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<silence>

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Welcome to the Radical Imagination Podcast,

0:07

where we dive into the stories and solutions

0:09

that are fueling change. I'm your host,

0:11

Angela Glover Blackwell. Young

0:14

people today are leaning into activism

0:17

and organizing in big, bold ways

0:19

.

0:21

Russell feels the paper , no , Diego get

0:23

go . Russell feels the paper . No

0:26

.

0:26

They're running for office across the country and

0:29

winning

0:30

Analysts say Gen Z and millennial

0:32

voters played a key role in the midterm

0:35

elections to help Democrats stave off

0:37

the Republican red wave

0:41

In no small part because they're taking

0:43

on issues that matter and

0:45

because young voters are turning out

0:47

in record numbers, I

0:50

have been on the front lines of movements for social

0:52

change for more than half a century, and

0:55

I am blown away by the energy,

0:58

courage, and generosity of the rising

1:00

generation of multiracial leaders

1:02

and organizers. They

1:05

understand that democracy is about

1:07

shared responsibilities as

1:10

equals to create a future that works

1:12

for all. They know

1:14

what's at stake in this pivotal moment

1:16

in our nation and the world. They're

1:18

not waiting their turn or asking

1:21

for a seat at the table. They're claiming

1:23

spaces of power. In

1:30

today's episode, we'll hear from two

1:32

young people who are taking action

1:34

in different arenas and producing

1:36

transformative results. Talia

1:39

Hernandez, one of the 16 young

1:41

plaintiffs in the landmark climate lawsuit

1:44

in Montana, and Juan Ramiro

1:47

Siento , the National Press Secretary

1:50

for Run for something. An

1:52

organization that's recruiting and training

1:55

thousands of young people, most of them people

1:57

of color to run for office, run

2:00

for something founded just six years

2:02

ago has already helped elect

2:04

more than 800 young people to offices

2:06

across the country. So let's start.

2:09

Juan Ramiro, welcome the Radical Imagination.

2:12

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

2:14

For a long time, many young activists

2:16

have turned sour on electoral politics

2:19

and thought they could be more effective. As organizers

2:22

and advocates working outside the political

2:24

system, now we're seeing a shift,

2:27

a diverse, fierce, brilliant cohort

2:29

of young adults running for offices at

2:31

all levels of government. What

2:33

is the vision of Run for something in supporting

2:36

these candidates and why is

2:38

it important to tap into this younger demographic?

2:41

I think it's important for us to set some context, and

2:43

so I'll start with the problem that we see run

2:46

for Something recognizes that the

2:48

progressive movement systematically failed to

2:50

invest in state and local elections, resulting

2:53

in a weak pipeline of talent in

2:55

huge swaths of the country in which many voters

2:57

never actually met a Democrat running for

2:59

office. So our theory of change here

3:01

at Run for something is that running good,

3:03

young, exciting, diverse candidates for local

3:06

office and running them everywhere.

3:08

In the long term , we'll be able to make the

3:10

structural changes necessary for Progressive

3:13

to hold power. And uh, we'll continue

3:15

to cultivate amazing new leaders who can

3:17

run for congress, executive office,

3:19

and even president.

3:21

So run for something is lifting up candidates

3:23

who have been traditionally locked out of politics.

3:25

Who are they? And give us some historical

3:28

context as to why they've

3:30

been excluded and how run for something is fighting

3:32

against those barriers.

3:33

Right now, America's government is

3:36

run as a gerontocracy and

3:38

young people are wildly underrepresented. 30

3:41

of the 50 US governors are 60 years

3:44

old or older. Meanwhile, more

3:46

than half of all Americans are millennials or younger Age

3:49

is only one metric of diversity, of course, but

3:51

it is a shortcut to account for race,

3:53

gender, class, and sexual orientation. But

3:56

this failure of representation has meant that

3:58

the people predominantly in charge baby

4:01

boomers, most of them who are white men, have

4:03

perpetuated a system that has privilege

4:06

them . And so run for something solves this

4:08

problem by electing young diverse progressives

4:10

who are members of the communities that they serve.

