Boundary Issues

An Unsettling Episode about Choking and Sex

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Peggy Orenstein to discuss her recent viral New York Times article about young people, sex, and choking. Parents, tune in to get freaked out about what Kids Today are doing!

Don't ignore what's happening on the West Bank

With so much attention focused on Gaza since October 7, an important story is being ignored: Harassment and violence against Palestinians who live on the West Bank has intensified, as far-right Israeli settlers and the soldiers and police who protect them have felt new permission to mistreat their Palestinian neighbors. Issa Amro, a well-known Palestinian human rights activist and advocate of non-violent resistance, tells Ayelet and Paul about his recent arrest and torture, and what the situation is like today in his home of Hebron.

One Nation Under Guns

In this shorter bonus episode, Paul interviews Dominic Erdozain about his new book, One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Distorts Our History and Threatens Our Democracy. We talk about what the Framers really thought about a well-regulated militia, the myth of the "law-abiding citizen," and the rights we all have to live in safety.

The Supreme Court: Horrifying Nightmare, or Nightmarish Horror?

Just how bad is the Supreme Court? Can anything be done about it? Ayelet and Paul are joined by Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of Take Back the Court, to discuss how and why the Supreme Court is doing such damage to the country, why so many Democrats are so cowardly in confronting it, and what the solution might be.

Wrestling With Manhood

Ayelet and Paul are joined by historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela for a wide-ranging discussion on masculinity, in both politics and personal lives.

White Rural Rage

White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy is now on sale! Ayelet and Paul welcome Paul's co-author Tom Schaller to discuss the book: What doing their reporting was like, what's going on with the politics of rural America, and whether democracy can be saved.  

What happened to liberal Zionism?

What happened to liberal Zionism? This issue is personal for Ayelet and Paul: Their father was a committed Zionist and socialist who fought in the War of Independence and founded a kibbutz. Reading from letters he wrote home in 1948, they explore the leftist origins of Zionism, its blind spots, and what happened to the dream. With David Myers, professor of Jewish History at UCLA.

Leaving and left behind: the struggles of women in rural America

Ayelet and Paul are joined by Monica Potts, senior politics reporter at FiveThirtyEight and author of The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America. Potts’s book tells the story of her childhood in rural Arkansas and how her fate diverged from that of her childhood best friend, who suffered through many of the struggles that are damaging and shortening rural lives today. They discuss how much luck matters in rural communities, what holds women back, and how the image of rural America differs from the reality.