CaseyCast - the monthly podcast of The Annie E. Casey Foundation

On the latest episode of CaseyCast, Annie E. Casey Foundation President and CEO Lisa Lawson speaks with Dreama Gentry about expanding opportunities for young people growing up in rural America. Gentry serves as founder and president of Partners for Rural Impact and was a 2016-17 Children and Family Fellow.

An estimated 14 million young people live in rural communities across the United States. While they share the same hopes and aspirations as young people everywhere, their experiences are shaped by the different histories, resources and economic conditions of the places they call home. Some rural communities are thriving while others have experienced generations of poverty or more recent economic challenges.

Drawing on examples from Appalachian Kentucky and other rural communities, Gentry explains how partnerships with schools, investments in education and career exploration build on each community's strengths and expand opportunities for young people so that they have real choices about where to live, learn and work.

On this episode of CaseyCast, Foundation President and CEO Lisa Lawson spoke with Assi Sy and Julia Baez from Baltimore’s Promise about what young people need to thrive, the importance of youth engagement and why their perspectives should shape the programs, policies and systems intended to serve them.

Sy and Baez are working together on Baltimore’s Promise’s Youth Well-Being Landscape Project — the third iteration of the organization’s Youth Opportunities Landscape. The citywide initiative centralizes, aggregates, maps and analyzes the opportunities available to Baltimore residents ages 0 to 24.

Young Baltimoreans are helping lead the work, defining well-being, conducting research, interpreting findings and shaping recommendations for change.

Learn more at aecf.org/podcast.

People don't make deci­sions based on facts alone. They rely on sto­ries and assump­tions to make sense of com­plex issues like juvenile jus­tice, eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty and child well-being. Those nar­ra­tives shape not only what peo­ple believe but also the solu­tions they are will­ing to support.

On this episode of CaseyCast, Foundation President and CEO Lisa Lawson talks with Nat Kendall-Taylor, CEO of the FrameWorks Institute, about why facts alone rarely change minds, how framing shapes public understanding and how stories grounded in research can build support for solutions that help children, youth and families thrive.

On the lat­est episode of Cas­ey­Cast, Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent and CEO Lisa Law­son talks with Dr. Jef­frey Arnett, pro­fes­sor at Clark Uni­ver­si­ty and the psy­chol­o­gist who coined the term “emerg­ing adult­hood,” about how young peo­ple nav­i­gate the years between adolescence and established adulthood.

Emerg­ing adult­hood refers to the life stage from about ages 18 to 29 — a peri­od marked by explo­ration, iden­ti­ty for­ma­tion and major deci­sions about edu­ca­tion, work, rela­tion­ships and inde­pen­dence. Arnett’s research high­lights how this stage has changed over the past sev­er­al decades as young peo­ple mar­ry lat­er, have chil­dren lat­er, take longer to find sta­ble work and face a more com­plex path to adulthood.

This episode of CaseyCast is adapted from a live conversation at the 2026 Adolescent Brain Development Summit hosted by the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent. Foundation President and CEO Lisa Lawson joined Adriana Galván for a fireside chat about how to better support young people as they navigate the path to adulthood.

On the lat­est episode of CaseyCast, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Pres­i­dent and CEO Lisa Law­son talks with Michelle Jacobs, asso­ciate vice pres­i­dent of col­lege and career ready at Unit­ed Way of Greater Atlanta, about how Career Ready ATL is reimagining pathways to work for young people.

Career Ready ATL is a youth apprenticeship program designed to support young people ages 16 to 24 who are furthest from opportunity — including those involved in foster care, the juvenile justice system or disconnected from school and work. Through partnerships with employers, schools and community organizations, the initiative combines paid, on-the-job learning with education and wraparound supports to help young people build sustainable careers.

Nicole “Nikki” Clifton, president of social impact at UPS and president of the UPS Foundation, joins the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Lisa Lawson to discuss how companies can support young people through jobs, mentoring and community partnerships — from delivering vaccines to fighting trafficking to creating career pathways.

Adolescence is a time of both vulnerability and possibility. UCLA professor Adriana Galván — a leading researcher on the adolescent brain — joins Casey Foundation President & CEO Lisa Lawson to discuss how brain science can guide education, justice, and social systems to better support young people on their path to adulthood.

Lisa Lawson, president and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, introduces her new book Thrive: How the Science of the Adolescent Brain Helps Us Imagine a Better Future for All Children. In this special short episode, Lisa shares why adolescence is not just a challenge to navigate but an opportunity to help young people ages 14 to 24 flourish — and previews upcoming CaseyCast conversations inspired by the book.

What if Medicaid could do more than cover doctor visits? What if it could change lives? In this episode of CaseyCast, public health expert Alex Briscoe joins host Lisa Lawson to explore how rethinking Medicaid can unlock better mental health care, build a more diverse workforce and empower young people.

Alex shares the story of EMS Corps, a program he helped launch that trains young adults — many with experience in foster care or juvenile justice — to become emergency medical technicians. With mentorship, stipends and real career options, EMS Corps is proving that workforce development can be a healing intervention. Hear how this model is scaling nationally — and what it takes to turn policy into purpose.