Kal Penn Approves This Message (2020) - full transcript

- Hey, so I have this new show

right now where I'm...

I'm trying to talk about issues.

But not in a boring way.

Sort of like in a young,

cool conversational way.

So like basically this is

an advice call.

I need advice from you.

- You need to be younger.

- Okay, so just act younger.

- No, like be younger.

Physically, like...

Younger. - Okay.

Um, sure.

What's your second best advice?

- Um, I don't know.

Make an issue-based show

about geopolitics

in a positive space that

uses your personal experience

combined with less polarizing

messaging that motivates

young viewers to get

engaged in the political process

and gives them actionable

advice on things they can do

to create change

in their community.

- Okay, yeah, that's

definitely one idea.

But I was thinking like

what if I... what if I

make a video with that

whop dance,

but like fully, fully

commit, you know what I mean?

Like just throw down and... - no.

Wouldn't that be

something that they would like?

Hello? Ah, man.

- hey, everybody, I'm kal penn.

Now, look, I know

some of you are wondering

who is this incredibly

handsome brown-skinned man

with facial hair that

exudes a white man's confidence?

That would be bollywood

star anil kapoor

leaning on a sweet rolls royce

with amitabh bachchan.

You may also be thinking,

"kal penn, I know you, man.

"what the hell are you doing

hosting a show on freeform?

"shouldn't you be high as

shit with harold?

Or sober as shit with obama?"

that part is true.

I did work in the

obama white house

on outreach to young americans.

Some might even say I went

from white castle to...

From white castle

to the white house.

- Trading in the white castle

for the white cast.

From white castle to

An exclusive

interview with kal penn.

- Do you know that I never told

them I'd heard that one already?

They were all so proud. Oh.

Over the next six episodes

leading up to the election,

I'm gonna talk about

six important issues

that effect

how our country works,

how we fit into it,

and what we can do to

change it for the better...

Or the worse.

No, I'm just kidding.

It's only about the issues,

not the candidates

or political parties.

So, it's always for the better.

I was born and raised

in the great state

of new jersey and registered

to vote as an independent

when I turned 18.

I went to college.

I worked really hard,

and today, I'm a successful

actor.

Well, moderately

successful actor.

Of course, lots of my friends

are not in the same situation.

Look, people have lost

their jobs,

and they're worried about

how they're gonna pay rent.

Family members of ours

struggle with healthcare,

the cost of trade school

and college.

We know people who have

fought and lost loved ones

to the wars in iraq

and afghanistan.

Wars which both democrats

and republicans voted

to authorize.

And all of these problems

have been intensified

by the pandemic.

The country feels really

divided right now,

and we all have different

ideas on how to solve problems.

But the reality is, we have

a heck of a lot more

in common with each other

than we give ourselves

credit for.

I got involved in public service

because I wanted the lives of

my friends and family

to get better.

I created this tv show

because I want

the same for yours.

Welcome to "kal penn

approves this message."

- episode one, here we go!

Alright, in my first

episode, I wanna talk about

the power of voting.

When you think about it,

so much of what you see

when you go outside is

shaped by people

deciding to put little

slips of paper in a box.

From how we get across town,

to how much pollution

is in the air we breathe,

to how many health clinics

are in our neighborhoods.

But specifically, I wanna

focus on young voters.

Look, if you weren't powerful,

they wouldn't be so scared

when you show up.

Remember 2018?

The midterms had the highest

turnout for 18 to 24-year-olds

in decades.

I mean, y'all gave us

a new most diverse congress

in history.

In 1988, this was

the squad, okay?

There's room for everybody.

Power is in the voting booths,

sure.

But it's also in the streets.

Just look at what happened

in new jersey

a couple years ago.

Young activists there pushed

the state government

to expand a minimum wage

increase to people under 18.

But you may not have

heard about that.

Or about things like

the 50 new gun-control laws

resulting from the youth-led

March for our lives movement.

That's because usually,

when pundits talk

about young people in politics,

it's to rehash old opinions

about how,

"kids these days just don't

care enough to vote."

- the problem with youth

voters is they don't show up.

- Where is the youth and

energy that former president

barack obama brought

to the party?

- Millennial say they want

their voices to be heard.

But how can they be heard

when they don't show up

to the polls?

- Okay, the thing is,

as weird as this feels to say...

Mike hucklebee is not

entirely wrong.

In the last presidential

election, just under half

of 18 to 29-year-olds

turned out to vote.

And when you think about it,

that means that one of

the most powerful

voting blocks in the country

was actually...

Young people who didn't vote.

If 100% of young americans

showed up to the voting booth,

we could have a completely

different country.

We could have more

national parks,

high-speed rail, or make

our flag this amazing

photo of dwayne johnson

eating sushi.

