Elise Joshi

Join us today to get hyped on Gen-Z leadership because it rocks. We sit down with the spectacular Elise Joshi, a progressive political organizer, climate activist & journalist who has been lighting up digital media with clear, hard-hitting content since she was 17. Elise discusses how—growing up during COVID, California’s wild fires, and the emergent climate crisis—she learned to question authority, found the grassroots coalition through making digital content, and went on to help found and then executive direct Gen-Z for Change. Now, Elise is reporting and producing groundbreaking local news coverage from within the Emmy-award winning nonprofit More Perfect Union, and is launching More Perfect University, a national project that aims to train and spotlight young local reporters across the country. Get a glimpse of a near-future progressive USA! Come on in, it’s open.

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Host: Ilana Glazer
Producers: David Rooklin, Annika Carlson, Madeline Kim, Kelsie Kiley, Glennis Meagher
Video Producers: Lexa Krebs, Louise Nessralla
Audio Producers: Nicole Maupin, Rachel Suffian, Rebecca O’Neill
Lighting Director: Kevin Deming
Editor: Tovah Leibowitz
Graphics: Raymo Ventura
Outro Music: Don Hur

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm on tour. You can go to alanaglazer.com for tickets. I'm going to a lot of fucking cities in Europe as well. So come see me and then yeah, come on and it's open. Hello. Welcome to It's Open with Alana Glazer. Oh my goodness. My my goodness. I am so heartened and enlivened. And my heart is full after this conversation that I just had with a young progressive leader named Elise Joshi. Elise Joshi started as a content creator on TikTok, making messaging for the progressive movement. And then she realized there was a whole progressive movement that would love to take her in and prop her up as one of its very important leaders. She went on to executive direct Gen Z for Change, a uh nonprofit organization making progressive messaging for young people by young people. And now she works with and at More Perfect Union, which is a uh a news source that I turn to, an independent news source that I turn to for working people, by working people. Elise is uh helming More Perfect University, which is More Perfect Union's campus program. Um, I I'm blown away by this person's brilliance. What I'm left with today that is making me smile is the knowledge that young people are okay. I'm excited for you to uh listen to this conversation and I hope you enjoy it. Come on in, it's open. Elise Joshi, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me. I have been watching content that you've been making about human rights for years. I think since you were 17. Yeah. And wow. You give me faith. You help my faith in humanity because I see a younger generation, you, uh one of the leaders in understanding the system and explaining it to your peers. How did you come to understand the system so clearly and make messaging about it?

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, it's odd because I grew up in the heart and epicenter of Silicon Valley where Google is is headquartered. My my parents don't work in tech, but my dad really instilled a STEM mindset of like, don't just trust what people in power tell you. You have to question authority and prove it yourself. And I I came from a STEM background of like, okay, what does the data say? What is the proof here? And when wildfires were coming to the Bay Area to California, and um I had you know 300 plus AQI outside my door, we're wearing masks in 2017, 2018, and I try I'm trying to understand it. You look at the data, you look at the science, and it's so much scarier than just the red skies. It's what what does it look like at two degrees of warming, three degrees of warming is frightening. And what we've already seen is is is is just unbelievable. And it freak it freaked me out. Um but but that background of trying to prove everything and not just taking Donald Trump's word for it, who was president at the time, you know, is it helped inform me of like, okay, there's this is this is so much worse than what people you know perceive. And um I want to be part of of a movement that educates people around climate and other things.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Aaron Powell Can I make sure I'm hearing correctly? Uh you're saying that you grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, your parents don't work in tech, but there's a big thrust towards STEM in public schools, and your dad said, don't take authority's word for it. Question it and get the proof yourself.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Exactly. Copy that. Yeah. And I'm I'm also Ecuadorian and Indian, and on my Ecuadorian side, you know, water is life. Wait, hydropowers 80% of the country. You know, this is it's a group of people that understand that the economy and nature are intrinsically linked to each other, that you can't separate the two. And in getting closer to my family who largely live in Ecuador, it also informed me that I have a responsibility here in the United States as an Ecuadorian American to do everything I can to fight for decarbonization and sustain a sustainable economy within the within the belly of the beast.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And I found it so clearly, I found you to um so clearly explain the data, but also how it felt to be living through the experience of it. Um how'd you find your voice in this way?

