Kyle Chayka

Kyle Chayka (KC) had a nice breakout as a writer coining the trend “Airspace,” describing the homogeneous spaces (a dash of mid-century modernism here, some reclaimed wood there) that were painfully pervasive in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York alike. In addition to a range of astute cultural writing, he built out this theme into a great book on minimalism that managed to go satisfyingly deep on a topic that many people just scratch the surface of. We’re pleased to have him speak about his regular media consumption habits.  - Colin (CJN)Tell us about yourself.I’m a freelance writer for places like The New Republic, Vox, and New York Times Magazine, and my first book was just published by Bloomsbury: The Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism. Some people refer to me as a “critic” but I also do a lot of reporting. I mainly write about how digital technology has shifted the creation and consumption of global culture in the 21st century. I also co-founded Study Hall, which is a freelance writer collective and a media-industry publication. Describe your media diet. Twitter. Twitter twitter twitter, unfortunately. I feel like I’ve invested so many years in my feed that it generally brings me cool stuff and cool people. I follow writers and publishers on Twitter and architects, artists, designers, and musicians on Instagram. It’s funny how the platforms are so bifurcated; writers love writing but often don’t access as much visual culture. Newsletters are also really important to me because what I want most of the time is a direct line into someone else’s brain. Ana Kinsella’s London Review of Looks and Robin Sloan’s various activities fall into that category. I get nice surprises in my inbox. Most of my favorite criticism gets published by The New Republic and Bookforum. Lately, I’ve found myself going to the homepages (!) of Eater and Curbed for some more lifestyle-oriented stuff, but Vox Media sadly put Curbed on pause. What’s the last great book you read?After seeing it around for years, I finally bought a copy of Leann Shapton’s Swimming Studies, a memoir about swimming semi-professionally but also becoming an artist, the philosophy and lifestyle of a committed creative or athletic practice. A relaxing book to read right now, and also a really interesting use of imagery and page layout (Shapton is an illustrator and designer as well). What are you reading now?Julian Barnes’s The Man in the Red Coat: a biography/history book about 19th-century Paris that’s about as escapist as you can get. It strings together a compelling nonfiction narrative in interesting language and structure and Barnes is that kind of plummy British author who can get away with whatever they want. What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?Look for the bylines I’m interested in in the TOC and start with those pieces or just flip through randomly, though I love a good front-of-book section. In quarantine, I’m so thirsty for an issue of Monocle with all its utterly random international artifacts — pure vicarious entertainment. Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?Jennifer Schaffer has been writing great essays and criticism lately. Lauren Oyler is one of the few young literary critics who have a real body of work. Bryan Washington’s fiction is great but his food writing for the New Yorker is also transcendent. What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? AudioNote is a truly excellent sound recording and note-taking app. Totally worth the small price. Plane or train?Plane, but long-haul, as long as possible. Something about the oceans of free time on a flight. What is one place everyone should visit? Lately, I’ve been painfully nostalgic for my trip to Japan for book research, specifically walking around Nakameguro in Tokyo, stopping in cafes and intensely niche stores, and wandering by the canal. It’s the ideal of a certain kind of urban space.Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into. During quarantine, my girlfriend and I are reading The Iliad (Fagles translation) out loud with two friends on a semi-nightly basis over Zoom. This kind of entertainment is maybe 2800 years old and designed to read out loud, so it seems appropriate. The epic poem is gripping, funny, sad, dramatic, episodic — basically prestige TV. It’s also one of the earliest cultural rabbit holes. Its meanings and intentions and structure have been debated since whenever it was actually invented. So just as much fun as reading the text is figuring out what other people have said about it, or if the soldiers were actually wearing bronze armor and why their shields were made of oxhide. One tidbit: The Iliad is possibly divided into 24 books because that’s how many scrolls it had to be separated into in order to be written down; each book was one scroll. (KC) Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Kyle (KC)—Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) 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 (it’s free!).