You can even change

the voting age.

That's actually happened

before in 1971.

It was lowered from 21

to 18 through a broad,

youth-led movement that

resulted in something called

the 26th amendment.

Come with me for a journey

through history.

During world war dos,

a bunch of 18, and 19,

and 20-year-olds

came back home after

saving the world,

and they wanted to go vote.

And a bunch of old people

were like, "uh, sorry, guys,

"no, come back when you're

21 years of age,

and have had some actual

life experience."

and the veterans were like,

"sorry, wait,

"so flying airplanes and

driving tanks and

"literally liberating

an entire country

isn't enough life experience?"

and the old people were like,

"well, no."

and the under-21s were like,

"well, this is some bullshit."

right? So they started

a movement

with the rallying cry,

"old enough to fight,

old enough to."

no, I'm just kidding.

It was, "old enough to

fight, old enough to vote."

less sexy, but more practical.

This culminated in

the 26th amendment

in 1971, which gave americans

over 18 the right to vote

for their representative.

And they finally used that power

in 1972 to help sweep

a new fresh face

into the white house.

Richard nixon.

Thanks to a bunch of

righteously pissed veterans,

you can now vote if

you're 18 or older.

There are a lot of amazing

resources online

to make the process easy.

To make them easier to find,

we're gonna put them all

on one website...

'cause it's my show.

There, we've broken things

into four steps.

Find out the

voting rules in your state.

How to register,

how to vote early,

and how to vote by

absentee ballot.

Find your polling location.

Find out what's gonna be

on that ballot.

Remember, we're not only

voting for the president

in November.

There are also state

and local elections,

as well as ballot measures.

Arizona has a measure to

legalize marijuana.

And florida has one to

increase the minimum wage.

And finally, take some time

to learn

what your candidates

actually believe.

This is important because,

look, even if a candidate

isn't perfect on an issue

that you care about most,

and they're probably not,

you might find that

they agree with you

on a lot of other issues

that affect your life.

Like, okay, if gwyneth paltrow

was running for president,

you might strongly disagree

with her vitamin-infused

toilet paper policy, but

she maybe supports

tuition-free college by

taxing the rich, right?

I'm just saying, if that's

your thing,

give them a chance.

When I vote, I don't

just vote for myself.

I vote for the person

who works three jobs

and can't get to the polls.

I vote for the person who

has to drive so far

that the $6 in gas money

is something

they gotta figure out.

We don't just vote

for ourselves.

So who are you voting for?

And if the answer is nobody,

because I'm still too young

to vote,

then stick around,

because we're gonna talk to

a group in san francisco

that's working really hard

to change that.

- hey, welcome back!

Okay, so if you feel kind of

powerless because you're

too young vote, but you

kinda wanna do something,

I want you to meet these people.

My friend moses storm went

up to san francisco

to spend some time

with them. Check it out.

Young people have

made great strides

for change in recent years.

- A leader for the present,

a leader for the future.

- When many americans cast

their vote on election day,

they are exercising the

only political power they have.

But now young people

want even more.

They want the voting age

to be lowered to 16.

- That us kids don't know

what we're talking about,

that we're too young

to understand

how the government works!

- d-o-d-e.

Sixteen for democracy.

Vote 16's caleb deberry laid out

the group's plans.

- Vote 16 is a movement

led by young people

for young people trying

to lower the voting age

in local elections

to 16 years old.

Well, the issues that are

on the ballot

in our local elections are

issues about how we fund our

schools, are issues on how we

handle juvenile justice.

We have environmental issues,

taxation issues,

really every issues that

a locality could

have on its ballot is

effecting young people

in some sort of way, and

so we believe that

we should have a voice on that.

- Wow, just sounds so stressful

to be 16-year-old right now.

- okay. Wow.

- Once you start voting,

you're significantly

more likely to keep

voting in future elections,

so we create a lifelong habit

of participating in democracy.

- Okay, but not all

habits are good.

I mean, in 2008, I got

addicted to roller-blading,

which led to a lot of bullying.

- Well, I like to think that

participating in democracy's

a pretty good habit.

In san francisco,

the vote 16 chapter

is pushing a ballot measure

this November to lower

the voting age.

What is your anarchist agenda?

- If democracy is anarchy,

then sign us up,

because our agenda is simple:

And it's the preservation

of democratic rights

on a local level.

Vote 16 goes to argue that

since young people

in san francisco are active

community participants,

why should they not be

enfranchised, whereas,

you know, the average adult

with x amount of years

of civic education is?

Critics say that

teens are too impulsive,

don't think things through,

and shouldn't vote.

And they say their brains

just can't handle it.

These kids didn't seem

like immature mush brains.

I didn't a professional opinion.

Dr. Dillon g.

Are 16-year-olds mature enough

to be able to vote?

