Best Yiddish Language Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 401: A Tour of Global Jewish Languages with Sebastian Schulman 14:14

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24h ago14:14

14:14

Sebastian Schulman joined The Shmooze to talk about the Yiddish Book Center’s upcoming online course Speak the World! A Tour of Global Jewish Languages. Sebastian shared that the four-part online course will explore Jewish languages with scholars, activists, and artists who are working in the field today. Instructors will speak about the diversity,…

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Episode 402: East Endings: Jewish East End writers, artists, and activists 24:49

1d ago24:49

24:49

Film director, film producer, and screenwriter Mark Jay spoke with "The Shmooze" about his 1993 documentary film "East Endings". "East Endings" documents a night at Bloom’s in May 1993—then one of the last remaining kosher restaurants in Whitechapel. Harry Blacker, renowned cartoonist and satirist of British Jewry, arrives to celebrate his 83rd bir…

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Writers on Memory, Language & the Power of the Unconscious 11:50

10d ago11:50

11:50

How can we use negative spaces in fiction to engage with readers’ imaginations? How are memory and trauma passed onto us through language? How do we become more than the stories we tell ourselves? KATIE KITAMURA (Author, Audition, Intimacies) emphasizes that a book is created in collaboration with the reader, using negative spaces in the narrative …

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Chanukah חנוכּה 10:05

7d ago10:05

10:05

Note: This episode was recorded and released 12th December before the horrors at Bondi. We are grieving, shocked and angry - there is far too much violence in this world. May we all work together towards a world where everyone can live in safety and dignity. Episode 10 // Season 6 חנוכּה How has it taken this long for us to have a Khanike/Chanukah/…

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Kiddo Finds Inspiration 12:37

7d ago12:37

12:37

Kiddo is frustrated with his reading assignment--it's so tough and he just wants to quit. Mimi has encouraging words and a very special story to turn things around. Today's episode features the book Live Your Dream: The Story of a Jewish Basketball All-Star written by Tamir Goodman, illustrated by Jim Madsen, and published by PJ Publishing. Afterno…

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Episode 400: The Life of A. N. Stencl: The Prince of Whitechapel 25:24

18h ago25:24

25:24

Dr. Rachel Lichtenstein, one of the foremost chroniclers of Jewish East London, visited with The Shmooze to talk about A. N. Stencl, a native Yiddish speaker from Poland, who settled in London’s East End in 1936 and became an activist and campaigner for the continuation of Yiddish. His extraordinary life spanned the height and demise of contemporar…

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Sylvia D. Hoffert, "Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town" (U Georgia Press, 2025) 46:21

15d ago46:21

46:21

In Wagging Tongues and Tittle Tattle: Gossip, Rumor, and Reputation in a Small Southern Town (University of Georgia Press, 2025), Dr. Sylvia Hoffert calls on a particularly rich collection of primary sources, including diaries, letters, oral histories, census data, court documents, church records, and psychiatric hospital logs, all relating to Hill…

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Radio ReOrient 13.7: "Linguistics, Citizenship and Belonging,” with Kamran Khan, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Marchella Ward 45:18

25d ago45:18

45:18

In this episode, Claudia Radiven and Chella Ward talked with Kamran Khan about linguistics, citizenship and belonging. The conversation travelled from the 2001 Northern riots in the UK, to the Prevent policy, all the way to more recent adjustments to the Nationalities and Borders Bill. Khan is currently the director of the MOSAIC research group on …

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KlezKanada & a little update 7:21

16d ago7:21

7:21

Episode 9 // Season 6 קלעז־קאַנאַדאַ און אַ ביסל נײַעס In this episode we have a lovely little report from KlezKanada. Thanks to Miri Villerius and Jessica "Eshke" Kirzane for putting this together. And after a long break from talking about myself I'm back with a little life update about my move to the coast. --- If you’re interested in attending K…

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Luke Gibson, "Reading Sanskrit: A Complete Step-By-Step Introduction with Texts from the Buddhist Tradition" (Columbia UP, 2025) 41:02

