Braver New Worlds
Proactive Justice in a World Built for Reaction with Rebecca Young
What if justice isn't what happens after someone is harmed—but what we build to prevent the harm in the first place? This is the question at the heart of the conversation with civil rights attorney Rebecca Young. She has spent approximately two decades practicing law, much of it in civil rights. She's also a former U.S. Army soldier, writer, and speaker whose talk Crayons Before Constitutions: Because Real Justice Doesn't Color Inside the Lines challenges some of our most basic assumptions about justice and the systems we've created to deliver it. Rebecca argues that systems naturally optimize for efficiency. They categorize people, assign roles, eliminate friction, and remove unnecessary connections. That's often exactly what makes them function. But some of the things that look inefficient from a system's perspective may be precisely where creativity, connection, and possibility emerge. Rebecca advocates for proactive justice and the conversation explores what that might mean for community care, workplace policies, politics, technology, AI, local businesses, the ways we value different kinds of work, and more. The conversation isn't an argument against systems, technology, work, or ambition. It's an invitation to notice what they're costing us—and to remain human enough to challenge them when necessary. Because perhaps building a braver new world doesn't require everyone to make the same contribution. It requires enough of us, working from different places, to keep pushing in the same direction. Connect with Rebecca LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccayoung52/ Talk: Crayons Before Constitutions: Because Real Justice Doesn't Color Inside the Lines About the Guest Rebecca Young has spent much of her life serving and defending the institutions that shape our society. As a soldier and later as a civil rights attorney, she dedicated more than two decades to protecting the principles of justice, equality, and democracy. She believes that the most transformative ideas often come from those willing to challenge convention, question assumptions, and color outside the lines. Through her speaking and advocacy, Rebecca inspires audiences to embrace creativity as a force for social change and reminds us that a better future is something we create together.
