Learnt Up

Get ready for a super-special yet bittersweet ep that will leave you yearning for answers. Is Lorraine really going away to military school? Has Sarah really not peeped the Drake album yet? If a British Jew falls in a science lab and nobody else is there, does it make a sound? (No; British Jews don’t exist.) For today’s homework, Sarah and Lorraine decided to revisit old recommendations from guests and listeners.

Happy summer of sports!!! To celebrate, Learnt Up is flexin on ‘em with another sports episode!!! Sarah reports current sports news that is hot hot hot off the presses and then she presents a list of hot hot hot boys from the 2018 World Cup soccer field. Meanwhile, Lorraine brags about her fancy, soccer star brothers and she gets learnt up on basketball-has-been Carmelo Anthony.

Todd McClintock invites Sarah and Lorraine to join him in getting learnt up on a bleak topic - The Potato Famine - and the conversation is disturbingly delightful.

You have the incredible podcast hosts of 2 Jews Talking to thank for this one! That's right! Friends of the podcast, Joshua Heller & Erika Brooks Adickman invite Sarah and Lorraine to share a fun night of live podcasting at The Pico.

Sarah & Lorraine are comin’ at ya with part two of their Drake learnts!!! And just like in Drake pt. 1, your hosts take a moment to spotlight Cardi B & all her glory. Before Sarah & Lorraine discuss the current Drake/Pusha T beef, they must settle an unrelated rap feud that has been building up in the podcast studio. Once they put the emotional stuff behind them, they share their thoughts on their beloved Black-and-Jew Boo, Drake!

Dear friend of the podcast, Dana Bell comes through to get learnt up on Albert Einstein’s life and many of his discoveries in math and science. Behind Einstein’s wild hair and crazy face, he kept a beautiful brain filled with complex thoughts on our universe. Dana tells us all about how - in addition to being a brilliant scientist - Einstein was also a leftist, socialist philosophy bro with anti-war sentiments as well as a deep love for his cousin-wife, Elsa.

Sarah Isaacson is mysteriously absent from this episode while Carl Tart (Brockmire, MAD TV, White Women, UCB) stops by to discuss the band Zapp aka Zapp & Roger. Throughout this ep, Carl talks and sings about the electro funk moment that Zapp helped create and Carl gets so learnt on the talk-box, he decides to buy one. He also exposes this bone chilling conspiracy theory: the song “Computer Love” proves Roger Troutman invented FaceTime.

Special ep alert! Sarah and Lorraine are busy ladies so this week Learnt Up is hosted by their friends: Kanye West’s genetically-engineered Pomeranian Sushi, and Lynette Goldman — Jared Kushner’s eyebrow lady. The two work out their issues with their respective famous owner and prized client, chat plastic surgery and microblading, unpack some backwards-ass race stuff, and contemplate murder. It’s a weird time, so strap in!

Lorraine and Sarah take a break from their usual programming to discuss the much-buzzed-about This is America music video from Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover aka future EGOT 4 shore -- watch out Barbra Streisand. Lots to unpack in this vid: Black culture. Guns. Charleston. Jim Crow symbolism. Horses? Also, Sarah and Lorraine shout out their incredible moms in honor of Mother’s Day! If you like your eps short n sweet and relevant AF, you’re gonna dig this. “Don’t catch you slippin’ up!”

Time for a switcheroo! Sarah and Lorraine pause from learning about their respective cultures to take the other gal’s culture for a spin. What does this mean? Movies! Lorraine watched When Harry Met Sally (which Sarah will defend to the death as a “Jewish movie”) and Sarah watched Do The Right Thing (an undeniably black movie).

Lorraine and Sarah welcome Rachel Chapman and Oscar Montoya, of the Inside the Disney Vault podcast, to share some shame! The Disney kids got learnt up on all things anime, and they cover a wide swath -- talking everything from Dragon Ball Z to Miyazaki’s greatest hits to Sailor Moon to a scandal that will change the way you look at The Lion King.

