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Amanda Littman
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Jessica Tarlov
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Amanda Littman
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Jessica Tarlov
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Jessica Tarlov and today I'm joined by someone who spent the last few years building the bench for the future of the Democratic Party. Now she's written a book for those who are ready to step up and lead. She's the co founder and president of Run for Something and the author of the new book when we're in the Next Generation's Guide to Leadership. Amanda Littman, welcome to the show.
Amanda Littman
Thank you for having me.
Jessica Tarlov
Thank you for being here. I want to definitely get into the book, which was awesome, and talk about some of the Run for Something candidates who we've been having on the pod recently and just very excited about. But you know, the big news is the government shutdown. We're talking on day one of this. What are your vibes when it comes to the shutdown? Who do you think is going to blink first? How are you feeling?
Amanda Littman
I don't know how this ends because it doesn't. Well, here's what I'll say. I will hope that Democrats don't blink. I think that showing some fight right now is the right thing to do for the base. I think Chuck Schumer clearly understands this moment is different than in March. He cannot back down. Senate Democrats cannot back down. I'm a little concerned that already three all voted for the initial spending bill, which is a little alarming. But I am hopeful that Democrats will stay strong because Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. It is on them to be able to get things to work. Like the job of a politician is to get your opponents to agree with you and to vote with you to build coalitions. And if they can't do that, they can't do the jobs. I don't know how this ends because I don't see either side backing down easily. I don't know. What do you think?
Jessica Tarlov
I mean, I know that I'm paid to have a good answer to that question, but, you know, I'm unsure. I've been heartened to see Gillibrand and Gary Peters and Brian Schatz, who all voted for the initial Keep the government Open in March, basically say, like, this is different.
Amanda Littman
Yeah.
Jessica Tarlov
And we didn't know what governing under The Trump administration 2.0 was going to look like in the same way in March. And you could make the argument that they essentially operate as if the government is shut down, whether it's open or not. You know, they're. They're uni party rule at this point. I'm watching New Hampshire, what Shaheen and Hassan do. I understand the concerns. You know, Russ Vote is scary. He's a scary dude, and this is what he wanted. Like, if you read Project 2025, which I wish that we had talked about that more on the campaign trail past August, I'm like, oh, we kind of gave up that talking point. This is a playground. Right. He's gone to. He's at like, Six Flags at this point. So that concerns me. But it does feel like Chuck Schumer got the message, especially from the base. And that leads us, you know, directly into the work that you do with Run For Something, you know, making politics more responsive to where Americans are and especially younger Americans. So how is Run For Something going in Trump 2.0? And you started right after Trump was first elected. It feels. I mean, it is technically a long time, but it feels like 50 years.
Amanda Littman
It feels like 10 lifetimes.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah.
Amanda Littman
So Run For Something was born of the ashes of the 2016 election. We launched on Trump's first Inauguration Day thinking this would be a small side project. We'd get 100 people who want to run. Like I was going to get, take a real job. I was campaigned before that. We had a thousand people in the first week. As of today, we're up to nearly 250,000 young people who've raised their hands to say they want to run, nearly 70,000 of them in the last 11 months.
Jessica Tarlov
Amazing.
Amanda Littman
So we've had more people sign up since Trump won in 2024 than we did in the entirety of his first term. It has been a huge moment for candidate recruitment for people looking around, both at the Republican Party and in the Democratic Party and saying, if these guys aren't going to lead, I'm going to have to get in myself and run. We've endorsed more than 3000 campaigns. We've helped elect more than 1500 millennials and gen Z to state and local office all across the country. We've won elections in 49 states. We're only missing Idaho. And it's a real building blocks of power. It's how you build long term sustainable power.
Jessica Tarlov
And what do you do exactly for your candidates?
