PODCAST · society
The Curious Middle
by Polina & Yelena
We're two San Francisco moms who got tired of pretending the obvious isn't obvious.Top 1.5% of podcasts globally not because we play it safe. We ask the questions people are thinking but won't say out loud, on the topics that actually shape how we live: media, politics, culture, parenting, careers and what it means to defend common sense in a state that often ignores reality.We're two women who've earned our opinions through life, careers, raising kids and educating ourselves, Expect ideas that challenge what you think you know. Conversations that don't wrap up neatly. And the occasional moment where one of us changes our mind on air, because that's what actually curious people do.Being “in the middle” isn’t about being passive. It’s about being grounded enough to question everything, open enough to learn from anywhere, and brave enough to push beyond comfortable assumptions. Expect conversations that challenge, entertain, and push you toward a more thoughtful, and wildly better li
Episodes
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What We Learned From an Iranian American Who Left the Left
Medi from Rep America was born in Southern California to parents from Iran. Like Polina, he was a Democrat for most of his life, until he left the left. We talk about the moment Medi realized the left had moved on without him, and why so many former Democrats feel like they got scammed. Then we…
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Jill Kargman: Old Money Hid Their Limos. New Money Posts Their Jets.
Jill Kargman grew up on the Upper East Side and still felt like an outsider there. The creator of Odd Mom Out joins us o talk about status, Instagram, October 7, and why she calls herself politically homeless. Jill explains why so many Jewish New Yorkers have already switched, why Hollywood stays...
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When a Lesbian Comes out..... as a Republican
Meet Tanya. She was born in Los Angeles to parents who left the Soviet Union as refugees in 1979. After October 7, her group of friends and her lesbian basketball league turned on her. Teammates she'd played with for years stopped talking to her. When she said she was voting for Trump, they...
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Reverend Sirico: Ruthless in the Pursuit of Truth, Gentle With People
Father Robert Sirico shares the unlikely path that led him to the priesthood — from protesting alongside Jane Fonda to a political transformation sparked by a chance encounter with a conservative friend, who handed him Bastiat, Hayek, and Milton Friedman and unraveled everything he thought he…
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The Largest "Pro-Human Rights" NGOs Behave Like a Religion That Casts Out Dissenters.
Danielle Haas spent 14 years inside Human Rights Watch editing their reports before she quit and helped found Eightrights.org, an insider-led group holding the human rights sector accountable. In this episode, she walks us through how Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders…
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Venezuela Was a Top-5 Economy. Then Came Socialism.
Germania Rodriguez was 11 years old when her family fled Venezuela . Her mother, one of the regime's most aggressive journalist critics, had just been falsely accused by Hugo Chávez's government. Two decades later, sitting in NYU lecture halls, Germania became a Bernie Sanders supporter anyway.…
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James Lindsay Shares How Bigotryphobia has Hijacked Every Institution We Depend on and Trust
James Lindsay returns for a two-hour deep dive: his own journey from lifelong Democrat to Trump voter, how Trump Derangement Syndrome became what he calls one of the most wide-ranging psychological operations in modern history, the 130-year throughline from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to...
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A Book Title and a Label that Will Get You Cancelled: White, Blonde, Jew.
Alyssa Rosenheck was one of the only Jewish kids in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when a classmate stood up in class, pointed at her, and said, "The Jew took it." She pushed the girl down. Her dad's response: "My daughter has my permission to deck anyone who offends her family or faith." That courage runs...
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James Lindsay: How to Spot Woke Left and Woke Right Psyop Tactics
James Lindsay led the 2018 Grievance Studies Affair, a hoax so effective it got a chapter of Mein Kampf rewritten as feminist theory accepted into a peer-reviewed journal. Since then he's built New Discourses around defining the woke formula of critical theory plus Leninist tactics, and how the...
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Historian Joseph Moore Wants You to Know It's Never Been Easier to Get Ahead in America
Dr. Joseph Moore is a historian who spent a decade testing every financial strategy Americans have ever tried: he Airbnb'd every room in his house, bought land on the moon, founded a cryptocurrency, and invested in a startup that went to zero — to write How to Get Rich in American History: 300...
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They Are Training Teachers Not to Tell You - PragerU CEO Marissa Streit Joins us to Discuss the Fight For America
Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU, is back! Last time, she told us serving your country can mean enlisting as an educator, a line we still bring up constantly. We cover a lot of ground in this conversation: why personal responsibility beats collective grievance, how socialism and communism sell real...
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Liza Libes Shares How Academia Turned Jane Austen Into a Colonizer (and Buried Tolstoy's Best Lessons)
Liza Libes is defending literature like it's under siege, and after this conversation, you will understand why. Liza went to Columbia wanting to study Tolstoy and came out having read more Edward Said and Sartre she signed up for. We got into how her English degree turned into a theory degree...
