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Sauna Talk #104: Culture of Bathing Gathering

Release Date: 01/24/2025

Sauna Talk #118: Deanna Kaplan & Roman Palitsky

Sauna Talk

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 much of her work focuses on investigating the dynamics of change of integrative interventions, such as...

Sauna Talk #117: Chris Heck

Sauna Talk

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 electrical engineering career. He spent a couple years living in Finland—where sauna...

Sauna Talk #116: Jerome, European Aufguss Professional

Sauna Talk

Welcome to this episode of Sauna Talk, where we head back to , 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 . 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 this world-renowned facility. Some quick farmer’s math gets us close: a few sessions a day, five days a...

Sauna Talk #115: Dr. Hans Hägglund

Sauna Talk

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 University Hospital. Professor Hägglund also had the position as the national cancer coordinator...

Sauna Talk #114: Oslo Sauna Association

Sauna Talk

Today on the sauna bench, we head to Oslo, Norway, and visit with the folks at , (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 right back into the Oslo sauna spirit, yet with more focus on the “behind the scenes” history, construction,...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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:...

More Episodes

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, wet, and cold.” A long association with their vendor partners.

Cosmos, Wellness Director, Thermé Group: Essential oils and Experience Creator. Medical school. Biology Journey member. “Aufguss appeared as a necessity.” Jadeite Stone.

Viki, Founder, Earth Sauna, Victoria, BC, Canada: “We need this kind of training in North America, right now.”

Megan, Founder, Du Nord Sauna, Duluth MN. Regarding Lake Superior: “The lake is the boss.” With snow: “You don’t have to read the snow.”

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