Amanda Littman
So it starts with recruitments. We ask people to sign up@run4wet.net to look up where they could run. Once they do, they get put into an online community that allows them to both interact with each other with experts. They go through some curriculum and some trainings on how to prepare to run either now or a couple years down the road. They get invited to regular calls where we talk about the basics of running for office. They also get information about stuff our partners are doing. We work with more than 200 groups across the country, both local and national, to help candidates really understand what does it mean to run for office and how to actually execute on it. Once they're on the ballot, they can apply for our endorsement. And once you're endorsed, which we do, about half the people who apply, our regional directors will work directly with you. It's like one part coach, one part consultant, one part therapist. Do you need help getting the state party to answer your emails? Great. We know them. We will shake them down for you. You need access to the voter file. We can do that. You need tools for texting, we can do that. It is a full service. Soup to nuts. And then we stick with people post election day. So our alumni community made up of our endorsed candidates, we help them figure out their next steps. We stay in relationship with them as they think about running for higher office. We make sure that the folks doing recru recruitment for higher offices know these people are there and leading and we promote them across our network. We're really part of the long term talent incubation.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah. You have some very prominent alumni, I would say.
Amanda Littman
Yeah.
Jessica Tarlov
And I want to talk about two candidates in particular that are running this cycle for Senate. Mallory McMorrow in Michigan, James Talarico in Texas. We've had both of them on the podcast. I just saw James Taller's fundraising numbers for the first three weeks. $6.2 million. Can you talk about them and their journey and you know, how you're working with them and why you think they're. That's like 80 questions. But why you think they're resonating at this level?
Amanda Littman
So Mallory we worked with in our first state senate race back in 2018. We were her first endorser. And she often tells, especially when I'm in the room, about how she took our endorsement with her to various other state and local groups who took her seriously because she was endorsed by run for something. She was just a mom wanting to run for office. She had googled how to for office and found us, found a merge and got in the race, flipped that seat, and is now a very competitive candidate for the United States Senate. James was a middle school teacher in Texas who decided to run for state ledge down there to flip a seat in the Texas state House. People often don't remember that he did flip that seat. He held it in 2020. Both of them we've been in conversation with since 2018. So I often describe my work as like being the person who sees the band at the small club before they go do the arena tours. Like I know the cool people who are cool before they're cool. Both of them have a very shared ability to talk like normal people, to so clearly know what they believe, and to be interesting and normal online. I think it's actually a uniquely millennial Gen Z. They know we'll get into the generational stuff a little bit. But I think because both of them have been online their entire lives, they have always had cameras around them. They have always thought about what it means to curate a public presence. That is who they are, but with some boundaries. They, they understand that you have to be a normal, engaging human being. You can't be like a robot politician now. They're not fully aligned ideologically. They're not running the same kind of campaign. They both do talk about their faith, although for James it is much more prominent in his work. They both talk about their family, although Mallory is like a mom of a little four year old and James is not a parent, not married. I don't believe they both are so in touch with their communities. I think that's what makes them really powerful, even as they are very different.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah, I'm glad that you brought up their policies or the ideology of this because I think that there's a big misconception that all young candidates have to be like wild progressives. And that's not the case at all. You just need to be the genuine article to look and talk and seem like you come from the community that you are asking to elect you. Like it wouldn't make sense in Texas, if we are to have any pipe dream shot of ever, you know, flipping that seat to blue for you to have the same politics as aoc.
Amanda Littman
And I think, like, what they both clearly have is, like, a set of values that they hold strongly. Like, they really know who they are and what they believe, and that more so than actually, like, the specifics is what comes through. Not that they don't also have, like, very specific policies they're advocating for. And, you know, they're both very clearly like equity aligned, justice aligned, like pro democracy, but they talk about it very differently. They're prioritizing different policies. They are thinking about this as how they can best represent the places they're running. And if Democrats are going to win in places both like Michigan, Texas, and also New York and California, that's what we need.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah, I'm a big fan of it. Obviously. I work in conservative media, so I spend a lot of time with people on the other side of the fence. But I hate, you know, this rush to do ideological purity tests or to jump on someone who's won a super competitive race. Like, you might not love everything Alyssa Slotkin is saying, but, like, could you have won her race? I. I don't really know. So I wish people would just stand back a little bit.
