What's Your Katz’s Deli Order?! ft Raanan Hershberg - CHIT CHAT WEDNESDAY

Summary

Podcast Summary: The JTrain Podcast

Episode: What's Your Katz’s Deli Order?! ft Raanan Hershberg — CHIT CHAT WEDNESDAY
Host: Jared Freid
Guest: Raanan Hershberg
Release date: February 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of The JTrain Podcast features comedian Raanan Hershberg for a laid-back “Chit Chat Wednesday” conversation. The duo moves seamlessly from discussing the nuances of Jewish deli orders, especially at the iconic Katz’s Deli in NYC, to riffing on the challenges of contemporary comedy, online outrage, and the oddities of American dining culture. Amid warm banter, they also plug Raanan’s YouTube special, “Morbidly Jewish,” noting its thoughtful approach to hot-button issues.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Comedy, Identity, and The Current Climate

• Raanan’s Special and Contemporary Jewishness
  • Plug for Raanan’s new special, "Morbidly Jewish," which candidly addresses current issues with a unique comedic lens ([02:12], [03:41]).
  • Jared: "It's a tough time to be a Jew...and then you say, tough time to be a liberal Jew, which is weird to say that the audience must go, what's going to happen? Who's going to freak out?" ([02:37])
  • Both comedians reflect on the delicate balance in today’s climate—particularly how humor is received, policed, or misinterpreted ([02:49]-[05:39]).
  • Raanan: “Anyone who says they have a great sense of humor does not have a great sense of humor… you are a mom who gets offended and writes letters.” ([04:44])
  • They discuss the labeling culture and how comedy is a tool for dissecting current madness instead of shying away ([03:16], [03:59]).

2. Dangers and Responsibility in Comedy

• Audience Cancel Culture & Sensitivities
  • Amusingly riff on the notion that sometimes audiences should be the ones to get canceled for overreacting or misunderstanding a set ([05:43]).
  • References to contentious figures (e.g., Michael Jackson, Cosby, Epstein) and the public’s reaction to related jokes ([05:54]-[07:26]).
  • Raanan: "I'm making a joke because of course he fucked kids. Like, I didn't even know that was..." ([07:23])
• Social Media Dynamics
  • Discussion about engagement on social media and why thoughtful audience members often remain silent while the loudest, most reactionary voices dominate ([07:26]-[07:58]).

3. Chit Chat: The Ultimate Katz’s Deli Order

• Ordering Strategies & Rituals
  • Jared and Raanan humorously strategize the perfect Katz's Deli outing—the pastrami on rye with mustard, corned beef, steak fries, matzo ball soup, and split pea soup ([10:35]-[13:33]).
  • Raanan: “The traditional sandwich is, of course, the pastrami on rye with mustard. None of this goyish...man is shit. I will say that sandwich is disgustingly gluttonous... It’s like two cows in the bread. I mean, it’s insane.” ([10:53]-[11:22])
  • Teamwork is necessary for conquering the lines at Katz’s: one gets fries, the other sandwiches ([14:18]).
  • The mitzvah of splitting sandwiches and soups—part joke, part sacred wisdom ([12:15]–[13:37]).
  • Sides detour: Matzo ball vs. split pea soup, mushroom barley, knishes, and the underrated quality of Katz’s steak fries ([13:37]–[14:32]).

4. American Food Excess: The Social Contract of Gluttony

• Deli Sandwiches and Club Sandwich Logic
  • Riffing on how outlandish deli servings become socially “acceptable” in restaurants—mountainous pastrami at Katz’s would look unhinged if homemade ([14:32]–[15:38]).
  • Discussion of the middle slice of bread in club sandwiches: necessary tradition, or absurd custom? Analogies to BLTs, burgers, and fast food culture ([15:38]-[17:47]).
  • Jared: “Have you ever asked for not the third piece of bread on a club sandwich? It’s almost like an unreasonable thing to ask. They’re like...you change the language of the conversation.” ([16:47])

5. Late-Stage Capitalism and Fast Food Experiments

• Marketing Excesses and Empty Gestures
  • The absurdity of “have it your way” at Burger King—does the promise extend to asking for no middle bread? ([17:54]–[18:37])
  • The normalization of strange innovations, like stuffed crust pizza, and the marketing mythos that builds around them ([19:31]–[20:45]).
  • Raanan: “But it is...the cheese and the crust is what the young people call late-stage capitalism.” ([20:56])

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Raanan Hershberg on topical comedy (04:44):
  "Anyone who says they have a great sense of humor does not have a great sense of humor. If you say that sentence right, you are a mom who gets offended and writes letters."

