Youth Radio student Garrison Pennington, 17, from Albany, pre-records an announcement with National Public Radio's Morning Edition host David Greene in a studio at the headquarters of Youth Radio in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, March 21, 2016. NPR's Morning Edition listeners will hear from the Youth Radio students on issues of gentrification, Oakland's art scene, and the 2016 Presidential election as they broadcast from the headquarters of Youth Radio all week. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) ( Laura A. Oda )

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(Published 3/23/2016)

OAKLAND -- NPR's Morning Edition radio show is taking on a decidedly youthful perspective this week as it broadcasts live from Youth Radio's sprawling four-story studios in downtown Oakland.

The two-hour morning show -- a staple for loyal NPR listeners -- will feature several reports produced by the nonprofit educational organization's team of aspiring 18- to 24-year-old﻿ radio journalists.

Youth Radio intern Senay Alkebu-lan, from West Oakland, center, gives David Greene, host of NPR's Morning Edition, right, a tour of downtown Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 18, 2016, with producer, Lauren Migaki, second from left, and Lisa Soep, left, senior producer and research director with Youth Radio. (Chaz Hubbard/Youth Radio)

In preparation for Monday's inaugural broadcast Senay Alkebu-lan, a West Oakland resident, took Morning Edition co-host David Greene on a tour of downtown Oakland Friday to discuss the impact of gentrification on the city and on longtime residents by the influx of new ones.

They didn't have far to go. The former Sears building at 20th Street and Broadway, under plastic sheeting and soon to become a headquarters for the ride-booking app Uber and hundreds of new tech workers, was a stop.

Alkebu-lan and Greene also interviewed Dorothy Lazard, a reference librarian at the Main Library's Oakland History Room. A longtime Oakland resident, Lazard related a story about how she was mistaken for a burglar recently by new neighbors who called the police when they saw her trying to get into her own house after being locked out.


"It was exhausting," says Alkebu-lan of his day out reporting. "I was on my feet all day. If I say 'gentrification' one more time, I'll have a heart attack."

For Greene, a 10-year NPR veteran and before that a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, the opportunity to work with young journalists isn't just about putting a youthful voice on the air. "It's just great journalism that happens to be" reported by young people, he said.

The host, who normally works the 5 to 7 a.m. shift from NPR studios in Washington, D.C., has to get to the Youth Radio studios at midnight all this week to prep for his work with his co-hosts still on East Coast time. He managed to slip in a two-hour nap before hitting the airwaves in Oakland.

Some of the novice reporters such as Garrison Pennington, 17, an Albany High student, got a chance to join Greene in studio to record some intros for Morning Edition that aired Monday. With a little coaching from Greene, Pennington worked on giving celebrity birthday tributes to actress Reese Witherspoon (including a retake after pronouncing her name as "Weese") and Houston Texans football star J.J. Watt, followed by "The news is next."

Like all the stories produced by Youth Radio, Alkebu-lan, 18, worked with a seasoned journalist to help craft his story, in this case Erik Neumann, a freelance journalist who also files stories for KQED radio and writes for Mother Jones. Neumann's research led the team to Lazard.

Any media outlet these days can't be a one-trick pony and Youth Radio is no exception. It has a website and participates heavily on social media. In addition to learning how to produce radio shows, Youth Radio interns can also pick up coding and social media skills -- topics that are becoming increasingly popular. During the shows this week, Youth Radio interns are on site to live Tweet, Snapchat and Instagram about the show.

As a companion piece to the gentrification story, Alkebu-lan worked on Youth Radio's interactive website (http://youthradio.org/oaktown) that premieres this week in its beta test form. The site will allow users to click on a map of Oakland to learn more about the city's landmarks discussed in the story.

Another story airing Tuesday is by Amber Ly, an 18-year-old Lowell High student from San Francisco. Her report deals with young Latinos voting for the very first time in the June 7 presidential primary election. Ly's perspective is that too often the political preferences of minority communities are presumed to all be the same, and through her reporting she found that is not the case. Ever the objective journalist, however, Ly refused to reveal who she's voting for.

Also airing this week are Youth Radio stories about an app being developed to help teens manage depression that uses emojis, and how immersing oneself in social media is not, as has often been reported, detrimental to a young woman's self-esteem. "It really flips the script" on the issue says Youth Radio Managing Editor Rebecca Martin.

On Friday, Youth Radio producers sit down for a round-table discussion with Greene about other misconceptions about social media and teens. Greene said the conversation couldn't be more timely as many social media campaigns aimed at teenagers miss the mark.

"They see right through it," Greene said.

Morning Edition airs locally on KQED 88.5 FM from 3 to 9 a.m. and on KALW 91.7 FM from 5 to 9 a.m.