Talk About Bupkes!

Noach Gɫuchowicz

Insightful conversations about coping with life in an era of exploding pagers. Hosted by journalist William Noah Glucroft and produced by Noach Głuchowicz, Secretary-General of Words of The Bupkes, who lures guests to join him where we belong: alone, in the dark, in the corner. Want more? Check out The Bupkes — it rhymes with justice. A zine of side-eye journalism, cathartic satire, and literary work with the curmudgeonly conviction in basic decency and a good sandwich. Yiddishkeyt über alles. www.thebupkes.com

Episodes

  1. A Very Bupkes Collab: Talk About Bupkes! Teams Up with Megan's Megacan

    FEB 12

    A Very Bupkes Collab: Talk About Bupkes! Teams Up with Megan's Megacan

    Talk About Bupkes! is also available on YouTube and most anywhere else your ears go for podcasts. To paraphrase a Chinese restaurant federation, we’re not sure why Megan’s Megacan wanted to associate itself with The Bupkes, but we are glad that it did. If Europe can make “deportation” cool again, then “collaboration” is fair game. So we are thrilled to release this special episode of Talk About Bupkes! that is actually an episode of Megan’s Megacan—a podcast about Germany, which is way more fun than ours because it involves more drinking, a cozier living room, and nicer hosts. Together, we dove into the Teutonic Imaginary to rubberneck the car crash of German memory politics. Funny how your conception of being “good” can repeat everything that made you “bad,” right? Most recently, this real-life tragedy has taken the form of a scandal in Berlin that involves Christian Democrats with “no expertise in combating antisemitism” handing out public funds to combat antisemitism to friends who also lack expertise in combating antisemitism. If you’re looking for reason in Germany’s Staatsräson, keep on searching. Be sure to subscribe to Megan’s Megacan and give them some gelt! Follow them on whichever psychotic billionaire’s data-fracking machine you prefer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/megansmegacan/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/MegansMegacan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We’re excited to have William Noah Glucroft (or Gluhcroft? We can never remember and don’t care enough to double-check) host Talk About Bupkes! William brings The Bupkes some much-needed journalistic integrity and, best of all, he’s not nearly important enough to have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. (Plus, we kinda owe him one.) Music by The Bupkes’ own Chief Goy Liaison Officer, Wiliam Succumbs. Let us know what you think of it! NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Get full access to The Bupkes at www.thebupkes.com/subscribe

    1h 4m
  2. 12/22/2025

    In the "garden" of Brussels: Talk about bupkes! w/Shada Islam

    “Talk about bupkes!” is also available on YouTube and most anywhere else your ears go for podcasts. Shada Islam is as Brussels as it gets, even if some parts of Brussels might not see it that way. She’s watched the EU grow up, and the ugly duckling has not exactly become the beautiful swan that many once hoped. Still, Shada is long on Europe even if it keeps falling short. To find out why, listen to the full episode! For a political capital known for its think tanks, Shada says these days Brussels is doing a lot less thinking and a lot more tanking. It also needs no help from transatlantic frenemies to undermine the one source of geopolitical power it had going for it: the principles and values Europe says it’s all about. That makes it worth asking: What even is “Europe”? And what does it look like on the other side of this era of fascism creep? The EU represents 27 countries with distinct histories and national narratives, so The Bupkes wants to know: What does Shada mean when she says Brussels So White? And there’s more! Don’t miss this episode’s Bupkes of the Week and Bupkes Broken Clock of the Week. Listen to find out who the winners are—and don’t forget to subscribe, share, like, and tell all your friends and enemies about The Bupkes. This week introduces a new host for Talk about bupkes! We’re excited to have William Glucroft (or Gluhcroft? We can never remember and don’t care enough to double-check) join the team to run the podcast interviews. William brings The Bupkes some much-needed journalistic integrity and, best of all, he’s not nearly important enough to have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. (Plus, we kinda owe him one.) Music by The Bupkes’ own Chief Goy Liaison Officer, Wiliam Succumbs. Let us know what you think of it! NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Get full access to The Bupkes at www.thebupkes.com/subscribe

    1h 5m
  3. 10/14/2025

    Talking about not talking about politics: “Talk about bupkes!” with Sarah Stein Lubrano

