We discuss 1) a report revealing that 32% of elderly Israelis report frequent or occasional feelings of loneliness 2) how there’s something majorly messed up about how men think about Jewish women (especially those with guns) 3) whether it’s really so great a thing for Tel Aviv-Jaffa to be hosting the expensive, disruptive Eurovision next May

We discuss 1) the new Palestinian Authority school curriculum, which has been criticized for being heavy on radical Islamism 2) whether Israeli Modern Orthodoxy is becoming more moderate or more zealously immoderate 3) why it is so damn hard for Israeli women to advance in local politics

We 1) rebroadcast a conversation with the brilliant writer Etgar Keret and the wonderful Ilene Prusher 2) speculate about what we would send up in a time capsule, to teach eager aliens everything they need to know about Earth’s only Jewish State.

We discuss 1) our dashed hopes that the Oslo Peace Process would end a century of conflict 2) a new IDF plans to draft some soldiers for up to 8 years and others just a year 3) a new Hebrew U plan to require all students to pass a course in “entrepreneurship & innovation”

We discuss 1) a survey of the religiosity of Knesset members 2) what’s changed in Israel over the past decades, and 3) for Yom Kippur, what have been our greatest political sins of the past year.

We discuss 1) the Trump administration’s decision to no longer fund UNRWA 2) a shocking 1,150% growth in homeschooling over the past decade 3) the most monumental events and noteworthy people and events of the past year.

We discuss 1) a proposed law that would make it illegal for unvaccinated kids to go to school 2) a study finding that the internet expands many of our traditional social divisions 3) the decisions of the President to pardon 70 convicts in honor of Israel’s 70th year

We discuss 1) the delaying of anti-Occupation activists at the airport for “cautionary conversations” 2) an article arguing that all it would take to implement a Two-State Solution is resettling 9,800 settler families 3) whether there’s a decline in enthusiasm for Green Parties.

Twenty years ago, a week after Israel celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, a 26 year-old former drag-queen and trans woman won the world’s biggest song contest, The Eurovision. She also forever changed the way we Israelis see ourselves. In this very special edition, Noah tells her story, and explains why he thinks that in this moment of anxiety and dreadful Nation-State laws, Dana International represents the humane and decent Zionism so many of us long for.

We discuss 1) the concrete wall being built along Israel’s northern border, to separate us from those who might want to do us harm 2) why our wards and clinics are so rife with violence, as nurses around the country went on strike, and 3) the swift rise of co-housing, which some people call “Kibbutz 2.0.”