SPEAKER_00 4:33

It was a lot of trial and error, to be honest. I didn't come from a film background. Um I it took me a long time to realize that even though I cared about politics, I cared about people and our planet, it was hard to imagine somebody who looked like me as uh somebody who can be a leader within this space. And you know, it took the sunrise movement, took AOC winning her election for me to see myself as somebody who can chart chart this path of building a better future.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Um wait, let me slow down there. Yeah. The sunrise movement rising up and AOC winning her election. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

2018 was really crucial for me to realize my own strength and that I I'm capable of providing something to building a better world. And and still, you know, I'm you're on TikTok in 2020 and it's this just dystopian time where I didn't get a high school graduation. I'm staying at home instead of going to college, and your your future is looking just so fraught. And I I didn't know what the best persuasion tactics were. I just knew what convinced me. And so I would share pretty scary statistics about the climate crisis in hopes of other people seeing how bad things are, you know, the increase in droughts and wildfires and and flooding and all these statistics. And I realized, oh, I was going viral, but I'm not persuading people, I'm scaring people. And so I I really iterated over time and figured out that hope drives persuade drives change, it persuades people, it it grounds people in why we're in this fight. And and it took making errors along the way at 17 and trying to figure out how how this works. But basically, you know, mil hundreds of millions of people were being driven onto the TikTok app in 2020, and it was largely young people uh making really like scrappy, authentic content about what they cared about. And because there was so much demand for content, there was also demand for creators to fill in the gap of we need to fill in these feeds for people who are driving onto the platform. And uh and so you know, I could make mistakes and still go viral. I think there's certain cringy videos from six years ago that wouldn't work now, but um yeah, I came onto the platform at the right time.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

And like you were just editing it yourself? Yes and within the TikTok app. Uh-huh. And you like would you like do something? Would you make a whole video be like this sucks and delete it?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've gone back. I I I try to keep I I I've looked actually quite recently and I'm like, oh my God, she's so she's so precious. Like, you know, the videos got long pauses, you know, I'm not like cutting up things the way that I do now. Yeah, the most crucial part for a young person, I think, watching this or advice I'd give anyone is to not be hard on yourself, but be willing to make mistakes and and change as a result. You don't have to be perfect and and don't let perfect be the perfection be the enemy of the good for sure. Um and you know, I I I've made plenty of errors, but what's important is that you you iterate and you listen to the people around you and try your best.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah. So I've been really excited to start partnering with More Perfect Union. I did a solo episode, and when I got on the call to meet with the team initially, you were there, and I was like, Elise, Joshi, oh my god. Um I was so pleased to see that you had found a home and a team. We'll get to that in a second. What I'm wondering is from this place of you being so scared, feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, and uh finding your voice solo. I'm wanting to step out you finding the people who are in this work, how you started getting plugged into a system of progress making because there is a system. Can you talk about how you've started finding your people? And we'll get to how you found more perfect union.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah. Well, through TikTok, I actually ended up meeting dozens of people who I call my friends now who were talking about the election as it relates to racial justice, as it relates to worker justice, transit, et cetera. And we all want had the same intention of how can we use content to bring people together and around a common goal of we need to get this guy out of office. And we we came together to build a coalition of creators that ended up um organizing people on TikTok because the Biden administration didn't want to touch TikTok in 2020. And so no one was using the platform to for election purposes. And uh we came together, TikTok for Biden is what it was called. We would then turn into Gen Z for Change with the purpose of holding the Biden administration accountable, supporting workers on the ground unrelated to elections, um, and and so many other things. And and I ended up running Gen Z for Change a couple years after the 2020 election. And yeah, we were a coalition of creators from thousands, thousands of miles apart from each other, you know, 500 plus creators across um across the country. And uh yeah, we I I found my my people on there with who have the same intention of how can we use social media effectively. Um, but more than that, too, I'm I am a climate organizer, but I'm also a transit labor and tenant organizer in the Bay Area. I'm involved in a lot of different community organizing in the Bay where I'm from. And it's really critical to me as is somebody who's talking online and building trust with people who live far away from me that I'm grounded in where I live and fighting for the people who are my neighbors. Um, so I I think having both is very important to me. And so, and as as both have informed each other. The the on-the-ground work informs my content and and vice versa. And, you know, for the through the years I've um had had mentors and friends that help tell me, you know, think that you need to think about things differently in terms of campaign strategy, et cetera. And and that's been really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

I um I myself am starting to feel the need for more. I've done so much political messaging through Generator Collective with my co-founder Glenis Bahar. And we actually did work on work together through Gen Z for Change. Oh, did we? Yeah, and like I think we did, you know, some collabs or whatever, but I'm remembering this now, but I'm starting to feel, and and I love the messaging part of it because I am a comedian or whatever, but I'm also starting to feel the need like in my belly for the grassroots organizing locally because it's like it's hollow without that following up.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

It needs to feel real. Yeah, I uh one of the most rewarding things that I do is build bus benches at bus stops that don't have benches. And I'm learning how to do woodworking with my neighbors. You literally build them? Yes, we literally build them. We we sand the wood and paint them and cut them up and assemble them. It's it's complicated Legos and we install them literally like drilling holes in the cement and and installing bus benches. And we've done we've installed over a hundred around Oakland, East Bay in general, and and San Francisco. And holy shit, it's incredible. And and not only that, it's it's doing a real good in the city I'm from, but by posting it online, we have gotten people in different cities in the in the country inspired by it. We share our manual online. And now South Austin has a bench project where they're installing community benches in at bus stops in their area. And so it's the perfect like digital to on the ground organizing that I know is possible and and wouldn't be possible if I wasn't grounded in the place that I'm from. And so it's it's that type of work that really keeps me going.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Wow. Oh my gosh. Um, what what else? You said um transit, like what else do you do like but this like this uh this level of literally real organizing? Can you give more examples?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, yeah. So I'm involved in transit organizing through the bench organizing as well as uh just transit funding in general, right? I mean, we um I don't own a car, and so it's really critical to me that buses don't take 25 plus minutes to arrive or never arrive. And a lot of young and working people see transportation as really critical to bringing communities together. And so I see transport as a labor organizer as well. Like, how can we catalyze chain reactions of organizing by having your you're taking your kids to the same school, you're going to the same bar after work. We're living further and further away from our coworkers. And so, how can we create and design our communities so that they're closer knit? And I believe that transportation, walkable cities, bikeable cities is how we do that. And it can facilitate better and more effective labor and tenant organizing. And so, yeah, they're definitely not separate applications.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Which is also why, like the wealthy people wielding all this power don't want transportation to be efficient, because then people get together, get ideas for how to live better.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Public transportation is a threat to big oil, big auto, big everything.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

And it's one of those crucial things of we need to move from place to place. It's such a fundamental part of being a person. And they they have uh all these big corporations are squeezing us for such a critical need, and that's intentional. And if we make transportation a public service, something, you know, downtown's a place to arrive at instead of drive through. You know, we have um, you know, walkable downtowns, uh accessible transportation that comes every 10 minutes and instead of every half an hour, then that that really is resistance against these big corporations trying to squeeze us for profit.

