Our Final Episode! How Will You Remember This Time? | BRIght & Early, BRI’s Student Web Series

0:04 hello young people of the Internet hello young people of the Internet hello young people of the Internet hello young people of the Internet welcome to this week’s episode of bright merrily from the Bill of Rights Institute and it is a very special episode because today is our final episode of our first season of bright

0:26 and early as always I’m joined by my delightful colleague scary and Kirk hi gentlemen hi how are you so as we start off everyone Bri has been experimenting with this web series called bright and early for close to two months now we launched our very first episode in March 31st which somehow seems like yesterday and

0:47 three millennia ago at the same time I don’t know how time works anymore everything’s a blend and as we like to say in our office it’s all a construct which is a fancy word for saying made-up by mankind not really that’s a really big conversation start with the guys

1:12 just asking how are you doing house let’s take a moment and really reflect on these past two months what is that what is this craziness been like for you yeah I mean I think I think like everybody has been uncertain right I mean we’re flooded with new information all the time we’re trying to figure out how we can best do our part throughout

1:34 this pandemic and and trying to think about the world around us but it really caused me to sort of reflect to on on the the small normal things that have been going on contrast it with the things that are really not normal so you know not being able to go out and see friends and socialize in the same way but that I’ve been finding ways to

1:54 connect with people I’m connecting with you guys every week on bright and early I’m connecting with other people from across the country whether it’s on zoom or Skype or all the other online web conversation services I didn’t even know existed before this all started but also just in the the fact that the things that that we continue to see life going

2:16 on is really kind of a hopeful – I think we talked about that early on but that that things don’t stop even when things are extraordinarily uncertain you know time keeps moving forward having to make decisions we keep trying to make the best of the situation that we’re in and that’s really that’s really the best we can do but there’s opportunity in that – I

2:36 think yeah absolutely yeah totally you know here at more or less at let’s say call it a two month mark or so that we’ve been together similar to what you’re saying I’ve seen an interesting interesting thought arc or pathway vet there’s familiar contrasted and compared

2:58 with ever-changing so I mean being in the same room even though I painted if you can pivot it a few times it’s very familiar and yet it’s always been changing and I think that’s true for all the things we talked about long into two months from now four months from now six months from now there’ll be elements that are familiar and elements that are forever changing and it’s interesting how we mentally sort of balance both of

3:21 those things but even practically you know that uncertainty two months ago things are still uncertain now but they’re different kind of uncertain and in a strange place in a strange way being familiar with uncertainty is an interesting thing to wrap your head around right and never minds me Gary I’m gonna mess this up so Gary you have to hold me through this there’s an old

3:43 philosophical kind of question about a ship that’s being built and it’s my old ship and as you’re replacing different pieces of the ship when is it no longer the same ship that it was right and I think there’s a metaphor there for kind of our experiences over the past two

4:03 months that you know we’re slowly replacing different parts of our lives with new experiences but it’s still the same Excel our lives and they’re still common touch points even though we’re switching out aspects would you have any more context for that history or we don’t have to go actually yeah that’s that’s Plato I think is very referring

4:28 to I think this is gonna bowl so I have to think about it with baseball teams right so you have a team name and you change out the players you change out in the case of sometimes the city and yet there’s a weird consistency to it right there’s this sort of ongoing existence so yeah the Ship of Theseus is if it leaves the port and you fix the mast and you replace it and you’re by the time it

4:50 gets the next place it physically is a completely different material but is it the same and I think that’s exactly a good point right there’s a new it Yvette exact continuity and I think that’s that’s an interesting metaphor for society and for kind of the challenges that were going through is is you know nobody who’s alive today was

5:11 alive during the founding nobody who’s alive today was alive during the civil war nobody very very few people these days who were alive today were alive during you know who fought in world war ii it’s the 75th anniversary coming up so those people are very few of them are left right and so when is you know but

5:32 this is still America and we’re still Americans so how does that happen and what what is the essence of what makes us who we are this is getting kind of more philosophical we’re gonna go today but I think that’s part of what these kinds of crises do is that they make you wonder about yourself and your community

5:53 and you’re like what change means and what the future is going to bring and it kind of takes away a lot of distractions that end up focusing on what does it mean to be a teenager in 2020 or the class of 2020 right so there’s

