Around Queens Food, Culture, and What Not to Miss with Rob MacKay

Food, Culture, and What Not to Miss with Rob MacKay

In this episode of Around Queens, I sit down with Rob MacKay, Deputy Director of Community at the Queens Economic Development Corporation and Director of the Queens Tourism Council.

If you’ve attended Queens Taste, Restaurant Week, or discovered something new through the “It’s In Queens” brand, you’ve already experienced Rob’s work.

Since 2011, Rob has been at the center of how Queens tells its story — writing, placing media coverage, promoting events, and helping shape the borough’s public identity. But his path here wasn’t linear. A sudden funding crisis early in his career forced him out of a job and into uncertainty — a moment that ultimately redirected him to the role he holds today.

We talk about the power of storytelling in economic development, how the internet transformed his field (and continues to), and why artificial intelligence both fascinates and worries him when it comes to the future of jobs.

Most of all, we talk about Queens — the food, the events, the small businesses, and the energy that make this borough unlike anywhere else.

If you want to understand how Queens markets itself, supports its small businesses, and keeps its cultural heartbeat strong — this conversation is for you.

Around Queens is a long-form interview series that explores how people build meaning, systems, and community when the old rules stop working.

Each episode centers on a single conversation with a Queens-based builder, creator, or organizer—not to spotlight titles or résumés, but to understand the moments that changed their direction and the values shaping what they’re building now.

The show looks beyond charity and success narratives to examine care as design, dignity as infrastructure, and quality of life as a measure of progress. While rooted in Queens, these stories speak to a global audience navigating uncertainty, policy shifts, economic pressure, and the search for what actually matters.

Hosted by Luchia Dragosh, Around Queens treats the borough as a lens—not a limit—for understanding how people respond when institutions fall short and humans step in.