Events
TāngTángTǎngTàng (湯棠淌燙): Performative Rituals in Flow
August 27, 2025
For one night only, we teamed up with Chinatown Basketball Club to explore the shared ethos of movement, ritual, and community. Guests experienced poetic bathing rituals, rhythmic breathing, Tai Chi that moved like a fast break, and hoops-inspired performance rooted in Chinese traditions old and new.
Hosted at Othership Williamsburg, the evening also offered an exclusive first look at the space before its official opening. The program featured artists Jiaoyang Li, Caren Wenqing Ye, and Lu Zhang, with music by Siyi Chen and Milam.
Culture of Bathing Gathering & Variety Show
January 12-15, 2025
In January, more than 100 bathhouse operators, investors, and thought leaders came together in New York City for the inaugural Culture of Bathing Gathering. Over three days, we soaked, sweat, steamed, and dreamed—sharing stories, exchanging ideas, and exploring the future of the bathing movement. With the industry on the cusp of a cultural wave, this gathering marked a rare moment to connect in person and help shape the next chapter of communal bathing in North America.
In the depths of winter, the Culture of Bathing Variety Show lit up New York City with an evening of performance, storytelling, and spirited conversation. Hosted by comedian Negin Farsad, the sold-out event brought together more than 300 guests to explore the question: what even is bathing, and why is it booming right now?
Over 90 minutes, audiences heard from leading voices in the movement—architects of floating saunas, wellness entrepreneurs, bestselling authors, and cultural pioneers. From debates about infrared saunas to reflections on the legacy of WET Magazine, the night captured the humor, history, and urgency of a cultural shift in real time.
After the curtain closed, guests continued the conversation where it belongs—in the baths themselves—joining local bathhouses across the city for a firsthand taste of modern social bathing.
Speakers and Performers included:
- Leonard Koren — Author of Wabi-Sabi and creator of WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing
- Mikkel Aaland — Author of Sweat, “Godfather of Sauna,” and filmmaker of Perfect Sweat
- Robert Hammond — Co-founder of the High Line, now bringing modern Roman baths to the U.S. as President of Therme Group US
- Sami Rintala — Architect of floating saunas and founder of SALT in Oslo
- Robbie Bent — Founder of Othership breathwork app and social bathhouse
- Glenn Auerbach — Host of Sauna Times podcast, Minnesota’s original “saunapreneur”
- Megan Kress — Owner of Sauna du Nord, co-founder of Sauna Sirens collective
- Light Watkins — Bestselling author and mindfulness teacher
- Dan Harris — Author of 10% Happier, podcaster, and former anchor of Nightline and GMA
Leonard Koren From WET to Wabi-Sabi, and Back Again: Leonard Koren with Stella Bugbee
November 15, 2024
Culture of Bathing, in collaboration with the New York Public Library, hosted artist and architect Leonard Koren in conversation with Stella Bugbee, Style Editor at The New York Times. Before a packed audience at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library, Koren traced the arc of his work—from the avant-garde pages of WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing to his influential books including Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Through images and stories, he shared the evolution of his aesthetic-conceptual sensibility, revealing how one poet-artist has made sense of bathing, beauty, and the world at large.
Fikret Yegül: A New Form of Bathing in the Roman World
October 24, 2024
At the Institute of Fine Arts, renowned historian Fikret Yegül delivered a lecture on the ancient Syrian and Anatolian bathhouses known as “social halls.” A leading authority on Roman art, architecture, and urbanism, Yegül has written more than ten books and a hundred essays on the subject—27 of them on baths and water culture, including the landmark Bathing in the Roman World. His talk offered rare insight into the deep history of communal bathing and its enduring role in civic life.
