Can We Talk?

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 Stamberg of NPR, comedians Judy Gold and ...

Toronto R & B musician Erez Zobary was always proud of her Yemenite Jewish identity, but didn't explore it in her music - until now. Her new album, Erez, is a soulful, personal collection of songs that draws on her family's stories of life in Yemen and Israel. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Erez helps us kick off Mizrahi Heritage Month, when we celebrate the cultures and contributions of Jews from the Middle East, N...

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.

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A year after Hamas’ brutal October 7 attacks on Israel, the war is far from over. Israel is fighting on multiple fronts—with Hamas in Gaza, with Hezbollah in Lebanon—while war threatens to explode with Iran. Hamas is still holding 101 hostages in Gaza, 33 of whom have been confirmed dead by the IDF.  In this episode of Can We Talk?, three Israeli women—Lee Hoffman Agiv, Stav Salpeter, and Ruby Russell—share thoughts about...

Before Joan Rivers, there was another Jewish woman who broke ground as a stand-up comedian. Her name was Jean Carroll, and although she was a household name in the 50s and 60s, today she has been mostly forgotten. Grace Kessler Overbeke hopes her new book about Jean Carroll, First Lady of Laughs, will change that. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we talk to Grace about why Jean Carroll deserves to be remembered for changi...

The iconic Dr. Ruth Westheimer died earlier this year at the age of 96. Dr. Ruth was a trailblazer for her candid and joyful talk about sex, regularly using words like "masturbate" and "vibrator" on the air, and talking about sexual pleasure— including women's sexual pleasure—at a time when few others did. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we remember and celebrate Dr. Ruth. Historian and author Rebecca D...

In this bonus episode, Nahanni Rous shares stories from a trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Nahanni visits a solar energy training center, a skateboarding competition, and the annual Oglala Nation powwow, and meets people who are trying to build a better future, both by innovating and by reclaiming tradition.

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're ...

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.

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Since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, Can We Talk? has focused on Israeli women’s responses to the war. In this episode, we turn our attention to Gaza, where Israel’s sustained bombardment has taken a terrible toll—tens of thousands of people have been killed, nearly two million people have been displaced, and the medical system is in ruins.

Over a hundred thousand Palestinians have fl...

Dr. Mollie Wallick didn't set out to be a gay rights activist; she stumbled into the role in 1983, when she was a guidance counselor at Louisiana State University’s medical school in New Orleans. In this episode of Can We Talk?, you’ll hear excerpts from Mollie’s 2005 interview for the “Women Who Dared” oral history project. As we kick off Pride Month, Mollie’s story reminds us how much has changed in just a few decades—langua...

Segun el tiempo, se abolta la vela. That’s a Ladino saying that means, “According to the weather, shift your sail.” And it's an apt way of describing Ladino's recent comeback. Ladino—or Judeo-Spanish—the language spoken by Sephardic Jews in Turkey, Greece and North Africa, saw a major decline after the Holocaust destroyed communities of native speakers. But like a sailboat shifting course when the wind changes direction, ...

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 Talk?, you’...

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. In this episode of Can We Talk?...

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 Klezbos. And of course, we’ll hear some ...

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 We Talk?, Nahanni speaks with Galee...

“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, Ayesha Ziadna, Khitam Abu Bader, and Ra...

When Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7, they raped, tortured, and mutilated women’s bodies in unimaginable ways. News about the sexual violence emerged within days, but few women’s organizations spoke up to condemn it. Some even questioned whether the claims were true. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we discuss the sexual violence of October 7, the effort to collect evidence, and the international response—or lack ther...

Iris Bahr was halfway around the world when she saw her mother having a stroke over video chat. Within days, she was on an airplane, uprooting her life to become her mother’s primary caregiver. The stroke led to vascular dementia– an irreversible condition. Iris is a writer and actor and chronicles the story in a poignant—and funny— one-woman show See You Tomorrow.  In this episode of Can We Talk?, Nahanni speak...