The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

Robyn Caplan contextualized that the U.S., unlike many other countries, doesn’t have the notion of protected class. As such, a lot of platforms have policies against hate speech that don’t take power relationships into account and instead paint with a broad brush.

Robyn Caplan shared that since 2016, tech companies that had once been heralded as models of innovation and where the American economy needed to be headed, have been much more critiqued, both as monopolies and for the impact of their dominance on that election and on so many facets of life. In response, companies are taking on a lot of different strategies to try to change the narrative about the...

Media analyst Robyn Caplan shared how fundamentally her psych degree informs how she makes sense of social media (as it should for all of us...)

Robyn Caplan started off pursuing psychology but sort of “fell into” writing about the business of media because she was seeing a lot of fascinating things behind the scenes. Early in her career she looked at things like how l metrics influence the things that get published and how different audiences—“old” media and new media—come into conflict with each other. Through this, she started doing glo...

At this week's Round Table, Inica, Isaiah, Madeline, and Olivia spoke with Robyn Kaplan about Facebook’s recent decision to ban political ads in the week leading up to the election. As a technology researcher at Data & Society and a doctoral student in Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information Studies, Robyn helped us think through the potential implications of this decision...

Karin most wants students to know that although NYC Schools is putting health and safety first, they still want to keep student voice at the center. She urges students to not let the challenges of school structures silence you, bc you know better than anyone else what is and isn’t working in education and the drive forward can only come when young peoples voices are in the dialogue.

What does Karin hope the lasting legacy of Covid will be, good bad or ugly? Given that Covid has laid bare all of the existing inequities that were already there, one legacy Karin hopes will be sustained is the willingness of people to have really tough conversations with one another and to push on the public institutions that do or do not serve them well She also hopes that the way we use time in...

Nor does 6 hours and 20 min on a Zoom call with the same adult. Karin Goldmark talked about finding the right balance between structure and flexibility. What does seem to work is a mix of interactive sessions AND time when you do all see each other AND time working on your own. Ideally, students will be learning with teachers from their own school BUT that won’t always be possible because of the s...

It’s hard to make decisions that will work well for the many different kinds of school buildings and contexts in NYC and the disparate conditions and constraints they face. Like many things, these struggles predate the pandemic but the pandemic highlighted and exacerbated them and puts them in a life and death context in which the school system has to get the answers right. One of the biggest chal...

Karin Goldmark notes that mask mandates can be adhered to without violating one’s democratic right to protest or to exercise or to go about one’s life. People have found ways to adapt without bringing the case count up. Public health officials are clear that keeping the mask on or keeping 6 feet of distance is usually an either-or but the DOE is doing a both-and approach recognizing sometimes peop...

Karin Goldmark underscores the importance of teaching people about the science—why its important to wear a mask, why it’s important to wash our hands frequently, why it’s important to maintain six feet of distance. People are much more willing to respect the rules when they understand them. The Department of Education has drawn a firm line around the wearing of masks—if a student or adult refuses...

Karin Goldmark, Deputy Chancellor of the country’s biggest, most diverse school system, shared her concerns, both as a school leader and as a parent, that safety and health precautions would not only be complicated and hard to do, they would make school joyless. But the Regional Enrichment Centers the city established for emergency child care back in March have demonstrated that it doesn’t have to...

At this week's The Round Table, we welcome in two new podcasters--Madeline Mayes and Isaiah Taylor--as Julianna, Riya, and Sara have headed to college.  Inica, Isaiah, Madeline, and Olivia interviewed Karin Goldmark , Deputy Chancellor for School Planning & Development at the NYC Department of Education. We spoke about the challenges of opening schools safely and equitably. With 130,930 s...

Cyrus talks about parallels and differences btw strategies for social justice undertaken by Muslim vs Black Lives Matter activists. He notes that there’s tremendous overlap btw black and Muslim communities since over half of Muslims in America are blacks from the African diaspora. What that means in thinking about American Islam in the BLM moment and this chapter in activism for black rights is a...

Cyrus McGoldrick’s worldview is very influenced by his being half Iranian and half Irish. He looks to the Irish freedom struggle —part of Ireland (Northern Ireland) is still partially occupied by England through their two estate solution. The Irish still remember all of their political prisoners and support their families from Dublin to Belfast. Cyrus hoped to see the same kind of response within...

Cyrus McGoldrick shared how disheartened he was seeing young people going into prison and losing every appeal , fighting cases that were clearly political. When every court in the land declares someone guilty, within a civil work framework, organizations generally have to wash their hands of the case and say the checks and balances have left us in this position and their hands are tied. This led t...

Cyrus McGoldrick talks about his hero, Malcolm X. Malcolm was a product of, and one of the great producers of, a black internationalism and a radical black politics that lives on and is very much alive anywhere people are protesting the state. Malcolm tried to move people beyond the conversation of civic rights, which limited them to the courts, to the law, to an American identity. Malcolm’s feeli...

Cyrus McGoldrick talks about the importance of knowing who you are and who your community is in building a successful campaign. The word community is too often used cavalierly as an ideal or an imagined backdrop to the work we are doing. We talk about cities as a community but that doesn’t really exist. New York City, as an example, is a collection of villages. Can 12 million people share a commun...

Cyrus McGoldrick, doctoral student currently living in Turkey, shared his evolution as a human rights activist. He tried to plug into the anti war and anti Bush efforts, but notes that he and his peers didn’t have a practical idea of how politics and power worked and how decisions were made. It wasn’t until going through university and, even more, connecting with real activists —people on the grou...

At this week's Round Table, Inica and Olivia--along with Julianna, Sara, and Riya in their last episode before heading to college!--spoke with Cyrus McGoldrick, a lyrical artist of Iranian and Irish descent and an American Muslim activist who has worked for and with civil and human rights organizations for the last 10 years. Living in Istanbul, Turkey for the last five years doing doctoral work ha...

Mark Hanis remembers when Hillary Clinton was running for president, a lot of people talked about the need for their to be more women in government. This made him curious about how many women worked for Clinton when she was Secretary of State. He found there was initially a 2:1 ratio of men to women (it got better over time) EVEN WITH someone who was a champion for women. This influenced his found...

Mark Hanis notes that too often when we focus on diversity and inclusion, we just focus on one aspect like gender or race. It’s important to be conscious and vigilant about who’s not in the room. Intersectionality plays an important role in this—asking not just “is there a woman in the room?” but “is there a woman of color?” or “is there a woman of color with disabilities or veteran status?” It ca...

Mark Hanis shares his concerns that people who are younger tend not to be taken as seriously in government. At Inclusive America, when they look at categories of diversity in order to ensure a more level playing field , age is one of them along with gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, and veteran status. They also plan to go beyond this to look at first generation college, firs...

Mark Hanis talks about how much he enjoyed his time working for the Office of Vice President Joe Biden. He notes that too often we focus on the individual and not enough on the team or on movements, yet rarely is any social change possible without large groups of people. We do a disservice by just talking about the person who has their name or their face on the top of the ticket. He characterizes...

Given this, Mark Hanis shares his feelings that when Biden says he’s going to only select from a very qualified pool of women candidates, you could argue that it’s tokenism or affirmative action or you could say it’s almost impossible for a woman to make it to the very end. Hillary Clinton got the closest and she was one of the most highly qualified, well known candidates ever and didn’t have to p...