Published October 15, 2025
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. It was first published September 26, 2025, in our newsletter.
Nate Graber-Lipperman: Hey Mr. Chungus!
John Chungus: Hello!
NGL: I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask—who is John Chungus? What does he do on normal days, when he’s not walking around parks for fun?
JC: Well, I’m in my seventies. I taught music for many, many years, and I’ve always been involved in musical performance.
I grew up in New Jersey. I traveled all over the country performing in dinner theaters and tours—opera companies, too. I did a Broadway show a number of years ago. It’s been a great musical ride.
NGL: I’m curious—what’s your mission here? Why’d you start posting about “Touch Grass Day” back in July?
JC: Well, you know, young people spend anywhere between eight-to-ten hours a day on their phones, and I think they’re missing a lot. So getting outside and being with nature and being with other people and interacting, rather than just staring at a screen…that’s basically our mission.
NGL: You mentioned in a video that you’re not someone who uses social media much yourself (if at all).
JC: Years ago, when I was a kid, you’d have to go to the library and pore through books to try to get an answer to a question. And in two seconds, I can Google something and come up with lyrics to a song.
It’s right in the palm of my hand, which is great. But obviously, you can also become sort of hypnotized by the whole thing, and just wind up doomscrolling TikTok or whatever. And then you realize, oh my gosh, I’ve been sitting here for thirty minutes. I’ve got things to do.
NGL: At the same time, you’ve become something of an online phenomenon. Just two-and-a-half months in, you’ve gained nearly half a million followers. Has your perspective on social media changed at all?
JC: What I’ve learned is that the Gen Z population is pretty much on their phones all the time—meaning there’s a huge audience online.
When you think about the number of followers for this, it’s mind-boggling. When it went to one hundred thousand, I thought that was something else. Then two hundred, two-fifty, three hundred…it’s like, oh my gosh, this is absolutely insane.
I hope a lot of people come out to actually touch grass on Saturday. We’re thinking, you know, we could get half a million people sending photos and videos in, which would be great. I think it brings awareness to people putting down their phone and actually doing it. Obviously, they’re going to be filming it when they’re doing it. But maybe they’ll post it later, and enjoy the rest of the day without having to be glued to their phone.
NGL: There’s a certain inherent irony in needing to use social media in order to broadcast this message to use social media less, right?
JC: Yeah.
NGL: But people have already been tagging you in photos and videos of them spending time outdoors.
JC: There’s lots of people at the ocean touching sand. You see pictures of people with the water lapping over their feet, and that sort of thing. They’re asking me, Does this count? It’s great because they’re outside and they’re getting the message.
NGL: They’ve also been making fan art of you.
JC: That first one…I want to say it was by @oli.art13. It’s just so joyous. If I was going to pick one, I think I’d pick that one to be the album cover, you know?
NGL: We went a bunch of different directions, but any last comments?
JC: It’s been a real trip. I suppose that’s a very dated phrase—we used to say it when I was younger. We’ve been talking about how we might spin off this sort of thing. There’s talk of an interview show with celebrities. So we’ll see where it goes. But Saturday is kind of the culmination, and if it gets some traction after that, great.
NGL: You said “we” and “our mission” a lot throughout this conversation. There’s a popular YouTube creator known for bringing people together via goofy, in-person events. He often hangs up print posters and makes meme-y videos—similar to yours. Would he be involved here in some capacity?
NGL: I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask—who is John Chungus? What does he do on normal days, when he’s not walking around parks for fun?
I grew up in New Jersey. I traveled all over the country performing in dinner theaters and tours—opera companies, too. I did a Broadway show a number of years ago. It’s been a great musical ride.
NGL: I’m curious—what’s your mission here? Why’d you start posting about “Touch Grass Day” back in July?
NGL: You mentioned in a video that you’re not someone who uses social media much yourself (if at all).
It’s right in the palm of my hand, which is great. But obviously, you can also become sort of hypnotized by the whole thing, and just wind up doomscrolling TikTok or whatever. And then you realize, oh my gosh, I’ve been sitting here for thirty minutes. I’ve got things to do.
NGL: At the same time, you’ve become something of an online phenomenon. Just two-and-a-half months in, you’ve gained nearly half a million followers. Has your perspective on social media changed at all?
When you think about the number of followers for this, it’s mind-boggling. When it went to one hundred thousand, I thought that was something else. Then two hundred, two-fifty, three hundred…it’s like, oh my gosh, this is absolutely insane.
I hope a lot of people come out to actually touch grass on Saturday. We’re thinking, you know, we could get half a million people sending photos and videos in, which would be great. I think it brings awareness to people putting down their phone and actually doing it. Obviously, they’re going to be filming it when they’re doing it. But maybe they’ll post it later, and enjoy the rest of the day without having to be glued to their phone.
NGL: There’s a certain inherent irony in needing to use social media in order to broadcast this message to use social media less, right?
NGL: But people have already been tagging you in photos and videos of them spending time outdoors.
NGL: They’ve also been making fan art of you.
NGL: We went a bunch of different directions, but any last comments?
NGL: You said “we” and “our mission” a lot throughout this conversation. There’s a popular YouTube creator known for bringing people together via goofy, in-person events. He often hangs up print posters and makes meme-y videos—similar to yours. Would he be involved here in some capacity?
JC: No comment.
JOHN CHUNGUS continues to encourage people to touch grass to this day. Our former cover star Anthpo recently revealed the story behind it all —
(IG, TT) @johnchungus27
(IG, TT) @johnchungus27
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