Gen Z - The Future of Government?

[00:00:00] Welcome, this is Hashtag GenZ, a podcast that explores generations who they are, how

[00:00:21] they're different from other generations, while also being an incredible blend of those

[00:00:25] who came before them.

[00:00:26] I'm your host, Megan Grace and it's so nice to have you here.

[00:00:33] Today's episode focuses on GenZ pursuing careers in politics, government and civic service.

[00:00:38] As GenZ is rapidly becoming a larger portion of the youth voting walk and aging into eligibility

[00:00:43] for elected office, this topic feels important to include in a season about careers in

[00:00:48] GenZ in the workplace.

[00:00:49] A 2023 career study by Axios on GenZ found that just 14% of those in GenZ between the

[00:00:57] ages of 18 and 29 so that they want to spend the bulk of their career working in government

[00:01:02] or for a nonprofit organization.

[00:01:05] This is less than half compared to those in that same study who said they want to work

[00:01:08] for larger medium companies.

[00:01:11] Working in politics and government doesn't just mean running for office, there's an entire

[00:01:15] industry of government workers that help keep societies and countries operating.

[00:01:20] Another study conducted by the nonpartisan nonprofit partnership for public service found

[00:01:24] that GenZ is actually underrepresented in the federal workforce compared to other cohorts.

[00:01:31] In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Brianna Carmen, an award-winning nationally

[00:01:35] recognized political expert with a career in women's rights and young and underrepresented

[00:01:41] community engagement.

[00:01:42] Brianna is currently the political director at a merge where she has overseen the organization's

[00:01:47] efforts to train young women to run for office in order to see that GenZ is represented

[00:01:51] in our institutions.

[00:01:53] In this role, she's helped more than 1200 alum serve in public office including 67% women

[00:02:00] were in 2022 for young candidates.

[00:02:03] Previously, Brianna was at Voto Latino where she led the organization's Voto Drive and

[00:02:08] Turnout campaign, registering over 6,000 voters with a focus on young voters.

[00:02:13] Please help me in welcoming Brianna to the conversation today.

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[00:03:05] Welcome, I'm so excited for this episode exploring yet another avenue of career structuring

[00:03:16] work and exploring how GenZ is really navigating the new frontier of work.

[00:03:22] And I'm joined by Brianna to talk about this discussion around GenZ and pursuing a career

[00:03:29] in politics and government service.

[00:03:30] And if you know me at all, you know that I'm an avid civic engagement.

[00:03:34] Be involved in our democracy kind of human.

[00:03:36] So I'm very excited to have Brianna as a part of today's conversation.

[00:03:40] Brianna, welcome.

[00:03:41] I'm excited to be here.

[00:03:42] Brianna, tell me, I know I've been able to learn a little bit more about the work that

[00:03:45] you do with Emerge but please tell me and tell our listeners what you are, what do you

[00:03:49] do?

[00:03:50] And for many people understanding young people and kind of the journey that you took

[00:03:54] to get to the role that you're fulfilling right now.

[00:03:58] Sure.

[00:03:59] So like you said, my name is Brianna.

[00:04:02] I'm the political director at Emerge.

[00:04:04] I grew up on the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas and I feel like growing up right

[00:04:10] in that community really shaped me my perspective on politics and realizing how important representation

[00:04:16] is.

[00:04:17] I don't come from a family of donors or necessarily political people.

[00:04:22] So it was really through my experiences that I started becoming more civically engaged,

[00:04:28] politically active and it started really with an internship in college where I worked

[00:04:35] for the local member of Congress, was offered a job to run their campaign shortly afterwards

[00:04:39] and really was just kind of thrown into the wolf's den if you will and learned through

[00:04:44] trial by fire how to run a campaign, manage the successful one for US Congress and then hopped

[00:04:50] on a US Senate campaign right afterwards.

[00:04:53] And really all of those experiences led me to this interest in people running for office

[00:04:58] and really to what I do now, which is helping women run for office office and these organizations

[00:05:03] called Emerge.

[00:05:06] So before we get into what Emerge does, you got name names.

[00:05:09] What awesome campaigns did you work on?

[00:05:11] You can't just let that slide in there and not give us the deeds.

[00:05:14] Yeah.

[00:05:15] All right.

[00:05:16] Being from El Paso, Texas, former congressman, Beto of work.

[00:05:20] So my senior year of college, I managed to use congressional campaign race one that

[00:05:25] and then was the interim Senate campaign manager while we waited to raise more money to be

[00:05:30] able to hire some more stuff.

[00:05:33] It's a very casual campaign, very, very casual.

[00:05:37] I was a big fan.

[00:05:38] Certainly I can have a forum.

[00:05:40] I live in Tennessee but I liked what he was about.

[00:05:42] So that's fantastic.

[00:05:44] I'm glad that you got that very, I imagine that was a very foundational experience early

[00:05:48] in your career to really set the tone for what you're doing now.

[00:05:51] And I know that you shared a little bit about what Emerge does to prepare people to be

[00:05:56] running for a political office but tell us a little bit more about the organization and

[00:06:02] the specific work that you do before we get into a little bit more of the career stuff.

[00:06:05] I'm just, I'm sure people are interested in.

[00:06:08] And kind of, I mean, I don't want to say it's behind the scenes but the work that is done

[00:06:10] to prepare people for this kind of work.

[00:06:13] Sure, so it definitely takes a lot of effort when we talk about women running for office.

[00:06:20] Really the common understanding is that you need to ask a woman about seven times before

[00:06:25] she feels like she can make the jump.

[00:06:27] So that's really what my team and I are doing in the background is once she feels like

[00:06:32] she can make that jump or even a little bit before providing the knowledge, the skills

[00:06:37] and the training.

[00:06:38] That way she's running for office, she feels like she can do it.

[00:06:41] Really a lot of the information on where to go file, how to figure out how many people

[00:06:47] need to vote for you.

[00:06:49] What does this position do?

[00:06:51] That information tends to be gate kept so really we're democratizing it so that way people

[00:06:56] who aren't traditionally represented in politics actually have a shot and are women run

[00:07:02] and they win amazing numbers.

[00:07:05] Usually if you're a first time candidate, your chance of winning is anywhere from about

[00:07:09] 10 to 20% whereas with the candidates that we train the first go around they win at

[00:07:14] about 45%.

[00:07:16] So we really feel like we are supporting them, providing them important information on

[00:07:21] everything from campaign strategy to how to fundraise and how to win at the end of the

[00:07:26] election.

[00:07:27] You know I feel like so I'm an election official and so I see it from a very different

[00:07:33] side of the political scheme.

[00:07:35] I'm like I don't really care who you vote for just go show up and vote.

[00:07:40] But I think I hear often of people are like how are these people, the people that are

[00:07:44] on our ballot and now I feel like I know someone that can help me understand how

[00:07:48] these people got on our ballot.

[00:07:49] That is your job as to figure out how we help people that are more reflective get on our

[00:07:54] ballot.

[00:07:55] De-missifying that big question of how did we end up with these choices and really

[00:07:59] trying to prepare people for choices?

[00:08:00] That maybe I'll line a little bit more with how our communities are actually reflected

[00:08:05] in that process.

[00:08:06] So I know we're going to have a ton to talk about, probably take some of it offline but

[00:08:11] I know you mentioned your upbringing in Texas and seeing really how politics plays a role

[00:08:18] in your life at a young age was something that you've already mentioned.

[00:08:23] What else initially drew you to work in politics and helping others run for office?

[00:08:28] I will say it was something that I fell into, right?

[00:08:31] I wasn't five years old and thought when I grew up I'm going to be on the back end helping

[00:08:35] people become politicians.

[00:08:37] I really have the amazing opportunity to meet people who were running for office who

[00:08:42] really cared about the communities they were from and seeing just how much involving

[00:08:47] people in the political process means.

[00:08:50] I mean, when you try to engage communities who feel like the people on the ballot don't

[00:08:55] look like them, the people on the ballot don't care about them and you change that narrative,

[00:09:00] flip it on its face.

[00:09:01] And here you have these amazing women running for office who look like you and die who are

[00:09:05] from these communities who are talking about the issues we care about.

[00:09:08] That's really what gets me excited and that's really where I feel this energy, this momentum

[00:09:13] that we are really changing things.

[00:09:15] It's not just a status quo.

[00:09:17] It really is making the world a better place as often as that said but that's true

[00:09:23] here.

[00:09:24] And I think that is a message that so many people forget about and you've really started

[00:09:29] to break down that when we have people that are more reflective and representative of our

[00:09:34] communities, it makes people feel like the government sees them and hears them.

