We’re going to talk a little bit about that later. Now I hate to do this, but you did work at Pizza Hut in high school.
I did. Nothing I hate about that.
I worked at Tim Horton’s, so I agree. Favorite pizza topping?
Jalapenos.
Bold. First video game purchase?
Oh my God. With my own money?
Yes.
It was probably this helicopter action sim called Comanche: Maximum Overkill. I’d just gotten this computer, this 486SX monster. I was so excited.
Now you’re really making me want to look and relive this game on YouTube.
My first game was probably something like SimTower, and sometimes I get these cravings. I crave building those condos. New York or San Francisco?
New York. I was born in Fort Greene. Come on.
American football or soccer?
I’m forever going to be a die-hard American football fan. That was the sport I played, the sport I loved. I’ve come to love the beautiful game, but I definitely was indoctrinated in the NFL.
Favorite Reddit AMA?
One of the ones that’s always stuck with me was the vacuum repair guy. That one’s a sort of legendary one, and I think it exemplifies some of the best of Reddit, because it was just this random vacuum-repair guy who had a passion and knew a lot about vacuums. And his AMA was engrossing as hell.
And now everybody using ChatGPT can get really good vacuum-repair advice. Wimbledon or the US Open?
US Open. I’m a New Yorker at heart, and I just love the crowd, that energy. And the US Open night-match energy—definitely inspired in a lot of ways. So I’ve got to give it its flowers.
Final question: lake or ocean?
I’m not really a water creature. I’m definitely an earth bender. I like being solidly on the ground. But I guess ocean’s more fun.
So you were born in Brooklyn, as you said, but you were raised in Maryland, right? In a suburb, one of the first planned communities in the United States.
Wow. Deep cut.
Mom was German, dad was Armenian.
Yep.
Talk to me a little bit about your childhood. How did that inform where you are today?
So I was born in Brooklyn. We lived in Ridgewood, Queens, for a minute there—
Ridgewood is hot right now.
It was not in the ’80s, but I’ll let my dad know.
My mother was an au pair who overstayed her visa because she was in love with my dad. Thankfully ICE wasn’t there to deport her. Eventually, they got married and she got a green card, but my mom was undocumented there for a few years on the down-low. And my father was American-born but to Armenian parents, survivors of the genocide. This had a pretty big impact on me.
My mother worked different jobs, but she was ultimately a pharmacy technician down in Maryland. She’d come over and she got a GED, but that was her highest level of education. And then my dad was a travel agent, which was a career in the ’80s.
He started doing that in Baltimore, so we moved when I was 6 or 7. I had aunts and cousins and uncles up in the city, and I was very jealous of how cool living in New York would’ve been. But it ended up being a really good childhood. Good schools, and I could hang out with my buddies all day just biking around the burbs.