Podcast
The Promised Podcast
Hosted by TLV1 Studios · EN
An inside view of how Israel can warm your heart and make your blood boil. It's a show hosted by folks who live in and love Israel even though it drives them crazy, and who each week discuss the latest in Israeli politics, culture, and society.
43episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The "Love and the City" Edition
6d ago01:09:26Summary readyIn this very special episode, Noah shares love letters he heard walking the streets of Tel Aviv with Lucy the Dog, on a new "Love Letters" app made by genius Russian-Israeli director Semyon Alexandrovsky.
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The "The Other Guys" Edition
2w ago01:18:53Summary readyLinda and Noah talk about (1) What has become of the "Religious Zionism Party," after its sort-of primaries made it a settler-only affair?, and (2) What are the ties that bind the different sorts of people who hope to give Benjamin Netanyahu four more years in office? For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Challenger for the premiership Gadi Eisenkot buys campaign billboards in Cyprus, and lots of people cry foul. Can the election be won by persuading ex-pats to fly to what was once their home to cast a vote? Also, why is the adjective "Cypriot" so very appealing? Plus: Expecting a baby grandchild that they never expected when they were hostages in Gaza, a millennia-old edition of the Book of Isaiah, and young girls praying under trees in a park in Tel Aviv. Plus, an astonishing new record of heartbreak and loss by Netta Barzilai.
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The "Picking Sides" Edition
3w ago02:00:41Summary readyOn Tisha B'Av, Allison Kaplan Sommer, Judah Ari Gross, and Noah Efron talk about (1) this week's primaries in the "Democrats Party" and what they say about Israel's only leftist Zionist party going forward, and (2) whether or not (on this day when we commemorate the laying waste of ancient Israel on account of all the "baseless hatred" people had one for the other back then) our contemporary politics are infected by the same sort of ugly and gratuitous enmity. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shares on all the sites a campaign video maybe suggesting that his challenger General Gadi Eisenkot cares more about Palestinians than he does about his own son, who died fighting in Gaza. In this election, is everything permissible? Plus: Marking 400 years since the birth of Shabbetai Tzevi, enjoying unity at Anu and in a yard watching the World Cup Finals. Plus, music of these odd days.
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The "Blitzed!" Edition
4w ago01:38:36Summary readyStar teacher and activist Rotem Ur-Soco, Linda Gradstein and Noah Efron talk about what to make of 1) The "blitz" of legislation passed by the government in the fading days of the 25th Knesset and 2) A hauntingly beautiful essay in The Atlantic by former Prime Minister and head of the opposition Yair Lapid, which he calls "a love letter to America", and what it maybe says about how many of us Israelis regard the 250 year old democracy across the sea. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: It may be that one of every twenty residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo was born in an English speaking land, and the city today is lousy with young "Anglos". What is this strange hyphenate: American-Israeli? Plus: Books and papers representing a man's life's work dumped onto Dizengoff, collected by rubbish trucks and taken to landfill, plus a bunch of things that made our lives worth living over the last little while. And, of course, some new music of our unsettled times.
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The "Basketball Courts & the Other Kind" Edition
Jul 901:36:02Summary readyGeneva Initiative Deputy Director Tehila Wenger, Miriam Herschlag and Noah Efron talk about: 1) The Cabinet's dramatic statement implying that the government may not comply with a Supreme Court ruling, and whether it signal a constitutional crisis, and 2) The meaning of the Maccabiah, the "Jewish Olympics" underway now, with more than 8,000 competitors from around the world: What should we make today of this remnant from centuries past? For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: It may be that one of every twenty residents of Tel Aviv-Yafo was born in an English speaking land, and the city today is lousy with young "Anglos". What is this strange hyphenate: American-Israeli? Plus: Laying to rest Supreme Court Justice Edna Arbel, Palestinian-Jewish dialogue today, the storied streets of Tel Aviv, and a new Israeli Poker champ.
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The "One Thousand Days" Edition
Jul 201:47:21Summary readyLinda, Judah and Noah talk about: 1) The grim milestone marking one thousand awful days since October 7, and what these one thousand days have been for us, and 2) The emergence of a new joint Jewish-Arab political party, A Place for Us All, that unapologetically puts peace at the center of their agenda, along with increasing wages, lowering prices, equality for women and everyone else, and all sorts of other things that people like us admire. The new party gets a harsh reception on the left, especially on the pages of Haaretz, and we try to puzzle out why. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Shani Gabbai, who was killed at the Nova festival on October 7, returns via AI to speak movingly at her kid sister's wedding. What do we learn, if anything, about the states of our souls from that sad, fragile, strange thing? Plus: Fifty years since the Entebbe rescue mission, the start of the Maccabiah "Jewish Olympics", some great music and lots more.
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The "Winners & Losers" Edition
Jun 2501:37:07Summary readyLinda and Noah talk about: 1) a Hebrew University poll finding that eleven out of twelve Israelis think that Iran "won the war", and 2) the eviscerating new movie, "Yes", by Israeli director-in-self-imposed-exile Nadav Lapid, who despite his criticism of Israel and Israelis was BDSedly hounded out of next week's Marseille International Film Festival (for which discussion we were joined by novelist and Jerusalem Post film critic Hannah Brown!). For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: New York City's next delegation to Congress will be the most anti-Israel ever. What can you say to that? Plus: Fifty years of the Reshet Gimel pop radio station, meeting Landsmen in Milan, Yakov Agam and more than you probably ever wanted to know about the Tel Aviv-Yafo city council! Plus, songs from the stunningly beautiful and moving forthcoming record by Ayalah Asherov and Yehoshua Sobol, Ha-Zman ha-Zeh.
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The "Great Things" Edition
Jun 1801:46:53Summary readyMiriam and Noah talk about: 1) The "great deal" that US President Donald Trump struck with Iran, being a Memorandum of Understanding that does what now?, and (2) The resurgence of "communal singing" in Israel, and what it says about the state of our souls, and how nostalgia ain't what it used to be. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Have we exaggerated how divided we Jews are? Plus: Old books, young love and memories on the highest rooftop in Tel Aviv!
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The "Linkages" Edition
Jun 1101:23:35Summary readyAllison and Noah talk about: 1) Our strange, short, truncated warlet with Iran this week, and 2) New findings that point to a weird entanglement between Israeli attitudes towards climate change and our attitudes towards Netanyahu, the courts, the ultra-orthodox and most everything else we argue about here. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Sam Harris makes waves by saying there's no point in even debating enemies of Israel. Might he have a point? Plus: An old-new life for Kibbutz Manara and hip new music by the graduates of a not-known-for-being-hip youth movement, Noam.
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The "Saw It on YouTube!" Edition
Jun 401:14:02Summary readyAllison and Noah talk about President Yitzhak Herzog's alarmed warning that we are turning into animals, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's very viral election ad, about how leftist-wing sorts make right-wing sorts feel like less. For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: I.D.O.5., or Israel Day on Fifth (a.k.a, the Israel Soliidarity Parade) in Manhattan used to be about unity. Now it's about controversy. Plus: Remembering our friend, the ain't-no-one-like-her, poet-painter-peace-activist-therapist-story-teller Lisa Fliegel. Plus the good karma of Yonatan Razel as he convalesces in Shaarei Tzedek hospital.
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