Why is this interesting? - The Monday Media Diet with Kyle Chayka 

Kyle Chayka (KC) had a nice breakout as a writer coining the trend “Airspace,” describing the homogeneous spaces (a dash of mid-century modernism here, some reclaimed wood there) that were painfully pervasive in Berlin, Buenos Aires, and New York alike. He’s our first return MMD, and I asked him back because he has a lot of interesting things cooking (New Yorker column, a new book in the works, etc) since we last checked in  - Colin (CJN)Tell us about yourself.I'd currently describe myself as a journalist and author, in that I write articles and books. I write a column called Infinite Scroll for the website of The New Yorker, covering what I always call "internet stuff." Right now I'm also finishing my second book, Filterworld, which is about how the rise of algorithmic feeds — Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, TikTok — has homogenized culture and made us all worse cultural consumers. (Sign up for my personal newsletter for updates!!) In more mundane detail, I live in Washington, DC, with my girlfriend Jess Bidgood who is a great national politics reporter and our dog Rhubarb, a 50% plott hound (they were bred to hunt bears!) who we adopted since I wrote my last MMD. She is quite aloof for a dog but also very sweet. I've also gradually discovered that I'm insanely restless work-wise. I co-founded two media companies. Study Hall, with P.E. Moskowitz, has been running for many years as an online community for journalists (thank you to its current staff). Dirt, with Daisy Alioto, is a daily newsletter on digital entertainment that's evolving into a full-scale web3 media company.  Describe your media diet. Currently I'm on an algorithm cleanse for my book, so I gave up Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and basically all of the usual ways I consumed media. It's been kind of a shock! I can still use the Internet, but it has to be non-algorithmic, not driven by recommendations. I read the NYT app a ton, because it's a good experience on my phone, but even that has a "For You" tab that's supposed to recommend articles. (It updates way too infrequently.) Newsletters are a great non-algorithmic source of info; I find myself reading the Monocle newsletter almost every day. It has a great mix of subject matters — design, politics, travel — which you need when an algorithm isn't curating the perfect mix for you. (Did algorithmic feeds kill the general-interest publication?) I've been using Discord a ton as well, joining different communities to address different interests. On Dirt's Discord we talk about what streaming shows, podcasts, etc, are best at the moment; the spice company Diaspora also has a really interesting cooking-based Discord community. The real-time chats serve that Twitter addiction to constant updates. What’s the last great book you read?I've plugged Orlando Figes's The Europeans before — it's a masterful triple-biography that doubles as a breakdown of how culture got made in the 19th century. That book was so good that I went immediately on to Figes's overview of modern Russian culture, Natasha's Dance. These are fantastic works of cultural nonfiction: beautifully written and informative, with a scope and scale that's only possible a century after the fact. I'd read a book like this about every country in the world. Of course, Russia is a particularly tumultuous subject.What are you reading now?I'm currently reading the Korean, Germany-based philosopher Byung Chul-Han's short book Non-Things. He's a very punchy writer. Essentially, his argument is that non-physical information — a la the internet — has crowded out the physical objects and experiences in our lives, and it's a downgrade. Feels very true! What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?The only print publication I have a desire to read these days is a copy of Monocle bought in an airport, mostly for the sake of lifestyle porn and retail inspiration. Like, I mostly just want to shop. Email newsletters have replaced print magazines as my favorite container for the identity of a publication — they arrive consistently, present a limited format, and showcase a strong editorial sensibility. Plus I can read them on my phone while I walk the dog. Print books are still great, of course. Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?Honestly I'm going to highlight Terry Nguyen, who Dirt recently hired as our first staff writer. She came to us from Vox.com, where she reported and wrote fantastic pieces about how the Internet works these days. She covered the new emphasis on "community," '90s Asian film aesthetics proliferating online, and the death of trends. She's the only person I want to read on Praying, a Gen Z ironically religious streetwear brand. What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? Not enough people are on BeReal, still. I love having a kind of Instagram that I'm only allowed to update once a day, at a given moment that's the same as everyone else. Feels like the new era of social media that's intentionally limited instead of wholly addictive. Plane or train?Trains, but only outside of the U.S. where they're actually nice and efficient. To be honest we've spent many days driving lately — I blame a post-pandemic rash of weddings. I've come to appreciate highway rest stops, especially the ones with serve-yourself Costa coffee machines. Saves so much time when you can just tap your card and push the buttons instead of waiting for a line at Starbucks (where the coffee is worse anyway). Pret has been taking over American rest stops too, but they're weirdly closed too often. What's up with that?  What is one place everyone should visit? After going to Barcelona this year for the Spanish publication of my first book, I got obsessed with the group of vermouth bars Morro Fi. They are impossibly perfect: ideal Spanish snacks, casual drop-in atmosphere, great house vermouth, and cool branding. I can't understand why the same thing doesn't exist in the U.S. Possibly it's because fewer people drink between 11 AM and 4 PM. Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into. I love cooking Chinese food — after studying abroad and working there after college, my palate just got molded, I can't help it. I've spent a decade trying to get back to the gaifan dishes by my old Beijing office building. My shredded pork and hot peppers execution is getting quite good. But our DC apartment has an electric-coil stovetop that I hate, so I've been on a quest to figure out the best way to get actually high wok temperatures in the kitchen. I already got an induction cooktop that can go on the counter, but it doesn't feel super secure. Now I'm wondering about these bowl-shaped induction devices made specifically for woks. Some day I'll figure it out. (KC) —Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Kyle (KC) —Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) 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.