4:12

Since they're closer to the problems, they're

4:14

closer to solutions.

4:23

What are some of the structures that

4:25

have favored people who are older?

4:27

For example, running for office takes

4:30

a lot of social, political and

4:33

economic capital, and young people or

4:35

people that have been historically marginalized

4:37

in this country don't have access to those things. Older

4:40

folks who have more money

4:42

have networks and find themselves

4:45

already entrenched in government don't

4:47

have to worry about those things. And then young

4:49

people going to college for them, it's

4:52

a lot more difficult and more expensive than it

4:54

was 50 years ago. Housing is

4:56

incredibly expensive as well. You

4:58

often don't hold a job when you are running

5:00

for office. And so those things

5:03

come into play whether you have the

5:05

financial background and stability

5:07

to be able to run.

5:09

Yeah, that's really interesting. So that

5:11

these social and

5:14

professional circles that older people

5:16

have access to and the

5:19

financial and economic burdens

5:21

on young people really are

5:23

pretty serious barriers. So what is

5:25

Run for Something doing to fight against

5:27

these barriers?

5:29

We are helping young people across the

5:31

country run for office. We are

5:34

helping them from the beginning, from pre-filing

5:36

all the way to election day. No matter

5:39

how competitive their race is, we

5:41

have the structures in place in a number of states

5:43

to be able to support them financially. We

5:46

have increased our number of staff across

5:48

the board to be able to have those intimate

5:51

relationships with the people that want to run for

5:53

office. And we connect them to a network of

5:55

alumni that are

5:58

on the ground that have stayed and sustained

6:00

that infrastructure to be able to assist them

6:02

and be a mentor and a voice

6:04

of support, because running for office can be

6:06

a very isolating thing. And so

6:09

we find that our candidates enjoy

6:11

that aspect of our support.

6:18

After the 2016 election, we

6:21

saw a progressive wave across local and

6:23

state governments with some historic wins. This

6:26

is also around the time that run for something

6:28

was formed. Can you talk about the organization

6:30

and what it was thinking in that

6:32

moment and how run for something

6:35

is engaging with the moment?

6:39

We recognized that there was a problem

6:41

and that people were angry about the

6:43

way that the country was changing and

6:46

not for the better feeling like we have

6:48

less rights, that it's harder to make ends

6:50

meets that social mobility and

6:52

economic mobility are harder to achieve.

6:55

We wanted to harness that energy of

6:57

young people to changing things because

7:00

at the end of the day, the people that are in charge

7:02

of our government and our budgets really

7:05

shaped the material reality on the ground. And so

7:07

for us, going full force into

7:10

recruiting young, diverse

7:12

candidates for state and local office,

7:14

including school boards and county

7:16

clerks all the way up to the State

7:19

House

7:20

And getting young, vibrant

7:23

candidates who really are trying to

7:25

improve our overall society is

7:27

certainly important. The other part

7:29

of this dilemma though, requires

7:31

voters who will get out and vote for them. What

7:34

are the issues that are driving young voters?

7:36

Climate change is , for example, one

7:38

that is hard to ignore nowadays, as

7:41

you can tell with the heat waves

7:43

that we have seen and the different changes in

7:45

the climate that we're experiencing, that's

7:47

top of mind for what a future

7:49

for them might look like and what

7:52

we are inheriting from this

7:54

previous class of government elected officials.

7:57

And then another one would be bread

7:59

and butter issues like your housing, the cost

8:01

of food education. So those are

8:03

some of the things that we find that people are

8:06

concerned about. And then more salient,

8:08

especially as of late, has

8:10

been your civil rights, your ability

8:13

to make choices about your own body, to

8:15

be able to love who you love, to

8:18

be able to have the care that you need

8:20

in a private setting with your own physician.

8:23

Those are things that people see

8:26

an encroaching of far right ideology

8:28

into those spaces. And then things

8:30

as simple as being able to read whatever

8:33

book it is that you want to read. We

8:35

see an effort to erase, for example,

8:38

LGBTQ plus people from schools,

8:41

essentially by running

8:43

extreme candidates banning books, and

8:46

even banning the discussion of diversity

8:48

and equity efforts across the country.

