Kareem Rahma bet on New Yorkers—and the fact that they have very strong opinions. The former audience development and marketing strategist for the likes of Vice and The New York Times became a social media star by asking commuters on the train for their tantalizing SubwayTakes and cabbies to take him to their favorite place in the city (usually a low-key food joint) for his Keep the Meter Running show. More than four million followers later, the broadcaster’s wager—”that, really, everybody’s interesting if you give them the time of day”—has more than paid off.
As SubwayTakes ballooned into one of TikTok’s most-viewed short-form shows, Rahma has occasionally swapped casual riders for boldface names like Spike Lee, David Byrne, or Cate Blanchett. Even so, Rahma is adamant that his platform remains by and for the average joe. “It’s a very specific kind of person, the celebrities especially, that I book on the show,” he tells me, the implication being that tepid promotional tours are not granted permission to stop at his station.
This month, Rahma is doubling down on his commitment to street casting with the revival of Keep the Meter Running, now in half-hour increments (a.k.a. long-form for a social media native) exclusively on YouTube. The extended runtime has given him the opportunity to go deeper with his guests and expand into what he calls a “three-act structure”: a cab ride, dinner stop, and mystery activity. Season one includes live one-man shows, visits to the Russian bathhouse, and fishing trips, all with a cabbie that Rahma met earlier that day. We sat down with the mastermind to find out how he pulled it off ahead of season one’s premiere tomorrow.
First, can you tell me about what you see as the difference between this and what we’ve all seen you doing on TikTok?
In the original version of the show, we left so much on the cutting room floor. It was really just an interview, right? In this one, I have the capacity and the time to reflect on the things that are being said and relate them to my own life. It’s a lot more personal than the original version, and allows me to show a different side of myself than was originally the plan. The SubwayTakes took over my life and my career, which was amazing and great, but I have this constant itch to do something more sentimental.
I know this idea came from a personal place, right? With your dad driving a cab.
That was always the inspiration when I found myself trying to connect with cabbies. I would always try to talk to them; sometimes it feels like they have the secrets to the universe. They’re able to work really hard and then support their families and are super selfless as individuals. At the same time, they also have this uncanny ability to have secrets of the city, whether it’s the best places to eat or best places to hang out at night.
The first part [of the new show] is that I still have a cab. Usually in most of these episodes, we grab a bite. In the short-form version, a lot of times I was just like, “Well, what do you want to do now?” They’d be like, “I wanna go bowling,” or “Do you wanna come to my house?” But it didn’t make sense in the context of the show to see myself and a random cabbie bowling. In this version, it’s really a three act structure. That other thing ranges from going to the Russian bathhouse and meeting some friends to going fishing in Bear Mountain, to producing a one-man show that is literally live and shot in front of a 350-person audience.
It’s really this exchange of knowledge and feelings. If I can help the cabbie in any way—and not in a charity sort of way—if I can help them emotionally or intellectually, or just with a small little piece of the American dream, then I will do that. If they can help me overcome an obstacle in my life or an emotional situation that I’m in, they provide me with that kind of emotional support.
The show was initially formed around this conversation that you had with a cab driver while you were going through a relationship rough patch. Can you tell me about that conversation?
I was getting broken up with, and I was in Manhattan. It was raining. It was one of those gloomy days, not dissimilar from today, except it was nighttime. I hailed this cab. I think it was like around Delancey, and I just started telling the guy, “I’m bummed. My girlfriend’s just breaking up with me and life sucks. I don’t know if I’ll ever fall in love again, and she’s the one.” He was like, “Dude, there’s gonna be so many ‘ones.’” New York is a lonely place, and to have this single serving intense connection with someone, that’s exactly what I needed to hear.
By the time we got to my house, I was like, “I would love to continue hanging out with you.” And his response was, “Well, I’ll have to keep the meter running, but I’m happy to do it.” At the time, I couldn’t afford to do it, so I told him I had to be on my merry way.
Friendship doesn’t come for free! Even in the short-form version, you have an ability to stop this from slipping into a “look at this weird person that I found” kind of content, which is such a thing on TikTok. How do you go about getting one level deeper with people?
I just think that what I do is not exploitative, because I’m genuinely interested in their story. I’m also super vulnerable, like I said [to that cabbie], “Honestly, I’m not great. How can you help me? I need your help.” It’s never been a freak show and it comes down to the fact that I genuinely think that they are interesting people.
In this version especially, I want the audience to feel something. Not just, “Ha ha, this guy’s so funny,” but I want them to walk away being like, I should be nicer to the people around me, or, I should talk to more strangers, or, I should call my mom. Life lessons that we oftentimes forget because we’re always zooming through shit all the time.
You’re straddling two different types of content with how SubwayTakes has taken off: having celebrities sitting with you and just regular citizens. What have you figured out about people’s appetite for content about the regular person you might come by, as opposed to this deluge of celebrity content online?
I’m glad SubwayTakes is not so celebrity dependent. I like celebrities as much as the other guy, but there’s also a lot of shows that exclusively focus on that. For me to be able to give the opportunity for regular people to become celebrities or stars for a day, it’s awesome. It proves that everyone has something to say, and everyone has an interesting story to tell, if you give them the platform to do it.
