watch us on YouTube -Connect with us on LinkedIn
Welcome back to Just For This. Each week, host Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch (she/her) interviews women in leadership about women and leadership. Inspired by the story of Esther, we feature powerful stories of women who stand out in their fields, who have stepped up just for this moment. Our guest this week is Sarah Levin, Executive Director of JIMENA: Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa. Founded in 2002, JIMENA is the only organization in North America exclusively focused on educating and advocating on behalf of Jewish refugees and Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries. We discuss the reclaiming of the term "Mizrahi" in Judaism, Queen Esther's Persian background, and embracing the wholeness of your identity. Follow Just For This on instagram: @justforthispodcast
Joe Mizrahi is running for Seattle School Board District 4, which covers Queen Anne, Fremont, Belltown, and South Lake Union. His opponent is Laura Marie Rivera. This interview is part of our 2025 Seattle School Board Candidate series. Every Seattle voter will vote on four school board races in the general election: Districts 2, 4, 5, and 7.About Joe MizrahiSecretary Treasurer of UFCW 3000 (represents 60,000 frontline workers)Currently serving as District 4 school board director (appointed)Parent of three daughters in Seattle Public SchoolsCo-chair of $2 billion pension fundServes on multiple boardsHas testified to state legislature annually since 2008Key PositionsFirst Priority:Bring back committee structures for board membersNeed deeper dives on issuesOn School Board Role:Hold district accountable to voters' values and strategic visionApprove budget with eye toward sustainability for next decadeBe connective tissue with general publicOn Superintendent Search:Need someone who can hold system accountableStrong communication skills and ability to draw in communityBrings strong vision for districtOn District Structure:Worst choice is operating halfway between systemsLikes autonomy for different program choicesNeeds centralization for support and standardsEvery building should have its own feelOn When Goals Aren't Met:Hold superintendent accountable through evaluationsSet meeting agendas to make staff explain issuesCan reject plans and ask for better onesBe careful not to over-rely on standardized testsOn Community Engagement:Use board position to bring issues to meetings and agendaExample: forced district to address waitlists and enrollmentJob is to carry community concerns, not tell educators how to do their jobsOther Positions:Strongly supports special education inclusion and dual language immersionSees board role as both trustee and representativeEducational Leader He Admires: His mother (special education teacher who fought for inclusion)Most Aligned With: School Board President Gina ToppImportant InfoBallots mailed: October 15th | Due: November 4thAlso listen to: Interviews with all District 2, 4, 5, and 7 candidates at rainydayrecess.orgJoe's campaign: joe4schools.comPodcast info: rainydayrecess.org | hello@rainydayrecess.orgSupport the showContact us at hello@rainydayrecess.org.Rainy Day Recess music by Lester Mayo, logo by Cheryl Jenrow.
Even in high school, Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez was interested in arts, crafts – and chemistry. Now co-founder and Chief Implementation Officer at Osmoses, she is revolutionizing clean energy production through a breakthrough membrane technology. In this installment of “The FutureWork Playbook” series spotlighting founders on Forbes' “30 Under 30,” Katherine discusses her past and looks to the future with host Natalie Pierce. Osmoses has developed molecular filters 100,000 times smaller than human hair to replace century-old, energy-intensive gas separation processes. With pilot programs launching in Canada and partnerships with global petrochemical companies, Osmoses could reduce the 15% of global energy consumption currently devoted to industrial gas separations. “We've always seen that value and potential for the market, which is something that drives us,” Katherine says.Episode HighlightsA native of Venezuela who immigrated to the United States at age 12, Katherine participated in – and founded – initiatives that support underrepresented minorities in science.At MIT, Katherine studied Material Science and Engineering, which allowed her to merge her interest in arts and crafts with her love of science and chemistry.Osmoses was born through the National Science Foundation's iCorps program, where Katherine and her co-founders conducted over 100 customer interviews to validate market need for their membrane technology.Industrial gas separations consume 15% of the world's energy, creating an opportunity for Osmoses' molecular filters to reduce energy consumption in applications from medical oxygen generation to renewable natural gas production.The company has secured non-recurring engineering revenue from a global petrochemical company and has two pilot programs launching in Canada at landfill and anaerobic digester sites.Katherine emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration and mentorship in cleantech, explaining that diverse expertise is needed “so that a common problem can be solved because the complexity of these challenges is just so large.”
