Available From UC Press

This is the first book to take us inside Youth Radio for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at a unique, Peabody Award-winning organization that produces distinctive content for outlets from National Public Radio to YouTube. Young people come to Youth Radio, headquartered in Oakland, California, from under-resourced public schools and neighborhoods in order to produce media that will transform both their own lives and the world around them. Drop That Knowledge weaves their compelling personal stories into a fresh framework for understanding the relationship between media, learning, and youth culture at a moment when all three spheres are undergoing dramatic change. The book emphasizes what is innovative and exciting in youth culture and offers concrete strategies for engaging and collaborating with diverse groups of young people on real-world initiatives in a range of settings, online and in real life.

Elisabeth Soep is Research Director and Senior Producer at Youth Radio. She is coeditor of Youthscapes: The Popular, The National, and The Global. Vivian Chávez is Assistant Professor of Health Education at San Francisco State University and coeditor of Prevention is Primary: Strategies for Community Well Being.

“Drop That Knowledge is a profound contribution to our understanding of contemporary youth. The authors craft an elegant and energetic narrative that is incisive and inspiring. This is an important work!”—Sam M. Intrator, Smith College, co-director of Project Coach

"Drop That Knowledge is a landmark contribution to our understanding of media and youth movements in the US. It's at the cutting-edge in telling the story of how young people are creating breadth and depth of diversity in the broadcast, cable, and satellite media. Innovative and engaging!" —Toby Miller, author of Makeover Nation: The United States of Reinvention

“Drop That Knowledge draws deftly on the words, ideas, and passions of the young people it studies, locating them within broader contexts of contemporary education, policing and the media. This book is well written and full of accessible, poignant and entertaining vignettes.“—George Lipsitz , University of California, Santa Barbara

"The phrase 'drop that knowledge' becomes title and frame for a dazzling journey through the world of Youth Radio, an 18-year-old youth development organization and independent media production company in Oakland, Calif... While too many academics pontificate about the potential of the new digital media, Soep and Chávez write without pose or posture. Their message is earthshaking." —Rick Ayers, University of California, Berkeley, and William Ayers, University of Illinois, Chicago, Rethinking Schools

"...dares to declare that young people really matter, what they think matters, what they say and do matters, and we should listen up and get out of the way...Drop that Knowledge is a must-read, especially for those of us who work in public media, who are coming to recognize that young people will lead our institutions to the holy grails of both diversity and innovation." —Julie Drizin, founding producer of "Democracy Now!" and NPR's "Justice Talking"

"Provides a fascinating look behind the scenes at [a] youth media education and production powerhouse. . . . While much has been written about the power of youth media, not all analyses are as thoughtful and nuanced as what Soep and Chavez present in Drop That Knowledge. This book is ‘not a rhetorical call to celebrate youth voice’ but a comprehensive overview of the complex issues that arise in intergenerational media production." —Katie Donnelly, American University’s Center for Social Media