On October 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas attack, Israeli trauma therapist Merav Roth visited survivors of Kibbutz Be’eri in the hotel they had been evacuated to. Some had seen family members murdered; others were raped or fled homes that were set on fire. Merav stayed and worked with them for weeks. She also helped organize hundreds of therapists to provide emergency aid to survivors. For the past two years, she has continued to work with survivors, with the families of hostages, and with hostages released in every round of agreements—including the most recent one. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Merav describes how some of the hostages coped in captivity, what she's hearing from Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, and what long-term recovery from trauma can look like. This episode contains descriptions of violence.

Public radio icon Susan Stamberg died on October 16, 2025, at the age of 87. In this special episode, we pay tribute to Susan by listening back to our 2018 interview in which she discusses her New York accent, how early NPR audiences responded to hearing a woman deliver the nightly news, and what she listens for in a broadcast voice. The interview was part of an episode about women's voices in broadcasting, called "Breaking the Sound Barrier."

Two years after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, we speak with family members of Vivian Silver and Hayim Katsman, Israeli peace activists who were murdered that day. Hayim’s mother Hannah Wacholder Katsman and Vivian’s son Yonatan Zeigen share how they are carrying on their legacies.

In the spring of 1942, at the height of World War II, Elaine Buchman Yoneda became the only Jewish woman on record to be imprisoned in an American concentration camp. Manzanar was one of the detention centers—commonly known as Japanese internment camps—where the US government imprisoned 120,000 people of Japanese descent, the majority of whom were American citizens, during the war. Elaine spent ten months in Manzanar, along with her Japanese-American husband, Karl, and their 3-year-old son, Tommy. In this episode of Can We Talk?, Tracy Slater, author of Together in Manzanar, describes the bleak living conditions in the camp, the tensions that festered among the prisoners, and how the Yonedas became targets of violence. She also talks about how the anti-immigrant and racist policies of the time tore families apart, and how those same forces are reemerging today.

From 1929 until the mid 1950s, Molly Goldberg was America’s favorite Jewish mother. Her character was written, acted, and embodied by Gertrude Berg, the first female showrunner and the first woman to win an Emmy for television. First on radio, then on television, The Goldbergs was a hit show and the first family sitcom. In this episode of Can We Talk?, New Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum introduces us to Gertrude Berg and her lovable character Molly Goldberg. We talk about how Molly remade the image of the Jewish mother, how McCarthy-era persecution led to the show’s downfall, and how the show still resonates today.

For the last of our summer re-releases, we're taking you back to an episode from 2017 about mah jongg, an ancient Chinese table game that’s embedded in Jewish culture.

In this special summer episode, Judith, Nahanni, and Jen each share something they've read, watched, or listened to this summer that Can We Talk? listeners will love.

While the podcast is on summer hiatus, we're listening back to some of our favorite Can We Talk? episodes. This time, an episode from 2021 about Moroccan Israeli singer Zohra El Fassia.

While the podcast is on summer hiatus, we're listening back to some of our favorite Can We Talk? episodes. First up, an episode from 2022 all about the word yenta: where it came from, what people think of it, and how its meaning changed over time. Enjoy!

Supporting and embracing queer Jews has been Idit Klein's mission for over a quarter century. Since 2001, she has led Keshet, which is now the largest organization for LGBTQ+ Jews in America. With her departure from Keshet approaching, Idit sat down with her longtime friend Judith Rosenbaum, to reflect on her career, the impact of today's political climate on her work, and how much has changed for queer Jews in her lifetime.

In June 2025, the thirteenth cohort of Orthodox women rabbis graduates from Yeshivat Maharat, the first Orthodox yeshiva in North America dedicated to ordaining women. In this episode, we look at the status of the so-called stained-glass ceiling for Orthodox women rabbis as they seek pulpit positions, and we talk about the unique challenges for women’s leadership in the Orthodox movement. We speak with Rabbanit Leah Sarna, Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman, and Yeshivat Maharat’s founder and president, Rabba Sara Hurwitz.

For centuries, writing a Torah scroll was a sacred task reserved for men. But a couple of decades ago, a handful of women decided to pick up the quill—without waiting for permission—and paved the way for other women to do the same. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we hear from women who write Torah scrolls and explore what it means to inscribe yourself into tradition.

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.

In honor of Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, we're sharing a podcast episode from Making Gay History’s current series about the Nazi era. Frieda Belinfante was a Dutch musician and underground activist who risked her life to help save hundreds of Jews from the Nazis. She’s one of several LGBTQ people whose testimonies are featured in this Making Gay History series. Check out the rest of the series at makinggayhistory.org.

At the Jewish Women's Archive, we’re closely following the attacks on democracy unfolding around us every day. In this special Can We Talk? audio essay, our own Judith Rosenbaum, JWA's CEO, calls out President Trump's moves to erase the histories of women and other marginalized groups. A version of this piece first ran on the Jewish Telegraphic Agency's website.

The climate crisis has entered an alarming new era. Since President Trump started his second term, the Environmental Protection Agency has fired scores of climate scientists and is trying to roll back climate protections and slash clean energy funding. For organizations like Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, it's been a giant step backward. In this episode of Can We Talk?, we speak with Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, CEO of Dayenu, about how climate activists are navigating a new political landscape, how Jewish values fuel her work, and how the fight for climate action echoes the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, which Jews will soon mark at our Passover seders.

As the war between Ukraine and Russia enters its fourth year, Nahanni checks in with Vlada Nedak, the CEO of Project Kesher Ukraine. While American officials try to broker a temporary ceasefire, attacks on the ground in Ukraine are intensifying. Dozens of people have been injured and killed in the past month, including children. According to Reuters, over 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia invaded the country in 2022. Vlada Nadek lives in Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine, which is frequently the target of Russian missile and drone attacks.

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, as President Trump turns refugees and asylum seekers away, tightens our borders, and orders the deportation of thousands of immigrants, that conversation feels relevant all over again. We begin our spring season in March. For now, we're sharing that 2016 episode about Emma Lazarus, "Sonnet for America."

On August 4, 1869, a Jewish baby girl named Josie became Alaska’s first pioneer daughter. Josephine Rudolph was born in Sitka, Alaska to German immigrants, and returned to Germany when she was 6 years old. Seven decades later, her American birth saved her life when the Nazis came to power.

Josie’s story takes us from the muddy frontier town of Sitka to Hitler youth parades in Nazi Germany and finally to postwar New York, where her family tried to find their place. It's a remarkable tale of the survival of one Jewish woman and her family, but it's also part of a much bigger story—about antisemitism, refugees, and settlement, about who belongs, and where. First we'll hear from Tom Kizzia, the journalist who reported Josie's story, and then from Susie Hoffman and Amy Weiss, Josie's great-granddaughters.