The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

At this week’s Round Table, Inica, Jack, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with youth civic scholars from the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University and the Quill Project, which works to research the history and enhance understanding of some of the world's foundational legal texts. A core goal of the Quill Project, founded in 2016, is making the discussions that led to the creation of great legal documents of our time more accessible to students, and underscoring that what unites these documents is the way that they are written not by a single person but by a collective.

We had a fascinating and far ranging conversation about what a constitution is and means—for real.  It’s more important to know,  understand, and ground ourselves in the Constitution, at both the federal and state level, than many realize. While in general The U.S. Constitution isn’t seen as a tangible thing that people can relate to, because it feels too removed from people’s lives and too immovable, constitutions are actually much more living documents than we acknowledge. Guest Grace Mallon, incoming Kinder Junior Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute of the University of Oxford, grew up in England and was captivated by the US Constitution when she read about it in her history class–so much so that she continued on to do doctoral work about internal inconsistencies between the Constitution and history. Utah Valley Students Joseph Stanley and Antony Jackson have focused their academic work on state constitutions and now we understand why. While many of us didn’t even realize that states HAD constitutions, we came to see how states can provide rights for their constituents beyond what the federal constitution does in some very exciting ways, which underscores the importance of local and state government as we always talk about. Thank you for listening!

At this week’s Round Table, Inica, Jack, Kenisha and Madeline spoke with Michael Mauser and Helen Hankin, two authentic intergenerational allies. Michael is the Co-Chair for the Braver Angels Nevada Statewide Alliance, and both Michael and Helen have both been active in both the Toastmasters International and the Rotary Youth exchange for decades, hosting 11 students from other countries over the years. Michael is motivated by the quotes “it’s not enough to know, you also have to do things” and “When you can work with people, you get along better,” both of which clearly inform his thoughts and actions. Michael first got involved with Braver Angels at a time when he was depressed by the Presidential Debates, which were so different from the debates of his youth, which he felt had been more about seeking understanding. He watched a Braver Angel debate on YouTube between a pro Trumper and a liberal that was very civil and was heartened by what he experienced and how this illustrated his belief that we grow most by engaging with people who have totally different ideas than ourselves. Helen’s ethos is informed by the question of “What does the community need and what will help them the most?” and she enjoys pursuing sustainable projects that can achieve both initial goals and long term objectives. We discussed the importance of seeking connection, not consensus, in conversations across difference; honing in on shared moral foundations; and seeing each other as people rather than parties. At root, though there are very real differences in priorities and values, we’re all motivated to solve key problems of our times, which can be either a very powerful uniter or divider. Thank you for listening!

At this week’s Round Table, Inica and Kenisha spoke with John McNally, a Graduate Student at Teachers College who is studying the evolution and implementation of the Seal of Civic Readiness initiative in New York State as a lever for fostering high quality civic learning in schools. John is very passionate about civics, having served in the U.S. Army for 8 years before going to West Point, teaching social studies for many years, and raising three kids attending public schools in New York. We talked about how to foster civic identity–an issue we too are passionate about; how innovative districts are trying to reach kids where they are; and how to change the social structures around civic education to put it more at the forefront. John is a proponent of bringing civics to life through action civics, which involves students learning how to engage with issues relevant to us and the things that are affecting us, and our future, everyday. We talked about the importance of getting beyond the perception that politics isn’t meant for young people, especially for low income communities of color who we most need to hear from. We explored how we can change the narrative by broadening the image of what civic engagement looks like and working to empower students to tackle local issues— for ex, things in their schools that aren’t working– and to build up from there.  We also talked about what civics in school would look like if WE were designing it.  Thank you for listening!

