Today, Explained - “It must suck to be young”

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

Young people used to vote reliably blue. But they're burnt out on politics as usual, which means their votes are up for grabs. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan Abdul El-Sayed at a youth coffee event in Ann Arbor. Photo by Peter Balonon-Rosen/Vox. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Populist Democrats have displaced centrist Dems in New York and Colorado in primaries this summer. They are young and angry and taking aim at a system, they say, is rigged. And in Michigan today, here we go again. The centrist Democrat Haley Stevens is under fire for this. Israel comes to me in my dreams. And for the more than $30 million, APEC, has spent boosting her campaign. Her opponent, Abdul al-Sai, is a critic of Israel and a critic of his own party. Like what's worse?

The people who actually come and tell you, that they just want to take nice things away from you or the people who tell you that they want to give nice things to you only to be paid for by the people who want to take nice things away from you. I feel like you're saying what's worse, the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Is that what you're saying? Listen, hypocrisy generally is worse than just straight mendacity.

His message is resonating deeply with young people. Today, on Today, explained from Vox, we go to Michigan to talk to young people about why the left's emerging populism is hidden. Are you a pet owner? Every six seconds. A pet owner in the U.S. gets hit with a vet bill over $1,000. Always an unwelcome surprise.

That's where Fetch comes in. Fetch is the most complete pet insurance for dogs and cats, according to consumer advocate.org. You get paid back up to 90% of vet bills at any vet in the U.S. in Canada, with claims paid back in as a little as two days. Go to fetchpet.com slash save right now for your free quote. That's fetchpet.com. support for this show comes from Odu.

Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.

So why not you? Try Odu for free at Odu.com. That's ODOO.com. Which of the political parties do you identify with if either? Identifies whatever's going to make me the most money. Who's that right now? I have no idea. It's Today Explained.

I'm Noil King. Recently, producer Peter Balinan-Rosen and I skittered through the swing state of Michigan trying to answer a question. All right. So last midterm cycle, four years ago, Michigan distinguished itself by having the highest youth voter turnout

in any state of these United States of America. What is going on? The third basement, number 12, Chase, Harland. We went to find the Youngs. That's ages 18 to 29, if you're wondering. I just need to start chugging this. Two Coors lights. $6, baby.

Thirsty Thursday, Lansing Lugnuts, minor league baseball country night drink in your hand cowboy hat on your head peter in your face do you vote you go i vote yeah i vote why do you vote why because i'm american i care about my country i do go but i don't want to you you got to make a bigger effort than just throwing up an ad on a tv and expecting us to vote for you like i want to hear about your voice your policies what you want to do the transparency with your finance i want to know because that is my vote this is michigan and i want to be important, and I want my boat to go to the right place. You're on your feet, make some noise if you want a free hot dog.

Okay, so Michigan is doing something right. The last midterm cycle, the Michigan youths voted double the rate that young people in Indiana or Louisiana or Idaho did, for example. So what is happening? What is happening in Michigan? Who will take credit? Perhaps one of the state officials in charge of voting? My name is Agogo Adévié, and I am the Michigan Deputy Secretary of State.

Historically, young people do not vote in numbers as great as older people do, right? Some of the highest patterns of young people voting are found in this state. What is Michigan doing that other states are not doing? Well, there are a couple of things, including pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds. Wait, so in Michigan, you can register to vote at 16? You can pre-register to vote. You can pre-register to vote at 16. Because I want to make sure that the other people who are listening

in don't think we're breaking the laws here. We allow... It is 2026. Fair. Fair. It's 2026. We have, you know, only in the facts, ma'am. But, yeah, once you turn 16, you can pre-register to vote, and then once you turn 18, your registration is good. Wait, okay, yes.

But here, you need to tell me something, because when I was 16, my top priority was getting my driver's license. I failed the test three times. Before I got, did you pass on the first try? I did, but it's probably good to be the future deputy secretary of state. Okay, so priorities when you're 16, getting a driver's license, maybe hooking up with someone. Maybe. If you had said pre-register to vote, I would have been like, what?

Are 16-year-olds in Michigan so special that they're like running out to pre-register to vote when there's all this other fun stuff going on? But the first thing you said, what was the first thing you said, that your priority? Getting my driver's license. It's part of that process too. Wait, what? So when you go in Michigan, we do the graduated driver's licensing program, which I'm sure that you did. As part of that process, we pre-register you to vote.

