Sauna Talk

Today on the bench, we sit together with Keegan Kittock, co-founder of Deep Wave Sauna. With the rising tide of sauna also comes marketing talk, pedantic chatter, and graphs and charts about how air supposedly moves in the hot room. So it's extra special and refreshing to visit with someone like Keegan. In this episode, we start at the beginning—picturing Keegan after elementary school, dragging a magnet around a building site, earning bubble-gum money working for his father's contracting company. And like many of us, catching the sauna bug at a young, impressionable age up north at the family cabin: long rounds, long dock time, and plunging in the lake, splashing around with neighbors, friends, and family. Love of sauna and love of construction are two powerful forces pointing toward building saunas for others. Add to that Aaron—Keegan's lifelong friend, collaborator, and business partner—and you have Deep Wave Sauna. Ask them at Sauna Days or outside one of their builds how the company got its name and yo

Today on the virtual bench we visit with longtime thermal enthusiast, friend, and SaunaTimes contributor Kev who takes us through the public bathhouses in and around Chicago for this Sauna Circuit. As you'll hear in this episode, Kev is no stranger to the saunas, banyas, and bathhouses in his hometown. What's cool about Chicago is that the banya culture is well developed.. and also quite historic thanks to aptly entitled Chicago Bathhouse, a traditional bathhouse at 1914 W. Division Street in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, which has operated since 1906. Formerly Red Square, this Russian-style bathhouse has been in operation since 1906. Featured in a 2016 SaunaTimes blog post here. And layered on top of that, you'll hear about the Asian inspired King Spa, the deep heavy heat offered at Chicago Sweatlodge, the new Kiln floating sauna – a dream come true right there floating on Lake Michigan at Navy Pier, and a Kev fan favorite the Sauna Club, where its affirmed that "we can solve for heat, b

Today, on Sauna Talk, and almost on the sauna bench, I'm pleased to bring you the folks behind the three major American sauna stove makers. American manufacturing at work! Garrett, Lamppa Manufacturing, Tower, Minnesota, Population 421 Philip, Nippa, Beulah, MI, Population 303 Lynn, Ilo, Dollar Bay, Michigan, Population 1,070 We talk through what their company looks like, their community, and what their opinions are on the North American sauna industry. Small town manufacturing. Direct to consumer, factory direct. Products Made with quality with longevity in mind. A couple of terms: Cost engineering: Designed in a way that reduces manufacturing costs—sometimes at the expense of quality, durability, or performance. Margin stacking: When every step in a product's journey — manufacturer, distributor, wholesaler, retailer — adds a profit margin, and those margins compound into a much larger final price. More here.

Today on the bench, we bring you to Larsmont Cottages, Two Harbors. Minnesota for a special roundtable discussion with four sauna builders from four different countries as part of Sauna Days 2025. Alex, Bsaunasusa, Belarus Keegan, Deep Wave Saunas, USA Jake, Finnmark, UK Andrew, Sauna Builder, Canada The weather was wonderful, the heat was resonating, and our conversation went deep.

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 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

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 isn’t a luxury, it’s an everyday way of life. He travels to Finland regularly working for Wärtsilä a global company with over 10,000 employees, a leader in innovative technologies for the marine and energy markets. Big equipment for ships and energy plants. We met on a late fall afternoon under cool rain and heavy clouds. The last time I stood in his backyard was several months previous. His sauna was still just a shell—bare studs and roof. Seei

Welcome to this episode of Sauna Talk, where we head back to Farris Bad, 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 Lasse Eriksen. 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 week, for 10 years… that adds up to well over 10,000 people. I’m one of those 10,000—a repeat guest for a couple of years, attending several of his aufguss ceremonies. An Aufgussmeister, in my view, is best to not be lead into temptation. For like a church paster, there could be that ego boost that comes from standing in front of an audience, performing. Controlling the movement of steam, and the administering of essences

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 at The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) between 2019-2022. He currently holds a position as a senior consultant at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, which is where we catch up with him for this episode of Sauna Talk. Hot facts On this episode of Sauna Talk, we recognize that Hans Hägglund is a man who wears many hats in the world of health, wellness, and sauna culture. Hans is an affiliat

Today on the sauna bench, we head to Oslo, Norway, and visit with the folks at Oslo Badstuforening, (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, operation, and warm hearted people who make it all happen. Because frankly, I’m overwhelmed with the Badstu Boom, as it’s called. I really dig the Norwegians! The Norwegians They have sauna (badstu) deep in their Viking history. They approach it width depth and culture like the Finns, but with the open minded collaborative artful attention and appreciation of the Brits. AND without the capitalistic franchise money

This 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. www.saunotus.fi 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

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 the Sauna Summit. Our Sauna Talk podcast on the bench dives into the comparing and contrasting of sauna culture in each of our countries. And within hours of this recording, I flung my backpack over my shoulder to fly from London to Oslo to experience the Badstu boom myself. And, there’s something wonderful about talking about a countries sauna boom, then touching down within hours and hitting the bench with some fellow sauna nuts in their

A 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 thou

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 Culture of Bathing 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.

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: Sauna Aid & connector.

Today on Sauna Talk we re-welcome Jon Sabes. Jon is a returning Sauna Talk guest, first being episode #061, 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 finish. Another reason why I like interviewing authors is that when it’s a compelling subject, the interview process is easy for me! Our conversation flows like good steam in the hot room. And this is how I felt, sitting on the bench with my good friend Jon Sabes. Healthy Wealthy Longevity We discuss his new book, “Healthy Wealthy Longevity.“ And in his book, you will learn some practical strategies to help you live

Greetings! We recorded this episode as part of the sauna building seminar at the West Coast Sauna Summit, 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 Saunabuilder and on my right, Josh from Theraluxe. 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 thinking. From bench heights to wall cladding. Wood stoves to electric. Mobile to fixed backyard, we cover a lot of topics in an open and collaborative spirit. There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” ― Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

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 Sauna Talk. Like good sauna, Sauna Talk has few rules. This was the spirit at this fireside chat at the West Coast Sauna Summit. 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 at the Loon Lake retreat centre, nested in the UBC Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. And Co-producer Valterri calling the session together in his Finnish accent: “ok, everybody, let’s gather our chairs around in a circle. Let’s Sauna Talk.” Oh, man, this is my kind of conference. These are my kind of people, and we get into my kind of thinking and conversing. By this time in the gathering, we had b

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’

“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 of Minneapolis, complete with an AirBnb. “I put on my extravert hat and gabbed the whole 4 hours on my sauna spiel;).”     Steve Hawkins Good fun.  I think I spoke with 60 + people today.  Good vibes.  People really were appreciative of the sauna and willingness to share.   “Loved talking with all the different hosts and learning about how they made their saunas” – paraphrase of many of the visitors today. Darin’s NorthUP Darin from Urban Win

Today on the Sauna Talk podcast we welcome Ashley Mason. Ashley Mason, earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health. Ashley is a clinical psychologist and directs behavioral treatment for insomnia at the UCSF Osher Center Clinic. She is Director of the UCSF Sleep, Affect, and Eating (SEA) Lab. Ashley is the Co-Director of the UCSF Center for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment (COAST). She is primarily a researcher but also treats patients for insomnia within the Osher Center Sleep Clinic. Whole body hyperthermia In our chat today, you’ll learn about her work surrounding “whole body hyperthermia.” Her 2023 BrainMind Summit presentation touches upon sauna and how heat treatment may have a positive impact on depression by regulating body temperature. Reintegrating thermal stress could be an effective approach to treating some individuals with depress