The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

“I remember going to my daughter’s school and looking at the textbooks to see if my own name was there from many years ago.” Unfortunately, it often takes a looong time for curricular materials to evolve. Our guest Frank Stebbins told us about working with a group of teachers to make a pie graph representing all voices in their curriculum, both when THEY went to school and now in the schools they...

We were honored to be joined by Facing History and Ourselves Program Associate and longtime educator Frank Stebbins this week. Frank supports educators across the state of New Jersey, supporting them in doing work is centered around the power that identity and perceived identity can have on the stories that we learn and the stories that we tell. He focuses on who gets to belong and who feels margi...

At this week's Round Table, Eliza, Inica, Madeline, and Olivia spoke with Frank Stebbins, Program Associate at Facing History and Ourselves and longtime educator. Frank shared his belief that identity should be the cornerstone of any classroom, and we discussed what students and teachers need to commit to for that work to happen. We agree that asking questions, digging into diverse histories, enga...

Eliza asked Sara about her goals for joining Student Council at Columbia University. Sara underscored her aim to foster dialogue and create space for free flowing exchange of ideas--both amongst students AND between student and administrators. She noted that there is often a lack of trust between students and administrators, which can lead to hostility. Sara feels this stems from lack of understan...

Riya notes that although she goes to a pretty liberal college, it doesn’t always do a great job of including all viewpoints nor of honoring people of all ethnic backgrounds. In this clip, she shared a sobering story about how institutional racism and policing play out even on the campus of a small, ostensibly “woke” liberal arts institution. On the upside, she shared that it has sparked constructi...

We were thrilled to have the OPs (Original Podcasters…) join us for a Reunion Episode this week upon finishing their first semester of college! Madeline asked them to share how their transition to higher education had been amidst, you know, a pandemic. Founding Podcaster Julianna shared that her last few months of high school didn’t FEEL much like school--she didn’t really have formal classes, did...

At this week's Round Table, Eliza, Inica, Isaiah, Madeline, and Olivia were excited to speak with our founding podcasters--Julianna Davis, Riya Mehta, and Sara Chough--freshly home for the holiday break after finishing their first semester at college.  Of course, “coming home” is metaphorical for some in COVID--Julianna has been home throughout her first semester at American University, as so...

The backbone of democracy is relationships: relationships with elected officials, with political ideals, and most importantly with each other. Now more than ever, with polarization the norm in American politics, it is essential to note that the rifts did not begin four years ago. It is a result of an unwillingness to compromise and work together to achieve meaningful change for decades. Like any o...

Podcaster Madeline referenced the degree to which people are being dehumanized amidst calls to make America great again. There are competing ideas for our future and whether we are heading towards destruction or a renaissance. She asked our guest Karen Murphy what we can learn from the history and culture of dehumanization, as well as how we can learn from history of pushing institutions in positi...

Amid growing tensions and increased polarization in the U.S., it’s helpful to look back to the idea central to our nation’s founding. Citizenship was not based on birth or blood--it was about the idea of committing to a principle of being elastic and inclusive. We must recognize, of course, that “we the people” referred to a very narrow band of people at that time but the guiding principle as enab...

Our guest Karen Murphy is a proponent of teachers being as highly trained and valued as top medical professionals. She noted that if one is trained as a surgeon, in an emergency that professional is likely able to apply those skills even in an area that isn’t their specialty. With teachers, the more confident and skilled one is with teaching as a practice, the more one can apply that to other thin...

Our guest Karen Murphy reminded us that we think about as history changes over time.--not just what we care about and who we care about but what is considered history. Facing History and Ourselves came to be in 1975 when its founders met at a conference on the Holocaust and it was the first time they’d learned about that history despite ostensibly being well-educated teachers and citizens. We take...

At this week's Round Table, Divya, Inica, Isaiah, Madeline, and Olivia spoke with K aren Murphy, Director of International Strategy for Facing History and Ourselves .  Karen had a lot to contribute to our series on national identity, inclusion, and belonging through her global lens, drawing upon lessons learned from Northern Ireland and South Africa. Her worldview is predicated on the belief...