unknown 14:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Um Waymo.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So more well, let's get to more perfect union in a moment, but I learned about Waymo as not a self-driving car, but actually cars being driven by people overseas in the Philippines from More Perfect Union. Huh?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah Waymo's being driven by people in the Philippines. It speaks to a larger problem of trying to infli push technology as the solution to our problems as opposed to just good, well-funded public services. Yeah, right. Well-funded people, well-funded people.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Doing work and living normal, living healthy lives as well. Individuals. Somebody who drives, who's a driver to transport customers from place to place should be a well-funded person as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Absolutely. And you know, I'm I'm not a fan of gig services. As, you know, we we need to have well-funded public transportation and make sure that gig workers can afford to live in the cities they drive in. And right now that's not the case. So it's not Waymo or gig. It's how how do we fix our transportation system so that we can make sure that it's one, moving people around in the most efficient way possible. A car is still a car, and and might be a controversial take, but an electric vehicle is still a car. How can we make sure that we can reduce the mining required for the climate transition and move the most people around in a city as efficiently as possible? That's a bus. You know, and it it things are not that complicated. And we don't need to invent something new. We don't need to depend on Silicon Valley in order to fix the problems in our society. You know, we have the solutions in front of us, and we don't have enough politicians that are brave enough to just design a system that works for people and not the people bankrolling their campaigns.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

What do you see in as the establishment Democrats and the corporate Democrats versus progressive fighters right now? The Republicans, obviously, this is just like really unwell people who are hurting other people. Hurt people, hurt people. That's the Republicans. The Dems are um are split on these life or death issues, but then there are some progressive fighters rising up in the Democratic Party. What do you see as a as a Gen Z organizer? Um what do you see that is, you know, obviously the problem, but also worthwhile in the Democratic Party? Right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

You know, I like to read a lot, and wh Walter Rodney has a great quote of fascism is a monster born of capitalist parents. And we're seeing a rise in fascism in this country because of the Trump administration and and his allies. And that fascism is at the root caused by a world built for profit and not people in our planet. And if we want to root out fascism, we have to deal with the root of the problem. And again, that's a world for profit. And so what the Democratic Party fails or refuses to do is acknowledge that and champion policies that support everyday people, whether that's single-payer healthcare, Medicare for all, whether that's reliable and well-funded transportation, whether uh that's taking on uh big tech and breaking up big tech, they refuse to do that because one, these are corporate-backed politicians on the Democratic Party side as well. Um and and then also, you know, there's there's just a lack of of will to to to be to be bold and be a fighter. And so what the progressive champions, whether that be AOC or Summer Lee and other incredible work, let's name more.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah. Um uh Peggy Flanagan.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Yeah. Um Abdul Al Sayed in Michigan.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Abdul Al-Sayed, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, I mean, there's there's fighters, there's brawlers for the working class within the Democratic Party because they acknowledge that if we want to take on Trump, we know that it's that the rise of Trump, the rise of MAGA is born out of working people feeling desperate for change, desperate for a for a politics that works for everyday people. And and they don't know what the answer is, but they need they need to change something up. And it's not that they idolize Trump, there's certain people that do, but we know that if we can offer a vision that works for them, you know, there's Trump support is being absolutely screwed over by big tech in rural areas where you know their utility bills are skyrocketing. You know, how can we build coalitions with them and offer something new and fresh and bold that speaks to what there's how how they're struggling right now? And so I yes, I there's there's definitely champions in the in the Democratic Party that we absolutely need to support, both electorally and the people who are still there. Um and um and really focus on that vision piece and not just fighting Trump.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

