really come on kareem after all after all these successful shows

i i just think that in an era that there there was a you know there was a longevity for a long time there was a the ability to create longevity right like things were on tv and they would become institutions and saturday night live as an institution 60 minutes as an institution your shows were institutions And now, it's hard to become an institution because we're living in this culture.

There's no monoculture.

We're living in a culture where everything changes every day.

And so it creates this anxiety within me where I'm like, yeah, sure, I'm doing well right now.

People like me right now.

But tomorrow, something new comes.

Do you look at who's... who's getting big, who's not getting big, what they're, you know.

Yeah

... actually makes it so that it feels less competitive.

Because at the end of the day, the audience chooses what they wanna watch.

They have unlimited, uh, options to watch what they wanna watch.

Y- what...

On YouTube, the beauty of YouTube compared to anything else is that it's free and it's global, worldwide.

So if I'm shooting an episode of Keep the Meter Running in Syria, and someone says, "Where can I watch this?" I go, "YouTube." They go, "Of course." They, there's no explaining that, "Oh, it's, it's, you know, it's gonna be on HBO, and then, but internationally it might be on Sky TV or..." Y- y- I don't have to explain that.

Oh, they wanted an exclusive.

Yeah.

And even though, but my penis hurt, or my balls hurt so much that I knew I wasn't gonna get a boner.

Anyway, she's like...

And then the pain, like, went away, and then I went to my regular doctor in New York C- so it, it just went away.

Went back to my regular doctor in New York and he goes, "I see this all the time in Wall Street guys.

Some people hold their stress in their shoulders, other hold it in their backs.

You hold your stress in your balls."

He is amazing.

I mean, when did you realize, okay, this is a thing?

It started to feel that way when I would get, you know, approached at the urinal.

A little tap on the shoulder.

A little tap on the shoulder.

Are you the guy? Yes, I'm the guy.

And then after about 100 episodes, we started having, like, record labels and studios and people starting to pitch talent.

And that's when it felt...

And now you've built your sort of dream media company, all of that.

Kareem says he moved to New York without a job, but talked his way into making content for media companies like Vice and The New York Times before striking out on his own.

I kinda had a, a midlife enlightenment where I realized that I could no longer think about the fact that, like, my life would be compromised of emails for the next 50 years.

That's the moment I was like, "Okay, maybe I should just try something." And that's when I kinda got the, that's when I got the itch.

I'm sorry

...

when I was, like, 21.

And after he passed away, I found myself always trying to connect with kind of older men for guidance.

One time, I was having a particularly bad moment in New York City, was going through a b- breakup, driving over the Williamsburg Bridge, and this cabbie was giving me the best advice I'd ever received.

You did.

Uh, I, here's what I'll say about Vice.

I think Vice had a tremendous business when I was there.

It was the minute that they got ahead of their skis and decided to launch a TV channel that has 24/7 programming, that is when things, in my opinion, started going downhill, and it's also this endless fundraising that didn't need to happen 'cause there were several profitable parts of the business, uh, whether that be Vice on HBO, which was a profitable part of the business, the internet business, you know, the YouTube business, that was profitable.

It, they really started getting into trouble when they g- like went too big in a weird direction.

You know, Shane's always talking about, like, "TV's for losers.

We're the new TV," and then eventually being like, "We need to start a TV channel" was a really horrible decision.

Do you have investors, or are you just, this is all just money in, money out?

What was the initial concept? What was the initial pitch? Where were you at in your life when the idea for the show started?

I was, uh, where many people develop their best, uh, ideas, AKA in a period of desperation and about to give up.

Um, I had spent about two years developing, uh, premium scripted long-form podcasts, and I was on my last breath, uh, with my partner, Andrew Quo, who is a producer on Subway Takes and in this company that we had both started together.

Last breath, final 30 or $40,000, might have even been 20, and was like, "Maybe we should do the exact opposite of what we've been trying." So we set out to make premium scripted long-form podcasts.

Let's make the shortest podcast, unscripted, unavailable anywhere.

And really that, that did not...

