[2] Barkan confronted Senator Jeff Flake on a plane in 2017, asking him to "be a hero" and vote no on a tax bill that threatened cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

[8] Barkan attended high school in Claremont, where he took an early interest in progressive activism like the fight against anti-gay rights legislation.

[8] Barkan next attended Columbia College, taking courses taught by economists Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs, and graduating cum laude in 2006.

[13] He grew the network to over 1,000 participants and helped win paid sick leave in New York City in 2013 and a $15 minimum wage in Seattle in 2014.

[13] Beginning in 2012, Barkan developed the Fed Up campaign, also through CPD, to advocate with the Federal Reserve for the impact of monetary policy on low-income people.

[14] Barkan met with then Chairwoman Janet Yellen and reportedly influenced her to increase prioritization of minimizing unemployment in the Federal Reserve's dual mandate.

[15][16] In HuffPost, Daniel Marans wrote that this effort "was all part of Barkan's appetite for taking on unlikely fights and making his own odds with a blend of wonkish idealism and sheer determination.

And it reflected an institutionalist optimism that has fallen out of fashion in some quarters of the left: a belief that even the country's most elite institutions could be penetrated by the right social movement.

[23] During the 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, in collaboration with the Maine People's Alliance and Mainers for Accountable Leadership,[24] Barkan and the Be a Hero campaign advocated for Republican U.S.

In April 2019, Barkan testified before the United States House Committee on Rules in favor of Medicare for All at the first-ever congressional hearing on the subject.

Barkan, who had ALS, used augmentative and alternative communication to testify to the House panel about why he believed America needs single-payer health care.