[00:09:39] And I think everybody wants that.

[00:09:40] And so I think the work that you are doing is fantastic regardless of where you fall politically

[00:09:46] I think that just the mission of what you are doing in this specific work that you do

[00:09:51] is helping people be seen and citizens be seen through their representatives.

[00:09:55] And I think that that is so deeply impactful not only for people that are of voting age

[00:10:01] but people that are on their way to becoming a voting age and younger people seeing that

[00:10:05] this is a pathway for them which kind of leads me into my next question.

[00:10:10] How do you think that politics and government service and kind of serving in this capacity

[00:10:15] as a profession?

[00:10:16] A line with what we know about Gen Z, I believe you are Gen Z so you have to speak a little

[00:10:20] bit on your behalf of your peers but how do you think that this aligns with this cohort

[00:10:25] of young people and what they are looking for from a professional space?

[00:10:29] Yeah so unfortunately I miss the Gen Z cut off by a year.

[00:10:33] I'm a millennial as born in 1994.

[00:10:35] I know, they're really cool to let you in if you write a letter and say I like you guys

[00:10:42] please let me in.

[00:10:43] I'm way past that one year cut off but you're close enough, you're close enough, you're

[00:10:48] like neighbors.

[00:10:49] It allows me to share some grand motherly advice if you don't want to invite me to sit

[00:10:53] with you, that's totally fine.

[00:10:54] I get it.

[00:10:55] Totally cool.

[00:10:56] But you know I will say when I think about Gen Z and how society frames them and sometimes

[00:11:03] it takes on a paternalistic view where it's like oh these kids are coming into our work

[00:11:09] forces and they're changing things.

[00:11:11] I think that really actually gets deep down to the root of politics right where it's this

[00:11:17] battle between the old guard and the new guard and the new guard constantly bringing in new

[00:11:21] ideas and innovating and pushing us and really pushing us to be better.

[00:11:25] That's where a lot of these new ideas, improvements come from is from this conversation, this dialogue

[00:11:31] it's this back and forth and I think understanding that it's a back and forth can be a challenge

[00:11:36] right because politics is a practice in delayed gratification people have been working on

[00:11:44] issues like healthcare for decades but it really is these new ideas, new sentiments,

[00:11:50] new experiences coming in and pushing us to be better so that way we can have those conversations

[00:11:55] and actually get closer to an ideal.

[00:11:57] Absolutely and I think that when I think about what Gen Z is looking for and working with

[00:12:02] we've seen in our work and research is that they want something that is meaningful, that

[00:12:09] creates an impact that is and they're very motivated by the betterment of the world for others,

[00:12:15] not just themselves but others.

[00:12:17] That's where I see it and I'm sure you see it because in the work that you've done whether

[00:12:22] that's in campaigns or in your current role, you're probably seeing a lot of young people drawn to

[00:12:27] the mission of wanting to just use the government to make people's lives a little bit better.

[00:12:33] It's like a wild concept, I'm sure.

[00:12:36] Do you see that present with some of the Gen Z that you interact with as you're either

[00:12:40] preparing them to run which is wild but they get to run now?

[00:12:42] I love that for them or those that are supporting campaigns.

[00:12:46] I do and I will say it's a really amazing experience to see people who are so excited about

[00:12:53] government and are excited about running for office and I think it really is the perfect place

[00:12:58] if you want to support the betterment of community to get involved in this broader ecosystem

[00:13:04] that is like the political governmental space because then you really get to engage with people

[00:13:09] one on one or see your policies implemented and support people and work on the issues that you

[00:13:14] really care about.

[00:13:15] Yeah, and I think that drawing all these connections to the research that we see in it's

[00:13:19] the thing that Gen Z cares most about in relationships is shared values

[00:13:25] and I wonder what the world would look like if we had more Gen Z politicians or more Gen Z

[00:13:32] working within politics where their biggest priority was establishing relationships with people

[00:13:36] with shared values and having those conversations because I think deep down there's a lot of things

[00:13:41] that we and I will just say as a US in the country but I think there is some more similarity

[00:13:45] than there is difference.

[00:13:46] We're just all saying it very differently and so I wonder what the world will look like when

[00:13:49] Gen Z's in those positions and is able to kind of navigate those conversations but we care about

[00:13:54] just bringing people together and figuring out the thing that we care about as opposed to

[00:13:59] dividing us out by what we value.

[00:14:01] Let's figure out where our common ground is.

[00:14:04] Sometimes I think our world would be just a little bit happier if we put Gen Z in the place to

[00:14:10] lead and so I'm sure that there are many people listening whether they're Gen Z or no Gen Z

[00:14:16] that are interested in the kind of work that you do whether that's through the work you've

[00:14:20] done with campaigns from the actual campaign side or your current role where you're preparing

[00:14:25] people to kind of take on a campaign share with us you know what are some of the more rewarding

[00:14:31] things about your work and then what are some of the challenging things.

[00:14:35] So I will say I think there were awards and the challenges are the same

[00:14:39] or opposite sides of the same coin where I get to support women who are some of the first

[00:14:46] in their family the first in their community trailblazers what we refer to them out of

[00:14:52] run for office and win so I sat in through one of our trainings in Tennessee and this stack with me

[00:14:58] where we were introducing ourselves and one of the women who has taken our trainings was mentioning

[00:15:03] that you know she lives in Tennessee and she is the mom of two black boys and is also Muslim

[00:15:10] so how does she go knock on doors and talk to people about voting when you know because of

[00:15:17] her identity and how she presents herself that's already a conversation when you're talking about

[00:15:22] a rural southern state and so I really enjoy getting to help prepare women to you know

[00:15:29] present themselves fully for how they are the values that they share and build community that way

[00:15:35] and talk about real and tactical change well also understanding and this is the part that's hard

[00:15:40] for me is that we are working with an assistant that was designed not to embrace people like us

[00:15:47] so we are slowly chipping away at that by the more people the more representative

[00:15:55] elected officials that we get elected but we are still really fighting against a status quo that

[00:16:00] has left a lot of communities without the representation they need and because of that terrible

[00:16:06] policies that they face daily. That's such a beautiful way to like frame a challenging thing but

[00:16:13] when is done really well is like such a rewarding thing because I can certainly see that and I'm

[00:16:19] I'm glad that there are people like you you're so calm I'm sure there are times when you're like

[00:16:24] very fired up but like so calm about such a challenging job of fighting what is more or less

[00:16:30] a system that's been around for hundreds of years and feels like it never changes and you're

[00:16:36] we're really trying to like evolve things here with the representation to see it forward and

[00:16:43] man I the calmness that you bring to that like I really appreciate that because I think I would

[00:16:47] be I think I would let I would fall into the challenges a lot with a lot more anger than

[00:16:52] you are presenting right now. Let's the delayed gratification right you're practiced your practice

[00:16:58] in it. The system has taken hundreds of years and it'll probably take us many many more years to

[00:17:05] fight what's been built. Yeah and I think that that's a really I hope people are hearing that and

[00:17:10] listening that like no one elections cycle will not change everything no one term is not going to

[00:17:18] change everything and we want things fast in our society and so I'm glad to hear your messaging

[00:17:24] are like it's delayed gratification or satisfaction whatever you look at as like we're taking at least

[00:17:29] one step forward we're taking one step towards what we hope the future will look like. That's a

[00:17:35] hard part about being a humanist the patience I guess yeah it'll change one thing it won't change

[00:17:41] everything yeah because it's ultimately a system right and if there's all these pieces that have

[00:17:47] to fit together we can change one piece of it but that doesn't mean the rest of the system changes

[00:17:51] it evolves it slightly in a positive way but other pieces have to fall in line together so that's our

[00:17:58] PSI for the friends that won everything to be fixed by one government official all the time. I know

[00:18:04] there are Gen Z that are very fired up whether that is through their absolutely shattering what we

[00:18:10] know about the youth voting block turnout rates as you probably are aware of or having an interest

[00:18:15] around for office themselves I know that we've had a few members of congress that are members of Gen Z

[00:18:21] but I know that there will be others that are interested in this pathway what advice do you have for

[00:18:26] young people in Gen Z that are saying maybe this is my professional journey maybe this is my

[00:18:31] professional path and what they can be doing to think about a life in politics or government service

[00:18:36] because you're truly like the gal to talk to if they're interested right you know yes please

[00:18:41] reach out to me if you want to run for office and take an emerged training but I will say you know

