October 1, 2020 • 48 mins
Baratunde calls out the adults that say, “The kids will save us,” but then underestimate or don’t support kids’ efforts to participate. Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins, leaders at Civics Unplugged, share a new kind of movement and organization that is setting a vision for the future of democracy in 2030 and showing us what Gen Z leadership can look like right now.
Show Notes + Links
We are grateful to Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins for joining us.
Follow @joshuatthompson on Twitter or @civicsunplugged on IG or Twitter. You can learn more about Civics Unplugged at https://www.civicsunplugged.org/.
We will post this episode, a transcript, show notes and more at howtocitizen.com.
Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!
HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW. ACTIONS FOR THIS EPISODE.
INTERNAL:
- Writing exercise! Inspired by Civics 2030 program at Civics Unplugged, complete the following to start your journey as a Civics 2030 Builder:
- To me, a flourishing democracy is one…
- To me, a flourishing community is one…
- By 2030, I pledge to have contributed to the flourishing of the following communities:
- By 2030, I pledge to have played any, many, or all of the following roles in service of creating a brighter future for my communities and American democracy
- After developing your own vision and pledge, check out these two pieces from the Civics Unplugged community for more ideas and inspiration: Why We Must Save American Democracy and What American democracy could look like in 2030
EXTERNAL:
- Identify any young people in your life who you could support and then ask them what they are working on and how you can help.
- Nominate high school students or encourage them to apply to the Civics Unplugged fellowship and spread the word. https://www.civicsunplugged.org/apply
- Get involved as a mentor or partner in supporting Builders and the Civics 2030 Campaign. https://www.civicsunplugged.org/plug-in
- (BONUS!) Find your favorite Drake meme or parody and share it with someone who will enjoy it!
If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention Kids will Lead in the subject line. And brag online about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen.
We love feedback from our listeners - comments@howtocitizen.com.
Visit Baratunde's website to sign up for his newsletter to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more. Follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon. You can even text him, like right now at 202-894-8844.
How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of I iHeart Radio Podcasts. executive produced by Miles Gray, Nick Stumpf, Elizabeth Stewart, and Baratunde Thurston. Produced by Joelle Smith, edited by Justin Smith. Powered by you.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to How to Citizen with barratun Day, a show
where we reimagine the word citizen as a verb, reclaim
it from those who have weaponized it, and remind ourselves
how to wield our collective power. I'm barratun Day. We
want this show to do a few things for you,
(00:29):
make you feel better and more empowered, and give you
things to do to improve your community and our democracy
as a whole. That feels super essential right now as
the election season ratchets up and we get more dispirited
and assaulted by a lot of noise, keep your head
(00:50):
up and if you need to just take a time out,
trust me, I get it. I truly hope this episode
how restore you a bit. It's designed to give you
a turbo boost of people power. We've recorded it with
our live Zoom audience as usual, which you can join
by visiting how to citizen dot com. Sign up for
(01:13):
my emails or text messages. That's where we put the
invite to protect our Zoom universe. And speaking of email,
I want to thank you if you've sent us a
message to action at how to citizen dot com or
comments at how to citizen dot com. And thanks, especially
if you shared a rating or review in your podcast app.
(01:35):
It really helps with the trolls. Now, I'm going to
hand the mic to myself as we all learn to
let the kids lead. In this episode of How to
Citizen with barretton Day, we are going to explore two
things that get a lot of lip service in the
worlds of philanthropy and democracy, civic participation and youth empowerment.
(02:04):
Can you hear the white papers ringing in your hair
and an uninspiring fashion when those terms bring not so
loudly in the streets. Civics, as we've talked about it
on this show, is a topic that's gets very watered
down out there in the quote unquote real world. There
a civic education and participation project that often shy away
(02:25):
from addressing the idea of people power, the history of
injustice in this country and why our systems are the
way they are, the questions about power in the system
and who benefits from those decisions, and why the grounding
in that deep understanding of power. Instead, this diluded version
of civics, it focuses on the idea of being informed
(02:49):
and making sure your representative knows your views and maybe volunteering, maybe,
And none of those are bad things. They are in
fact necessary, but they're not sufficient. They aren't the whole picture,
and they miss key aspects that I just mentioned would
come down to true accountability and things that make real
(03:09):
change happen. We think this idea of youth empowerment and
civic participation needs a reset because at the same time
we're facing some pretty big challenges I don't know, climate change,
racial inequality, economic inequality, and the purposeful erosion of our
democratic institution. And during all that we hear this refrain
(03:32):
the youth will save us. It's now up to the kids.
This dastardly commencement speech which burdens the next generation with
the failures of all those who came before, who should
have handled it. It offends me. That's not how we
do that. That is not fair. We don't tell kids
(03:55):
to clean your room and then clean our rooms too.
I say to the youth, welcome to our democratic society.
We will be there with you, beside the front and
sometimes behind to let you leave. Now we hear this
talk about many in the adult population talking about gen
(04:16):
z is self obsessed and checked out with social media,
and they're disengaged and they can't be counted on to vote.
At the same time, we put the pressure of the
literal world on them. We brate them for not believing
in institutions. We've given them very little reason to believe it.
I find it interesting that this generation is putting pressure
(04:37):
on the system in their own way and have their
own savvy critique as to how change will happen. Given
my perspective on this, you're gonna understand why I was
thrilled to learn about this relatively new organization and campaign
that is tackling these things head on, but in a
very new, reel and promising way. I am rilled to
(05:00):
welcome the co founder and CEO of Civics Unplugged, Josh Thompson,
along with Zoe Jenkins, a CIVICS Campaign Steering Committee member,
to talk with me today about the founding of Civics
Unplugged and the launch of their Civics twenty thirty campaign.
Welcome Josh, Welcome Zoe. What is the mission of Civics
(05:22):
Unplugged and what was the motivation for founding it? So
you want to take the mission and I'll talk a
little bit about the founding. Sure that sounds great. So
it's in everybody's email bio. The kids will lead. You know,
we have so many systems that are falling apart, and
we're tuned. I thank you phrased it perfectly. You know,
we're putting the impetus on Generation Z while also not
(05:43):
believing in them, and so it's civic unplugged. We're totally
flipping that that the kids aren't just the future, you know,
they aren't going to just be our future presidents and
our future leaders. They're going to be leading us right now.
And we're seeing that just perfectly in this moment. So
I think that's really demonstrated by the fact that our
steering committee, which I'm a part of, we're all high schoolers,
(06:05):
all under the age of eighteen, helping run a campaign
to find other Gen Z projects and stuff like this
isn't being done because we're not trusting kids to lead
when we know that they have all the power and
the knowledge and the spirit to be able to do so.
So I think that is really the core of our
mission is really operationalizing that and letting kids start leading
(06:26):
right now because we desperately need the leadership of young people.
If that's not been made any clear by everything that's
going on, and I'll toss it over the Josh to
talk a little bit more about the founding. I was
part of a mission of Senator Corey Booker from New
Jersey and from Newark, New Jersey, and he was deciding
to run for the highest office in our country. And
(06:46):
he's helped me so much in life that it's not
even a question that when he does something, I usually
tell people, do you need me or want me? With Corey,
it's either one, I'm in. And so I was traveling
around the country and I was at all these different
rallies and convenings and a lot of campaign not his
others and other adults. We're looking out into the rallies
and saying, I can't believe the adults and these parents
(07:08):
dragged these kids out, And I was like, you know what,
I think it's the other way around, and there's only
one way to find out, which is to get out there.
And started talking to the kids, and I call them
kids in our community. They asked to be identified as that,
and so yeah, all the things I think that we
may all in this community have a feeling of, you know,
I would go up to someone like Zoe, and I
would say, hey, did you get dragged out here? And
the big do you know what I had to do
(07:28):
to get my mom out here? Like she's got to
be more involved, Like I had to bring her out
here to tell her where it was, to get her there,
getting here on time. And that's just when it started
to come together. And it's a bit of a misnomer.
Sure you introduced me as as the CEO of civics
Unplug my contract and in my title within the community
is that I'm the executive Assistant to Generation Z. It
is an intergenerational theme of service and in action and service.
(07:52):
But it started with us saying, let's have an all inclusive,
paid for a trip to our nation's capital. Let's start
their accesses everything. We say that kids will be the change,
but they've never even been to the nation's capital, majority
of them. So I started going around speaking about that
kind of connective tissue. And that's when I met a
couple other kids and young folks and another co founder,
Gary Shane, who was part of Google and building out
(08:14):
the Google Cloud, and he said, I'm gonna build your
digital platform, And I said, what digital platform? We're all
going to d c and he goes right, I'm gonna
build your digital platform. And that's when we started to
bring in this community that has led us to today.
Before we catch up to today, Josh, I want to
go a little bit further into your background because what
you shared is fascinating. What I've learned about you before
(08:35):
the Corey Booker speed dial moment is also fascinating. Okay,
And you talk a bit about your personal journey pre
that with St. Benedict's and even a bit of your childhood.
I'm a multiple time high school dropout. Talk about a
system not serving right, just getting handed one education system
was was not serving in that sense. And for the
(08:58):
age of eleven, lived in over five states, you know,
a couple dozen homes, but the home and where I
became a man, as I say, is in Newark, New Jersey,
and at St. Benedic's And you know, guiding in into
that community. St. Benedict's really threw me for many many reasons.
One father Edwin Leahy much like our community. Yeah he's
the headmaster, but no way that the kids run that
(09:19):
entire school. And Father Revan found me at a time
where I had no community, did not know where the
next place I was going to sleep, and he welcomed
me in to this experience that I'm so thankful for
everything at St. Benedic's. It was the first time where
I was brought in and the first day I went
up to him, sucked my teeth, told him everything I
didn't even experienced it. I told him everything that I
didn't like about the school, and he goes, great, don't
(09:41):
bring me problems, bring me solutions. And even more to
the story is we know at St. Benedict's, so there's
a boarding facility there and a majority of us in
that boarding facility are in a situation where we don't
have parents, need not be with our parents, or we
need a more structured community in that sense. And that's
where I learned, and it was called out that there's
(10:02):
a time in my life all I wanted was a
door to hide me from everyone, right, like, I'm good,
Just just put me behind the door and I'll be
all right. Well, the dormitory that I was put in,
they didn't have doors. H And I found out that
because if you are depressed, if you're feeling this anxiety,
what you do is retreat. So the whole concept of St.
