Kat and Phoebe discuss a blackmail sextortion scheme, a pair of rabid and possibly incestual raccoons, and the de-centered men who can’t quite hit de center of de toilet bowl. NOTES: I Decentered Men. Decentering Desire for Men Is Harder. - The New York Times What is going on in this picture: Do non-white men pee standing up? An unsolvable mystery.…

The cover illustration of the fall issue of The Canadian Jewish News Magazine drew hundreds of responses from readers across the country. The image depicted a fictional family gathered for Rosh Hashanah. This family included a matronly woman in an apron wearing a yellow ribbon in support of bringing the hostages home; a young girl with a dog tag ne…

Last week, Toronto's public school board came under fire after footage emerged on social media showing students partaking in a public protest for Indigenous water rights... that also happened to feature pro-Palestinian chants and signs. A provincial investigation ensued to learn how it happened and why teachers allegedly encouraged students to get …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Special guest "C," a.k.a. Cartoons Hate Her, a.k.a. Donald Trump impressionist extraordinaire, joins the podcast to talk about the men who waste women’s fertile years in going-nowhere relationships, the myth of the nubile nanny, and the difference between an ulti…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss a sexual harassment training, a MeToo memoir, and a firing controversy at a very fancy New York City private school. LINKS: MeToo memoirs continue to trickle in: An artist retrospective: Montreal-born Jill Ciment's memoir asks 'Me Too?' aft…

On a recent trip to Poland, the writer Tanya Gold visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial site. In her lengthy travel essay on the visit, "My Auschwitz Vacation", published in the September 2024 edition of Harper's Magazine, she details the numerous absurdities of the Disneyfied extermination camp, from its notable lack of Jews to the oft…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the urban legend of cat-eating Haitians, Trump's not-so-great debate with Kamala Harris, and JD Vance's identity crisis. LINKS: Goose on the loose: https://x.com/AliceFromQueens/status/1834084575401717899 Ted Cruz, not a literalist: https:/…

The Toronto International Film Festival is going on, and while it only has a handful of Jewish-themed or Israeli-produced films, those films have drawn some of the biggest spotlights. Chiefly among them has been The Bibi Files, a new work-in-progress documentary that received its world debut this week, and which shows never-before-seen leaked foota…

Kat and Phoebe discuss a dead squirrel, a controversial magazine cover, and a New York Times essay on air conditioning by the world's smuggest, sweatiest man. LINKS: The New Yorker cover that launched a thousand takes: -Wesley Yang and others interpret the cover of the New Yorker: https://x.com/wesyang/status/1830979536986472586 Counterpoint: https…

Joshua Leifer made headline last month when he was slated to do a public talk at a Brooklyn bookstore about his debut book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, and discovered, an hour before the event was scheduled to start, that the event had been unilaterally cancelled by an employee who didn't …

It's time to head back to school—but this year, for some Jewish students in North America, school is going to look a little different. Some will be receiving what's known as a "classical" education: a curriculum based on a return to fundamentals, a focus on time-tested great books and a rejection of mandates that emphasize diversity and inclusion. …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the cancellation of a Jewish book event by a rogue disgruntled employee, the changing character of Toronto's Roncesvalles neighborhood, and alcohol as a social good. LINKS: Bookstore drama: https://x.com/joshualeifer/status/1826086333875630…

Canadian Jews may have noticed a trend in their communities this summer: Conservative politicians making the rounds. Leader Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman and even former prime minister Stephen Harper have all made numerous appearances at synagogues, pro-Israel rallies and fundraising galas. It's nothing new to see the country's p…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat was on a lot of drugs and Phoebe was on a plane for 729 hours, but we podcasted through it, so that’s fine. Topics include the scourge of AI image generators, Kat’s sort-of-viral essay about cat ladies, and Phoebe’s impressions of the Sex and the City sequel …

Avi and Phoebe are taking a little summer vacation and will return soon. In the meantime, we're presenting an episode of The CJN Daily that Avi was on earlier this summer about kosher slaughter in Canada. Last week, the Federal Court of Canada sided with Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto in their dispute with the federal government over ne…

By popular request, Kat and Phoebe discuss ballerinas, farms, and Ballerina Farm. LINKS: The infamous Times article: My day with the trad wife queen and what it taught me Phoebe on Ballerina Farm: Momfluenza Kat on tradwives: The Paradoxical Freedom of Tradwife Tiktok This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the return of the self-flagellating white woman, the rise of Brat Girl politics, the war on childless cat ladies, and the petting of hairless cats. LINKS: On Wednesdays we wear... not pearls and Converse or we're racists. https://x.com/megh…

