What Came After

I met Jeffrey Weiss earlier this year at his office on the Tel Aviv waterfront, in one of the old, ramshackle buildings at Kikar Atarim that look out over the marina. I’d been drawn to the memorial stickers that have changed public space in Israel over the last three years. They’re tributes to people who've fall on and since October 7th, usually no bigger than a bumper sticker, on lamp posts, benc...

Whenever I’m in Israel to work on this show, I message a few people when I arrive and say, “I’m back! Tell me who I’m interviewing.” In this case, my dear friend (and former WCA guest) Samantha Robinson pointed me in the direction of Molly Livingstone. Molly grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of a British dad with a gift for complaint and an American mom. In July 2002, her beloved camp counselor...

I met Sharon Grinker at the marina in Herzliya. It’s a beautiful marina, and a big one, at least for someone who's never spent time at a marina. By the time I found him, I was a little late and a little sunburned. He was standing on the boat, talking with two women. I later learned that these two women were part of a program Sharon founded called Breaking Waves.  Both of them had lost their husban...

I sat with Israeli-American literary translator and writer Yardenne Greenspan in Tel Aviv this past July. I’d fallen in love with her translation of Yishay Ishi Ron’s novel “Dog” while preparing for my conversation with Ishi (which was featured in last week's episode), Yardenne was born and raised in Israel and has lived and worked in the US for the past 16 years. She translates novels, short stor...

I sat with Israeli author, Yishay Ishi Ron, at his home in Kfar Saba this past summer. To prepare, I read his novel  ⁠Dog⁠ , which was deft, spare, and deeply moving in Yardenne Greenspan's beautiful translation. (Yardenne joins me later this season.) Dog follows Geller, a decorated soldier who returns from Gaza, descends into heroin addiction, and ends up on the streets of Tel Aviv. Ishi wrote it...

Welcome back to What Came After. This episode with guest Eden Einav comes out just days before the third anniversary of October 7th, and I think Eden is exactly the right person to spotlight as this anniversary approaches.  Eden Einav is an IDF veteran who served with Yasar Darom, the unit tasked with recovering fallen soldiers and hostages. I want to reiterate: Eden's job was to recover fallen so...

Support our work ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ ! WCA Media relies on your support to bring you episodes like this one.   This past June, I sat down in Tel Aviv with Rita Yedid. Before October 7th, Rita's friends called her "Wonder Rita." Now the nickname is also the title of a  ⁠documentary film⁠ about what she lived through at the Nova Festival, and the process of intense self-discovery that's taken place since.  Rit...

Welcome back to What Came After. In this episode, Joseph Gitler welcomed me into his home—we recorded in March of 2026. Fortunately, our conversation wasn't interrupted by a missile attack but Israel's war with the Iranian regime was still very much raging. Joseph is the founder of Leket Israel, the organization that rescues cooked meals and agricultural surplus from across Israel to feed over 470...

Please Support What Came After Media: Donate here . Your donations make this work possible. For months, Yoni Heilman and I kept missing each other. When I was in Israel, Yoni was serving in reserve duty. When Yoni was available for an interview in Israel, I was back in America. Finally, this past April, we were both in New York City and managed to sit down for this conversation. Yoni is an America...

Please Support What Came After Media: Donate here . Your donations make this work possible. On March 18th of this year, I'd been back in America for a few days after getting stuck in Israel during the war with Iran. I still felt scattered, jet-lagged and wrung out. So I decided to treat myself to the ultimate comfort food: an authentic bagel. I ran into a friend at (the kosher and delicious) Emma'...

Please Support What Came After Media: Donate here . Your donations make this work possible. When I first met with our guest, Dekkel Bachar, at the end of 2025, we talked about Shesek, an initiative of the Israel ParaSport Center. Shesek was designed to help rebuild the lives of Israelis. Nearly three years later,  many in Israel are still grappling with its impact. Tens of thousands-- and likely m...

In March, I was in Israel when war broke out with the Iranian regime. Since I couldn't leave the country, I wanted to make the most of the time, A mutual friend suggested I meet with Orit Gidali between missile alarms. Orit is a renowned poet and children's author. She spent an afternoon with me, against the backdrop of an active war, talking about what it means to make art in the aftermath of tra...