Benedic's is living out in brotherhood and our sisterhood as
(10:24):
we welcome young women. When I was brought into the
home of St. Benedict's, that is when I met the
goofy thirty one year old wearing birkenstocks, Corey Booker mayor,
a hopeful running for our city. And you know, I'm
part of what was called the Street Fight Gang and
worked the Central Ward. I used to work it when
I was not in high school, hustling, playing basketball, putting
(10:44):
around ball through a round hoop. And you know, I
found Corey. I found Forget a Campaign. I found his
movement right. He was welcoming in people who were not
of the age to vote like me, people because of
our criminal justice system and equities, had lost their right
to vote. And that's when it was really imparted upon me.
If sure, Corey wanted to win and he knows how
to account votes, but it was something bigger, as he said, Josh,
(11:04):
what were you doing with your time before this movement?
So I met him at the same time I met
my wife to be and that's when I started to
get deeply involved as well with the Jackie Robinson Foundation. MS.
Rachel Robinson is an angel on this earth, and I
started to uh intern and work around there, which the
motto is education as our pitch. So I never had
a choice, man, uh and I'm happy for that. So
(11:26):
in a roundabout way, that's some of the background, thank
you for going there. A bit with us. Elphant helps
to understand where you're at. I know him, where you've
come from. A bit, Zoe, I want to know a
bit more about you and your connection to Civics Unplugged.
How did you get connected to this merry band? Yeah, so,
I guess I'll walk back because I'm I was an
(11:47):
inaugural fellow with CUS. So I applied last November, but
I want to go back a little bit of how
did I even, you know, come to the point of
wanting to apply? Um So, my mom, she is a
c p A. She's an accountant. She worked at her
parents trash company. They were first generation college students, paid
for it on their own, got alone during Jim Crow,
which was really difficult for African Americans, and so they
(12:11):
really instilled in her and all of their children that's
like you're going to college or you're not. My child,
like education was like the pathway to success. You know,
for them to be able to start a trash company
that's still profitable fifty years later. They're like, Yeah, you're
going to college and you need to take your school
work very seriously. And that's something that she and my
father have both instilled in need. And then going through
(12:33):
elementary and middle school with you know, that attitude and
seeing a lot of students who don't have that attitude
for a myriad of reasons. There are a lot of
students who I guess, quote unquote don't care about school,
but there's something going on at home that's why they're
not caring about school, or you know, there's something going
on with how we're catering to different types of students.
There's something with the way that we handled discipline in
(12:54):
school that makes students not want to go. And so
with all of that experience, I got involved with the
group in Kentucky around education advocacy and student waste Because
students go to school thirty five hours a week, it's
a full time job, but they're not at the decision
making table deciding what's going to be on our curriculum,
how are we going to discipline students, what does the
(13:14):
school they look like, and so I've been doing that work. Um,
I guess I'm approaching almost four years, four or five
years of doing that work. And then the application specifics
on PLUG came about, and I was like, Wow, this
is a great opportunity to take you know, education work
to a macro's scale. Um. I think I kind of
skimmed over the word civics because I was like, that
(13:34):
doesn't apply to me. Education and civics. It's not the
same thing. And then I think probably within like three
weeks of being in the Fellowship, I was like, oh wait.
I was like education, reform, civics, and that's all the
same stuff. And I was like, this is a great
opportunity to kind of unite those two things. And then
you know, going through the Fellowship, we had our launch
event for Civic and I hosted that event um where
(13:56):
we had Corey Booker speak, we had Andrew Yang, and
then was kind of the launch pad for me getting
more involved with the steering committee. And then I'm just
getting more committed ever since. And it's just it's been
fantastic the whole way through. Zoe used the word launch pad,
and now I want to give you an opportunity to
talk about this organization you launched, tell us the name
(14:17):
and what your mission is. Okay. So with Civics Unplugged,
I launched a diversity inclusion, equity and anti racism training
for gen z Ears called DICE and it was inspired
off of some stuff that happened in my own school. UM.
I was in this math and science program predominantly white
and Asian students, and a lot of them were using
the N word, and I was like trying to figure out,
(14:39):
how do I like educate my peers on why that's
not appropriate? And I think what I realized that I
was like, I've been in k through troup education all
my life and I cannot even put the words to
it of how do I explain to someone why that's
exclusive language and why that's not okay. And So, with
a little bit of extra time during quarantine, with school
(14:59):
being were flexible, I did a lot more research into
there must be some kind of diversity inclusion training for
young people right Apparently that's not the thing, and so
I partnered with some people at the University of Kentucky,
partnered with Verda, one of the co founders, and just
an amazing resource and all things anti racism and see
you to create a curriculum that's free and open source,
(15:23):
and we're starting our own pilot cohorts here in the
next week or so. So just super exciting to try
and get this to as many young people as possible
because it's so important. It always blows my mind that
we were on this train probably in February, so before
a lot of us were I think more in tune
everything going on, and so we were just kind of,
you know, perfectly positioned I think, to really jump off
(15:44):
in the summer here. How old are you doing, I'm
seventeen years old. I have a huge smile on my
face right now. I also have noting that I think
part of why this training didn't exist is because we
have this assumption that young people just magically no things.
But like the next generation just it's in the air,
they breathe different air, or their genetics are slightly modified
(16:07):
to a more woke setting, and uh, someone's got to
be a part of that educational process. So I'm really
grateful for the effort you've taken to either of you.
You know, do you have this term in your movement
called civic superheroes? Who or what is a civic superhero
to you. So, you know, I think we all have superheroes.
(16:29):
Like when we were younger, we all looked up the
Superman and Batman. We were like, we I love these superheroes.
They're so powerful and they're going to save the world.
And I think that, you know, we ascribe to them
the ability to fly, this crazy ingenuity, all of this
wealth in the case of Batman, digeneral to buy any
gadget that you want. And you know, I think our
society is in the place where we need superheroes. We
(16:49):
need people to look up to who we know that
these are the people leading systems change. And so I
think that that is the inspiration behind the use of
the word. I mean, we would normally call them. These
are icon hants. They're they're tighten social entrepreneurs. I mean,
they're great words and they describe who they are, but
they don't really get at the powerfulness of somebody who
can really unite a group of people around the betterment
(17:12):
of a society. And so I think that's a lot
of what our language at civics and plugs about. We're
all space themed, all astronaut themed, talking about lift off.
You know, everybody, and it's just an astronaut kind of
exploring the realm of space and just that representing the
social betterment, which I think is so crucial to I
(17:33):
think that the whole visionary culture that we've created within
our organization. Visionary is sometimes a word overused, but I
think in the case of your organization, you actually have
a vision. It's not vision, it's a twenty thirty vision.
I think you call it CIVICS. There's a plan. There's
people involved in moving us toward it. You call them builders.
(17:56):
What is the CIVICS vision and what motivate someone to
be a builder in that, you know, in achieving that vision.
So someone asked me the other day, Josh, what's your
role at CIVICS Unplugged? I said, to pick fights with
the kids that I consistently lose, right, and that that's
like one of the funnest things in the world. But
that dialogue is super important. Right. It's not just hey,
(18:16):
I disagree with something, so let's no no, why, how?
What's the research behind it? Don't just say I don't
like the system and throw to have you experienced it?
Have you gone gone all the way? And all the
adults that you see recognized as civic superheroes. They were
all selected and elected by by our community, which was
one of the funnest thing launching CI. When Corey was
(18:37):
selected or you know the rock it was, it was
the easiest outreach I've ever done. I literally would drop
a line of like, you know, I can care less
if you do this. The fellows in the community have
selected you and and to see the speed of the
civic superheroes. That so the intuition of the kids were remarkable,
but you know, the launch of it. When I picked
(18:58):
the first fight, it made me roll my right that
the community had come up with this ten year pledge.
I've been in politics and government and public service. How
many superintendent five year plans that I heard about? I
got a three year strategy of five year turnaround plans.
Is like, here we go, we're recreating this other generation
of a plan that's going to be written like a
white paper, put on a shelf and get dusty. And
(19:19):
that's when one of the community member said, nope, here's
the deal with the plan. And then so we talk
about how do you become a building and how that's evolved,
they said, adults, A lot of the way stress out
about what to have for lunch tomorrow. The ten year
plan is when I make my tenure pledge around climate change,
that informs what I'm going to have for lunch for
the next ten years, the impact that that has on
(19:40):
the environment, and that is the sense of actionable pledges.
And that's when I got it, and then that's when
Zoe and the kids just ran with it. So so
if you want to talk about the process and how
you become a builder, yeah, how you become a builder
is just that you're committing to build a better So
at the end of our fellowship, all of the fellows
who were to become builders created their own tenure pledges.
(20:01):
They designed what is the ideal community? What is our
ideal democracy? What am I personally going to do over
the next year, five years, ten years to realize that mission.
We all signed a declaration where we laid out this
is what we want to look like, this is how
all of our individual pledges play into that. This is
(20:22):
how our community is going to be governed. We have
probably as flat of a structure as possible. The only
reason we need seriing Committee members is because he needs somebody,
I guess to just sit in the room every Monday,
because not everyone can get there Monday nights, but the
whole Builder community votes on everything um and so yeah,
just being a builder just means that you're committed to
(20:42):
building the future of what are some examples of the
picture of your painting. So my own personal Builder pledge
(21:03):
revolves a lot around dice, a lot around how can
we get people to be more vulnerable, be able to
listen to other people, and just work more collaboratively organically.
But there are a lot of other people's bludges, like
what Josh mentioned that involve around climate change. We have
people who are focused on election reforms, and it's just
a really diverse array of what people are committing to.
(21:25):
But I would say, you know, getting a chance to
see some of our other Builders pledges, which you can
also actually find on our website. For the most part,
a lot of our own pledges are just out there
for people to see and to ask us about building
a society and the community that listens to everybody, and
I think just works work concretely together than we are
right now, because that's the basis of any kind of
(21:47):
systems change. You need to be listening to the people
who are on the front lines, the people who are
experiencing it, but just making the through line of connecting
it and you know, bringing the value proposition to every
single citizen. What are some of the motivations of the
builders in this community. I'll say that something our co
founder mentioned to me recently, and I don't even think
I totally realized it, is that every single builder has
(22:09):
some kind of chip on their shoulder. But like, you know,
you don't just wake up in life wanting to, you know,
totally flip all the systems that you've been experiencing and
living through like on their head. You don't just wake
up wanting to do that. There has to be something
that happens, which is sad. We we want everybody to
see that value add But I think the motivation is
(22:30):
that people see a problem, they're experiencing a problem, they
know someone who's experiencing a problem with the system. They've
you know, taken I guess, all of the traditional routes,
and at some point they realized they were like, no
one else is going to do something about this. I
have to be the one who steps up and does it.