6:14 this big thing this past weekend the complication of 2020 with other celebrities that’s never happened before where we had a national graduation what does it mean to be right now I think it’s a hard question yeah and I think I think it’s exactly right and looking back on our episodes I think that was a

6:34 big theme that went throughout right that there are things that exist and they may look different or on the surface or even upon some death you know those are the questions we asked right so education the concept of it education has not ended even though it looks very different than the way it is and a lot

6:54 of our topics we looked at civility and we looked at a concept of freedoms and you know each topic was a really interesting idea that these things don’t vanish but they may change enough on the surface to really reconsider butterflies out of larvae yeah it reminds me of a quote from junior Tolkien’s the Lord of

7:16 the Rings where I think it’s Gandalf and if you haven’t read it I definitely recommend checking them out they’re a great summer read or quarantine book but Gandalf says something the effect of you know you don’t get to choose the time that you live you only choose what you do with the time that you have and unfortunately these kinds of things happen they’re out of our control and

7:37 yet they affect us in very profound ways and as I look back in our episodes you know our conversations about how it is it we observe those changes how it is that we reflect on them personally I mean how those personal reflections can come to shape the historical legacy of what this period will be remembered as I think it’s really important

7:57 informative because future generations when they’re looking back on this are gonna go to those those those kinds of recordings those personal reflections to try and understand what it was like to live at this moment because they won’t have and so the way that history is being formed around us and that we’re a part of it but we’re also being swept along by it I think really underscores

8:18 many of the things that they you all are mentioning but but I think the central importance to trying to just keep hold of of the things that we’re doing in our lives and being intentional about it and continuing to learn and find out more about ourselves about our communities now I hope that continues I think you’re exactly right in a strange way our doing

8:40 a series of videos about being historians for the present is in itself a record that we have shared with each other and you is the audience that we can look back on as almost a primary source of what our experience was at the time I’m there as valuable the how are you doing

9:01 question as it was the different things we got into to talk about what it’s like and I’m excited that hopefully if you’ve been watching as a student that that school continues to yourself that if you’ve been following along and seeing yourself as a historian of the present but that continues long into the future which will be the past in the future

9:23 yeah what I what I was struck with that Gary is and you wouldn’t you and Kirk we’re talking was this this idea that your own reaction is the only thing ever in your control right your own activity and behavior even if you have limited physical opportunities or physical options right we are all still many of

9:45 us are still in in various levels of quarantine right so when we started this episode when we started these episodes it was at the very beginning of the quarantine period now that we’ve ended the episodes for this season you’re seeing a lot of stage a lot of states in different stages of reopening so people again have very

10:08 asynchronous experiences but that that we’re just because we’re being very philosophical right now the the Stoics and thinking about how act action in action and reaction is the only thing that’s at your own action and reaction is the only thing that’s ever in your control you can’t control the world

10:29 around you can’t control what your parents are doing can’t control what the government does but you can control how you perceive what they are doing and how you react and what your own action is and that’s kind of was our part was our purpose in these lessons it was to help you understand how to react and how you

10:49 were reacting and how to think about how other people were reacting to everything that was happening and to pay attention I noticed that Gary is using his cupcake his cupcake up from our observation lesson yeah yeah but that’s not really part of it you know the action reaction Parbat sometimes the action is

11:10 to observe sometimes the action is to record sometimes the action is to reflect on things I mean being an eyewitness to history is a super exciting thing if you realize you’re doing it and and knowing that you can take action that will be looked back on by yourself and future generations right like making the videos or keeping

11:34 the journals you have those documents to draw on in the future when people are like what was the pandemic of 2020 like because they say that about the pandemic of 1918 and the pandemic of 1916 60s right what was that like I had a I had a really interesting

11:54 conversation with my dad recently I you know it had never struck me my dad was born in 1950 it had never struck me that he was eligible for the Vietnam draft and I had never had that because he was 18 in 1968 and I had never had the conversation until a year ago and I am NOT a very young person about what the

12:16 what the day of the draft the first draft day where they drew the first numbers was like right and so I one day I was like dad tell me about that day I want to know what that day was like for you and maybe it’s in the future there will be young people who are like Gary tell me about that day right what was