• Jared Freid on comedy and controversy (03:59):
  "That's where comedy comes in—'Well, the house is burning. Let me give you a view on how it's burning and why it's burning.'"

• On Katz’s Deli sandwich (11:22):
  Raanan: "That sandwich is disgustingly gluttonous. It's like two cows in the bread."

• On social contracts with food (14:32):
  Raanan: "It's this complicitness where we let them give us something gluttonous... If I were to make at my home that size pastrami sandwich, you would think I was psychotic."

• On fast food slogans (18:37):
  Jared: "I think you should go test it. If they didn't do it, you would have a case. You could actually sue Burger King if they didn't do it."

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Comedic climate & labeling culture: [02:12]–[05:39]
• Reacting to audience sensitivities: [05:43]–[07:26]
• Social media vs. live audience engagement: [07:26]–[07:58]
• Katz's Deli order deep-dive: [10:35]–[14:32]
• Deli gluttony and sandwich traditions: [14:32]–[15:38]
• Debate on club sandwich middle bread: [15:38]–[18:37]
• Late-stage capitalism and Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust: [19:31]–[20:56]

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Tone and Style

• The episode is breezy, irreverent, and peppered with classic Jewish humor and self-awareness.
• The banter is playful, observational, and often meta—riffing on the absurdity of everyday life and the comedy world alike.

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Closing

The episode wraps up by plugging Raanan's special, available on YouTube, and inviting listeners to reflect on the joy of comedy, shared meals, and questioning traditions—whether in deli lines or everyday life.

Transcript

[A]

Chit Chat Wednesday for you to listen to. I have a guess who will be your new boo. You're gonna love them, too. Chit Chat Wednesday. I hope you're having a good day today. I hope it's gonna be a perfect week, too. I hope you have a nice poo. It's a Ch Chat Wednesday, too.

[B]

Hello, and welcome to the J Train podcast. Is J Train Jared free coming you live from Delray Beach, Florida? That's right, every Wednesday is a Chit Chat Wednesday where I sit down with a friend, a comedian, an expert. Today I have three out of three. Friend, comedian, hilarious comedian, expert in ranting. I'd give him the rant expertise. An expert in ranting. And he has a special that is out right now on YouTube. You gotta go watch it. It's called Morbidly Jewish. Ronan Hirshberg, thank you for coming on the show.

[C]

Thanks for having me. You look very chiseled.

[B]

I'm like, very Floridian right now. I'm feeling good. Whenever I'm here, I just feel good. I got, you know, I saw the sky, I saw the sun.

[C]

You look great. I feel like I'm in this New York, like, sickly yellow.

[B]

Yeah, you got a yellow.

[C]

It's kind of like a sick yellow. Like just haze, like a pollution haze. Like that orange haze that attacked New York a couple summers ago, you know? Yeah, but. But yeah, you look great. Very, very, you know, well lit and.

[B]

Fresh, you know, Listen, well, I'm also set up in for an actor, it's.

[C]

Like a Queer Eye situation right here.

[B]

Well, I have. I add that when I had Mateo on years ago, everyone commented, this is a before and after, because I think we both had mustaches. And I was like, oh, man, it's like the best comment ever. How are you? What's going. So the special's out. We want everyone to go watch it before we get into, you know, business here. Everyone go watch it.

[C]

Go.