[00:18:45] what we train our folks when they go through our boot camps or signature trainings on how to run

[00:18:51] for office there are different things that you need to think about whether it's you know do you have

[00:18:56] your family support what type of seat are you looking for what are your interests what level of

[00:19:02] government do you want to run for when we talk to folks most people can name the president or maybe a

[00:19:10] member of congress that they don't like or a US senator but when you get lower down on the ballot

[00:19:17] and you realize that those local elected officials are actually the ones who have the most

[00:19:21] impact over your day-to-day life it's a different conversation really nudging people to run for

[00:19:26] those seats right school board is going to impact you way more than some random higher-up elected

[00:19:32] official and that actually might be a seat that you want to run for because you're more closely

[00:19:37] lined with it so thinking through that and then also when you want to run for office you know really

[00:19:44] honing in on the why people think you know it's money power privilege but running for office those

[00:19:51] are long hours those are hard conversations there are ups and there are downs it can be lonely at

[00:19:59] times and really thinking through is that something that you want are the trade-offs worth the rewards

[00:20:06] and the change that you are looking to implement and how do you handle that in your day-to-day life

[00:20:12] I think that's such an important like introspective piece that you are walking people through because

[00:20:17] well in an educative piece like you talked about the training but there are a number of people

[00:20:22] you know you identify but your school board member can actually have ripple effects on your children

[00:20:27] your neighbors and the people that really make up your community by what is taking place in those

[00:20:32] schools I come from an education background so I'm like the school board might as well be the Lord

[00:20:36] of all the land because they really it's like a 20 talk about delayed gratification the impacts

[00:20:41] of a school board decision can have influences on kids 20 years down the road and people don't realize

[00:20:46] that so do you want to read books yeah books do you want to learn about certain topics do you

[00:20:51] want to have funded teachers would you like to make sure students have operating buses like small

[00:20:57] stuff that is so necessary that people think that school board is just like a bigger version of

[00:21:04] the the PTA and I'm like no the PTA is also still important some school boards have multi-million

[00:21:09] or billion dollar budgets so you have so much more impact than you think well I think about

[00:21:16] like I'm in national so it's interesting that you shared about that candidate in Tennessee and

[00:21:21] we're an interesting place for politics I'll tell you that our school board members like they

[00:21:25] oversee a significant interest look at like the metric national school district and how much

[00:21:30] oversight and how many council members there are on the school board it's a lot it's a huge

[00:21:36] number of people I'm thankful that I got a good one in my backyard but really those there's so

[00:21:41] me like I think in the last three years we've we've all I hope have woken up to say like okay well

[00:21:47] we're learning that laws happen and everyday people are technically part of creating laws

[00:21:51] and policies and whatever it is um that there's a lot of things in our own backyard that matter so

[00:21:57] much more as you've pointed out than our congress members or our senators like that impact our

[00:22:03] day-to-day lives like I'll tell you right now I've been paying a lot of attention to the state

[00:22:07] senate in Tennessee because their decisions make an impact on my everyday life more than some

[00:22:15] of these like federal laws so I think you and I could just have an entire podcast and like

[00:22:20] things you should vote for because it's important and why we need good people in those spaces

[00:22:25] is something you've clearly pointed out is we need our communities to actually like our government

[00:22:31] to reflect our communities and that's just not currently the place so do you think you'll ever

[00:22:38] run for office are you always going to be like the pump up coach getting people ready?

[00:22:43] I love that pump up coach I'm gonna add that to my email signature but I will say right now at this

[00:22:48] point right I love my job because of the breadth of impact I've been in places where I worked for one

[00:22:57] candidate or I worked to register voters and you get to see like the incremental or small impacts

[00:23:05] of that but when you're working at a national organization and doing this outskill like

[00:23:10] Emergelle's trained over 5,500 candidates 1200 of them are elected in sit-in office today

[00:23:17] so for me that's really exciting just to think about the impact not just in one community but in

[00:23:23] thousands of communities all across the country and how many bad bills are passing through numerous

[00:23:31] state legislatures or just thinking through backing bills anti-trans bills book bans and what gets me

[00:23:39] excited is realizing that they are within the my team my organization house trained that are

[00:23:44] fighting back against that so it would be really hard for me to take a step away you know I would

[00:23:50] have to run through that checklist that I mentioned earlier on what to do if I want to run for office

