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The Curious Middle is hosted by two California moms. Uncomfortable questions, good laughs, and the occasional mind change.Come explore with us. 🎙️ Polina & Yelena
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New here? Start with one of these.
150+ episodes. Pick the one that makes you curious and go from there.
- Faith & Freedom
Reverend Sirico — Ruthless in the Pursuit of Truth, Gentle with People
Our most-listened-to conversation of the year, on faith, freedom, and how to disagree without losing your humanity.
- Defending the West
James Lindsay — How Bigotryphobia Hijacked Every Institution We Depend On
The fear of being called a bigot has become a lever for controlling institutions — and he explains exactly how it works.
- Narcissism
Dr. Ramani — Surviving a Divorce With a Narcissist
The episode our listeners share most. Clinical, honest, and genuinely useful.
Read our guide to co-parenting with a narcissist → - Israel & Jewish Identity
Sarah Hurwitz — Chosen for Responsibility: Judaism, Israel, and the Battle Over Who Gets to Tell the Jewish Story
Obama's former White House speechwriter on what it means to be Jewish right now — and who gets to define it.
- Education
Marissa Streit — When Education Turns Into One-Sided Activism
The CEO of PragerU on how ideology took over classrooms — and what parents can actually do about it.
- How to Live Better
Rob Henderson — From Foster Care to Yale
On class, character, and the luxury beliefs the elite preach but never pay for.
Below: all the episodes. Not sure where to start? Email us and tell us what you're thinking about. We'll point you to the right episode.
The archive
All episodes
169 conversations and counting. Search by title or topic.
- 169
What We Learned From an Iranian American Who Left the Left
October 13, 202665 minMedi 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 got into the hard stuff. Medi doesn't hold back on Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood, and why he thinks a se…
Read episode - 168
Jill Kargman: Old Money Hid Their Limos. New Money Posts Their Jets.
October 5, 202644 minJill 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 quiet, and what her daughter saw on campus after October 7. Then it's rapid fire: Birkins, four-nanny…
Read episode - 167
When a Lesbian Comes out..... as a Republican
September 26, 202645 minMeet 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 actually banned her from team events. Her story went viral, and now she's running for West Hollywood City C…
Read episode - 166
Reverend Sirico: Ruthless in the Pursuit of Truth, Gentle With People
September 9, 202663 minFather 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 knew. Now president emeritus of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, Father Sirico m…
Read episode - 165
The Largest "Pro-Human Rights" NGOs Behave Like a Religion That Casts Out Dissenters.
September 2, 202650 minDanielle 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 operate with almost zero outside scrutiny, and how human rights became a civil religion for secular Westerne…
Read episode - 164
Venezuela Was a Top-5 Economy. Then Came Socialism.
August 26, 202653 minGermania 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. In this episode, Germania joins The Curious Middle to explain how someone who watched socialism destroy h…
Read episode - 163
James Lindsay Shares How Bigotryphobia has Hijacked Every Institution We Depend on and Trust
August 16, 2026105 minJames 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 today's "Israel Derangement Syndrome," what Salafism and the book Milestones actually teach, and why he…
Read episode - 162
A Book Title and a Label that Will Get You Cancelled: White, Blonde, Jew.
August 10, 202643 minAlyssa 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 hrough everything that followed: a tennis scholarship, a decade in corporate medical sales, a thyroid canc…
Read episode - 161
James Lindsay: How to Spot Woke Left and Woke Right Psyop Tactics
August 8, 202673 minJames 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 formula appears on the left and the right. In this conversation, Lindsay traces "woke" back through Leni…
Read episode - 160
Historian Joseph Moore Wants You to Know It's Never Been Easier to Get Ahead in America
August 2, 202663 minDr. Joseph Moore i s 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 Years of Financial Advice That Worked and Didn't. He started the project as a "lefty humanities professo…
Read episode - 159
They Are Training Teachers Not to Tell You - PragerU CEO Marissa Streit Joins us to Discuss the Fight For America
July 29, 202653 minMarissa 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 problems with fake solutions, a teacher's union resolution instructing teachers not to tell parents w…
Read episode - 158
Liza Libes Shares How Academia Turned Jane Austen Into a Colonizer (and Buried Tolstoy's Best Lessons)
July 11, 202670 minLiza 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 overnight, why Anna Karenina isn't the feminist manifesto her professors taught it as, and why so much of…
Read episode - 157
Oikophobia: Why Successful Societies Turn Against Themselves
June 15, 202658 minWhat 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 turn against it. Wealth, safety, and open intellectual space create the exact conditions for a culture to start eating itself alive.
Read episode - 156
Why Antizionism Is a War on Jewish Existence
May 12, 202645 minAdam Louis Klein — PhD candidate in anthropology, McGill University. Founder, MAAZ Action.
Read episode - 155
What Your Relationship With Money Says About Your Character
April 28, 202657 minRabbi Daniel Lapin — Author, Thou Shall Prosper . Founder, American Alliance of Jews and Christians.
Read episode - 154
Ashley Rindsberg
All the News That's Fit to Spin
March 18, 202664 minHow much power does The New York Times really have, and what happens when that power is used to shape narrative instead of pursue truth?
Read episode - 153
If Iran Breaks Free
January 21, 202625 minJonathan Harounoff — British-Iranian journalist. Author, Unveiled: Inside Iran's Woman, Life, Freedom Revolt .
Read episode - 152
When Education Turns Into One-Sided Activism with Marissa Streit CEO of PragerU
January 18, 202662 minWe speak with Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU a bout 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 to institutions. Plus: practical ways to use PragerU at home in just 5–20 minutes a day. https://www.p…
Read episode - 151
Foster Care to Yale: The Truth About Luxury Beliefs with Rob Henderson
December 20, 202582 minRob 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 Air Force at 17, and eventually studying at Yale and Cambridge. Rob shares research that shows how c…
Read episode - 150
Sarah Hurwitz
Chosen for Responsibility: Judaism, Israel, and the Battle Over the Jewish Story
December 7, 202566 minFormer 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 essential if we want to withstand modern antisemitism.
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Free guides
Practical takeaways from our conversations
Co-Parenting With a Narcissist: A Practical Guide
A practical, grounded guide for parents navigating custody, boundaries, and communication with a narcissistic ex — based on Dr. Ramani's episodes with us.
What Are Schools Teaching? A Parent's Guide to K-12 Curriculum
What's actually being taught in K-12 classrooms, who decides it, and how parents can find out — from our episodes with Marissa Streit, Brandy Shufutinsky, Monica Harris, and Sharon McMahon.