12:37 what was 2020 like for you yeah I mean in fact it’s you know a small interesting thing is reflecting back in what was two months ago like what what how do you think we have developed in the past two months of things I mean for example I didn’t have a beard when we started this and Kirk had much more of a

12:59 beard that’s right have not had a beard at any point I’m just gonna point that out at any point in our conversations have I had a beard but other changes have been happening for me I I think that there is a there’s a you know one of the things we’re constantly talking

13:20 about is how to be historians of the present and what the importance of that is for not only your own experience but for the experience of those around you because by thinking of yourself as a destroying that reframes a lot of your conversations and I yeah yeah it’s like I guess it’s a almost a

13:41 habit of thought right could you read it reframes the conversations also reframes your thinking in terms of keep going back to the idea of paying attention but I think part of being a story is not only being aware of observing but also that sharing part like you’re saying the you know what does that mean for the conversations with other people even if even that’s for yourself through writing

14:03 it down or something like that being aware of what’s going on almost takes a different way of thinking than just living life right I think too it’s it’s helped you know as we’ve been observing these things and through the conversations that we’ve had really pulled into sharp focus things that we should continue to keep thinking about you know how is it that we balance our

14:24 own personal liberties with the needs of our communities what is the role of state governments in county governments you know especially as we’re seeing this reopening how what are those different roles how do they interact with one another you know what is the most efficient way to do that you know thinking about how does we think about the economy and what the role of the economy is now we interact with it on a

14:44 lot of different levels I think all those things have really been been sort of sharpened and pulled into focus by this crisis but they certainly aren’t questions that are gonna be going away and in fact maybe they can help us think about those questions you know what what is what is really the core important thing that we need to keep in mind when we’re thinking about how it is we balance these different things in our government I’m not sure there’s been a

15:05 time in you know recent history that people were as aware of kind of Federalist issues right that the issues of who controls my actions who has influence over my actions is that my city is that my county is that my state is it my that we have these regions now

15:27 these like associated regions of states and then is it or is it my federal government and I think that this opportunity has presented the opportunity where we just weren’t aware because there was no reason to be for the vast majority of us because most of us weren’t clearly

15:49 impacted by those decisions in ways that were you know made plain so there’ll be a lot of questions over the next decades I mean this the ripple effects of what’s happening right now are going to last a long time into your adulthood right so like you are 14 15 16 17 right now ten

16:13 years from now when you’re graduated from college and you know in in the middle of your career they’re gonna be decisions that are still being made based on things that are happening right now and so that awareness and that kind of change in orientation of cultures you know are we get our handshakes ever gonna come back I don’t know are we ever

16:35 gonna go to movie theaters again I don’t know there are all these things that that that are happening right now that will that will change a lot of what we have in the future I don’t think you know as we get ready for a fall where there’s an election paying attention to how these questions are being debated and discussed I think is gonna be really important and sharing our own thoughts

16:55 and our own reactions to them and in continuing to to do what we’ve been doing looking you know looking at what’s around us trying to find good information being you know a critical consumer of that information I think all that’s going to continue to to be really important and be drawn even more to focus now absolutely I think it’s it’s great to see what we’re talking about as

17:16 part of a continuum right so when we started it was you know things again on the surface seem to change but the the topics we looked at and again we’re sort of talking about them a lot but you know they really had a nice kind of order to it of things that will continue you know these were big chunks of ideas that we had I mean we’ve mentioned a few like

17:36 the idea of federalism and Voting still going to be huge through the summer of the fall indefinitely into the future how technology and economics what they look like now what they’re going to look like those are to that we looked at their really interesting skills civility with writing speaking these are these are those habits of thought and action that I

17:57 think are ongoing and really even the one that seems specific to this time but being productive in public spaces we frame them in our in our episodes as during this time of crisis but those are ongoing considerations that will continue to change and yet will be familiar so I think now is a really interesting time to not only be

18:18 historians of the present but I feel like at some point we talked about being historians of the future and I’m curious what we all think of what’s what’s to come and in uncertain times yeah I think the idea of the historians in the future that you know everything that we chose so you know Gary Kirk and I would meet

18:40 and we decide on what the topics would be and we’d prepare and we’d make choices based on what we thought was happening currently so it was really present in people’s experience but also would help them put a framing on what their behaviors would be into the future and and what their thoughts about things would be into the future and I think you

