National press club. If you spend any time on social media, you may be surprised about a recent poll. While the country is polarized as ever, 95 of voters agree that,■ quote, respect for each other is key to having a government that works. And 8 of voters agreed civility is the language of ect. Yet Research Shows that most americans believe political discourse in the United States has become less respectful. This year, with more gen z voters than ever voting, its critical to ensure these young dulls get the information they need to make he best decisions at the polls. At the same time a lot of sources for unbiased, factbased news and coverage are under strain. To this has resulted in growing news does erts across the country. Actor and producer chris evans, boast known for his role as captain america in the Marvel Cinematic Union verse, and mark kassen, play right and actor. Entrepreneur, long bio. And tech entrepreneur stepped into addressing the challenge with the founding in 2020 of a starting point. The mission, to create a bipartisan channel of communication and connectivity between americans and their elected officials with the goal of creating a more informed electorate. This year a starting point is launching an electionyear campaign to prepare young voters with information, resources and engagement opportunities and today were so eager to hear more about a starting point. The latest campaign and your plans to reach millions of gen z voters. Join me in a warm press club welcome for chris and mark. [applause] thank you. So i think to kick things you have a weve got to start with the one big question. Obviously you two have had successful careers in hollywood. Why come to d. C. . Why begin Something Like a starting point . Foolishness, i think. [laughter] true naivete. Dunning kruger, is what it is. We thought we could help shine a light on certain issues and create more zivic engagement and we each have our own individual social medias, we have our own individual opinions. But that only reaches a certain amount and i think we both felt that more good could come from creating a mechanism, a platform, where its about engagement. About education. Demystifying issues to create a government that more accurately reflects who we are. If you have half of the country not voting and not using their voice, how can you ever have a government that understands where were going . So it felt, you know, as like ga and spouting off my own opinion, you realize thats only doing so much. This felt like a more effective way to use our plat forms. And to be fair, we didnt mean to do all of this. We had a very chris originally had a very narrow idea which was, im a little embarrassed that i dont know this definition of some of these things like and a specifically nafta, you may have nope what that was. But lets hear frit the horses mouth. Lets get three republicans and three democrats to answer and define each of these things asms we began talking to them, we a unique channel of communication we were opening up. It seemed a shame if we didnt use this to hear more from these folks and then to begin to unpack some of the stuff we were experiencing for the audience that we had to be able to throw it forwards. And frankly, we need to be able to say were conscious were not reporters or news. We create a platform of information so we can go to where you all work and really dive deeper. So it started very small. Then we couldnt help ourselves. Now here we are. I want to touch on something that you kind of said there. It was back in maybe 2019. Prepandemic. You did get attention for a couple of tweets that were critical of certain lawmakers. I think certainly as someone who goes on social media a lot for work thats not uncommon you see that all the time. But i wanted to get a sense, take me through your mindset shift from someone who is tweeting things like that, to someone who is now running this Nonpartisan Organization . Well, it kind of touches on something both of you said. I was someone who was politically involved. I had my own opinions. I considered myself slightly above a dilettante. I kind of had an understanding but not much. Even for someone like me there were issues id see every day like, what is that . I need to know basic, basic what is that . When you try to google something, very quickly youre in the weeds in terms of clear, partisan perspectives or maybe not even partisan. Just above your pay grade, you know. Too complex to process at an entry level. I thought man if someone like me is having a hard time learning these basic things, how can we encourage people who maybe missed the political boat in their teens and twenties, which happens. How do you get them back in the field . How can you say, that is safe place to say, i dont get it, give it to me nor more digestible bites. Thats the idea of think, maybe y way. That was the basic idea. Mark, has this project evolved like you expected it to in the last four years . Whats been the obstacles . Whats been the surprises . No. Covid. We were supposed to remembere were supposed to lt the south by southwest 2020 which was the first major thing we were so devastated. When they canceled it, it was before we knew what it was going to be. We were like, this is irresponsible. I cant believe theyre canceling it. This is going to ruin the city. And to be fair, i said this. And you know but we were happy we didnt go. However, as we got into it, interestingly enough, because of that, because of that challenge, we were forced to find other ways to communicate and people really needed that. And so one of the things that ended up happen, and quite frankly, chris and i, would have also been busier during that year and werent. Like everybody else. But yet the