[00:23:56] but right now I just love knowing that the work that I'm doing is meaningful because these people

[00:24:01] are being empowered by it to go and fight back against bad bills or write better policies for us all

[00:24:07] mm-hmm yeah that's a really good point and if you're doing good work to help other people do good work

[00:24:14] then it seems like you're in a really good position certainly if it fills your cup right like if

[00:24:18] you're like I don't need to be the person writing bills like I just want to make sure there's good

[00:24:22] people in the seat that needs to be filled and trusting that they will be able to do it so it sounds

[00:24:27] like you're like you got a job that you love and I wish that for everyone I really do wish that

[00:24:32] everyone has a job they love and makes for a happier world so before we go because I think I've

[00:24:37] learned so much about how the good work that you do because you've kind of had that more

[00:24:42] traditional like working in politics line of the world now you're in this behind the scenes world

[00:24:49] I wouldn't say behind the scenes but you know support role in the coach yeah yeah you're the pump up

[00:24:54] coach like that's necessary that's an important job at the at a college or university you're the

[00:24:58] highest paid employee so don't forget that the coach really does matter and you have really I think

[00:25:06] shared so much about the types of work that exist that if you don't want to be the person behind

[00:25:11] the podium or you don't be the person necessarily going through the election that there's a lot of

[00:25:15] opportunity for young people to pursue careers and deep meaningful careers that can make a positive

[00:25:21] impact that aligns with with what Gen Z is looking for and kind of hoping to help contribute to

[00:25:28] evolving a system towards a better world so I thank you for sharing that but I I really want to

[00:25:34] make sure I always ask this question at the end but what's your favorite thing about the Gen Z

[00:25:38] you work with? I know they're close in peer age and I imagine you work with some as a college

[00:25:43] but I'm certainly there's some that you're working with through other capacities. What's your

[00:25:47] favorite thing about Gen Z? I will say Gen Z is not shy about pushing for what they deserve

[00:25:54] right there countless experiences or stories that I can tell that were shared with me about

[00:26:02] how challenging or toxic campaigns were different work environments and really engaging with

[00:26:09] Gen Z and folks who you know are interested in hybrid work who want really good pay and want

[00:26:17] to work hard and want to enjoy what they're doing where it's not a strange conversation to

[00:26:25] be able to talk about how you're spending your time and also like more than just this company

[00:26:32] that pays you right because when we think about our grandparents they were in the same jobs maybe

[00:26:37] for 40 years they never really pushed back and I think Gen Z and maybe what pride in people is

[00:26:43] that Gen Z is not afraid to push back but that's actually making us better you see a lot of

[00:26:47] organizations like emerge a lot of progressive organizations who are starting to unionize

[00:26:53] who are thinking about the nature of work because Gen Z is pushing us to be better at it.

[00:26:59] I think that is a really good summary of what I see and it's not just in like the way

[00:27:03] Gen Z or the youngest are kind of speaking up for something they're probably feeling at the

[00:27:09] time and I said it like in their lives when they're most fluid and flexible in their identity

[00:27:15] and so it's critical and like how they're going to see the world and I think this concept like

[00:27:21] that you've pointed out of they don't want to just spend 40 hours a week for 40 years doing

[00:27:25] the same job that isn't really fulfilling. I think a lot of them are like we don't have a

[00:27:29] future that's promised to us like I don't want to waste my life doing work that doesn't

[00:27:35] mean something to me and meaning looks different for everyone but I think the ownership of

[00:27:40] that mindset when it comes to work and investment of time is I want this to be of meaning and value.

[00:27:46] I want this to be something that I deeply care about and that I'm passionate about

[00:27:50] which I think previous generations have been like that's approved having a passion is a privilege

[00:27:55] not a right and I'm like who said who ever said that like that is such a kind of a thing that

[00:28:00] is told to say like no wait your turn to be happy delay your happiness and I was like we don't

[00:28:05] I don't know if we should use that mindset the way this place is going down so yeah and I think it

[00:28:10] really well it's a politics right when people say wait your turn I will say Gen Z is really flipped

[00:28:18] that where it's like why should we wait and I think people from Gen Z or from different communities

[00:28:25] should actually keep that in mind when they want to run for office because it's the same

[00:28:29] patriarchal paternalistic conversations of wait your turn or stay quiet until you get the chance

