Academy 4 Social Civics

In this episode, Priten speaks with Nathán Goldberg, a philosopher-statistician whose career weaves together two unlikely threads: professional soccer and democratic activism. As Vice President of the US Soccer Federation and founder of both Harvard Forward and Bluebonnet Data, Nathán has spent years thinking about who gets to sit in the rooms where decisions are made—and why it matters.Key Takeaways:Voting isn't enough—perspective is. The people impacted by decisions need to be in the rooms where those decisions get made.Outsiders can win. Harvard Forward gathered 4,500 signatures on parchment paper, won board seats, and a decade of resistance to divestment collapsed within a year.Institutions resist until they can't. Harvard ignored them, then attacked them. It didn't work.The model scales. The same playbook worked at Yale and Penn State. One elected climate scientist shifted Penn State's investment policy.Soccer has the same problem. 4 million youth players, zero recent youth players in governance. About Nathán Goldberg:Born and raised in México, Nathán Goldberg Crenier is a new(ish) American who is passionate about using the power of democracy and sports to make the world a better place. He has been recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for his work in progressive politics and nonprofit management, in the New York Times for his work as an electoral organizer and climate advocate, and in the Sports Business Journal New Voices Under 30 list for his work as a soccer executive. He is also a proud recipient of the 2025 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans as he pursues his JD at Harvard Law School, having graduated with a joint degree in philosophy and statistics from Harvard College, where he played for and captained the D1 varsity men’s soccer team.