19:00 know like it like the Ship of Theseus there’s there are things that will stay and there were things that will change but will also be ourselves and our communities will still be our communities in the United States will still be the United States hopefully we’re still working on that but there is I think our duty again as

19:23 citizens so that’s something we talked about very early on it’s like what is their duty right now what is our responsibility is to continue to be diligent and vigilant and thoughtful and future-oriented in a kind of optimistic way where the choices you make have an

19:43 impact right now they always have and they always will it’s just their your capacity to make an impact can be is magnified and that our the exposure of all these ideas creates an opportunity for us to to create the democratic habits right the

20:07 habits those deliberative habits those habits of speech and reading and being up-to-date that will make this country that much stronger into the future and everyone has a role in that I think that’s a good way to think about this here in our last episode of season one is the you know the the actions that we can take sometimes those actions are are

20:29 quiet actions of observation and and recording sometimes they’re taking action and remembering that if you’re watching this now you have the ability to affect those changes with thoughtfulness and with reason and and and hopefully those habits are a big part of that yeah absolutely I think that’s the the beauty of self-government

20:50 is that we continue to have the opportunity to shape our own future and that takes work it takes intentionality it takes understanding and seeking understanding but it’s a it’s a great opportunity that we all have and and one that I think will we can come away from this stronger and more able to to participate in and this is BR this is

21:12 our bright and early last episode but Bri is not going anywhere we are we don’t have summer break is basically what’s happening because there is so much for us to do in this new experience of Technology and democracy and society we a lot planned so we want to talk a

21:36 little bit about kind of how you can stay involved with us how you can engage with our resources better and what we’re looking for and what what you can what what do you need want you are the future young young voters citizens Americans of our society and the Bill of Rights Institute wants to be here for you into

21:59 the future so let us know we always have Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and YouTube comments and we’re trying to figure out tick-tock maybe i’ve been i got an account finally i was like a lurker for a while but I finally made an account so that I could save some really cool videos that I’ve been fighting enemy rates future stories will

22:20 have a happening so Gary and Kirk since Gary is our programs manager he has some things talk about about Student Program so Gary why don’t you tell us kind of what’s coming up absolutely grab the timing you know for those who may not know we we like to follow the the school

22:40 years right so the reason this is our last episode of this season is because we’re considering the school years to be wrapping up around now but again we move right into our summer sessions of things so so yeah we’re gearing up for a lot of exciting student programs and like you said Rachel I I hope you stay in touch with us with ideas um but we have lots for students all the way from resources

23:01 of interesting things you may want to be involved in we’ve got summer programs like constitutional Academy we’ll have programs in the fall and ongoing having to do with free speech and and student agency is is kind of our big theme going on right now so so student voice really hearing your thoughts your questions your involvement in our society is a big

23:22 part of its programs and really a big highlight of starting right after this is our getting ready for our think the vote platform to gear up for the election year so actually it’s gonna be big and weird that’s how would’ve been anything and good way to remember think the belt that’s literal it’s gonna be all about whether or not you yourself are a voting

23:44 citizen and the national election still we invite you to look at our storehouse of issues to get involved in real interactions with other students and with brilliant experts and and people involved in all different aspects of our society not just policy in government but also in entrepreneurship in

24:04 philanthropy and community building and communication and so we’ve got lots of opportunities for students and all it takes is staying in touch with us and getting involved and what we’ll have for you in return is deep explorations about big concepts and practical things that you can do your own community abs and that’s so

24:24 exciting and I think again all of this energy all of this work that you’ve been doing this to be aware of what’s happening is gonna have an effect on how you think about your civic duties right your civic life and big part of that is our democratic republic and the fact that we have a presidential election

24:44 coming up it’s gonna be one of the more bizarre presidential elections in American history because it’s taking place in the middle of a pandemic and it’s a really contentious issues they’re really contentious issues that were surrounding that that existed before um that are heightened by what’s happening right now and so people are gonna need help

25:05 thinking through that and there’s an opportunity for the young people of America to have a voice in thinking through that yeah and if I can jump in exactly it’s the visa the issues don’t go away but the surface changes and the details of it change and again I want to insist even if you’re not a voting age for that particular election the beauty

