What happens when an entire people are forced to hide who they are… for generations?

In this episode of The Story of Us, Jeff sits down with Yaffah Batya daCosta—educator, speaker, and advocate for the descendants of the “Secret Jews,” families who were forced to convert during the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions while quietly preserving pieces of their identity in secret.

But this conversation is about much more than history.

It’s about memory. Identity. Belonging. And the human need to understand where we come from.

Together, they explore the story of the Anousim (“the forced ones”), how ancient persecution still echoes into modern life, and what happens when someone begins rediscovering truths their family was never allowed to openly speak about.

Along the way, the conversation widens into so ...