If you’ve spent any time on TikTok or Instagram in the past three years, you’ve undoubtedly seen Jack Coyne show up in your feed. Friendly. Maybe a little goofy. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of music. All of which makes the 35-year-old native New Yorker the perfect host for Track Star, his viral, man-on-the-street music trivia game show that just might be the most feel-good thing punctuating your daily doomscroll. So good, in fact, that Track Star recently received investment from Rolling Stone scion Gus Wenner, who sees the short-form show as Gen Z’s MTV.
I had the pleasure of meeting Jack IRL a few years ago, outside Joe’s Pizza in the West Village, where he threw a pair of headphones on me and said those 10 fateful words: “If you can name the artist, you win five bucks.” Not only did my appearance on the show give me the surreal sensation of going viral for the first time in my life (1.7 million views on TikTok, no big deal 😮💨), but it also made me a Track Star Stan. Since then, guesting on Jack’s show has become part of the celebrity circuit, with everyone from Olivia Rodrigo, Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran and David Byrne, to LeBron James, Mark Zuckerberg and Kamala Harris testing their music knowledge.
Because he spends so much time in my algorithm, who better, I thought, than Jack to kick off our newest series, “What’s in Your Algo?” The premise is simple: an interesting person with taste reveals the five things they are currently obsessed with in their social feeds.
Burger Porn
“So, the number one biggest thing has gotta be food-related content, mostly cheeseburgers. I spend most of my day when I’m online looking at different variations of cheeseburgers and different cheeseburger restaurants that I’ll never go to, and different ways to make a cheeseburger. I eat cheeseburgers — probably because of the algorithm — at least once a week. Like, if I haven’t had one, I’m like, ‘Damn, I haven’t had a burger in like five days. The clock is ticking, I gotta get another burger in me.’ I went to Five Guys the other day. It was Mother’s Day. I was just, like, we gotta go. And Allie, my wife, she just sat there and watched me eating a burger, and halfway through I realized, like, oh shit, it was her birthday and it’s Mother’s Day, and I was just eating a Five Guys burger by myself. That’s how bad it is.”
Zesty KAT Memes
“Knicks. Anything Knicks. Highlights. Recaps. Memes related to the team. A lot of, like, zesty Karl-Anthony Towns stuff. You know, the KAT meme is his voice changes, and he’s like — maybe this is inappropriate — but he’s gay. He just acts gay. Zesty KAT is amazing. Obviously right now is a huge moment in Knicks basketball culture, and I’m fucking steeped in it.”
Rick Beato’s Trash-Talking
“Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Rick Beato on YouTube. You know Rick Beato? He’s this music guy. He’s, like, this boomer, like a gray-haired guy who talks about music. I’m deep in it. He basically rails against music, like current generation music. If anything hits the top 10, he’s like, ‘This song sucks.’ He’s basically a boomer Anthony Fantano, and the two of them are always beefing with each other. I’m very much in that world right now. I don’t usually agree with Rick’s takes, I’m just curious to see him hate on whoever. But then occasionally he subverts it. Like the new Bieber he was kind of into, which I was surprised by. So it’s just interesting to hear an older person talk about new music.”
Daniel Steiner’s Geography Deep Cuts
“There’s a guy named Daniel Steiner on YouTube, and he makes these videos that are all centered around maps, and they’re just really interesting. Like they’re just great fucking YouTube videos. It’ll be, like, the Los Angeles water wars explained, and he uses these sick map graphics to explain why. Recently, I saw a short on Instagram that he made that was about this part of the Bronx that’s actually part of Manhattan. So basically where the top of Manhattan is, that’s a canal that was dug out, and before they dug that out, there was actually a different little stream that wasn’t as easy to get through with boats. So they dug a new one, and then they filled the old one in. Back in the day, that little part of the Bronx was part of Manhattan. That’s the type of videos this guy makes, and they’re just interesting. You don’t feel like a dumbass watching them.”
@twopplcooking Inspo
“Last one is someone named Hailee Catalano. She’s a cook, she’s a food person, she’s a chef and she has this other account called Two People Cooking with her husband, Chuck. His name’s Chuck Cruz. I love the three of their accounts. They just make really fire recipes. It’s all like, ‘Here’s how we cook this.’ But then on their Two People Cooking account, it’s much longer and looser. They’ll make a Friday dinner, and they’re both just nasty, nasty chefs. They’re by far the best chefs on Instagram. They live in, like, Asbury Park or somewhere in New Jersey. They have a sick house by the beach. The first time I saw it, Hailee was making these videos of sandwiches. She would make a huge fatty sandwich, and then she would wrap it up and get a thing of chips and a Coke and go to the beach. She would have a picnic on the beach, like in the off-season, and you’re like, this is such a vibe. I’m totally inspired by them. My wife Allie is a chef, so that’s part of the reason I’m steeped in food content. That’s a great thing, because we’ll watch it together and then we’re like, ‘Let’s make this.’ Or I’ll try. I’m not bad.”
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