\n<\/p>\n
\n\tKnowa De Barosa was hard to miss this time last year during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. <\/p>\n
\n\tHe was the preternaturally precocious, pre-teen pundit in a polo shirt and khaki shorts who made the rounds of the global media outlets that were camped out in the the United Center sports arena as Vice President Kamala Harris was anointed as the Democratic presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
\n\tTwelve months later, De Barosa, 13, has widened his lens to embrace pop culture and influencers and celebrities who want to connect with Gen Alpha listeners. The Atlanta-based youth has teamed with the podcast network Reasoned Choice Media and iHeart for the weekly interview podcast series \u201cNow You Know with Knowa De Barosa.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe series bowed July 30 with former \u201cReal Housewives of the Potomac\u201d star Mia Thornton and Incognito as inaugural guests. Hip hop star Macy Gray and comedian Roy Wood Jr. have also taken part in conversations that blend discussion of public issues, entrepreneurship, Black empowerment and personal anecdotes. <\/p>\n
\n\tDe Barosa is wise beyond his years, but he\u2019s also got the blunt edge of a youth that can cut through the politesse. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn those 30 minutes, we get a lot out of them,\u201d De Barosa tells Variety<\/em> of his guests. \u201cBecause this is no boring punditry. I\u2019m not a pundit. I don\u2019t want it to be politician stuff. I think I bring a great sense of how to mix politics and entertainment at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLast year, De Barosa went viral during the DNC in August 2024 when he had an exchange on the floor of the United Center with conversative rabble-rouser Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow. As Lindell babbled on about baseless conspiracy theories involving voting in De Barosa\u2019s home state of Georgia, the 12-year-old shut him down. De Barosa\u2019s incredulous retort to Lindell \u2014 \u201cSo your source is, \u2018Trust me, bro?\u2019 \u2014 became a tagline that was converted to Knowa-related merch.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tKnowa De Barosa<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \n\tVideo of the incident made it onto NBC\u2019s \u201cLate Night With Seth Meyers,\u201d and it landed De Baraso a guest shot on popular \u201cThe Breakfast Club\u201d radio show and podcast during the DNC. De Barosa has been a full-throated supporter of Harris and other prominent Democrats. Over the past year, he\u2019s turned his focus to developing a podcast that goes beyond politics. De Barosa\u2019s focus at present is less on advocacy and more about encouraging young Americans to be engaged in issues and to get out the vote in the mid-term elections of 2026 and beyond.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong the contacts he made at the DNC was Angela Rye, the activist and commentator who is a leader of the Reasoned Choice Media network founded by Charlamagne Tha God. \u201cKnowa is young but wise beyond his years,\u201d Rye tells Variety<\/em>. \u201cI am so encouraged by his interest in the political process and what our collective obligation is to change it for our good.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDe Barosa, who will turn 14 on Oct. 18, became engaged in politics a few years ago after he attended a rally in Atlanta led by Stacey Abrams. The home-schooled youth made a splash at the DNC, which led him to discussions with prospective media partners. De Barosa emphasized that he\u2019s spent months developing \u201cNow You Knowa\u201d and working on his interviewing skills.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt will not be a 100% politics-focused podcast,\u201d De Barosa says. \u201cThere will be a lot of politics with a pop culture background as well. And we\u2019re going to talk to guests with all different sorts of backgrounds. This is not about advocacy. It\u2019s going to be a very great way to merge entertainment and politics at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn his downtime, De Barosa assured that he does engage in some typically teenage pursuits. As a budding media professional, he\u2019s also a regular reader of Variety<\/em> to stay on top of news and trends. And he\u2019s a movie lover.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI play Roblox. I like to play games and I like to stay safe while doing it,\u201d he says. \u201cI check Variety<\/em> and I see what new movies are out.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tRye believes the voices of De Barosa\u2019s generation will be key to engaging younger viewers to participate in the elections that have profound impact on their everyday lives, whether they realize it or not.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI hope he will inspire young poeple to engage in the process. Because whether you do politics or not, it always does you,\u201d Rye says.<\/p>\n \n\tDe Barosa believes the first step is to speak to Gen Z and Gen Alpha in ways that they understand, without making it feel like homework. De Barosa\u2019s own career is an example that smart discourse can come from unpredictable places.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe must not alienate young people when they choose to listen to their favorite TikToker or their favorite singer about who they choose to vote for,\u201d De Barosa says. \u201cI think by that is alienating young people by itself. Podcasts like mine will get people out to vote. I think that\u2019s going to be great and very crucial in the next election \u2014 listening to these entertainment voices and getting their young audiences out to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Knowa De Barosa was hard to miss this time last year during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was the preternaturally precocious, pre-teen pundit in a polo shirt and khaki shorts who made the rounds of the global media outlets that were camped out in the the United Center sports arena as Vice President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[9584,9587,9586,1372,515,9585],"class_list":{"0":"post-16184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-13yearold","9":"tag-iheart","10":"tag-knowa","11":"tag-launches","12":"tag-podcast","13":"tag-pundit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}