First Five Now: How Gen Z is Using Its First Amendment Freedoms to Change the World

Generation Z – people born from the late 1990s to early 2000s – has faced an onslaught of unprecedented events at a young age.

The new book “Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America” argues that young Americans have not buckled under pressures including school shootings, climate change and COVID-19. Instead, Gen Z has used its First Amendment freedoms — including speech, assembly and petition — to organize and engage politically.

Author John Della Volpe shares his findings, and Gen Z climate justice activist Zanagee Artis shows how he was determined since high school to begin reshaping climate policy before he was old enough to vote.

Now a senior at Brown University, Artis has co-founded Zero Hour, a youth-led climate movement that creates entry points, training and resources for new young activists and organizers.

Della Volpe is director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, where he has led the institute’s polling initiatives on understanding American youth since 2000.

This program will premiere March 22 at 2 p.m. Eastern on our YouTube channel.

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