1M ago41:02

41:02

This textbook offers a fresh approach to learning Sanskrit, the ancient language at the heart of South Asia’s vast religious, philosophical, and literary heritage. Designed for independent learners and classrooms alike, it provides a uniquely in-depth and immersive introduction to the language, exploring a rich selection of Sanskrit texts from the …

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Emily Winderman, "Back-Alley Abortion: A Rhetorical History (JHU Press, 2025) 32:57

17d ago32:57

32:57

How did three words come to carry the weight of America's abortion debates? In Back-Alley Abortion: A Rhetorical History (JHU Press, 2025), Dr. Emily Winderman examines how this phrase shaped American reproductive politics and health care standards across generations. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book traces the unexpected origins of…

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Henry H. Sapoznik, "The Tourist's Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City" (SUNY Press, 2025) 47:40

19d ago47:40

47:40

The Tourist's Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City (SUNY Press, 2025) by Henry H. Sapoznik explores a century of Yiddish popular culture in New York City. Sapoznik--the author of Klezmer! Jewish Music fro0m Old World to Our World and a Peabody Award-winning coproducer of NPR's Yiddish Radio Project--tells his story through chapters on eating, archit…

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Kiddo's Special Friday 7:51

17d ago7:51

7:51

Kiddo is out shopping with Mimi when a flyer catches his eye: a movie night! Mimi gently reminds Kiddo that they already have plans. Everyone is getting together for a special family Shabbat. This episode offers wonderful guidance for talking to kids of all ages about keeping commitments while also sharing some beautiful reminders about how special…

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Michelle McSweeney, "OK" (Bloomsbury, 2023) 39:56

19d ago39:56

39:56

"OK" as a word accepts proposals, describes the world as satisfactory (but not good), provides conversational momentum, or even agrees (or disagrees). OK as an object, however, tells a story of how technology writes itself into language, permanently altering communication. OK (Bloomsbury, 2023), by Dr. Michelle McSweeney and published by Bloomsbury…

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Eric H. Cline, "Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed" (Princeton UP, 2025) 1:07:05

1M ago1:07:05

1:07:05

From the acclaimed author of 1177 B.C., a spellbinding account of the archaeological find that opened a window onto the vibrant diplomatic world of the ancient Near East In 1887, an Egyptian woman made an astonishing discovery among the ruins of the heretic king Akhenaten’s capital city, a site now known as Amarna. She found a cache of cuneiform ta…

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The Beast in Me starring CLAIRE DANES - Behind the Scenes w/ HOWARD GORDON & DANIEL PEARLE 46:26

1M ago46:26

46:26

“And I think there's also just something about an unfettered or uncensored id that is so captivating. We all have that fantasy of doing exactly what we want with no consequences and sort of letting that go. I think when you see an athlete at the peak of their game, doing that embodied thing and living that dream, or when someone has actually done h…

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Kiddo Tries to Stay Up Late 6:18

1M ago6:18

6:18

Kiddo and Zee are staying over at Mimi's but they do NOT want to go to bed. What's a Mimi to do? Maybe the delightful story, Just One More Thing...and Then Bedtime, written and illustrated by Menachem Halberstadt and published by Green Bean Books, can help Kiddo settle down. Looking for more resources to help your kids settle into bedtime? Check ou…

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Episode 399: A Memoir of the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania 28:41

2M ago28:41

28:41

Ellen Cassedy and Andrew Cassel joined The Shmooze to talk about their work translating So We Died: A Memoir of Life and Death in the Ghetto of Šiauliai, Lithuania, by Levi Shalit. Few accounts of the Šiauliai, or Shavl, Ghetto survived the war. Shalit’s work offers English-language readers a rare insight into a vital chapter of history. In convers…

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Australia‘s National Indigenous Languages Survey 41:30

2M ago41:30

41:30

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Dr Alexandra Grey speaks with Zoe Avery, a Worimi woman and a Research Officer at the Centre for Australian Languages within the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Zoe and her teammates are preparing the upcoming 4th National Indigenous Languages Sur…

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Jews and Yiddish in Brazil with Gustavo Emos & Clara Greif 13:35

