YouSaid · the spoken record

Varshini Prakash

lines on the record: 20
first: 2020-11-05
most recent: 2020-11-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Exactly. I think what the Republicans did was they shifted the entire center of gravity around the conversation towards a more consistent conservative. And a lot of people, you know, they're like, why don't you just compromise with Republicans? Why don't you find some kind of middle ground? But the truth is they have pulled the entire conversation so far to the right that on climate change, I mean, the middle ground is probably worse than we are today. And so we need a new center of gravity. And what young people are doing is holding the Democratic Party, but also the country as a whole to a standard of we have got to be in line with what science and justice demands. You know, we are not about one political party. We're not even about one political champion or anything like that. We're about the ultimate mission at hand. And if we stay true to that and we build a movement that is powerful enough, perhaps we can shift the entire conversation towards that end.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You need more resources, but I think we have a lot of money at our disposal, not just at sunrise, but as the entire left or the environmental movement, the question is, is that being wielded effectively or is it not?”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I think we're discerning about which funders we actually take money from. We do take money from foundations. I think the key here is that you can do quite a lot with not that much money. I mean, if you think about the first year in 2018 when we did that Pelosi action, when the Green New Deal became a national conversation, what we saw those thousands and thousands of young people come out at the Wordberg for the first time, we were working on a minuscule budget like minuscule. We had a very, very small team. I think we can't underestimate underdogs in this situation, especially underdogs who are terrified for our future and are willing to do whatever we need to do to ensure that the future doesn't unfold in the way that we are, you know, the future that we are barreling towards. There's a real question of at what point does that not become enough?”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we really rely on both grassroots donations as well as foundations. And so we run a really robust grassroots program and particularly ask people to become monthly donors. So that is like the most sustainable way. And grassroots donations are also amazing because they allow us to not necessarily have to be beholden to foundations or wealthy individuals, but allow us to be beholden to like the everyday people that we're trying to organize.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I think if you can identify that fire that is already burning with you and bring it out, that is the spark that gets you involved.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lobbying efforts or policy ventures, and actually it's relatively new that we have mass organizations that are targeting everyday people who have not participated in movements before to join in. And I find the most effective ways to bring individuals into the movement is one, literally to ask them and see what they say. I think a lot of people do not have the question, will you join a movement? But two, helping people identify like what's your skin in the game? What's your stake in this fight? Who do you love? What do you love that stands to lose in the midst of the climate crisis? For me, like I'm the child of two immigrants and the story of the way the climate crisis is unfolding in India affects me super deeply. It is the reason I think why I so clearly pursued the path of climate action.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I would say for the most part we focus on those who understand the reality of the climate crisis, who are terrified about it and want to do something about it but haven't yet found the community or the movement to participate in. And I do find that fear holds those people back as well. Young people actually of both political parties are terrified about the climate crisis. And we know that young people support moving to a renewable energy economy in super majorities. The problem is a lot of those individuals are sort of standing on the sidelines. And most of the reason why they are standing on the sidelines is because they literally have not been asked to join. What we found was for a very long time, the climate movement was kind of doing a lot of preaching to the choir, a lot of navel gazing. If they even had grassroots organizing efforts at all, a lot of them did not. They were either, you know, on the hill.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Project C in Birmingham stood for project confrontation. And this was these were strategically wielded moments of action that were aimed at forcing an entire nation to grapple with the reality of black Americans in this country. And you saw kids getting shot at and fire hose and unleash dogs upon and it was something that woke up the nation to the crisis at hand around white supremacy. And so, you know, I don't think we're at that stage quite yet with the climate movement, but I think for people to truly understand, you know, the reason why we do civil disobedience or the reason why we take this type of action is so people so that we can bring the kind of private suffering that is happening all across the country into public relief and force that into the national dialogue.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That day I was getting call after call after call from reporters being like, why on earth are you going after Democrats? Why on earth would you do that? Why would you make these choices? And I mean, we've also gone after Republicans in the same way asking like, why do you need to use these sort of disruptive conflict-oriented tactics? But the truth is, like, it has sparked the conversation. You know, many of these tactics that were used really we learned from studying the civil rights movement who were expert strategists. Amazing.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Made $850,000 of the 1.3 million phone calls that were made to voters in his district ultimately helping him defeat Elliot Engel. Like I'm watching 14 year olds who can't even vote in this election, who are training and leading hundreds of other young people in how to get politically activated. So this is a possibility. I feel a lot of hope around that. And I think our next generation is fully activated.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, absolutely. I think we realized very early on we cannot continue to just rail against a set of people in the political establishment who do not come from our communities, who do not hold our values. We have to kick people like that out of office and we have to replace them with people who will fight for our communities. And that might not happen in the next two years or the next three years, but we are showing right now that young people, you know, people in general are ready to get politically activated. There are lots of Democrats who, while they may purport to understand the science, have not taken action or heeded the dire warnings and are not fighting with a deep understanding and visceral understanding of what the calamities are ahead of us. And so, you know, we saw Jamal Bowman oust Elliot Angle in New York 14. Sunrise teenagers, literally teenagers.