The New Youth Times
The New Youth Times is a television show about civic engagement created by local teenagers at Portland Media Center. It started as a Civic IQ initiative in July 2025 with five teen youth workers (Angela, Douglas, Emanuel, Loic, Mia) who attended a summer intensive called Gateway 2 Opportunity, a collaboration between the Maine Youth Action Network (MYAN) at the Opportunity Alliance and The Young People’s Caucus (YPC) at The Catherine Cutler Institute. The teens learned media tools and techniques and developed this ongoing project which involves thoughtful interviews, news desk segments, special features, funny parody commercials and animations. We celebrated and shared the first episode on October 23rd 2025 and had a Q&A with the creators and collaborators. To get involved with the show, contact the Education Coordinator, Natalie Conn at natalie@portlandmedia.org
The New Youth Times - EPISODE 1
Watch the pilot episode of The New Youth Times featuring interviews with changemakers Swathi Sivasubramanian and Erica King, Fashion Designer Denick Mayele, and two teachers from South Portland High school. There’s also a special segment called Mic-on-the-street and an ad for The Kindness Catalyst and Regression (you’d have to watch to find out what those are!) And more!
The New Youth Times - EPISODE 2
Episode 2 has interviews with Michael Kebede, Policy Director at the ACLU of Maine, Ellie Sato from the Maine House of Representatives, and Eliot Wertheimer a South Portland high school alum and former student representative. There’s also a weather report and a short rotoscope animation.
