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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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:...
info_outlineThis 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 heritage sauna
Sipoonjoki’s heritage sauna offers a unique experience in a country sauna, where bathing leaves you feeling especially cleansed and refreshed.
I’d call Sipoonjoki a “smoke sauna haven.” For guests traveling to Finland or within Finland, the top features include:
– their flagship smoke sauna, built traditionally, within the hill mound with stone walls.
– saunotus ceremonies and treatments – using plants and herbs, growing on sight and in the shadows nearby.
– education and retreats.
The day of my visit, as I was departing after my session, a half dozen Finnish ladies were arriving for their private smoke sauna ritual. That’s the beauty of smoke sauna – and maybe I should describe smoke sauna for listeners who may not be familiar.
Journey to Sipoonjoki Heritage Sauna
Otto offers to come pick me up in downtown Helsinki. But learning about he and Linda’s busy schedule (as owners, operators, parents to each having their own children, etc.) I will have none of it. I love taking public transport in Europe, and Finland is no exception. I take the metro to the central train station and with train stop on my phone. It doesn’t take me long to find a younger, sharper, more localized Helsinki -ite at the station to direct me to platform 7. From there, I board the commuter train. From there, I confirm that once the train pushes off, i’m the third stop north of town.
I disembark, and there’s Otto waiting for me with a big smile, standing in front of the photo wrapped passenger van. Hugs and hello, and off we go to Sipoonjoki.
The drive is just long enough for us to help orient myself to where we are. And we find the common english word, The tool we’re thinking of is called a compass (or drafting compass). You remember from elementary school.
It has one pointed leg and one leg that holds a pencil or lead, allowing you to draw precise circles or arcs. It’s commonly used in geometry, drafting, woodworking, and metalworking. Well, this is part of the magic of Linda and Otto’s sauna retreat center.
The compass point being Helsinki central, and within the drawn circle is Sipoonkorpi National Park. We are heading for smoke sauna. As Nature is such a critically wonderful component to good sauna. And, here we are, as if transformed to hundreds of kilometers away, yet just close to Helsinki.
I ask: for visitors, car is the best option. But if a tourist were visiting without, what is the best way to get close to you, is it the train that I took, or the bus?
“There is a bus stop relatively close and during summer weekends there is a bus that comes directly to the sauna.” Gotta love Finland.
Beyond the obvious
My latest Europe trip – 40 saunas in 12 days carried with it a general theme: beyond the obvious. For example, all sauna tourists will hit Löyly in Helsinki, yet few venture on the path less taken to Sipoonjoki. And stepping out of the van with Otto and meeting Linda, on this end of May early afternoon, I’m met with the sound of birds and soft breeze blowing through the tall spruce trees, take sight of the grounds and smoke sauna awaiting me, and i’m filled with joy and calm for what exists beyond the obvious.
We settle into one of their outbuildings, get mic’ed up, and off we go. A joint podcast, The Spirit of Sauna meets SaunaTimes Sauna Talk… and welcome to this episode with Linda and Otto, where we get right into the spirit together with you alongside.