And you know, there are a lot of natural barriers,
especially for young people. And you know, if you're under
the age of eighteen, you can't sign certain checks, you
(22:53):
can't you create certain contracts about your parents being there.
And that I think is the real beauty of Josh
and the rest of the co founders. They have a
lot of value, I assure you, but huge values that
they're over the h b T, thank CAI contracts for
us and just really operationalize that the kids can lead.
And there are a lot of superficial barriers that we
(23:15):
place on young people, on people of color, and we
place on women, that we place on various other people
of different social locations, but they're virtual barriers and their
barriers that we had civic exemplud are committed to helping
people break the move past. Can you explain even more
house Civics Unplugged differs from existing civic engagement work. It's
(23:39):
been natural, Barritt Unday, in terms of how we're different,
one being we consistently get this feedback from our partners, Hey,
we are kid like, like their advisory y'all are kid
heavy and and we're working with our community to really
understand that that for them, they can't just flip that switch.
They just can't make that culture chain organizationally overnight. Right.
(23:59):
We need to walk together, we need to learn together,
and we share our mistakes consistently. But what we really
found is when the Fellows started to be recognized for
their work two things. One was other nonprofit or more
specifically political campaigns wanted access to our kids. Cool, we
we are never we are decentralized, we're not the barrier.
(24:20):
But when I started asking what they wanted to do,
they said, well, be interns. I said, cool, what do
you want them to do? I want them to run
our product, our social media campaign. Uh, think about how
we do engage youth. I was like, that's a leadership position,
that's not an internship. So show me the budget that
you have to recognize that. And we were met with
a lot of them saying, okay, I'm with you. It
(24:41):
is leadership, but we don't have the budget. And I said, cool,
we'll chip in. We're not going to let budget get
in the way of these youth attaching themselves as leaders.
We're investing capital directly into these projects like Zoey's, like
the project down in St. Louis. Talk about a chip
on your shoulder, Our builder down in St. Louis is
working and has been recognized statewide that you need a
(25:03):
notary to recognize your mail in ballot. And he has
built this organization and and got funding to provide access
to notaries and even beyond. And he called me one
night with a list of literally like five thousand names.
He's like, I need connections to all these people. I said, cool,
I know most of them. Why and he goes, I
did a complete internet search and anyone that has ever
said young people need to vote, I'm going after him
(25:23):
on this because if they actually mean it, they will
help with this. And I was like, that is that
mentality that we are just lifting up at civic Umplogers
are remarkable? That is remarkable. I mean talk about calling
someone in that is what that means. The boldness of
someone stepping up to that degree is beautiful. I had
my own experience with a gen Z leader within the
(25:46):
climate space who hit me up and she's like, you're
on TV a lot. I need introductions to all these
bookers so they can hear directly from the most impacted
generation about the biggest crisis and species has ever faced.
You can join our zoom Welcome to my every morning.
Many yes, so so just you know, despite or in
(26:11):
addition to this focus on gen Z, your movement and
campaigns have an intergenerational flavor to them. Can you share
more about that perspective how you're achieving that other than
using people over eighteen to sign checks. Appreciate you, Zoe? Um, yeah,
we are not anti generational, right, we are not that.
Okay boomer movement which is not gen Z is caused
(26:33):
at that and really from the founding ethos back to man,
I wish this existed when I was always aged right
the amount of things that I did in my public
service that I'm proud of, but it could have been
a lot more impactful if I understood the system as
opposed to the issue. I understood my issue, I didn't
know its system in which it existed in And with
age comes wisdom, no matter what that wisdom its, whether
(26:55):
sharpening your own conviction or learning from what they have
carried out. So our community is fourteen years old, all
the way up to ninety four of individuals that have
signed pledges and if if committed and rolled up their sleeves,
and it comes in in a lot of different forms
and fashions, but that superhero it's not even superhero theme.
We are superheroes, right, People say, oh, you lean into it. No, no,
we we are explorers, we are astronauts, We are superheroes.
(27:18):
We are building the largest democracy movement Forget America that
this world has ever seen. And we say that with
humility and with conviction. And so we asked the intergenerational
of Okay, I see your LinkedIn. I see that you're
a good CEO. That's great. What is your actual superpower?
And we have this mantra in the community you have
to lean in and what you're good at to to
(27:39):
show that you can lift this community up. But what's
the other side of you that you don't get the
flex all that often? And one lean into what you're
good at and then lean into that side so that
there's everything from providing jobs, providing mentorship, to joining boards
of of the organizations and movements that are fellows and
builders aren't launching. I don't know if I did that
(27:59):
just to Zoe, you tell me, I think so, And
I think he framed it perfectly. There's a lot of wisdom,
all of the co founders, all of the board members.
I mean, you can look at their linked in, but
you can also just talk to them, and I've been amazed.
I'm like wow, I'm like, these people are doing stuff
that like I want to do, and like, I know,
I got that feeling when I talked to Nick, for example,
because he used to be an educator and went to
(28:20):
law school and now I was doing you know, civic
some plug work and leading program development. I was like wow,
I'm like, this is like the education person that like
I've always needed to talk to. And so I know,
I joked that you know so much of their purposes
of administrative assistance, but there's an even added I mean,
they're not assistance, their administrative assistance. Yeah, there's a lot
of feedback, there's a lot of advice, there's a lot
(28:40):
of help that comes from having these adults. I can't
tell you how many times I have slapped Gary late night,
like Gary, I'm trying to figure out how to do
this tech thing, or Gary, how do you figure out
you know this, because I'm trying to figure out, like
how do I frame this for a college essay. He's great,
responds so quickly and it's always there, but then you know,
it's it goes back and forth. So I would say
(29:01):
that not only are all of the co founders mentors,
but I think we're also just friends. And I don't
think that young people get to have that relationship with
adults all the time where it's like you rely on them,
but they just as much rely on you as well,
And that's not a dynamic that you see a lot.
I think when young people have mentors and it's been
a really powerful and transformational experience. You've talked a bit
(29:23):
about the flat organizational structure, about being executive assistance to
the generation. From Josh's perspective, what are some of the
top technologies or even process you that you have in
place that are critical to powering this campaign and it's
actually governing in this different way, I'll say, in terms
of technology, Slack number one. I don't think anything that's
(29:46):
going on and see you would exist without Slack. The
ability to just message anybody in Slack whenever you want to.
It's just so powerful too. I think, just like flattening
that organizational structure. You know, when you have an idea
and you want the steering committee to hear it, you
just at all of them in a message. You're like, hey,
at steering committee, I want you to think about this,
(30:06):
or hey, or you can add anybody on the CU team. Hey,
I want you to look at this, and you get
the notification. And we have I think, a really strong
culture of like when someone has an idea, when someone
wants to experiment, you go all in. You're you're supposed
to help them figure it out. And I think that's
a really powerful attitude we all have. It's just that
we want to experience because that's the only way you
figure out how to do things better. And so while
(30:29):
we have, you know, a strong culture that we have traditions,
we're always looking for ways to change that and to
make it better. And we're conducive for everybody. Like, for example,
we have an opportunities channel where people can share things,
and so sometimes in Slack you can notify everybody in
the Slack workspace. So like all one hundred and eighty
six builders would get notified every time somebody hosts an
(30:51):
opportunity and someone was like, hey, that's a lot of
notifications in the day. Becauld we maybe condense this. Can
we do like a weekly thing? And now we do.
We we round ups and that's something that I think
in a more hierarchical organization would have taken weeks to
figure out, and we we made that change in two
days because I think it's really powerful and really key.
I think to how fast civic some plot is able
(31:12):
to move on a lot of things. I like the
idea of my city council being available to me on
Slack and I were like, hey, dude, fix this, this
isn't right. Change the funding of the police. Do it
your account of UM. I have one question that we
ask all our guests now, which is this show sees
citizen as a verb more so than a legal status.
(31:34):
And so if you interpret citizens as a verb for
both of you, how would you define the word citizen?
And I think, like two words I guess come to mind.
I guess it's just vulnerability, knowing that you don't know everything,
and it's important to seek out the voices and the
information that you're not hearing. But it can really shape
the kind of change that we can create. And then
(31:57):
I think mobilizing. You know, I think when you have
a real, a great idea, when you're really passionate about something,
it's important to bring people along. The co founders to
see you could have just run on this idea of
what do we want to look like, let's just do
this as a group. But you know, they knew that
they needed young people behind that, and that's why they
put together the fellowship, That's why they started see you,
(32:17):
because young people had to come and be on that
mission with them. And that's you know, an impetus. It's
also been put on all of us. Is we, in
many cases have the privilege of being able to be
a part of this community, to be able to check
slack and every hour or so? How can we bring
young people who aren't able to do that, or how
can we bring young people who aren't engaged yet into
(32:38):
this movement as well? And Josh, for you, how would
you define citizen if you interpret it as a verb?
I'm bad with verbs and adjectives and stuff like that,
so I'll just riff on as real. But what I
think about it is just that whole idea of how
boring is life? If you're actually the smartest one in
the room. That is a position I never want any
myself to be in, but a lot of us to
(32:59):
be in. Uh So I think about that in terms
of how you do citizen to consistently seek out communities
that are more active, smarter, intelligent, thoughtful than you. And
the second one is how you and I vibed on
it as I was rooted in the love of Jackie
Robinson's legacy and had the privilege to grow up there
and Mr Robinson wrote a book First Class Citizenship and
(33:19):
talk about him turning it into a verb way post
his professional baseball career. It picks up of what he
did thereafter to make citizen a verb and more active
in people's life. So that that's what comes to mind.
(33:40):
And now we're going to go to questions. I'm starting
with this first one in terms of leadership. Have you
found it more effective to empower people to become leaders
or has it been more effective to bring together and
catalyze people who already are taking action as leaders? So
(34:01):
that has been one of the coolest things to play out.
