#36: Jeff Jackson — Battling Gerrymandering, Harnessing the Power of Social Media, & How the Youth Will Save the World

This week I had North Carolina State Senator Jeff Jackson in the studio and it was a lights-out episode! It’s easy to get discouraged in the current political climate, but Senator Jackson’s optimism and positive vision for the future are infectious. In a little over an hour, we covered the issues you care about and hammered out a plan to save the world!

Key moments from this episode:

5:04  How gerrymandering came to be a key issue for him
8:08  On ending gerrymandering via constitutional amendment
9:24 — Bringing accountability to the process by lowering the barrier between the voters and the politicians
16:06 — Choosing to approach every interaction with constituents as a learning experience
23:56 — Battling disinformation
30:10 — The unpredictable rise of Donald Trump
41:35 — The influence of gerrymandering on national politics
45:17 — Going viral on a #SnowDay
57:00 — Changing the world by investing heavily in early childhood education
1:12:26 — Where he sees his future in politics

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Connect with Jeff Jackson on TwitterFacebookLinkedInwww.jeffjacksonnc.com, and the North Carolina General Assembly.

Resources Mentioned:

Viral Buzzfeed Snowday Article

Charlotte Observer Snowday Article

Compilation of Snowday Tweets

Antifragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Secret – Rhonda Byrne

Tweet: Ending gerrymandering in NC: “It’s like the ring from the #LordOfTheRings; it's too powerful, you can’t trust anybody with it. You gotta come together and just throw it in the volcano.
Ending gerrymandering in NC: “It’s like the ring from the #LordOfTheRings; it’s too powerful, you can’t trust anybody with it. You gotta come together and just throw it in the volcano.”

Tweet:
“It is openly unethical to draw districts to make sure that you can’t lose an election. This issue has all the moral complexity of bank robbery.”

Tweet:
“I want to lower the barrier between the voters and the politicians in North Carolina so that when we screw up, you can throw us out of the office much more easily.”

Come at me, bro.

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