Amanda Littman
I think it also, like, the ideological purity testing or the even, like, the discourse of you must believe this or that, like, that misses how people consume information. The way that, you know, James talks about wanting to fight for LGBTQ people versus the way that Mallory does, versus the way that, like, Zoram Dani does. Each of it sounds a little different. They're talking about different levers that they can pull. They're talking about it through a very different lens, but because of who they and their stories and the places they're running, it seems real. They believe it. And that's what matters almost more than anything else.
Jessica Tarlov
Totally. You mentioned social media, and I want to talk about that because it's, you know, it's a blessing and a curse. Right. We're all overly addicted, and it's causing, to my mind, a tremendous amount of damage also in people's lives. What are you seeing in terms of how social is being used for politics, both in the good and the bad ways? And what do you see as, like, the right sweet spot for how you can run a viral campaign and also keep people sane?
Amanda Littman
Yeah, I think for the campaigns we've seen, candidates use it really well when they come off like normal people. So they use it the way that they probably would Like, I think a lot. Chuck Schumer's probably never opened his Instagram account.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah.
Amanda Littman
And I actually. It's one of my favorite things to ask older politicians is, like, what social medias do you actually use? Like, what platforms are you on? What is your algorithm showing you? And if they don't even understand the question, that's usually my first flag. Like, I want to know that my candidates and my leaders are the right amount of online. They need to be like, just enough that they understand how they're creating content, they understand how people consume it. You need to be enough of a consumer to be a producer. But I don't want them to have the brain rot, like the worm. Like, I feel like I've got the worms where my brain is like all omelets and toddler content on the Internet. And it's not good. Totally. I think that the candidates who are getting it right, I think Valerie is really good. I think James is really good. I also think there's like a New York City Council member, Chi O Se, who's really, really good. Christian Menevee, who's running for Congress down in Texas. Super compelling online. Zach Walls is running for Senate in Iowa. Super compelling. Moussa Ali, who's running for mayor of Jersey City. Yeah, really fun. Really, really fun. There's like a bunch of really cool candidates who are each doing it a little differently. And I think the thing that I really love about them is most of them are not doing, like, memes. They're not pandering to folks. They're not jumping on trends. I mean, occasionally they'll do the sort of stuff, but mostly they're just treating their audiences like adults and they're using their social media platforms like any other 30 something.
Jessica Tarlov
What do you think about? I mean, you mentioned Chuck Schumer, and he's definitely had some of the cringiest moments online, I think, of anyone, especially being the Senate minority leader. But then there are other boomer elected officials, like a Mark Warner, for instance, who I think has made a very genuine effort to kind of get with the times. Right. And he does his car videos and he's gotten a little more professionalized about it. And run for something is really focused on younger people, though. So where do you see the Gerontocracy battle at this particular moment?
Amanda Littman
You know, the Gerontocracy is a scourge upon the earth, both in government and basically everywhere else. And I think we are at a tipping point for how it's going to change. There are record numbers of young people running for office this year and into 2026, I think we will see more file. There's also, thank God, quite a few older senators who are retiring and making way for this exciting benches. There are young leaders jumping in to primary these older Democrats. I think the challenge is that generally speaking, there are certainly some exceptions here, but generally speaking, the older leaders in the Democratic Party have neither the skills nor the stomach to fight in this moment. Like it took Chuck Schumer getting basically dragged for months both online and in person and yelled at by donors to get to a point where he was ready to shut down the government to fight for our values. We've got to get candidates and leaders in there who have a really clear eyed understanding of who our opponents are that the Republican Party at this moment is not interested in good faith governance. They are not good faith partners negotiating this is not George W. Bush's party or Romney's or John McCain's. It is Trump all the way down. And if you came up politics in the last eight years or came up to it, generally speaking, you see that really clearly. Whereas if you sort of have been in the senate since the 90s or older, you like have a misconception. The same way that like we like the music we liked when we were 13. Politics is stuck in the moment when you first engaged in it. Yeah.