So when we announced to the community that hey, you
went through this fellowship, you poured it in with us,
and now we're going to invest in your project, so
right that project plan will invest in it. Once again,
I was wrong. I figured, you know, all, a couple
hundred plus fellows moving into builders would have made their
own proposal. What we did see was about of them
(34:24):
bringing work from other folks and their peers that they
already saw happening in the community, saying I lean in
behind the scenes, which is often more important, and they
need the support they need this community. And then about
the other fifty cent to say, hey, you know, I'm
the leader, this is what I want to want to
head up. And that that was really something very hopeful
that I experienced. There's a follow on in our next
(34:48):
question from Jennen's horn. Not all kids are leaders. How
can kids who aren't into leadership still be involved? Yeah,
I can take that. You You don't have to lead
in an organization. You don't have to be on the
steering committee. Uh. So much of everything that See You
has done would not have happened without people just doing
the work. And I mean, like we have leaders who
(35:09):
are doing the working. Of course, those are the front
people who are maybe you know, on podcasts like this,
or people who are going out and kind of evangelizing
the message. Um, but you know, we wrote a ton
of song parodies to invite of our civic superheroes to
come to commence. And that's work that every builder participate in.
We had builders who didn't submit their own projects, but man,
(35:32):
they can write some really good Drake parodies. I I
didn't even know that was a skill that people had.
But there's just so many ways for people to plug in.
And I think the parody is a great example of Like,
you don't think that's something that's going to help. But
if we hadn't written those parodies and hadn't gotten those
people to come to commence, would we have the energy
right now that we're having when we have the connections
(35:54):
that we're having in the name recognition. No, So in
many ways, you know, those just writing those songs at
like eleven o'clock at night, um in the middle of
the summer really did catalyze a lot of the civic movement.
So I think there are a lot of ways to
be a leader in your own right without necessarily leading
like a team of people. I have long believed that
(36:16):
Drake parodies were key to restoring and renewing our democracy,
and now I have the evidence to use that. Thank
you that. Our next question comes from Ned and Amber.
It's it's about the organizational structure. How big is the organization,
the number of staff, where those involved day to day.
(36:38):
But it's related to this idea that most people have
a sense that an organization needs a hierarchy to ensure order. So,
in addition to sort of your ORC chart and head
count numbers, how does your culture defy the narrative of
hierarchy to ensure that things get done? It frustrates me
at times. But the steering committee that Zoe talks about,
(37:00):
we leaned into that structure where they are the ones
because we built it with them and and co piloted
it and then agreed that these five community members were
the ones that make the decisions on what projects we
invest in. And I couldn't love that more because I
know myself and I knew I would start to mingle
in it. And the second I think it was the
first project that you all invested in, I jumped in.
I was like, well, I've got all these questions about
(37:21):
it and I'm not sure. It was like, well, that's
why we set up the structure. And so it is
actually leaning into structures to ensure that there is leadership
and accountability within these different mechanisms. So we started with
two twenty fellows. We got hundreds of applications from all
fifty states, Squam Puerto Rico our community. So you gotta
recognize we had zero marketing budget. We did zero ads.
(37:43):
We built a website with these kids and said take
it out and started with two because we were going
to culminate in Washington, d C. And Georgetown only gave us.
I mean, I love you, Georgetown, but you only gave
us two bets. So that that was that forcing function. Now,
when COVID down and we as a community decided, we
decided in I think early April, Zoe, we weren't going
(38:06):
to d C. We called the shot. When we weren't
going to d C, we started launching things like Unpluged Conversations,
fireside chat. So that's when we started to bring in
hundreds of more other participants. And we just launched year
two application and in less than forty eight hours we
got more than two hundred applications in two days. We're
probably going to cap around five hundred. But the size
(38:27):
of everyone working on it all the time, I say,
is it about eleven deep. But we interact as a
community every single day. So we start our mornings off
with a morning reflection. Where I come from, it's called convocation.
But it's a morning reflection where we all lean in,
set for the day, expectations, reflect on something, challenge each other.
But that's a bit of how we're structured in the size.
(38:48):
Thank you for that. We're going to go to a
live question. We're going to Gunner Carlson. I'm gonna Carlson.
I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Thank you for this talk first
of all, and thank you for your leadership and service. Zoe.
My question is for you, and specifically I work with
a lot of youth, and so something I like to
ask and get an honest answer on is one way
that you think that adults like us can be supportive
(39:12):
and get behind you and lean in and help your momentum?
And what is one area where we need to just
get out of the way because we're a problem and
it would be easier to just let you do your thing.
I think the biggest thing is just to believe, just
believe in young people. You know, if a young person
has the drive to come and talk to you about
a problem they're seeing, if they have a new policy
(39:34):
they want to recommend, then you just got to lean in.
I can tell you from personal experience with my education
advocacy group. We were lobbying in Frankfurt to increase pay
but also just increase the number of school counselors because
our school to counsel ratio is like almost close to
five one, which is just ridiculous. Students aren't getting school
counseling resources. And that the response from a senator in
(39:58):
the Kentucky legislature was, we all should start a bake
sale and raise money to pay for your school counselors. Yeah,
which is like, I know, people are laughing, they're shaking
it has that's ridiculous. You know you can't pay for
school counsels of the bake sale. Um. So I think
that just overcoming that culture of writing kids off. If
the kids are gonna come and lobby to you and
(40:19):
Frankfort about how they think they need more school counselors
than you know, they're lobbying just like anyone else, would
they really care about an issue in terms of I guess,
I guess tips as well as I think a lot
of kids sometimes say they we want to be treated
like adults, but there's a nuance to that. We don't
want to be treated like we're thirty because we're not thirty,
but just given the same kind of like value in
(40:41):
our opinions and what we know. But also recognize though
that if we're eighteen, like what Josh was saying, we
obviously don't have the same kind of wisdom as somebody
who's lived much longer. But that doesn't mean that our
ideas are any less merited. It just means that we
may need a little bit more support from intergenerational partners
to operationalize those ideas. I hope I answered your question.
(41:01):
I thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you, I appreciate
that question. And I'm still mad about the way those
Kentucky elected officials responded to you. So I want to
know how we can help out. Telling kids to do
a big sale instead of you doing your job is
the height of offensive and on small d democratic, So
(41:24):
we gotta work on that, especially in a pandemic. So,
because there's been so much concern, especially by folks like
your parents and the age group of your parents, about
the consequences of living in a digital landscape, how do
you manage the full time screen time life. What does
(41:47):
that digital hygiene look like for you? It's been an adjustment,
so I think for a long time. My resolve was like, well,
I don't spend too much time on screens because I'm
at school and I'm not on screens and I'm at school,
so it's okay for me to do all these calls
and I get home because I've had all this in
person interaction. And then when that went away, I think
a lot of the kids, I know, it was kind
(42:08):
of a wake up call like, whoa, we need to
do some things personally to make sure that you know,
we're filling our own cup before we're filling everyone else's.
So you know, we've started kind of like taking Saturday's
off of Slack, and that's something we started recently. It
was like, we need to have something where people know
I don't have to be on Slack today because nothing's
going to happen important today. And I think a lot
(42:29):
of digital hijin think is just making sure that you're
being social, because if you're just working all day and
just on zoom calls, which just work, I think that's
really draining. But a lot of what we do with
civicsum plugs is a lot of fun. You know. If
we're not getting right into the need of things, we're
just chatting, just chatting about how life is going. I
always like to reference Lillian another person a staring committee.
She started a meme channel in Civics and plug where
(42:52):
we just send memes and just talk about meme culture.
It's just something casual so that you, you you know, can
be on the screen because that's when one of the
ways we can really interact with others, especially and see
you but still you know, have a good time while
also you know, working to save democracy on the other
side and thinks as well. Uh, this conversation with both
(43:12):
of you has been what I needed. I think it's
been what a listener needs. Right now. We are in
this moment of extraordinary frontness and precariousness and balancing and
feeling overwhelmed, and we don't get very many signals of
anything worth fighting for looking forward to from our major
(43:37):
news outlets. And you have filled my cup with your energy,
with your reproach, with your Drake Paris, and your belief
in memes to restore and renewed democracy. Thank you for
showing up. Thank you for building relationships, thank you for
(43:58):
understanding your power. Thank you for working on behalf of
the many and not just the few. That's how the
citizen and we are learning from you in the process.
Zoe and Josh Civics Unplugged family, You're welcome here any
and every time. Thank you for sharing the space with it.
And so we're still gonna work at a bake salvers
and need to climb back of a very specific nature.
(44:24):
I don't know about you, but I am feeling motivated, inspired,
and uplifted by that energetic conversation with representatives from the
next generation. We are so grateful to Josh Thompson and
Zoe Jenkins for joining us. You can find them online
Joshua T. Thompson on Twitter or Civics Unplugged on Instagram
(44:46):
or Twitter, and you could also, of course go to
their website at civics unplugged dot org. This whole episode
a transcript and the actions I'm about to tell you
are always findable at how to citizen dot com. So
listen to what I'm about to say, but also just
go to the website. Here are some actions you can
(45:08):
take in the spirit of youth and action and letting
the kids lead. Internally, we have, as usual a writing exercise.
This one is inspired by the civic program at CIVICS Unplugged,
and it's to help you start your journey as a
Civic twenty builder. Even though you're not formally in the program,
(45:28):
you can run alongside. So you want to fill in
the following statements. To me, a flourishing democracy is one
that A flourishing community is one that blank right by
I pledged to have contributed to the flourishing of the
following communities and then list them. Finally, by I pledged
(45:52):
to have played any, many, or all of the following
roles in service of creating a brighter future for my
communities and American Democrat. See and if you're not American,
that's okay. I might be low key jealous of you.
So pick your society, your community as it fits. After
you've done developing your own vision, check out a bit
(46:12):
of the vision of Civics Unplugged. We are linking to
two pieces. Why we must save American Democracy is one
of them, and what American democracy could look like. In
for external actions, We've got four things lined up for
you in this episode. Number one, identify young people in
your life that you could support, Ask them what they
(46:34):
are working on, and ask how you can help. Then
help them. Number two the Civics Unplugged Fellowship is open
and accepting submissions. The deadline is November. Nominate someone, Encourage someone,
Spread the word to get high schoolers involved in this process.