At this week’s Round Table, Jack, Jedd, and Kenisha spoke with Sara Wolk and Ruben Montejano of the Equal Vote Coalition – driving forces behind the exciting STAR Voting system from Oregon that is now starting to spread nationwide. Given our interest in systems of voting that help voices be heard to the greatest extent possible, ensuring elected officials represent us most effectively, and how WE as rising voters can use our power to best effect, we were eager to learn about the STAR voting model— a model that changes the way people think about how they should vote. As Sara noted, voting is the issue that affects all other issues, and the sign of a healthy democracy–or lack thereof. The Equal Vote Coalition researched the history of how we came to vote as we vote and realized that systems that don’t count rankings of candidates aren’t legitimately counting all votes and all voices. Electability has become paramount, which makes split voting and the spoiler effect so problematic and makes voters run a pragmatic calculus that is suboptimal. However, other voting methods like STAR can make electability less salient and put more emphasis on having voters look more closely at candidates and their policy positions. Electoral reform is a puzzle with a lot of pieces that all need to fit together. There are several pieces to make sure voters aren’t at a mathematical disadvantage and to ensure that every voter's vote is equally powerful: strategies that counteract split voting like proportional voting; gerrymandering and electoral college reforms; and eliminating barriers and promoting access to the vote. Sara & Ruben are particularly enthusiastic about STAR Voting, which is a hybrid evolution that is the next generation of voting, akin to a five star rating system in which you can show preferences and level of support for different candidates .This encourages voters to look at all the candidates who might support them, provides for a broader range of expression, AND can ultimately eliminate primary elections which disadvantages voters. Furthermore, implementing it doesn’t require a Constitutional amendment, so we’re not taking on catastrophically difficult things like campaign finance reform. We were excited to learn about it and think you will be too. Thank you for joining us!

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Jack, Jedd and Kenisha spoke with Chaitra Nagaraja, associate professor of strategy and statistics at the Gabelli School of Business at Fordham University. Chaitra loves statistics and how they can be applied to a variety of social issues to illuminate who we are and how we live in democracy together. She quoted James Madison’s point that if we don’t know about our population, how can we govern? Statistics can help tell us who we are and how we need to improve. They can also help us replicate models that can be used productively in creating policy. That said, Chaitra reminded us that every statistic has politics behind it and, unfortunately, policies based on statistics often aren’t updated and thus don’t reflect the evolution of society. We grappled with a quintessential challenge of statistics– their inability to take into account nuance and human variables. Chaitra feels this is best countered by reminding ourselves that nothing is objective and being cognizant of the decisions behind how to measure something. Understanding statistical principles, such as that correlation doesn’t imply causation, are key to understanding various phenomena in our world. We agreed that melding data analysis and trend analysis with personal stories can be particularly powerful and illuminating.  Thank you for listening!

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Jack, Jedd, and Kenisha discussed an issue on many of our minds: the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  As we were doing so, we were keenly aware of how each day brings new developments, some hopeful and many devastating.  As high school students born well after the Cold War, we study the historical catastrophes of World War I and II, and had hoped that we were past them. We now find ourselves recognizing the strength of imperialism and trying to figure out the implications. We oscillated between talking intellectually and emotionally, reflecting upon the devastation being wreaked on so many innocent civilians as well as the larger economic implications at a time when so many have already been negatively impacted by Covid. We are all grappling with how to situate ourselves in a global conflict of this magnitude–we can’t divorce ourselves from it as we watch the war unfold and impact people’s humanity in live time.  In an article last week, Thomas Friedman noted that one of the most hackneyed phrases in journalism is “the world will never be the same” and yet it may be appropriate to apply to the connected conflict we’re living through. If countries don’t respond in a serious and significant way, we will see more authoritarian land grabs and more groups at risk, so the stakes are very very high. We are living in very challenging times, making us all the more grateful to be in conversation with each other and with you. Thank you for listening!

At this week's Round Table, Erina, Inica, Jack, and Kenisha spoke with Allison Lichter Joseph, Assistant Professor and Chair of Journalism + Design at The New School. She is the co-author of the Matriarchy Report, a newsletter that investigates solutions for families and care workers from an intersectional feminist perspective. All of us podcasters have a real passion for the intersection of politics AND journalism so this conversation was particularly interesting for us. We loved hearing Allison’s vision of community-rooted journalism rather than parachute journalism, which has done a lot of damage to different communities. We were riveted to learn more about solutions journalism as a counterbalance to so much negativity and pessimism in the press. Allison underscored that for every problem, there are solutions and journalism should be responsible for shining a light on them because solutions exist, at many levels.  It’s incredibly important for journalists to engage in asset framing, especially when reporting on communities of color, seeing communities not for their problems but how people are helping each other out. We dug into the model of “Communities of Care” that imagines social systems that truly take care of us so we can take care of each other and expand our belief about what’s possible. We were inspired by Allison’s conception of a journalist as being a facilitator as much as a mouthpiece–listening, convening, brokering resources and knowledge sharing. What will it take for journalism to achieve these ideals? For one thing, people probably have to pay for news– we need to move beyond a model that depends on advertising. Further, young people need to become sophisticated consumers,  managing our attention, filtering fact from fiction, navigating the information ecosystem, and driving the news of the future. By listening to this podcast, you’re indicating that you are part of this new wave. We thank you and we hope you enjoy this episode!

