Why John Wilson is the weirdo who can change the way you think about your city

Despite its name, How with John Wilson is probably one of the worst how-to shows ever made. One of the gags behind the HBO documentary series is that each episode, while ostensibly about how to do something, jettisons the topic as quickly as possible to explore something completely different. In the third and final season (which premiered July 28), the first episode, “How to Find a Public Restroom,” eventually revolves around a musing on dwindling public space, and later, “How to Watch Birds.” , well – you probably won’t believe what that is ultimately about.

Tying it all together is John Wilson, the show’s mostly unseen host. Every episode of How is a first-person odyssey to the weird, unexplored corners of New York and beyond, as Wilson is heard both behind the camera and in a nasal, ever-present narration that ensures that while you may not learn what you thought you would learn at the beginning of the episode you learn something about how to think about the world around you.

Recently, Wilson spoke to Polygon about his personal connection to the show, how hard it is to describe, and why he wants to change the way you look at your city.

Polygon: How to has always been a very personal work, but this season feels even more so. Was that your intention?

John Wilson: Yes, making this the final season allowed me to unlock a few things that I was previously worried about or maybe the show wasn’t ripe enough for yet. But I felt like I’d feel a lot better in the third season if I could throw everything against the wall, and just be as ambitious as I possibly could. It had to end at some point, and I wanted to make sure it ended on a strong note because the best thing you can do is make people want more. If people want even more.

Now that the show has been around for a few years, do you think people have gotten better at describing it?

I do not think so. And I mean personally I haven’t even gotten better at talking about it. I think the show is kind of a calling card for itself. When you see it, you must be immediately interested or compelled, or you will be turned off by my voice and point of view and you will move on. I’m amazed we were even able to greenlight the show with how strange the concept is.

In this season more than others, you come across a lot of people telling you to fuck off and get out. You will be told, “This is a private space.”

Especially in the episode of the public toilet. That was the theme.

I love that episode; it’s very Jane Jacobs-y, exploring vanishing public spaces and cities hostile to humans. Do you feel from your perspective and what you do that New York as a city is becoming increasingly hostile?

I think it’s heading that way. In a way, it’s interesting because the sidewalk shack stuff in restaurants — that’s a development I hadn’t anticipated at all. I find it so amazing that people fight and get approval to keep them in parking lots. It is not public, because it is a restaurant, but you extend the collective street life and give less priority to machines. And I think that’s so cool.

But then money just moves so fast in all these other ways. You have a development like Recruit Hudson, what – I’m not the only person who has noticed how hostile it can be. I really hope that’s not a model that people keep looking at, because they’re trying food vendors, around campus The ship, it just cleans everything in a way that I think contradicts the way a healthy city should work. Even places I haven’t been, like Small islandDon’t know-

It bothers me a bit.

It feels like a very cramped, guarded version of what a public space should be. And of course, it might be a kind of destination for people who don’t know the city very well. But I don’t know anyone who hangs out there.

We’ve talked about New York City a lot and your show is kind of about NYC, but it often takes you far away – do you think that’s kind of the spirit of the show? That it’s a way to get in touch with every city?

I think you’re right and I hope people use this as a lens to look at their own city and be critical, but also to celebrate what their own city is like. I saw on the (subreddit) before the show, someone posted a diatribe about traffic cones in Japan – like why there are so many traffic cones in this one part of Japan, and what their function is, it was really cool. I don’t know if the creator has seen the show, but stuff like that, it’s just candy to me.

I love that people are doing that potential more and more. Because that changes our collective consciousness, and maybe influences change in a way you might not get with regular politics. I’ve seen so much shit happen with something like scaffolding after it that episode came out. I can’t take full credit for it, but it’s cool that dialogue started, you know?