May 1, 2024, NEW YORK — The independent New York–based media company The Slowdown announces that it celebrated its five-year anniversary and flagship Time Sensitive podcast with a private seated dinner for 52 guests at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Eleven Madison Park (EMP) last night. Co-hosted by Spencer Bailey, The Slowdown’s founder and the host of Time Sensitive, and Daniel Humm, EMP’s chef-owner (and the guest on Ep. 53 of the podcast), the event brought together dozens of leading cultural figures, including more than 20 former Time Sensitive guests.

Since launching in May 2019, Time Sensitive—currently in its ninth season—has produced 110 episodes and accrued nearly two million downloads, with an average of 17,000 downloads per episode. Guests to date have included actors, artists, architects, CEOs, chefs, curators, designers, journalists, musicians, novelists, philosophers, poets, photographers, technologists, and writers, as well as a choreographer and ballet dancer, a climate activist, a cinematographer, and a yoga teacher. All episodes are recorded in person and run roughly one hour, with each focusing on the guest’s life and work through the lens of time—how they think about time literally and philosophically as well as how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today. Guests this season include the chef Massimo Bottura, the interior designer Ilse Crawford, the writer Lucy Sante, the fashion designer Paul Smith, the artist Adam Pendleton, the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, and the photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto.

“In our hyper-streamlined, quick-hit, dopamine-driven culture, we need more moments for slowness,” Bailey says. “That’s what’s at the heart of the podcast: to create opportunities to slow down, connect, and reflect across the cultural spectrum. For me, this celebration is a dream dinner party come to life!”

Guests to the dinner included:

• Elizabeth Alexander, president, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• Sarah Arison, arts philanthropist, patron, and collector
• Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet, legal scholar, and prison reform advocate
• Sanford Biggers, artist
• Daniel Boulud, chef
• Angel Chang, fashion designer
• Brad Cloepfil, architect
• Simon Critchley, philosopher
• Teresita Fernández, artist
• RoseLee Goldberg, founder and director, Performa
• Jon Gray, co-founder, Ghetto Gastro
• Jessica B. Harris, culinary historian
• Kim Hastreiter, journalist, editor, publisher, and curator
• Suketu Mehta, writer
• Beverly Nguyen, fashion stylist and shop owner
• José Parlá, artist
• David Rockwell, designer
• Annabelle Selldorf, architect
• Valerie Steele, curator and director, The Museum at FIT
• Billie Tsien, architect
• Marlies Verhoeven, co-founder and CEO, The Cultivist

ABOUT THE SLOWDOWN
Founded in 2019, The Slowdown is a culture-forward media company that believes the greatest luxury is time. They make a long-form interview podcast on the subject of time and a newsletter that goes out to 11,000+ subscribers. They also host and organize intimate live talks and events. In collaboration with select mission-aligned companies, they provide high-level editorial direction, curation, and production.

ABOUT SPENCER BAILEY
Spencer Bailey is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Slowdown and host of the Time Sensitive podcast. He is also the editor-at-large of book publisher Phaidon and a contributing editor to Town & Country. A writer, editor, and journalist, he has written at length about architecture, art, culture, and design, and contributed to publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Fortune. From 2013 to 2018, Bailey was the editor-in-chief of Surface magazine. In 2023, he was named to the Wallpaper USA 300 list of “talents that are forging new paths through America’s design landscape.”

For interview requests and media inquiries, contact: press@slowdownmedia.com