It's automatic unless you opt out. On top of that, our bigger colleges, they have dedicated university staff who have a full-time job of boosting turnout on their campuses. On top of that, we have same-day voter registration. registration. A lot of people assume, and I think this is because of data, that young people tend to vote Democrat versus Republican. I would think, perhaps if I were in the Republican Party, I might look at these efforts and say, oh, this is going to get more young Democratic votes. That might be a problem for me. How did Michigan keep this if it did from becoming a partisan issue? Well, I certainly think that is the stereotype, and that's the narrative. But I don't think that's

always correct. I traveled a lot around the state in 2024. And one of the things that I was hearing from a lot of young people, especially young people who weren't on college campuses, was I'm concerned about inflation. And those people were not necessarily inclined to vote Democratic. Some of them did end up voting Democrats. Some of them voted Republican and some of them just stayed home. So it's really, I challenge anyone who sees this as just a way to bank Democratic votes to actually talk to the young people. Right now in this state, we have an opportunity for people to be persuaded. That's why we're a purple state. The thing about a purple state is that it's split almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

The thing Peter and I found in Michigan is that this year, Some of the young people are themselves split between Republican and Democrat. I think the Democrat Party represents me with a lot of the green lights that they have for people of my community, the LGBT community. But, however, for this community college student with two jobs and rent to pay, groceries have really inclined. A lot I've, you know, myself had to kind of participate with a little bit of government assistance because of that as well. And even that has now come with rules, regulations, and guidelines as well, which I don't disagree with. And I think that is a part where I kind of like, okay, turn an open ear to a little bit of the Republican parties of that, of people getting benefits and they're not like working, just free, free loading.

Okay, who else? I'm very big on life. I don't want to step on toes by the abortion topic, you know. I feel like everybody has a right to live. Based on that alone, I would have a guess about which party you tend to sort of gravitate to you. But let me not guess. I wouldn't say a Republican because there's obviously a lot of things with the Republican Party that I disagree with. Like I'm really against like the war.

I'm really like anti-war, which I feel some Republicans are very pro-war. Seeing what's been happening in Gaza, that is a very large issue for me. And it can often be like determining whether I like or don't like a candidate. We need politicians who will actively fight against that and who are actively calling it out for what it is, which is a genocide. I don't think either party truly has my best interest at heart. That sentiment, neither party is really concerned about me, was something that we heard in Michigan a lot.

And so it's no surprise maybe that some recent surveys show the most defining shift in political attitudes among young people in the last decade. It is not to the left or to the right. It's that growing numbers of young people tell pollsters they don't believe their vote matters at all. And they see a direct link between their lack of voice and their ability to make the rent.

Everything is so expensive right now. You know, presidents always have these promises that they make, like, oh, prices are going to go down for, you know, groceries, rent, whatever. Like, that doesn't always happen. And then we see the gas prices keep going up. We see groceries keep going up. I mean, I have to pick up more hours, obviously, pick up a second job. Like, I'm spending 80% of my income just on rent.

It's like what else do I have to live off of? And I think that our politicians should be keeping track of that. Honestly, fuck all you guys and learn to compromise. You're supposed to represent the people and what the people want. So I'm hearing that you think the system's a little busted. Oh, of course, the system's corrupted.

Either side, I think it's corrupted. You kind of just have to start the whole thing. We started by telling you that in Michigan, young people vote at higher rates than in other states, and that is true. But it's still only about four in ten young people who do vote. And this growing sense that it's all corrupt is not going to help turnout.

So what do you do if you are the person running for office? Young people are disillusioned, their votes are up for grabs, how are you going to grab them? You guys, your generation has a fantastic bullshit meter because you're fed bullshit online all day, right? And you can usually tell bullshit from truth. That is doctor, but not a physician, Abdul El-Sai. The polls show him leading with young likely voters by wide margins. More than 60% in some polls say they'll vote for him. He's definitely trying. His campaign holds events specifically for people under 30.