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Oikophobia: Why Successful Societies Turn Against Themselves with Benedict Beckeld, philosopher and author of Western Self-Contempt
What if you could name the thing tearing America apart? Benedict Beckeld joined us to trace a pattern that has played out in every great civilization in history: ancient Greece, Rome, Enlightenment France, Britain, and now America. The more successful a society becomes, the more its own people…
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Why Antizionism Is a War on Jewish Existence | Adam Louis Klein
Adam Louis Klein is a PhD student in anthropology at McGill who became one of the leading voices against antizionism after October 7. He was in the Amazon jungle doing fieldwork when the attacks happened. When he returned and refused to stay silent, he was immediately labeled a Zionist and told…
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Family, Finance, Friendship, Fitness, Faith — Rabbi Daniel Lapin's Case for Getting All Five Right
What if pursuing wealth isn't greedy, it's morally good? Rabbi Daniel Lapin has spent decades making that case, and in this conversation he makes it clearly. He's the bestselling author of Thou Shall Prosper, founder of the American Alliance of Jews and Christians, and one of the most practical...
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All the News That's Fit to Spin with Ashley Rindsberg
How much power does The New York Times really have , and what happens when that power is used to shape narrative instead of pursue truth? In this episode of The Curious Middle, we speak with Ashley Rindsberg, author of The Gray Lady Winked, about the Times’ reporting on some of the most important...
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If Iran Breaks Free with Jonathan Harounoff
In this powerful episode, we sit down with Jonathan Harounoff, British-Iranian journalist and author of Unveiled: Inside Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Revolt. Jonathan takes us inside the Woman, Life, Freedom movement—how it began, why it refuses to die, and why the regime continues to answer...
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When Education Turns Into One-Sided Activism with Marissa Streit CEO of PragerU
We speak with Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU about education, civics, and parenting in a time of cultural chaos. Marissa shares the moment that inspired her to “enlist” through education, explains why activism can show up even in math and literacy, and calls on parents to stop outsourcing values…
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Foster Care to Yale: The Truth About Luxury Beliefs with Rob Henderson
Rob Henderson, known for coining the term “luxury beliefs,” joins us to discuss his memoir Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. Rob shares his extraordinary path—from homelessness and the LA foster care system, to adoption in rural Northern California, to enlisting in the...
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Sarah Hurwitz: Chosen for Responsibility, Judaism, Israel, and the Battle Over the Jewish Story
Former Michelle Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz joins us to explore the world of Jewish wisdom she discovered beyond ethnic jokes, bagels, and a vague sense of guilt. She shares how her culturally Jewish upbringing transformed into a deeply learned, joyful identity—and why real Jewish study is...
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Your School’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum Might Be More Radical Than You Think - Monica Harris Explains Why
Monica Harris is the Executive Director of FAIR For All, a Harvard Law graduate, former Hollywood executive, and author of The Illusion of Division. Monica explains how her experience as a gay Black woman in Hollywood and then in “flyover country”shattered many elite narratives about America. She...
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From “America Is Evil” to American Exceptionalism: Lucy Biggers’ Turnaround
In this episode, we speak with Lucy Biggers, head of social media at The Free Press and a former climate activist who has completely rethought the story she was telling the world and herself. Lucy shares how she went from a left-wing digital newsroom steeped in oppressor–oppressed ideology and...
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What Love Makes Possible: Leland Vittert on His Father, Autism & a Lucky Life
Leland Vittert, NewsNation’s chief Washington anchor and author of the memoir Born Lucky, joins us to talk about his childhood, his career, and all the unexpected ways he truly was born lucky. Despite years of bullying and difficulty navigating school as an autistic kid, Leland had one enormous...
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Undercover Billionaire Elaine Culotti is Taking on California’s Toughest Problems
What happens when a no-nonsense entrepreneur decides she’s had enough of California’s chaos? Elaine Culotti has ideas politicians won’t touch. She is a fearless entrepreneur, farmer, real estate developer, and a potential candidate for governor of California. You may also know her as one of the...
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The Queen of Kefir: Julie Smolyansky on CEO Guts, Courage & Stamina
Our guest is Julie Smolyansky, CEO of Lifeway Foods, the company that pioneered the kefir market in America and today produces 95% of the kefir sold in the U.S. Julie’s story begins in 1976, when her parents immigrated from Kiev ( the former Soviet Union) to Chicago. Her mother opened a deli…
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Brandy Shufutinsky on the Marxist Roots of Ethnic Studies in K-12 Schools and College Campuses
Brandy Shufutinsky is the newly appointed Director of the Education and National Security Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. In this important conversation, we disciuss how today’s ethnic studies curriculum, originally intended to promote understanding among diverse…
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Stella Escobedo on Honesty in Journalism
Stella Escobedo is an Emmy award winning news anchor-reporter with nearly 20 years experience, a fearless journalist and an advocate who immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan. Stella is currently a news anchor for One American News (OAN). In this conversation, Stella shares how her upbringing...