- 16-year-olds have very

strong cognitive capacities.

They can, um, make cognitive

and rational decisions.

We know that cognitive

functioning increases across

the life span, but it's not

always getting better.

So individuals who are, say,

65 or older, or 70 or older,

are much more at risk for

mild cognitive impairment

or even dementia.

Um, however, normal cognitive

functions peek relatively early

in life.

Wait, so it wasn't young brains

that had the problem.

It was old people.

I had to spread the word.

Vote 16 meets stop 72.

- A lot of people out there

are concerned about

young people voting.

- No, cut, cut.

Um, carol, I need you to

really age it up, okay?

Just really, uuh, decrepit.

Okay, let me see what

you're gonna do.

- Hey, everyone...

- No.

That's youth energy.

Okay, I wanna give you

a line reading,

but you know what? I actually

have an idea.

Why don't we get, uh,

props in here.

I got something perfect for you.

- A lot of people out there

are worried

about young people voting.

But it's us old people

the ones we have to worry about.

First of all, we're impulsive.

- We gave our life's savings

to a stranger

who sent us an email.

- We're also reactive.

- Try saying "happy holiday"

to me

instead of "merry christmas."

- and we're indoctrinated.

- I don't know if I'm

indoctrinated.

I just feel that anybody

that doesn't agree

with my politics is a pedophile.

And a vampire.

- We're practically a cult.

- Seriously, you can't

trust our judgment.

We're the people that made

"the help" trend.

- Did you hear what those saying

about "the help"?

- That movie sucks.

- Until a minute ago, I thought

this was the dmv.

You really want me picking

the president?

- Please help us stop

people over 72 from voting.

We can't be trusted with

this responsibility.

Stop 72.

- I was told there was

gonna be free soup.

Where the is my soup?

- So there. Fixed it.

What do you think?

- I mean, the whole point

of this is to

expand voting rights, we're

not trying to take away

voting rights.

- You know, as much as I

appreciate the cinematography

and the work you put into

creating that,

I would like to ague that is

very much the antithesis

of what our goal is here

in vote 16.

Our goal is to make elections

more representative.

- Should have had them play

it more decrepit.

I knew it. I knew it.

- ah, okay, I am so excited

to welcome our first guest

to the series.

She is a civil rights hero.

One of the most iconic

activists in american history.

A leader of the historic

grape strikes of the 1960s,

and cofounder of

the united farm workers.

She has spent her life fighting

for more an equitable society.

Please welcome president of

the delores huerta foundation,

ms. Delores huerta.

Thank you for being here!

No, thank you for having me.

This is our first episode.

Look, this is a show that

is hoping to get folks

out to register to vote,

we're trying to be

as nonpartisan as possible.

We're trying to be

funny and uplifting

and kind of cut through

a lot of the noise

that's out there, especially

when like, um...

You know, when you pick up

your phone,

and you read through

twitter, and you're trying

to wonder what's real

and what's not.

So, I'm especially really,

really honored that, um...

That you would join us.

And I guess my first question

has to be related

to our theme for the

first episode,

which is youth vote.

What is the best method to

encourage someone to vote?

And is it different when

you approach young people

versus more seasoned folks?

- I like to say that

election day is the most

important day of your life,

because on election day,

the people that we vote for,

they are going to make

the decisions for us,

for our families,

and for our communities.

And we wanna get progressive

people elected,

people who are gonna stand

up for us, people that are

really going to work to

make the changes

that we need to make

in our society.

We have to just remember

that voting is a step

to be able to get people

elected to office

that are gonna fight for us.

And if not, the people that

are elected will not only

work against us, but they

will make decisions

that we may not life.

- Um, our show is

a little different

than most shows, in that we

like to offer solutions

to our viewers.

And we like to share with

them things from experts

that they can take with

them in their own communities.

So, what we did is we reached

out to a bunch of people

around the country and said,

"are you voting? Yes? No?"

and surprisingly, some people

said maybe.

So, I wanna play a clip

of a few people

who we spoke to earlier

this week, who said

they weren't planning on voting.

And I would... I would love

for your advice on

how people can talk to

our friends who might have

similar views as these folks.

Can we roll that clip?

- Every four years we

elect a new leader.

However, every year we have

more homeless,

more endangered animals, and

the wealth gap between

the 1% and the 99% grows

ever more.

- And what do you say to

somebody like alexander,

who says, "I'm not gonna

vote because the wealth gap

"keeps increasing and

increasing, and no matter who

you vote for, it just doesn't

make a difference"?

How do you even... how do

you counter that?

- Well, I have to say to

alexander, there is a way

to change that, alexander.

And that is by voting.

When we're voting, we're

actually thinking, "how do

we bring resources into

our community?"

and if we don't vote, then

all of the resources that

we had, they go up to the top.