government and certain other folks really needed to find ways to communicate. People were actually more open they didnt use the app in the way we thought they would we made the app originally that members of congress had. We thought this will be great they can upload videos whenever they want, theyll love to talk to us. There were two apps. We made an entire separate app for elected officials they thinking theyd use it. I dont think they used it once. And when they werent with their staffers, they didnt have the mek noism remind them to do some of those things what did end up happening to talk to us, we ended up doing video conferences. And then we ended up developing a platform to talk to them and record that. Made many other verticals of communication, daily points, and explainers, thats none of that would have happened, or who knows what would havee it wasnt intended to be that robust. Now i think the last thing we thought wed be doing is inperson events. Weve now like closeup and bridge u. S. A. To reach out through their communities, both digitally, virtually and now in person. Th. We thought meade wed make this thing and kick back, couldnt wait for elected officials to uploald things. Talk to me about your relationship with elected officials. People said chris evans, that is scam. Not going to respond. Kalen who works with us she was a Comms Director for somebody, a republican. Republicans didnt want to talk to us. We sat down and she came and talked, she was so helpful in thoasms way we approached so much so that mark was like, should we hire her . We should go get her. Shes great. And shes i mean, invaluable. Someone asked us you probablo have dont have that many people who tell you what they actually think. Season a straight kalen is a straight shooter. That helped enormously. I think d. C. Specifically among elected officials theres a real tight knit network that if someone says this is ok, that spreads. So that was the to be fair when we first came to d. C. The website didnt exist. And to tough to sago look at this. Its going to be great. You all im sure, you know, as reporters, letting people feel safe to sit down with you to begin with. Im terrified right now. Know, s were kind enough to sit down with us. Without actually having anything to reference and to show that we promise were not going to hurt you. Over time we eventually convinced them. What was the breakthrough moment . What was the moment you were chatting with lawmakers and youre finally like we got something. Maybe the third or fourth the first trip here we were so excited. Had three or four days. We were filming in the senate. What was that room called . Whatever it was it felt real fancy to us. Were like, were doing it. Were really doing it. Not one republican showed up. We only had four people scheduled for 17 slots when we got here. So i think maybe the third or fourth trip when not only did we have everyone show up for the plan ski jude, we were trying to squeeze more people in. Maybe extend the trip. Thats when it was like, ok, i think were finding momentum. Again, thats the site itself is a constantly evolving thing. As most sites in general are. You kind of have to read wo ware audience, counterpunch as you grow. But the good thing we gained in the process was the good will and trust of elected officials. I think thats a hard thing to earn. And they said to us, a lot of folks, you come to d. C. And tell us what you think. You tell us how we should act. You guys are asking us questions. And again because were nere nl itself we just wanted definitions and answers and then we wanted to put it up as cleanly has possible. And over time, other people told their coworkers, no, this is real we found, you know, we had a couple of republicans were some champions of ours. Then they told others. Same on both sides. Then it didnt matter anymore. Now it doesnt. I mean qte frankly, this is great. Were the least important thing i want to see if you couldaboro. Im a congressional reporter. About our site. I also talk with lawmakers and we arent necessary to most of us. Report what they say. Which is fantastic, thats been i try to get details about the the goalappreciate you being bigger facts going on. Here and telling us all about tell uerelf the site. I wanted to ask, chris, you in the media landscape. Mentioned that you really dont were not news. Were information. You know. As being a its boiled dunn to sound part of the media landscape. Bites. We not news also like to think of ourselves as information. But were not coming from a place thats drafting long form information predicated on previous events where you can walk away with a theory. We dont have journalists researching for months and months. Were the war correspondents. Coming from the neophytes, for the neophytes, to boil it down, not just catering to the collective dwindling Attention Span were all subjected to but span were all subjected to but i think thats the difference. Other things weve done right is naming the website the starting point. I came up with the a. The domain was available and helped, too. But the right name because we dont think that you should end with what with what that site says. Hopefully its demystifying it and hopefully is a place people can begin their journey and then go off on their own and look at things themselves. How have you made sure folks know about a starting point and they know, this news article and dont understand what daca is and dont understand why this person doesnt like this thing that seems really good. How have you reached those folks . It started out because chris is really famous and that helped a little bit. Its a plus on capitol hill. He didnt charge a lot to tweet for us and was really useful. Then quite