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unknown 23:22

Ooh, ooh.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Okay, so these days the littlest gets me fully baked. This is a two for one flavor. Okay, Ben and Jerry's motherfucking invented chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Did you know that? This is a fun and very Ashkenazi fact. Ben of Ben and Jerry's has a rare sinus condition. So for him and for me, it's all about those chunks. And then the other half is chocolate fudge. The texture. Unbeatable, that texture. Whew, that was hot fudge on my tongue. And if you're a fan of chocolate chip cookie dough like I am, you gotta check out these new chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream bars. You know, I love the chocolate chip cookie dough, but there are five flavors to choose from. Check it out. You can find Ben and Jerry's at your local grocery store, convenience store, or bodega. And if you're looking for this flavor exactly, go to their flavor finder at benjerry.com. You were talking about Democrats who aren't even creating policy built for working people. Creating policy built for working people. There is a huge range for what it means to be working people, but working people are the majority of Americans not being represented. And this is how I've come so um so I've become so enamored with More Perfect Union and your goal of creating news for working people. How did you come to More Perfect Union?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Yeah, I'm I'm so grateful to be working at a place with such brilliant journalists. Um I left Gen Z for Change with there's they're all still my friends and and I love them. And I just needed something new. And I also wanted to get my hands dirty when you're executive director, you're doing a lot of operations and budgeting, which I hate. And uh and I I wanted to cover the work of frankly my friends across the country that are engaging in in rent strikes and labor strikes and fighting data centers, and um, and more perfect union was the perfect place for me to do that. And so I was a producer for several months before switching into a new role. But uh through that time, I I've been covering such incredible organizing that that truly makes me an optimist. Where these are Kentucky tenants where the only other organizing happening in these parts of Appalachia besides the tenant union is the KKK. It's them and the KKK. And they're winning. And they're winning not because there's any local, state, or federal law protecting their organizing, that their power is rooted in the collective. And when you know that and you organize every tenant, no matter who you are, no matter who you voted for, you can win. You can win when your property manager beats you up at the property for organizing. Literally, yeah, literally, literally. These tenants are the most badass people I've ever met. Where the there's a lot of people who feel pessimistic right now because they think everything that's happening on the federal level is unprecedented, right? Like, how do we organize when when you know the people in power are oppositional to your efforts? There's examples right now in the South of organizing where they have all the odds stacked up against them and they're winning anyways. And we we don't have to look far, we don't even have to look in the past to have examples of how to organize when the conditions are not set up for you. And when you acknowledge that you have power as a collective mass of tenants who want to fix the conditions in their building, who are just tired of the mold, tired of the work, the the kitchen sink not working, tired of the skyrocketing rent, and you want to collectively organize against that together against your landlord. You can win. You can. And I've watched it happen. I've watched tenants, the same tenants who were beaten up at their property by the property manager.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

I can't get over this.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Get a collectively bargained lease months later from that same landlord.

unknown 27:41

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

This is not some benevolent landlord saying, Hey, good job, guys. It's so cute that you're organizing. No, you don't you don't win by having a an oppressor that's benevolent and sympathizes with you. Right. You win by forcing their hand. And and they they did not they did not back down despite threats, despite physical intimidation. And and that's just one example of these the Kentucky tenant union.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Tell me another story that you that you covered that you loved.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

We we went to uh Stark County, Indiana, where that county is the poorest county in the state. And they voted 75% for Trump. And we went to an elementary school where unanimously hundreds of people packed into that room said, we don't want a data center, an AI data center coming to our town and jacking up our utility bills when we can't afford groceries. And I I'm the per I was a producer, I'm I'm going through the hours of footage and hearing person after person lined up saying, we don't want Silicon Valley coming into our town and jacking up our utility prices. We don't need uh, you know, we're we're we can't afford to live here. And these people don't have our best intentions in mind. And they won. They and and they're not even just pushing for for uh there wasn't an AI data center coming to their county specifically. They wanted a moratorium. They said no data centers can come here for the next year, at least. But overall, we want a ban. And and these are Trump supporting working people. And when you watch these footage, when you when we're coordinating, you know, videographers and trying to set up interviews, you know, you're just realizing we are more alike than we are different. And there are very powerful people, the 1%, who know that divide and conquer is how they maintain their power. And we have the playbook, we have the numbers. And if we all realize that we can come together, and if we do, we can make a world that works for the many of us. That's how we end up winning. And it's it's it's an I'm an optimist because I know that that world is is genuinely possible and within our grasp. And I'm I'm very fortunate to work at More Perfect Union to be able to cover these stories and show other people that this is possible.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

I'm forclamped. I'm like fully forclamped. And and like this is what your work since you're 17 years old and more perfect union and more perfect union affords me. I mean, I it's it's fucking and when you said brawlers too in the Democrats, it's like I'm seeing, I'm seeing brawlers. And there's such an intersection at More Perfect Union that you are perfect for of um on camera, behind the scenes, organizers on the ground. You feel it, you fucking feel it. And now you're organizing a campus program. Is that right? Tell me about it. And what's it called?