2M ago13:35

13:35

Episode 8 // Season 6 ייִדן און ייִדיש אין בראַזיל מיט גוסטאַװאָ־גרשום עמאָס און קלאַראַ רחל גרײף In this episode we hear from Yiddish teachers Gustavo-Gershon Emos and Clara Rokhl Greif with a special report from Brazil. They discuss the history of Jews and Yiddish in the country as well as the contemporary Yiddish scene. Transcript There is a ful…

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Mark Mazower, "On Antisemitism: A Word in History" (Penguin Press, 2025) 45:58

2M ago45:58

45:58

What do we mean when we talk about antisemitism? A thoughtful, vital new intervention from the award-winning historian. For most of history, antisemitism has been understood as a menace from Europe’s political Right, the province of blood-and-soil ethno-nativists who built on Christendom’s long-standing suspicion of its Jewish population and infuse…

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Iris Idelson-Shein, "Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe" (U Penn Press, 2024) 51:21

2M ago51:21

51:21

One of the constants of Jewish history is that Jews have learned from the cultures around them. But this exchange of information was not an easy endeavor. Not only did Jews speak a different language, but their cultural touchpoints were different. If they were to learn from the people around them, their translations had to be deliberate, sometimes …

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"Everything is Art. Everything is Politics." AI WEIWEI'S TURANDOT Dir. MAXIM DEREVIANKO - Highlights

1M ago

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“So when we decided to do a documentary to follow Ai Weiwei, we knew, of course, it wouldn't be just a simple opera, and we knew he would bring his own very special and original vision. Because, of course, he is not an opera director. From his point of view, it's a challenge, but from another perspective, it’s probably an enrichment for the opera a…

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AI WEIWEI'S TURANDOT 59:36

2M ago59:36

59:36

“Everything is Art. Everything is Politics. I think art competes with reality. And art will give you the last words.” –Ai Weiwei The renowned artist and activist Ai Weiwei has used sculpture, photography, documentaries, and large-scale installations to challenge authoritarian power for decades. But his project at the Rome Opera House, directing Puc…

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Kiddo Practices Spanish, Yiddish, and Other World Languages 6:48

2M ago6:48

6:48

Kiddo is thrilled to be learning a new language - and he wonders, do the people in his family and community speak multiple languages? Mimi reminds Kiddo that, yes, the Jewish community is full of diversity and together they read a sweet story, ¿Dónde está Shmata? written by Tana Ross and illustrated by Elisa Kleven. You can even follow along with M…

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Delia Casadei, "Risible: Laughter without Reason and the Reproduction of Sound" (U California Press, 2024) 1:40:44

2M ago1:40:44

1:40:44

Risible: Laughter without Reason and the Reproduction of Sound (University of California Press, 2024) explores the forgotten history of laughter, from ancient Greece to the sitcom stages of Hollywood. Delia Casadei approaches laughter not as a phenomenon that can be accounted for by studies of humor and theories of comedy but rather as a technique …

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Amanda Belantara and Emily Drabinski, "Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create" (Litwin Books, 2024) 36:15

3M ago36:15

36:15

Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create (Litwin Books, 2025) sits at the heart of the library project, shaping how materials are described and organized and how they can be retrieved. The field has long understood that normative systems like Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress do this inadequately and worse, deploying language …

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Julia Donaldson: A life in language 33:38

3M ago33:38

33:38

Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo and many other beloved children's books, tells Michael Rosen about her own writing, reading, speaking and listening. Her childhood experiences were a big influence, as was busking in Paris and writing songs which ended up on Play School and Play Away. One of the songs became her first book, A Squash and a Squ…

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Greg Lukianoff and Nadine Strossen, "The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail" (Heresy Press, 2025) 52:35

3M ago52:35

52:35

The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (Heresy Press, 2025) constitutes a bulwark against the persistent censorial efforts from both the political left and right. At a time when conformist pressures threaten viewpoint diversity, and when political attacks on free expression are mounting, this book is a valuable resourc…

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Karen Stollznow, "Bitch: The Journey of a Word" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 29:46

