- Hey, so I have this new show right now where I'm...
I'm trying to talk about issues.
But not in a boring way.
Sort of like in a young, cool conversational way.
So like basically this is an advice call.
I need advice from you.
- You need to be younger.
- Okay, so just act younger.
- No, like be younger.
Physically, like...
Younger. - Okay.
Um, sure.
What's your second best advice?
- Um, I don't know.
Make an issue-based show about geopolitics
in a positive space that uses your personal experience
combined with less polarizing messaging that motivates
young viewers to get engaged in the political process
and gives them actionable advice on things they can do
to create change in their community.
- Okay, yeah, that's definitely one idea.
But I was thinking like what if I... what if I
make a video with that whop dance,
but like fully, fully commit, you know what I mean?
Like just throw down and... - no.
- Kal: Wouldn't that be something that they would like?
Hello? Ah, man.
- ♪
- hey, everybody, I'm kal penn.
Now, look, I know some of you are wondering
who is this incredibly handsome brown-skinned man
with facial hair that exudes a white man's confidence?
That would be bollywood star anil kapoor
leaning on a sweet rolls royce
with amitabh bachchan.
You may also be thinking, "kal penn, I know you, man.
"what the hell are you doing hosting a show on freeform?
"shouldn't you be high as shit with harold?
Or sober as shit with obama?"
that part is true.
I did work in the obama white house
on outreach to young americans.
Some might even say I went from white castle to...
- male reporter: From white castle
to the white house.
- Trading in the white castle for the white cast.
- Male reporter: From white castle to
the white house: An exclusive interview with kal penn.
- Do you know that I never told them I'd heard that one already?
They were all so proud. Oh.
Over the next six episodes leading up to the election,
I'm gonna talk about six important issues
that effect how our country works,
how we fit into it,
and what we can do to change it for the better...
Or the worse.
[evil laughs] no, I'm just kidding.
It's only about the issues, not the candidates
or political parties.
So, it's always for the better.
I was born and raised in the great state
of new jersey and registered to vote as an independent
when I turned 18.
I went to college.
I worked really hard,
and today, I'm a successful actor.
Well, moderately successful actor.
Of course, lots of my friends are not in the same situation.
Look, people have lost their jobs,
and they're worried about how they're gonna pay rent.
Family members of ours struggle with healthcare,
the cost of trade school and college.
We know people who have fought and lost loved ones
to the wars in iraq and afghanistan.
Wars which both democrats and republicans voted
to authorize.
And all of these problems have been intensified
by the pandemic.
The country feels really divided right now,
and we all have different ideas on how to solve problems.
But the reality is, we have a heck of a lot more
in common with each other than we give ourselves
credit for.
I got involved in public service
because I wanted the lives of my friends and family
to get better.
I created this tv show
because I want the same for yours.
Welcome to "kal penn approves this message."
- ♪
- episode one, here we go!
Alright, in my first episode, I wanna talk about
the power of voting.
When you think about it, so much of what you see
when you go outside is shaped by people
deciding to put little slips of paper in a box.
From how we get across town,
to how much pollution is in the air we breathe,
to how many health clinics are in our neighborhoods.
But specifically, I wanna focus on young voters.
Look, if you weren't powerful,
they wouldn't be so scared when you show up.
Remember 2018?
The midterms had the highest turnout for 18 to 24-year-olds
in decades.
I mean, y'all gave us a new most diverse congress
in history.
In 1988, this was the squad, okay?
There's room for everybody.
Power is in the voting booths, sure.
But it's also in the streets.
Just look at what happened in new jersey
a couple years ago.
Young activists there pushed the state government
to expand a minimum wage increase to people under 18.
But you may not have heard about that.
Or about things like the 50 new gun-control laws
resulting from the youth-led March for our lives movement.
That's because usually, when pundits talk
about young people in politics,
it's to rehash old opinions about how,
"kids these days just don't care enough to vote."
- the problem with youth voters is they don't show up.
- Where is the youth and energy that former president
barack obama brought to the party?
- Millennial say they want their voices to be heard.
But how can they be heard when they don't show up
to the polls?
- Okay, the thing is,
as weird as this feels to say...
Mike hucklebee is not entirely wrong.
In the last presidential election, just under half
of 18 to 29-year-olds turned out to vote.
And when you think about it,
that means that one of the most powerful
voting blocks in the country was actually...
Young people who didn't vote.
If 100% of young americans showed up to the voting booth,
we could have a completely different country.
We could have more national parks,
high-speed rail, or make our flag this amazing
photo of dwayne johnson eating sushi.
You can even change the voting age.
That's actually happened before in 1971.
