Dialectic

14: Alex Zhang - Curating Cultural Playgrounds


Listen Later

Alex Zhang (Website, X, Instagram) is a cultural curator, community builder, and creative director. Currently, he's Chief Creative Officer of Powder Mountain, a where he's working with Reed Hastings to create a globally unique ski experience that combines art, architecture, and lots of fresh tracks.

Alex loves people and curating spaces and experiences for them: whether that means parties, music festivals, or mountain towns. He joined Summit Series out of school, throwing large scale events around the world and working on Powder Mountain, a Utah mountain resort the ownership group had acquired. He then joined one of the first social DAOs, Friends with Benefits (FWB) as Mayor/CEO, after being tapped by its founder Trevor McFedries to scale the tokenized social club beyond a Discord Server. He launched FWB Fest, an annual in-person music festival and crypto conference with past performers including James Blake, Charli XCX, and Caroline Polachek. Most recently, he joined Reed Hastings to return to Powder Mountain after the Netflix co-founder acquired a controlling stake in the resort. Alex leads brand, art, architecture, and marketing.

Blending culture, commerce, and "cool" is anything but a science, but Alex has made a career of it. I've known him for a decade and it's been a thrill to watch him continue to find strange intersections, blending worlds like music and tech, crypto and culture, and skiing and art. We talk about this, how to create spaces and events, living in the mountains, large scale art experiences, Christopher Alexander and Jane Jacobs, challenges in creating new cities, learning from Reed Hastings, and a life of deepening one's taste.

I hope you enjoy and are inspired to life a more connected, playful, and present life.

---

This episode is brought to you by Hampton, a private, highly vetted membership for founders. Hampton makes entrepreneurship less lonely by matching you with a core group of likeminded founders along with community, events, retreats, and more. Visit joinhampton.com/community to learn more and apply.

---

Full episode transcript and links available at dialectic.fm/alex-zhang.

Timestamps

  • (0:05): Hampton: Dialectic's First Partner
  • (4:09): Commerce & Culture, Patronage, and Constraints
  • (12:17): Curating People, Spaces, and Art: "Host Energy"
  • (19:44): How to Throw a Party or Start a Scene
  • (27:05): Unlikely Intersections and Authentic Marketing
  • (35:36): Returning to Powder and Building a Unique Mountain Resort
  • (42:31): Utah and Mountain Living
  • (47:27): Randomness & Emergence: Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs, and Cities
  • (52:24): Creating a Digital Feeling of Place
  • (55:15): Network States and New Cities
  • (1:00:42): "Community"
  • (1:08:27): Organic Leadership Opport...
  • ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    DialecticBy Jackson Dahl

    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5
    • 5

    5

    27 ratings


    More shows like Dialectic

    View all
    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

    537 Listeners

    The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish

    The Knowledge Project

    2,698 Listeners

    Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

    Conversations with Tyler

    2,447 Listeners

    The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

    The a16z Show

    1,093 Listeners

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

    2,354 Listeners

    Founders by David Senra

    Founders

    2,171 Listeners

    Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

    Dwarkesh Podcast

    576 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    143 Listeners

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast by Latent.Space

    Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast

    101 Listeners

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

    146 Listeners

    How I Write by David Perell

    How I Write

    13 Listeners

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

    491 Listeners

    TBPN by John Coogan & Jordi Hays

    TBPN

    138 Listeners

    Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

    Uncapped with Jack Altman

    43 Listeners

    David Senra by Scicomm Media

    David Senra

    241 Listeners