Jonah Platt on How to Navigate Hard Conversations and Own Who You Are

LEAVE YOUR MARK: Freshly Brewed Career Advice with Aliza Licht

Aliza Licht

Business, Careers

5.0 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Leave Your Mark, I sit down with the multi-talented, Jonah Platt, actor, writer, and host of the hit podcast, Being Jewish with Jonah Platt. As a powerful advocate for Jewish identity, Jonah is someone who has thought deeply about how we communicate in complex, high-stakes moments. We explore what it means to build a career in a polarized environment and how Jonah’s recent ADHD diagnosis has reshaped the way he sees himself and shows up in the world. We discuss the tools we all need to navigate difficult conversations, those that arise at work, in friendships, within families, and online. Jonah shares his "4 C’s" of effective communication, and we unpack the concept of secondary messaging, exploring how people speak in code, avoid clarity, or remain silent when the stakes feel too high. We also explore what it takes to truly own your identity, especially when the room gets quiet, when it may come at a cost, or when you're still figuring it out yourself. 00:00 Introduction 01:22 Jonah Platt's Upbringing and Early Career 03:22 Transition to Acting and TV Writing 07:29 Jewish Identity and Advocacy 11:10 Impact of October 7th and Public Response 18:33 Starting a Podcast and Future Plans 20:21 The Challenges of Starting a Podcast 21:25 The Impact of Podcasting on Career 22:20 Memorable Conversations 23:23 The Four Cs of Difficult Conversations 29:04 Diagnosed with adult ADHD 37:37 Upcoming Projects and Future Plans 39:07 Leaving a Mark

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Elisa Likt, and this is Leave Your Mark the podcast, where I brew fresh career advice with some of my most inspiring and successful friends.
0:09.5	It's professional advice that you can action immediately, whether you're just starting out in your career or well on your way.
0:16.5	With a massive to-do list and a large cup of coffee, I promise that you can get it all done and still
0:22.5	have time to post about it. Today's guest is someone whose voice you've probably heard,
0:29.1	whether on stage, on screen, or through his hit podcast, Being Jewish with Jonah Platt,
0:33.8	an actor, musician, writer, producer, and now an outspoken advocate for Jewish identity.
0:39.3	Jonah has spent his career telling stories, and recently he's been telling one of the most
0:43.3	important, his own. From his days as Fierro in Wicked on Broadway to creating vulnerable and
0:49.1	bold conversations about anti-Semitism, Jewish pride, and identity in the modern world.
0:54.8	Jonah is carving out a path that's deeply personal and refreshingly unapologetic.
1:00.3	In this episode, we discussed building a platform in a polarized climate, how an adult ADHD
1:06.3	diagnosis transformed his life, and why embracing Jewish joy isn't just a personal mission.
1:12.2	It's a professional one. Jonah, I'm so happy to see you live and not just in Instagram DMs.
1:17.4	It's amazing. We did it. Happy to be here. We totally did it. Okay. First and foremost, you were
1:24.9	raised in a creative and proudly Jewish household. You went to Camp Vermont,
1:31.0	which by the way, I spent a weekend at on like a Shabbatown, but like when we were growing up,
1:35.8	this is how I felt proudly Jewish, but didn't really think about it as much, right? I mean,
1:39.8	how was it for you? Yes. I mean, I was born in the 80ss grew up in the 90s and early 2000s and that was
1:46.1	really a kind of golden age for american jews i never saw or felt any kind of anti-semitism
1:52.7	i you know i went to day school i went to summer camp my whole extended family grandparents
1:57.8	cousin aunts uncles all pretty solidly conservative or even conservative
2:01.7	doc. So it just like was all around me. I didn't know anything else. So it was never something
	...

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