From "Jewess Jeans" to "Coffee Talk" to "Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy," Jewish women have left their mark on Saturday Night Live as cast members and as characters. In this episode of Can We Talk? we look at the evolving role of Jewish women on the show over its 50 years on TV. Original cast member Laraine Newman talks about how her Jewish identity influenced the characters she played, and how the show reflects changing attitudes about being Jewish. Also, pop culture scholar Jennifer Caplan helps us dissect some iconic sketches—some of which have aged better than others. 

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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And if you want to make sure we continue telling stories at the intersection of gender, history, and Jewish culture, donate to JWA's year-end campaign!

Step into the history of queer Jews in Washington, DC, as Nahanni tours the Capital Jewish Museum’s current exhibit, “LGBTJews in the Federal City” with curators Jonathan Edelman and Sarah Leavitt. Through artifacts, photos, and oral histories, the exhibit looks at decades of federal discrimination and the fight for equality, the AIDS epidemic and national response, and the transformation of Jewish communal life locally and nationally. Highlights include a panel from the AIDS memorial quilt, a purple, sequined gown from DC’s favorite Jewish drag queen, and a pair of rotary phones that dial up oral history clips from local LGBTQ community members.  

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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And if you want to make sure we continue telling stories at the intersection of gender, history, and Jewish culture, donate to JWA's year-end campaign!

Guita Sazan grew up in a Jewish family in Tehran in the 1960s and 1970s, during the reign of the Shah. She was a teenager during the Islamic Revolution against the Shah and was inspired to join the struggle, even becoming a practicing Muslim. But as time went by, the new regime became more and more repressive, until finally Guita realized her own life might be in danger unless she fled the country. Guita joins us to discuss her dramatic life story and her new memoir Mirrors on Fire: A Jewish Girl Seized in Pursuit of Jihad.

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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.

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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." 

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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.

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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.

Photos reprinted with permission from Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp by Tracy Slater. 

Translation of Elaine Buchman Yoneda's letter used with permission from Manzanar: Internment Camp Diary (English Translation) by Karl G. Yoneda and Ian R. Forsyth. 

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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.

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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. 

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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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. 

Judith: Reformed streaming on Max)

Nahanni: The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden; Journey From the Land of No by Roya Hakakian; As A Jew by Sarah Hurwitz

Jen: The Retrievals podcast, season 2

You can find Can We Talk? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. We're also on YouTube! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new episode.

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