Sauna Talk is a show about the authentic sauna experience. Recorded (often) on the sauna bench, we talk with interesting guests about sauna including such aspects as building sauna, enjoying sauna, and health and wellness benefits to sauna. The rising sauna tide is lifting many boats and we look forward to some left turns that we hope to keep listeners on and off the more enjoyable and less trampled authentic sauna trail.
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Today's episode comes to you from the recent West Coast Sauna Summit, outside Vancouver BC Canada, where I had the honour of interviewing Mikkel Aaland, the Godfather of Sweat, live in front of a packed room of thermal enthusiasts. It's no secret that Mikkel has been a mentor to me, in sweat, in sauna, and in life. What I've always admired is his refusal to stay inside the box. Instead, he works the edges of it, where things are more interesting, more impactful, and where real change actually ha...
Today on the bench, we sit together with Keegan Kittock, co-founder of Deep Wave Sauna. With the rising tide of sauna also comes marketing talk, pedantic chatter, and graphs and charts about how air supposedly moves in the hot room. So it's extra special and refreshing to visit with someone like Keegan. In this episode, we start at the beginning—picturing Keegan after elementary school, dragging a magnet around a building site, earning bubble-gum money working for his father's contracting compan...
Today on the virtual bench we visit with longtime thermal enthusiast, friend, and SaunaTimes contributor Kev who takes us through the public bathhouses in and around Chicago for this Sauna Circuit. As you'll hear in this episode, Kev is no stranger to the saunas, banyas, and bathhouses in his hometown. What's cool about Chicago is that the banya culture is well developed.. and also quite historic thanks to aptly entitled Chicago Bathhouse, a traditional bathhouse at 1914 W. Division Street in th...
Today, on Sauna Talk, and almost on the sauna bench, I'm pleased to bring you the folks behind the three major American sauna stove makers. American manufacturing at work! Garrett, Lamppa Manufacturing , Tower, Minnesota, Population 421 Philip, Nippa , Beulah, MI, Population 303 Lynn, Ilo , Dollar Bay, Michigan, Population 1,070 We talk through what their company looks like, their community, and what their opinions are on the North American sauna industry. Small town manufacturing. Direct to con...
Today on the bench, we bring you to Larsmont Cottages, Two Harbors. Minnesota for a special roundtable discussion with four sauna builders from four different countries as part of Sauna Days 2025. Alex, Bsaunasusa, Belarus Keegan, Deep Wave Saunas, USA Jake, Finnmark, UK Andrew, Sauna Builder, Canada The weather was wonderful, the heat was resonating, and our conversation went deep.
Today on Sauna Talk, we are joined by the dynamic duo of researcher from Emery University, Deanna Kaplan and Roman Palitsky. Deanna Kaplan Deanna Kaplan, PhD is a clinical psychologist with expertise in digital health technologies. She has more than a decade of experience using wearable and smartphone-based technologies to study the dynamics of health processes and clinical change during daily life. Her research is grounded in a whole-person (bio-psycho-social-spiritual) model of health, and muc...
I've had the pleasure of sitting on the sauna bench with well over a hundred guests for Sauna Talk . Whether you're listening in your car, out for a walk, or sweating it out on your own bench, my goal as host is to help keep the conversation flowing. Like good löyly, Sauna Talk rises, rolls, and wraps around us—natural, unforced, and alive. That same spirit was there last night with Chris Heck. Chris grew up in Northern Minnesota, made his way into engineering school, and deep into his electrica...
Welcome to this episode of Sauna Talk, where we head back to Farris Bad , resort spa and wellness retreat South of Oslo, Norway. We get to sit with Jerome, who is a long standing steam master at the resort. Here he leads aufguss ceremony and assists two time Sauna Talk guest Lasse Eriksen . 10,000 hours One thing I wish I had asked Jerome in this interview is to venture a guess at how many guests he's "entertained" (if that's the right word) over his 10-plus years leading aufguss sessions at thi...
Today on Sauna Talk, we welcome a very special guest. Dr. Hans Hägglund. Who is Dr. Hans Hägglund? Hans Hägglund MD, PhD, is a medical doctor and professor at Uppsala University, in Northern Sweden. Professor Hägglund has a strong research back ground in clinical research within medicine. He graduated from Karolinska institute, Sweden and did his post doc at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA. Between 2013 and 2018 he served as the director of the Cancer Center at Uppsala Uni...
