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What does freedom mean when pain is still present?

As Passover approaches, Dan Senor speaks with Rachel Goldberg-Polin about how this year’s Seder lands differently. In a moment shaped by war, loss, and uneasy relief, they explore how the rituals of Passover hold both joy and sorrow—and why that tension is the point.

From the Exodus story to the symbols on the Seder table, Rachel reflects on memory, meaning, gratitude, and the challenge of holding both relief and restraint. Less about retelling the past, this conversation asks what it means to be free right now.

In this episode:

- Why This Passover Feels Different

- Setting the Table: From Slavery to Nationhood

- What Actually Happens at the Seder

- The Power of Questions (and Why Answers Matter Less)

- Bitterness, Memory, and Eating Our Pain

- Relief vs. Glee: A Moral Distinction

- Dayenu and the Discipline of Gratitude

This episode was sponsored by the Jewish Communal Fund. Learn more about JCF’s donor advised funds at jcfny.org.

This episode was sponsored by Hadassah. Please go to Hadassah.org to make a gift that helps Hadassah continue its longstanding, life-changing support for the people in Israel.

Purchase tickets to see Dan in conversation with Rachel Goldberg-Polin at the Streicker Center on April 20.

More Ark Media:

• Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings.
• Explore Israel Votes
• Listen to For Heaven's Sake
• Listen to What’s Your Number?
• Watch Call me Back on YouTube
• Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal
• Instagram | Ark Media | Dan
• X | Dan
• Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel
• Get in touch

Credits: Ilan Benatar, Adaam James Levin-Areddy, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Patricio Spadavecchia, Yuval Semo

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Are the stakes of the Iran war higher than Israelis understand?

Micah Goodman joins Dan to try and understand the different narratives that drive this war: Iran’s war against the West, the Iranian people’s war of liberation, the United States’ paradoxical relationship with Israel, and China’s hegemonic fantasies. While Israelis are primarily concerned with guaranteeing their own safety, Micah argues that the war puts all these narratives to the test, and that the stakes of winning (or losing) the war may define the future of the balance of power around the world.

In this episode:

- The “Great Convergence”: Why This War Is Different

- The U.S.-Israel Paradox

- America First and MAGA (Can Israel’s Military Beat Conspiracy Theories?)

- Trump’s War Doctrine: Strength Without Quagmire

- The Global Stakes: China, Iran, and Deterrence

- Zionism and the Bigger Meaning of This War

This episode was sponsored by Hadassah. Please go to Hadassah.org to make a gift that helps Hadassah continue its longstanding, life-changing support for the people in Israel.

Find Theodore Herzl's The Jewish State here.

More Ark Media:

• Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings.
• Explore Israel Votes
• Listen to For Heaven's Sake
• Listen to What’s Your Number?
• Watch Call me Back on YouTube
• Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal
• Instagram | Ark Media | Dan
• X | Dan
• Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel
• Get in touch

Credits: Ilan Benatar, Adaam James Levin-Areddy, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Patricio Spadavecchia, Yuval Semo

For the full episode, subscribe here to Inside Call me Back

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This is a sneak peek from this week’s members-only Inside Call me Back, which started a special three-part series on Israel’s shadow war with Iran.

The current campaign against Iran is just one chapter in a much longer war that has been taking place in the shadows for over three decades. This is the story of that war.

In this first installment, Ronen Bergman tells Dan about the first stage of the war: from the intelligence that led to the discovery of the nuclear program to Mossad’s assassinations of Iran's nuclear scientists, to groundbreaking cyber warfare. But did it work?

For the full series, subscribe here to Inside Call me Back

More Ark Media:

• Want to join Ark Media? Check out our careers page for new openings.
• Subscribe here to Ark News Daily
• Explore Israel Votes
• Listen to For Heaven's Sake
• Listen to What’s Your Number?
• Watch Call me Back on YouTube
• Newsletters | Ark Media | Amit Segal | Nadav Eyal
• Instagram | Ark Media | Dan
• X | Dan
• Dan Senor & Saul Singer’s book, The Genius of Israel
• Get in touch

Credits: Ilan Benatar, Adaam James Levin-Areddy, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, and Patricio Spadavecchia, Yuval Semo