The Monday Media Diet with Gary He

Gary He (GH) was introduced to us by the great Rick Webb and it’s a perfect fit for what we are trying to do. Buy Gary’s incredibly interesting new book here. With the exception of this fresh MMD cut, we’re doing WITI cult classic archive selects this week, and back first week in Sept. -Colin (CJN)

Tell us about yourself.

I am a photographer and writer based in Brooklyn, NY with a focus on food and restaurants. I am currently publishing a book about McDonald’s localizations around the world, a project which required field work in 55 countries across six continents over the past three years. I am very tired. 

Describe your media diet. 

I’ve been in New York my entire life, and despite the angsty rumblings about the direction of some of its coverage lately, the gold standard for journalism has always been the hometown paper of record. In addition to The New York Times, I also have subscriptions to the other majors: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. The New York Post is America’s newspaper and has an unmatched pun game, and as much as I wish that I was smart enough to be a regular New Yorker reader, NY Mag is more my speed. 

For food news, I love my alma mater Eater NY, and FOUND, a newsletter. As for the rest of culture/viral stories from digital outlets, they usually get surfaced while doomscrolling social media like Threads, X/Twitter (am I still allowed to admit that I use this service??) and Instagram (how else would someone find out about Hawk Tuah?)

There’s a great show produced by Morning Brew called After Earnings where they interview CEOs of public companies. The vernacular of financial news reporting is just not something I’m ever going to be able to wrap my head around, and they break it down in a smart and funny way while sticking with a single company during each episode. 

I’m terrible at keeping up with TV shows on the streamers, but I watch so much YouTube. Sick beats in professional poker, thirty seconds from Infinity War, a random dude giving a tour of a 46 million dollar penthouse in midtown, anything—I’ll just fire up random clips throughout the day when I need a brain reset between tasks. It’s quite sick.

What’s the last great book you read?

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve spent much of the past several years reading about McDonald’s and not much else: books, decades of news articles, SEC filings—these all take time. There was a standout throughout that entire process, however: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Professor Marcia Chatelain. The book examines the chain’s role in how the government failed in creating economic parity for black communities during the civil rights era by passing the responsibility over to private entrepreneurship. It’s incredibly well researched and doesn’t succumb to the common pitfall of making McDonald’s Corporation the villain of the story. Don’t just take my word for it: the book has won a James Beard Award and a Pulitzer Prize.

What are you reading now?

My manuscript as it sits in InDesign. Self publishing can be a chore and painful in so many ways, but as a creative there’s great joy in knowing that even after all the editors and designers have had their way with the content, you have final control over tweaks and adjustments to make the end product exactly the way you want it.  

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

The only thing I get in print these days is NY Mag, and it’s to do the crossword while guzzling wine on a patio. 

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

Everyone needs to subscribe to FOUND immediately. It’s a newsletter doing restaurant coverage like it’s still 2010, staying on top of openings without the political baggage that now bottles up a lot of writers and story planning in the space. I’m just trying to figure out where to eat something delicious, not sure there needs to be a footnote that the chef yelled at an employee ten years ago every time I read a piece, you know?

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? 

This is totally photo nerd stuff, but Sun’s Path is an augmented reality app that will tell you where the sun or the moon will be at various points of the day. For making pleasing photos of buildings before the sun is high enough in the sky to cook the scene, or to position that perfect light flare behind a certain object, the app has been incredibly clutch.

Plane or train?

McAtlas required me to photograph in over fifty countries in a span of about 2 1/2 years, so I am completely burnt out on flying and will avoid it whenever possible.

What is one place everyone should visit? 

This is extremely basic and boring, but the answer is Rome. I’ve been to so many places, both touristy and off the beaten path, and the vast majority of them are underwhelming. The bar that Rome sets for itself is extremely high—Antiquities! Italian food! Waiters flirting with your wife in front of you!—but the city over delivers time and time again. Seeing the Colosseum looming over the ancient street that you’re eating carbonara on will never get old.

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

Have I mentioned that I’m doing a book about McDonald’s localizations around the world??? The project started in 2019 during Ramadan in Marrakech, where I popped into a McDonald’s to break my fast. There it was: an iftar meal kit with dates, harira soup, milk yogurt drink, and a local honey pastry. As I started searching for more information about that particular menu item, I found others around the world and began to compile a list. It wasn’t long before I discovered that a general book about McDonald’s hadn’t been published since the 1980s, and at the intersection of a subject matter that I was deep in the rabbit hole on and the journalistic need to tell an updated story of the most influential restaurant chain in the world, McAtlas was born. 200+ photos and 420 pages later, it’s being printed next month. (GH)

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Gary (GH)

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Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) with editing help from Louis Cheslaw about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.