[B]

Comment. Let Ronan hear that you came from this podcast. It is very funny. It is very, very funny. It is. You walk the tight wire. That. And I mean, like, I just saw the bit you're talking about. Tough time to be a Jew. This is. And then you say, tough time to be a liberal Jew, which is like, you know, which is weird to say that the audience must go, what's going to happen? Who's going to freak out? I don't know if you or I saw that in our future that you could start with tough time to be a liberal Jew. And then, like, everyone's like, what.

[C]

What's he going to.

[B]

Who's going to get pissed? Like, that's crazy, right?

[C]

Be controversial. Yeah. A time where if you just tweeted out anti Semitism is bad, you would get, like, all this hate.

[B]

It's weird. I get tagged in, like, so many weird, especially on Twitter, like, weird things that they're like, so what do you think about this, Jew? And you're like, I don't know what. I'm gonna ignore this.

[C]

It's all insane.

[B]

Well, it's. To kind of like, back it out a little bit. Like, when someone's like, man, must be hard to be doing comedy. It's like, I almost think it's easier because it's like, just like you said, there's so much madness to comment on. I think it's almost easier to find the. Or not easier, but, like, you can find fertile ground to speak about.

[C]

Sure, for sure. And I. I mean, I try to do that on the. On the special. I try to talk about stuff like, you know, I don't know, that's important that, you know, issues that I think are important. I mean. Yeah, I mean, look, comedy's always been hell. It's always been a constant hell. But.

[B]

I just. When I see you're talking about something that takes, like, I listen when there's no discussion. That's what makes me annoyed. Like, when someone's like, puts the label on it, no discussion. You're this, I'm that. I'm like, fuck that. That's where comedy comes in and go, well, the house is burning. Let me give you, like, kind of like a view on how it's burning and why it's burning. I don't know, like, the discussion. And it's like the people who. Like, the people who hate comedy the most are the ones that are labeling people, I think, like, yeah, but they would never admit to that. I don't think anyone who labels someone would even admit. They'd be like, I have a great sense of humor. It's like, no, you have a great, you know, sense of humor for what you've already seen as black and white, you know?

[C]

Well, anyone who says they have a great sense of humor does not have a great sense of humor. I feel like if you say that sentence right, if you're like, I have a great sense of humor, then you are a mom who gets offended and writes letters. You know what I mean? Like, no one who's ever said that line. But yeah, I mean, labels are bad a lot of times because it makes your Brain, just stop thinking and just interpret labels. Yeah. Also, I've always felt like any topic you talk about in standup, if someone's offended that you brought up the topic, I'm offended that you think standup is so trivial that I can't talk about bigger issues. Like, a lot of people are offended just simply that someone would do jokes about a topic. But it's like, well, then you think standup is meaningless. I think of standup as really important, an important way to look at stuff. So, like, I'm insulted by you.

[B]

How about that?

[C]

I'm offended that you think that I can't talk. Rationalizing.

[B]

Stand up. Now you're the two people holding up their phones, taping each other.

[C]

You're like Eddington. Yeah, yeah. I think you're. Yeah, I think the audience. I think the audience should get canceled more at shows, you know, that'd be fun.

[B]

You just bring in.

[C]

Well, I'm always like, whatever. If, like, you make a joke about, like, Michael Jackson or even if it's funny, some people are like, whoa. Just like, what are you defending? The pedophilia? The pedophile. You know what I mean?

[B]

It's weird. I have a joke. I reference Cosby, and I'm like, I can't believe the reaction it gets. Like, people, oh.

[C]

I'm like, you raped those women, right? That's how people react.

[B]

He went to jail. Like, I, like, like, I, I, I like, it's not like I'm like, calling someone out. Like, this guy went to jail. You know, like, we've gone through.

[C]

You could also go out of jail.

[B]

But, yeah, well, listen, he. Time served. So, like, someone came to a conclusion that something has happened here.

[C]

I'm not, it's not libel.

[B]

Right. And right to say, like, this is a reference to Cosby. Like, this has been so I, I, yeah, sorry. It is strange for us to have been doing this as long as we have to have to. Like, we're still shocked.

