The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

The stakes of democracy are always high. Yet, the 2020 election carries a weight that American voters have not felt in decades. Although so much is on the line, our two potential outcomes remain relatively unclear. In this post-election conversation, we unpack this critical moment in U.S. history and discuss how a tired nation will begin to rebuild after a year of hostility and division.

Our world is changing at an increasingly rapid pace as technology and artificial intelligence become more dominant in the workplace and the world. Most employers list soft skills as the most important things they look for in prospective team members. Most recently, we've all learned that success requires mastering the soft skills of adaptability, teamwork, critical thinking, communication, and resilience - all skills that make up the entrepreneurial mindset.\r\n\r\nJoin us to hear from a diverse group of Northeast Ohio leaders from higher education, corporations, and the nonprofit community to share perspectives on the skills and mindset people need to find success in the real world.

The old adage \"as Ohio goes, so goes the nation\" is repeated by political commentators and pundits during every election cycle. And for good reason: Ohio has accurately chosen the winner in 29 of the last 31 presidential elections, more than any other state.\r\n\r\nBut what makes Ohio so uniquely positioned to reflect the current identity of our country and accurately predict the outcomes of elections? Author David Giffels spent a year traveling 4,000 miles throughout the state, visiting people and places that offer valuable reflections of the national questions and concerns -- all as a historic Presidential election looms.\r\n\r\nIn this current climate, the question of America's identity has rarely been more urgent, and no American place has ever more reliably illuminated that identity than Ohio. Join us as Giffels shares stories from his journey and what he learned about the future of America from Ohioans.\r\n\r\nThe livestream will be available beginning at 12:30 p.m. Have questions? Tweet them at @TheCityClub or send a text to 330.541.5794.

As our lives are increasingly controlled and organized by smartphones and apps and our relationships maintained on social media, discussions about the impact of technology on our privacy, kids and families, race and gender roles, and democracy have taken on new urgency. What are the costs of this constant interaction with technology, both on an individual level and as a society?\r\n\r\nJames P. Steyer, founder & CEO of Common Sense Media, is all too familiar with these issues. Since 2003, Common Sense Media has helped parents and educators navigate the digital world with their kids and students. His new book, Which Side of History?: How Technology Is Reshaping Democracy and Our Lives, features a collection of essays from the country's leading writers and thinkers on how to improve approaches and policies related to technology.\r\n\r\nOne of these emerging conversations is the role technology can play in parenting. Julie Lythcott-Haims, the former Stanford University dean of freshmen, has spent the past 15 years drawing attention to the downsides of parental over-involvement, cumulating in her 2015 best-selling book How to Raise an Adult. In Which Side of History, Lythcott-Haims contributes an essay discusses the rise of stealth parenting, the use of surveillance and other technologies to monitor children in an attempt to keep them \"safe.\" But at what cost? Could those technologies, created in part to aid parents, actually hurt the parent-child relationship?\r\n\r\nJoin us as Steyer and Lythcott-Haims discuss technology\'s impact on modern parenting and parents\' ability to raise the next generation of independent and resilient adults.\r\n\r\nThe livestream will be available beginning at 5:30 p.m. Have questions? Tweet them at @TheCityClub or send a text to 330.541.5794.

The 2020 Presidential election arrives at one of the most contentious racial moments in the last half century. A 2019 Public Religion Research Institute /Atlantic magazine poll found that a majority of Americans (83 percent) believe the country is divided by race. An earlier survey by PRRI in 2018 found that two-thirds of adults who approve of President Trump's performance said that discrimination against whites has become a big problem. Ours is a time in which our national discourse increasingly echoes racially polarized Beltway political debates--from birthright citizenship and gerrymandering to DACA and voting rights and more. For young and old, the very ideals long synonymous with U.S. democracy are in flux. Likewise, notions such as voting rights and immigration, once seen bedrocks of American national identity, are threatened by outsized presidential power and the limitations of our system of checks and balances--both highlighted by the recent impeachment inquiry.\r\n\r\nAgainst this backdrop, Election 2020 is a historic election in which women voters, Black women in particular, alongside young voters 18-29 who will comprise the largest share of the electorate for the first time in U.S. history, are both expected to play a defining role.\r\n\r\nAdd to that the role technology will play in mediating Black access to the key instruments that govern our democratic process--from redistricting and the census count to online voter suppression and the expectation of even more foreign election interference in 2020 than ever--and our ability to think strategically and clearly about the intersection of racial justice, technology, and democracy will not only impact the election but will be defined by it.\r\n\r\nThis forum is concerned with the role popular culture and young voters can play in bridging these divides. Given the intersection of popular culture, celebrity, social media, and new technologies, it is past time that young voters bring these tools to bear as we re-imagine the future of our democracy.

