30
Raed Khawaja
Breath & Work
Khawaja, the CEO and co-founder of Open, has built something curious in this space. Not quite a studio, not quite a sanctuary, not quite a brand, though it is emphatically all three. Open offers breathwork, meditation, and movement practices in a market so thoroughly saturated with wellness grifters, Instagram yogis, and overpriced adaptogens that even using the word "wellness" has become an act of self-incrimination. Khawaja knows this. "I hate that word," he admits without hesitation.
Yet here we are, in perhaps the most self-consciously well square mile in America, where green juice costs $16 and everyone you meet is either microdosing, macrodosing, or preparing a 30-day reset that will definitely, finally, be the one that sticks. The contradictions are almost too obvious to catalogue: the abundance masquerading as asceticism, the consumption marketed as consciousness, the $200 leggings required for the privilege of learning to simply breathe. We can do better, and thankfully, Raed knows this. Khawaja's background—PepsiCo, Bank of America, the machinery of billion-dollar brands—suggests someone who understands exactly what he's doing. He describes himself as "the anti-guru," more interested in curation than revelation, in stripping away the mystical theater to reveal what actually works. Open's synthesis of breathwork, sound, and movement into something immediate and accessible represents, if not an invention, then a thoughtful construction of building blocks.
The timing feels urgent. Gen Z is 50% religiously unaffiliated, up from 8% in the early nineties. Mental health diagnoses have reached crisis levels. And now, artificial intelligence threatens to render our last claim to uniqueness (our cognitive superiority) utterly obsolete. "We're entering a purpose and meaning crisis," Khawaja observes, and he's not wrong. When machines can think, what's left for us?
This is the existential backdrop against which Open operates: a secular space for seeking in an increasingly untethered age, located in a neighborhood that has always attracted seekers, housed in a building that once belonged to artists obsessed with perception itself. The symbolism borders on too perfect, which is perhaps the point.
What follows is a conversation we recorded in his space with a live audience, about altered states and applied philosophy, about what it means to build something genuine in a landscape of post-consumerist materialism, and about whether we're all just one good breath away from figuring this whole thing out—or at least getting through the day without doom-scrolling ourselves into oblivion.
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“There is no such thing as a destination of balance. Only balancing.”
Conversation Topics
- 00:00 Welcome to At Large: Meet Raed Khawaja
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01:31 Taste of a Breathwork Session
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03:40 The Philosophy Behind Open
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07:31 Raed's Journey and Creation of Open
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14:42 The Role of Religion and Spirituality Today
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19:47 Community and Connectivity in Modern Wellness
29:05 AI and the Future of Humanity
33:48 The Purpose of Education in the Age of AI -
34:27 Techno-Optimism and the Future
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36:42 The Human Experience and Altered States
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39:17 The Role of Drugs in Society
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41:22 Balancing and Integration
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47:31 At Large and Off The Cuff: Quickfire
57:35 Conclusion and Farewell
Mentioned in this Episode
Breath & Work
Happy Savage
Moonshot Mythmaker
Obsession Served Raw
The Pasta Whisperer
Master of Ceremony
Acquired Tastes
Sauce Boss Meets Girlboss
Movies by Any Means Necessary
Have Your Cake and Tweet It Too
Greens to Greatness
Writing Your Way Ahead
Liberté, Intégrité, Simplicité
Peace, Love, and Advertising
The Unprofessional Professional
Idea Virus Patient Zero
Chasing Liquid Gold
Making MSCHF
Internet Funnyman
Building a Digital Hearth
No Mud, No Lotus
You Can’t Just Switch It Off
Purpose & Play
Creative Courage and Talking Stuffed Animals
Silencing the Discursive Mind
Striking Internet Gold
Givers Are Getters
Hosting a Rave for the Intellect
The Hunt for Big Ideas
Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal
Not investment advice. Read important disclosures.