Today on the sauna bench, we head to Oslo, Norway, and visit with the folks at Oslo Badstuforening , (Oslo Sauna Association). This is my second trip to Norway in as many years. They say that you never step into the same river twice, and I'll contend that we never sit on the same sauna bench twice. For last year, I took many saunas in the Oslo Harbour, as well as published a Sauna Talk with the Oslo Sauna Association team – and you can listen to that episode which is #99. And this year, I get ri...
This is a joint Sauna Talk podcast with Linda and Otto who also run the Sprit of Sauna podcast from Finland as well as Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna, just outside Helsinki, Finland. Linda and Otto are business partners who share a common interest in preserving the cultural roots and history of smoke sauna, promoting the rituals and power behind, and help create a place and platform for education and retreats at their sauna facility in nature, just outside Helsinki, Finland. Sauna Talk: Sipoonjoki he...
It was the morning after the recent British Sauna Summit in London. Stig Arild Pettersen Secretary General of the Norwegian Sauna Association and I meet up at London's Hackney Baths, which is a perfect backdrop for us to discuss the "Badstu Boom" taking place in Norway and the US. As part of his Secretary General role, Stig heads up the Norweigen version of Sauna Talk – Badstuprat, a title gently borrowed from yours truly and this program. From Britain and beyond Britain, having their own "brill...
A Sauna Talk from the British Sauna Summit , Tuesday, 20 May 2025 Hilton London Canary Wharf. Last year, Sauna Summit 2024 and 1.0, about 120 of us gathered rooftop at in Hackney. The spirit was both well organized like a conference, and yet intimate like a family gathering. This year, as attendance swelled to well north of 300, the Hilton Hotel ballroom provided a backdrop and familiarity of a "proper" (to use the British word) organized meeting. This is the evolution of sauna. What started as ...
Welcome to this special episode of Sauna Talk. We welcome Adam from Thermé USA, who led the panel discussion with three public sauna operators from North America. This episode is a "two-fer" in that as introduction, we get to hear from the group as they talk about the gathering and their panel discussion. Then, we move over to the panel discussion as it happened live, amongst almost 100 people in attendance at the Culture of Bathing gathering in New York City, January, 2025 Let's welcome Annette...
Today on Sauna Talk, we welcome Mika Meskanen and Wendy Liu. Mika is Finnish, and partner Wendy is Chinese. They live in London, and we met for this Sauna Talk on the bench in my backyard sauna in Minneapolis. This is our second podcast episode together, the first being episode #54. And, as you know, I much prefer Sauna Talk on the sauna bench, where so much magic in conversation and connection usually happens. A few nuggets Sauna Travel: Leading sauna tours to Finland. Dynamic Duo Origin Story ...
Today on Sauna Talk we re-welcome Jon Sabes. Jon is a returning Sauna Talk guest, first being episode #061 , and we rejoin together again, on the same bench for this second episode. Jon spends most of his time with his wife and family in Los Angeles and also in Baja Mexico. He was back to Minneapolis for a winter weekend, and we met for a cross country ski at his Lake Minnetonka house as the sauna was idling its way up to serving temperature. I love interviewing authors. And for a handful of rea...
Greetings! We recorded this episode as part of the sauna building seminar at the West Coast Sauna Summit , January, 2025, Loon Lake Resort outside Vancouver, BC Canada. Let's Sauna Talk: building saunas! Sauna Talk podcast all about building saunas I moderate a panel discussion with, on my left, Andrew from Saunabuilder and on my right, Josh from Theraluxe . These two are Western Canadian sauna builders who left their finish nailer behind in order to come to the West Coast Sauna Summit this past...
It was impromptu, and it was fun. It was completely unrehearsed, and it rambled in places (when I was unable to hold the microphone). This episode holds some wonderful gems of free thinking. This is Sauna Talk, and this is what I love about Sauna Talk . Like good sauna, Sauna Talk has few rules . This was the spirit at this fireside chat at the West Coast Sauna Summit. While some sauna'ed and others slept, most of the attendees, 25-30 of us came together for fireside chat Sauna Talk. It was late...
This Sauna Talk episode was recorded in New York City at the Recent Culture of Bathing Gathering, mid January 2025. Shelby, Artist, Painter, Thermé Group: Bringing artists and design into the Thermé bathing facilities. Dimitri Shapiro, Co-owner, The Russian and Turkish Baths: "You'll see a very diverse group. Our clientele has become younger.. and more diverse." 5 hot rooms. Rock is heated by gas over night. "A lost art. It takes up a lot of space." The stove is 130 years old. Don Genders, Found...
"What a great event" proclaimed Gayle Myers who, with her partner Gary, partook in the recent backyard sauna tour through 10 saunas built by homeowners in backyards in Minneapolis for the Parade of Saunas event. Parade of Saunas 2024 raised $1,500 for charity. "I had a constant stream through my space of curious folk, ranging from seasoned sauna pros to those just starting to daydream about their own backyard sauna retreat." Let's check in with a few of the saunas as part of Parade of Saunas 202...