SPEAKER_00 30:45

It's called More Perfect University and More Perfect University. Yes. More perfect unions, more perfect university. And really obsessed. Yeah, and it's it's a program that acknowledges that More Perfect Union has a model that's been working, right? We've been reaching people from rural Kentucky to Indiana to my hometown in the Bay Area, you know, reaching all these different audiences that mainstream media refuses to even cover. Right? If we didn't cover the organizing that's happening in in Kentucky, nobody would have. Um, you know, CNN is not coming to Kentucky to cover these fights. And and we're speaking to issues that these people deeply feel, right? Skyrocketing rent, utility bills um hiking because of BlackRock and big tech. You know, and um the the work that we're doing is so important, um, but it's not rocket science. Uh we we can cover and we should be covering every town that's seeing all of these issues. But we can't. You know, we're we're we're limited in capacity, but we can teach people. And we want to open up our newsroom through more perfect university and teach students in public colleges, community colleges, private colleges to talk about these issues through an economic populist lens and cover the issues happening on their campus, but also in their community. And and we'll partner with them. We're gonna train them, partner with them, support them in telling these stories across the country so that we can build up leaders all over who can speak to these issues that that everyday people are facing. And so I'm I'm really excited. That's a really core part. We're also gonna have you know campus events and we have a Discord channel where there's so many students that are like talking to each other from all different parts of the country, and that's really exciting. Um, but yeah, it's it's uh it's really an effort to bring students together in all the ways that you can and open up more perfect unions newsroom for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Jubsessed. Jubsessed. I'm really excited about it. Incredible. So are you gonna actually go to universities and helm the events yourself?

SPEAKER_00 33:03

No, so really what's critical here is that I'm I'm not the main character. You know, this is not a turning point uh replication where I'm I'm debating a bunch of college kids. Billionaires not shouldn't exist, you know. Yeah, yeah. But I I I think it's really important that we build up a lot of different leaders and young leaders across the country who can speak to these issues rather than just um build up one person.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

How does a college student find more perfect university and request you to come to their school?

SPEAKER_00 33:38

Yeah, so they can pitch an event to us or a story. Um, and we have a Discord that'll help you do that. Um the Discord's where all of our trainings are gonna be too on, you know, how how do we make videos that bring people together? Um, and so uh we'll have a lot of a lot more trainings in the future. We just did one. Um, and yeah, through that Discord channel you can meet a bunch of different students who are really freaking excited about the building a better world. And um, that's the place that you're gonna go to to partner with us and pitch us events and stories.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Got it. I I don't want to say it like this, but I'm gonna say it like this. Go for it. There's this problem of young men. I don't I don't mean it like that. I mean there's um, you know, there's uh a brainwashing machine from the hate mongering machine that really sucks up young men and their minds and tricks them into thinking that if they replicate a certain kind of cruelty that the 1% replicates, that they too can become wealthy and control women and children and people's bodies. But when I'm out in the world and I'm talking to my neighbors and I'm I'm uh uh on tour right now doing stand-up, when I see people, it it does not feel the way the story is being narrated from the top, from the billionaire-owned media. It feels so much uh chiller and um human and connective than this, I think, systematically dehumanizing and divisive story and algorithm is being shoved down our throats non-consensually, actually. For you who's working on the ground with young people, specifically college-to-age people, what's up with young men right now on the ground for real?

