Author Soman Chenani is best known for his hit Young Adult series, The School for Good and Evil,

which went on to become a hugely popular movie on Netflix.

Chenani's latest book, Young World, is a political thriller about a teenager who becomes president of the United States.

I spoke to Chenani for the latest episode of our PBS News podcast, Settle in,

and we discussed the political realities for young people in America today.

Here's an excerpt of that conversation.

We have an 18-year mark for when you can cast ballots in this country.

Other countries have revisited this, right?

In recent years, you've seen a number of

countries in Europe and I think some in South America. I think Australia is considering it lowering

the voting age to 16 in a lot of these places. Is that the kind of thing you'd like to see happen

here? No. No. I think it's the wrong solution.

Because to me, it's about getting to run for president.

That to me is the more important thing than lowering the vote to 16.

Because lowering the age of 16, it just makes a big gap between the 16-year-old and the average age, the

median age in the House is 58 and in the Senate 65.

So lowering it from 18 to 16 just creates more of this kind of feeling of alienation, right?

Like I think there was an NPR poll that came out that said 70% of young Americans 18 to 29 don't feel like they have

anyone in politics that represents them.

And so to me, it's more about allowing young people to fantasize about that leadership.

Because when you're 18, think about all the things you can do.

You can take out a credit card, a mortgage, you know, you can get married, you can vote, you can

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