Today on the Sauna Talk podcast we welcome Ashley Mason. Ashley Mason, earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. Ashley is a clinical psychologist and directs behavioral treatment for insomnia at the UCSF Osher Center Clinic. She is Director of the UCSF Sleep, Affect, and Eating (SEA) Lab. Ashley is the Co-Director of the UCSF Center f...
Today on the Sauna Talk podcast , i'm pleased to present Earric Lee, who is a leading researcher surrounding the health benefits of sauna. As you listen along, you'll hear the background noise of the busy-ness and hustle and bustle of London streets. As, instead of on the sauna bench, we capture this episode outside a London hotel. Earric and I converged for the recent British Sauna Society Sauna Summit . And it was here, in London, where I was able to capture Earric. And share with you his exha...
This is episode #100 of Sauna Talk. Do you want to know the Sauna Talk origin story? Well, when I started this podcast in 2016, 8 years ago, the idea was to help capture a bit of what felt like on the sauna bench. That's a place where deep, collaborative conversations can happen. It's often a place of untangling the wires in our heads, where our minds can open up to creative thinking, and problem solving. It's a fun place. Sauna Talk is described here as: Sauna talk is a different kind of talk. ...
Today on Sauna Talk, we welcome Ragna Marie Fjeld, General Secretary, Oslo Badstuforening. What does Badstuforening translate to in English? Sauna Association. So, let me tell you a bit about the Oslo Sauna Association. Founded in 2016, the same year as the 612 Sauna Society in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But the difference start here. Where 612 has one sauna, and granted it is the original sauna with the same work horse original sauna stove, benches, walls, and spiritual patina abound, Oslo Badstuf...
Today on Sauna Talk, we welcome Alan Jalasjja who shares with us "The Spirit of Sauna." Alan is an evangelist who is with us to help promote the experience. Growing up with sauna his whole life, as a Finnish Canadian, we get the perspective of what sauna spirit means to him. World Sauna Forum 2024 The growth of the event compared to 2022 Globe and Mail article I encourage you to click through the link towards his Op Ed opinion piece that recently appeared in the Globe and Mail, which discusses "...
A lot has happened with Lasse Eriksen, 2.0, from our first Sauna Talk just a little over two years ago. This meeting took place on the beach in front of Farris Bad resort, south of Oslo, Norway. FarrisBad Here Lasse is the Development Manager for this top notch resort set along the shore of Norweigen's majestic coastline. Development Manager means that Lasse is given a lot of reign to help steward sauna (bastu in Norwegian) as both a noun – the place we go, as well as the verb – the thing we do ...
Today on the sauna talk bench we are joined by Stew and his sons David and Kyle Wilson, from the Homecraft sauna heater family. Who is Homecraft ? Homecraft is one of Canada's longest running sauna manufacturers, this multigenerational, family-owned business has steadily grown in the shadows of towering old-growth cedar trees outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We gather on my sauna bench, the three of them lined up for interrogation as I manage the steam and the microphone from down lo...
As we look back upon Sauna Days 2024, walking from one sauna to the next, pretty much all of us were comfortably numb. About 200 guest converged for the fourth Sauna Days event at Larsmont Cottages, North of Duluth, Minnesota, this past weekend. Some came from near, and many came from far. All were able to enjoy the multitude of saunas, speakers, nature, and locally crafted food, beverages, and live entertainment.\ The recipe for a comfortably numb sauna gathering is much like a basic chocolate ...
Today on the actual sauna bench, we are joined and talk with Jake Newport from Finnmark . Jake makes the journey from Northern England to join me on the Larsmont Cottages sauna bench in Northern Minnesota, by the cold, clear clean water shores of Lake Superior. You can also check out my podcast with Jake and Brother Max from 2020 here . During this episode, we learn more from Jake about the thermal bathing ecosystem in the UK and globally. From career path change to multi pronged sauna business....
This episode features Charlie from Community Sauna Baths, a UK Community Interest Company dedicated to providing affordable, inclusive sauna experiences. Charlie shares his personal journey into sauna culture, the organic growth of CSB from a failed fundraising project to multiple thriving urban sites, and the technicalities of managing diverse saunas and cold plunges. The discussion highlights CSB's unique not-for-profit model, which prioritizes fair staff wages and directs profits towards philanthropic causes like Sauna Aid and seeding new community sauna projects, fostering a decentralized, trust-based network.
