In this episode of Jewish Actually, I sit down with artist Baret Boisson for a deeply personal conversation about identity, lineage, and belonging.

Baret grew up knowing her mother was Jewish, but believing her father was not. Years later, while searching for her birth father, a DNA test revealed something unexpected — she is 100% Jewish. That discovery didn’t create a new identity. It reframed the one she thought she understood.

We talk about what it means to inherit a history you weren’t fully raised inside of, how family truths can reshape self-perception, and how identity evolves over time.

Baret is a major contemporary artist whose work has been seen by over 100,000 visitors in a civil rights museum exhibition. She has completed high-profile portrait commissions, including one of Jimmy Fallon and his family. But, this conversation is about something more intimate — the search for belonging.

If you’ve ever questioned where you come from or how identity forms, this episode is for you.

Welcome to Jewish Actually. I'm Lila, and this podcast exists because Jewish identity isn’t a headline, a stereotype, or a comment section debate. It’s personal.

In this first episode, I talk about why I’m starting this show — what I want to question, what I want to unpack, and why the conversation around Jewish life feels louder and more confusing than ever.

This is a space for honest conversations.

No scripts. No performative takes.

Just nuance, curiosity, and real talk.

Because being Jewish right now?

It’s complicated.

And we’re going there.