[C]

I mean, we have to deal with, like, more like, I posted something. There was a picture I saw of, like, Epstein was Michael Jackson. Right. And I just shared it and just said, if I find out Michael Jackson fucked kids, I'm going to really lose it, you know? And you will not believe the amount of people message me going like that. That picture is not actually at Epstein's Island. Like, they were like, saying, he didn't fuck. And I'm like, you're spreading misinformation. I'm like, I'm making a joke because of course he fucked kids.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Like, I didn't even know that was.

[B]

It is. Well, well, it's like, you know, now you get it down the road of like, who should we be hearing from and who should we be listening to? You know that that's where I kind of get frustrated is like, who are we listening to? Why are we listening to the most, like, the, the least thoughtful, the most emotionally fraudulent, the most emotionally affected and the least thoughtful people? Like, we're, we're almost letting them lead the way. Like, because, like, I meet thoughtful people every day, every week, every show. And I'm like, where are you guys when I post my fun videos? Like, and they're there. Want to eat better but don't have the time. Check out factor. No meal prep or recipes, just real food in 2 minutes factors meals are designed by dietitians and prepared by real chefs with a wide variety of weekly options. You'll never get bored trying to keep a specific diet factors GLP1 friendly high protein and calorie Smart meals make it easy to eat healthy. I have said this for, I think, years. I love what factors doing it takes the decision away from you. When you're looking to eat healthy, you're thinking about, what am I going to eat? It's going to be delicious. It's going to be, it's going to be nutritious. It's got to be timely. And I got to have it yesterday. And that's what factor does for you. The longer you think about it, the longer you wait on it, the more you go off of the healthy road and you're not good about portions. Factors Doing the portion control for you, it's all on one plate and you're not creative enough to come up with a new recipe every night. Factor is going to do that for you. You have like three moves when it comes to being healthy. Grilled chicken, grilled salmon and a salad. This is going to be new and keep you excited about staying healthy and that'll keep you on it longer. Always fresh, never frozen. No prep, no stress. Head to FactorMeals.com jtrain50off use code jtrain50off to get 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's a great deal offer only valid for new factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with factor. We play a game here on the show not to change the stuff. I want to play a game with you. Everyone go follow on comedy and go to the YouTube special. It's out there right now called Morbidly Jewish. You're going to love it. It is fun. It is thoughtful. That is an important thing with comedy is, you know, sitting back and going, okay, there's the point of view. And I. Ronan always does a great job. It's so funny. All right, we go to. I usually send the guest a menu, and I wanted to hear how they would order this one. I didn't have to send you a menu. Okay. Because I think we need you. And I go to Katz's Deli on Houston street in New York City.

[C]

Uh huh.

[B]

We're gonna go eat. I'm letting you lead the way. What are we doing?

[C]

Well, I mean, traditionally, what you get with Katz's Deli is.

[B]

I like that you put on glasses as if you were going to. Like you were going to.

[C]

And chaos. And like a casinic hat and the beard. I just put it all on. Well, no, Katz's Deli. I mean, the traditional sandwich is, of course, the pastrami on rye with. With. With mustard. Right? None of this goyish, you know, man is. Man is shit. I will say that sandwich is disgustingly gluttonous. It's like. It's like a cow. Two cows in the bread. I mean, it's insane. You know what I mean?

[B]

We're not eating breakfast that day. We're gonna go straight to Katz's. I mean, we're at Bazaar. We've made a deal. This is our one meal for the day. You and I are eating one meal for the day.

[C]

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So a pastrami on rye with mustard. And then I think just the pastrami. I don't think anything in it. And then for both of us.

[B]

Listen, we gotta order in concert. What am I doing? Oh, we are sitting at the table. You and I are eating. What are we do. What are we doing? I've already. This is all I needed to know about Ronan.

[C]

This is.

[B]

This is. He's a. He's a. He doesn't care about anyone else. This is all about Rana, right? You're hopeful the liberal friends are right. You only care about yourself. You're making it about you.

[C]

We're both ordering the pastrami. Am I supposed to get their order? Am I like the.

