The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

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The Round Table: A YVote Podcast episodes

  • We Need To Develop Authentic Relationships Across Divides
    The backbone of democracy is relationships: relationships with elected officials, with political ideals, and most importantly with each other. Now more than ever, with polarization the norm in American politics, it is essential to note that the rifts did not begin four years ago. It is a result of an unwillingness to compromise and work together to achieve meaningful change for decades. Like any other broken friendship, we must start listening to each other and find common ground and common purpose from which to build upon. Our guest Karen Murphy strongly believes that this is the only way we can bring about significant progress in this nation.
    1 min
  • Currently, I feel like our society is a war zone
    Podcaster Madeline referenced the degree to which people are being dehumanized amidst calls to make America great again. There are competing ideas for our future and whether we are heading towards destruction or a renaissance. She asked our guest Karen Murphy what we can learn from the history and culture of dehumanization, as well as how we can learn from history of pushing institutions in positive directions. She also inquired about how to distinguish between what we hope to do as a country and what we can ACTUALLY do.
    1 min
  • We are a nation founded on a principal idea
    Amid growing tensions and increased polarization in the U.S., it’s helpful to look back to the idea central to our nation’s founding. Citizenship was not based on birth or blood--it was about the idea of committing to a principle of being elastic and inclusive. We must recognize, of course, that “we the people” referred to a very narrow band of people at that time but the guiding principle as enabled the American PEOPLE to push the country and its leadership and institutions in vital ways Our guest Karen Murphy underscored that this is a critical differentiator that has the potential to propel much-needed progress today.
    1 min
  • There’s ideally a marriage between what one teaches and how one teaches
    Our guest Karen Murphy is a proponent of teachers being as highly trained and valued as top medical professionals. She noted that if one is trained as a surgeon, in an emergency that professional is likely able to apply those skills even in an area that isn’t their specialty. With teachers, the more confident and skilled one is with teaching as a practice, the more one can apply that to other things that you teach. This is all the more important when it comes to teaching about very difficult moments in our history, ESP those moments with which we may have an intimate connection. It’s a sophisticated skill to be able to conduct difficult conversations about things that are personal and close and have consequences.
    1 min
  • We take for granted what we think of as history
    Our guest Karen Murphy reminded us that we think about as history changes over time.--not just what we care about and who we care about but what is considered history. Facing History and Ourselves came to be in 1975 when its founders met at a conference on the Holocaust and it was the first time they’d learned about that history despite ostensibly being well-educated teachers and citizens. We take for granted now that the Holocaust is something people need to know, but it’s a history that needed to be fought for--as is still the case for many nondominant histories today.
    Karen reminded us that just because a decision is made about the importance of a historic event--that we should all know about Frederick Douglass or read Toni Morrison or know about the NY Draft riots--doesn’t mean it will be continued forever unless decisionmakers (classroom teachers, education officials, textbook writers) sustain commitment to it being important.
    1 min
  • Fighting For History--And For Ourselves

    At this week's Round Table, Divya, Inica, Isaiah, Madeline, and Olivia spoke with Karen Murphy, Director of International Strategy for Facing History and Ourselves.  Karen had a lot to contribute to our series on national identity, inclusion, and belonging through her global lens, drawing upon lessons learned from Northern Ireland and South Africa. Her worldview is predicated on the belief that we have to know where we come from--individually and collectively--in order to make decisions about where we are, where we’re heading, and what it will take to get there. We talked about how the history we learn changes over time—not just in terms of the what and the who but what is actually considered history--and how what is omitted is often as important as what is included. We talked about how to reckon with the contradictions of our history—for example, that our forefathers idealized freedom while keeping a significant portion of the population from being free.  And, of course, we talked about warring visions for the future direction of our country, the period of transition we are in, and the need to restore not just institutions of democracy but habits of democracy and relationships that have been breaking down for quite some time. Thank you for joining us!

    39 min
  • Covid has compounded the backlog in immigration hearings
    2020 has shown us that the #covid_19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of our society and immigration is no exception. Our podcast guest @bethfertig underscored that with the inability to hold hearings and proceed with trials in a timely manner—only people seeing judges have been immigrants held in detention —the vast majority of immigrants with court cases have been frozen in time for 8 months. In early Dec, the immigration court system put out a memo saying that all cases and filings will now be done by paper--not even by video conferences or by phone--leading to a lot of concerns about what the implications will be and how this will impact the existing backlog of more than 1 million cases...
    With the imminent transition of the Biden-Harris administration, it is evident that @joebiden’s plans for immigration reform will have to promptly address the inefficiencies that are impacting immigration on a massive scale in this country.
    1 min
  • There’s a lot the President can—and can’t—do for our 11 million undocumented immigrants
    There are a lot of potential changes in immigration policy on the horizon through the incoming Biden administration. Our podcast guest @bethfertig, helped us think about what can be determined by Executive Order--such as overturning the Muslim travel ban--and what requires Congressional approval—such as how to handle DACA and creating a path to citizenship and full legalization for everyone in the Dreamers’ families. There are potentially 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US, an issue that has been a political football since the Obama Administration. This is in fact what led Obama to create DACA since Congress hasn’t been able to agree on sustained immigration changes in decades.
    1 min
  • Joe Biden has said on Day 1 he’s going to address DACA
    As we head closer to Inauguration Day and the beginning of a new administration, we anticipate dramatic differences in orientation, and immigration is at the top. In this week’s Round Table Podcast episode, we spoke with Beth Fertig, Senior Reporter for WNYC Radio for immigration, exploring key differences in the immigration policy agenda of President Obama vs President Trump--and what we can and should anticipate in the Biden Administration over the years ahead.
    1 min
  • I wanted to cover issues of justice as they affect people
    Beth Fertig, Senior Reporter for Immigration, Courts, and Legal Affairs, shared what brought her to her beat, after years covering immigration. She noted that in 2016, she started covering the courts. She was clear that she didn’t just want to cover broad themes of justice; she wanted to see how it was affecting people. Once Trump was elected, it was decided that she would cover immigration courts and she immersed herself in learning all about them. Did you know that it’s not a regular court but rather run by the Department of Justice? Or that immigration judges are technically lawyers who work for the Attorney General, so there’s questions of how independent they can be
    She underscored how fascinating it’s been to see all the ways a presidential administration could affect the immigration courts and the people going through them, even so far away from the border.
    1 min

About The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

From the publisher's feed

The Round Table provides a platform for conversation and engagement of civically-minded young people from different parts of the country. We strive to model civil dialogue across various divides--socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, political, and regional. We aim to challenge norms and represent all kinds of diversity--especially of perspective and ideas--enabling listeners to “hear” our thinking.