To quote Steve Malkmus: "I'm on the radio - Radiooooo."

by Alex Steed

Published November 11, 2008 @ 07:44AM PT

Check out the Mp3 of my hour on the Deborah Lindsay show here.

I was just on Tomorrow Matters with Deborah Lindsay.

by Alex Steed

Published November 10, 2008 @ 04:15PM PT

Tomorrow Matters can be found online here, and I talked about the Millennials Changing America Tour for a whole hour (which really felt like it went by in a "jiffy," as super-old people say). We discussed Ryan Is Hungry and "back to the land 2.0," Focus the Nation, Abdel Kareem Soliman, and response to citizen journalists at the Republican Convention. I had a great time giving the interview, and as soon as the MP3 is available, I'll post it accordingly.

Curious about the content, my friends?

by Alex Steed

Published November 09, 2008 @ 08:57PM PT

The grand vision for this project on the whole was based around the idea that I would meet rad folks and tell their story immediately afterward by way of posting video, series of photos, and/or a narrative blog entry about our conversation/their significance/my thoughts, criticisms and concerns. Over the course of trip its become apparent that there is exponentially more input than there is any time for output and it is exceedingly difficult to accomplish the mechanics of creating output while driving / trying to find a place to crash for the night / picking seeking treatment for the staph infection that could only have come from a Motel 6 comforter. For that reason, I have basically faced the fact that the best I will be able to do is to take pages of notes, post here and there to let you know interesting stuff I'm picking up along the way (like glass splinters embedded my scalp from when I walked through a plate glass door, which you can see the evidence of in this picture, and which I'll go into greater detail in one of the next couple of posts), and then really dive into the content, observation, big questions, big picture, explosion when I am able to sit at a desk in early December. I beg you to stay tuned in the meantime. Ask questions. Make suggestions. Make fun. Tell your friends. Be a rabble rouser. Keep it klassy.

Saying 'goodbye' to Callum.

by Alex Steed

Published November 09, 2008 @ 08:43PM PT

Callum Ingram, my faithful co-pilot up until this point, is home at last in San Francisco, California. Callum, who moved out here from Cambridge, Massachusetts a couple of months back, flew back out to the Boston areato give me a hand with all of the on-the-road logistics and he's been a really phenomenal partner through and through. When I'd stress and cuss and freak out and feel like the end of it all was right around the corner, Callum was always a trooper and excellent when it came to diffusing situations. He has been extremely intellectually curious, a great B.S. buster, and an all-around pleasure to have on board. He'll be missed and whenever I sing outloud and off-key to Chuck Prophet, the Modern Lovers or Bruce Springsteen, I'll be thinking of him.

Calling all Millennials - What does Change look like?

by Alex Steed

Published November 07, 2008 @ 08:20PM PT

From Change.org: 

"I kept waiting for him to get shot."

by Alex Steed

Published November 07, 2008 @ 05:54PM PT

"During his acceptance speech, all that time he was talking up on stage, I kept waiting for him to get shot."

-Young, happy-hour-drinking hipster in San Francisco, referring to fears that President-Elect Obama will get shot because of his race.

Much like the importance of acknowledging our role as a generation that has largely felt uncomfortable finding any fort of national pride to this point, it is also important to point out that we're one that holds onto a substantial amount of skepticism with regard to our own successes. We're not quite sure what to do with them, as we haven't come by many in a political sense, and we've been raised by a generation of people who, every time a representative of social progress found some level of prominance, were disappointed to see that leader martyred.

X, Y and Seattle Works.

by Alex Steed

Published November 06, 2008 @ 05:06PM PT

[From Sarah Haeger over at Seattle Works' blog]

Alison (Seattle Works executive director) and I had the opportunity to meet with Alex Steed, a millennial activist and freelance journalist who is traveling the country to uncover what motivates the millennial generation—those born between 1980 and 1992 and defined by their digital connectivity. The project, called MILLENNIALS CHANGING AMERICA, aims to paint a comprehensive and diverse picture of what these young activists think, look like, and how they function.

While in Seattle over the Halloween weekend, we met-up with Alex at the Greenlake Starbucks and engaged in a fascinating discussion about “Millennials” versus and “X’ers” with an aim to find out how different we really are… or aren't. Though it is probably still too early to define this generation, Alex shared some interesting learnings with us including that this generation of activists is content to work within the system to better it, something that almost directly opposes the very essence of what I’ve always considered the definition of activism. Another interesting idea he shared with us was an opportunity he sees for X’ers to ease the cultural shifts happening in the workplace by leveraging Millennial’s eagerness to be mentored.

For me, the most compelling part of our discussion focused around how this generation has been impacted by technology and a radically altered media landscape. Is the rise in citizen journalism and increased corporate transparency account for this generation’s lack of cynicism?  Did the narrow media landscape of earlier generations create a radical and sometimes violent opposition culture because there was no other way for our voices to be heard?

What do you think? Have you noticed any of these trends among your Millennial or X’er friends, family and colleagues? We’d love to hear from you.