Jessica Tarlov
Like going out to the sphere to see the Backstreet Boys that kind of stuck in the moment.
Amanda Littman
I absolutely do that in a heartbeat.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah, 100%. My husband was like, let's go see the dead. I was like, yeah, out of here with. I mean, he's a weird Gen Xer, but it seems as though there's this emergent theme and you know, hats off to Bernie Sanders and AOC, who I feel like have really been pounding us with it. But you're seeing, I think, some of the most powerful communication around the US versus them, not Democrats versus Republicans. Right. Like the rich and the poor, the big guy and the little guy. I just had Dan Osborne on from Nebraska. He's running against Pete Ricketts this time. John Ossoff has been really compelling and impressing me with his ability to constantly bring the conversation back to corruption. And that's Democratic corruption and Republican corruption and that we have to be the antidote to that. And you know, he's a millennial as well. I think he's 39 now. Is that what you see as like the winning through line for these races and your candidates?
Amanda Littman
It's definitely something that's coming up A lot with them. And, like, really articulating the system isn't working. Or I've heard some even put it, like, the system is working. It's just working for them. It's not working for you. The system is working as it's intended for the rich, for the wealthy, for the elite, for the people who are buying their way in. It is not working for normal people. And I think especially for younger voters who feel like, what is the American dream anymore? How am I ever going to buy a home? How am I ever going to afford kids? How am I ever going to get out of the student loan debt? You told me I had to go to college, and now I'm graduating from college. I don't have job prospects and I have hundreds of thousands of dollars I owe. Like, it feels hopeless. And it feels like every system has been set up to burn us, not support us. So I think candidates who can really speak to that sense of suffocation, I think Mamdani, one of the things that he really spoke to very powerfully was, you know, his thing was like, afford to live, afford to dream. And I think that second half of the sentence is really meaningful for younger people because it's like, God, what could you do with your life if you didn't feel so crushed by finances or by the systems that have failed us?
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah. I particularly loved. I think he was talking to Aaron Burnett and she asked about, like, do you want billionaires to exist anymore? And he said, the real question is, is do you think that working people should be allowed to exist anymore?
Amanda Littman
Yeah.
Jessica Tarlov
And, you know, we both live in New York City and understand that for majority of people here, that's kind of what's pulsating through their lives and their conversations on a daily basis.
Amanda Littman
I mean, my husband and I talk about it almost every day. Like, yeah, if we could afford another kid, we'd have one. We can't. You would have a third, maybe.
Jessica Tarlov
Okay. No, I'm just like. Cause I. I'm scared. Yeah, like, we do it too, because we're like, oh, but we're not gonna have a baby again. And it's. And they're so cute. They're so cute. And then I'm like, oh, my God, it's also so much work. And three in the city is a lot.
Amanda Littman
Well, that's two Ubers. That's anywhere you go. That's two Ubers.
Jessica Tarlov
I know.
Amanda Littman
And I don't have two Uber money. That's what it is.
Jessica Tarlov
We're going to take one quick break. Stay with us. Race the rudders. Raise the sails. Raise the sails.
Amanda Littman
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Jessica Tarlov
Welcome back. I want to make sure that we talk about your book, which is very different from a traditional leadership book, right? That's kind of focused on people who are C suite or C suite adjacent. You know, yours is really focused on young people, new people stepping into power. Tell us about it.
Amanda Littman
So when we're in Charge just came out in May and it's not about politics at all. It's about power. It's about work. It's about the future of work and about what it means to lead differently in this moment. You know, I am 35 years old. I've been running this organization for almost a decade and I've had to do things very differently. From thinking about how we create an environment that has work life balance and so sustainable work culture to how to take family leave as the boss, which when I googled how to do it, I got a lot of how to ask your boss for maternity leave and nothing about how to take it if you actually are the boss. How to run a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that is both productive and also psychologically safe for folks. How to post on Instagram if you're the boss. Like my employees follow me on social media. What does that mean about how I think about posting and engaging and, like, faving their comments, that kind of stuff. It is such a different challenge. And for the book, I interviewed more than 130 leaders across a bunch of different sectors. I talked to lawyers and doctors and faith leaders and teachers and, of course, politicians. I talked to people who Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snapchat, Versha Sharma, the editor in chief of Teen Vogue, and Maxwell Frost and a number of members of Congress. And the themes that I heard echoed across those conversations. We're all so similar. People were struggling to figure out how to manage both their feelings and their staff's feelings. They were trying to do things differently, but didn't really know what that looked like. In the same way that I think, you know, I have to take it back to parenting, but the same way that in particular millennial parents are trying to do it differently than our boomer parents did. For us, millennial and Gen Z bosses are trying to do it differently, but without a playbook, that's so, so hard. So when we're in charge is the playbook for how to do it.