SPEAKER_00 35:27

I I think you're right that mainstream media is painting the divide as red versus blue when what we're seeing when I'm covering stories up for more perfect union and also just in my own life, that it's the 99% versus the 1%. And there's a very explainable reason why corporate media doesn't paint it as 99% versus 1%. It's because they're owned by billionaires. And and I I of course there is an intentional effort by right-wing billionaires to make young men believe that they're in a battle with women, right? That the reason that you know you can't get a date or that you know women won't, you know, go out with you is is because there's something wrong with the women. And you know, feminism is teaching them whatever. And and and yet, you know, I I I believe in young men and in young people in general, in not being disillusioned and being very aware of of that effort on the right now. And you know, young young men are oppositional to this war in Iran and uh going as a continuation of the genocide in Gaza. And um, you know, it's it's a very popular among it's very popular among young people to be oppositional to foreign intervention by the United States to center affordability in in our policies and make everyday people's lives better. And they thought that Trump was going to do that for them. And I think it's very problematic that you know we we knew that he that Trump was bought out by his buddies and who are funding his campaign. But, you know, the it's it's clear as day that Trump has ulterior motives for being president. And and young men, young people see right through that. And, you know, unfortunately it wasn't obvious last year uh or two years ago when he was running, but it's very clear now. And it's up to us to bring in disillusioned young men who feel betrayed by Trump to say, we have an alternative for you. And it's not just, hey, doesn't Trump suck? It is another vision. It is something that addresses their internal needs. And what I really think the root of this is, is they're lonely. They they seek community. We all seek community, we all seek connection. And and they need it too. And they've been told how they're gonna do that is by congregating with men who hate women. But I I believe that we have another option, which is that men, women, people across race and region and religion can come together and build a world that works for all of us. Uh politics that's not centered on scarcity, but on abundance for all, that we can all have nice things actually if we don't prioritize war for big oil.

unknown 38:37

Whew.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

Amen, sister. Yeah, that's really that's really heartening to hear. And also, you know, your vision is also rooted in the fact that you are magnetizing activated, energized, thinking, feeling people, including young men. So you are bringing those people in.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

I believe for way too long the mainstream left, I don't know what that actually means, has prioritized too much on mobilizing the same group of people who are, you know, like myself, like very politically involved and care about, you know, what's going on in Washington and you know, just driving the same mobilization efforts with the same group of people and not practicing persuasion. Right? We are we are losing people all the time to the right for the last few decades because we haven't been centering working people and working class policies in in our agenda. And in in just trying to focus on the same group of people who are activated on these issues and not persuading people who feel these issues every day. The skyrocketing rent, utility bills, accelerating climate crisis, you know, all we all are feeling this, but we're not persuading the people who, you know, may that have voted red their whole lives and are frustrated and don't feel like they have a political home anymore and need to be told that they belong in this new tent. And I believe that that doesn't mean we move right on policies. It means that we say, you belong in this movement. And how can we support you in making your life better? And how can us doing a better job in explaining why social housing, single payer healthcare, and the public transportation and all these benefit them. And we haven't done a good job at that.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

And and corporate Dems, who used to own the media before right-wing billionaires took it over like three fucking years ago, they they are not incentivized to do this because they are themselves corporate backed, as you said.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

And they just they try to pull test everything and focus group everything, and it's just it lacks authenticity. Like, I don't know what Hakeem Jeffries thinks, like as a person when he goes to bed at night. I don't know what he stands for. I know what AOC stands for. I know what Abdullah seed stands for. I I don't have a doubt that they go to sleep at night thinking, how can I best use my platform to champion everyday people? You know, I unfortunately, you know, Kamala Harris is sh it was very unclear when how what she actually wanted in her policies. And as a young person, it really hurt to see her sidestepping on climate, even though Asheville was absolutely destroyed during during the course of the election. It it fell during that time. Like, you know, why are we not talking about big oil right now? Why are we why are constantly why uh you know Mark Cuban is her advisor and he's telling her we don't want Lena Khan in the FTC if you win, you know? And so it just felt very unclear with her and with other mainstream Democrats why you are asking to be a leader in this moment. What what I keep going back to this, but what what do you think about when you go to sleep at night? You know, it and uh to me it's like how can I just win my next election? Right, right. You know, and and rather than seeing this broader movement and how to facilitate it with the leverage you have.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

You were talking about earlier how you got into this game as a young woman feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, whether this is politically or not, I actually just want to talk about the experience of being a young woman. You know, you you seem to feel still like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, and yet you're also flying. Like, I wonder if um if you had the chance to say something here in this space to women your age and perhaps a little bit younger, the college demographic that you're reaching out to and organizing around and for young women who have the weight of the world on their shoulders. What do you say to them to deal with that?