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Justice, Forgiveness, and One Remarkable Friendship
Karen McKinney was a prosecutor working in the gang unit when her path first crossed with Joseph Herrera, a man she would go on to prosecute for murder. Twenty years later, Karen faced Joseph when he was up for parole. Not exactly your classic “how we met” story. What no one could have predicted…
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Still chasing the 'retire early' fantasy? This conversation with David Bahnsen might just change your mind.
In this episode, we talk about the value of work with David Bahnsen, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of The Bahnsen Group, a wealth management firm based in Newport Beach, California overseeing $4 billion in client's assets, David is also a thought leader, and author of Full-Time:...
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Ada Palmer on Surviving the End of the World… Again and Again
Ada Palmer, is a sci-fi writer, historian, and someone who sees the world with an incredibly rare, long lens. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the headlines, this episode might help. Ada believes we’re not living in a uniquely apocalyptic time—just a normally apocalyptic one. “We're living in a...
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From Rock Bottom to Chasing Destiny in Paris: Natasha Sizlo on Fate, Family and Love
Natasha Sizlo was having a terrible year. Fresh off a divorce, bankruptcy, the end of a passionate relationship, and then the news came about her beloved father’s devastating terminal illness. When a friend suggested an astrology reading, Natasha’s first instinct was a hard pass. But, Natasha...
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How to Live a Psychologically Rich Life with Shigehiro Oishi
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/meant-for-you/id1036108112?i=1000661332590Are you living a psychologically rich life? In this episode we discuss what it means to be psychologically rich and how you can generate more richness. In "Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and...
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Why So Many Gen Zs Can't Take a Joke with Ted and Courtney Balaker
Filmmakers Courtney and Ted Balaker discuss their latest documentary surrounding the mental health crisis among Gen Z. Their film based on the book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, was made to spark critical discussions, including conversations across...
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Yardena Schwartz on the 1929 Massacre in Hebron That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Yardena Shwartz, an award-winning journalist and Emmy-nominated producer, joins us to discuss her book, Ghosts of a Holy War. Yardena’s book focuses on the 1929 Hebron massacre, allowing us to see the shocking parallels between the historical events of 1929 and the October 7th massacre in Israel....
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One Semester of Civics: Sharon McMahon on the Threat You Didn’t See Coming
When it comes to understanding our government, we often find ourselves asking, “What would Sharon say?” So we did. We invited Sharon McMahon, America’s favorite government teacher and the force behind @SharonSaysS, to help us unpack why civics education in the U.S. has been defunded, sidelined…
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Communism Survivor: From Kiev to American Patriot
Like both of us (your co-hosts Polina and Yelena) Viktoria was born in the Soviet Union. VIktoria immigrated to the USA from Kiev with her family when she was 10. After getting interested in politics a few years ago, Viktoria started a highly successful Instagram page (communistsurivivor) , as a...
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Erin Molan: Fearless Reporter and Advocate for Humanity
We are thrilled to share our conversation with respected broadcaster Erin Molan. Throughout the world, many people have discovered Erin for fearless commentary and stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict. As she does in her videos, Erin discusses the importance of condemning Hamas and standing against...
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Bloom Where You are Planted, and Then Travel the World with Jeannie Ralston
Jeannie Ralston is the founder of Next Tribe, a travel company that offers transformative retreats for women over 45. Jeannie shares how she leapt from adventure to adventure starting as a journalist in New York City to a lavender farmer in Texas, and eventually to a globetrotting entrepreneur.…
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Raising Good Citizens - An Urgent Call to Action with Lindsey Cormack
This conversation is about reversing the trend of cynicism and erosion of trust in our government through education. Lindsay Cormack, an associate professor of political science and author of "How to Raise a Citizen”, joins us to discuss the state of US Government education in our schools. You…
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Finding Success as a High School Dropout with Christopher Zara
If you have ever felt insecure about your education, or if your lack of a degree has held you back from pursuing the life you wanted, this conversation is for you. Christopher Zara, Senior Editor at Fast Company and author of "Uneducated: A Memoir of Flunking Out, Falling Apart, and Finding My...
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Dream Orchestra Founder, CNN Hero and Hero to Hundreds of Kids
Ron Alvarez, a CNN Hero finalist, musician and educator is transforming lives through teaching kids to play music in The Dream Orchestra.. Ron shares he went from a childhood in Caracas, Venezuela to changing the lives of refugee children in Sweden. Ron’s story begins when he joined El Sistema, a...