The Democratic Party brand is so bullshit that everyone looks at this and you're like, are you kidding? Like, you all, please be serious. His centrist opponent, Haley Stevens, who did not respond to our request for an interview, points to language like that and says, El Siyid is too radical. Maybe some of this is just the ugliness of this particular campaign, but it's conceivable that El Siyadh's rise is only possible in the year 2020. This man is a populist of the left. He talks about blowing up a broken system, and he identifies brokenness in the things that, until very recently,

were kind of business as usual for the Democratic Party and for people who vote Democrat, things like support for Israel, begrudging acceptance of corporate money, belief in institutions, institutions like the Democratic Party. El Saeed is not that Democrat, and his audience is not that audience. What do you think you said today that resonated most? Tell me what you think. I'm going to tell you what I think. I think it was the notion that I'm not going to back down on a lot of the priors that a lot of politics as usual thinks that you have to agree with in order to be electable.

I was watching. I think the thing you said that resonated most was the Democratic Party is full of a lot of bullshit. It was your line. And that's kind of exactly what I mean. Is that like if you want to run as a Democrat, there's a way that the... the party sort of expects you to run. They expect you to be taking money from the same corporations to follow the same party line

and then to be malleable when you actually get to public office. And what I'm trying to do is to show that our party is so much more successful when we really are about the things that we say we're about. You're one of the leading voices who's been critical of aid to Israel and who's been drawing attention to Gaza

as a campaign issue in a campaign where you really could have just been focused on like the rent and health care. Those things are related, though. Yeah, tell me, tell me what you think is going on. Why is every 19-year-old I talk to talking to me about Gaza? I think every 19-year-old, Ano has seen images of dead children on their phone from Gaza. I think every 19-year-old, you know, is wondering why they or their parents' tax dollars were spent to do that.

And I think every 19-year-old, you know, is looking at their future and saying, wait, so my tax dollars are being spent to do that. And I can't ever dream of owning a home or working in an economy that's going to pay me fairly. Young people in Michigan, as part of the reason we're here, they vote in greater numbers than in a lot of other states. Four in ten. Three point eight in ten? Do you think young people can kind of put you over the edge here? Do you think young people can win this race for you? Ask me on August 5th.

And more importantly, young people own the future. They are going to dictate what future they want. They're going to be the future. You're trying to getting good with them? No. I'm joking. I just like, I just like, I'm joking. Like, no, no, look, I, um, I think it's probably the worst moment in American history to be young.

And that's a sad thing. Absolutely. Why? As a young person, you should have hope in the future you're going to live. They're being told that there are no homes for them. They're being told that the earth is doomed because we can't figure out how to stop burning stuff into the air, even though we have all the technology we ever needed to stop doing it. They're being told that you can't have health care in America and that the best thing that America can do

is send its tax dollars abroad to go kill other people. So it must suck to be young. It must suck to be young, says the guy the young people are voting for. Is this not reminiscent of American carnage and the deep dissatisfaction that fed populism on the right? It might even remind you just a little of Donald Trump who told us how bad our lives were before we voted him into office twice.

When we return, the thing about being young in the U.S., Donald Trump has been the defining political character in American life for almost your entire life. What does that do to a person? Support for TAY Explain comes from, quote, if you run a business, new customers are your lifeblood. That means every call has got to be answered, even the ones that happen when you are not available. Otherwise, you're leaving money on the table. That's why today's episode is brought you by Quo, spelled QUO, the business. communication system built, so you never miss a call. Quo is not just a phone system. It's a smart system. Their AI can automatically log calls, generate summaries, and flag next step,

so nothing falls through the cracks. It can even qualify leads or respond after hours so your business stays on even when you are off. Quo works wherever you are. Right from your phone or computer, you can keep your existing number, you can add teammates, you can sync your CRM, you can let that call routing handle itself as you scale. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. You can try Quo for free plus 20% off your first six months. When you go to Quo.com slash explained, that's QUO.com slash explained. Support for today explained comes from Vanta. Every new tool your team signs up for every vendor that turns on AI features, every new integration, has a chance for something to go wrong. And most security programs weren't built

for AI's pace of growth. Enter Vanta. Vanta is a top agentic trust platform used by over 16,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey to ensure they're always audit-ready. And now Vanta is helping companies like yours watch for the risks that show up between audits across your vendors, your AI tools, and your whole environment. How? The Vanta agent works like a 24-7GRC engineer in the background, finding issues, drafting fixes for you, and cutting vendor assessment time by up to 50%. Whether you're a fast-growing startup or a global enterprise, Vanta is here to help you, automate your security and compliance