It was lowered from 21 to 18 through a broad,
youth-led movement that resulted in something called
the 26th amendment.
Come with me for a journey through history.
During world war dos,
a bunch of 18, and 19, and 20-year-olds
came back home after saving the world,
and they wanted to go vote.
And a bunch of old people were like, "uh, sorry, guys,
"no, come back when you're 21 years of age,
and have had some actual life experience."
and the veterans were like, "sorry, wait,
"so flying airplanes and driving tanks and
"literally liberating an entire country
isn't enough life experience?"
and the old people were like, "well, no."
and the under-21s were like, "well, this is some bullshit."
right? So they started a movement
with the rallying cry, "old enough to fight,
old enough to [bleep]."
no, I'm just kidding.
It was, "old enough to fight, old enough to vote."
less sexy, but more practical.
This culminated in the 26th amendment
in 1971, which gave americans over 18 the right to vote
for their representative.
And they finally used that power
in 1972 to help sweep a new fresh face
into the white house.
Richard nixon.
Thanks to a bunch of righteously pissed veterans,
you can now vote if you're 18 or older.
There are a lot of amazing resources online
to make the process easy.
To make them easier to find,
we're gonna put them all on one website...
'cause it's my show.
There, we've broken things into four steps.
Step one: Find out the voting rules in your state.
How to register, how to vote early,
and how to vote by absentee ballot.
Step two: Find your polling location.
Step three: Find out what's gonna be
on that ballot.
Remember, we're not only voting for the president
in November.
There are also state and local elections,
as well as ballot measures.
Arizona has a measure to legalize marijuana.
And florida has one to increase the minimum wage.
And finally, take some time to learn
what your candidates actually believe.
This is important because, look, even if a candidate
isn't perfect on an issue that you care about most,
and they're probably not, you might find that
they agree with you on a lot of other issues
that affect your life.
Like, okay, if gwyneth paltrow was running for president,
you might strongly disagree with her vitamin-infused
toilet paper policy, but she maybe supports
tuition-free college by taxing the rich, right?
I'm just saying, if that's your thing,
give them a chance.
When I vote, I don't just vote for myself.
I vote for the person who works three jobs
and can't get to the polls.
I vote for the person who has to drive so far
that the $6 in gas money is something
they gotta figure out.
We don't just vote for ourselves.
So who are you voting for?
And if the answer is nobody,
because I'm still too young to vote,
then stick around, because we're gonna talk to
a group in san francisco that's working really hard
to change that.
- ♪
- hey, welcome back!
Okay, so if you feel kind of powerless because you're
too young vote, but you kinda wanna do something,
I want you to meet these people.
My friend moses storm went up to san francisco
to spend some time with them. Check it out.
- Moses: Young people have made great strides
for change in recent years.
- A leader for the present, a leader for the future.
- When many americans cast their vote on election day,
they are exercising the only political power they have.
- Moses: But now young people want even more.
They want the voting age to be lowered to 16.
- That us kids don't know what we're talking about,
that we're too young to understand
how the government works!
- [chanting] d-o-d-e.
Sixteen for democracy.
- Moses: Vote 16's caleb deberry laid out
the group's plans.
- Vote 16 is a movement led by young people
for young people trying to lower the voting age
in local elections to 16 years old.
Well, the issues that are on the ballot
in our local elections are issues about how we fund our
schools, are issues on how we handle juvenile justice.
We have environmental issues, taxation issues,
really every issues that a locality could
have on its ballot is effecting young people
in some sort of way, and so we believe that
we should have a voice on that.
- Wow, just sounds so stressful
to be 16-year-old right now.
- [laughs]
- okay. Wow.
- Once you start voting, you're significantly
more likely to keep voting in future elections,
so we create a lifelong habit of participating in democracy.
- Okay, but not all habits are good.
I mean, in 2008, I got addicted to roller-blading,
which led to a lot of bullying.
- Well, I like to think that participating in democracy's
a pretty good habit.
- Moses: In san francisco, the vote 16 chapter
is pushing a ballot measure this November to lower
the voting age.
What is your anarchist agenda?
- If democracy is anarchy, then sign us up,
because our agenda is simple:
And it's the preservation of democratic rights
on a local level.
Vote 16 goes to argue that since young people
in san francisco are active community participants,
why should they not be enfranchised, whereas,
you know, the average adult with x amount of years
of civic education is?
- Moses: Critics say that teens are too impulsive,
don't think things through, and shouldn't vote.
And they say their brains just can't handle it.
These kids didn't seem like immature mush brains.
I didn't a professional opinion.
Dr. Dillon g.
