Alex Mayyasi
I am a journalist working on a New Thing that is secret-ish, but will be announced in late 2023.
Previously, I was the founding editor of Gastro Obscura, a vertical of Atlas Obscura that aims to inspire wonder and curiosity about the world through food and drink. Before that, I was a writer and editor at Priceonomics, a media startup in San Francisco, where I covered business, economics, and culture. I also helped companies with their content marketing and communications.
I lived in Cairo from 2011 to 2012, and in April 2016, I published a book with Egyptian democracy activist Ahmed Salah titled You Are Under Arrest For Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution (a Memoir).
I am represented by Howard Yoon of William Morris Endeavor, and I am an artist-in-residence at the Eldorado Springs Art Center.
I also enjoy cycling, podcasts, and ube-mochi pancakes.
My Projects
Past and present, in roughly chronological order
Gastro Obscura
I was hired as the founding editor of Gastro Obscura in 2017. In its second year, Gastro Obscura was one of three publications nominated for a James Beard Award in Best Food Coverage in a General Interest Publication. (Huzzah!) We published a book, Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide, in October 2021.
Tax Hero
In America, doing your taxes is a pain. But around the world, filing taxes is so easy that "tax day" isn't even a thing. This podcast episode, which I reported and co-hosted with the brilliant Planet Money team, explains why.
You Are Under Arrest For Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution
When the Egyptian Revolution erupted, a storyline emerged: It was the spontaneous result of young Egyptians organizing on Facebook and Twitter. This was, well, wrong. By chronicling Ahmed's life—his political upbringing, his incarceration in a secret prison, his decade of in-the-streets activism—I tried to dispel this myth, and capture a life story that is astonishingly cinematic.
How Subarus Came to Be Seen as Cars for Lesbians
This article, published in Priceonomics and The Atlantic, was one of my all-time favorites to write. I've written about many cynical marketing campaigns, but this one was heartwarming.
Priceonomics
I joined Priceonomics—a Y Combinator-backed tech startup—as its third employee and first writer. In the following years, we pivoted and built a media startup that published a mix of data-driven analysis and longform storytelling. My only regret is that I couldn't convince a content-marketing client to use my suggested headline of "How the Panama Canal Got Its Groove Back."
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