The People’s
Republic of Astoria
How a quiet neighborhood in Queens became a laboratory for a new kind of politics — and how it took one journalist seven years to get off the sideline and join in. A narrative documentary told from the ground floor.
In 2018, ten strangers met in Astoria Park to knock on doors for a longshot congressional candidate. By 2025, the movement they helped build had fifty thousand volunteers — and won the mayor’s race.
Tim Donovan watched it all happen from the sideline: tending bar, cheering from afar, telling himself they didn’t really need him. This is the story of how he was wrong — and what he found when he finally showed up.
Starting with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning 2018 upset of a ten-term congressman, “The People’s Republic of Astoria” traces seven years of grassroots organizing through the voices of the people who made it happen: the canvassers who knocked tens of thousands of doors, the mutual aid workers who picked up four hundred pounds of bread each week, the campaign managers who stayed up past midnight counting ballots.
From the fight against Amazon HQ2 to a district attorney race lost by fifty-five votes, from pandemic food pantries to a mayoral campaign run in 106-degree heat — each chapter follows a different thread of a single, remarkable story: how a neighborhood in Queens became the proving ground for a new American politics.
Music by Pyrosion.
The Chapters
Six chapters. Seven years. One neighborhood. New episodes available now on all major platforms.
Meet the People
The organizers, activists, and neighbors who tell the story of Astoria’s political transformation — in their own words.
Tim Donovan
Tim Donovan is a 15-year resident of Astoria, Queens, and a former freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Salon, VICE, AlterNet, and Al Jazeera America. He has covered the student loan debt crisis, climate change, wealth inequality, and labor issues.
For years, Tim watched the political transformation of his neighborhood from the sideline — bartending at a bougie cocktail bar on 34th Ave, cheering from afar, telling himself they didn’t really need him. Then in 2025, he signed up for a canvassing shift — and it took over his life. He used his deep personal connections throughout the neighborhood to tell this story from the ground floor.
Join the Movement
The organizations and communities featured in the podcast — and how you can support them.
