Here are excerpts from some of our favorite conversations last year, with subjects including Jewish life in Ukraine, Arabs and the Holocaust, China’s Haifa port, and more.

One of the greatest Jewish historians on the clash of civilizations that played out within the psyches of young Odessan Jews.

A native of Odessa, the Jewish thinker needed no convincing that Ukrainians were a distinct nation. He understood that if they were subdued, no other nation would stand a chance.

Indignation at Israel’s response to Russia’s invasion has intensified while becoming ever more untethered from the facts.

Why was a random Polish shtetl singled out in the 19th century to become the home of fools in dozens of Jewish fables?

The name is comical and magical at once, designating a city of broad boulevards and fancy shop windows known to Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the dairyman and others.

The Jewish state has been criticized this week for not standing up for Ukraine against Russia. It would probably like to, but its hands have been tied by its own closest ally.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has begun. To explain how it came about and what can be done, a top foreign-policy scholar joins the podcast this week.