honestly, this was surprising to me, the elected officials audiences. The more they participated and the more the elected officials found they got feedback from participating in the site, the more their constituents began to Pay Attention to us. The best thing weve done is working with organizations that are committed for all■7 of this. Bridge is one and weve worked with many other news organizations and will continue to. This year were going to partner with quite a few organizations and do some tours and things like that. Those folks we can provide service to helped us grow our audience a lot. I wanted to ask because i went on the site last night and you have some in depth topics there. I watched the video on e. S. G. Investing and you have other things on there like teen therapy, artificial intelligence, gerrymandering, human trafficking. How do you identify these topics and enforce the information . The first question and it gross. This is where, quite frankly, you asked where we planned to go and didnt think wed be here. I think we discipline ourselves or the team disciplines ourselves to to you want to be as instantly topical as possible p. But really, we look at the year in terms of the legislative calendar and scottous scotus calendar and i would ask you this question, things pop up and i would guess you have an idea around the time of year the thing may be newsworthy. We have a very small team and so well prepare, you know, information to gear up for that and then we have folks who are here who spend a lot of time both figuring out what elected officials are going to be closest to the topic that will talk thousand and spend a lot of time building that up and then as youre prepared and certain things come up, you know, we turn as fast as we can and we work with other groups to help, you know, hold us accountable or he them when we can. Im curious how you feel, coming to you as a congressional reporter, lawmakers sometimes intentionally or not intentionally do give inaccurate information. How do you make sure youre sitting down with the lawmakers and doing interviews and posting them to the site youre not putting something out there thats simply not accurate . The starting point for the definitions are all fact checked. We work with fact checkers. However, theres information that comes up every day that comes directly from the elected officials answering a question or defining something. Of their constituents, i need to know what they think. Its about hearing directly and taking ourselves out of it and the complaint could be from someone that their words are manipulated, they are not. They say what their opinion is or what they think an issue how they believe it. Quite frankly, people for the most part dont come tour site for spouting things wildly ie thought, how will we navigate be main thing weve had to navigate. Were not a place for hyperbolic speech. Thats not what our quite frankly, of the things that have been heartening, youth doesnt want it. They are bloodhounds for it, too. The young people can really tell when theyre being misled. You said youth are bloodhounds for it . I think you p nowadays are more aware with the proliferation of social media which is where people are getting news these days, i think theyre aware of selective facts and framing information in a way thats deliberately misleading and if you do it once, its probably in your nature and will do it more than once and that is when a picture becomes clear. Again, we have a great team that they interact with our audience and we hear what people think and what they want more of. And obviously like any of you, if you put anything out there, its a wonderful ground for anyone to plant seeds of not nice things if they want to and have conversations on social media but the basis has to be pure and we get really great feedback from the folks that seem to enjoy the information. That is a result of a healthy mechanism for elected officials to come and speak because some of the incentives for maybe waxing hyperbole are not there. When you ask these elected officials to do this, so often when theyre being asked to speak, its because theyre a very targeted audience and have a very particular message for them but youre speaking an educational role and you have the opportunity to do stuff like this, to sit down and explain an issue straight out. Yeah, i dont know. Maybe for a minute until someone copies us and does it better, theyll talk to us. But i will say the one thing one thing impressed us going to d. C. , it may sound naive but how busy these people are, a lot goes on here, being elected and theres a bill and theyre running out. We should have a bunch of outtakes of people running away from chris evans because they have to go vote on something, the amount of times its happened is maybe only here. And you think well, how did we felt its important to honor the time because whatever theyre doing, you know, its almost embarrassing they were talking to us. Now i dont think so. Now i think we really are a service and useful and like i said, were not unnecessary to the process of them speaking because they want their audience way more than theyre interested in us, which is great. But yeah, i mean, they walk really far, four or five miles away and get their steps in, especially the house. Amazing. I got distracted. It is a lot. Youd be surprised how many get lo, too. You find them wondering around, are you trying to go . This way. Its incredible. You touched on the elections and a lot of us, when we think of the upcoming 2024 election, one thing really on our minds is the level of misinformation weve seen out there and how that will drive in 2024. Broadly here, what are your goals for the upcoming election . So many. And