Introducing On Our Minds: Election 2024, special podcast season from PBS News Student Reporting Labs

August 21, 2024 

A special seven-episode season of On Our Minds, a teen life podcast from PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL), launches on August 21 and will focus on the issues and impacts of the 2024 election for young people.

According to the 2023 CIRCLE youth poll, youth are ready to drive political action, and 41 million Gen Z are eligible to vote this year. But few election stories are produced by youth. Teens from SRL’s Student Advisory Team originated the idea of an election podcast and pitched the concept to SRL because, as they said in their initial pitch “we seek to change that.” They believe that youth are more likely to feel represented in political reporting if young people report the stories.

“We were impressed by the students’ passion and commitment to reporting on political issues that young people care about, from free speech to misinformation and interviews with Gen Z officials and candidates,” said lead podcast producer Briget Ganske. “On Our Minds is focused on highlighting stories and interviews about youth experience, so this project is well suited for a special podcast season.”  

On Our Minds: Election 2024 is hosted by and co-created with teens: this season involves dozens of student correspondents, reporters, social content creators, and researchers from 15 states.

This special season,  On Our Minds: Election 2024 will include interviews with America’s youngest political candidates and cover topics like how students’ conceptions of America have changed, the electoral college, who gets to vote and make decisions, free speech and censorship, and election disinformation. Episodes will be released every other Wednesday starting August 21, 2024. 

Select segments and social videos this season are collaborations with Teen Vogue’s 2024 Election Correspondents.

On Our Minds: Election 2024 is distributed by PRX/Dovetail. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes and segments are also available for republication: learn more here.

Meet the co-hosts!

Nico Fischer is a junior at Santa Clara High School in Santa Clara, California. He is a member of the KQED Youth Advisory Board, a 2023-2024 member of the Student Reporting Labs Student Advisory Team, and a youth commissioner in Santa Clara County.

“Youth are going to face the brunt of this election’s impact, and I’m excited to tell our stories.”

 

Poojasai Kona is a junior at Frisco High School in Frisco, Texas. She was a 2023 Student Reporting Labs Academy Fellow, and served two terms with the Student Reporting Labs Student Advisory Team.

“This season is more than just the 2024 elections—it’s about what it means to be an American and what the American dream really means for youth nowadays.”

 

For this special season, On Our Minds: Elections 2024 is working with 26 students from 15 states, plus Puerto Rico, including:

  • 7 Special Correspondents:
    • Allison Pope from Rexburg, Idaho
    • Maggie LeBeau from Lombard, Illinois
    • Khadeejah Khan from Santa Clara, California
    • Simran Gupta from Cumming, Georgia
    • Keely Crawford from Edmond, Oklahoma
    • Aidan Booker from Twinsburg, Ohio
    • Grace Go from Mercer Island, Washington 
  • 14 Student Reporters
    • Olivia Brandeis from Danville, California
    • Orion Boone from Orlando, Florida
    • Natalie Erzal from Cedar Park, Texas
    • Sophia Ortiz from San Antonio, Texas
    • Hannah Coulthurst from Covina, California
    • Imania Mohamed from Metuchen, New Jersey 
    • Josephine Murphy from New York, New York
    • Carlos Guo from Santa Clara, California
    • Rebecca Kunze from Santa Clara, California
    • Harrison Tran from Savannah, Georgia
    • Miranda Jatib from San Juan, Puerto Rico
    • Adelaida Siaca from San Juan, Puerto Rico
    • Bree Campbell from New York, New York
    • James Kim from Dallas, Texas
  • 1 Social Media Content Creator
    •  Maria Witcher from Detroit, Michigan 
  • 2 Fact-Checkers/Researchers
    •  Yasmine Sakr from Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas
    •  Reesa Venterea from Mounds View, Minnesota

More from students on the making of this season

Hear from students on the process of making On Our Minds: Election 2024— read this piece recently published in The Currnt, and watch this keynote from the NAMLE conference this summer.

Contribute to On Our Minds

The next season of On Our Minds will explore the theme “Who inspires you?”
Learn about opportunities for applying to be a host, producing an audio story, submitting music, and more here! 

About Student Reporting Labs

PBS News Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a national youth journalism training program of PBS News and WETA that trains teenagers across the country to produce stories that highlight the achievements, challenges, and reality of today’s young people. SRL creates transformative educational experiences through video journalism that inspire students to find their voice and engage in their communities. Since 2009, SRL youth media producers have helped students place over 100 video news reports on PBS News Hour’s nightly broadcast and more on local media outlets and reach 3,000 educators through its free learning platform StoryMaker. Visit www.studentreportinglabs.org and www.story-maker.org to learn more.

About PBS News

PBS News is the consolidator news brand within NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, D.C. Major corporate funding is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, and Raymond James, with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the National Science Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, Friends of the News Hour and others. More information on PBS News is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. You can watch and find PBS News programming on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. News Hour Productions produces PBS News Hour, PBS News Weekend and Washington Week with The Atlantic.

About WETA

Founded in 1961, the Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is the leading public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, serving Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia with educational, cultural, news and public affairs programs and services. WETA hosts the production of PBS NewsHour, a classical music radio station, and programming that focuses on the United Kingdom. Learn more at https://weta.org.