This week, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are digging into the explosive world of U.S. politics. It began with President Joe Biden announcing on July 21 that he would, after significant pressure and plummeting poll numbers, drop his bid for re-election as the Democratic nominee for president. The next day, Vice-President Kamala Harris all but secured he…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the post-assassination discourse, ear-wound conspiracy theorists, the MAGA wife aesthetic, and what on earth is going on with J.D. Vance's hands. LINKS: Canceling cashiers: https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1813320436702400568 Who is J.D. V…

Last week, two very different sex-related 1980s icons passed away: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 4'7" German-born Holocaust survivor, who was 96; and Richard Simmons, whose mother was Jewish, and who rose to fame as a sweat-focused TV fitness guru whose personal sexuality was famously ambiguous . So, clearly, the hosts of Bonjour Chai had sex on the bra…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the memory-holing of Kat's entire early career oeuvre, Phoebe's theory of eternal youth, and the culture critics who want every show to be an after-school special. LINKS: A reflection from Kat: The MTV News Archive Is Gone—and That's OK -Ph…

This month, two major elections have changed the European political landscape. In both France and the United Kingdom, progressive parties have overcome significant right-wing counterparts, overthrowing 14 years of British Conservative power and staving off Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party in a surprising result. Jews, as they often ar…

It was true before Oct. 7, but especially afterwards: an increasing number of progressive-minded people are viewing Jews as settlers in Israel. "Go back to Europe," some especially antisemitic ones chant at rallies. But it begs the question: if Jews are settlers in Israel, where aren't we settlers? Ben Wexler, a writer and academic who recently gra…

Kat and Phoebe do a post-mortem on the recent presidential debate. Links: Biden his time: Phoebe Maltz Bovy on watching the sorry state of U.S. politics from north of the border America Doesn’t Need Momala Harris | The Free Press This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fe…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss a kink-shaming incident in the Cyclades, a wife-seeking incident on Twitter, and a line of clothing that repels the sun, the men, or both. LINKS: -Who needs mail-order brides when there are truck-stop sweeties? https://x.com/shagbark_hick/s…

What does Palestine have in common with climate change, gender equality and indigenous rights? The Omnicause, that's what. In the modern era of left-wing protests, these issues become conflated—think queer Palestinians, viewed as indigenous to their homeland, fighting climate change with organic farming practices. Or something. Perhaps something no…

The trope of Hasidic women leaving their communities—particularly during a journey of queer self-discovery—is not exactly unique. And yet, memoirs and documentaries continue to come out, the latest being Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass, who is now a therapist. After Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviewed the book for The CJN, she had more questions—so w…

We're taking the week off for Shavuot. Instead, we're airing a new episode of a podcast miniseries from our friends at the Jewish Public Library, called recollections. Avi and Phoebe will be back next week. May 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the Jewish Public Library. Our opening season is a celebration of our Jewish Leftist roots in Montreal.…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss a traumatic tree takedown in Kat's neighborhood, a whisper network for women of a certain age, and a sundress that caused a civil war amongs online trad types. (Pictured: not the sundress, but a $10 doppelganger spotted in a local Charlotte…

Israel had some strange bedfellows in the news this week. The New York Times unveiled that country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs created social media bots that posted AI-generated comments to influence American lawmakers and the general public; meanwhile, a rally against antisemitism in Manhattan drew headlines when it was revealed that the organi…

Phoebe apologizes for the print version of her bisexuals article appearing during Pride month, while Kat unpacks the controversy surrounding a certain judge's wife's flag-flying proclivities. Then: divorce! Does it make you hotter, or does it just make you sad? Links: When your wife is fond of flying flags: Inside the Clash That Prompted the Alitos…

When Israel's Judaica store, a prominent retailer in the Toronto area, announced it was closing after 40 years, it felt like another moment in an unfortunately increasing trend: the decline of Jewish "third spaces", places beyond the home and office where Jews feel comfortable and welcome. Synagogues are closing and merging; community centres are b…

Kat and Phoebe discuss a Catholic kicker's commencement-speech controversy, two literary autopsies of the Great Awokening, and whether communion wafers taste like flesh. LINKS: Harrison Butker is Catholic. So What? | The Free Press The speech in full : Bubba: A Cancel-Culture Casualty – but Not in a Town Without Pity | RealClearInvestigations Nelli…

Last September, Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Tufts University in Boston, tried something that hasn't been done before: he created a class teaching conservative ideas to students of his private liberal college. He felt there was a gap in the school's poli-sci curriculum, sensing that graduates were leaving without understanding the …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss a scandal in the pageant world, the disappearance of dick appreciation discourse, the relative dangers of men as versus bears, and the dating app that apologized for suggesting that people might want to use it to, uh, date. LINKS: Kat on th…

