In Praise of “Solid B" Cities with Halina Bennet

In Praise of “Solid B" Cities with Halina Bennet

From Blue City Blues by David Hyde, Sandeep Kaushik

April 8, 2026 · 47 min · Season 2 · Episode 12

About this episode

The episode discusses the contrast between major urban centers and rural areas in America, featuring insights from guest Halina Bennet.

There are the superstar cities that act as the seedbeds of American cultural cosmopolitanism and the great engines of blue America's knowledge economy: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle etc. These are the cities that we obsess over and that typically provide the grist for this podcast. And countering them, of course, is the red America of small towns and rural areas that powered the rise of Trump and MAGA. Both the urban powerhouses and the rural heartland receive more th...

People in this episode

Hosts: David Hyde, Sandeep Kaushik

Guest: Halina Bennet

Topics covered

  • urban powerhouses
  • rural heartland
  • cultural cosmopolitanism
  • knowledge economy
  • political divide

Keywords

  • solid B cities
  • urban vs rural
  • cultural cosmopolitanism
  • knowledge economy
  • politics

Mentioned in this episode

Places: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Trump, MAGA

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