Star journalist Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Kids Out— Every day for a week hostages got out of Gaza until, all of a sudden, they didn’t. —Kids In— When your kid calls to say he loves you. —The Jew-Hate on Other Campuses— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special,...

Miriam Herschlag, Gilad Halpern and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Women & the War— Gender’s gotten weird (even weirder than usual) in this war. Miriam Schler, Executive Director of the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center, joins us to make sense of it. —That Thing About the Muses— So many paintings, songs, poems,...

Noah takes a break from scrolling and refreshing, to consider the songs of this war (which has produced more music than all of Israel’s past wars rolled into one), and what they say about the country and how it has changed over the years, and for the better.

Miriam and Noah talk about the deal struck between Israel and Hamas, via the Qataris and the Americans, that would return 50 hostages, mostly kids and their mothers, in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners and a four day cease fire, the execution of which deal was already delayed on its first day. Miriam talks about evil and Viktor Frankl while Noah, as far as we can tell, lay in a fetal position, moaning on the floor of the studio.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Trolley Problems— If the two goals of the war – crushing Hamas and returning the captives home – turn out to be at odds, what should Israel do? —Ceasefire— What is the answer to the question, “Why not stop the war right now?” —What the Large...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Our Tragedy & Theirs— Should our papers, shows and sites be showing and telling us more about the suffering of Gazans, when we have so much pain of our own to come to grips with? —Bearing Arms— More people have applied for a gun license in the...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Lessons— What can Israelis learn from October 7 about the prospect of peace with Palestinians? —Netanyahu, Now— Can we still rally around our Prime Minister, even now? —We Try to Answer the Question, “How Are You?”— For our most unreasonably...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Waiting— The span of time we have now waited for Israel to counter-attack Hamas is now longer than the entire Yom Kippur War. How much longer can we stay in this strange and terrible in-between period without going crazy? —Captives— Is our hostage...

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Unity, Sure, but Not National Unity— One leader of Israel’s opposition joined Netanyahu in a “War Cabinet.” The other leader of the opposition did not. Who made the right call? —Left Behind— Why are some of Israel’s leading leftists surprised that...

Peace, co-existence and social-justice activist Sally Abed tells Noah what these last, terrible days of grief, anger and fear have been like for her, as an Israeli Arab. This is not for everyone, not at this moment, and if it is not for you, at this moment, don’t listen to it. For some people, it is maybe just what they want to hear, at this moment.

Allison, Miriam and Noah talk about the only thing that could possibly be on our minds at this moment of tragedy, mourning and anxiety. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon —Citizens Stepped in Where Government Failed— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: For the first 24 hours of tragedy, journalists did what our government failed to do. All that and songs of consolation.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Partition Plans?— On Yom Kippur, Tel Aviv became a battlefield in a religious war. What happened? —That War— Exactly fifty years ago, Israel was attacked from the south and the north, and 19 days of bloody fighting ensued. What is the legacy of...

Noah tells the story of one song that is also, in a way, the story of Israel itself.

In this very special episode of sustainably recycled stuff devoted to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, hear about the evolution of the great piyyut and prayer, u’netanah tokef, and hear how members of the crew make sense of the strange and beautiful holiday from their strange and beautiful perspectives. Jeremy Benstein, “The Bikes and Vibes of Yom Kippur in the first modern, Jewish city” Miriam Herschlag, “Sins for the Internet Age” Noah, “And to think that I saw it on Yom Kippur” All...

In this very special holiday Turducken of a podcast, we’ve stuffed into our own carcass an interview that Allison did for the Haaretz Weekly podcast with Noah and his comrade-in-politics Inbal Orpaz on why they are running for city council and what they stand for.  The tryptophan alone is reason enough to listen!

After a momentous week, after many momentous months, the Promised Podcast wishes you and yours a new year of every good thing!

Maybe no one is a better symbol of how Israel is changing (and did more to cause this change) than Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who died at 83 in 2020.

Allison Kaplan Sommer, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —It Ain’t the Economy, Stupid!— Israel may be the most expensive country in the world, and that fact has zero-zilch-nada impact on politics here. How come? —Elul, 5783— Elul is a month of soul-searching. What could we have done better, politically...

Linda Gradstein, Noah Efron, and scholar-public intellectual-podcaster Masua Sagiv discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Extremism in the Name of Moderation— Extremism in the name of moderation is no vice? —Won’t Anyone Think of the Children?!?— What’s it like to be a kid living through the tumult and angst of Israel in 2023? —Does the...

Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Out of Dodge?— A recent poll shows that almost one in three Israelis are thinking about leaving the country. But are all these folks really about to leave? —General Malaise— What happens when the army gets political? —What to Do With Someone Like Yair Netanyahu?— For...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Shikma— Does it matter that the first-among-equals leader of Israel’s biggest-ever protest movement is a woman (and a renowned particle physicist and a mother of five)? —Gal, or, Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Gal Gadot— Why is Gal Gadot, among Israelis, the most...

Allison Kaplan Sommer and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —National Unity?— Does the idea of tossing out of the government the far-right parties, and swapping in the center-left, makes a lick of sense? Is this even possible anymore? —Save Us from Ourselves, Joe Biden !?!— Is Israel’s left sending to DC a droid with the...

Linda Gradstein, Allison Kaplan Sommer, and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —What Happened?— The government passed the law that limits the court’s ability to limit the Ministers and cabinet. So why did the two sides fail to reach compromise, even though all sides said that’s what they wanted? —What Happens Now?— Now that...

Sally Abed, Allison Kaplan Sommer, and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Fortress of Democracy?— Does anyone really think it would be a good idea for Israel’s Supreme Court to fire Benjamin Netanyahu? —Jenin, Again— Two weeks ago, thirteen people died in an IDF operation in Jenin that, today, is all but forgotten. —And...

Miriam Herschlag, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss three topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Segment on Patreon   —Phase Change?— As summer heats up, there’s an escalation of the protests and counter-protests. Looks like it’s going to be a scorching summer. —Israel’s “Constitutional Moment”?— Is it time for Israel finally to write a founding document, a...