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? ...

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...

At the Jewish Women's Archive, we’re closely following the attacks on democracy unfolding around us every day. In this special C an 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 Ta...

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 w...

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 kille...

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!...

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, a...

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 G...

It’s a  Can We Talk?  party! Welcome to our 120th episode 🥳.  We're celebrating this milestone podcast style—Jen gets Judith and Nahanni reminiscing about the early days, we revisit clips from some of our favorite episodes, and we hear " Until 120! " in six languages. We’re honored to be feted by some very special past guests and fans of  Can We Talk? , including Susan Stamber...

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 contribu...

This Sukkot, we're welcoming a special guest into  Can We Talk?’s virtual sukkah: the Talmudic “femme fatale” Homa, one of the women featured in her new book, The Madwoman in the Rabbi's Attic . 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...

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,...

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 Carro...

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. Histo...

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...

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...

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 thou...

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...

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 cour...

Lenora LaMarche, better known as Leni, was born in 1921 in the Sephardic Jewish community in Seattle, Washington, after her parents moved there from Rhodes, looking for better economic opportunities. She grew up speaking Ladino, and for over 30 years, she wrote a Ladino column in her synagogue newspaper called "Bavajadas de Ben Adam"—people’s foolish little words.  In this episode of Can We T...

When Ronya Schwaab was a young girl, the highlight of her year was preparing for Pesach—the snow was melting, and she got to help bake matzos. Ronya was born in 1909 in Belarus. She grew up amidst the violence and antisemitism of World War I and the Russian Revolution, and immigrated to America as a teenager. As an adult, Ronya devoted her life to helping other Jews escape from the Soviet Union. I...

A lot of people love klezmer music and know that it made a big comeback a few decades ago. But not a lot of people know that the klezmer revival of the '70s and '80s was connected to queer Jewish liberation. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we’ll hear about how queer activism fits into the klezmer revival story from Eve Sicular, the drummer and leader of the all-female klezmer sextet Isle of Klezb...

Last time on Can We Talk? , we spoke with Danielle and Galeet Dardashti about their new podcast, The Nightingale of Iran, which tells the story of their Persian family's musical legacy . Now, we're sharing the whole first episode with you. Enjoy!  

Danielle and Galeet Dardashti grew up in a very musical family—they had a family band, their father was a cantor, their mother was a folk singer, and their grandfather was a famous singer in “the golden age” of Iran in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, with his own show on Iranian national radio. But growing up, they didn’t know much about the Persian side of their musical legacy. In this episode of Can...

“From the deepest crises come the clearest visions…We're fighting for our lives. We're fighting for our future,” says Sally Abed of Standing Together, a grassroots political movement in Israel. In this episode of  Can We Talk? ,   we hear from Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel who are working on shared society initiatives, even in the midst of the war. Sally Abed, Hanan Alsanah,...