Sauna Talk #113: Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna
Sauna Talk
This is a joint with Linda and Otto who also run the 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 heritage sauna Sipoonjoki’s heritage sauna offers a unique experience in a country sauna, where bathing...
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Sauna Talk #112: Norway’s Badstuprat from London
Sauna Talk
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 “brilliant” bathing renaissance, drew both Stig from the East and me from the West for...
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Sauna Talk #111: British Sauna Summit 2025
Sauna Talk
A Sauna Talk from the , 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 a somewhat jest and jovial organisation, like the growth of many things sauna, the British Sauna Society has...
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Sauna Talk #110: Culture of Bathing Panel
Sauna Talk
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 gathering in New York City, January, 2025 Let’s welcome Annette from Tampa Bay, Florida, Kelly from Hudson Bay, New York and Stephanie, from Montreal Quebec Canada....
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Sauna Talk #109: Mika and Wendy 2.0
Sauna Talk
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 Sauna culture in Britain Mika’s musing: “the stove should always win” World Class Wendy:...
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Sauna Talk #107: Jon Sabes 2.0
Sauna Talk
Today on Sauna Talk we re-welcome Jon Sabes. Jon is a returning Sauna Talk guest, first being , 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 reasons. One is that I know how much dedication, ambition, and focus it takes to write a book. From start to...
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Sauna Talk #106: Building Saunas at the West Coast Sauna Summit
Sauna Talk
Greetings! We recorded this episode as part of the sauna building seminar at the , 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 and on my right, Josh from . 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 month just outside Vancouver, BC Canada. I really enjoyed our time together. You’ll hear my kind of sauna building...
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Sauna Talk #105: West Coast Sauna Summit Fireside Chat
Sauna Talk
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 . Like good sauna, Sauna Talk has . This was the spirit at this fireside chat at the While some sauna’ed and others slept, most of the attendees, 25-30 of us came together for fireside chat Sauna Talk. It was later in the evening on night #2. Imagine seven or so mobile saunas deployed lakeside, just outside the high ceiling gathering room...
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Sauna Talk #104: Culture of Bathing Gathering
Sauna Talk
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, Founder, Design for Leisure: “We provide everything that makes you hot,...
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Sauna Talk #103: Parade Of Saunas
Sauna Talk
“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 2024: Ryan’s Fulton Sauna A serene backyard retreat in the Fulton neighborhood...
info_outlineToday on Sauna Talk we welcome Charlie from Community Sauna Baths in England.
Who is Community Sauna Baths? Well, they are Community Interest Company, a CIC, who is dedicated to providing affordable sauna sessions to the communities they serve. Currently with four locations, including their flagship locale in Hackney, East London.
Here is where we catch up with Charlie, one of the directors at Community Sauna Baths for this podcast.
Currently Community Sauna Baths are serving thousands of customers from the area. Local Londoners as well as a lot of visitors from abroad. Irish, some Finns, you name it.
Early influences
As you’ll here, Charlie grew up with the classic toaster oven experience at health clubs. Then, he was deeply affected to the positive, partacking in sauna at the Finnish Church and also Lost Horizons, the pop up social sauna in London.
Feeling a tug to help advance the social communal experience, Charlie leaned in to helping with the ambitious Hackney Baths fundraising project with the British Sauna Society. The fundraising came up short, but it did pave the way towards a more organic project. 2 donated saunas, one from Charlie.
Covid and beyond
We talk about countless hours of donated time to host sessions. How they are learning as we are going, starting slow by serving random members of the public in Hackney London. Slow organic growth. Adding days. Modifying and improving the site. Victoria and Gabrielle building website and marketing.
Community Baths today
The staff provides a real nice blend of skills. Part of the beauty is that good heat and cold does most of the heavy lifting. Staff supports the good heat and cold, and people benefit from and enjoy the experience.
Looking to grow. Charlie is helping work on a new site. We learn about the South London project, in Peckam, as part of the community garden. Bringing saunas into natural spots in London.
4th one in Normandy. Rob’s project. The first beach sauna in France.
UK affordable and inclusive.
Charlie’s career
Charlie cut his teeth as a management consultant. Great learning experience. Freelance consulting. Started a mushroom farm. Full time. Able to pay himself a salary. Well paying job for staff. Community interest Company. A commercial mind with a non for profit structure.
New community sauna in Bristol. Using profits to seed other new saunas.
Setting the seeds for a community Sauna Network.