3M ago29:46

29:46

Bitch is a bitch of a word. It used to be a straightforward insult, but today – after so many variations and efforts to reject or reclaim the word – it's not always entirely clear what it means. Bitch is a chameleon. There are good bitches and bad bitches; sexy bitches and psycho bitches; boss bitches and even perfect bitches. Bitch: The Journey of…

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It's not what you say, it's how you say it 27:54

3M ago27:54

27:54

Michael Rosen on the linguistic comfort food of clichés, pragmatics and how we use language to connect us beyond the actual words used. Derek Bousfield explains how words do more than carry meaning: context governs what we say and how it’s understood.Dr Bousfield is Reader in Pragmatics and Communication and Co-Director of The Manchester Centre for…

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Fiona J. Mackenzie, "The Cadence of a Song: The Life of Margaret Fay Shaw" (Birlinn, 2025) 46:08

3M ago46:08

46:08

The American-born folklorist and musician Margaret Fay Shaw’s passion for the Hebrides led her to the island of South Uist in 1929 and then to Canna in 1935 as the wife of the eminent folklorist John Lorne Campbell. Her extraordinary work in documenting and preserving traditional Gaelic songs and customs remains a vital resource for understanding H…

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The Language of the Manosphere 27:29

3M ago27:29

27:29

The 'Manosphere' is a group of loosely affiliated mainly young males who have developed a specialised vocabulary to discuss women online in a negative and hostile way. Some of the vocabulary is a response to feminism which some men claim is diminishing their role in society. For other men a failure to attract women has given rise to phrases such as…

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Episode 398: Shakespeare & Company’s Jewish Play Festival 16:56

3M ago16:56

16:56

Shakespeare & Company’s Artistic Director Allyn Burrows and the co-chair of the upcoming Celebrating Jewish Plays program Greg Lipper sat down with "The Shmooze" to talk about the weekend-long event. Celebrating Jewish Plays runs October 10–12, 2025, and will feature four staged readings—"The Price," by Arthur Miller; "The Sisters Rosensweig," by W…

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Big Emotions: Kids Listen Mashups About Feelings part 2 featuring Mimi and Kiddo 19:31

3M ago19:31

19:31

Big Emotions: Kids Listen Mashups on Feelings is a 7-part podcast series created by the Kids Listen community to help kids (and their grownups) explore the wide world of feelings. Each episode pairs two emotions that are often connected, offering original stories, clips, and reflections from across Kids Listen shows. We're thrilled that PJ Library …

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Arriving in a New Country 43:07

3M ago43:07

43:07

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks writer, illustrator, filmmaker and Academy Award winner Shaun Tan. Shaun is best known for illustrated books that deal with social and historical subjects through dream-like imagery. His books have been widely translated throughout the world and enjoyed by readers of all ages. …

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Crash Bang Wallop: The Sound of Words 27:18

3M ago27:18

27:18

Michael Rosen is joined by linguist Dr Catherine Laing to discuss onomatopoeia and other words that sound like their meanings. Not just words for sounds like 'crash' and 'bang', or words for animal noises like 'woof' and 'quack', but also other words which perhaps hold something of their meaning within their form. Is there something rough about the…

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How to Persuade a Courtroom 27:36

3M ago27:36

27:36

Michael Rosen talks to criminal defence barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind about the legal language of Crown Court cases in England and Wales. From the grandeur of the courtroom and stock phrases like "with respect to my learned friend" to the more colloquial directness of talking to a defendant. How do barristers build persuasive arguments when talki…

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Cold Rush 27:45

3M ago27:45

27:45

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Ingrid Piller speaks with Sari Pietikainen about her new book Cold Rush (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). This book is an original study of “Cold Rush,” an accelerated race for the extraction and protection of Arctic natural resources. The Northernmost reach of the planet is caught up in the double dev…

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Ep397: In geveb 26:21

4M ago26:21

26:21

"In geveb"’s board president Mindl Cohen and the journal’s editor-in-chief Jessica Kirzane visit with "The Shmooze" to talk all things "In geveb." "In geveb" is a subscription-free digital forum that publishes peer-reviewed academic articles and translated and annotated Yiddish texts; it also serves as an exchange platform for pedagogical materials…