The Civic Circle | Will Gen Z Help Lead a Labor Revival in the U.S. + interview with Adrien Van Voorhis from Temple’s Undergrad Workers Union

The Civic Circle is a new youth-led podcast by the Bucks County Beacon tackling politics and policy from a Gen-Z lens. Sarah Zhang, Mallorie Marsan, and Alexandra Coffey are students from Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Once a month they chat about activism, advocacy, and all the political happenings affecting their generation today. They focus on PA politics and want the podcast to serve as a call to action for all young people to get involved in the civic process and demand change.

This episode covers one of the biggest issues of 2023 - labor rights. There’s been a massive rise in worker organizing over the past few years, especially among Gen Z. We tackle a broad scope of labor organizing and terminology for those who are unfamiliar - especially for young people, since we’ve never formally really been introduced to what unions are in school; talk about organizing and unions in a greater, national scope, such as Starbucks United and SAG-AFTRA; and then hone in on something local - organizing at Temple University.

In the second half of the show we have an interview with Adrien Van Voorhis, who’s with Temple’s Undergrad Workers Union, to discuss how young people can mobilize and gain bargaining power.

Sarah Zhang is a CB East grad and sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill.

Mallorie Marsin is a Council Rock South grad and freshman at Temple University.

Alexandra Coffey is a senior at CB West. 

The Civic Circle is produced by the Bucks County Beacon and Raging Chicken Media’s Kevin Mahoney.

The music is “Bet On It” by Silent Partner, copyright and royalty-free. 

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