    Also available on YouTube and most anywhere else you get your podcasts. When The Bupkes came across Subschtick, we knew we had to do an interview together. Lucky us, the Oxford DPhil behind it just put out a book that we wanted to know more about. Even luckier us, she turned up in Brussels, which meant we got the rare treat of doing an episode IRL. In Don’t Talk About Politics, Sarah Stein Lubrano puts the political together with the sociological together with the psychological to try to figure out why lofty liberal ideals like debate, reason, and persuasion don’t seem to be working anymore — at least in places that really love their liberalism (or claim to), like the United States and the United Kingdom. And that’s happening all the while economic and technological developments are pushing people into ever deeper isolation. That’s been taking a nasty toll on how we relate to each other as citizens in a shared society. What could go wrong? If that sounds grim, and also familiar, it is! Fortunately, Sarah is the talmudic type: If you don’t like what you’re seeing, try looking at it a little differently. She has a few suggestions for how people might act politically in the world just a little bit more effectively. But who are we to tell you how to act? Take it or leave it, but first of all have a listen to it. Many thanks to Full Circle for helping make this interview possible. Music by The Bupkes’ own Chief Goy Liaison Officer, Wiliam Succumbs. Let us know what you think of it! NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Get full access to The Bupkes at www.thebupkes.com/subscribe

    1h 5m
  4. The Jews who fought with Nazis: “Talk about bupkes!” with Oula Silvennoinen

    09/26/2025

    The Jews who fought with Nazis: “Talk about bupkes!” with Oula Silvennoinen

    Also available on YouTube and most anywhere else you get your podcasts. For a historian, the Second World War and Germany’s genocide of European peoples are the gift — also in the German sense — that keeps on giving. There seems to be no end to stories one can tell. Some of those stories are more bizarre than others. Like how Finland’s Jews ended up fighting, on occasion side-by-side, with Germans against the Soviet Union. Not in secret, but openly. In some ways, even proudly. Oula Silvennoinen, a leading Finnish researcher in Holocaust studies and fascism, explains that history as well as the moral and political cognitive dissonance it fomented — for Finns, Germans, and Jews. This small corner of Holocaust history has implications for our understanding of it, the role antisemitism plays in European memory politics, and our current era of resurgent nationalism and right-wing populism, which has produced its own share of unlikely bedfellows. If you like this conversation, you may also be interested in The Bupkes’ other recent Finland-adjacent coverage: Music by The Bupkes’ own Chief Goy Liaison Officer, Wiliam Succumbs. Let us know what you think of it! NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Get full access to The Bupkes at www.thebupkes.com/subscribe

    1h 10m
  5. A voice from Gaza: “Talk about bupkes!” with Shahd Alnaami

    09/04/2025

    A voice from Gaza: “Talk about bupkes!” with Shahd Alnaami

    Also available on YouTube and most anywhere else you get your podcasts. In her young life, state-sanctioned violence is all Shahd Alnaami has ever known. It’s a violence that has only metastasized since 7 October, as she and more than two million of her fellow residents of Gaza have endured Israel’s relentless war of revenge, siege, and collective punishment. In that time, Shahd’s friends and family have been killed, her beloved libraries and university have been shattered, and the bare minimum needed to sustain life has remained dangerously elusive. Out of grief and trauma, however, grow not anger and disillusionment but hope and persistence. Shahd shared with us a glimpse of what that means. She read us one of her essays, reprinted here with her permission: for Dr. Refaat Alareer Sept. 3, 1979 – Dec. 6, 2023 So many of us still hold our phones, read your poems — not losing hope, but we’re tired of sleeping in fear, tired of being displaced, living in tents, haunted by horrors that linger in our minds. A missile pierced the silence, burning all the tents — including you. I have not forgotten. Nights become nightmares, children cry from the cold, their laughter, once bright, now a distant echo. We yearn to return, free from fear. When will these bloody nights end? When will this tragedy stop? When will our normal lives return, and our distant dreams come true? We keep asking, “Will this pass?” And remember how you used to say, “It shall pass… I keep hoping it shall pass…” Still, we wait for the day peace will dawn, and a new chapter open its bleary eyes. Shahd — a writer, translator, and student of English literature — also gave us some reading recommendations: * They Called Me a Lioness by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri * American War by Omar El Akkad * The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé You can order a print or digital copy of her collection of essays here. If you’re interested in supporting Shahd directly, visit this gofundme page. NB: Transcript and captions are auto-generated, so errors — spelling and otherwise — are to be expected. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Get full access to The Bupkes at www.thebupkes.com/subscribe

    1h 10m

About

Insightful conversations about coping with life in an era of exploding pagers. Hosted by journalist William Noah Glucroft and produced by Noach Głuchowicz, Secretary-General of Words of The Bupkes, who lures guests to join him where we belong: alone, in the dark, in the corner. Want more? Check out The Bupkes — it rhymes with justice. A zine of side-eye journalism, cathartic satire, and literary work with the curmudgeonly conviction in basic decency and a good sandwich. Yiddishkeyt über alles. www.thebupkes.com

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