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 599
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 181
Yoav Oz is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rep AI, the conversational commerce platform giving online shoppers the kind of guided experience you'd expect from an in-store salesperson.The spark came from Yoav's own frustration: landing on ecommerce sites where he was ready to buy but stuck with eight pages of product copy and no one to answer his questions. Call centers felt broken. Chatbots felt generic. Out of that gap came Rep, short for “representative”: an AI sales assistant trained to step in at the exact right moment, with the context of everything a shopper has clicked, viewed, or abandoned.Yoav isn't building alone. Alongside him is Shauli Mizrahi, Rep's CTO and co-founder, who brings years of experience in behavioral AI. Together, they've built a tool that doesn't just cut support costs: it upsells, converts hesitant browsers, and helps brands maximize the traffic they've already paid to bring in.Their story blends SaaS know-how with ecommerce scrappiness: from proving AI could act like a real salesperson, to showing how conversational data can optimize entire funnels, to scaling integrations that slot into any brand's existing stack.Whether you're running a DTC store, trying to push up average order value, or rethinking how AI fits into your tech stack, Yoav shares a candid look at why the ecommerce funnel is broken and how Rep AI is working to fix it.In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:48] Intro[01:22] Sharing career paths before entrepreneurship[03:23] Bridging gaps between chatbots and consumers[07:01] Shifting mindset from support to revenue[08:33] Training AI with millions of conversations[12:55] Optimizing websites beyond guesswork[15:41] Creating experiences that drive purchases[17:16] Personalizing offers beyond discounts[18:11] Customizing tone of voice for every brandResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeeCommerce shopping AI agent www.hellorep.ai/Follow Yoav Oz linkedin.com/in/yoavozFollow Shauli Mizrahi linkedin.com/in/shaulimizrachyIf you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!
Tal Oran has dedicated himself to highlighting the rich, often overlooked diversity of Israeli society - amplifying voices from Mizrahi, Ethiopian, Druze, Samaritan, and Bedouin communities to name a few. Tal works to reshape the global image of Israel and combat disinformation from the ground up.For more, you can follow the show on Instagram @GraceforimpactpodcastProduced by Peoples Media Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In 2020, Jewish Currents editor-in-chief Arielle Angel and University of Washington professor of Sephardic studies Devin Naar, both descendants of Ladino speakers from Salonica (Thessaloniki) in Greece, had a conversation about what meaningful Sephardic representation might look like in the wake of near-total erasure. In this week's episode, Angel and Naar join community leader and singer of Arab Jewish music Laura Elkeslassy and professor of Hebrew literature and Mizrahi studies Oren Yirmiya to deepen the discussion about Sephardi and Mizrahi reclamation work. What are the practical entry points to this identity today? What is the use of catchall caucuses that bring together Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews from many different countries and linguistic lineages, and does this identity have to homogenize in order to survive? What does it mean to do this work amid the genocide in Gaza? And how do we make sure reclamation work is not only backward-looking, but responsive to the present?Thanks to Jesse Brenneman for producing and to Nathan Salsburg for the use of his song “VIII (All That Were Calculated Have Passed).”Media Mentioned and Further Reading“Are We Post-Sepharadim?,” Arielle Angel in conversation with Devin Naar, Jewish CurrentsYa Ghorbati: Divas in Exile by Laura Elkeslassy, live in concert and the artist's reflections in Ayin on the songs she performsShirei Yedidut, book of Moroccan piyyutim and bakashot Translations of the writings of Hayyim Ben-Kiki by Moshe Behar and Zvi Ben-Dor Benite in Modern Middle Eastern Jewish Thought: Writings on Identity, Politics, and Culture 1893–1958“Before the Law,” Franz Kafka“Going Out on a Limb: Joha,” Jane Mushabac The story about Djohá and the land can be found in Bewitched by Solika and Other Judeo-Spanish Tales by François Azar.Devin Naar discusses Djohá in his introduction to the Moabet column in Ayin.Transcript forthcoming.
Full TorahAnytime Lecture Video or Audio More classes from R' Yaakov Mizrahi ⭐ 104
The brothers welcome the writer and podcaster Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) to discuss the Israeli state's institutionalized and systematic dehumanization of Arabs and Palestinians, the racial hierarchy structuring and defining Israeli society, and the psychopathologies of colonial violence in such a racialized environment. Alon is the host of The Mizrahi Perspective on YouTube and can also be found on Substack Date of recording: June 23, 2025. Watch the video edition on our YouTube channel Follow us on our socials: X: @MakdisiStreet YouTube: @MakdisiStreet Insta: @Makdisist TikTok: @Makdisistreet Music by Hadiiiiii Sign up at Patreon.com/MakdisiStreet to access all the bonus content, including the latest Q&A