Episode 93: State Government Needs a Gen-Z POV
Guest: Reece Axel-Adams, Candidate for State House District 53
Welcome to the HoosLeft Podcast, a show about Indiana politics, history, and culture from an unapologetically leftist perspective. My name is Scott Aaron Rogers, and I’m recording from Bloomington, where Indiana University began fall classes on Monday - and we continue our college theme in a way this week.
For our last episode, I didn’t venture far to find a guest - welcoming David McDonald, an IU professor and Bloomington Chapter President of the AAUP, a union and membership association of faculty and other higher ed professionals that works to advance academic freedom and shared governance. We discussed how university administration, the state, and federal governments are collaborating to undermine those worthy goals.
We talked about how the stifling of academic speech undermines the entire point of higher learning, depriving students of the full education they deserve - just another way the wealthy and powerful few running this country for the last several decades have extracted all of the value from our institutions, leaving the next generation with a reduced standard of living, few opportunities, and little hope.
McDonald shared the perspective of a teacher, an academic. But what about his students? How does this generation navigate a rapidly-changing and confusing world? One where they’re never known life outside the swirling miasma of social media, where the safe and stable US-led international order is collapsing all around, where the disastrous effects of man-made climate change are just beginning to come into focus.
With great difficulty, it turns out.
Financial instability, job uncertainty, housing affordability, systems failure, and the specter of a potentially-unlivable planet are causing exceptionally high levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and isolation in teens and young adults.
Reece Axel-Adams has not been immune to these struggles. The 21-year old student at Earlham College is on medical leave for a second straight semester after dealing with a mental health crisis in January, but has been doing much better through therapy. And they’ve also found new purpose, offering a positive vision for the future that young Hoosiers can get behind.
Reece is running for the Indiana State House of Representatives in District 53, challenging incumbent Republican Ethan Lawson in the area around Pendleton, Greenfield, and New Palestine. They join me for a conversation about a young career already full of activism, how Generation-Z has been left to inherit a mess, and how that burden is weighing their peers.
Real quick before we get to the interview, please consider supporting HoosLeft with a paid subscription. This is an independent media project; I don’t paywall content; and I don’t rely on advertising. Only individuals like you keep this thing going. I refuse to gatekeep valuable information in the middle of a political crisis, even to my financial detriment. So please, if you find value in this work, go to HoosLeft.us and subscribe at the paid level - it’s only $5 a month, or $50 a year, to help me write more, research more, and organize more. Not ready for long-term commitment? You can make a one-time contribution on Cash App or Venmo. Links are in the show notes. Me, and my old body, would like to spend less time on construction, and more time constructing a better future for Indiana, but I need your financial support to do so.
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Now, here is my conversation with Reece Axel-Adams
Things We Talked About:
Arika Herron for Axios: https://www.axios.com/local/indianapolis/2025/08/25/indiana-democrats-statehouse-candidates-2026-elections
Evan Weaver for the Richmond Palladium-Item: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/earlham-student-pendleton-run-statehouse-183850489.html
House District 53: https://ballotpedia.org/Indiana_House_of_Representatives_District_53
List of youngest-ever state legislators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_youngest_state_legislators_in_the_United_States
America’s Gerontocracy Problem: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5123881-active-seniors-americas-gerontocracy-problem/
Pendleton Heights pride flag controversy: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5123881-active-seniors-americas-gerontocracy-problem/
ACLU sues Pendleton Heights on behalf of GSA: https://www.aclu-in.org/en/press-releases/aclu-indiana-sues-behalf-pendleton-heights-students-denied-right-promote-gay-straight
Equal Access Act of 1984 (It was Reagan): https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/equal-access-act-of-1984/
WEEM at Pendleton nationally-recognized: https://www.pendletontimespost.com/2017/02/15/weem_up_for_national_awards_-2/
Citizens 4 Qualified Candidates PAC: https://www.facebook.com/citizens4qualifiedcandidates
Suzanne Fortenberry 2024: https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/race-details/state-senate-district-36/
Brain takes decades to mature: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059
Boys’ brains mature more slowly: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-47622059
Mike Braun’s professional timeline: https://ballotpedia.org/Mike_Braun
Shreve sells business for $550M: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/extra-space-storage-inc-acquires-storage-express-and-appoints-jefferson-shreve-to-its-board-of-directors-301625892.html
The tax benefits of the self-storage industry: https://cssiservices.com/tax-benefits-for-self-storage/
Congressional stock trading: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/30/senate-stock-trading-ban-pelosi-act-00484256
Trump’s gold White House: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-white-house-oval-office-gold-decorations-2099426
Wealth Inequality in Indiana: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-white-house-oval-office-gold-decorations-2099426
Youth mental health crisis: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/10/youth-mental-health-crisis-survey-00151349
The rise and fall of deinstitutionalization: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/10/youth-mental-health-crisis-survey-00151349
Panic! at the Disco - Crazy = Genius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLPTNumhyAY
Bipolar Disorder criteria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLPTNumhyAY
Young men in crisis and why it’s everybody’s problem: https://www.deseret.com/family/2025/08/26/war-on-boys-masculinity-crisis-how-to-help-men/
Building mental health into police responses: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/07/emergency-responses
Once again, that was Reece Axel-Adams, student at Earlham College and candidate for Indiana State House District 53.
Generation-Z struggles with their mental health because the world is changing rapidly and multiple existential crises loom over them, but even more so because they have so little ability to do anything about it. It’s like being trapped in a burning building. Decades of leadership have failed us again and again, hoarding wealth and opportunity, refusing to hand over the levers of power. A bountiful crop of intelligence, empathy, and understanding is withering on the vine, blocked from the sun by the last generation. Time has long since come to clear away the overgrowth and let new leaders blossom. Nurture them with knowledge, but let them show the way.
Thanks for listening. Let me show you the way to Project Next Media network’s YouTube, FaceBook Live, and Twitch streams, where I host HoosLeft This Week, Indiana’s most thorough Sunday morning news and politics talk show. Check it out live if you get a chance - it’s a lot of fun, if you can call following the news in this timeline fun. I bring together a diverse group of panelists from the democratic socialist left to never-Trump conservatives and we look at the week’s headlines from around Indiana and beyond. We’ll also take time to examine one big thing, a different deep dive every week. I hope to see you there in the comments, but if you can’t make it live, the program will be available as a podcast Sunday afternoon.
Thanks again to Reece for their time and willingness to be vulnerable with us. And I’ll be vulnerable with you - I could really use your paid subscription at HoosLeft.US, where you’ll find my entire archive. I rely solely on the generosity of kind patrons like you to make this information available for free to everybody. In addition to the website, you can find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and Threads at HoosLeft.US and on Facebook, X, TikTok, Mastodon, and YouTube at HoosLeft. Direct message me at any of those sites with feedback, tips, ideas, and concern or email me at scott@hoosleft.us. Finally, please forward the show to a friend and have them pass it on. Let’s keep building this project - and a truly democratic state - one conversation at a time. Until the next one, this has been the HoosLeft podcast. I’m Scott Aaron Rogers. Love each other, Indiana.
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