and earn and prove trust, you can get started today at vanta.com slash explained. That's va-n-ta.com slash explained. Support for the show comes from select quote. Everybody is susceptible to a research rabbit hole now and then. Maybe you've spent hours

researching the best coffee maker, the perfect date night restaurant. How many countries are in North America? It's more than you think, I swear. But when it comes to life insurance, it may be tempting to simply go with the first quote you find and call it a day. Well, with Select Quote, you can actually find the right policy without settling because they do the research for you. Select Quote makes getting life insurance fast, free, and easy. Their whole process takes about 15 minutes, answer a few questions, and their agents shop the carriers for you.

Sounds pretty cool. You can get your free quote at selectquote.com slash explained. That's selectquote.com slash explained. One more time for the road, select quote. com slash explained. Here's the deal. They shop. You save.

This is today explained. My name's Oscar Honka and I'm 17 years old. My name is William Dodson and I'm 17 years old. Okay. How long have you guys been friends? Like eighth grade. Yeah, eighth grade. Yeah.

So about four years. Four years. All right. Oscar. Tell me what Will is like. He's a really good friend. I would say he's probably like the most charismatic person I know, like very high energy guy.

Oh, thanks. He's playing a good way. Will, tell me about Oscar. I think he's someone you can lean on so much. And he's funny and kind. Like, he's just like a great person to be around. Thank you, bro. When you do argue, typically, what is it about?

It's not strictly limited to, but mostly limited to Israel versus Palestine. I would say proudly our worst debate was in the parking. waiting for our friend. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, that was bad. What was that about? What was that about? What were waiting on Bobby?

Yeah, we were waiting on our good friend Bobby. But let's just say Bobby got into a pretty sheeted car when he finally got there. I probably got mad. He probably said something about, like, they're not being a genocide in Palestine, which makes me mad. I just, it makes, it's one of the most angry things that anyone can tell me really. I just, it's because I've seen so many stories of just children being amputated with anesthesia. And it just, it also just seems so obvious to me. Like, even if it wasn't a thing so serious as genocide, it also makes me mad if someone said the sky wasn't blue. Like, yes, I don't

have a personal stake in that, but also it's just objectively not true, in my opinion. And it just makes me upset. And to deny it is frustrating to me. I was someone who would be like, okay, let me Google the 10, 10 necessary steps, because that's like 10 necessary steps for genocide. And then I'd be like, oh, wait, this is not, this is. Nine out of the 10 prongs. And then I would like, well, and I'd be like, well, one of them doesn't fit, so I guess it's not. And so that would be just my, that was my approach for very long. And I probably said, like, Israel shouldn't exist, which makes him mad. I don't believe that anymore.

I don't think, yeah. There's been times where I've been mad at him, I didn't talk to him for like a day or two. I'll be like, I'm so upset. I don't want to talk to this guy ever again. And then he's like, you want to play pickleball. And I'm like, well, I kind of do want to play pickleball. So let's go. Really, what I'm more concerned about is just I think there's been like a lot of

anti-Semitism, and I see it more common than I've ever seen before. Like, I, you can't, like, especially, like, at school, I'll see it. Like, it's constant on social media, and all the comments are just blatant anti-Semitism. And I would agree with that. I've seen a lot of anti-Semitism on social media. Social media comments are a pretty gross place. Is either one of you Jewish? No. Why does Israel and this fight feel so personal? I think I just see it as like I'm not really fighting for Israel or like saying I'm more sticking up just for really the Jewish people and because like my generation of course supports

Palestine and I support Palestine of course too but like I think it's like no one's saying anything now and like if there's anti-Semitism no one says anything like everyone just turns their head there's no one being like hey you shouldn't say this or you like that's a horrible thing to say Is it normal these days when you're a teenager, even in your late teens, to be arguing about politics? I don't think that we're special. I think that this generation, at least from what I've experienced, knows more about politics, probably because of social media to some extent. But I think that to argue with politics is less common. I think it's more common that you know a lot about politics, but you agree with most of your friends.