Jessica Tarlov
One of the key lessons, and I see that it's also in your swag, is the we don't dream of labor back there. Yeah, right there. It's good placement. I think a good.
Amanda Littman
My husband got my book cover framed.
Jessica Tarlov
But can you talk about that and how it relates to how young people can lead and run these organizations? You know, not just in politics, obviously, but across the board.
Amanda Littman
Yeah. We do not dream of labor. Sort of. My people say it's James Baldwin, quote. I can find no proof of that on the Internet. But this idea that we don't have dream jobs, we have dream lives, I think it's one of the biggest challenges that we are experiencing honestly, right now with the Gerontocracy. And actually I submitted, I was the expert question for Kara Swisher's interview with Tina Smith last weekend. And my question for her was, why is it so hard for so many of your colleagues to retire? And her answer was the first thing she said. I think for so many of them, their jobs are their identities and they can't figure out what to do beyond that. Millennials in Gen Z have seen that our work will not love us back, that we will get laid off, that our institutions will crumble, that our companies are not going to be our homes. We cannot count on staying somewhere for 20 or 30 years and retiring in Our same job we started. So how do we build identities beyond our profession? Hard for anyone. Really hard when you're the boss. Really, really hard when you are the entrepreneur or the founder or your job is, for many young people, influencer or content creator. How do you create systems and structures such that allow both you and your team to enjoy your work, find dignity in your work, get fairly compensated and good benefits for your work, but also have a life outside of it so that your identity isn't totally wrapped up in your career? So I get into all of that in the book and really try to answer the question, you know, what does a dream life look like? And how can you build a workplace that makes that possible?
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah, I just, I love it. It's aspirational, obviously. I think in a lot of ways, you know, I have a dream like I married the right guy and I have beautiful kids and I can afford to live here.
Amanda Littman
Yeah.
Jessica Tarlov
Though I still complain about it. But I think that the kind of natural feeling is you hear something like that and you think it's all well and good, but that feels like a pipe dream to me. This idea that I don't need to be working all the time. You know, it's a fantasy work life balance, especially with phones and connectivity, especially when you are the boss and especially when so many people have some form of content creator or messenger as part of their job description. I don't think it means don't work hard.
Amanda Littman
Like I work my ass off. I wrote a book while pregnant, while running an organization, like, I don't know.
Jessica Tarlov
How you do it. And think about a third.
Amanda Littman
Don't let my mom hear that. I don't think that means don't work hard. I think that means have an identity that is beyond your work, whether that's your relationship to others as a parent, as a partner, as a friend, as a community member. And then create the systems and structures such that you can do that. So like, part of the way that I, I have done this is that Run for Something has a four day work week. That means me and all of my staff work Monday through Thursday, 32 hours a week, plus or minus. Fridays are weekends. I wrote the book on Fridays through 2024. I now have fellowships and I see friends and I go to a yoga class and I spend time with my partner on Fridays. It is what has allowed me to have both the balance that can make more things possible, but it also has not touched the organizational efficacy or impact in any way. Again, we've had our biggest year yet. You can do both. If, and this is why I think it's both aspirational but also quite practical. Imagine what happens if thousands or hundreds of thousands of business owners, of community leaders, of company executives decide to make their businesses prioritize, work, life balance and build that in from the top on down and staff in such a way and structure schedules in such a way that people could not have to answer emails after 5 or 6 o'. Clock. That people could leave in the middle of the day to go pick up their kid and then come back later that really could be well compensated for their work and also have lives outside of it. The addition here is like, what could be possible for you as an individual, both you specifically, but also your listener, if your job didn't suck you dry at the end of the day? Like, how could you show up differently for yourself, for your partner, for your family, for your community? Would you have more time to volunteer? Would you be a better friend? Would you host your dinners more? Like, what would be possible if you weren't so tired? That's what I'm trying to implore folks to. To not settle for the way things have been done yesterday as the way we have to do them tomorrow.