[B]

I'm getting the corned beef. You're getting the pastrami. We're splitting it. You're taking half of my corned beef. I'm taking half my pastrami. Then we're getting a fry. You're going to go to the fry line because it's different than the regular line. You're going to go to the fry line. You're going to order the steak fries, well done. And you're going to get those. And you're going to get us a table. I'm going to get both the pastrami and the corned beef and the. And I'm going to order those both and bring them back to the table.

[C]

But I'm going to tell you, I don't want any of the fries. You're going to have all of them. I'll just have one. And then I'll end up eating more than you after I made.

[B]

Okay, how is it?

[C]

I want the. I do want the matzo ball soup, though. I actually would rather have that than the. Than the fries.

[B]

I think add in the soup. I don't think that's a problem. I think. Get the soup. We get one matzo ball, one split pea. I love the split pea there.

[C]

Yeah, split pea is good. Yeah. All right. But we're not splitting the soups, are we?

[B]

I think we split the soups. I think we get over the fact that we have our own spoons. And then we get over the fact that it's kind of gross. It is a tough share. I share soup.

[C]

All right, well, rich food. Split the soup. I really would want more of the matzo ball, but I guess we could split it and then. Yeah, fine.

[B]

You get your soup, I'll get my soup. We split everything else.

[C]

I like blimpy soup, I guess. You know, I guess the. I do like it, but I think the Exorcist, the throw up in that has always throw me off. It kind of just looks like that soup.

[B]

It does look like that soup in a way.

[C]

It isn't really green, usually.

[B]

Do you like mushroom barley?

[C]

I do like mushroom barley.

[B]

To me, the mushroom barley is too filling. If we're getting all this other stuff, that's. Why. Do you like a knish?

[C]

I like a knish. This is a pretty big meal at this point.

[B]

I mean, no, I don't get the knish. I'd rather the fries. I think the fries of Katz is. Are underrated almost. They're so good.

[C]

I actually don't even know if I've ever had them.

[B]

Because you have to go to a different line. You have to go to the fry line. That's like a big thing. The move when you get the cat because the line is so long. You have to like. You have to work as a team. You go to fry line, I go to sandwich line. And then we Bring back to the table.

[C]

You know what's funny about, like, restaurants like that, or I guess kind of any restaurant, it's this complicitness where we let them give us something gluttonous so we don't like. It's like out of our control. If I were to make at my home that size pastrami sandwich, you would think I was a psychotic, right? Well, if I were to like, yeah, let's make food. And I. And I made. And I just put that mountain of pastrami on a sandwich.

[B]

If you put a pound. Right. Well, if you put a pound of pastrami on a sandwich, I would go, what's. There's other people here. Anon. What are you doing?

[C]

Well, so many things. Well, that is okay. At a restaurant would be psychotic. Burger King or McDonald's.

[B]

If I were to make a burger.

[C]

At home and you saw me put a bread in the middle, Like, I'd put a bread in the middle. Like, not just the bun. Right, the bun. Hamburger. And then I put another piece of bread in the middle. And you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing? Fred is bottom. It's not in the middle. What are you doing?

[B]

I would go, like, you would leave, and then I would see people who knew you, and I'd be like, yeah, I don't think Ronan's doing well. He's adding extra bread into the sandwich.

[C]

I mean, that's. That's the thing. It's like. It is. You know, it's similar to, like, it's. It's like any form of collaboration or complicitness where we let other people do this thing that we'll then indulge in, but we would never do it ourselves. You know what I mean?

[B]

My dad, they like my dad, every time a club sandwich is even brought up, he's like, well, I can't have the third piece of bread. Like, he thinks it's crazy.

[C]

Which is our same. It's too much bread. It's too much.

[B]

Too much bread.

[C]

No. Yeah.

[B]

I think they get away with it. I think that's like. To me, I think a BLT sandwich is just a real money maker for a lot of these places. It's like the cheapest things on the menu and you get, like, one slice of bacon.

[C]

But they always fall apart for me. And I'm never clear which is the bottom bread or which is the top bread. It always seems to be. There seems to be, like, bread missing. So it's like one thing. Like, it's just kind of Chaos.

