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_outlineToday 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 psychedelic-assisted therapies and contemplative practices.
Dr. Kaplan is the Director of the Human Experience and Ambulatory Technologies (HEAT) Lab, a multidisciplinary collaboration between the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and Emory Spiritual Health. More information about the HEAT Lab is here.
Dr. Kaplan is the co-creator and Scientific Director of Fabla, an unlicensed Emory-hosted app for multimodal daily diary and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) research. Fabla is an EMA app that can securely collect voice-recorded, video-recorded , and photographic responses from research participants. More information about Fabla is here.
Dr. Kaplan holds an adjunct appointment in Emory’s Department of Psychology and is appointed faculty for several Emory centers, including the Winship Cancer Institute, Emory Spiritual Health (ESH), the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality (ECPS), and the Advancement of Diagnostics for a Just Society (ADJUST) Center. She also holds an appointment as an adjunct Assistant Professor at Brown University in affiliation with the Center for Digital Health. Dr. Kaplan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona, completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Brown University, where she received an F32 National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her research is funded by the NIH, the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, and the Vail Health Foundation among others. She was named as a 2025 Rising Star by Genomics Press for her work in mental health assessment innovation.
Roman Palitsky
Roman Palitsky, MDiv, Ph.D. is Director of Research Projects for Emory Spiritual Health and a Research Psychologist for Emory University School of Medicine. His research program investigates the pathways through which culture and health interact by examining the biological, psychological, and social processes that constitute these pathways. His areas of interest include biopsychosocial determinants in cardiovascular health, chronic pain, and grief. In collaboration with Emory Spiritual Health, his research addresses cultural and existential topics in healthcare such as religion, spirituality, and the way people find meaning in suffering, as they relate to health and illness. His work has also focused on the role of religious and existential worldviews in mindfulness-based interventions, as well as implementation and cultural responsiveness of these interventions.
Dr. Palitsky’s academic training includes a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona with a concentration in Behavioral Medicine/Health Psychology, and a Master of Divinity from Harvard University. He completed clinical internship in the behavioral medicine track at Brown University Warren Alpert Medical School, where he also completed a postdoctoral fellowship.
Deanna and Roman were in town attending and speaking at the 2025 SSSR Conference, Society for the Scienific Study of Religion. And as you will hear, we get deep into the spirit of sauna, a spiritual connection we allow ourselves to have, presented to us through the wonderfulness of time on the bench and chilling out in the garden, all misty wet with rain.