The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

At this week’s Round Table, Emmanuel, Heba, and Preena spoke with two extraordinary guests, Sarah Medina Camiscoli and Sa'Real McRae, representing the Peer Defense Project (PDP). PDP is rewriting the narrative on how youth leaders engage with the law, breaking down systemic barriers, and championing civil rights issues. PDP’s web platform connects attorneys with youth leaders, equipping grassr...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Emmanuel, Hannah, and Heba welcomed guest, Alice Siu, Associate Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab and Senior Research Scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law. Dr Siu took us on an intellectual journey through the intricacies of deliberative democracy and beyond, dissecting the quality of arguments that emer...

At this week’s Round Table, Hannah and Heba spoke with Ian Gray of Gray Dot Catalyst , a seasoned consultant whose expertise traverses the landscapes of innovation and development, shaping the course of organizations within the humanitarian sphere. He has navigated the realms of innovation, strategy, and the humanitarian frontier. With a consultancy dedicated to steering organizations through the...

At this week's Round Table, Emmanuel, Emily, Hannah, and Heba spoke with Sabrina Abdalla, a Senior Program Associate at Headstream , ​​an innovation program working to make the digital world safer for young people. Sabrina is a true visionary and advocate for children's mental health and in our conversation, we delve into the beating heart of advocacy and empowerment for our youth. Born in...

At this week’s Round Table, Emmanuel, Hannah, Heba, and Inyoo spoke with Dan Schnur who stands as a beacon of political enlightenment. With a tenure spanning over two decades at the University of California, Berkeley, USC, and Pepperdine University, Dan's teaching expertise has shaped the minds of future leaders. His courses in politics, communications, and leadership serve as the bedrock for...

At this week’s Round Table, Emmanuel and Inyoo spoke with Phil Smith, the National Field Director for The Concord Coalition. Founded in 1992 by former US Senators Paul Tongas and Warren Rudman, The Concord Coalition stands as a beacon of nonpartisan dedication, advocating for fiscal responsibility and educating the public about the federal budget's intricacies. Phil's journey with the coal...

At this week’s Round Table, Emily and Emmanuel spoke with the remarkable Gretta Flora Irakoze, an entrepreneur and visionary based in beautiful Burundi, in a conversation that spans continents and cultures. Gretta, a proud graduate of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), has carved her path as an entrepreneur and author with a mission close to her heart. Her upcoming debut in the world of chi...

At this weeek's Round Table, Emily, Emmanuel, and Hannah spoke with Chanika Perry and Lance Ozier of Conversation Forward . Chanika, a career educator and Director of Education Programs at Hands On Atlanta, brings over two decades of experience in youth development and education ranging from rural Georgia to the bustling streets of New York City and now Atlanta. Lance, a longtime faculty membe...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Inyoo, and Hannah are joined by Jillian Youngblood, the executive director of Civic Genius . Jillian has nearly 20 years of experience in politics, government, and strategic communications with a focus on deliberative democracy and solutions-oriented public engagement. On Capitol Hill, she was a lead staffer for the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, and worke...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Emmanuel, Hannah, Heba, and Inyoo welcomed back former podcast hosts extraordinaire Inica, Kenisha, and Madeline for a rousing conversation about, well, everything!  It was thrilling to be in conversation with people who have been in our roles in the past and to hear about the impact Next Gen Politics and this podcast have continued to have on how they engage...

At this week's Round Table, Emmanuel, Hannah, Heba, and Inyoo delve into the realm of civil rights, advocacy and the power of community action with remarkable guest, Elizabeth (Liz) OuYang, a seasoned civil rights attorney whose dedication spans an impressive 37 years. Liz is a force in combating hate crimes, advocating against police brutality, championing immigrant rights, and advocating for...

At this week's Round Table Emmanuel, Emily, and Heba dove into a can't-miss conversation with a true pioneer in media transformation: Steve Rosenbaum, the Founder and Director of The Center for Sustainable Media . The mission of Sustainable Media Center is to act as a catalyst to change media for the better, working with young people to give them agency over the media they consume, create,...