2020 has shown us that the #covid_19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of our society and immigration is no exception. Our podcast guest @bethfertig underscored that with the inability to hold hearings and proceed with trials in a timely manner—only people seeing judges have been immigrants held in detention —the vast majority of immigrants with court cases have been frozen in time for 8 months....

There are a lot of potential changes in immigration policy on the horizon through the incoming Biden administration. Our podcast guest @bethfertig, helped us think about what can be determined by Executive Order--such as overturning the Muslim travel ban--and what requires Congressional approval—such as how to handle DACA and creating a path to citizenship and full legalization for everyone in the...

As we head closer to Inauguration Day and the beginning of a new administration, we anticipate dramatic differences in orientation, and immigration is at the top. In this week’s Round Table Podcast episode, we spoke with Beth Fertig, Senior Reporter for WNYC Radio for immigration, exploring key differences in the immigration policy agenda of President Obama vs President Trump--and what we can and...

Beth Fertig, Senior Reporter for Immigration, Courts, and Legal Affairs, shared what brought her to her beat, after years covering immigration. She noted that in 2016, she started covering the courts. She was clear that she didn’t just want to cover broad themes of justice; she wanted to see how it was affecting people. Once Trump was elected, it was decided that she would cover immigration courts...

At this week's Round Table, Eliza, Inica, Isaiah, Madeline & Olivia spoke with Beth Fertig , Senior Reporter for WNYC Radio for immigration, courts, and legal affairs. We discussed what brought Beth to the immigration beat and what she’s learned covering the biggest, busiest immigration court in the country--especially during the time of COVID. We explored key differences in the immigration po...

Our guest Shawnda Chapman noted that entrenched systems of injustice like racism and sexismcan make us feel helpless. Often what we try to do to remedy such feelings is provide help, when what we really should focus on is providing power--the power to determine one’s own life and one’s own destiny. Rather than determining what’s best for girls and “giving” it to them in a paternalistic way, the go...

Our guest Shawnda Chapman notds that we don’t have great answers or solutions for many youth who are survivors of sexual violence--when she was growing up, there wasn’t even language for talking about it, only stigma. Many get sent into the foster care system which too often devastates their lives even further. Others get punished, for ex, being sent into the juvenile detention center, which doesn...

In response to a question from Divya about the distinct problems girls of color face, Shawnda noted how seeds are planted in childhood that have the potential to lead to healthy or unhealthy growth. She cited the degree to which girls of color often don’t get to control their environment--their family context, their economic well being --yet are expected in adulthood to perform as if they’d had eq...

Our guest Shawnda Chapman called attention to the dance of progress and regress at play in our country. She noted that today’s youth are not wedded to fixed concepts of gender and sexuality--even she gets checked on binary thinking by younger thinking--and she loves the expansion of inclusivity. Unfortunately, simultaneously she cites how racial progress has moved in the wrong direction as a resul...

Our guest Shawnda Chapman shared some of the challenges of supporting girls of color, noting that too often false hierarchies around whose needs are greater get created, and how anytime people speak up for girls of color, they get pegged as being hostile and asked “what about the boys?” when the same question doesn’t get asked to those supporting boys of color. TThese narratives are counterproduct...

Our guest, Shawnda Chapman, Director of the Girls Fund Initiative at the Ms Foundation, shared that she once hit her biographical details, fearing that they would make people take her less seriously at the decision-making table. Over time, she recognized that her lived experiences are part of her superpowers--that our experiences, even the toughest ones, need not be viewed as weaknesses as they ar...

At this week's Round Table, Divya, Eliza, Madeline and Olivia spoke with the stellar Shawnda Chapman , Director of the Girls Fund Initiative at the Ms Foundation. This is the second episode in our series on national identity, inclusion, and belonging. We talked about how the intersection of racism and sexism cooperate to keep the experiences of girls and women of color silenced and “invisibilized”...