Welcome back to One Offs: a mini segment on Day One FM, where we ask our guests to give their latest takes, gripes and recommendations.

This week, we’re talking with Brian Park: a comedian, actor, writer and host of the Middlebrow podcast. He joined us to dissect:

• The “corporate creative class”

• His fear of being pretentious (Trey thinks it’s OK to be a little pretentious), LinkedIn baiting

• Being a Bryan Johnson apologist

• Knowing too much about Japanese selvedge denim

Check out the full episode below and scroll for Brian’s one-offs.

What would your last fast casual meal be?

I’m going with Dos Toros. I got a look from the producer like “that’s insane.” I go out of my way to go to Dos Toros. Burrito bowl, black beans, steak, medium habanero, corn, pico. Done. No soda. I’m not a degenerate.

Social niche or account we should all tap into?

I love Catherine Shannon’s Substack. She is a tremendous writer. She makes a lot of astute observations about the state of society today, and she offers a lot of prescriptive advice. I often reread her posts because she's just filled with so much wisdom. And she's also really fucking hilarious.

I just discovered Gus Heagerty. And Joe Castle Baker. They do these characters and they’re so, so funny.

What's an underrated cultural topic or phenomena right now?

I’m not tapped in, so I’m scared to answer this. What I'm really loving is Instagram accounts by older celebrities, like anyone who's over 40. Jamie Lee Curtis, Keith McNally, Amy Schumer. It just harkens back to a 2013 Instagram where there's no performance. It's just, “oh, I like this thing. I'm gonna take a screenshot and throw it up on the gram.” And they post like a hundred thousand times a day.

Offline-ish recommendation?

We mentioned this earlier: “Rejection” by Tony Tulamuitte. It's a collection of short stories, and I guess the thematic throughline is all of the protagonists are rejects. They exist on the fringes of society. But, the first short story is about a male feminist who turns into an incel and becomes radicalized into an incel. The author is clearly, like, extremely online. But he is also an incredible writer. So it's just this interesting alchemy and, it's just insane. So I highly recommend that.

I love Ling Ma, so I recommend reading “Severance” or “Bliss Montage.” I think her work has a very dry sensibility and is quite surreal. It’s just very funny, and it satirizes all the shit that we're talking about on this podcast.

And I also wrote another recommendation: Cafe Himalaya in the East Village. Love that spot.