8:59

Run for something has helped to let candidates all

9:01

across the country. What are some of

9:03

run for something success stories and

9:06

have any of these elections inspired significant

9:08

policy change?

9:10

So since 2017, our team has recruited

9:12

over 130,000

9:14

young people who want to run for office that have entered

9:17

the pipeline. We have endorsed over 2,500

9:20

candidates across all 50 states and

9:22

DC and elected more than 800 people

9:25

since our time while winning over more

9:27

than 1000 elections. 50%

9:29

of our folks identify as women or non-binary

9:32

leaders. More than 50% identify

9:34

as people of color and 20% identify

9:37

as L-G-B-T-Q-I-A folks,

9:40

and everyone is under the age of 40. So

9:42

those are some of our success say

9:45

here since 2017. But in terms of policy,

9:48

once they get in there, we see them doing

9:50

the work. Representative Brianna Titone

9:53

in Colorado, the first trans woman to

9:55

run for office and win a seat in the Colorado

9:57

General Assembly, took on unified

9:59

school District board President, Dr. Ravi Sha

10:02

. An alumni is leading on a proposed

10:04

for 180 million bond to improve and

10:06

update facilities and classrooms, a

10:09

funding proposal that's been languishing for years.

10:11

Minnesota Rap Esther Abba , led

10:14

on a transformative tenants rights

10:16

legislation, including everything from banning

10:18

landlords, from requiring pets to be declawed

10:21

and de vocalized to require a

10:24

reasonable notice before a landlord enters

10:26

a unit. And so time

10:28

and again, we have seen when we elect

10:31

young people and diverse leaders to

10:33

office, they fight for the things that they care

10:35

about that are reflective of their communities

10:37

and frankly, make everybody's lives better.

10:40

Juan Ramiro, you are working on strengthening

10:42

democratic participation in the

10:44

midst of the nation , dealing with critical

10:47

issues from the United States being

10:49

labeled a backsliding democracy to

10:52

attacks on voting rights to rights being

10:54

rolled back for Black Brown and

10:56

L-G-B-T-Q-I-A people as

10:59

well as for women and other marginalized groups. And

11:01

yet you seem so hopeful. What

11:04

fuels that hope?

11:06

I am a student of history. I love history. I

11:09

always think about how democracy's

11:12

an active situation. You have to constantly fight

11:14

for it. And if you read our history,

11:17

you find that that has always been the case. That

11:19

it's a constant battle between those

11:21

who want to make a multiracial

11:24

democracy here in America and

11:26

the promise of this country of reality in

11:29

fighting for it in their own era. And

11:32

a lot of movements are coalescing through

11:34

the energy of the people wanting

11:36

to revert to

11:39

make this a more fair and just

11:41

society. Yes, this moment is

11:45

pivotal and it is dangerous and democracy's

11:47

at stake and our livelihoods and our way

11:49

of life is at stake. But we

11:52

had a lot of of things that were worse

11:54

conditions for people that had more

11:57

of an excuse to be not

11:59

hopeful, and yet they remained, yet

12:02

they pressed ahead. They registered

12:04

those voters when their lives were in

12:06

danger. We can do that as

12:08

well.

12:18

Juan Romero , thank you for the work you and your colleagues

12:20

are doing, and thank you for talking with us.

12:23

Absolutely. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

12:31

Juan Ramiro Sarmiento is

12:33

the National Press Secretary for Run

12:35

for something. Coming

12:42

up on radical imagination, we hear from

12:44

how young people have taken on our most pressing

12:46

issue, the climate crisis stay

12:49

with us more when we come back as

13:06

we look to the future. It is the youth

13:09

who are taking initiative to protect

13:11

their planet In Montana,

13:13

16 children and young adults sued

13:16

the state for its role in the climate crisis and

13:18

won the teens allege that

13:21

the state's continued support for fossil fuels

13:23

violates their right to a clean and

13:26

healthy environment is guaranteed

13:28

in Montana's constitution. It

13:37

was the first youth-led climate

13:39

trial in the United States, but

13:41

it won't be the last. It has been

13:43

called the strongest decision on climate

13:45

change ever issued by any court.

