As our final compilation episode from season one, we’ve gathered some of the incredible women who shared their perspectives on It’s Open. Being a woman isn’t one simple thing, it’s many complicated things. We unpacked it together over the course of season one, and at times disheartening but generally hopeful conclusions our guests came to feel that much more empowering when strung together. Featuring interviews with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michelle Buteau, Atsuko Okatsuka, Abbi Jacobson, an...

Keeping it up during this break between seasons, we compiled some of our favorite moments from Season One of It’s Open and reorganized them around themes that have cropped up. Over and over again this year, we’ve discussed billionaires and the system that empowers their existence. People all over America (and the world, frankly) are suffering due to a lack of resources while a very small minority are hoarding wealth. Listen to our guests discuss the wealth issue. Featuring interviews with Ale...

During our break between seasons, reviewing past episodes has revealed a few recurring themes. For the next few weeks, we’re compiling some of our favorite moments from Season One of It’s Open and reorganizing them around those themes. This week, we’ve focused on a topic we discuss at length on the pod: transness, the fluidity of gender, and the ways we can liberate and support trans people as a way to liberate and support all people. Featuring interviews with Chase Strangio, Jay Jurden, Matt...

This week Ilana sits down with stand-up comedy sensation Gianmarco Soresi, who was named in Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch For 2025 and Deadline’s Comics Who Won 2025. He and Ilana discuss the relentless pursuit of craft, the charismatic leaders that populate the musical theater world, the state of stand up, moms who over-share, and generational Judaism. Gianmarco is currently touring North America, the UK, and Europe on his massive THE MISERY LOVES TOUR tour, while his self-released 2025 comed...

On this week’s episode, Ilana sits down with Andrew Rea, the self-made YouTuber behind two of the platform’s largest and most influential cooking shows—BINGING WITH BABISH and BASICS WITH BABISH—claiming over 10.5 million subscribers. Andrew shares the radical personal transformation that followed his discovery of anti-depressants as well as mushrooms, boosting his self confidence, and prompting the creative a-ha moment where he began producing YouTube videos by combining his two life long lo...

On this episode of It’s Open, Ilana sits down with friend and colleague Jay Jurden — a powerhouse, rising star comic whose first comedy album JAY JURDEN, Y’ALL debuted at #1 on iTunes, his debut stand-up special YES MA’AM is streaming on HULU, and you can catch him around the country on his NOTHING SPECIAL tour or at his London debut in August. Jay and Ilana dig into the fraught cultural landscape of the stand-up comedy and podcast scenes, sorting out the divide between creators that are soci...

Join us today to get hyped on Gen-Z leadership because it rocks. We sit down with the spectacular Elise Joshi, a progressive political organizer, climate activist & journalist who has been lighting up digital media with clear, hard-hitting content since she was 17. Elise discusses how—growing up during COVID, California’s wild fires, and the emergent climate crisis—she learned to question authority, found the grassroots coalition through making digital content, and went on to help found a...

Today, Ilana was thrilled to meet and talk with actor, comedian, singer John C. Reilly. For decades, and through his unique expression of sincerity and comedy, John’s performances have shaped the impact of American movie classics—like Chicago, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Step Brothers. Ilana and John discuss his current and recent projects: a one-man-plus-band musical performance MR. ROMANTIC and the surreal Italian-American Western feature film HEADS OR TAILS. John discusses his love for si...

Today Ilana sits down with the award-winning actor and cultural leader for queer rights, self-discovery, and truth: Elliot Page. Ilana and Elliot cover his new documentary SECOND NATURE, about queerness in the animal kingdom, the book Sex at Dawn, which was influential in both of their sexual developments, and the feeling of being in love 😍. In this generous and open discussion, Elliot describes learning to move beyond the societal pressures to conform (that we are all subject to) and discove...

Today Ilana sits down with Reshma Saujani, best known as the founder of Girls Who Code. Reshma’s an entrepreneur, social leader, and activist fighting to reshape the economic landscape for American mothers. llana and Reshma get right down to it, looking at depravity in America today, the enduring construct of “race,” and the manufactured rage-baiting that attempts to separate different groups of women from organizing as one. They discuss Reshma’s debut documentary film NO COUNTRY FOR MOTHERS,...