Learnt Up

Lorraine and Sarah are givin’ the people what they want, with another episode all about food! They’re having a cross-cultural potluck! The hosts invite comedians Betsy Stover and Marian Yesufu, and hostess-with-the-mostest Grace Kountzhouse, to bring dishes from their respective cultures and chat about the intersections of food and family. If you like plantains, stews, and big bowls of slop -- and if the idea of a “jello salad” intrigues you -- this is the ep for you.

A lotta lotta folks recommend a lotta lotta movies as Learnt Up homework for your hosts. For this episode, Lorraine and Sarah are discussing two filmmakers whose films they have been sleepin’ on despite them having been recommended time and time again.

As far as Learnt Up is concerned, 2 Jews Talking is a varsity podcast team and their hosts, Joshua Heller and Erika Brooks-Adickman, are a couple of heavy hitters. On this episode, Josh and Erika swing by to share the shame with Lorraine and Sarah.

Lorraine and Sarah get learnt up on board games! Some people are visual learnters, some learnt by hearing, some learnt by acts of service....oh wait, that’s the 5 love languages. Anyway the point is, the gals invited their friends to come over and play Secret Hitler and now they understand fascism!

The Standards and Practices department at Learnt Up Podcast fainted during the recording of this episode - it’s the one where Lorraine and Sarah get learnt up on ethnic slurs!!! They explore the origins of age-old bad words like “kike,” ”yid,” and “theeeee ennnnnn worrrrrrd.”

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a SUPER EPISODE OF LEARNT UP! In this one, Lorraine and Sarah get learnt up on comic book superheroes. Sarah schools us on how Magneto’s superpowers first fully activated in a concentration camp, while Lorraine explains how the Black Panther has to eat a ceremonial heart-shaped herb to harness his powers. Blessup to Stan Lee & Jack Kirby for bringing Magneto and Black Panther into the world.

In this episode, Lorraine and Sarah get learnt up on black and Jewish rap icon, DRAKE, or as Lorraine affectionately calls him "the Jewish Canadian non-rapist Kobe Bryant of hip hop." Sarah ups the ante on her appreciation for Drake's artistry and impressive career moves by checking out his work on Degrassi: The Next Generation for the first time. Then, Lorraine and Sarah take a break from discussing Drake to learn themselves up on Cardi B - that regular degular shmegular girl from the Bronx.

Friend of the show, Gil Ozeri stops by to get learnt up on Jewish representation in video games. He prompts Lorraine & Sarah to Google dudes like B.J. Blazkowicz of Wolfenstein fame & unnamed Jewish mobsters from Grand Theft Auto. Gil is unflappable during quiz time and everyone’s dad is super proud. Speaking of which, Lorraine and Sarah are psyched for Gil’s new daughter to get learnt up on everything via cool parents and her cool aunt, Alexandra Ozeri.

Learnters, this has been a YEAR. If 2017 were a pizza and someone served it to you, you’d be like, “Umm this pizza has hurricanes and Harvey Weinstein on it; I ordered pepperoni.” Luckily, you’ve got us, and we’ve got you. The gals look back on Learnt Up’s first year and share their favorite memories. Of course, no LU ep would be complete without an airing of shame, and there’s plenty of that. If you get nothing else from the podcast, remember this: alcohol is poison and knowledge is power.

Lorraine and Sarah get learnt up on holidays! Lorraine has some notes for Kwanzaa. In Hollywood terms, Kwanzaa, you’re still about 7 or 8 drafts away from anything good -- in fact, maybe you should switch paths. Meanwhile, Sarah forgets the story of Chanukah. Everyone’s ancestors are disappointed. But in the end, the gals learn the true meaning of the holidays: sharing love with your podcast co-host, and roasting your relatives for bad gifts!