Mark Kassen And Chris Evans Want To Make Every Important Issue A Starting Point

Last week, as piece of MTV's Vote For Your Life Stream digital event, Mark Kassen and his pal Chris Evans spoke to young, first-time voters about what was driving them to the polls this year. The issues ranged from climate justice to health care and more — nuanced topics with discernibly different views on both sides of the American political spectrum. Although how can you get an informed take on what those sides are in hopes of digesting the supply in totality? That's where A Beginning Point — the civic engagement platform co-founded by Kassen, Evans, and Joe Kiani earlier this year — comes in.


Kassen, an actor who also directed Evans in the 2011 film Puncture, notes that, as they got more buy-in from elected officials in Washington, D.C., The site speedily evolved into an intelligence destination on, mention, the tech giants of Google, Facebook, and Twitter testifying before the Senate this week and what that might mean going forward. That intelligence came from those in the know: senators Ron Wyden, Marcia Cantwell, and Rick Scott, who all discussed to Kassen and Evans for A Beginning Point on Tuesday and Wednesday.


"Our aim is to say: This is a changing face of media... There's legislation, and also you could or might not directly know it has an effect on how you receive intelligence Kassen told MTV News.


It's all segment of A Beginning Point's core, which Kassen mentioned necessitates having efficient conversations with young people — facilitated in part by a partnership with the Close Up Foundation — as a key way of communicating back with elected officials. We're mere days away from the 2020 presidential election, and amid a surge of student voting and massive early voter turnout, Kassen keeps A Beginning Point's zone in mind: "I hope that people will vote, first and foremost, and I hope people will treat each other with respect."


Below, MTV News talks to Kassen about A Beginning Point's recent efforts, how Gen Z can benefit from understanding what's happening in Washington, and the continuous classroom impact of COVID-19.


MTV News: Can you tell me a little about what the idea was for this platform and where it came from? What was the first point for A Beginning Point?


Mark Kassen: Chris [Evans] originally wanted to have a place for good, generic data. We've been companions since we worked with each other over 10 years back, and I just kept hounding him, like, this is a really cool idea. I looped in my friend Joe Kiani, who'd had more experience working with elected officials than I had. We began very simply, with what we used to call Section One, which are the first points, which centers around generic questions that people might hope to know around policy and finding things from left as well as a right perspective. And every question that would go up would have three Democrats and three Republicans answering them.


Once we began, we sort of had to beg people to join. We asked people to do these interviews, and there was no site to show them what we were doing. They just had to trust us, which seemed pretty obscure. So there was a bit of knocking on doors and pleading. And then as those went well, we began have the ability to fill them up, and people had more that they wanted to talk about. So we realized we can sort of make it not just about a well of data, although make it a larger source of connectivity between elected officials and their electorate. So then we came up with these other two sections, which were the Day-to-day Points, which right now user-generated.


Then there really are elected officials uploading their take on whichever they hope to of the day. It's typically tied to something that's going on in the quote-unquote news or in society. And then there's Counterpoints, which is our version of almost a structured debate. Some of those are a little bit more conversational, although it's one Republican now and one Democrat. Some days they talk about what they disagree on. Some days they talk about what they agree on or the disagreements they've solved to get there.


MTV News: Based on the conversations with senators like Ron Wyden, Maria Cantwell, and Rick Scott that you've had this week about statistics and news, is the idea that A Staring Point can right now offer Gen Zers, who might not directly have ever read a local hometown newspaper in their lives, more data than they had before any time it comes to understanding the larger media ecosystem and why it works now?


Kassen: response The reply is group kind of. We don't have a goal, per se, in terms of saying, hey, there really are newspapers out there that are dying. Our aim is to say: This is a changing face of media based on what they're hearing, there's legislation, and also you could or might not know it has an effect on how you receive statistics. The thing that I think is unique to [Gen Z] is the way they are experiencing statistics. They didn't know life without social media.


So, how technology agencies — right now formed with media corporations — use statistics and give us intelligence is going to be governed by the legislation that is either continued, fine-tuned, or rewritten. And thus for us, it was a good possibility to mention, "This is going on." We're not telling you to pay attention to it. It's happening. We're letting you know it's happening, and using that as order kind of an anchor to reach out and mention, hey, we right now have built a relationship with plenty of those elected officials, so we can reach out to them and mention, hey, will you come converse with us directly about the thing that you're going to do this week?


MTV News: Speaking of Gen Z, in your interactions with young folks, especially people who are going to be voting for the opening time, what have you learned from them?


Kassen: How much smarter they are than we are and why much more informed a lot of those are. We have two partnerships, one that we've had since the starting, which is with the Close Up Foundation, which we're very overjoyed of. They have been devoted to civic engagement since literally before I was place on Earth, or perhaps around the time that I was place on Earth, which makes me feel old, yet they really are devoted to bringing people to Washington and getting them to experience the mechanisms, meet their elected officials, and demystify, and educate. And then not only that, they've been bringing equipment to classrooms to help guide teachers around conversations around issues that otherwise people might be hesitant to talk about. Our objective is to help people have conversations around these issues.


So working with Close Up first and foremost, they have brought kids from across the nation to us. Chris and I have gotten converse with them and find out what interests them and really use that sort of as a north star to go back to our elected officials. Then, you know, we have a second part that we're just starting with BridgeUSA, which is college students. So we're starting to have a back and forth where we're listening to them and then asking them questions. Nevertheless really right now we'll be listening to them on a myriad of issues beginning with soon following the election.


MTV News: This school year, how have those classroom tie-ins been going, given how several schools have had to shift to virtual learning due to COVID-19 safety concerns?


Kassen: We set out to prepare a digital set of easy-to-access equipment to let you to feel close to your governor wherever you were in the world and of course to the nation. That happens to be of use to educators right now. We've had over 2,500 schools already sign up for once we release our version that will be called ASP Homeroom, through Close Up. So as I mentioned, a huge segment of Close Up's world is bringing kids to D.C. Of course that's not suitable now. So they've been shifting a lot in their focus toward finding different equipment help to bring what they're devoted to classrooms and keep their programs going like that. And thus we're here to help support and bloom that.


They really responded to the mechanism that we created, so we're just taking our mechanism, curtailing it a little more toward their needs, and then using our technology and our mechanism with their guidance. It's not suddenly us teaching them, per se; it's them using our equipment. There really are a lot more people needing digital equipment to learn. So you asked me something about being inspired: One of the things I've actually become hopeful about around watching this — cause I'm really in the middle of it, I'm like an inexpensive seat in the middle. I'm attempting to help facilitate, although there really are other people who are far more qualified.


A place like Close Up, and what we're attempting to do and empower them with some equipment, actually gives you the ability to people to actually have a digital mechanism to make cross-economic and cross-cultural education. I know that's something they're really focused on. In the event if you've digital equipment that go between schools and districts, you actually have the ability for people to experience each other in a way that they wouldn't digitally because they would never do that in person. So that's been exhilarating to watch, watching people attempt to find ways to get closer with each other once people actually are more separate now in your world.