[B]

And have you ever asked for not the third piece of bread on a club sandwich? It's. It's almost like an unreasonable thing to ask. They're like, you kind of ruin. It's almost like you change the language of the conversation. Yeah.

[C]

You're saying the club part of the sandwich. Yeah, but get rid of it.

[B]

We.

[C]

How?

[B]

We got to have a. Find a way to order that.

[C]

Like.

[B]

Yeah, it's like, if you have two slices of bread.

[C]

Well, it's like asking. It's like, if you go to Burger King, like, can you not give me the bread in the middle? They'd be like, what? They'd be so confused. They'd be like, what do you mean? Like, you know that bread in the middle that doesn't need to be there? That's literally just adding carbs for absolutely no reason and breaking this hundreds of years of tradition of just a sandwich being two pieces of bread. That's the social contract. Can we not have that third piece that should not be in there? They would lose their mind. And yet that same person at the drive through would think you're psychotic if you made it yourself, Right? Well, it is.

[B]

I mean, Burger King's whole marketing campaign is have it your way.

[C]

That's true.

[B]

So you should be able to make that order. But it would be a good test. It would be like one of those things where you go to every Burger King and you go, their mottos, have it your way. We're gonna test how seriously they take it. Let's see if they can get rid of the middle bread.

[C]

Well, I. Well, but the having your way is fairly empty. It's a fairly empty gesture.

[B]

That's why you go to fast food.

[C]

Place that is just all, like, frozen food that they're just already prepared.

[B]

Hey, I'd like a Whopper. No middle bread. Come back to me.

[C]

Have it. Yeah. This is my way. This is my Frank Sinatra way. You know, I don't think you'd do it.

[B]

I think they would do it. I think you should go test it. I think if they didn't do it, you would have a case. I think you'd have a suit on your hands. I think you could actually sue Burger King if they didn't do it. What do you think that comes from? What do you think the middle bread on a club sandwich is from? What is the. You know, the etymology. What is the. Where does that come from? Is it because they didn't want the meat slipping on each other? Is it to separate the ham from the turkey? Because There used to be ham and turkey. I don't know.

[C]

And it is, by the way, completely normalized. Like, there are some things that fast food does that we were like, this is insane. Like when they put like, donut, like a burger on a donut or whatever gross KFC they've done, you know, we were like, no, no, that's insane. No one's normalizing this. The bread in the middle has become, like, normalized.

[B]

Yeah, but it isn't even think about it until you brought it up. And then they even show it in the commercial and you go, I guess this is what we do.

[C]

Bread in the middle.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I don't know. I mean, to me, the most iconic in terms of taking something at a restaurant that you make at home. Imagine if you were making that. I forget which. Which is a pizza place, but imagine if you're making pizza at home where you put cheese in the crust. Did they do that for one of the pizza?

[B]

Right? The cheesy crust pizza. The. It was. It is crazy.

[C]

I'm suicidal. You think that was my last meal.

[B]

I just got to see what it.

[C]

Looks like, man, she's in the crust. Why?

[B]

That was like a modern technology thing. I remember the way they promoted it was like, you can't do this at home. You wish you could, but you can't. Yeah, that was the way it was marketed. It was like, we don't know how they did it. And it's like they almost convinced me what it almost. The marketing almost convinced me that it was a human impossibility to do that without the Pizza Hut technology.

[C]

But it's gaslighting because you never thought about putting cheese in the crust. They're pretending like that. They're pretending like this is like, you know, someone trying to, you know, the man trying to get to the moon. Like, we never. Like, we never had the thought, the cheese is right here. The crust is here.

[B]

Look, we've never made the peas at home. We. We weren't. Pizza is not an at home make. It is only like your weird friend who has a lot of time on their hand and a sourdough starter.

[C]

True. That's true. Yeah. It's not at home make, but it is. The cheese and the crust is what the young people call late stage capitalism.

[B]

Everyone go follow Run on Hershberg at. Run on comedy. Morbidly Jewish is out on YouTube. It is in the description of this episode. You can go watch it right now. Save it for an at home night. A date night. You're gonna love, love, love the special. I can promise you that. I'm Jared free back next week. Boom.