So one option for two friends who like just for just for, about everything about each other, but on political issues disagree, is to never talk about it. No, we can't. I don't. Okay, tell me more. I wouldn't want to do that. I think, um, I don't like, I really don't like debating people. It takes a lot of energy out of me. I don't think it's fun for the most part. Um, but I do think it's like necessary. I think we'll agree. I feel like I have to push back against people who believe, in my opinion, very stupid things, even though I don't want to. There is a truth. You guys are both 17? Yes. Okay. The American president. Donald John Trump has been our leading political figure since you guys were children.

I remember very clearly watching the debates with him and Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz when I was little at my old house. Do you remember what you thought? No, because I mean, I remember thinking that dad doesn't like that guy. And then I really liked Hillary Clinton. She was my girl. Like, I really liked Hillary Clinton. And so that was when... So I remember me and my mom would sit down and watch debates. And just like I was very interested. And early I was like, this guy just sucks. And I'm like, and when Hillary Clinton lost, it was kind of a very upsetting day for me. So before Donald Trump, you don't remember it.

Your dad does. America was not divided over politics the way it is now. Yes, Americans always debated politics. It was always like Republican versus Democrat. But it definitely was not the tone and the tenor that it is now. And I sometimes think that might be part of when I was 17. it would have been unthinkable for me and my friends to have a debate over politics. We have debate over like boys or like party of five.

But no, like there just was no. We didn't even like, not even like we don't agree or we agree on it. We like, I don't know what my best friend in high school thought about like abortion. We just wouldn't even cross your mind. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. So, but this is my point right.

Like Trump changed some stuff. Yes. One thing I'm curious about is I feel like you both kind of know that in some ways. Yeah. But you've never seen life without it. You've never seen life without Donald Trump being a leading voice in this country. I've definitely seen clips on Instagram or of civil debates between two presidential nominees, how John McCain would shake Obama's hand to say he's a good person.

Good guy. Things like that. I've seen glimpses of what, like, it was like a little bit before our time. I would love to watch a debate where the people are respectful to each other. I mean, I, of course, I never really experienced it, but I think our country is super, super divided right now. And, like, you can see elections before. They're nice to each other. And, like, when there was this clip from some random race and that people didn't add together.

And, like, it was two different opposing parties, but they didn't add together. And people reposting this is, like, this is so crazy. This is so amazing because they're so disillusioned with how MAGA versus, like, like, Trump versus Kamala was. And then people, and some of the people in the comments are like, this is how it kind of used to be like. So that's beautiful. As bad as it is, it's been worse. If you look back to 1860s, right? Like, we've been in worse spots and we've gotten out of it.

I feel very confident that we will be fine as a country. I actually am a little concerned because I think there's, it's actually trying to get even more far left and far right. So it's kind of more division. Like you see a rise in like democratic socialism. I mean, the right really does not like that. Like you have like your Hassan Pikers. But in the far right, you have your like Nick Fuentes. So it's like Gen Z is trying to take that really far left and really far right.

I don't know if it's going to keep going like this, but it looks like the trajectory is bringing more and more, I think, farther apart. Do either of you ever fear that you will have a disagreement about politics that ends the friendship? I don't, I think, no, I don't think so. I think if we didn't talk about it and then we just had one debate, that could be way more severe because we would have way, we'd have way more extreme opinions and we would be like, this would be the first time we're hearing it and we could start going off each other. But the fact that we've always been open to it and always been talking about it, it's like way

more normal. And I think as time goes on, we'll have way less and less arguments, unless something crazy happens. But it's usually just way less and, like, we're, I'm seeing less and less arguments from us, like maybe two months ago we were having, I feel like, I feel like, we're, I feel like, way more. I'd say that was the worst. You're going to senior year? Yes. Yes. Okay, so here's the most important question. Will this friendship survive? Four percent, yeah. College? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are like 25, 30, you're still friends? Yeah, he's going to, I think we'll be probably a little bit

far away from each other. I want to go to college in D.C. He wants to go to Western, but, I mean, we'll be back for the summer. We're definitely going to have sleepovers at Bobby's in college during the summer. I would hope so. Yeah, hopefully. Awesome. Thank you guys. It's really It's really funny. It's really interesting. Peter Balinon-Rosen, produced and reported with me in Michigan. Jolie Myers was our editor today. Patrick Boyd and David Tadishore engineered, and Gabriel

Dunatub was on facts. I'm Noelle King. It's today explained.