Two of America's most recent presidents won the election, but lost the popular vote. When over 50 percent of U.S. voters oppose a candidate -- yet these candidates can still win public office -- it is no surprise that the nature of American voting is being called into question. In Maine, nine of the eleven gubernatorial elections between 1994 and 2014 were won with less than 50 percent of votes. That is, until Maine became the first state to implement ranked-choice voting (RCV) for statewide elections for Governor, state legislature, and Congress. They will also be the first state to implement RCV in the upcoming federal election.\r\n\r\nRCV allows voters to rank their choices among as many of the candidates as they want, and no candidate is declared the winner until someone receives more than 50 percent of the votes.\r\n\r\nSupporters of RCV believe the system provides more choices for voters; ensures that winners represent the will of the majority; and discourages negative campaigning. Critics point to the difficulty, confusion, and expense that would result from instituting a new national voting system, especially one that has been minimally tested.\r\n\r\nAs Americans brace for what is forecasted to be a contentious national election, what if there was another way to vote? Join us as we explore RCV with a panel of national experts.

The Ohio Debate Commission (ODC) organized a virtual event moderated by journalists featuring four candidates vying for two Ohio Supreme Court seats: Justice Sharon Kennedy and challenger John P. O'Donnell, a judge on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, and incumbent Justice Judith French and challenger Jennifer Brunner, a judge on the 10th District Court of Appeals and former Ohio Secretary of State. Multiple media outlets across the state will air that event prior to Election Day or it can be watched online here.\r\n\r\nNormally, judicial races do not receive much attention from the media or the public. However, the high-profile confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanagh - and the impending nomination of a Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the recently deceased Ruth Bader Ginsberg - have highlighted the critical role judges and the courts play in our democracy. The Ohio Supreme Court race is considered by many to be a crucial statewide race on the Ohio ballot. How will the election affect Ohioans and the outcome of the cases facing the Court next year, including the redrawing of legislative maps? What did we learn from the ODC event about the candidates and how they might decide cases?\r\n\r\nJoin us as three distinguished retired judges analyze the ODC event and discuss the future of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

As in past iterations of growth and development, U.S. cities are driven by technological innovation. Now that the digital era is here, what can Cleveland do to seize the opportunities presented by new technologies to create a more inclusive and resilient city for our diverse population, which in turn will attract the innovative businesses and citizens we want to draw here?\r\n\r\nAs the City of Cleveland and the Urban Land Institute plan for a 21st Century City Symposium, to be held in March, 2021, Adie Tomer, Fellow at the Brookings Institution, will kick off the discussion with a focus on the best practices that will allow cities to maximize their future prosperity. After Mr. Tomer's remarks, he and Freddy L. Collier, Jr., Director of Planning for the City of Cleveland, will discuss some current initiatives nationally and in Cleveland.

Historically, the United States has one of the lowest rates of youth voter turnout in the world. For Americans under 30-years-old, the voter turnout rate is nearly 38 percentage points below the rate of eligible voters older than 60.\r\n\r\nThis disparity isn\'t necessarily for lack of enthusiasm or interest. In fact, teens have regularly made headlines during the current presidential voting cycle for their activism and continued interest and investment in politics. This enthusiam was also evidenced by the support base of former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. Sanders, an Independent turned Democrat, regularly boasts a base of potential voters who heavily skewed young. However, each time election day rolls around, turnout is dismal once again.\r\n\r\nHow the gap between enthusiastic youth and lasting political involvement and change be bridged?\r\n\r\nStudies have shown closing the gap could be made possible by simplifying the means by which eligible people can vote, or even automatic voter registration. Potentially lowering the voting age is a possible solution gaining national traction, with the goal to lead to an increase in interest in politics for America\'s upcoming generation.\r\n\r\nJoin us for a City Club Youth Forum discussion on the impact of youth political activism and the influence of their vote.

Over the last few months, our nation\'s educators have been forced to be in a constant state of revaluating of practices to ensure all children can continue to thrive in distance-learning. Much of this shift requires the education community to consider equity as a facet of student success, as systemic racism, cultural backgrounds, and income level has massive impacts on behavior, academics, and social development. Megan R. Holmes, Ph.D. and Habeebah R. Grimes, M.A., Psy.S., LSPSY, discuss mental health in education.