Sep 19, 2026 · 2 hr 27 min · 17 segments
Featuring Ben Shanahan, the architect of socialist David Morales’ victorious campaign to be the Democratic nominee for mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. The Providence left ran a slate of left-wing…
Ben ShanahanGuest
Daniel DenvirHost
So a little earlier we were talking about these kind of data points that helped you understand, I would say, in retrospect, pretty precisely what some of the big structural dynamics were driving life and politics and political potential in Providence.
But once you were on the ground, what did you see about the city in general and what Learn and what did you see and learn about the left ecosystem here?
I saw youth, I saw energy, I saw art, I saw real culture, I saw immense pride.
People are deeply, deeply proud to be from Providence, to be from Rhode Island, to live there now if they're not from there originally.
I've talked about, for those who have seen David's social media videos, he starts almost every single one with high neighbors.
And I think that, you know, obviously there's a famous Rhode Island brewery, Narragansett, that has High Neighbor printed on their beer.
But I think that the High Neighbor thing really works because I've never really been anywhere like Providence, where it's got the real feel of a major city.
It's got, you know, Small businesses, it's got some skyscrapers, it's got major universities and people coming and going.
And particularly within their own neighborhoods, people really know each other.
I remember seeing during the snowstorms over the winter, which I'm sure we'll get into later, people coming out of their houses to help each other out, shoveling out their driveways, making sure old folks got their medicine and their groceries delivered.
People talk about with the Northeast sort of culturally all the time, we're not kind or we're not nice, but we are kind,
I think is the saying.
People smile and wave the same way that you might see when you're walking down the street in the Midwest.
But it's not because we just greet every single person who we see walking down the street.
So a little earlier we were talking about these kind of data points that helped you understand, I would say, in retrospect, pretty precisely what some of the big structural dynamics were driving life and politics and political potential in Providence.
But once you were on the ground, what did you see about the city in general and what Learn and what did you see and learn about the left ecosystem here?
I saw youth, I saw energy, I saw art, I saw real culture, I saw immense pride.
People are deeply, deeply proud to be from Providence, to be from Rhode Island, to live there now if they're not from there originally.
I've talked about, for those who have seen David's social media videos, he starts almost every single one with high neighbors.
And I think that, you know, obviously there's a famous Rhode Island brewery, Narragansett, that has High Neighbor printed on their beer.
But I think that the High Neighbor thing really works because I've never really been anywhere like Providence, where it's got the real feel of a major city.
It's got, you know, Small businesses, it's got some skyscrapers, it's got major universities and people coming and going.
And particularly within their own neighborhoods, people really know each other.
I remember seeing during the snowstorms over the winter, which I'm sure we'll get into later, people coming out of their houses to help each other out, shoveling out their driveways, making sure old folks got their medicine and their groceries delivered.
People talk about with the Northeast sort of culturally all the time, we're not kind or we're not nice, but we are kind,
I think is the saying.
People smile and wave the same way that you might see when you're walking down the street in the Midwest.
But it's not because we just greet every single person who we see walking down the street.
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