As we know right now in

the united states, we have

1% of the wealthy families that

have... own 50% of the wealth.

And if you add the 10% of

the wealthy corporation,

they own 90% of the wealth.

Okay?

So we've gotta change

this around.

We've gotta do a wealth tax.

We've gotta bring some of

that money back

to our community.

How do we do that?

By voting.

It's the only way. By voting.

Okay, now take

a look at this one.

- Tennessee always goes

republican, therefore,

my liberal vote is negated.

And that is why

I won't be voting.

- So, victoria is a liberal

living in tennessee,

which is clearly

a conservative state.

Does her vote matter?

- Oh, does it matter a lot.

And if people are not happy

with the political party

that they belong to,

they can also join

a political party, because

these political parties

are democratic, and they

choose their leaders.

And you can come in there

and take the leadership,

and get some of your friends

to go in with you.

So it's a good thing to

just get involved in that way.

Get involved

in the political campaign.

Just go out there, you know...

Once the pandemic is over,

do the door knocking.

But now you can do the phoning.

And so to get involved

right at the ground level,

then you really understand

how our political system works.

And it's all about just

doing the work.

It's so simple.

It's just talking to people,

phoning people,

getting out the information

to people.

It's not rocket science.

It's just people engagement

and people doing the work.

This is all that it is.

It's simple.

But it doesn't work unless

we participate.

'cause now you can get

information out so easily.

You can mobilize so easily.

We have seen that with

many of the protests

and marches, after people

have been killed,

after george floyd was killed,

after brianna was killed,

that people are being able

to assemble and to mobilize

very, very quickly.

We can think of the voting

cycle, you know?

The assemblymen

and congress people

in the house of representatives,

it's every two years.

So you can change some of

those people out

in a couple of years, it

doesn't have to be their job.

And I would get that information

out to everybody so quickly.

So we don't want people

to despair.

- We're gonna keep that in mind.

Ms. Huerta, it's been an honor.

Thank you for being

our first guest

and for sharing your

experiences.

- Thank you very much

for having me.

Thank you.

- I wanna send you off with one

of my favorite clips that we

captured this week from a young

woman that we met, who is

very excited to vote.

So thank you so much

for joining us.

- Wah gwaan. My name is ember.

And the reason why I'm

excited to vote

this election year is

because I'm ready for change,

and I'm ready to see some

progression

within our government.

And the fact that I'm coming

from an immigrant family,

born in america, gives me

blessings upon blessings,

because my ancestors didn't

have the opportunity to vote.

And the fact that I get to

exercise it within

the government is amazing to me.

So, this election year,

I'm super excited to vote.

I hope you guys are too.

- okay, before we say

goodbye, we like to do

this little thing called

micro macro.

So I wanna leave you with

some actual actions

that you can take that will

help make sure

that any eligible voter

can get to the polls

this November to cast a ballot.

So, a larger macro action

that you can take

is to volunteer at

a local polling place.

In a lot of states, you don't

even have to be 18 to volunteer,

but the rules do vary from state

to state, so check out...

Where we have a link to

where you can volunteer.

I will say younger poll workers

are especially critical

this year to make sure

that the voting experience

is smooth for everybody,

because traditionally, election

workers are older americans,

who may not volunteer this year

due to their heightened risk

of contracting covid-19.

So to all the young volunteers

out there, thank you so much

for stepping up.

It means a lot to

a lot of people.

I will also say this.

Next election, buella is

gonna reclaim her throne

as hbic, so do not get

too comfortable, gen-x,

she throws elbows.

If you're not able to

volunteer, a micro action

that you can take right now

is to just text

five friends.

"are you

planning to vote?" that's it.

Then text five exes.

That's always a good idea.

Then, you can text five more

friends.

Maybe people you haven't

spoken to in the past year.

Oh, hey, marsai. - Hey.

You know what? I got you, kal.

You know what? I'm gonna

text five friends right now.

- Thanks, marsai.

Hey, do you mind posting

on our instagram?

- Honestly, you are pushing it.

I don't got time for that.

- Yeah, yeah, no, no,

totally cool.

I get it. I get it. Yep.

Okay, so make sure your friends

are registered,

you have a plan in place,

either a vote by mail

or to get to the polls,

and have the resources

to learn about the issues.

A single voice shouting

isn't really that loud.

But millions of voices,

that's hard to ignore.

See ya next week.

- hello, I'm imploring

everyone watching this

to please sign up as

a poll worker on November 3.

As a poll worker, you will

be trained, paid,

and be on the front lines

of securing democracy.

I am personally serving

as poll worker because

older people in my community

have been serving

as poll workers for decades.

But this time, it's not

safe for them.

So I want to take up that

mantle, and you should too.