[00:28:36] to like voice your opinion and people are pushing against that and changing really our culture

[00:28:40] and that's a good thing. Yeah and I think Gen Z is coming out from all angles right like

[00:28:45] I do appreciate their steadfastness of what they care about so like if they're going to care about

[00:28:50] it they're going to care about it at work and they're going to care about it in the voting box

[00:28:54] and they're going to care about it online and they're going to care about it in their family life

[00:28:57] like they are like this is what I care about and I think that that's like a really good model of

[00:29:02] integrity that like they're not going to shy away from being like I'm not working at your workplace

[00:29:06] because you're incredibly homophobic right like they're not willing to sacrifice their values

[00:29:11] in any aspect of the environment and some gay gen and I I commend them for that they're kind

[00:29:16] of brave little bad asses in that right because I don't know if previous generations have been

[00:29:21] as bold previous generations move over. Right I'm like I'm scared of Gen Z I'm like you should be

[00:29:27] okay then delightful well pre unit this has been so enlightening I have absolutely loved spending

[00:29:33] time with you learning more about the great work that you are doing at emerge but your experience

[00:29:38] like your professional experience is something that so many people can learn from and I hope that

[00:29:42] there are young people in Gen Z listening hearing kind of your story as a model but then people that

[00:29:48] know Gen Z that are a response for the career development can hear your story and say that sounds

[00:29:52] like a person in my life that might need to to know these things. So thank you for sharing that

[00:29:57] you know sometimes our listeners like to just stay connected with guests where's the best place

[00:30:03] for people to connect with you instead of to date with the good work that you and emerge you're doing

[00:30:08] yeah so I will say at emerge america on instagram twitter i believe we are on threads now as of maybe

[00:30:16] last week so please follow all of our good work there. I think we just we all just got on threads

[00:30:23] last week it feels like it came like a thief in the night so fast but yes around go be sure to

[00:30:29] follow ad emerge america can you up to date with all the great work they're doing and bring in a

[00:30:35] thinking again for being here and spending some time definitely thank you.

[00:30:43] If you follow me on instagram you know how important my dog subashinist to me I take great care

[00:30:49] in selecting high quality food that will provide him with a healthy diet if you're looking to do the same

[00:30:53] you need to check out nom nom dog food it's full of fresh protein vitamins and nutrients that help

[00:31:01] your pup thrive when nom nom says fresh they mean it you can actually see the fresh ingredients

[00:31:07] your dog is eating nom nom works with board certified nutritionists to ensure their recipes are

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[00:31:17] based on information you provide about your furry friend including their age breed weight allergies

[00:31:22] and preferences. You can order nom nom using the code gen z pod to get 50% off your first order

[00:31:29] plus free shipping and nom nom comes with a money back guarantee which means if your dog doesn't love

[00:31:34] every meal nom nom will refund you your first order head to nom nom now.com and use the code gen z pod

[00:31:42] to get 50% off your first order. Another big thank you to Brianna Carmen for joining the on today's

[00:31:53] episode she's really doing such important work to ensure gen z has a place in today's political

[00:31:58] environment and helping sure that this is a generation that's a political force and not just

[00:32:03] invoting but finding careers that they're passionate about through civic service so whether you are

[00:32:08] Gen z or you are a leader that can inspire Gen z I think there's so much we can learn from Brianna's

[00:32:13] story and the work that she does to make sure that we're all represented in the government. We

[00:32:18] saw some great new episodes ahead in season five with some fantastic guests to share their stories

[00:32:23] and insights. You don't want to miss this as we continue to explore Gen z in the workplace so if you

[00:32:28] haven't yet hit subscribe so you can get notified when new episodes become available and while

[00:32:33] you're at it go ahead and share this episode with a friend or colleague this is a more than a

[00:32:37] mayor kind of podcast if you will as always you can reach out with any suggestions for topics or

[00:32:43] guests you want to learn from and about I can be reached on my website Megan em Grace.com and you

[00:32:48] can find me on Instagram threads and LinkedIn at Megan em Grace. And I thank you to the team that

[00:32:54] helped bring this episode together. Pro production support was provided by Jessica Fs DeFios

[00:33:00] and editing the supported by Leah Kramer. Thank you again for stopping by for this episode and

[00:33:06] the season so far. Let's continue this conversation we'll chat soon