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That will require a movement of millions. And what Sunrise is attempting to do is, you know, taking direct action, but also ultimately we are going to have to create a movement that has millions of people that can quite literally bring business as usual to a halt in this country that can say, you know what, like our institutions, our government, our towns, our cities, they cannot continue to operate as though this crisis is not upon us and that will require many, many more millions of people being in the streets.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. I mean, that has to be the plan. I think for us, we are also recognizing when you consider the expanse of what it means to tackle the climate crisis. It isn't just, you know, okay, we decarbonize or whatever. There is a whole, I mean, we probably have to pass dozens of pieces of legislation at the federal level over the next decade of time, which means that people with our values have to govern and hold on to governing power for perhaps a decade or longer. I mean, growing up sort of at the line between the death of bipartisanship and the birth of political tribalism, and it is almost inconceivable for me to even imagine the federal government being able to pass that level of policy. So for us to exert the kind of pressure both outside the halls of Congress as well as electing the kind of people who can exert internal pressure.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let her check it out. Right, exactly. And so it's coupling these big viral moments that garner media attention, but also just spread the word organically to potentially millions of people who have never heard of a movement like this before, but would totally want to participate in one, and then giving them routine, consistent opportunities and structures within their own communities that they can take action on the day-to-day. So it's like, yes, come to DC. We issued the call in over a thousand young people came to DC within 10 days, three weeks following this action at Pelosi's office. And then they went back to their communities and started local chapters where they could continue the work. And so I think, you know, both combining the viral moments, but also the brass tacks day-to-day grassroots organizing, that is what builds power in local communities.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Action and have our backs by backing the Green New Deal and by mandating that any Democrat that wants to claim the mantle of leadership in this party swears off of oil and gas money. And I think because that moment, people weren't used to seeing people issue challenges to Democrats, people weren't used to seeing youth movements taking action. And because there was just a real moment around the climate disasters that were taking place during that time and the IPCC report that had just come out and this new leader in Congress, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who joined us at that action, I think it created this moment of the worldwide.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That you came from and start a local chapter in sunrise and start pushing your politicians to get off of fossil fuel money, to put forward climate plans that are commensurate with what the science is mandating. And that kind of grew and expanded and we did trainings. I remember like sleeping on the floors of just people I barely knew in Colorado or, you know, going out there and doing some trainings that like three people showed up to in the beginning days because no one knew who we were or what we were up to. But slowly and slowly we built chapters across the country. But I think everything came to a head when we did this quite dramatic direct action at Nancy Pelosi's office about a week after Democrats took back control of Congress in 2018 and said, you know, our generation just helped you get back into office. Now we need you to take.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I will say at the beginning days of sunrise were not nearly as pretty as the actions at Pelosi's office or whatever else that people might know us from. We had literally six of us or eight of us at the beginning. It was all over the country. So some of us were based in Kentucky, some in Michigan, some in California, all over. The first thing that we ever did at Sunrise was we took 15 of our friends and we canvassed. We went and talked to like over a thousand people at the People's Climate March in April of 2017. Two months later, we brought together 20 of the top leaders that we had worked with in the climate movement up until that point to Pennsylvania, to Philly, where we train them in the basic sort of theory of change, the strategy, the story that encompasses sunrise movement and issued a call to action. Like we want you to go back to the community.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Civil rights movement, LGBTQ movements, so far as Indian revolutionary movements, to understand how to build mass movements. And then we also realized as we were watching Bernie Sanders gain power, but also Donald Trump, when we reckoned with the fact that the climate fight, the climate crisis was not an urgent political issue by any means in this country that we had to combine our social movement organizing with political power. And so when we launched in the summer of 2017, we had our theory of changes were largely around building a critical mass of enthusiastically supportive public officials on the issue, building a large and active vocal, disruptive base of young people and combining those two strategies for long-term change.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it was a number of us who were kind of getting activated in the Obama days, right? So I was working on a fossil fuel divestment campaign at UMass Amherst where I went to school. Others of us were working on the International Climate Negotiations or fighting against the Keystone Excel pipeline or so on and so forth. And I think we realized that the sort of culmination of the Obama years that much had been won, but at the same time, the power of our movements were not keeping pace with the rising seas, the worsening storms, essentially there was a crisis that was becoming a full-blown emergency and we didn't have a force that could contend with the disaster that would be upon us. And so we actually went into a period of study. We gathered about 12 young climate activists from around the country. We went into a period of study for a year learning from other social movements.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We were just young people who were fed up with seeing politicians kicking the can down the road, sweeping what is the greatest threat facing our generation under the rug and refusing to deal with the reality of the crisis at hand and realized, you know, at the young age of, well, I was 22 at the time, there weren't any adults in the room and we had to step up and take action.”
2020-11-05 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · How I Built Resilience: Varshini Prakash of Sunrise Movement · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT