The sun is shining in Orange County, and Maya Vorobyov is about to call her staff in Israel and ask them to film themselves running to a bomb shelter. She knows how the request sounds. She also knows it is the only way anyone fifteen hours away will understand.
Maya runs TalkIsrael, which trains young creators to tell Israel's story online, on what she calls the second battlefield. Maayan sits down with her to talk about the childhood in Ramle with grandparents who had hidden their Jewish identity, the call to her former commander after October 7th when she wanted to fly home, why most of the hate online is written by bots rather than people, and what an invisible wound looks like in someone whose job is holding everyone else up. Hers showed up at one in the morning, when she looked down and saw her hands shaking.
A podcast from American Friends of NATAL. Produced by POLDHU.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Cold open and welcome
01:03 Ramle, immigrant grandparents, and the IDF bands
03:21 California at 25, and the students afraid to speak
04:33 October 7 and the call to her commander
06:27 Building TalkIsrael
10:16 The second battlefield and the bots behind the hate
11:51 Iran 2.0: filming from the shelter
15:08 The guilt of being here
19:10 Why authentic beats polished
26:07 Dark humor and the invisible wound
27:54 One a.m., hands shaking
29:38 Advice to young Maya, and compassion