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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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....
info_outline
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:...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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,...
info_outline
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_outlineA 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 a somewhat jest and jovial organisation, like the growth of many things sauna, the British Sauna Society has ballooned into a structured membership of several hundred, representing the “saunapreneurs” of public saunas that dot the map of the UK’s shoreline, streams, and urban communities.
Yours truly was given the honour of announcing the winners of the second annual Sauna Summit Awards, which showcases outstanding saunas (Best Urban, Best Community, Best New, etc.). All of the contest participants are winners. And though there’s surely pride and competition behind the curtain, yet what is displayed in the UK sauna scene is more collaboration and support. The Brits seem to recognize that the rising sauna tide lifts all public sauna boats.
London Calling
I am reminded of my time living in London. It was decades ago, and I had the dream job of music listings editor at Time Out magazine, where i’d have one on one relationship with the music venues (Dingwalls, Brixton Academy, etc.) and what stood out was the pricing structure of concert tickets. General admission at the top, then the list of discounted tickets (senior, student, unemployed, single parent, counsel estate resident, library card holder, etc.). It’s ingrained in British culture to proudly support those underserved. And sauna culture today shares that “community support” ethos. America may face headwinds in this regard, being more capitalistic centric, yet Britain waves the flag of “serving their community” as evidence by the hundreds of saunas dotting their shoreline and beyond.
Anyhow, in this episode we get to hear one on one conversations with folks from Harvia, Jake Newport from Finnmark, kindred spirit author Lassi Liikkanen, key Summit organizer Mark Lamb, his wife and author Emma O’kelly, Sauna from Finland Carita, Rob De Bank, and other folks “behind the scenes” and “between the action.”
Notes from presentations at the British Sauna Summit:
Carita
1. Take as long as you like in sauna. Listen to your body.
2. Nudity is common in private saunas. Often ladies and men’s sides.
3. Most Finn’s prefer 70-80c and we make löyly.
4. Sauna is a safe and relaxing activity for all ages. Sauna at the lake helps make family memories.
5. Everyone sweats differently. More sweat doesn’t mean better
6. Sauna stones wear out. Replace them regularly. She changes stones twice a year.
6. Clean the sauna – deep clean under the benches. Dry the sauna after every use.
8. Whisking is gentle and relaxing. Good for your skin and circulation.
Every sauna has its own soul.
Löyly is the main thing.
Dr emelia Vuitisalmi
“Sauna is the one single place where we truly feel safe and we can relax.”
Finns don’t count minutes or measure temperature.
Sauna stimulates three hormones
1. Dopamine. Direction Motivation and reward. Walk your true path. Sauna is the place to answer these questions
2. Serotonin. Safety
Sauna is the place where we feel safe.
3. Oxytocin. Connection.
Sauna is an amazing place to connect with ourself. What is behind our own thoughts.
Deep healing power of sauna takes us to a state of love.
Sweat. Let go. Belong.
The deep power of sauna.
—
Rob Da Bank
Slo Mo
Drew parallels of organizing festivals to the sauna space in UK.
Dom Bridges
Running his sauna for 12 years on the beach in Margate. Free. Significant part of the town. More like a skatepark, its own ecosystem. No one owns it, a spirit of togetherness.
Sara Higgins
Seaside Sauna Haus
Dorset. “It’s about connection with yourself, and it’s also about connection with who you share the bench with. “
“Focus on your thing and shout about others. “
Wild Scottish Sauna
Jayne McGie & Jamie Craig-Gentles
Met each other in the water.
Started as a swim group.
“We go into the sea to release. “ They run 5 saunas and are very active in their community. 1,000 people. 5 pounds each. Brought communities together. Staffing is also part of the community. 18 sauna hosts. Work for one day a week. Extra money for them as a second job.
Zack Avery
&Soul Community.
The heart of the project is to give people a space to belong. Share spaces together. West London Dundbar theory. Societies thrive in communities of about 100-150 people. Egalitarian space. Not wearing their title. Shared humanity in sauna. Heart of the community space. The sauna is the center of the community space.
Need for nurturing spaces. A thirst for better ways of being in the city.
Dr Martha : an expert in ritual and belonging.
Move our way from the normal to the secret.
Physically taken away from the normal… liminality.
Neither here nor there. Sauna creates an intense lininal space.
Research with extreme groups. Extreme experience bond us together.
Expert in ritual and belonging.
—-
The holy trinity : fire, ice, and löyly
Lasse spoke about the three methods of heat transfer plus condensation (moisture forming on the body).
If you follow the “Instagram sauna” and replicate it, you may run into problems that you cannot even power up the heater.”
Daryl Bosomworth
Brass Monkey
Spoke about ice. And the cold. The important factors of why and how to bring cold as a best practice for saunas.
Cold : “you are micro dosing with a potent stressor. “
Alex Lembke, Finnish Sauna Master of the year.
Aufguss means pouring hot water on a tea bag.
Technical aspects of löyly.
Self
Nature – spirit protecting the human.
Löyly – your life force. The functions of your body. Your life form. Life force of every being.
“If a sauna has no löyly , it doesn’t live. It doesn’t breathe. “
You should experience good löyly. Odorless. Long lasting. Pour löyly. Lasts a long time.
“Everyone deserves good löyly. “
—-
Nick Cassenbaum:
Jewish schmeisting culture.
Bubble Schmeises.
Rosanna Cooney
At one time, there’s were 75 Turkish style baths in Ireland.
The remembering happened when the nature connection came back
Mikkel. The three Pilar’s
Social
Physical
Spiritual – sense of connection with something larger than ourselves.
—-
Cosmin Cîrîc. Therme Bucuresti
Erin Lee. Koru Wellness Ltd.
Aufguss is a sensory experience. You can bring in natural elements close to your sauna. Plants. Sand and oils. Basic elements.
Show aufguss can present the story. They can put their soul on the table. It’s a beautiful art.
Emma O’Kelly.
Started with 80 saunas for the book. Then within the year, Feb 2025 – 189 saunas in the book.