From Sovereign House to Club Reign: Building the Next Era of American Culture - Nick Allen | #81

About this episode

Nathan Halberstadt interviews Nick Allen about his ventures in building cultural institutions and the future of American culture.

Today, Nathan Halberstadt of New Founding sits down with Nick Allen to talk about the origins of Sovereign House and his new venture, Club Reign. Nick Allen has been building cultural institutions in NYC for years, hosting over 35,000 people across hundreds of successful events. Learn more about Club Reign: https://clubreign.com/Nick is also on X at: https://x.com/0xNickAllen Timestamps:00:00 – The New IRL Frontier01:00 – Introducing Nick Allen and the origins of Sovereign House03:58 – New Venture: Club Reign 04:34 – Expanding beyond NYC: Lisbon, London, DC events05:19 – Curating “high openness, highly disagreeable” people09:13 – How to design events and venues that actually work11:55 – Experience economy, decline of third spaces, rise of private clubs19:25 – Investors, Soho House going private, and new club regulations31:46 – Vision and buildout of Club Reign (design, murals, library)39:10 – Current state, publications, and long‑term vision for Club Reign ---------- Follow New Founding across Social Media: Twitter / X – https://twitter.com/newfounding https://twitter.com/nathalberstadt YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClCvCeAC7erMbc3zvuJN2_Q Website –…

People in this episode

Host: Nathan Halberstadt

Guest: Nick Allen

Topics covered

• cultural institutions
• event design
• private clubs
• experience economy
• American culture

Keywords

• Sovereign House
• Club Reign
• event curation
• private clubs
• experience economy
• cultural events

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Sovereign House, Club Reign, Soho House

Places: NYC, Lisbon, London, DC, Dallas, Texas

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