You may not know who Joe Roberts is. But some people online, who may or may not have ever met the man face-to-face, claim to know him extremely well—to the point that they are posting photos of his grandmothers' graves, scouring the web for his tweets and published articles, and making bold statements about whether he's really who he says he is. Wh…

College campuses have been heated spaces for Jewish students for a long time. The rapid spread of tent-in protests that began at Columbia University last month has only exacerbated the issue, giving an international platform to pro-Palestinian (and anti-Zionist) students and faculty members grounded in our post-secondary institutions. Jewish and no…

Kat delivers a traffic report from Norwalk, Conn., where a petroleum truck recently went boom. Then: Kat and Phoebe discuss the new sexy tennis movie Challengers, the undescended proverbial testicles of protesters, and the never-ending curse of being Harper's letter signatories. Links: The fireball that shut down the interstate! Kat at Unherd: Can …

As pro-Palestinian encampments pop up across Canadian campuses this week, protesting against university ties to Israel and threatening to keep their tents pitched until the war in Gaza ends, it helps to understand the broader context of how this all began. And if you ask the Columbia University students at ground zero of this movement how they feel…

Kat and Phoebe discuss a very horny theater critic, an uncommonly hot historian, and Uri Berliner's critique of NPR from inside the house. LINKS: Lea Ypi: "Advice for scholars: next time you lecture on Kant and revolutions at “Downing” Cambridge, make sure your hair is neatly tied and that you’re not blonde. Or else your research impact will be on …

For the third year in a row, Bonjour Chai is proud to present the Great Canadian Seder, a coming-together of notable and insightful Canadian Jews from across different demographics and denominations. Why is this year different from all other years? Because seders across Canada will likely be marred, like any good family gathering, by some kind of p…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the mass bisexuality of Gen Z and the BookForum takedown of Lauren Oyler. LINKS: Kat on the bi boom: Gen Z-ers Are Identifying as Bisexual En Masse. Why? - Air Mail Phoebe on straight women: Straightness Studies | Who Do We Think We Are? | …

This week, the editor of Guernica resigned in protest of her own staff and publisher. The respected literary journal had recently published of an essay by an Israeli writer and translator, Joanna Chen, called "From the Edges of a Broken World". In the piece, Chen conveys Israelis, like their Palestinian neighbours, as human and worthy of compassion…

Kat and Phoebe discuss sexually adventurous podcasting, unwanted heirloom dining sets, the phenomenon of "divorce rings," the latest viral Cut essay about age gap relationships, and what to do when your foyer is too narrow to hold your collection of body parts in jars. LINKS: Kat and Phoebe on BARpod Twitter: Won’t someone think of the boomers’ fur…

Do your young kids have a smartphone? Most do. And parents have been witnessing the repercussions firsthand for years. This week, the subject came to the forefront when Jonathan Haidt, a Jewish writer, penned a piece in The Atlantic warning of the "terrible costs" of raising children with phones. A new mental health crisis, higher suicide rates, ev…

A slew of headlines came out this week, within Canada and beyond, warning of a rising tide of antisemitism within Canada. It's not just Fox News and the National Post—_when the Times of Israel is reporting on Canadian Jews worrying their "golden age" is over, and the _Globe and Mail warns of a "dangerous slide into antisemitism", you know things ha…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit femchaospod.substack.com Kat and Phoebe discuss the moral quandary of missing royalty. Links: Kate announces her cancer diagnosis: https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1771235267837321694 Everyone should be ashamed over Princess Kate but me | Ben Sixsmith | The Critic Magazine Opin…

Editor's Note: This episode was recorded one day before Kate Middleton revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer, and thus the episode makes no reference to her health issues. We wish her a speedy recovery. Kate Middleton, an English princess, made international headlines this past week for allegedly disappearing for a few weeks from the outside …

Malky Berkowitz wants a divorce. But the 29-year-old Orthodox woman, who lives in Kiryas Joel, north of New York City, can't get a _get—_a Jewish Orthodox divorce—because her husband won't allow it, even after four years of Berkowitz fighting for one. Her case is just one of many taken up by Adina Sash, a feminist Orthodox activist in Brooklyn who …

Kat and Phoebe discuss breast aesthetics, 90s nostalgia, and whether we're all taking too many drugs. Links: Are We Sunsetting Ass and Entering a Golden Age of Boobs? Sydney Sweeney has brought boobs back - The Spectator World Katherine Dee: “I think benzos and SSRIs are overprescribed for the same reason antibiotics and birth control are. Pharmace…