This is my first time back in Israel since the war with the Iranian regime. Things feel different now — and that old line about an hour being a long time in the Middle East has never felt truer. I wanted to release more of the recordings I made during the war, and being back here felt like the right moment. We’ve put them together into a series called Between Sirens. In this episode, you’ll hear f...

Last November, I spent nearly ten hours at Einot Bar, otherwise known as Ripples of Healing, which many of you may have learned about through various interviews on this show. While I was there, I met a young woman named Ellah Gotman. She was spending her day leading thirty first responders from October 7th through sound healing rituals. She had a peaceful, grounding, almost ethereal quality that s...

I sat down with Samantha Robinson in Jerusalem in February 2026 — weeks before any of us knew that a second war with the Iranian regime was on the horizon. Sam is the Director of Community Resilience and Development at the Jewish Agency, where she’s part of JReady⁠, the Agency's global initiative for emergency preparedness and community rehabilitation. It was a role she held before October 7th — a...

In November 2025, I sat down with Israeli military photographer Oren Cohen in Jerusalem. Oren's book, 06:29 — named for the moment the Hamas onslaught began — is the most powerful photojournalism collection I've seen on October 7th and its aftermath. His images are unflinching: A computer screen glowing white with dental records, needed to identify remains. A funeral for a military dog killed in s...

I met Shelly (who asked that her last name not be shared) in a shelter in central Israel in March during Israel's war with the Iranian regime. Shelly was 21, confident, radiant  and articulate. I gravitated towards her immediately. When she mentioned she was an officer in the army training to be a combat physician, I knew she'd have important things to say. Once we were out of the shelter, we sat...

This past November, I sat down with Amanda Borschel-Dan, Deputy Editor of The Times of Israel . Ever since the war began, it's been her voice on the Times of Israel Daily Briefing that has kept me — and so many of us in the English-speaking diaspora — feeling oriented and sane. She is one of my heroes of journalism: someone who has reported on October 7th and the subsequent wars with extraordinary...

I learned about Channi Rabinovitz through her husband, Itzhik. Itzhik appeared in an earlier episode —  ⁠"A Tsunami of PTSD Is Coming" ⁠ — where he spoke about the mental health journey of one of his sons, who found healing through a hydrotherapy-based trauma treatment clinic in Israel called Ripples of Healing, also known as Einot Bar.  It was Itzhik who told me about Channi. Channi has worked as...

On March 11th, I sat down with Alyssa Annis, a native of Manchester, England, now living in Israel. Several years ago, while working closely with Holocaust survivors, Alyssa promised them that their stories would not be forgotten. This promise has become the defining mission of her life. Today she works with ⁠Sharaka⁠ , bringing Holocaust education to Muslim leaders in the Arab nations that are si...

This episode features Danesh Malmir, who was born in Iran and later came to the United States as an asylum seeker. Introduced to host Manya Marcus through a mutual connection, Danesh shares the story of his activism against the Iranian regime and the personal cost of that work. He was shot during an anti-government protest, witnessed the IRGC kill a close friend, and was ultimately forced to flee...

When the What Came After team traveled to Israel this past February, we arrived with a plan: a slate of interviews, a full itinerary, and a clear sense of direction. But when war with the Iranian regime began on February 28th, everything changed. In the days that followed, we continued searching for voices that could help make sense of the moment. One of them was Netta Hultqvist, whom host Manya M...

Recorded during the first days of Israel’s second war with the Iranian regime, this chapter explores the role of dark humor in moments of crisis. From bomb shelters to everyday interactions, laughter emerges as a powerful way to cope with fear, uncertainty, and life under fire.   Learn more about our podcast at https://www.whatcameafter.com/

Professional para-athlete Asael Shabo lost his leg in a terror attack at the age of nine—an attack that also took the lives of several members of his family. In this episode, he shares a personal update from wartime Israel, reflects on his journey to wheelchair basketball, and speaks about trauma, resilience, and the long path to recovery. To support the Israel ParaSport Center- which played a cri...

In this episode, Manya Marcus speaks with award-winning Israeli screenwriter Eden Gurion about his latest film, called Remnants in English The film follows a teenage girl whose older sister was killed at the Nova music festival during the massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, and offers several intimate portraits of grief. In their conversation, Eden reflects on the many faces of grief and on why...