Keeping Up With Gen Z is a new podcast created by and for teens at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library’s Teen Center. Teen co-host Kaelin Motsoasele introduces the hosts and the podcast below.

There’s always a new podcast to subscribe to, including a few from The New York Public Library, but I wanted to tell you about one to really keep on your radar: Keeping up with Gen Z!

What is Keeping Up With Gen Z?

First and foremost, Keeping Up With Gen Z is a podcast hosted by teens for teens. We discuss what is currently trending or a topic that is important to us. We shed light on topics like woke culture, High School Musical ships we were deprived of, school, voting, and more! Provided with a space where our opinions are valued, this podcast helps to set the precedent for a focus on younger voices. Environments that not only promote and elevate teen voices, but also encourage them is vital—especially in a climate that is still excluding young people from spaces that define the image of our generation. Who better to define that than teens themselves? 

Meet The Co-hosts, Kaelin and Alex

Kaelin (she/they) is a sophomore at Hunter College High School. She currently works as a Youth Civics Intern at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library’s Teen Center. In their role, Kaelin strives to implement youth engagement strategies and organize events to educate teens on the importance of voting as well as elevate teen voices in politics. In their rare spare time, you can find her binge watching anime on Crunchyroll. 

Alex (they/she) is a high school junior in Lower Manhattan. At five years old, they immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica and then grew up in South Jamaica, Queens. Currently, she volunteers at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library’s Teen Center and has been a Library teen patron since 2017. When they’re not volunteering or completing their extracurricular activities, Alex believes in restoring themselves through the healing powers of long naps.

The two of them record episodes in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library Teen Center recording studio. Although Kaelin and Alex are the voices of Keeping Up With Gen Z, previous and current Teen Center teen volunteers dedicated time to this project. From Tiffany and Maisha’s initial pilot recording, to Ummul and Raisa’s first script drafts, the teen volunteers as well as the guidance of Digital Media Instructor, Darro Chea, have made this possible.

Why Listen to Keeping Up With Gen Z?

Come for a youth perspective on issues like performative activism, and stay for the interactions between Alex and Kaelin, who are both very cool individuals. We give book recommendations every episode, so stay to broaden your reading list. You’ll learn something new every episode, and have a good laugh as well.

Keeping Up With Gen Z is available on Soundcloud

You can listen to episodes below or find them on Soundcloud