25:26 of why we say an election year is a big deal is you’re gonna see a lot of more opportunities for resources to talk about these issues they’re always there but during an election year particularly around fall is when lots of different places are gearing up to share and explore these things with you and we’re going to be among them and really putting our our nose of the grindstone and that’s not

25:47 the only I mean it’s just there’s a lot of work to be done in advance Oh in September yeah we’re not gonna be inviting you into the conversations and the other so and then Kirk your your team is busily working on content but part of that content is directly not not

26:08 we finding BR I’s main content focuses on teacher resources for classrooms but there’s a lot of content that’s focused just on student engagement especially our YouTube channel and the videos were producing there and our social media channels so why don’t you talk a little bit about kind of what we’re planning to do in both of those platforms yeah so

26:29 we’re continuing to release our homework help video series which takes a look at do different Supreme Court cases but now we’re also starting to look at more bigger government concepts things like federalism like we’ve been discussing here on bright and early and finding good ways to think about those things and particularly for Supreme Court cases likely things that you’ll come in contact with in your government classes if you haven’t already telling the story

26:51 behind those cases I mean really putting you in the position where you’re able to wrestle with those big central ideas as we continue to move forward here so I think they’re all gonna be really exciting we’re excited to launch more of them this fall and we’ll continue to stay engaged and the other thing that Kirk’s team does is if you follow our social media channels we have a lot of

27:11 really cool like this day in history or think about this idea kind of content and his team is the one that puts all that together making sure that you are able to stay informed with key issues with current events news articles so if you follow our Twitter or our Instagram will or our Twitter will repost articles

27:33 news articles that have constitutional themes so if you’re like I really what is going on with we use federalism a lot what is going on with federalism they’ll be there’ll be a hash tag that shares an article from The Washington Post or from you know the Wall Street Journal or from a local newspaper where something particular happens that had to do with issues of federalism and Kirk’s team

27:55 does an amazing job of making sure that our social media knows all about what’s happening and tying those current events to historical context and and binding those threads together so anything else we think these kids want to know about guys there’s so much there is so much I

28:15 think there’s always gonna be things that we want to engage with students about and so yeah my biggest thing is you know to make sure it’s very clear you do not hesitate to reach out for us with anything where there’s a question an idea sorting through anything you know these are big concepts and we all enjoy tackling them together we don’t

28:37 have answers to partake from but rather we just love the pursuit of it and living through history day to day yes that’s right that’s right and and we appreciate all of you joining us join with us on that journey as we think about these things we don’t have all the

28:57 answers but we’re certainly people who are curious about finding more out about them so we appreciate your helping us along that journey and and we hope you’ve enjoyed spending some time with us we do always have more questions though because that is how we exist in this world and on that note we just want to say thank you it’s been a crazy

29:18 couple of months it’s been a really beneficial and beautiful experience I am I’m gonna speak for myself so I was in the classroom for almost ten years I don’t have students right now but one of the impetus is for us coming together on this is giving students somewhere to go

29:40 to think about the big issues and – for us to be able to be excited about talking about them for young people so I want to thank you for that opportunity I have really enjoyed getting the opportunity to think through these issues and how I would present them to young people and what excites me about what’s happening right now and what

30:00 excites me about the future for you and for our society and so I think that we are Americans are incredibly resilient and incredibly capable in solutions and problem-solving I talked about that in one of our very first episodes when it came to de Tocqueville and what he saw

30:20 as Americans great America’s greatness was its ability to come together in times of need and so over the past two months we’ve seen that in spades and I that that brings me a sense of joy and hope for the future and hopefully that you’re seeing that in your communities ya know I just

30:41 similarly I I think the the overwhelming feeling I have for now is is one of gratitude and thanks to you for spending some time with us to choosing to use some of the time that you’re at home now or if you’re looking back on the future or whatever it is you’re doing – – just spend a little time with us and and and I hope it’s been clear you know part of our impetus was just to

31:02 say that we are here and we are listening and we are sharing and you can count on us to be around no matter what things look like yeah absolutely thank you so much and please do stay in touch we’re here to continue to support you so let us know how we can best do that and and we are happy to do all that we can so young people of the Internet

31:24 on behalf of Brighton Early’s season 1 thank you so much be well stay bright and we’ll see you in the future bye you