Interview with Richie McGinniss

Richie McGinniss, author of "RIOT DIET: One Man's Radical Ride Through America in Chaos"

Richie McGinniss's Website

Richie McGinniss is the author of the RIOT DIET series and the founder of Pigeon Press.

He is a writer, video director, arteest, publisher, semi-nonprofessional small-wave surfer, and men’s league ice hockey scrapper. With over a decade working across the political spectrum of DC media, Richie knows how corporate media operates, and why multinational special interests have superseded America’s independent voice.

McGinniss’ storytelling is straightforward and authentic. Pulling from the thousands of cell phone videos, McGinniss tells the story from behind the lens: a multi-media experience that bring the reader face-to-face with those desperate and angry enough to take to the streets. Like the carrier pigeons of the past, Richie delivers his message directly to the reader with no corporate narratives in between.

PULP NONFICTION EDITION WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND HUNDREDS OF PHOTOS IN FULL COLOR

This is an account of some of the most chaotic and polarizing protests in American history, told by a man who was in the middle of the mayhem—from the George Floyd protests/riots during the summer of 2020 through January 6th, 2021. In RIOT DIET, Richie McGinniss leads a Washington, DC–based news team to Black Lives Matter demonstrations around the country. Armed with nothing but a cell phone, a hockey helmet, a gas mask, cans of alcohol, and smokes, McGinniss sets forth on a simple but dangerous mission: Use the power of internet video to place viewers directly among the demonstrators and police.

As the team travels through empty airports during the height of the “postpandemaliptic” world, the ragtag Riot Squad dons “black bloc” to embed in the power vacuums that inevitably descend into chaos. Whether the protests are fiery or mostly peaceful, Richie and his team relay raw video—not biased commentary—to the viewers locked down at home. These riot reporters are not your run-of-the-mill modern-day journalists. This book goes deeper than the surface-level whataboutism of the times. With illustrations and hundreds of photos, the reader will have no shortage of content to dive into with this stranger-than-fiction true story.

Juggling the role of homicide witness, video news director, riot surfer, and citizen, McGinniss is simultaneously sprayed, beaten, and maligned for the sake of showing the public the truth behind the politicized corporate narratives. This is the tragically poetic tale of how the younger generation can build something new, even in the wake of widely perceived institutional doom. According to Editorial Advisor Anthony Swofford, author of the critically acclaimed book-turned blockbuster movie Jarhead, “It’s the ‘Jarhead’ of the Riots!”

Michael Carter, Co-Host

Michael Carter's Website