Ask a Jew Yael Bar tur, Chaya Leah Sufrin

Forget college campuses, the real culture war will take place next week in Malmo, Sweden, where the Eurovision Song Contest (otherwise known as the "gay olympics") takes place. We are joined by sports journalist and Eurovision rainman Sharon Davidovitch to talk about how Israel will fare this year in the glitter soaked battlefield - even if you know nothing of what is as big as the Superbowl across the pond, this episode offers fascinating takes about the Intersection between gepolotics and culture. We talk about why Israel had to change the name of it's song this year or risk being kicked out, how Dana International blew the world's mind in 1998 as the first transgender winner (from Israel!), why the 1983 outfits of the Israeli team were a big F U to Germany, how we determine who is antisemitic based on how they vote, and a little about what it's like to play and cover sports on behalf of Israel abroad. Come for the music, stay for the weird insights into Scandanavian incestuous voting habits.

Sarah Rose Siskind is a science comedy writer and psychedelic comedian who came by to tell us about how she hosted a "psychedelic Shiva" after October 7th (which she also wrote about for Psychology Today). We also discuss how drugs may have influenced Nova festival survivors, why Chaya Leah and Yael need to go on a “trip” to Auschwitz, and proposing to her fiancé Nick Gillespie at Burning Man.

Remember when OJ died?? That's what we were talking about a few days ago when we recorded this, and all was calm in the world. Coincidentaly this blissfully unaware episode is also number 100 for us! Thank you for that, Chaya Leah is petitioning to the Rabbis to make it a holiday as we speak (100 days of fasting? Need to workshop).

We did have a lovely chat with our friend Jay of the Habibi Bros about Iran, which you can find on our Instagram, @askajewpod.

Tom Aharon is an Israeli standup comedian, and co-host of Israel's top commercial daily radio morning show, New Morning.
We discuss doing stand up for IDF soliders after Oct 7, Hezbollah's VP of Global Marketing, and Natan Sharansky's underwear.
Happy Birthday Tom!

Dr. Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, former Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, executive secretary of the department's Commission on Unalienable Rights, and senior adviser to the Secretary of State. Naturally we talk about princess Kate. But we also cover additction to technology, the growing tensions between secular and religious Israelis, and the bad and worse options in Gaza.

In this episode we cover a failed meditation, a succesful trip to Israel (it's all fine now), and the moral confusion about rapes that aren't planned but just kind of happen. Also: a listener creates a fun game: who said it white nationalist or left wing antisemite? Check out askajew.substack.com to play! Our apologies to Princess Kate for making fun of her, clearly we recorded this hours before she shared the news of her diagnoses.