What Matters Now

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author and journalist Matti Friedman.
The first half of our episode is dedicated to an in-depth discussion of Friedman's newest book, "Out of the Sky," set for publication next week. The book is a deep dive into the meaning and myth surrounding a team of Jews living in British Mandate Palestine who -- after escaping the Holocaust -- parachute back into Nazi Europe in 1944.
The most famous of the unit is Hannah Senesh, whom readers will know as the tragic young woman who heroically attempted to save Jews and left behind Hebrew poetry, including "Eli, Eli." In his new book, Friedman busts myths surrounding the mission's participants and then tells their even more stunning real tales.
In the second half of the program, we draw upon Friedman's personal experiences in Lebanon, which he recounted in a previous book, "Pumpkin Flowers."
We discuss the crossroads Israel again finds itself as it contemplates a large ground maneuver on a road too well-traveled in southern Lebanon.
And so, this week, we ask Matti Friedman, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and edited by Yitzhak Ledee.
Matti Friedman / Troops of the 300th 'Baram' Regional Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued by the military on March 18, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Bret Stephens, a The New York Times columnist and the editor-in-chief of Sapir magazine.
Recent polling indicates that only roughly half of Americans support the US-Israel war against Iran's Islamist regime. Stephens weighs in on why the current conflict can be both "Trump's war" and a just war.
Far from feeling that Israel dragged the US into this war, he says that for the first time in recent history, the US has a partner with whom to wage a war. "This war is different, not because it's a war for Israel. It's a war with Israel," says Stephens.
But is the American public capable of internalizing the Iranian regime as an existential threat? In answer, Stephens asks whether a patient with stage II cancer should be advised to wait to treat it until it develops into stage IV. "Thank goodness we're acting now rather than just waiting on events," says Stephens.
Assessing today's global dynamics and the authoritarian axis of Iran, Russia, North Korea and China, he turns to the 1930s, when the world was experiencing a series of conflicts that eventually led to World War II. He warns there is no Hollywood ending in sight.
And so this week, we ask Bret Stephens, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and edited by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: New York Times columnist Bret Stephens (YouTube screenshot) / Beirut, Lebanon, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with Einat Wilf, a former MK, author and CEO of the newly formed Oz party.
Wilf describes the potential fall of the Iranian Islamic Republic's regime as a shift in the magnitude of the fall of the Soviet Union.
We discuss the seismic ripple effects on Gaza and the Palestinian Authority. Wilf proposes that this moment is a window of opportunity for Israel to end the ideology of "Palestinianism" -- the end to the Jewish state -- that could quickly shut again.
She talks through Israel's need to create firm civil borders of its control in the West Bank and to maintain military control of the remaining areas and have what she calls, "an active occupation."
And in the final portion of our conversation, we hear why Wilf formed her new party at this time and what it stands for.
And so this week, we ask Einat Wilf, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Gabriella Jacobs and edited by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with author and public intellectual Micah Goodman.
In the sixth day of the United States and Israel's joint war against the Iranian Islamic Republic, Goodman takes stock and allows himself to wonder: What if we actually won this war against the evil regime?
We discuss the trickle effect on the Iranian people, the Mideast region and the world at large.
At this historic juncture, Goodman is hopeful that not only will World War III be averted, but peace may come to the region as Israel's existential threats are neutralized.
And so this week, we ask Micah Goodman, what matters now.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Eli Katzoff and edited by Ari Schlacht.
IMAGE: Dr. Micah Goodman/ A billboard showing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host Jessica Steinberg speaking with Oscar film nominee Meyer Levinson-Blount.
“Butcher’s Stain" is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 2026 Oscars, after winning second place in the narrative category of the Student Academy Awards in the fall.
The film follows Samir, an Arab butcher in Tel Aviv, who sets out on a journey to prove his innocence after he’s accused of removing posters of the hostages kidnapped to Gaza.
Levinson-Blount discusses his own background as the inspiration for the making of the film during his studies at Tel Aviv Film School, which he describes as a "paradise," particularly during the two years of war.
He talks about the themes of the film -- which draws on Levinson-Blount's own experiences working in Israeli supermarkets -- and revolves around a general thread of suspicion regarding the Arab community in Israel.
The debut director also discusses how the film's story builds suspicion, then breaks that expectation, showing that people tend not to know that much about one another.
What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Ari Schlacht.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.