im not sure how many we can address on the site. Specifically one of the sites of a. S. P. Is counterpoints. One of the things thats missing is not necessarily the what but the how. Thats always been extreme perspectives and always people who are more ready for a fight more than other people. But civil discussions and disagreements, the way we speak to each other. Can you talk about what counteoints looks like on the site . Counterpoints was something two elected officials with opposing perspectives on an issue would have a chance to go back and forth but it was filmed in a way where they would film their initial opinion and other people in their own due time would watch the original elected official and they would respond and this would go back and forth two or three times. We made a complicated, expensive app because we knew theyd want to do it on sundays and submit to it. Apparently we were wrong. Marketing is running down hallways. But just in an effort to, look, its not even when you watch it, its almost irrelevant whether you agree or disagree with the opinions. What most people take away from it when you watch it, man, that was nice, watching people speak to each other in a way that at least it think thats what breathes allegiance almost more than what youre saying, its how youre saying it because you believe this person is a listener and they have respect and they understand and respect the institution. I believe you have a better ch hearing the information. If its not about one United Statesmanship in terms of winning one ups manship in terms of winning the conversation, then the counterpoint is trying to figure out what they may or may not agree with because a lot of times theyre not that far apart and sometimes you blow people up but you want to hear the information. And in terms of the goals for the election, overall, i think one in five youth that didnt vote in the last election didnt vote because they didnt feel informed enough. And i think if we can at least create a place between our election hub which has a ton of resources to tell people almost everything you need to do about their polling places and issues and things like that so you make it easier for them to vote and easier to register and then not feel silly about what they dont know. So theres a place for them to feel engaged and maybe thats a service we can provide and then in addition well do Different Things and partner with all the organizations to helpways wellt the year to find other verticals. You mentioned partnering with other organizations. Youll both be at the white house tomorrow, Great Organization to partner with it you want to get attention. And youre meeting with dozen of High School Students to engage with them ahead of the election. You laid out the land on youth voters but i guess in trying to get a better sense, why do you think a■■eyre not educated . Theyre online with all these resources and arguably have more resources than any other youths in the history of forever, what is it you think leads them to feel like they cant vote because they dont know enough . I think its just the nature of being a teenager, isnt it . In the dont i consider myself i love politics now but not in my 20s. It wasnt on my landscape. Thats understandable. The american story is one of constant awakening. Thats the youth, the tip of the spear. The elderly are voting but theyre maybe the rudder and mixing metaphors. But the youth is the. Theyre where were going. Is the bow the front . Ok. Good. So theyre going to be splashed a lot. Its hard to know. But it actually is you need their involvement, you need their engagement. Theyre more emblematic of where theyre going. You say . Eight million new genz voters . 8. 3. A minute ago when i was a first time voter, i had other things important to me, did jenny like me . Did she . Still working on it. Or whatever it was, you think ne information on those other things as well. Theres more things for younger folks to be distracted by as well. And again, like you said, a part of growing up, people should do the things they want to do. If we can use whatever it is we have to create a space this can be an addition to that, were not trying to judge folks how they want to spend their time or what they want to swipth the dap and say, i should be more involved. The first time you say, i should know this stuff. We all have that moment when were young. There was a discussion at a party, i dont know a single thing what they were talking about, where do i go . Oh, i guess i need to know a few things to get involved. And both for genz and anyone, if you are trying to find out these things, you do hit a lot of misinformation out there. Theres a ton. I know youve created a safe space on the internet for information, but is there also a role for a starting point to play in sort of combating some of that misinformation in other areas . I dont know. Listen, like i said, we have an extremely hard, overworked team of a handful of people. So to not break them, i dont know you can give everybody that job as well. But we look to branch out in other subjects, you know. Were finding other ways to involve experts that we never did before and there are subject matters we found that its not maybe best to have elected officials break it down because we realize maybe that makes information too hot and challenging to do that. We branched out in that way and will branch out in other subjects. A natural prosecution in talking about a. I. Brings people to ask questions about other things in technology. Were going to continue to grow in that way. I think well figure out how far we can go based, quite frankly, eventually weve done this ourselves and will bring in Financial Partners and see how that goes and who