Jessica Tarlov
How are you finding kind of, I guess, I mean, we talked about gerontocracy and politics, but even the generational reaction to your book. Because I think that a lot of boomers, old Xers kind of nod and smile about this stuff and they're like, we want to lift you up. Right? Like, we know that the way that we did it doesn't necessarily work for this generation and there have been a lot of negative consequences. But like, in reality, you're going to have to do it exactly the same way. Have you found like, doors opening or minds opening, I guess, to a new way of thinking about this? Or is it more that if you're 42 and under, we're just going to be building a totally different America?
Amanda Littman
I have loved hearing from so many of the older folks who've read or listened to the book and told me it really helped give them empathy for what their kids or their grandkids or their colleagues are working through. Like, it really opened their eyes. Especially, you know, I write in depth about the Internet and online communication and virtual workplaces and the emotional labor of leadership in this moment. Like, oh, I didn't really think about that. Like, it, it just like, really gives them a language to understand the challenges. I gave a talk a couple of weeks ago at the University of Albany and there was an older community member there, one of the oldest people in the room who came up to me after and said, you know, when you said, work won't love you back? That hit me right in the gut, because you're right, it didn't. And if I had known that earlier, I would have made some different choices. Like, that's. That's the whole point here.
Jessica Tarlov
I mean, because what is Gen X?
Amanda Littman
I will say the final thing is that I. I love hearing from Gen Xers who get very mad that I don't really talk about Gen X in the book, because being mad that you're left out, it's so classic Gen X to be mad that you're not talked about, which I just live up to the stereotype.
Jessica Tarlov
My dude. Yeah, it's funny. They. They get to be invisible when they want to be, and then they throw a fit when they feel like they have something to contribute or to talk about their music.
Amanda Littman
Well, and it's not. It's not my fault. It's not Millennial's fault. Blame the boomers. I've seen this. There's a Wall Street Journal story from about a month or two ago that said that even in Fortune 500 companies, you know, these boards are deciding to go from boomer CEO to millennial CEO. Like, they are looking for the. They're skipping Gen X entirely. And I am sorry that. Not my fault, but I am sorry, because that sucks for you.
Jessica Tarlov
It does. I don't want to be snarky because I'm married to a Gen Xer, but, yeah, I think we feel the same things about this. So I always ask folks who come on. What's one thing that makes you rage and one thing you think we should all calm down about?
Amanda Littman
One thing that makes me rage. I am deeply irritated by the. You know, we talked about this a little bit earlier. By the discourse about the ideological purity of the Democratic Party. Like, recruit a candidate, get him to run for office, then tell me how it works out. Unless you are actively recruiting candidates, shut the fuck up. Is that productive? No. But that's how I feel. One thing that makes me happy or calm down about.
Jessica Tarlov
But happy is good, too.
Amanda Littman
My toddler is obsessed with Daniel Tiger, as all toddlers are, and really likes to sing the when you feel so mad that you want to roar, take a deep breath and count to four song. And I find myself singing that in work meetings and after donor meetings quite a bit lately. And, you know, in politics, as in parenting, I find that very resonant thematically.
Jessica Tarlov
Yeah. It's also I mean, if we want to put it in the, like, calm down about thing, I think it links very well to writing about what professional environments are now that, like, people are so appreciative of humanity, actually, when, you know, don't bring all your home stuff to work. But a fair dose of it to remind us that, like, I'm a pet owner. I'm a parent. You know, someone would say a pet mom. I feel like I don't actually have a pet. And all my dog friends would be like, you're not an owner. You're, like, part of a family.