(46:55):
Number three, Get involved as a mentor yourself in supporting
builders at a Civic's twenty campaign. We have a link
to that Civics Unplugged dot org, slash plug dash in
and a bonus. This is my favorite assignment by far.
Don't tell the other producers my favorite assignment. I want
you to find or create your own Drake memes and parodies. Yes,
(47:21):
do it for democracy, y'all. This is how we do it.
If you take any of these actions, share them with
us via email action at how to citizen dot com.
Make sure to mention kids will lead in the subject
line and brag about it loud and publicly on social media.
Use the hashtag how to citizen. We love general comments.
(47:41):
You can hit us up comments at how to citizen
dot com. I'm barretting Day Thursty. I am your host,
and I am infinitely reachable wherever barrettone days are found
on social media, but specifically reachable by you via text
message at two oh two eight nine four eight eight
four or four How does sit him with? Barratune Day
is a production of I Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced
(48:05):
by Miles Gray, Nick Stump, Elizabeth Stewart and Barratton Day Thursty.
Produced by Joel Smith, Edited by Justin Smith. Powered by
you
Welcome to How to Citizen with barratun Day, a show
where we reimagine the word citizen as a verb, reclaim
it from those who have weaponized it, and remind ourselves
how to wield our collective power. I'm barratun Day. We
want this show to do a few things for you,
(00:29):
make you feel better and more empowered, and give you
things to do to improve your community and our democracy
as a whole. That feels super essential right now as
the election season ratchets up and we get more dispirited
and assaulted by a lot of noise, keep your head
(00:50):
up and if you need to just take a time out,
trust me, I get it. I truly hope this episode
how restore you a bit. It's designed to give you
a turbo boost of people power. We've recorded it with
our live Zoom audience as usual, which you can join
by visiting how to citizen dot com. Sign up for
(01:13):
my emails or text messages. That's where we put the
invite to protect our Zoom universe. And speaking of email,
I want to thank you if you've sent us a
message to action at how to citizen dot com or
comments at how to citizen dot com. And thanks, especially
if you shared a rating or review in your podcast app.
(01:35):
It really helps with the trolls. Now, I'm going to
hand the mic to myself as we all learn to
let the kids lead. In this episode of How to
Citizen with barretton Day, we are going to explore two
things that get a lot of lip service in the
worlds of philanthropy and democracy, civic participation and youth empowerment.
(02:04):
Can you hear the white papers ringing in your hair
and an uninspiring fashion when those terms bring not so
loudly in the streets. Civics, as we've talked about it
on this show, is a topic that's gets very watered
down out there in the quote unquote real world. There
a civic education and participation project that often shy away
(02:25):
from addressing the idea of people power, the history of
injustice in this country and why our systems are the
way they are, the questions about power in the system
and who benefits from those decisions, and why the grounding
in that deep understanding of power. Instead, this diluded version
of civics, it focuses on the idea of being informed
(02:49):
and making sure your representative knows your views and maybe volunteering, maybe,
And none of those are bad things. They are in
fact necessary, but they're not sufficient. They aren't the whole picture,
and they miss key aspects that I just mentioned would
come down to true accountability and things that make real
(03:09):
change happen. We think this idea of youth empowerment and
civic participation needs a reset because at the same time
we're facing some pretty big challenges I don't know, climate change,
racial inequality, economic inequality, and the purposeful erosion of our
democratic institution. And during all that we hear this refrain
(03:32):
the youth will save us. It's now up to the kids.
This dastardly commencement speech which burdens the next generation with
the failures of all those who came before, who should
have handled it. It offends me. That's not how we
do that. That is not fair. We don't tell kids
(03:55):
to clean your room and then clean our rooms too.
I say to the youth, welcome to our democratic society.
We will be there with you, beside the front and
sometimes behind to let you leave. Now we hear this
talk about many in the adult population talking about gen
(04:16):
z is self obsessed and checked out with social media,
and they're disengaged and they can't be counted on to vote.
At the same time, we put the pressure of the
literal world on them. We brate them for not believing
in institutions. We've given them very little reason to believe it.
I find it interesting that this generation is putting pressure
(04:37):
on the system in their own way and have their
own savvy critique as to how change will happen. Given
my perspective on this, you're gonna understand why I was
thrilled to learn about this relatively new organization and campaign
that is tackling these things head on, but in a
very new, reel and promising way. I am rilled to
(05:00):
welcome the co founder and CEO of Civics Unplugged, Josh Thompson,
along with Zoe Jenkins, a CIVICS Campaign Steering Committee member,
to talk with me today about the founding of Civics
Unplugged and the launch of their Civics twenty thirty campaign.
Welcome Josh, Welcome Zoe. What is the mission of Civics
(05:22):
Unplugged and what was the motivation for founding it? So
you want to take the mission and I'll talk a
little bit about the founding. Sure that sounds great. So
it's in everybody's email bio. The kids will lead. You know,
we have so many systems that are falling apart, and
we're tuned. I thank you phrased it perfectly. You know,
we're putting the impetus on Generation Z while also not
(05:43):
believing in them, and so it's civic unplugged. We're totally
flipping that that the kids aren't just the future, you know,
they aren't going to just be our future presidents and
our future leaders. They're going to be leading us right now.
And we're seeing that just perfectly in this moment. So
I think that's really demonstrated by the fact that our
steering committee, which I'm a part of, we're all high schoolers,
(06:05):
all under the age of eighteen, helping run a campaign
to find other Gen Z projects and stuff like this
isn't being done because we're not trusting kids to lead
when we know that they have all the power and
the knowledge and the spirit to be able to do so.
So I think that is really the core of our
mission is really operationalizing that and letting kids start leading
(06:26):
right now because we desperately need the leadership of young people.
If that's not been made any clear by everything that's
going on, and I'll toss it over the Josh to
talk a little bit more about the founding. I was
part of a mission of Senator Corey Booker from New
Jersey and from Newark, New Jersey, and he was deciding
to run for the highest office in our country. And
(06:46):
he's helped me so much in life that it's not
even a question that when he does something, I usually
tell people, do you need me or want me? With Corey,
it's either one, I'm in. And so I was traveling
around the country and I was at all these different
rallies and convenings and a lot of campaign not his
others and other adults. We're looking out into the rallies
and saying, I can't believe the adults and these parents
(07:08):
dragged these kids out, And I was like, you know what,
I think it's the other way around, and there's only
one way to find out, which is to get out there.
And started talking to the kids, and I call them
kids in our community. They asked to be identified as that,
and so yeah, all the things I think that we
may all in this community have a feeling of, you know,
I would go up to someone like Zoe, and I
would say, hey, did you get dragged out here? And
the big do you know what I had to do
(07:28):
to get my mom out here? Like she's got to
be more involved, Like I had to bring her out
here to tell her where it was, to get her there,
getting here on time. And that's just when it started
to come together. And it's a bit of a misnomer.
Sure you introduced me as as the CEO of civics
Unplug my contract and in my title within the community
is that I'm the executive Assistant to Generation Z. It
is an intergenerational theme of service and in action and service.
(07:52):
But it started with us saying, let's have an all inclusive,
paid for a trip to our nation's capital. Let's start
their accesses everything. We say that kids will be the change,
but they've never even been to the nation's capital, majority
of them. So I started going around speaking about that
kind of connective tissue. And that's when I met a
couple other kids and young folks and another co founder,
Gary Shane, who was part of Google and building out
(08:14):
the Google Cloud, and he said, I'm gonna build your
digital platform, And I said, what digital platform? We're all
going to d c and he goes right, I'm gonna
build your digital platform. And that's when we started to
bring in this community that has led us to today.
Before we catch up to today, Josh, I want to
go a little bit further into your background because what
you shared is fascinating. What I've learned about you before
(08:35):
the Corey Booker speed dial moment is also fascinating. Okay,
And you talk a bit about your personal journey pre
that with St. Benedict's and even a bit of your childhood.
I'm a multiple time high school dropout. Talk about a
system not serving right, just getting handed one education system
was was not serving in that sense. And for the
(08:58):
age of eleven, lived in over five states, you know,
a couple dozen homes, but the home and where I
became a man, as I say, is in Newark, New Jersey,
and at St. Benedic's And you know, guiding in into
that community. St. Benedict's really threw me for many many reasons.
One father Edwin Leahy much like our community. Yeah he's
the headmaster, but no way that the kids run that
(09:19):
entire school. And Father Revan found me at a time
where I had no community, did not know where the
next place I was going to sleep, and he welcomed
me in to this experience that I'm so thankful for
everything at St. Benedic's. It was the first time where
I was brought in and the first day I went
up to him, sucked my teeth, told him everything I
didn't even experienced it. I told him everything that I
didn't like about the school, and he goes, great, don't
(09:41):
bring me problems, bring me solutions. And even more to
the story is we know at St. Benedict's, so there's
a boarding facility there and a majority of us in
that boarding facility are in a situation where we don't
have parents, need not be with our parents, or we
need a more structured community in that sense. And that's
where I learned, and it was called out that there's
(10:02):
a time in my life all I wanted was a
door to hide me from everyone, right, like, I'm good,
Just just put me behind the door and I'll be
all right. Well, the dormitory that I was put in,
they didn't have doors. H And I found out that
because if you are depressed, if you're feeling this anxiety,
what you do is retreat. So the whole concept of St.
Benedic's is living out in brotherhood and our sisterhood as
(10:24):
we welcome young women. When I was brought into the
home of St. Benedict's, that is when I met the
goofy thirty one year old wearing birkenstocks, Corey Booker mayor,
a hopeful running for our city. And you know, I'm
part of what was called the Street Fight Gang and
worked the Central Ward. I used to work it when
I was not in high school, hustling, playing basketball, putting
(10:44):
around ball through a round hoop. And you know, I
found Corey. I found Forget a Campaign. I found his
movement right. He was welcoming in people who were not
of the age to vote like me, people because of
our criminal justice system and equities, had lost their right
to vote. And that's when it was really imparted upon me.
If sure, Corey wanted to win and he knows how
to account votes, but it was something bigger, as he said, Josh,
(11:04):
what were you doing with your time before this movement?
So I met him at the same time I met
my wife to be and that's when I started to
get deeply involved as well with the Jackie Robinson Foundation. MS.