we continue to work with. But i think, you know, we thought baby steps, theyre at least toddler steps. But well see how much we can do. But were very conscious that were not you. And youre held to a very high bar and dont want to trip a wire that we cant handle. So i think were in a good lane now and well grow as fast as we can. I will say it makes sense. I know as a reporter, when everyone has so much of a demand for their attention, were told often write concise and short and write in a way people can adjust to it quickly which means i cant spend several paragraphs reminding everyone the senate is controlled by democrats and you need 60 votes, da, da, da. Do you get into those basics when it comes to the basics of the structure of government . We do. Honestly, thats something we never thought of. The explainers are great. People love them. And theyre breaking down again, chris and i get almost no credit in it. We shouldnt. We deserve no credit. We have a team of folks that think about ways and go through a process to communicate. One of the things we bring to the table is we are storytellere doing and work with the team as we would if they were any kind of a team of storytellers and these stories asometimes defini. But they really work very hard in breaking things down in a digestible manner and thats something well grow on because people love them. You mentioned a couple times that you want the starting point to be its own thing and not to be a thing youre at the center of it. Can i ask why . Whats your thought behind it . One of the reasons ive made my opinions known so vocally, we dont want someone at face value to think were pushing something. The nature of the site is bipartisan and informationbased, not my opinion. Im not an expert and not a journalist and have no right to be in this arena other than as a voter, as an american who wants to just play on the one string i have which is my voice, as we all should. And ian, a lot of the things i think turn people away from politics aside from the fact that certain issues are complex, we just dont think it works. Forget politics, structural things, things like term limits and gerrymandering and things that build politics people become frustrated with. But voting changes that, too. Voting, voting, its such an and gerrymandering gets repeated over again and doesnt mean anything. You need a place to define that so people can be reminded when they see it, oh, actually, that is gerrymandering. Creating engagement. Creating a new generation of voters that care, that realize that simple thing voting, federal or state level, makes a difference. Thats worth saying, too. You were asking what were doing in the year, partnering with the National State legislatures organization. And thats been fantastic. One of the things for me, you know, and this is not National Statistics but ill tell you maybe half or more of the issues that get discussed boil down to a states rights thing. And im shocked that i never thought about that until recently, right . So now we have now we work directly with the state legislators. And in a time where, what, you have 3100 counties and 2,000 of them dont have a local newspaper, state legislators need a voice in talking about their back yard which affects the country the way a lot of things are going. Thats something were actively doing and reaching out to talk to those folks to be a service to their communities. And they know youre working with the state cil of state legislatures and are there any specific states youre honing in on . Absolutely not. We love all 50 of them. I also did want to talk a bit, because it goes with our discussion about young voters is the discussion of specific education. Im a former education reporter and have written about how map and leading scores means less than civics and history according to the national segregation, only 22 were proficient in civics and 80 in history. And given the fact so many basics arent picked up, how do you push the people to learning about their government when theres lack of education about the structure of it. Profession. Find people that do it better than you and partner with them. We dont pretend to have the answers but its a matter of in that arena and understand how to reach those people and the best mechanism, theyve done all the trial and error. Closeup, theyve been around for 50 years. And were lucky enough to connect with them to not just guide us but to also, you know, help provide things that could be of service to their mission. That way its not about what the big mistake would be suddenly we sit around and decide what the youth should be learning. There are those committed in that space and we use whatever it is we have to to and feed the organizations like what news is doing with bridge in colleges and what theyre doing at closeup and others. Youre not going to show up in a classroom one day and start with civics. We actually did plan on it. That was the original plan before covid happened. Say more. We were excited to launch and all the inperson things we could do because lean on thingsy to get some temporary eyeballs and hopefully get people excited and turn on a few light bulbs. Spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. Am i the sugar or can i just hear that the way i wanted to . You guys have anything or consider stuff on your site as far as explaining the media and journalism . The■n media landscape of today s different than what it was a couple decades ago. I think there are so many more people calling themselves journalist and news organizations but more of a need to parse through and understand and categorize some of what is being written. I dont know its our place were very careful not to were not here to pick apart what