The Monday Media Diet with Hanna Park

On Pachinko, The Correspondent, and Casa Magazines

Hanna Park is a NYC-based chief of staff and also writes for WITI-favorite FOUND.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m Hanna Park.

Some things about me:

• I’m the middle child of 3 with an older brother that lives in San Francisco and works in tech (obviously) and then a younger sister who lives in Los Angeles and works in entertainment (obviously)

  • I think knowing birth order is more telling of a person’s personality than almost anything else

• I have lived in New York for 13 years, which is a big source of pride (anything over 10 is brag worthy)

• My main hobby is walking around the city - I average 15-25K steps a day over the weekend and 10K+ on weekdays

  • Other hobbies include cooking and hosting lots of (themed) dinner parties at my house, reading, endless online shopping, travel

• I consider myself a micro-influencer among friends especially when it comes to recommendations in skincare, travel, services (e.g. cobblers, alterations, doctors, dentists, etc.), career advice and books

• I have worked for @Gary Vaynerchuk in some capacity for the last 13 years - currently as his Chief of Staff

Describe your media diet.

This is a fun one -

Weekdays consist of what I’ll refer to as hygiene. I’m on my computer a lot during the work week so it’s pretty standard. Every morning starts with the NYTimes, New York Magazine and the WSJ which are all checked periodically throughout the day as I have breaks.

This is embarrassing to admit but I scan headlines and bylines for news and then spend most of my time in Real Estate, Wirecutter or Style Magazine of the NYTimes and Sex Diaries, Curbed, The Cut.

I’ll also treat myself to the New York Post and Airmail 1-2X a week, though the latter hasn’t been as interesting since it was acquired. Anyone else feeling the same way?

Weekends are where the real fun is. I spend weekends largely reading Substack articles I haven’t had the chance to read throughout the week. The ones I read top to bottom without fail -- Dylan’s Uncynical (shameless plug for my husband), Emily Sundberg Feed Me, Haley Nahman’s 15 Things I Consumed This Week and Tina Brown.

I’ll read hard copies of New York Magazine usually on Sunday nights and New Yorkers are exclusively for vacations where I bring a stack that I’ll read cover to cover (and leave behind).

What’s the last great book you read?

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

What are you reading now?

Clutch by Emily Nemens. I saw it on every book list but haven’t found myself hooked by it yet but I’m going to give it at least 100 pages before I decide if it is or isn’t for me.

What’s your reading strategy when you pick up a print copy of your favorite publication?

It depends on the publication. New Yorker I look at the table of contents to see what I’m about to get into but will still generally read everything regardless of whether it seems interesting or not because even if the topic doesn’t seem interesting they have a way of going so deep almost everything is interesting. And it makes me feel smart and gives me a small serotonin boost to read the long articles.

For NYMag I almost always find myself in the Strategist section first. God, probably should say I spend my time in Intelligencer. But to be honest, that’s not what I subscribe to New York Magazine for. It’s about the levity and fun there.

I love going to Casa Magazines every quarter or so, giving myself a budget of $100 to spend on frivolous magazines and zines and little books.

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

There are a lot of people (mostly men) who only read non-fiction with the justification that there have been so many interesting things that have happened in history - why read something “made up”?

By the way, these are often the same people that tell me they’ve been reading the same WWII book but keep falling asleep. Guess why you’re falling asleep? It’s cause what you’re reading is boring!

Why not read something like All the Light We Cannot See as a supplement or instead of your WWII books? Or Pachinko to learn about the deep relationship between Korea and Japan?

Those 2 books are specific, WWII related, recommendations but more broadly I think everyone should read a mix of fiction and non-fiction. Fiction to expand one’s creativity and empathy. To experience emotions and other perspectives that would otherwise be unknown.

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone?

I’m pregnant right now so What to Expect and Lively are two apps I’ve been checking at least once a week to see what size fruit or vegetable my baby is.

Plane or train?

Plane if it’s a lay down business or first class seat.

Train for anything under 4 hours. Must be acela because I cannot deal with the rushing to the seats situation at Moynihan.

I’m a brat!

What is one place everyone should visit?

Everyone should go on some sort of safari at some point in their lives. Borneo River Safari, Amazon Safari, Big Game South African / Tanzanian Safari, Indian Safari, etc.

(I’m a brat continued…)

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

Okay I go down a lot of rabbit holes as I’m sure everyone that’s intellectually curious does but a few that I really enjoyed.

The story of Dasani from Fort Greene who went to the Milton Hershey School that the NYTimes journalist Andrea Elliott wrote books and articles about. The school is fascinating to learn about - Milton Hershey who died single and without children left all his money to the boarding school he started and covers all costs. The story of Dasani is a fascinating one - everything from the dynamic of her and her mother and family to her with her peers and what she’s doing at school.

There was an article in New Yorker a while back about the importance and stories of fact checkers. Prior to reading the article fact checkers seemed like a job that could be taken by AI but after reading it you realize so much of what they do actually requires real-life verification, whether it’s confirming how many rooms are in a home or calling political dissenters to get their quotes. I envy fact checkers - they get to become deep’ish experts in a broad spectrum of topics consistently. Can you imagine how much you’d learn if that was your job!