Kareem Rahma: How SubwayTakes Became the New Late Night

**Colin** (0:00)
Our guest today is Kareem Rahma. He's the creator and host of SubwayTakes, one of the most popular shows right now on the internet.

**Kareem Rahma** (0:07)
100% ugly.

**Colin** (0:09)
And he's just launched a new show on YouTube called Keep the Meter Running.

**Samir** (0:12)
Now you've got a show where you talk to cab drivers.

**Kareem Rahma** (0:15)
I just have the most amazing conversation with the cabbies.

**Colin** (0:18)
Kareem sits literally at the center of what's being called the new wave of late night. He's responsible for redefining the talk show format and pioneering what it looks like to make unscripted television style shows for YouTube.
So we sat down with Kareem in Brooklyn, New York to ask him about the success of these shows and where he thinks the future of media and attention is heading next.

**Samir** (0:38)
All right, Kareem, welcome to the show.

**Kareem Rahma** (0:41)
Hey.

**Samir** (0:42)
What's up, man? How you doing?

**Kareem Rahma** (0:44)
I'm great. I'm great.

**Samir** (0:46)
A few weeks ago, I texted you a picture of this photo of you with a bunch of other creators in Vanity Fair and the notion of it was the new Late Night. Do you resonate with that as like you're one of these new Late Night hosts?

**Kareem Rahma** (1:00)
I'm very thankful to have been included in that list. I think it would have been a glaring omission if I wasn't. I don't necessarily think of myself as like, I never set out to replace Late Night or to be Late Night. It wasn't in my mind that this is what was happening.
I loved it and if I wasn't in that photo, I would have been upset for sure. I would probably would have cried.

**Colin** (1:25)
You also had a very good placement.

**Samir** (1:26)
You did have a good placement.

**Kareem Rahma** (1:27)
Great placement.

**Colin** (1:28)
Yeah.

**Kareem Rahma** (1:28)
Great placement.

**Colin** (1:29)
I think you were the only person wearing brown, right? Everyone seemed to be in black and white.

**Kareem Rahma** (1:34)
I don't know about the color scheme.

**Colin** (1:35)
I analyzed it. I was like, wow, Kareem front and center, wearing a different color than everyone else.

**Kareem Rahma** (1:41)
They put me in their center and I did appreciate that. I don't know what this treats you. It might just be because I look cool.

**Colin** (1:46)
No, I think we should look into it.

**Kareem Rahma** (1:47)
We should look into it and ask. I don't know. But it was very nice.
I think to a certain extent, 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 I have five percent of my show is celebrities, and 95 percent are working class creative types, whether that be comedians or filmmakers or artists or authors or writers. It doesn't really matter. So I think like mine is more of a talk show for the streets, and that makes sense to me. The only element that we're replacing is the interview. So I'm a little bit like, how can we push the genre even more forward? One of the things I try to think about is like, what are the criticisms that I will face in five years or three years or four years, and how do I get ahead of those things? So when I hear that we're the future of Late Night, I'm like, okay, well, maybe we are right now, but we won't be in three years. So how do we actually replace Late Night?

**Colin** (2:58)
I think it's interesting to touch on the different segments of a Late Night show, like you're saying, and realize that, yeah, we have improved the celebrity interview or just the interview in general. We prioritize the take or the topic of conversation. We don't just have people on just because they happen to have something to promote. But when you think about Late Night, I think about the monologue, that there's a responsibility to be a cultural leader. You're right, those shows don't touch on that yet. When you talk about the next three, five years, do you think about it that way of like, oh, maybe I will willingly move more into that lane of being a face that like, now that I've been elevated to this role, I also will assume that role too of like, yeah, I will talk about what's happening in culture.

**Kareem Rahma** (3:45)
Right, about being the guy. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know like, what I personally am doing.
I really don't, like, I can sit here and pretend that I do, but I really don't, and I think a lot of people don't.