13:48

I spoke to Talia Hernandez, one

13:51

of the 16 young plaintiffs involved in the

13:53

case just before the judge ruled

13:55

in their favor. Talia is

13:57

currently a sophomore at Montana State

13:59

University. She's majoring in animal

14:02

science and minoring in Hispanic studies.

14:05

Talia Hernandez, welcome to Radical Imagination.

14:08

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.

14:11

Talia , where did your interest in climate and

14:13

the environment start?

14:14

Well, I really think of it as

14:17

kind of a bit of a family legacy. My

14:19

father has been involved with environmental

14:22

work for as long as I can remember. He's

14:25

been involved with the Cabinet Resource Group, which

14:27

is a group that focuses on

14:30

protecting the cabinet wilderness, which

14:33

is in Montana from, you

14:35

know, mining, all sorts of things like that.

14:38

And so I've seen him, you

14:40

know, in that role since I was a child.

14:43

And I've also seen my older sister

14:45

and my older brother grow up

14:48

and take an interest in those

14:50

roles as well. And so

14:52

when this opportunity to

14:55

be involved in climate work arose,

14:57

I just thought of it as continuing

15:01

being a steward for the environment like all

15:03

of my family has been.

15:04

You've lived in Montana all your life. How

15:07

have you personally experienced the

15:09

effects of the climate crisis where you live?

15:12

I've noticed some prominent impacts. The

15:14

brunt of what I've noticed has been

15:16

in the summers when I was younger,

15:19

we'd have this smoky summer occasionally,

15:21

and I'd see my friend's parents

15:24

and sometimes my dad leave to

15:27

go fight fires. Um,

15:29

but as I grew older and as I got into high

15:31

school, I just noticed more

15:34

and more smoky summers. And eventually

15:37

we had a couple summers where the fires

15:39

were pretty close to the valley where

15:41

I lived. We had one fire near

15:44

Findlay Point, which is , um, kind

15:47

of a lake or a beach input

15:49

spot near my house. And it

15:52

was pretty scary because that

15:54

fire had evacuated people

15:57

who lived further down from

15:59

where I was. But when

16:01

I was driving to my house, there was a policeman

16:04

in the middle of the highway and he wouldn't let you

16:06

pass by unless you lived on

16:08

a property past that point. So

16:11

there was a fire that was kind

16:13

of threatening that we would have to evacuate

16:15

from our home.

16:26

You were 16 years old when you and

16:28

other children and teens sued Montana. Why

16:31

is it important that it's the younger generation

16:33

who were the face of this lawsuit?

16:35

I think it's important that my generation,

16:38

the younger generation, are

16:41

the face of this lawsuit because we

16:45

recognize that we are going to have to deal with

16:47

the burden of climate change. And

16:50

we know that we need to start combating

16:53

it right now. And I think this

16:56

is more of an urgent cause for

16:58

us than anyone else, because

17:00

we are going to be living with the consequences

17:03

of climate change. Our parents

17:05

will certainly see some of it, but we

17:08

still have our lives to live. We have another 80

17:10

years left on this earth, and

17:13

we want those to be really good years.

17:17

Now this is a suit against state officials.

17:20

How have Montana officials contributed

17:22

to the climate crisis, especially

17:25

when it comes to fossil fuels?

17:27

As one of our expert witnesses

17:30

testified in court, they

17:32

hadn't witnessed Montana deny a

17:35

single fossil fuel permit or

17:38

permit for developing anything

17:41

relating to fossil fuels.

17:43

So the state has certainly contributed to

17:46

the climate crisis by not

17:49

looking for other less dangerous

17:51

methods.

17:52

And so the trial happened in

17:55

June of this year. Tell us about

17:57

that and what's expected to happen next.

18:00

The trial was such a momentous

18:02

experience. I think I can speak for all

18:04

of the plaintiffs when I say that it was unlike anything

18:06

we've experienced before. It

18:09

was really powerful to watch my fellow

18:11

plaintiffs take the stand

18:13

and give their testimony because they

18:16

have some amazing stories,

18:18

really heart wrenching, and they're

18:20

such strong speakers.

