At this week's Round Table--our last of 2021, Inica, Jack, and Kenisha had the special holiday treat of being in conversation with two of our amazing alumni podcasters: Julianna Davis, from our founding podcast team and now a sophomore at American University—deemed by some as the most “liberal school in America”-- and Divya Ganesan, from last year’s podcast team who is now a freshman at Stanford University. It provided a good opportunity to reflect on core values from NGP that they have carried with them to college: pragmatism, commitment to broadening and deepening our understanding, investment in hearing others’ perspectives and thinking about how people’s backgrounds affect their views, how vilification prevents us from being able to hear others, the value of learning from experts on topics of interest. We had an open and constructive conversation about the challenges of polarization on campus and how those are exacerbated by online exchanges and social media (“anyone can be a keyboard warrior” as Julianna put it.) We debunked some myths: that the path to and through college is linear (it’s curvy!), that college culture is cutthroat (it’s collaborative!), that there’s a tradeoff between freedom of thought and expression (it’s essential for true learning!), and that members of Gen Z aren’t mature enough to engage in sophisticated political conversations (which just may be operating under a different belief system…) Most importantly, we enjoyed reconnecting with one another and connecting with you, our beloved listeners. Thank you for joining us!