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Dumisani Washington, Pastor, Musician, CEO and Author of Zionism & the Black Church: Why Standing with Israel Will be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century
In this episode, we are honored to speak with Dumisani Washington, the founder and CEO of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel Dumisani Washington is a gifted Pastor, musician, author, speaker and a passionate advocate for the unity and solidarity between the Church and Israel. His…
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Sharon McMahon, America’s Favorite Government Teacher and Master Storyteller, Joins us to Discuss Civic Education and Stories About American Heroes
Sharon McMahon, America's favorite government teacher and bestselling author of "The Small and the Mighty." shares how she went from a classroom government teacher to a social media success with over a million followers on Instagram. Once you hear this episode you will understand why Shaon’s...
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Stop Shopping to Avoid Your Problems in Part 2 With Tracy McCubbin ( ICYMI )
Tracy McCubbin is a professional declutterer, but what she really does is help people manage their relationship to stuff. When Tracy realized she had a talent for helping people organize their stuff, she turned it into dCluttefly, a thriving business. In our part 2 of our conversation with Tracy,...
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What Are Your Shopping Triggers? Learn How to Manage Your Relationship to Stuff ( ICYMI )
Hear how Tracy McCubbin took her biggest pyschic wound and turned it into her life's work. Tracy helps people destress, save money and. precious time.. If you want to focus on what you can control, buying less stuff is something you can immediately start doing to mprove your life. We aren't…
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Soviet Anti-Zionist Propaganda and Its Deadly Echoes Today with Izabella Tabarovsky
In one of the most important and timely conversations on our podcast, Izabella Tabarovsky shares her research in tracing the roots of anti-zionism rhetoric to the Soviet Union. Izabella’s article, “Zombie Anti-Zionism” for Tablet magazine shares the striking similarities between today's…
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Nicole Avant on Gratitude, Service, Values and her Mother’s Legacy in her book, 'Think You'll Be Happy'
In this life deeply soulful conversation we speak with Nicole Avant to discuss her tribute to her mom in her new book "Think You'll Be Happy." We explore themes from Nicole’s book including living a life centered around love of family, community, the arts, gratitude and serving others. Nicole's...
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Why This Good News Newsletter Can Change How You Live and Parent
Are you tired of the constant stream of bad news? Angus Hervey shares his story of being a depressed news junkie overwhelmed by negativity to a source of hope through his good news site, Fix the News. Angus discusses the negativity bias in the media and how it skews our perception of the world.…
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Sophia Khalifa a Bedouin Arab Woman, Engineer & Stanford MBA Shares Why She has Become an Activist for Israel
Sophia Khalifa, an engineer, working on AI at Amazon AWS, has a story we need to hear. Sophia is a muslim Bedouin Arab, born and raised in Israel. In Sophia's culture and community, girls traditionally do not receive an education, but Israeli policies mandating schooling for all children, changed...
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Susan Griffin-Black, EO Products Co-Founder
In this episode, Susan Griffin-Black, co-founder of EO Products, shares her story. Susan tells us about her path from her early days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to becoming a pioneer in the natural products industry. Raised by a father who was an early feminist and advocate for women's economic...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
We're two San Francisco moms who got tired of pretending the obvious isn't obvious.Top 1.5% of podcasts globally not because we play it safe. We ask the questions people are thinking but won't say out loud, on the topics that actually shape how we live: media, politics, culture, parenting, careers and what it means to defend common sense in a state that often ignores reality.We're two women who've earned our opinions through life, careers, raising kids and educating ourselves, Expect ideas that challenge what you think you know. Conversations that don't wrap up neatly. And the occasional moment where one of us changes our mind on air, because that's what actually curious people do.Being “in the middle” isn’t about being passive. It’s about being grounded enough to question everything, open enough to learn from anywhere, and brave enough to push beyond comfortable assumptions. Expect conversations that challenge, entertain, and push you toward a more thoughtful, and wildly better li
HOSTED BY
Polina & Yelena
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Curious Middle have?
The Curious Middle currently has 168 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Curious Middle about?
We're two San Francisco moms who got tired of pretending the obvious isn't obvious.Top 1.5% of podcasts globally not because we play it safe. We ask the questions people are thinking but won't say out loud, on the topics that actually shape how we live: media, politics, culture, parenting, careers...
How often does The Curious Middle release new episodes?
The Curious Middle publishes regularly with 168 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Curious Middle?
You can listen to The Curious Middle on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Curious Middle?
The Curious Middle is created and hosted by Polina & Yelena.
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