The Mission:

Greetings reader! 

I’m Eli: founder, author, editor-in-chief, and web developer for Overheard in the Capitol. I attended a public Bay Area high school and recently became a proud UC Berkeley student (Class of 2028) studying political economy and public policy on a pre-law track.

I’ve been publishing research on contemporary political and legal phenomena for two years now, with a conspicuous interest in the First Amendment’s role in digital media. My journey began amidst the 2020 election when headlines warning against misinformation flooded my notifications and piqued my intellectual curiosity. I followed my inquiries to UCSB’s Summer Research Academy where I participated in the 2022 cohort, ultimately co-authoring and presenting a 15-page research paper entitled “‘Alternative Facts’: The Origins of Fake News and its Implications’ at the capstone seminar. My colleagues and I later published our paper in the Journal of Student Research, an accredited national journal. 

Not only was I enamored with the research and writing process, but I gained a powerful framework by which to understand and analyze contemporary events. The beginnings of my skills and perspective had been sowed, and I wanted to keep going. In March 2023, I founded Overheard in the Capitol, a platform to self-publish my continued research dissecting current controversies in the context of broader political phenomena and become a better-engaged citizen. I hope that by sharing my work, others—especially other youth—will follow suit.

Today Overheard in the Capitol serves personal and community goals for myself and its readers.

Through the works of authors such as Jon Krakauer, David Brooks, Ezra Klein, and the founding fathers themselves, I came to recognize writing both as a delicate art and a powerful tool for change and mass mobilization. I yearn to master it, and Overheard in the Capitol is my domain to do so. 

Furthermore, politics is complex, and often intimidating at the start. I’ve always sympathized with claims that civic engagement and informed political participation are crucial in sustaining our democracy, but mainstream political issues like gerrymandering, the federal deficit, or immigration policy can seem esoteric to the majority of the citizenry. The masses need not strive for punditry—our elected officials theoretically carry out this responsibility on our behalves—but basic comprehension is a just and achievable goal for any voting American. 

I also believe that habitual reading undoubtedly advances one’s political literacy, but actively engaging others’ ideas with corroboration or refutation begets a higher echelon of understanding. I treat each topic I tackle as an open-ended discussion in which my publications are the response to what I’ve absorbed. Each article develops my personal political identity issue-by-issue, ensuring the views I hold are nuanced and well-informed. I see such diligence as a prerequisite for responsible political participation, and the writing I carry out for Overheard in the Capitol enables me to fulfill it.

However, Overheard in the Capitol’s principal purpose and value transcends my enrichment. 

As many who are passionate about learning affirm, one’s knowledge is best used for purposes beyond themselves. I recognize political apathy amongst my generation—which stems from confusion and pessimism—as a threat to our government system’s future. Democracy without widespread, interactive participation amounts to minority rule, after all. I want to “popularize politics” amongst the youth to ensure our government system’s future viability.  

Overheard in the Capitol is an approachable and accepting domain for the politically curious, lost, apathetic, and everyone in between. Leading by example with my publications, I seek to promote political engagement, original thinking, and identity formation by revealing more covert aspects of today’s complex and contentious discourse; I aim to pull back the curtains and explain the nuance behind the headlines. I also strive to equip readers with the knowledge and analytical skills to engage topics in an inquisitive, skeptical, open-minded manner. Overheard in the Capitol instills the fundamentals of civic engagement and political responsibility in its readers, encouraging thinking beyond the headlines.    

However, my interpretations should constitute just one component of a reader’s journey. I am well-read in the topics I analyze; I observe conversations thoroughly before asserting my position. My work is comprehensive and meticulous. But I am comparatively still a beginner, and by no means an expert. I’m just another inquisitive, driven student, as are many of my peers. My opinion is merely that—an opinion—in which there is no such thing as right or wrong. I encourage readers to follow up their reading of an Overheard in the Capitol publication by consuming alternative scholarship, using my input as a stepping stone in reaching their own conclusions. 

I’ll end with this: the future of American democracy is today’s citizens’ responsibility, so let’s not take it lightly. We must equip ourselves to navigate the political climate using not emotion and reaction but intuition and analysis, which can only be achieved through diligent political education. I am confident that if you're reading these words, success in this regard is well within your reach.   

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Remember: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today” — Malcolm X.