Did you guys know cults are super trendy right now? For this culty ep, Sarah gets learnt up on the ultra-Orthodox sect Lev Tahor, aka the “Jewish Taliban” and its shady leader Shlomo Helbrans, who moved the group all around the world to evade various criminal charges like kidnapping and child abuse. Lorraine discusses the Black Hebrew Israelites, specifically the controversial “black supremacist” group Nation of Yahweh. The gals also chat about Wild Wild Country and their run-ins with modern day cu

Calling all nerds, dorks, and geeks! This is your episode, babies. Katelyn Hempstead -- writer / comedian / Trekkie -- swings by the pod to chat about Jews in science fiction! Katelyn got learnt up on sci-fi pioneer Isaac Asimov and “bad boy” nihilist Harlan Ellison. Fun fact: Asimov coined the word “robotics”! Another fun fact: there was an early plan in the ‘40s to make Alaska the Jewish state!

Gather round, children -- it’s time for a spooky episode of Learnt Up! Lorraine tells us all about zombies -- tracking their roots in Haiti and West Africa, connection to voodoo, and superstitions among slaves. Did you know that being a walking corpse is a fate worse than death? Btw, stay away from Devil’s Weed and toads, y’all. Sarah gets learnt on the Golem and dybbuks and tells the haunting story of the Dybbuk Box (a super real series of events that definitely happened because ghosts exist).

Lorraine and Sarah welcome writer/performer/tall person Zora Bikangaga on to share some shame! Zora got learnt up on Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) and comes bearing lots of movie recs, along with thoughts on colorism, Hollywood’s fetishizing of Africa, and Jennifer Lawrence’s career trajectory/emotional maturity. Trigger warning for diehard Lawrence-heads: this gets pretty cutting.

In 1850, a census reported 8 Jews and 12 black people living in Los Angeles. The next year, thrown by the traffic and bad pizza, they all left. Just kidding, they stayed and built the city we know today! Join Lorraine and Sarah as they get learnt up on some of LA’s black and Jewish pioneers and their lasting contributions. Find out the origin story of Canter’s Deli, how Nat King Cole battled housing discrimination, and how a badass slave sued her master — and won.

Have you ever seen two black people doing an elaborate yet effortless series of hand gestures/hugs and felt embarrassed that you don’t know how they know what to do? Have you ever seen a Jewish person swaying back and forth with a prayer book and been like *shruggy emoji*? And hey! What the hell are the Spice Girls singing about? Do not fear! Lorraine and Sarah were once wandering in the darkness too, but they’re here to fill you in. You’ll leave this ep with not only solid answers to some of life’s greatest mysteries, but with the confidence to start your own super-confusing hand gesture/hug that will impress and intimidate all who witness it! And you’ll finally know what to do in that Harriet Tubman audition. Go get ‘em!

Welcome to Blackface & Jewface: Minstrel Shows and Media Representations, a seminar at Vassar College taught by Professor DeGraffenreidt and Adjunct Professor Isaacson. Prepare to get your young little mind blown by seemingly benign bits of American culture (Mickey Mouse! That song “Do Your Ears Hang Low?”!) that actually have super racist origins. Marvel at cartoons from the 1800s that depict Jews as evil, large-nosed fiends who care more about money than human life.

Lorraine & Sarah are women (not girls!) who happen to run this shit. Happy Women’s History Month, by the way!!! On today’s ep everybody gets learnt up on black & Jewish feminists. Sarah honors the life and legacy of visual artist and community leader Judy Chicago while Lorraine learnts about the feminist work and messy private-life-turned-public-life of activist Rebecca Walker, aka Alice Walker’s daughter.

Get ready to party cuz it’s Purim, babies! Sarah tries to remember the story of Judaism’s littest holiday aka Jewish Halloween. The hosts phone a couple friends for help, and -- spoiler alert -- somebody was paying alllll the attention in Hebrew school. Lorraine gets inspired by a YouTube Rabbi and finds her drag queen alias, and Sarah explains why her purse was so heavy in college. Everyone eats cookies! This ep is sponsored by a Jewish bouncer service and dedicated to Wakanda!