Headscratcher: Making Sense of Young Adulthood

Mercedes Molloy is a survivor, activist and founder of Safe Squad, an app committed to providing peace of mind for young women and men across the globe. After a traumatic life event, Mercedes has made it a personal mission to use her voice for good and to provide a solution to a problem that unfortunately still affects far too many people. In this episode, you will get to hear a bit about her story, her advice for other people who have been through similar experiences, her app and how it's different than what else exists on the market, and some of the amazing partnerships she has been able to build in the process. 

Jeremy Ornstein is the former Chair of the High School Democrats of America and a Sunrise Fellow. He has gained national attention for his activism work and his story on NowThis has been viewed over 18 million times. But the best way to learn about Jeremy is in how he describes himself: "I'm fighting for a world where we meet crises head-on, where people can protect the places they love, where everyone has a shot at dignity. And I believe that our generation is leading the way into that world. I love jokes and stories, and wild adventures." 

Brennan Stark is the CEO and founder of Y Innovations and Scope Messenger. After graduating high school in 2017, he completed one semester at the University of Delaware before deciding to drop out and pursue his entrepreneurial ventures. His first venture, Y Innovations, is a nonprofit organization that focuses on creating affordable, environmentally-friendly housing for those in need around the world. Across the last three years, he has grown annual revenues from $5,000 year one to now over $500,000. Brennan has been featured in USA TODAY, given a Tedx talk, and has received a National Science Foundation grant to explore commercialization potential of straw bale construction. His second major venture, which he started in the last 12 months, is Scope Messenger, a mobile app that allows high school students to securely message with college students at 100s of universities. In our conversation, we talk about both of these ideas, where they came from, and how he executed on them. We also talk about dropping out of school, his deep curiosity and love of learning, and how he structures his time living on his own and being his own boss. 

Jacob Chang is the Director of Trends & Marketing for JÜV Consulting, a Gen Z marketing startup. JUV has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, Business Insider, NPR, Bloomberg, MIC, and many more. Jacob is currently a second-year at the University of Chicago and is passionate and has a broad knowledge of Gen Z trends, culture, and social media - which we talk at length about during our conversation. We touch on the rise of facebook groups, activism in the age of social media, what it's like to work for a startup, and several other areas. 

Meghan Grace is an expert on Generation Z, an international speaker, author, podcast host, and consultant. She started researching Generation Z in 2013 and has since co-authored three books: Generation Z Goes to College, Generation Z Leads, and Generation Z: A Century in the Making. 

Sam Demma is the recipient of Contiki's top 35 under 35 global change-maker award, an alumni of Canada’s top 25 under 25 environmentalist award, the co-founder of the social enterprise PickWaste, a podcast host, and a 19-year-old youth speaker. He has been recognized on national news, delivered a TEDx (and TED-Ed) talk, worked with brands such as A&W, and over the past two years has spoken to tens of thousands of people across Canada at over 100 schools, conferences and camps. 

Rory O’hollaren. Rory is a part of the first co-ed class at deep springs, an alternative (and highly competitive to get into) college in the high desert of Eastern California, which was all men before this past year. The school has less than 30 students across two grades, and in addition to academics, students take part in a labor program and in self governance - they hire the faculty, they review student performance, and they handle most of the admissions process. I have for several years now had a fascination with this school, and so it was great to speak with Rory, who is a really inquisitive and thoughtful person, about her experience there this first year. 

Joshua Frye is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Humboldt State University. He teaches a number of courses in the communication curriculum including public speaking, persuasion theory, communication and social advocacy, and argumentation. His research combines rhetoric and political sociology to examine food systems, movements, discourse, and policy. In this episode we talked about public speaking, stress management, emotional intelligence, tactics for crafting campaigns for social movements, and a few other topics. 

This episode we are talking with Olivia Cooley. Olivia just finished her senior year of high school at the moses brown school in providence and she will be a freshman at georgetown in the fall. She is a racial equity and social justice advocate and has a really valuable and interesting story to tell about coming to terms with her racial identity. 

Jeremy LaCasse is an Historian, Educator, and Expert on Effective Leadership. He is the dean of the leadership lab at the Gardner Carney Leadership Institute, the director of the Association of Boarding Schools New Teacher Academy, and the Assistant Headmaster at The Taft School. Additionally, Jeremy was my advisor throughout all of high school and is a meaningful mentor of mine. His advice on leadership, education, and making an impact was invaluable throughout high school. In this episode, we talk about the trappings of leadership, how to achieve social and cultural change, the common conceptions of leadership that are untrue, and much more. 

Jesse Kay is an 18 year old Entrepreneur and the Host of the 20 Under 20s Podcast, where he interviews the brightest minds in business (people like Grant Cardone, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jack Dorsey, and many others). Jesse also works with brands and athletes to help them to better engage their audience through social and digital. He has been featured in Inc, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, and many other media outlets. 

This episode I am talking with Jacob Slaughter. Jacob is a good friend of mine; we were actually roomates at the Mountain School, which you will hear a bit more about in the podcast. An 18 year old high school senior from Vermont, Jacob is one of the top cross country skiers in New England and an accomplished student who has done much of his high school coursework at Dartmouth. He is the winner of a National essay contest and holds two patents, which he designed in middle school. He is about to take a gap year before heading off to Yale. Most importantly though, he is thoughtful and curious and I especially enjoyed our conversation.

This episode I am talking with Adriana Laurent. Adriana is originally from Honduras and just completed her degree in Global Resource Systems with a focus on sustainability and the environment at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is the co-founder of the UBC Climate Hub, a TedX Presenter, and she speaks 4 languages. She’s passionate about climate justice and empowering people to take collective action. We had a fun and engaging conversation about executing ideas, strategies for increasing engagement, sub-narratives within climate activism, among other topics. This episode has a great mix of stories and actionable advice, and I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation as much I did having it.

This episode I am talking with Jeff Sharpe, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Sustainable Summer, a nonprofit that organizes summer immersion programs for high school students. We talked about the structure of his programs, the politicization of climate change, his advice for young people, and much more. Jeff is thoughtful and astute, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Welcome to the first episode of the Headscratcher Podcast, the podcast where we help you make sense of young adulthood.