Sorry, it wasn't, it wasn't, it w- that was what we were doing, and I always said, "Let's pivot to shows instead of podcasts and do something tiny, micro, and short." And then over the course of time, that developed into Subway Takes.

Right.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, cab drivers and, and, and, and so many other working-class people are invisible.

And you get in a cab, you don't say hi.

You don't even look up and look at the person in the eyes.

And it's not even just cab driver.

It's, it's baristas.

It's the guy at the deli.

Yeah.

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Mm-hmm.

You know, everyone wants to know what's next after Subway Takes, and I'm like, "Well, what's next is the thing that I first started with, so let me finish that first." And so now I finally, because we shot...

I think we should look into it.

We should look into it and ask.

I don't, I don't know.

But it was very nice.

Um, and I think to a certain extent, like we are replacing an element of late night, which is the interview or the celebrity interview.

I think what differs from my show compared to all those other shows is that like I don't o- I have 5% of my show is celebrities, and 95% are like working class creative types, whether that be comedians or filmmakers or artists or authors or writers.

It doesn't really matter.

Yeah.

What does this show represent to you? It's

back.

It streams on YouTube, new episodes every Wednesday.

The show really represents the fact that everybody's interesting if you give them the time to tell their story.

And I've had so many amazing experiences with cabbies.

I mean, think about it.

You get into a cab, you're crying, it's raining out, you're getting broken up with your girlfriend.

And now you've built your sort of dream media company, all of that.

[laughs]

[laughs] They...

And they said it couldn't be done, dude.

They...

And I said we had...

I said, we...

Look, here's what happened, is when I walked away from the TV deal, I was really sad that I wasn't going to get driven around in, like, a, a Cadillac Escalade all day, and, like, go to my big party.

[laughs] Really? Oscars?

Is there validity, fact or fiction?

Fact.

I mean, I spent three-ish years, maybe four, I don't remember.

I think we did the show in 2022, the first time, like December 2022 or something.

And I was like, okay, this needs to be long form.

This is amazing, but it needs to be long form.

And so I kind of was like, okay, let's start packaging.

Cause I ended up watching it for more than five seconds.

Oh, wow

...

I did more than you're supposed to do probably.

[laughs] But I did all the classes.

I spent a ton of money, and at the same time I was, like, doing the things.

Like, I was doing the training, but I was also, like, booking shows.

I was going to shows.

That's beautiful, man.

When did you start being a rock star?

I started making music really late in life.

I started making music when I was, like, 35 or 36, and I had just premiered a movie at Tribeca with Nico, and I was riding on a bicycle, and I was like, "You know what I should do? I should make a song." And then I made a funny song, and I made a couple other funny songs, and I was like, "Not everything has to be funny.

I'm actually enjoying this so much that maybe it doesn't need to be funny."

So, so what's your take? Aliens exist.

[laughs] 100% agree.

[upbeat music] Dun, dun, dun.

Dun, dun, dun, dun.

Yeah

... kind of the podcasting and all that stuff.

So I was, like, laying the groundwork for all that.

And, um, and it was really cool, but then I, I did...

So this is, like, I think I was, like, in New York, uh, for, like, maybe seven or eight years, and at that point I was like, "Okay, I know enough people, I have enough information and knowledge and, like, maybe some access to money, that I can actually go start my thing."

Yeah.

Um, and it just didn't work, and then I shifted that into something called Nameless Network, which, which was like...

Do you remember, like, NowThis News? Like, these, they're, they kind of, like, made, like, thousands of viral videos every month that would be like, "This guy is selling yams in Japan-

Right

... having the dual cross coverage like a real television show would differentiate me.

So I, I, I really came into it from a quality perspective first and a storytelling perspective first, and I know that's a cliche word and everyone uses it all of the time.

But it was never for me, it was like, let me engineer, let, let me create a GMO, like a, like a viral object.

It was always, like, the virality wi- will be the outcome if the show is good and if the show is sticky and if I, you know, I'm having a good time.

Like, people wanna watch other people have a good time, and every time I get into a cab or jump on the subway to talk to these people, I'm having a good time.

And I, and, and I really think that that's kind of the alchemy behind it.

Mm-hmm.