Are 16-year-olds mature enough to be able to vote?
- 16-year-olds have very strong cognitive capacities.
They can, um, make cognitive and rational decisions.
We know that cognitive functioning increases across
the life span, but it's not always getting better.
So individuals who are, say, 65 or older, or 70 or older,
are much more at risk for mild cognitive impairment
or even dementia.
Um, however, normal cognitive functions peek relatively early
in life.
- Moses: Wait, so it wasn't young brains
that had the problem. It was old people.
I had to spread the word.
Vote 16 meets stop 72.
- A lot of people out there are concerned about
young people voting. - No, cut, cut.
Um, carol, I need you to really age it up, okay?
Just really, uuh, decrepit.
Okay, let me see what you're gonna do.
- Hey, everyone... - No.
That's youth energy.
Okay, I wanna give you a line reading,
but you know what? I actually have an idea.
Why don't we get, uh, props in here.
I got something perfect for you.
- A lot of people out there are worried
about young people voting.
But it's us old people the ones we have to worry about.
First of all, we're impulsive.
- We gave our life's savings to a stranger
who sent us an email.
- We're also reactive.
- Try saying "happy holiday" to me
instead of "merry christmas."
- and we're indoctrinated.
- I don't know if I'm indoctrinated.
I just feel that anybody that doesn't agree
with my politics is a pedophile.
And a vampire.
- We're practically a cult.
- Seriously, you can't trust our judgment.
We're the people that made "the help" trend.
- Did you hear what those [bleep] saying
about "the help"?
- That movie sucks.
- Until a minute ago, I thought this was the dmv.
You really want me picking the president?
- Please help us stop people over 72 from voting.
We can't be trusted with this responsibility.
- All: Stop 72.
- I was told there was gonna be free soup.
Where the [bleep] is my soup?
- So there. Fixed it.
What do you think?
- I mean, the whole point of this is to
expand voting rights, we're not trying to take away
voting rights.
- You know, as much as I appreciate the cinematography
and the work you put into creating that,
I would like to ague that is very much the antithesis
of what our goal is here in vote 16.
Our goal is to make elections more representative.
- Should have had them play it more decrepit.
I knew it. I knew it.
- ♪
- ah, okay, I am so excited
to welcome our first guest to the series.
She is a civil rights hero.
One of the most iconic activists in american history.
A leader of the historic grape strikes of the 1960s,
and cofounder of the united farm workers.
She has spent her life fighting for more an equitable society.
Please welcome president of the delores huerta foundation,
ms. Delores huerta.
Thank you for being here!
- Delores: No, thank you for having me.
- Kal: This is our first episode.
Look, this is a show that is hoping to get folks
out to register to vote, we're trying to be
as nonpartisan as possible.
We're trying to be funny and uplifting
and kind of cut through a lot of the noise
that's out there, especially when like, um...
You know, when you pick up your phone,
and you read through twitter, and you're trying
to wonder what's real and what's not.
So, I'm especially really, really honored that, um...
That you would join us.
And I guess my first question has to be related
to our theme for the first episode,
which is youth vote.
What is the best method to encourage someone to vote?
And is it different when you approach young people
versus more seasoned folks?
- I like to say that election day is the most
important day of your life, because on election day,
the people that we vote for, they are going to make
the decisions for us, for our families,
and for our communities.
And we wanna get progressive people elected,
people who are gonna stand up for us, people that are
really going to work to make the changes
that we need to make in our society.
We have to just remember that voting is a step
to be able to get people elected to office
that are gonna fight for us.
And if not, the people that are elected will not only
work against us, but they will make decisions
that we may not life.
- Um, our show is a little different
than most shows, in that we like to offer solutions
to our viewers.
And we like to share with them things from experts
that they can take with them in their own communities.
So, what we did is we reached out to a bunch of people
around the country and said, "are you voting? Yes? No?"
and surprisingly, some people said maybe.
So, I wanna play a clip of a few people
who we spoke to earlier this week, who said
they weren't planning on voting.
And I would... I would love for your advice on
how people can talk to our friends who might have
similar views as these folks.
Can we roll that clip?
- Every four years we elect a new leader.
However, every year we have more homeless,
more endangered animals, and the wealth gap between
the 1% and the 99% grows ever more.
- And what do you say to somebody like alexander,
who says, "I'm not gonna vote because the wealth gap
"keeps increasing and increasing, and no matter who
you vote for, it just doesn't make a difference"?
How do you even... how do you counter that?
- Well, I have to say to alexander, there is a way
to change that, alexander.
And that is by voting.