Rachel Robinson is an angel on this earth, and I
started to uh intern and work around there, which the
motto is education as our pitch. So I never had
a choice, man, uh and I'm happy for that. So
(11:26):
in a roundabout way, that's some of the background, thank
you for going there. A bit with us. Elphant helps
to understand where you're at. I know him, where you've
come from. A bit, Zoe, I want to know a
bit more about you and your connection to Civics Unplugged.
How did you get connected to this merry band? Yeah, so,
I guess I'll walk back because I'm I was an
(11:47):
inaugural fellow with CUS. So I applied last November, but
I want to go back a little bit of how
did I even, you know, come to the point of
wanting to apply? Um So, my mom, she is a
c p A. She's an accountant. She worked at her
parents trash company. They were first generation college students, paid
for it on their own, got alone during Jim Crow,
which was really difficult for African Americans, and so they
(12:11):
really instilled in her and all of their children that's
like you're going to college or you're not. My child,
like education was like the pathway to success. You know,
for them to be able to start a trash company
that's still profitable fifty years later. They're like, Yeah, you're
going to college and you need to take your school
work very seriously. And that's something that she and my
father have both instilled in need. And then going through
(12:33):
elementary and middle school with you know, that attitude and
seeing a lot of students who don't have that attitude
for a myriad of reasons. There are a lot of
students who I guess, quote unquote don't care about school,
but there's something going on at home that's why they're
not caring about school, or you know, there's something going
on with how we're catering to different types of students.
There's something with the way that we handled discipline in
(12:54):
school that makes students not want to go. And so
with all of that experience, I got involved with the
group in Kentucky around education advocacy and student waste Because
students go to school thirty five hours a week, it's
a full time job, but they're not at the decision
making table deciding what's going to be on our curriculum,
how are we going to discipline students, what does the
(13:14):
school they look like, and so I've been doing that work. Um,
I guess I'm approaching almost four years, four or five
years of doing that work. And then the application specifics
on PLUG came about, and I was like, Wow, this
is a great opportunity to take you know, education work
to a macro's scale. Um. I think I kind of
skimmed over the word civics because I was like, that
(13:34):
doesn't apply to me. Education and civics. It's not the
same thing. And then I think probably within like three
weeks of being in the Fellowship, I was like, oh wait.
I was like education, reform, civics, and that's all the
same stuff. And I was like, this is a great
opportunity to kind of unite those two things. And then
you know, going through the Fellowship, we had our launch
event for Civic and I hosted that event um where
(13:56):
we had Corey Booker speak, we had Andrew Yang, and
then was kind of the launch pad for me getting
more involved with the steering committee. And then I'm just
getting more committed ever since. And it's just it's been
fantastic the whole way through. Zoe used the word launch pad,
and now I want to give you an opportunity to
talk about this organization you launched, tell us the name
(14:17):
and what your mission is. Okay. So with Civics Unplugged,
I launched a diversity inclusion, equity and anti racism training
for gen z Ears called DICE and it was inspired
off of some stuff that happened in my own school. UM.
I was in this math and science program predominantly white
and Asian students, and a lot of them were using
the N word, and I was like trying to figure out,
(14:39):
how do I like educate my peers on why that's
not appropriate? And I think what I realized that I
was like, I've been in k through troup education all
my life and I cannot even put the words to
it of how do I explain to someone why that's
exclusive language and why that's not okay. And So, with
a little bit of extra time during quarantine, with school
(14:59):
being were flexible, I did a lot more research into
there must be some kind of diversity inclusion training for
young people right Apparently that's not the thing, and so
I partnered with some people at the University of Kentucky,
partnered with Verda, one of the co founders, and just
an amazing resource and all things anti racism and see
you to create a curriculum that's free and open source,
(15:23):
and we're starting our own pilot cohorts here in the
next week or so. So just super exciting to try
and get this to as many young people as possible
because it's so important. It always blows my mind that
we were on this train probably in February, so before
a lot of us were I think more in tune
everything going on, and so we were just kind of,
you know, perfectly positioned I think, to really jump off
(15:44):
in the summer here. How old are you doing, I'm
seventeen years old. I have a huge smile on my
face right now. I also have noting that I think
part of why this training didn't exist is because we
have this assumption that young people just magically no things.
But like the next generation just it's in the air,
they breathe different air, or their genetics are slightly modified
(16:07):
to a more woke setting, and uh, someone's got to
be a part of that educational process. So I'm really
grateful for the effort you've taken to either of you.
You know, do you have this term in your movement
called civic superheroes? Who or what is a civic superhero
to you. So, you know, I think we all have superheroes.
(16:29):
Like when we were younger, we all looked up the
Superman and Batman. We were like, we I love these superheroes.
They're so powerful and they're going to save the world.
And I think that, you know, we ascribe to them
the ability to fly, this crazy ingenuity, all of this
wealth in the case of Batman, digeneral to buy any
gadget that you want. And you know, I think our
society is in the place where we need superheroes. We
(16:49):
need people to look up to who we know that
these are the people leading systems change. And so I
think that that is the inspiration behind the use of
the word. I mean, we would normally call them. These
are icon hants. They're they're tighten social entrepreneurs. I mean,
they're great words and they describe who they are, but
they don't really get at the powerfulness of somebody who
can really unite a group of people around the betterment
(17:12):
of a society. And so I think that's a lot
of what our language at civics and plugs about. We're
all space themed, all astronaut themed, talking about lift off.
You know, everybody, and it's just an astronaut kind of
exploring the realm of space and just that representing the
social betterment, which I think is so crucial to I
(17:33):
think that the whole visionary culture that we've created within
our organization. Visionary is sometimes a word overused, but I
think in the case of your organization, you actually have
a vision. It's not vision, it's a twenty thirty vision.
I think you call it CIVICS. There's a plan. There's
people involved in moving us toward it. You call them builders.
(17:56):
What is the CIVICS vision and what motivate someone to
be a builder in that, you know, in achieving that vision.
So someone asked me the other day, Josh, what's your
role at CIVICS Unplugged? I said, to pick fights with
the kids that I consistently lose, right, and that that's
like one of the funnest things in the world. But
that dialogue is super important. Right. It's not just hey,
(18:16):
I disagree with something, so let's no no, why, how?
What's the research behind it? Don't just say I don't
like the system and throw to have you experienced it?
Have you gone gone all the way? And all the
adults that you see recognized as civic superheroes. They were
all selected and elected by by our community, which was
one of the funnest thing launching CI. When Corey was
(18:37):
selected or you know the rock it was, it was
the easiest outreach I've ever done. I literally would drop
a line of like, you know, I can care less
if you do this. The fellows in the community have
selected you and and to see the speed of the
civic superheroes. That so the intuition of the kids were remarkable,
but you know, the launch of it. When I picked
(18:58):
the first fight, it made me roll my right that
the community had come up with this ten year pledge.
I've been in politics and government and public service. How
many superintendent five year plans that I heard about? I
got a three year strategy of five year turnaround plans.
Is like, here we go, we're recreating this other generation
of a plan that's going to be written like a
white paper, put on a shelf and get dusty. And
(19:19):
that's when one of the community member said, nope, here's
the deal with the plan. And then so we talk
about how do you become a building and how that's evolved,
they said, adults, A lot of the way stress out
about what to have for lunch tomorrow. The ten year
plan is when I make my tenure pledge around climate change,
that informs what I'm going to have for lunch for
the next ten years, the impact that that has on
(19:40):
the environment, and that is the sense of actionable pledges.
And that's when I got it, and then that's when
Zoe and the kids just ran with it. So so
if you want to talk about the process and how
you become a builder, yeah, how you become a builder
is just that you're committing to build a better So
at the end of our fellowship, all of the fellows
who were to become builders created their own tenure pledges.
(20:01):
They designed what is the ideal community? What is our
ideal democracy? What am I personally going to do over
the next year, five years, ten years to realize that mission.
We all signed a declaration where we laid out this
is what we want to look like, this is how
all of our individual pledges play into that. This is
(20:22):
how our community is going to be governed. We have
probably as flat of a structure as possible. The only
reason we need seriing Committee members is because he needs somebody,
I guess to just sit in the room every Monday,
because not everyone can get there Monday nights, but the
whole Builder community votes on everything um and so yeah,
just being a builder just means that you're committed to
(20:42):
building the future of what are some examples of the
picture of your painting. So my own personal Builder pledge
(21:03):
revolves a lot around dice, a lot around how can
we get people to be more vulnerable, be able to
listen to other people, and just work more collaboratively organically.
But there are a lot of other people's bludges, like
what Josh mentioned that involve around climate change. We have
people who are focused on election reforms, and it's just
a really diverse array of what people are committing to.
(21:25):
But I would say, you know, getting a chance to
see some of our other Builders pledges, which you can
also actually find on our website. For the most part,
a lot of our own pledges are just out there
for people to see and to ask us about building
a society and the community that listens to everybody, and
I think just works work concretely together than we are
right now, because that's the basis of any kind of
(21:47):
systems change. You need to be listening to the people
who are on the front lines, the people who are
experiencing it, but just making the through line of connecting
it and you know, bringing the value proposition to every
single citizen. What are some of the motivations of the
builders in this community. I'll say that something our co
founder mentioned to me recently, and I don't even think
I totally realized it, is that every single builder has
(22:09):
some kind of chip on their shoulder. But like, you know,
you don't just wake up in life wanting to, you know,
totally flip all the systems that you've been experiencing and
living through like on their head. You don't just wake
up wanting to do that. There has to be something
that happens, which is sad. We we want everybody to
see that value add But I think the motivation is
(22:30):
that people see a problem, they're experiencing a problem, they
know someone who's experiencing a problem with the system. They've
you know, taken I guess, all of the traditional routes,
and at some point they realized they were like, no
one else is going to do something about this. I
have to be the one who steps up and does it.
And you know, there are a lot of natural barriers,
especially for young people. And you know, if you're under
the age of eighteen, you can't sign certain checks, you
(22:53):
can't you create certain contracts about your parents being there.
And that I think is the real beauty of Josh
and the rest of the co founders. They have a
lot of value, I assure you, but huge values that
they're over the h b T, thank CAI contracts for
us and just really operationalize that the kids can lead.
