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 a human rights framework focused on the dignity of all human beings.
    Cyrus McGoldrick’s worldview is very influenced by his being half Iranian and half Irish. He looks to the Irish freedom struggle —part of Ireland (Northern Ireland) is still partially occupied by England through their two estate solution. The Irish still remember all of their political prisoners and support their families from Dublin to Belfast. Cyrus hoped to see the same kind of response within the Muslim community, but the War on Terror is a comprehensive effort, and a bipartisan one that has been supported by both parties, making it even more important to maintain a human rights framework focused on the dignity of all human beings
    1 min
  • I felt very limited by a civil rights framework
    Cyrus McGoldrick shared how disheartened he was seeing young people going into prison and losing every appeal , fighting cases that were clearly political. When every court in the land declares someone guilty, within a civil work framework, organizations generally have to wash their hands of the case and say the checks and balances have left us in this position and their hands are tied. This led to to his radicalization and thinking more deeply about the law and the system, and to what degree do and don’t such checks and balances protect us from government oppression and tyranny. It also led to him moving to a national coalition to focus more on protecting political prisoners.
    1 min
  • I am very much a student of Malcolm X
    Cyrus McGoldrick talks about his hero, Malcolm X. Malcolm was a product of, and one of the great producers of, a black internationalism and a radical black politics that lives on and is very much alive anywhere people are protesting the state.
    Malcolm tried to move people beyond the conversation of civic rights, which limited them to the courts, to the law, to an American identity. Malcolm’s feeling was that law is not the determinant of right and wrongs, that human beings are born with inalienable rights and dignity and anything less than that should be resisted until we achieve it, for ourselves and others.
    1 min
  • What makes a successful campaign?
    Cyrus McGoldrick talks about the importance of knowing who you are and who your community is in building a successful campaign. The word community is too often used cavalierly as an ideal or an imagined backdrop to the work we are doing. We talk about cities as a community but that doesn’t really exist. New York City, as an example, is a collection of villages. Can 12 million people share a community? Not really. Even one neighborhood of Brooklyn or the Bronx isn’t necessarily one community in a real way. When Cyrus thinks about building campaigns, he tries to focus small, on the things that are immediately around him and the people he’s in community with.
    1 min
  • For years I lacked understanding of how politics and power worked in practice
    Cyrus McGoldrick, doctoral student currently living in Turkey, shared his evolution as a human rights activist. He tried to plug into the anti war and anti Bush efforts, but notes that he and his peers didn’t have a practical idea of how politics and power worked and how decisions were made. It wasn’t until going through university and, even more, connecting with real activists —people on the ground—that he was really able to wrap his mind around strategy and do meaningful hands-on work. He’s since collaborated with folks committed to similar causes around the world—in New York, in Turkey, in Iran, in Norway.
    1 min
  • Movement Building for Human Rights

    At this week's Round Table, Inica and Olivia--along with Julianna, Sara, and Riya in their last episode before heading to college!--spoke with Cyrus McGoldrick, a lyrical artist of Iranian and Irish descent and an American Muslim activist who has worked for and with civil and human rights organizations for the last 10 years. Living in Istanbul, Turkey for the last five years doing doctoral work has given him a great vantage point to watch our United States from a distance. We talk about the generative possibilities of this moment in which, more than ever, space is not a barrier, we can build relationships across divides, and people have woken up to injustice because of our ability to SEE and connect and coordinate communities around the world. We talk about Cyrus' role model Malcolm X and the need to move, as Malcolm did, from a civil rights to a human rights perspective that foregrounds common good and common dreams globally.  Thanks for joining us!

    29 min
  • Even champions of women don’t hire women in the numbers we’d like
    Mark Hanis remembers when Hillary Clinton was running for president, a lot of people talked about the need for their to be more women in government. This made him curious about how many women worked for Clinton when she was Secretary of State. He found there was initially a 2:1 ratio of men to women (it got better over time) EVEN WITH someone who was a champion for women. This influenced his founding of Inclusive America—he wanted to know who was working on this and what the solution was And, when he found out that no one was working on diversifying appointed positions, Inclusive America was born.
    1 min
  • What it will take to have a truly representative government
    Mark Hanis notes that too often when we focus on diversity and inclusion, we just focus on one aspect like gender or race. It’s important to be conscious and vigilant about who’s not in the room. Intersectionality plays an important role in this—asking not just “is there a woman in the room?” but “is there a woman of color?” or “is there a woman of color with disabilities or veteran status?” It can be a lot of work but it’s important to start a meeting not just by saying what are we going to do but acknowledging who’s missing, why, and what can we do to get them at the table so that their voice can be part of the debate. This is vital to truly representative democracy
    1 min
  • Government tends to be ageist
    Mark Hanis shares his concerns that people who are younger tend not to be taken as seriously in government. At Inclusive America, when they look at categories of diversity in order to ensure a more level playing field , age is one of them along with gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and veteran status. They also plan to go beyond this to look at first generation college, first generation American, gender identity, geographic and socioeconomic criteria. People like Bill Clinton and Al Gore were often seen as too young by earlier generations. Folks in the Obama administration were often very young, in part as a result of the Office of Technology bringing in younger folks.
    1 min
  • Too often we focus on the individual instead of the team or movement
    Mark Hanis talks about how much he enjoyed his time working for the Office of Vice President Joe Biden. He notes that too often we focus on the individual and not enough on the team or on movements, yet rarely is any social change possible without large groups of people. We do a disservice by just talking about the person who has their name or their face on the top of the ticket. He characterizes Biden’s team in the White House as some of the smartest, kindest, most well meaning people he’s worked with. He’s excited by the idea that if Biden wins the presidency, many of those veterans will return ALONG with bringing in many new and fresh faces, which was a hallmark of the Obama Administration
    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.