The Round Table: A YVote Podcast

At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, Madeline and Skyla spoke with…each other.  Don’t get us wrong: we LOVE our guests but we also love our No Guest episodes when we dig in and speak in depth with one another about issues on our mind. And this week, political language and performative activism were very much on our minds. Tipped off by a paper Madeline recently wrote about the phrase “M...

At this week's Round Table, Jack and Kenisha spoke with Cornell Woolridge , Program Manager of the Civic Saturday Fellowship at Citizen University (CU). Cornell got involved in politics at an early age– a campaign in 3rd grade—and has been around the political space since then. What brought him to civic work and keeps him in civic work is bringing people together and helping them discover and use...

At this week's Round Table, Ava, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Kaz Brecher,  founder of Curious Catalyst and Innovation Strategist for Made By Us . As the daughter of two rocket scientists, Kaz loves the process of inquiry and thrives in ambiguous contexts, drawing from her background in psychology, behavioral science, innovation, emerging technology and media. She believes that empowering...

At this week's  Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, and Skyla engaged with some of our favorite guests—alumni podcast hosts Inica Kotasthane, now finishing her first semester at Barnard College, and Riya Mehta, midday through her junior year at Tufts University. We think you’ll enjoy catching up with these formerly-familiar voices as much as we did. In the spirit of year-end episodes, we started by r...

At this week's Round Table, Kenisha, Madeline, and Ava spoke with Lisa Kay Solomon , writer, Associate Professor and Designer in Residence at Stanford Institute of Design, and Co-founder of All Vote, No Play , exploring sports, civics, social change, and the interconnections between them. Lisa teaches an incredibly popular class on futures thinking at Stanford and is also a passionate public educa...

At this week's Round Table, Kenisha, Madeline, Maya, and Skyla spoke with Alison Gash and Daniel Tichenor , Political Science Professors at University of Oregon and co-authors of Democracy's Child: Young People and the Politics of Control, Leverage, and Agency . Democracy’s Child is a sweeping and innovative study that places young people at the heart of pivotal conflicts, decisions, and transform...

At this week's Round Table, Collin, Erina, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Dr. Steven Becton , Chief Officer of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Facing History and Ourselves . Dr Becton has spent his career working deeply in and with schools to create whole school culture and transformational educational experiences that equip educators, while also empowering students, to overcome the systemic...

At this week's Round Table, Kenisha, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Paul Gabbey, a fantastic teacher of AP Government & Politics/MacroEconomics at Penfield High School in Rochester, NY for the last 28 years–a school that he himself graduated from. Mr Gabbey is the kind of teacher you wish everyone could have–creative, kind, and inspiring, registering thousands of students to vote; supporting ma...

At this week's podcast, Kenisha and Madeline celebrated Thanksgiving by speaking with Eunice Lin Nichols , CEO of Co-Generate and one of Co-Generate’s newest Innovation Fellows, Natilee McGruder , co-chair of Alabama Leads .   CoGenerate is working to bridge generational divides to co-create the future–a mission near and dear to our hearts.  We talked about the power of intergenerational...

At this week's Round Table, Maya, Skyla, and Jack spoke with Dr Seema Yasmin , Emmy Award-winning journalist, Pulitzer finalist, and a CNN medical analyst who advocates for media literacy and slowing the spread of false news. In her newest book, “ What the Fact? Finding the Truth in All the Noise ,” Dr Yasmin offers teens a how-to guide to build the discernment necessary to tell fact from fiction....

At this week's Round Table, Collin, Kenisha, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Stewart Fletcher , Social Media Coordinator for Living Room Conversations . Living Room Conversations works to heal society by connecting people across divides - politics, age, gender, race, nationality, and more – through guided conversations proven to build understanding and transform communities. Stewart is a political s...

At this week's Round Table, Kenisha, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Alexa Whaley , Media Coordinator, for the Millennial Action Project (MAP) The Millennial Action Project has an audacious mission: activate young leaders to bridge the partisan divide and transform American politics. Its vision is of a diverse democracy where the political culture is grounded in empathy and leaders pursue innovative...