SPEAKER_00 42:49

I I really I mean this in the most loving way possible to myself, my younger self, my future self, and other women, that we need everyone, and it's it's really not about you. And I think the more that you internalize that it's gonna take a collective, uh, and all of us leveraging our power as students, community members, tenants, workers to make the world better, then you feel less responsibility and pressure internally, right? One person is not going to change the world. A collective is gonna change the world. A mass of people who are intentionally organizing and very disciplined in our strategy is gonna change the world. And I I really recommend it, young people, you wanna be doing this when you're the age of Bernie Sanders, right? So that requires you sleeping eight hours. It requires you uh being patient and not rushing because you feel like the world demands urgency. It does. But it also demands patience. It demands us, it requires us to learn from our elders because we're not in opposition to any single generation. We're only in opposition to the billionaire class. And when you know that, when you we we let go of our ego, we suddenly realize that we don't know in everything. And that we need to, I need to learn from the 70-year-old person born, raised, and living in Oakland that has so many stories and lessons from organizing within the Panther Party and seeing that rise and fall. That I have stuff to learn from them, that I have stuff to learn from the many books that have lessons of past social movements and how they won and how they lost. I have stuff to learn from the tenant who's in my building as well, that has their own experiences in dealing with life and they got there different than how I did. And yeah, you have you have things to learn from everyone. And we we have power within ourselves, and a lot of young women of color are told to step aside, they don't know everything. And so it's really important that you have to trust your gut too and know when you need to listen to that gut moment that gut instinct that you're right here and you need to push for it. Um but it also does require balancing that with knowing that you know you you you we need a community of people to win. And so don't put so much pressure on yourself. And we we need you when you're 70 years old. So remember to take care of yourself. Oh my god, you're so brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

It truly, truly makes me almost cry, Elise Joshi. Holy fucking shit. I'm still learning. I'm so pleased to meet you. Elise, you give me uh uh fuel for my faith in this world and this work. And I hope this is the very beginning of a growing partnership between us and also more perfect union. Yes. Thank you for your time today. Thank you, and you're a genius.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Oh my god, no, I'm fangirling this entire time.

SPEAKER_01 46:05

Oh, Elise and Joshi, thank you, Elise Joshi, and more perfect union. Oh my god, thank you for your collaboration. I hope this is, like I said to Elise, the beginning of so much more. Wow, wow. I feel um relieved that you exist and that we exist together in this space. Let's do this. Um, okay, so this has been a Star Pix production. We are exclusively a human-made production. Um I want to thank my creative producers in this work, Anika Carlson, David Rookland, Madeline Kim, Glenis Mahar, and Kelsey Kiley. I want to thank Tova Liebowitz, who is one excellent editor and creative partner. I want to thank Raimo Ventura for his beautiful graphics and art, as well as the opening musical sting. Thank you to the good people who made this episode today look and sound so good. Lexa Krebs, Kevin Deming, Nicole Maupin. And finally, thank you to Don Hur, my brother's band, LA Glazer, Jimmy Hines, and Derek Miro for this outro music. Check everybody's work out. And you know what? If you like this show and you dig what I'm doing, like and subscribe and go to alanaglazer.com to check out where I'm coming at you on tour, as well as to sign up for the newsletter. Fuck all that shit and the power structure, an independent movement is forming. So come join and be a part of it. Um, by the way, it's free. So uh like and subscribe. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening. See you next time. Have a good day.