18:23

And you know,

18:26

it's really cool to see your peers protecting

18:29

and fighting for the environment. And

18:32

I know that we all shared the

18:35

excitement of going into the courts and

18:38

you know, we got to laugh with each other. We got

18:40

to cry with one another. It was really a bonding

18:43

experience

18:44

That's exciting. And it must feel

18:47

powerful perhaps to be a

18:50

plaintiff in a lawsuit asking for

18:52

such a big result. When people

18:54

talk about using their agency

18:57

and really leaning into their

18:59

power, I think this is the kind of thing people

19:01

often dream about when they see things

19:03

that they think are unjust happening in society.

19:06

How can this lawsuit serve as a roadmap

19:09

for other young activists across the

19:11

country when it comes to organizing

19:13

around the climate crisis? Have you

19:15

seen lessons that you think we ought to be lifting up?

19:18

I think that the most important things

19:20

to focus on are the people fighting

19:23

back. You know, people aren't gonna sit

19:25

by and watch this happen. One of the most

19:28

important lessons is that we keep

19:31

going. That we don't stop in the face

19:33

of adversity and that we continue

19:35

to fight the fight that we know is right.

19:42

Climate change is an issue that despite

19:45

its urgency, many people feel

19:47

hopeless about. But the fact that you

19:49

have been involved in the action to sue

19:51

your state shows that you're not one of those people.

19:54

What keeps you hopeful about fighting

19:56

the global crisis?

19:58

What keeps me hopeful is probably

20:00

the energy of the people around

20:02

me. It's, it's a really

20:04

inspiring thing to see your

20:07

peers, your parents, your family,

20:10

your friends, everyone around you hoping

20:13

that we can create a better world.

20:17

Lia , thank you for talking with us.

20:19

Thank you so much for having me.

20:26

Talia Hernandez is an activist

20:28

and a student at Montana State University.

20:37

In this season of radical Imagination,

20:39

I have concluded every interview by

20:42

asking guests about hope. So

20:44

it is fitting to end season five by

20:47

talking with and about the people who give

20:49

me hope, the new generation

20:51

leading the nation toward a thriving,

20:54

radically inclusive, multiracial

20:56

democracy. In

20:58

addition to the many qualities and skills that

21:00

make them so effective to today's,

21:03

young activists are extraordinarily

21:05

generous when they push for

21:07

what they need to be successful. A

21:10

stable climate safety from violence,

21:12

the right to learn the nation's whole true

21:15

history and read the books they want.

21:17

They're advocating for things the entire

21:19

nation needs to flourish. Many

21:22

young people like Juan

21:25

Romero and Talia see themselves as

21:27

part of a lineage of liberation. They're

21:30

inspired by their activist ancestors, including

21:33

those from the Civil Rights Movement, but

21:35

they are working hard to build a better,

21:38

fair and more just society for

21:40

the generations coming after them. That

21:43

fills me not only with hope , but

21:45

with Joy . Radical

21:54

Imagination is a Policy Link podcast

21:56

produced by RO Media. The

21:59

URA Media team includes Marlon

22:01

Bishop, Andreas Caballero , north

22:04

Saudi , Stephanie Lebo , Julia

22:07

Caruso , and Andy Bosnick, with

22:10

help from Roxanna Agiri , Fernanda

22:13

Santos, Juan Diego Ramirez,

22:15

and Roxanne Scott. The

22:17

PolicyLink team includes Glenda

22:19

Johnson, Lauren Madden, virtual

22:22

Ramos, Bernice Dunn , Perfecta

22:24

Ox Home , Eugene Chan and Fran Smith.

22:28

Our theme music was composed by Taka

22:30

Sala and Alex Ra . I'm

22:33

your host, Angela Glover Blackwell. Join

22:38

us again next time and in the

22:41

meantime, you can find us online at

22:43

Radical Imagination Us . Remember

22:46

to subscribe and share.