Ten Perfect Strangers

One door knock at a time, one phone call at a time, one volunteer shift at a time, Tim Donovan’s neighbors were building something. 

In just seven years time, they would reshape their community. They’d stop Amazon from moving in next door. They'd elect democratic socialists to nearly every local office. And they’d be instrumental in building a movement powerful enough to elect a 33-year-old democratic socialist and State Assemblyman named Zohran Mamdani to the mayor’s office. 

But back in January of 2018, it was all just beginning. Shawna Morlock was there — with  nine perfect strangers, standing in Astoria Park, about to embark on a task that would transform this neighborhood and, eventually, this city. 

While they were building all that, Tim had retreated. A former freelance journalist who covered progressive causes for national outlets, he left that world behind in 2016. For the next nine years, he'd mix cocktails in his neighborhood of Astoria. Avoid politics. Stop reading the news.

This is a podcast about the people who built those movements — but it’s the story of people like Tim, too. Because it’s not just about activists, politicians, or the volunteers like Shawna, who knocked on doors twice a week even when it seemed impossible.

This is a podcast about the rest of us, too.

It’s about the choices we make.

And sometimes, the ones that we don’t

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