And there are a lot of superficial barriers that we
(23:15):
place on young people, on people of color, and we
place on women, that we place on various other people
of different social locations, but they're virtual barriers and their
barriers that we had civic exemplud are committed to helping
people break the move past. Can you explain even more
house Civics Unplugged differs from existing civic engagement work. It's
(23:39):
been natural, Barritt Unday, in terms of how we're different,
one being we consistently get this feedback from our partners, Hey,
we are kid like, like their advisory y'all are kid
heavy and and we're working with our community to really
understand that that for them, they can't just flip that switch.
They just can't make that culture chain organizationally overnight. Right.
(23:59):
We need to walk together, we need to learn together,
and we share our mistakes consistently. But what we really
found is when the Fellows started to be recognized for
their work two things. One was other nonprofit or more
specifically political campaigns wanted access to our kids. Cool, we
we are never we are decentralized, we're not the barrier.
(24:20):
But when I started asking what they wanted to do,
they said, well, be interns. I said, cool, what do
you want them to do? I want them to run
our product, our social media campaign. Uh, think about how
we do engage youth. I was like, that's a leadership position,
that's not an internship. So show me the budget that
you have to recognize that. And we were met with
a lot of them saying, okay, I'm with you. It
(24:41):
is leadership, but we don't have the budget. And I said, cool,
we'll chip in. We're not going to let budget get
in the way of these youth attaching themselves as leaders.
We're investing capital directly into these projects like Zoey's, like
the project down in St. Louis. Talk about a chip
on your shoulder, Our builder down in St. Louis is
working and has been recognized statewide that you need a
(25:03):
notary to recognize your mail in ballot. And he has
built this organization and and got funding to provide access
to notaries and even beyond. And he called me one
night with a list of literally like five thousand names.
He's like, I need connections to all these people. I said, cool,
I know most of them. Why and he goes, I
did a complete internet search and anyone that has ever
said young people need to vote, I'm going after him
(25:23):
on this because if they actually mean it, they will
help with this. And I was like, that is that
mentality that we are just lifting up at civic Umplogers
are remarkable? That is remarkable. I mean talk about calling
someone in that is what that means. The boldness of
someone stepping up to that degree is beautiful. I had
my own experience with a gen Z leader within the
(25:46):
climate space who hit me up and she's like, you're
on TV a lot. I need introductions to all these
bookers so they can hear directly from the most impacted
generation about the biggest crisis and species has ever faced.
You can join our zoom Welcome to my every morning.
Many yes, so so just you know, despite or in
(26:11):
addition to this focus on gen Z, your movement and
campaigns have an intergenerational flavor to them. Can you share
more about that perspective how you're achieving that other than
using people over eighteen to sign checks. Appreciate you, Zoe? Um, yeah,
we are not anti generational, right, we are not that.
Okay boomer movement which is not gen Z is caused
(26:33):
at that and really from the founding ethos back to man,
I wish this existed when I was always aged right
the amount of things that I did in my public
service that I'm proud of, but it could have been
a lot more impactful if I understood the system as
opposed to the issue. I understood my issue, I didn't
know its system in which it existed in And with
age comes wisdom, no matter what that wisdom its, whether
(26:55):
sharpening your own conviction or learning from what they have
carried out. So our community is fourteen years old, all
the way up to ninety four of individuals that have
signed pledges and if if committed and rolled up their sleeves,
and it comes in in a lot of different forms
and fashions, but that superhero it's not even superhero theme.
We are superheroes, right, People say, oh, you lean into it. No, no,
we we are explorers, we are astronauts, We are superheroes.
(27:18):
We are building the largest democracy movement Forget America that
this world has ever seen. And we say that with
humility and with conviction. And so we asked the intergenerational
of Okay, I see your LinkedIn. I see that you're
a good CEO. That's great. What is your actual superpower?
And we have this mantra in the community you have
to lean in and what you're good at to to
(27:39):
show that you can lift this community up. But what's
the other side of you that you don't get the
flex all that often? And one lean into what you're
good at and then lean into that side so that
there's everything from providing jobs, providing mentorship, to joining boards
of of the organizations and movements that are fellows and
builders aren't launching. I don't know if I did that
(27:59):
just to Zoe, you tell me, I think so, And
I think he framed it perfectly. There's a lot of wisdom,
all of the co founders, all of the board members.
I mean, you can look at their linked in, but
you can also just talk to them, and I've been amazed.
I'm like wow, I'm like, these people are doing stuff
that like I want to do, and like, I know,
I got that feeling when I talked to Nick, for example,
because he used to be an educator and went to
(28:20):
law school and now I was doing you know, civic
some plug work and leading program development. I was like wow,
I'm like, this is like the education person that like
I've always needed to talk to. And so I know,
I joked that you know so much of their purposes
of administrative assistance, but there's an even added I mean,
they're not assistance, their administrative assistance. Yeah, there's a lot
of feedback, there's a lot of advice, there's a lot
(28:40):
of help that comes from having these adults. I can't
tell you how many times I have slapped Gary late night,
like Gary, I'm trying to figure out how to do
this tech thing, or Gary, how do you figure out
you know this, because I'm trying to figure out, like
how do I frame this for a college essay. He's great,
responds so quickly and it's always there, but then you know,
it's it goes back and forth. So I would say
(29:01):
that not only are all of the co founders mentors,
but I think we're also just friends. And I don't
think that young people get to have that relationship with
adults all the time where it's like you rely on them,
but they just as much rely on you as well,
And that's not a dynamic that you see a lot.
I think when young people have mentors and it's been
a really powerful and transformational experience. You've talked a bit
(29:23):
about the flat organizational structure, about being executive assistance to
the generation. From Josh's perspective, what are some of the
top technologies or even process you that you have in
place that are critical to powering this campaign and it's
actually governing in this different way, I'll say, in terms
of technology, Slack number one. I don't think anything that's
(29:46):
going on and see you would exist without Slack. The
ability to just message anybody in Slack whenever you want to.
It's just so powerful too. I think, just like flattening
that organizational structure. You know, when you have an idea
and you want the steering committee to hear it, you
just at all of them in a message. You're like, hey,
at steering committee, I want you to think about this,
(30:06):
or hey, or you can add anybody on the CU team. Hey,
I want you to look at this, and you get
the notification. And we have I think, a really strong
culture of like when someone has an idea, when someone
wants to experiment, you go all in. You're you're supposed
to help them figure it out. And I think that's
a really powerful attitude we all have. It's just that
we want to experience because that's the only way you
figure out how to do things better. And so while
(30:29):
we have, you know, a strong culture that we have traditions,
we're always looking for ways to change that and to
make it better. And we're conducive for everybody. Like, for example,
we have an opportunities channel where people can share things,
and so sometimes in Slack you can notify everybody in
the Slack workspace. So like all one hundred and eighty
six builders would get notified every time somebody hosts an
(30:51):
opportunity and someone was like, hey, that's a lot of
notifications in the day. Becauld we maybe condense this. Can
we do like a weekly thing? And now we do.
We we round ups and that's something that I think
in a more hierarchical organization would have taken weeks to
figure out, and we we made that change in two
days because I think it's really powerful and really key.
I think to how fast civic some plot is able
(31:12):
to move on a lot of things. I like the
idea of my city council being available to me on
Slack and I were like, hey, dude, fix this, this
isn't right. Change the funding of the police. Do it
your account of UM. I have one question that we
ask all our guests now, which is this show sees
citizen as a verb more so than a legal status.
(31:34):
And so if you interpret citizens as a verb for
both of you, how would you define the word citizen?
And I think, like two words I guess come to mind.
I guess it's just vulnerability, knowing that you don't know everything,
and it's important to seek out the voices and the
information that you're not hearing. But it can really shape
the kind of change that we can create. And then
(31:57):
I think mobilizing. You know, I think when you have
a real, a great idea, when you're really passionate about something,
it's important to bring people along. The co founders to
see you could have just run on this idea of
what do we want to look like, let's just do
this as a group. But you know, they knew that
they needed young people behind that, and that's why they
put together the fellowship, That's why they started see you,
(32:17):
because young people had to come and be on that
mission with them. And that's you know, an impetus. It's
also been put on all of us. Is we, in
many cases have the privilege of being able to be
a part of this community, to be able to check
slack and every hour or so? How can we bring
young people who aren't able to do that, or how
can we bring young people who aren't engaged yet into
(32:38):
this movement as well? And Josh, for you, how would
you define citizen if you interpret it as a verb?
I'm bad with verbs and adjectives and stuff like that,
so I'll just riff on as real. But what I
think about it is just that whole idea of how
boring is life? If you're actually the smartest one in
the room. That is a position I never want any
myself to be in, but a lot of us to
(32:59):
be in. Uh So I think about that in terms
of how you do citizen to consistently seek out communities
that are more active, smarter, intelligent, thoughtful than you. And
the second one is how you and I vibed on
it as I was rooted in the love of Jackie
Robinson's legacy and had the privilege to grow up there
and Mr Robinson wrote a book First Class Citizenship and
(33:19):
talk about him turning it into a verb way post
his professional baseball career. It picks up of what he
did thereafter to make citizen a verb and more active
in people's life. So that that's what comes to mind.
(33:40):
And now we're going to go to questions. I'm starting
with this first one in terms of leadership. Have you
found it more effective to empower people to become leaders
or has it been more effective to bring together and
catalyze people who already are taking action as leaders? So
(34:01):
that has been one of the coolest things to play out.
So when we announced to the community that hey, you
went through this fellowship, you poured it in with us,
and now we're going to invest in your project, so
right that project plan will invest in it. Once again,
I was wrong. I figured, you know, all, a couple
hundred plus fellows moving into builders would have made their
own proposal. What we did see was about of them
(34:24):
bringing work from other folks and their peers that they
already saw happening in the community, saying I lean in
behind the scenes, which is often more important, and they
need the support they need this community. And then about
the other fifty cent to say, hey, you know, I'm
the leader, this is what I want to want to
head up. And that that was really something very hopeful
that I experienced. There's a follow on in our next
(34:48):
question from Jennen's horn. Not all kids are leaders. How
can kids who aren't into leadership still be involved? Yeah,
I can take that. You You don't have to lead
in an organization. You don't have to be on the
steering committee. Uh. So much of everything that See You
has done would not have happened without people just doing
the work. And I mean, like we have leaders who
(35:09):
are doing the working. Of course, those are the front
people who are maybe you know, on podcasts like this,
or people who are going out and kind of evangelizing
the message. Um, but you know, we wrote a ton
of song parodies to invite of our civic superheroes to
come to commence. And that's work that every builder participate in.