When I get to hang out with my heroes like Ethan Hawke, or Spike Lee, or Cate Blanchett, it’s obviously unbelievable for me on a personal level. But I’ve never booked anyone for anything based on their follower count. Everyone’s booking whoever the soupe du jour is, and I’m just not really participating in that. I do think that both of those shows are successful because in a world where everything feels fake all of the time—and then you add A.I. to the equation and then it’s literally fake—both SubwayTakes and Keep the Meter Running are a nice refuge from everything being perfect. You can see the seams and the mistakes and the errors, and it actually feels like real life—the one that you and I live in.
Do you get a different response to the videos of regular people?
The response of some people is like, “I’m so sick of the celebrities,” and I’m like, “The only reason you see the celebrities is because that’s what you watch.” The algorithm is the one that knows you. If you look at my page, there are a lot of non-celebrity interviews. You only see the celebrity ones because you only watch celebrity content and then you attack me for putting on celebrities. It makes no sense.
You’ve made a career out of these liminal spaces. Are you thinking about how much sheer time you’re spending in transit now? Does the next thing have to be in the open air?
The next thing is going to be at the studio. Both shows are so unpredictable, because they’re just in the wild. The production of both of them is so difficult. It looks easy, but it’s so much harder than saying, “Come to the studio at 11,” or a Zoom thing. To coordinate and organize around a city that has a mind of its own—not only every day, every hour is different. There’s train delays, and now we need to pick someone up, but we’re already late. As fun as it is, I am looking forward to a time where I have a bathroom that someone can use when they say, “Hey, I need to use the bathroom before we shoot,” and I say, “You gotta go to the coffee shop or the hotel.”
Do you think you will be spooked by seeing yourself against a white background?
It won’t be white. It’ll still have my own flavor. I have zero desire to be a high-gloss, perfect individual. I don’t wear makeup on SubwayTakes. I don’t have a stylist about 99 percent of the time, unless somebody’s like, “We’re providing you a stylist, cause you have to look good for this event.” Other than that, I’m wearing my own clothes. I think people want to see real, and I like being the guy that’s doing it.
Are there some kinks that you worked out taking Keep the Meter Running from this on-the-move crew to a bigger production?
It’s 10 short films in a two-month period with a very small team of around seven people. That’s what’s crazy. I made a TV show, but without a network and without a streamer. This company called And Media helped support the show and make it go from TikTok to YouTube. Being able to work outside of the traditional ecosystem is cool, knowing that the traditional ecosystem is still there, if I ever need it or want it, or if somebody comes to me with a great idea.
We were kind of building the plane while we fly it, in terms of how you shape a story. We learned a lot of things, even from a pre-production standpoint, because the original show is not pre-produced at all. I would hail 20 cabs and one would finally say yes, and then we’d do whatever they wanted to do. In this one, I wanted to make sure we got a diversity of not only ethnicities and cultures, but also diversity of story. I didn’t want every episode to be sad. The show could very easily be trauma porn, and I’m sure it would be really successful, but I wanted to highlight cabbies that are actually having the time of their lives, that love being cab drivers and have interests outside of driving a cab and working.
I wanted to highlight young and old and people who are like this is just a stepping stone for something greater, and sad guys and happy guys and people in between. So there was a casting process that I didn’t personally involve myself in, cause I still wanted to maintain that spontaneity of me not knowing who the person is and what we’re doing.
You said if you ever have the desire for that traditional media network, it’s there. Do you feel like there’s something special about the platforms that you’re on that you want to maintain?
The difference is that I don’t have that as the end goal. The end goal is to do the best thing I can do with the resources that I have with the people that I like. My job is not to figure out how to break into Hollywood. My job is to make entertainment and make a kind of independent television and put it in places that I have control over because then no one can say no. A working actor’s job is to audition. I don’t want to audition. I don’t want to pitch my ideas constantly and beg people to make it. I would rather just make it. I’ve been fortunate enough to have two commercially viable and successful ideas that allow me to stay independent. I do feel comfortable with where I’m at, and if this is where it ends, then I’m cool with that.
There’s something to be said for meeting the audience where they’re at. Everyone is on TikTok and it is a more immediate way to talk to someone and try ideas out. Do you feel like that flexibility helped develop these ideas, as opposed to a long studio process?
It’s something that we should all embrace as creative people—that it’s the first time in history where you can just go, “I’m gonna make this show.” Millions of people can see it. Before that, there were so many gatekeepers, whether it’s agents or managers or lawyers or networks or studio executives or mergers. We should be fortunate that we live in a time where you can just smash the upload button and know right away whether people like your idea or not.
And people will really let you know one way or the other.
They will. I don’t read the comments anymore.
That seems smart. Is there a spot that one of your cab drivers has taken you to that you still frequent?
This Russian bathhouse. It was so fucking lit. It’s called Bath Club of NY. It’s the sickest place I’ve ever been.
So you’re gonna be frequenting on his recommendation?
Oh, for sure. I’ve already been back once.
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