Adora Svitak’s youth empowerment inspiration and Russell’s back! PP224

Tara Elie recently spoke to the inspirational Adora Svitak. You may have seen the TED talk she gave when she was 12: Adora is now a writer, speaker, and advocate for causes including feminism, youth empowerment, and literacy. She began delivering writing workshops at local schools after publishing a collection of short stories. Later, she began advocating for student voice at education conferences. In 2010, she delivered the speech “What Adults Can Learn from Kids” at TED. The speech has received more than 5 million views on TED.com alone, and been translated into more than 40 different languages. Her passion for amplifying the voices of youth led her to organize a team of students to produce a TEDx event for youth, TEDxRedmond. Pacific Standard Magazine called Adora one of the “30 Top Thinkers Under 30” and “an activist for feminism, liberal politics, and youth-oriented causes […] pretty far up the road to becoming intellectual royalty.” In 2018, she graduated with a major in Development Studies and minors in South Asian Studies and Creative Writing from UC Berkeley. She currently works at the Wikimedia Foundation. It’s a wonderful conversation and a real privilege to have Adora as a guest on the Pivotal Podcast. Adora’s BlogAdora on Twitter Also this week, it was great to welcome our Headteacher Audio Diarist, Russell Ingleby back onto the show. This time, it’s a fascinating conversation with several parents who have just received personal visits at home as part of ‘The Hightown Way’