When we're voting, we're actually thinking, "how do
we bring resources into our community?"
and if we don't vote, then all of the resources that
we had, they go up to the top.
As we know right now in the united states, we have
1% of the wealthy families that have... own 50% of the wealth.
And if you add the 10% of the wealthy corporation,
they own 90% of the wealth. Okay?
So we've gotta change this around.
We've gotta do a wealth tax.
We've gotta bring some of that money back
to our community.
How do we do that?
By voting.
It's the only way. By voting.
- Kal: Okay, now take a look at this one.
- Tennessee always goes republican, therefore,
my liberal vote is negated.
And that is why I won't be voting.
- So, victoria is a liberal living in tennessee,
which is clearly a conservative state.
Does her vote matter?
- Oh, does it matter a lot.
And if people are not happy with the political party
that they belong to, they can also join
a political party, because these political parties
are democratic, and they choose their leaders.
And you can come in there and take the leadership,
and get some of your friends to go in with you.
So it's a good thing to just get involved in that way.
Get involved in the political campaign.
Just go out there, you know...
Once the pandemic is over, do the door knocking.
But now you can do the phoning.
And so to get involved right at the ground level,
then you really understand how our political system works.
And it's all about just doing the work.
It's so simple.
It's just talking to people, phoning people,
getting out the information to people.
It's not rocket science.
It's just people engagement and people doing the work.
This is all that it is.
It's simple.
But it doesn't work unless we participate.
'cause now you can get information out so easily.
You can mobilize so easily.
We have seen that with many of the protests
and marches, after people have been killed,
after george floyd was killed,
after brianna was killed, that people are being able
to assemble and to mobilize very, very quickly.
We can think of the voting cycle, you know?
The assemblymen and congress people
in the house of representatives,
it's every two years.
So you can change some of those people out
in a couple of years, it doesn't have to be their job.
And I would get that information out to everybody so quickly.
So we don't want people to despair.
- We're gonna keep that in mind.
Ms. Huerta, it's been an honor.
Thank you for being our first guest
and for sharing your experiences.
- Thank you very much for having me.
Thank you.
- I wanna send you off with one of my favorite clips that we
captured this week from a young woman that we met, who is
very excited to vote.
So thank you so much for joining us.
- Wah gwaan. My name is ember.
And the reason why I'm excited to vote
this election year is because I'm ready for change,
and I'm ready to see some progression
within our government.
And the fact that I'm coming from an immigrant family,
born in america, gives me blessings upon blessings,
because my ancestors didn't have the opportunity to vote.
And the fact that I get to exercise it within
the government is amazing to me.
So, this election year, I'm super excited to vote.
I hope you guys are too.
- ♪
- okay, before we say goodbye, we like to do
this little thing called micro macro.
So I wanna leave you with some actual actions
that you can take that will help make sure
that any eligible voter can get to the polls
this November to cast a ballot.
So, a larger macro action that you can take
is to volunteer at a local polling place.
In a lot of states, you don't even have to be 18 to volunteer,
but the rules do vary from state to state, so check out...
Where we have a link to where you can volunteer.
I will say younger poll workers
are especially critical this year to make sure
that the voting experience is smooth for everybody,
because traditionally, election workers are older americans,
who may not volunteer this year
due to their heightened risk of contracting covid-19.
So to all the young volunteers out there, thank you so much
for stepping up.
It means a lot to a lot of people.
I will also say this.
Next election, buella is gonna reclaim her throne
as hbic, so do not get too comfortable, gen-x,
she throws elbows.
If you're not able to volunteer, a micro action
that you can take right now is to just text
five friends.
Text them: "are you planning to vote?" that's it.
Then text five exes.
That's always a good idea.
Then, you can text five more friends.
Maybe people you haven't spoken to in the past year.
Oh, hey, marsai. - Hey.
You know what? I got you, kal.
You know what? I'm gonna text five friends right now.
- Thanks, marsai.
Hey, do you mind posting on our instagram?
- Honestly, you are pushing it.
I don't got time for that.
- Yeah, yeah, no, no, totally cool.
I get it. I get it. Yep.
Okay, so make sure your friends are registered,
you have a plan in place, either a vote by mail
or to get to the polls,
and have the resources to learn about the issues.
A single voice shouting isn't really that loud.
But millions of voices, that's hard to ignore.
See ya next week.
- ♪
- hello, I'm imploring everyone watching this
to please sign up as a poll worker on November 3.
As a poll worker, you will be trained, paid,
and be on the front lines of securing democracy.
I am personally serving as poll worker because
older people in my community have been serving
as poll workers for decades.
But this time, it's not safe for them.
So I want to take up that mantle, and you should too.
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