At this week's Round Table, Emmanuel, Hannah, and Heba spoke with Esmeralda Simmons , Fellow in the Advanced Leadership Institute at Harvard University and Founder of the Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College , a community-based racial justice advocacy center that focuses on legal work and research on civil rights and domestic human rights violations. Ms Simmons is an accom...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Erina, and Hannah spoke with Alison Ritz, an AP Government and History teacher in the Bronx. She has taught in the New York City Department of Education for over two decades, striving to connect the present to the past while centering civic engagement for high-school students.  As a former teenage activist, she approaches AP US Government and Politics, Partic...

At this week’s Round Table, Emily, Emmanuel, and Heba spoke with Joel Berman, a retired primary care physician who lives in Concord, NH and is a longtime volunteer from The Compassionate Listening Project –something we could all benefit from doing more of these days, which made us excited to engage in this conversation! The Compassionate Listening Project works to empower individuals and communiti...

At this week’s Round Table, Amelia, Dorina, Emily and Hannah spoke with Rachel Janfaza, an amazing journalist covering youth political culture. Rachel founded ' The Up and Up ,' a newsletter focused on Gen Z’s political zeitgeist and  how young Americans are organizing, mobilizing, and participating in civic life and politics – or, how and why they’re not. She is also a freelancer, with im...

At this week's Round Table, Amelia, Emily, Emmanuel, Hannah, and Heba spoke amongst themselves about the implications of applying to college in the first year after the Supreme Court’s reversal of Affirmative Action. While students like us are the MOST impacted by this decision, our voices are rarely included in public dialogue about affirmative action. The conversation was cathartic–all of us...

At this week’s Round Table, Emmanuel, Hannah, and Inyoo spoke with Mitul Gouni, a junior at Allen High School in Texas, an involved member of his community, and author of the book One Flag: A Nonpartisan Guide to American Politics . A student in his school’s International Baccalaureate program, Mitul is intensely curious and dedicated to deepening his knowledge of history in particular. Outside of...

At this week’s Round Table, Hannah, Heba, and Maya spoke with Becky Wang, the CEO and CoFounder of Rabble.io , a social discovery platform for people to find purpose-driven events and actions that bring life back to communities and neighborhoods. For brand partners, they provide a way to sponsor and support people-focused sustainability programs led by the organizers of these live events in order...

At this week's Emily and Hannah spoke with Sarah Jakle , Founder and Executive Director of DemocraShe . Previously Sarah served as the Get Out The Vote Director for the California National Organization for Women and National Outreach Director for Field Team 6, leading the innovative effort to register voters using effective issue-based voter registration techniques. Empowering women to hold po...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Hannah and Skyla spoke with Sasha Simon and Rhana Hashemi about harm-reduction based drug education. As the Founder and Principal Consultant at Sasha Simon Consulting, Sasha provides training, technical assistance and consulting services to youth-serving professionals transitioning away from punitive, abstinence-based drug education and policies and towards i...

At this week’s Round Table, Hannah, Inyoo, Jack, and Kenisha spoke with Thea Sebastian , Director of Policy for Civil Rights Corps , as well as the founding Director of the Futures Institute. In her role, Thea oversees a wide range of initiatives that include policy changes related both to advancing community safety and building cradle-to-career youth opportunity. One of her current projects invol...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Heba, and Kenisha spoke with Evalaurene Jean-Charles, a dedicated educator, advocate, and the CEO & Founder of Black on Black Education, an organization that aims to revolutionize education by promoting student-centered approaches and empowering young people of color to become change agents for change. She is also a 9th grade history teacher in the South...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Heba, and Ruby spoke with Michael Partis , Executive Director of the Redhook Initiative , a Brooklyn-based organization facilitating social change through education, youth development, and local hiring. His current role builds on his experience running the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative; the Bronx Brotherhood Project, a college success and mentorshi...

At this week's Round Table, Emily, Erina, Jack, and Skyla spoke with Sumayyah Rose, the founder of What In the World (WITW). WITW is a publication dedicated to breaking down the news for young people and being a space for them to share thoughts and opinions as well as reflections about culture that young people need to know about because of the relevance it has on today’s world. Having been in...