Amanda Littman
Yeah, I'm a dog owner. It's fine.
Jessica Tarlov
Okay. But totally. And our Tony box gets a lot of play with the Daniel Tiger orbit over here as well.
Amanda Littman
Well, and I just. I find it very helpful to remember that when all of this is over, my kids and yours and everyone else's, they'll still be little kids. Time is long, and we've got a long ways to go. But also, things can change fast, and that's very comforting to me.
Jessica Tarlov
Awesome. Well, Amanda, thank you so much for your time. It was great to have you.
Amanda Littman
Same. Thank you for having me. And Doug Limu and I always tell.
Jessica Tarlov
You to customize your car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual, but now we want you to feel it. Cue the emu music. Limu.
Amanda Littman
Save yourself money today.
Jessica Tarlov
Increase your wealth.
Amanda Littman
Customize and save. We save.
Jessica Tarlov
That may have been too much feeling.
Amanda Littman
Only pay for what you need@liberty mutual.com.
Jessica Tarlov
Savings.
Amanda Littman
Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates.
Jessica Tarlov
Excludes Massachusetts.
Date: October 3, 2025
Guests: Amanda Littman (Co-founder & President, Run for Something; author of When We’re in Charge)
Host: Jessica Tarlov
Podcast Network: Vox Media Podcast Network
This episode tackles the persistent influence of the "gerontocracy" in American politics—the outsized hold older generations (particularly Boomers) have on leadership positions—and explores strategies to build a more responsive, younger, and representative bench of leaders. Political strategist Jessica Tarlov welcomes Amanda Littman, whose organization Run for Something recruits and supports young, diverse candidates for state and local office, and whose new book offers a next-generation leadership guide for millennials and Gen Z.
Timestamps: 01:23–04:04
Amanda Littman:
“The job of a politician is to get your opponents to agree with you and to vote with you to build coalitions. And if they can't do that, they can't do the jobs." [01:57]
Timestamps: 04:04–06:24
Amanda Littman:
"We've had more people sign up since Trump won in 2024 than we did in the entirety of his first term. It has been a huge moment for candidate recruitment." [04:30]
Timestamps: 06:24–09:46
Amanda Littman:
“I often describe my work as like being the person who sees the band at the small club before they go do the arena tours. Like I know the cool people who are cool before they’re cool.” [07:49]
Timestamps: 09:46–10:42
Timestamps: 10:42–12:45
Amanda Littman:
“I want to know that my candidates and my leaders are the right amount of online. ... You need to be enough of a consumer to be a producer. But I don't want them to have the brain rot, like the worm.” [11:28]
Timestamps: 12:45–14:46
Amanda Littman:
“Politics is stuck in the moment when you first engaged in it.” [14:45]
Timestamps: 14:49–17:20
Amanda Littman:
“It feels like every system has been set up to burn us, not support us.” [16:51]
Timestamps: 19:31–23:16
Amanda Littman:
“We don't have dream jobs, we have dream lives.” [21:52]
Timestamps: 21:49–26:03
Amanda Littman:
“What could be possible if you weren’t so tired? That’s what I’m trying to implore folks to. To not settle for the way things have been done yesterday as the way we have to do them tomorrow.” [25:27]
Timestamps: 26:03–28:12
Timestamps: 28:12–29:57
Amanda Littman:
“Unless you are actively recruiting candidates, shut the fuck up. Is that productive? No. But that’s how I feel.” [28:35]
This episode spotlights the urgent need for generational change in American leadership and offers concrete pathways (via organizations like Run for Something, new leadership models, and adaptive workplace practices) for building a more diverse, responsive, and sustainable future. Amanda Littman’s book and advocacy provide both practical advice for emerging leaders and a pointed challenge to outdated status quo thinking—tempered by humor, parent-to-parent camaraderie, and optimism that things can change fast when the next generation steps up.