We had builders who didn't submit their own projects, but man,
(35:32):
they can write some really good Drake parodies. I I
didn't even know that was a skill that people had.
But there's just so many ways for people to plug in.
And I think the parody is a great example of Like,
you don't think that's something that's going to help. But
if we hadn't written those parodies and hadn't gotten those
people to come to commence, would we have the energy
right now that we're having when we have the connections
(35:54):
that we're having in the name recognition. No, So in
many ways, you know, those just writing those songs at
like eleven o'clock at night, um in the middle of
the summer really did catalyze a lot of the civic movement.
So I think there are a lot of ways to
be a leader in your own right without necessarily leading
like a team of people. I have long believed that
(36:16):
Drake parodies were key to restoring and renewing our democracy,
and now I have the evidence to use that. Thank
you that. Our next question comes from Ned and Amber.
It's it's about the organizational structure. How big is the organization,
the number of staff, where those involved day to day.
(36:38):
But it's related to this idea that most people have
a sense that an organization needs a hierarchy to ensure order. So,
in addition to sort of your ORC chart and head
count numbers, how does your culture defy the narrative of
hierarchy to ensure that things get done? It frustrates me
at times. But the steering committee that Zoe talks about,
(37:00):
we leaned into that structure where they are the ones
because we built it with them and and co piloted
it and then agreed that these five community members were
the ones that make the decisions on what projects we
invest in. And I couldn't love that more because I
know myself and I knew I would start to mingle
in it. And the second I think it was the
first project that you all invested in, I jumped in.
I was like, well, I've got all these questions about
(37:21):
it and I'm not sure. It was like, well, that's
why we set up the structure. And so it is
actually leaning into structures to ensure that there is leadership
and accountability within these different mechanisms. So we started with
two twenty fellows. We got hundreds of applications from all
fifty states, Squam Puerto Rico our community. So you gotta
recognize we had zero marketing budget. We did zero ads.
(37:43):
We built a website with these kids and said take
it out and started with two because we were going
to culminate in Washington, d C. And Georgetown only gave us.
I mean, I love you, Georgetown, but you only gave
us two bets. So that that was that forcing function. Now,
when COVID down and we as a community decided, we
decided in I think early April, Zoe, we weren't going
(38:06):
to d C. We called the shot. When we weren't
going to d C, we started launching things like Unpluged Conversations,
fireside chat. So that's when we started to bring in
hundreds of more other participants. And we just launched year
two application and in less than forty eight hours we
got more than two hundred applications in two days. We're
probably going to cap around five hundred. But the size
(38:27):
of everyone working on it all the time, I say,
is it about eleven deep. But we interact as a
community every single day. So we start our mornings off
with a morning reflection. Where I come from, it's called convocation.
But it's a morning reflection where we all lean in,
set for the day, expectations, reflect on something, challenge each other.
But that's a bit of how we're structured in the size.
(38:48):
Thank you for that. We're going to go to a
live question. We're going to Gunner Carlson. I'm gonna Carlson.
I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Thank you for this talk first
of all, and thank you for your leadership and service. Zoe.
My question is for you, and specifically I work with
a lot of youth, and so something I like to
ask and get an honest answer on is one way
that you think that adults like us can be supportive
(39:12):
and get behind you and lean in and help your momentum?
And what is one area where we need to just
get out of the way because we're a problem and
it would be easier to just let you do your thing.
I think the biggest thing is just to believe, just
believe in young people. You know, if a young person
has the drive to come and talk to you about
a problem they're seeing, if they have a new policy
(39:34):
they want to recommend, then you just got to lean in.
I can tell you from personal experience with my education
advocacy group. We were lobbying in Frankfurt to increase pay
but also just increase the number of school counselors because
our school to counsel ratio is like almost close to
five one, which is just ridiculous. Students aren't getting school
counseling resources. And that the response from a senator in
(39:58):
the Kentucky legislature was, we all should start a bake
sale and raise money to pay for your school counselors. Yeah,
which is like, I know, people are laughing, they're shaking
it has that's ridiculous. You know you can't pay for
school counsels of the bake sale. Um. So I think
that just overcoming that culture of writing kids off. If
the kids are gonna come and lobby to you and
(40:19):
Frankfort about how they think they need more school counselors
than you know, they're lobbying just like anyone else, would
they really care about an issue in terms of I guess,
I guess tips as well as I think a lot
of kids sometimes say they we want to be treated
like adults, but there's a nuance to that. We don't
want to be treated like we're thirty because we're not thirty,
but just given the same kind of like value in
(40:41):
our opinions and what we know. But also recognize though
that if we're eighteen, like what Josh was saying, we
obviously don't have the same kind of wisdom as somebody
who's lived much longer. But that doesn't mean that our
ideas are any less merited. It just means that we
may need a little bit more support from intergenerational partners
to operationalize those ideas. I hope I answered your question.
(41:01):
I thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you, I appreciate
that question. And I'm still mad about the way those
Kentucky elected officials responded to you. So I want to
know how we can help out. Telling kids to do
a big sale instead of you doing your job is
the height of offensive and on small d democratic, So
(41:24):
we gotta work on that, especially in a pandemic. So,
because there's been so much concern, especially by folks like
your parents and the age group of your parents, about
the consequences of living in a digital landscape, how do
you manage the full time screen time life. What does
(41:47):
that digital hygiene look like for you? It's been an adjustment,
so I think for a long time. My resolve was like, well,
I don't spend too much time on screens because I'm
at school and I'm not on screens and I'm at school,
so it's okay for me to do all these calls
and I get home because I've had all this in
person interaction. And then when that went away, I think
a lot of the kids, I know, it was kind
(42:08):
of a wake up call like, whoa, we need to
do some things personally to make sure that you know,
we're filling our own cup before we're filling everyone else's.
So you know, we've started kind of like taking Saturday's
off of Slack, and that's something we started recently. It
was like, we need to have something where people know
I don't have to be on Slack today because nothing's
going to happen important today. And I think a lot
(42:29):
of digital hijin think is just making sure that you're
being social, because if you're just working all day and
just on zoom calls, which just work, I think that's
really draining. But a lot of what we do with
civicsum plugs is a lot of fun. You know. If
we're not getting right into the need of things, we're
just chatting, just chatting about how life is going. I
always like to reference Lillian another person a staring committee.
She started a meme channel in Civics and plug where
(42:52):
we just send memes and just talk about meme culture.
It's just something casual so that you, you you know, can
be on the screen because that's when one of the
ways we can really interact with others, especially and see
you but still you know, have a good time while
also you know, working to save democracy on the other
side and thinks as well. Uh, this conversation with both
(43:12):
of you has been what I needed. I think it's
been what a listener needs. Right now. We are in
this moment of extraordinary frontness and precariousness and balancing and
feeling overwhelmed, and we don't get very many signals of
anything worth fighting for looking forward to from our major
(43:37):
news outlets. And you have filled my cup with your energy,
with your reproach, with your Drake Paris, and your belief
in memes to restore and renewed democracy. Thank you for
showing up. Thank you for building relationships, thank you for
(43:58):
understanding your power. Thank you for working on behalf of
the many and not just the few. That's how the
citizen and we are learning from you in the process.
Zoe and Josh Civics Unplugged family, You're welcome here any
and every time. Thank you for sharing the space with it.
And so we're still gonna work at a bake salvers
and need to climb back of a very specific nature.
(44:24):
I don't know about you, but I am feeling motivated, inspired,
and uplifted by that energetic conversation with representatives from the
next generation. We are so grateful to Josh Thompson and
Zoe Jenkins for joining us. You can find them online
Joshua T. Thompson on Twitter or Civics Unplugged on Instagram
(44:46):
or Twitter, and you could also, of course go to
their website at civics unplugged dot org. This whole episode
a transcript and the actions I'm about to tell you
are always findable at how to citizen dot com. So
listen to what I'm about to say, but also just
go to the website. Here are some actions you can
(45:08):
take in the spirit of youth and action and letting
the kids lead. Internally, we have, as usual a writing exercise.
This one is inspired by the civic program at CIVICS Unplugged,
and it's to help you start your journey as a
Civic twenty builder. Even though you're not formally in the program,
(45:28):
you can run alongside. So you want to fill in
the following statements. To me, a flourishing democracy is one
that A flourishing community is one that blank right by
I pledged to have contributed to the flourishing of the
following communities and then list them. Finally, by I pledged
(45:52):
to have played any, many, or all of the following
roles in service of creating a brighter future for my
communities and American Democrat. See and if you're not American,
that's okay. I might be low key jealous of you.
So pick your society, your community as it fits. After
you've done developing your own vision, check out a bit
(46:12):
of the vision of Civics Unplugged. We are linking to
two pieces. Why we must save American Democracy is one
of them, and what American democracy could look like. In
for external actions, We've got four things lined up for
you in this episode. Number one, identify young people in
your life that you could support, Ask them what they
(46:34):
are working on, and ask how you can help. Then
help them. Number two the Civics Unplugged Fellowship is open
and accepting submissions. The deadline is November. Nominate someone, Encourage someone,
Spread the word to get high schoolers involved in this process.
(46:55):
Number three, Get involved as a mentor yourself in supporting
builders at a Civic's twenty campaign. We have a link
to that Civics Unplugged dot org, slash plug dash in
and a bonus. This is my favorite assignment by far.
Don't tell the other producers my favorite assignment. I want
you to find or create your own Drake memes and parodies. Yes,
(47:21):
do it for democracy, y'all. This is how we do it.
If you take any of these actions, share them with
us via email action at how to citizen dot com.
Make sure to mention kids will lead in the subject
line and brag about it loud and publicly on social media.
Use the hashtag how to citizen. We love general comments.
(47:41):
You can hit us up comments at how to citizen
dot com. I'm barretting Day Thursty. I am your host,
and I am infinitely reachable wherever barrettone days are found
on social media, but specifically reachable by you via text
message at two oh two eight nine four eight eight
four or four How does sit him with? Barratune Day
is a production of I Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced
(48:05):
by Miles Gray, Nick Stump, Elizabeth Stewart and Barratton Day Thursty.
Produced by Joel Smith, Edited by Justin Smith. Powered by
you
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.