other people are doing. We choose to participate in a way that we can and we use our voice a. S. P. One of the things im most proud of is the tone and voice of a. S. P. And again, quite frankly, the team is now if we went away tomorrow, theyre subservient and beyond us and theres a north star and were committed to that. Its not our place to take apart how other people■ are doing it but hope is there, say, an explain forehow the media works and something that kind of helps folks get their foot in the door to being able to understand the vast context they have right now. I dont know i know how it works. I dont know i can speak to how. Theres no denying it, im sure everyone in this room is held to certain journalistic standards. The integrity of the job you do, im sure you see how its completely perverted through social media, click bait things, people calling themselves journalists on a daily basis and thats unfortunate but thats where a lot of people do get news. On the other side of it, i think 200 counties have no newspaper at all, not even a daily newspaper, no newspaper. And you can easily go back to boss hog, i might have really made a dated referake something . The dukes of hazard. Now im slightly embarrassed. But i think, gosh, its tough for the business of media. We definitely see that. But, you know, i could go through 10 stories, five stories off the top of my head in the last two months of mass firings of papers going down, and theyre all people trying to figure out how to speak to an audience in a way that pays for the people to do all of that work. So i think were at an interesting everything is in flux, right . You talked about partners, if you want to■ partner about teaching people of media and reading the news, i know an organization that does a lot with journalists. Your cookie was slightly better than the a. S. P. Im superopen. We have a couple questions here from the audience. One, how are you funding this and do you have various public support . How can folks support you . We have selffunded it to this point. We are now partnering with other folks and we are now beginning to work with other Financial Partners. It was tricky especially in the beginning because part of the original conceit of this site is you dont know where the inrmation is coming from and who is paying for it. Somehow the solution was us. Just do it ourselves. But as its grown and to achieve our mission and to grow, well now take on partners but its tricky and it started but so far were a not for profit in the sense we havent made any money. I will say we do have time for a couple questions from the audience. I think theres some staffers around you can pass your cards to us i see you, sir, with a card. Feel free to hand it up. Nope. Never mind. You obviously have the hollywood background and a lot of ties and connections to hollywood. What do your celebrity peers think about what youre doing and have you seen sort of momentum build inside hollywood, inside the west coast for helping out with some of these initiatives which so far have a lot of people thats kind of been the ace up our sleeve when do we make those hollywood calls . When do i have to say, will cow do this soon . Will you come do this soon . For one thing, hollywood is like d. C. And theyll be timid until they know what theyre stepping in to. For a few years we have something to point to, this is truly bipartisan, informationbased, and driven in an academic manner. Hopefully, yeah. Weve gotten a lot of good feedback from our peers. People do respectbecause they recognize its tricky waters to navigate. Some actors stay clear and i realize its not worth a phone call but other buddies would jump in in a heartbeat. Its important that whoever we involve its servitude to the mission a. S. P. Has. And there are different folks that can bring attention to Different Things and areas, or open up a conversation in pockets around the country. I think that will be an interesting thing to play with. But its got to be specific and not a gimmick. And so were figuring that out in pieces as we go. You say open up the conversation in pockets of the country, is there a particular spot you have in mind for where . No, listen, theres lots of different places where people are from, you know. The tail might wag the dog. Depending who might be interested in doing it, you can say what are you interested in, where are you from, whats your passion and what you want to talk about . Go from there . Yes. I know that we are almost out of time and now i feel guilty since everyone passed up their questions doing it. I will ask just one more quick question. Theres a table of gz in the back if you want to chat with them in the back. Hey, genz table. You put them in the back. Work your way up. How do you currently sustain engagement . Just given that everything moves as quickly as it does. Im thinking, you talk about news cycles in d. C. And its surprising it was last week week ago we were talking about a shutdown and now its on a tax bill and also immigration but also ukraine, how do■ you keepp and make sure people are informed when the news in real time moves so quickly. When theres an influx of information, thats a good thing. Were coming into an Election Year and its like owning a snowplow before a blizzard. Its good to have this sort of site. Theres no shortage of information but a lot more work for the other folks at the table. We cant do everything which is one of the reasons why we grow. Have a need and do feel the sense of responsibility. By have a team and yearning desire to take the thing we built and very proud of and throw more at it. We cant hit everything. If we dont have the resource to deal with that one, Something Else will be there and we do what we do