At this week's Round Table, Jack, Kenisha, Kris, and Madeline spoke with Michaela Latimer , Winston Churchill Fellow and Community Manager at Genesis, helping move New Zealand to a sustainable, low-carbon future, powered by renewable energy. Michaela was visiting us as part of her international Churchill Fellowship to learn about community and philanthropic organizations involved in positive youth...

At this week's Round Table, Erina, Jack, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with the leaders of our Next Gen Politics’ Rancho Bernardo Chapter: Khushi Patel and Chelsea Reilly.  Their community is VERY divided along partisan lines, which carries over into school unfortunately. At a time when many issues are deeply polarized–from vaccines to politics–they had no platform to discuss things with their...

At this week's Round Table, Ava, Jack, Kenisha, Madeline, Maya, and Skyla had a really special conversation: with each other. That’s right, no guests which gave us the opportunity to REALLY dig in with one another. We discussed a lot of things: Systemic racism and how it plays out; what we learned through Black@ accounts; whether we are unified between our home self and school self–and where does...

At this week's Round Table, Maya and Kris spoke with Charity Freeman , Associate Director for Teacher Training and Community Education for the Discovery Partners Institute at Pritzker Tech Talent Labs. Charity is passionate about building capacity in computer and data science/analytics at the high school and community college levels–which we 100% endorse (Maya is considering majoring in Computer S...

At this week's Round Table, Ava, Kenisha, and Madeline spoke with Eric Forteza Romero and Michelle Mairena, two of the many co-founders of Rhizome . Rhizome empowers student-led communities, places college students on paths to lifelong leadership, and shapes a healthier future for local communities and for the country. Eric and Michelle are inspiring ambassadors for the organization–and for civic...

At this week's Round Table, Ava, Kenisha, Madeline, and Skyla spoke with one of our beloved podcast editors, Vanessa Chen, as well as her collaborators Kimmy Jeon and Matthew Huang, who are working on a documentary about gerrymandering. Yes, gerrymandering. A topic that doesn’t get enough attention by young people yet has a fundamental impact on voting and electoral politics, making our political...

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At this week's Round Table, Kris, Madeline, and Vanessa spoke with one of our fantastic YVote alums, Meril Mousoom, now a sophomore at Macalester College. Meril has been involved in activism since they were 13 years in ever evolving ways, coalescing in their investment in youth lobbying. While lobbying doesn’t tend to be centered by youth activists, Meril shared how satisfying it is to work on som...

At this week's Round Table, Kenisha, Kris, Madeline, and Skyla spoke with Cindy Trinh , creator of @activistnyc, a documentary photo project about activism and social justice movements in New York City. Cindy is a photographer, visual journalist and activist who is passionate about social justice and human rights. Their photography comes from a place of wanting to connect with people and places th...

At this week's Round Table, Ava, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Tim Fish , Chief Innovation Officer of National Association of Independent Schools, which works with 2000 private schools nationally. Prior to this, Tim was a headmaster, which informs his lens on leadership and student learning—as does his experience as the father of four kids! Despite 32 years of experience now, Tim’s work is still f...

At this week's Round Table, Kris, Madeline, and Maya spoke with Bill Fulton of The Civic Canopy . Bill’s vision for the Civic Canopy was sparked by his experience watching the Berlin Wall come down while he was in college and being inspired by the possibilities for civic transformation across divides. He defines his work to connect civic life and improve communities through the Canopy over the las...

At this week’s Round Table, Kris, Collin, Kenisha, and Skyla spoke with Claire Thomas , attorney, consultant, professor and clinical director practicing immigration law and researching global migration, statelessness, human rights, and empowerment for women and girls facing poverty and gender-based violence. Claire recently returned from a Fulbright in Mexico, during which she interviewed asylum-s...

At this week’s Round Table, Kenisha, Madeline and Maya spoke with two alums of Next Generation Politics: Frank Yang, now a rising junior at Georgetown University, and Isaiah Taylor, a rising sophomore at Baruch College. Frank and Isaiah both identify as Conservative–and as a minority in their respective communities both in high school and in college. In our time of hyper-partisanship, we were exci...