At this week’s Round Table, Inica, Jack, Kenisha and Madeline spoke with Ross Dakin of the New Jersey Office of Innovation. Ross is a technologist whose background spans Silicon Valley startups, corporate enterprise, federal/state/local government, national non-profits, and academia. This made him a perfect match to work for New Jersey’s first Chief Innovation Officer, a role created as part of Gov Murphy’s commitment to making the state cutting edge and to showing how government can be more innovative in how it provides services. Ross currently focuses on alleviating unemployment and facilitating small business growth, with a special emphasis on Covid recovery, and loves the opportunity to translate work he did as a White House Presidential Innovation Fellow from the federal to the state level. Ross helped us understand how ubiquitous and important tech is–and as such, the enormous equity questions it creates. We talked about the tensions of being cutting edge vs being built to last, the importance of trust–and the dangers of the current widespread distrust of government; and the challenges of scale–the government can’t (or shouldn’t…) choose its customers.. We shared eye-opening insights about what, and who, the government is. Ross underscored that the United States is a 250 year old experiment whereas China is a 2000 year empire. As such, we can’t rest on our laurels and we NEED technology to help us address the many threats of our time. Ross encouraged us–and our listeners–to go into public service, emphasizing that if you have ability and enough passion, there’s no way you won’t change the world. You’re sure to be inspired by this episode. Thank you for listening!

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Jack, Kenisha and Vanessa spoke with Halley Potter, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, where she researches public policy solutions for addressing educational inequality with special focus on school integration. We talked about issues our education system is facing and what we can do with them, what equality in education would look like, and how we can reconcile what we currently see in schools and classrooms with what we want to see. Halley underscored that we value diversity… as a concept; it’s far harder to achieve in practice.  She underscored that school segregation didn’t happen by accident or by individual choices. Decades of policy have created the systems and structural barriers that lead to segregation as the default. Charter schools have potential to be sites of integration as a result of combining choice and enrollment features and diversity controls IF diversity goals are front and center, which they generally aren’t. These things can’t just be left to the free market; as things stand, charter schools are not very integrated as a whole.  The challenging reality is that you can’t tell if a school is integrated by looking at demographics along–you really need to analyze who is attending, who is teaching and in what configurations (for example, gifted programs within schools are often highly segregated), is the curriculum reflective of all students’ experiences, and more. One thing we agreed could help us as we strive to build a better path is to step back and question assumptions about what the best learning environments are. Just because a school may have the best test scores does not make it the best school and unfortunately many of the most screened schools are segregated pressure cookers that don’t benefit youth. Overall, Halley emphasized that choice isn’t bad or good, it’s a tool.  We hope that listening to this episode will help you use that tool for good. Thank you for joining us!

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Jack, and Kenisha spoke with Ian Rowe who, with apologies to Dos Equis, may be the most interesting man in the world. Ian is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. Family, Ian underscores, is the first Institution every child is exposed to and the stability or instability of it influences everything else. Ian’s academic and professional trajectory are the stuff that  dreams are made of, and ultimately led to him heading the Public Prep network of charter schools for 10 years. School choice is not a theoretical construct, especially in places like the South Bronx where only 2% (!) of students graduate on time and at college-ready level. This informs his newest and most exciting endeavor launching a virtues based International Baccalaureate High School called Vertex Academies in the South Bronx in Fall  2022. Ian explained that schools are ALWAYS helping forge the character of students by the practices they put in place. They are ALWAYS sending messages about “what is the way we want you to operate in the world” so why not be explicit and intentional about it? Vertex will be oriented around four cardinal virtues–courage, wisdom, justice, and temperance–with an emphasis on how to live these virtues in action and across all curriculum for both the diploma and career pathways. One of the most important things students can learn is how to gain insights to make decisions that are right for you, which Vertex Academies aims to do. Ian noted that young people today are caught between two narratives: blame the system or blame the victim, both of which are very disempowering. He aims to counter this with his FREE framework– Family, Religion, Education, and Entrepreneurship–underscoring that young people who live by a moral code tend to do better. You’ll be riveted by this episode. Thank you for joining us!