Sauna Talk

Today on the bench, we welcome Todd Furneaux who is spearheading the building of the World's Largest Sauna. The sauna is being constructed as part of  Running Man , a three day festival happening outside of Atlanta Georgia this mid October 2023. During this episode, you'll hear about Todd's company and cohorts,  All Day Running . And how the idea of building the World's Largest Sauna was surely fo...

Today on the virtual sauna bench, i'm pleased to bring you Sauna Talk: Emma O'Kelly, author of the new book  Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat . We join Emma from her home in North London. And, we hear from Emma how the idea for this book was seeded through the pandemic. Plus, how the health benefits of sauna helped make the book happen. In the book, Emma does a great job outlining the reported health...

Today on the global sauna bench, we Sauna Talk with Mikkel Aaland from inside and just back from war torn Ukraine. Introduction from Minnesota Before we dive into this episode, I'd like to paint a picture of where I am sitting and what i'm thinking about. I am speaking to you while sitting on my deck at our island cabin in Northern Minnesota. I can see about 8 miles to the East, along a shoreline...

Today on the virtual sauna bench, we Sauna Talk with Jackie from  Cedar Grove Saunas  in Northern Maine. Jackie is just back from her sif week sauna pilgrimage to four countries in Northern Europe. Jackie has built her own saunas, and is four years into hosting guests traveling far and wide to Cedar Grove Saunas. We are kindred spirits of good heat. We share an interest and passion towards the Lat...

Today on the virtual Sauna Talk bench, we join Marishi Morchida 持田 摩利支, from the Japan Sauna Institute 日本サウナ総研. Marishi joins us from his apartment in Washington, DC. During this episode, we learn about the active Japan sauna culture. How thermal bathing is intertwined into Japanese culture. You'll learn some key differences between Japanese sauna culture vs. North American in particul...

Today from many of the 12 or so sauna benches, we hear from guests attending  Sauna Days 2023  at Larsmont Cottages, Two Harbors, Minnesota. The stories are from their hearts. We get to tap into their motivations and ambitions to make their way to Northern Minnesota for the third Sauna Days festival this early chilly May weekend. Though upwards of 200 people were in attendance, we hear from a frac...

Today on the bench, we are joined with David Dragseth, Lutheran paster and CEO of  Superior Saunas. Let's consider for a moment, the Venn Diagram overlap of A: Lutheran Pastors and B: Sauna business CEOs. To my knowledge, the overlap is a body of one: David Dragseth. Also of note, if we consider the Venn Diagram overlap of A: Lutheran Pastors and B: Guests to the podcast Sauna Talk, well, i'm happ...

Today on the Sauna Talk bench, we visit with Anya and Dan Bondarenko from the Banya House. Dan is Latvian, with Ukrainian family heritage. Anya is 100% Ukrainian. Her town has been completely destroyed from the Putin invasion. Anya is a nutritionist, with a focus on plant medicine. We gather in their outdoor backyard sauna….. er.. banya.  The Banya House , Prior Lake, Minnesota. The design, size,...

Today on the sauna bench we sit with Brian who is perhaps the most researched yet least experienced sauna aficionado in the world. Connecting through consulting services One of the things I do in the world of sauna is offer  consultation services.  I don't offer this service to make money, but more to help others realize their authentic sauna dreams. And the other reason is that though I do love t...

Sauna Talk: Kirk Jensen is a host of a thousand saunas (and more). Kirk is one of the lead hosts at the  612 Sauna Society  sauna, Minneapolis Minnesota USA. This episode may be especially interesting for those considering starting a sauna business. Or for those who have attended a "butts on the bench public sauna" and want to know more about how sauna host manages the comings and goings of sauna...

This episode was recorded in January 2023 from the Sauna Village, Malcolm Yards, Minneapolis Minnesota, as part of the Great Northern Festival. It was a cold well below freezing day outside. As the Saunapreneurs began firing up their sauna stoves outside, inside we were able to sit down and visit with Shaelyn and her brother Justus, and then David Dragseth, CEO of Superior Saunas. The history and...

Today on Sauna Talk, we are pleased to welcome Bruce Oreck, who joins us from his off grid home in Baja Mexico. During this episode, we talk about sauna, Finnish sauna, and his experiences being hosted and welcomed by Finns all over the country. As US Ambassador to Finland during the Obama administration, his tenure was unique in that he served for a long period, from 2009 – 2015, which he says wi...

Today on Sauna Talk, we are joined by several different summer guests to my island cabin sauna in Northern Minnesota. This episode features guests from literally all over the world who have all found themselves on my sauna bench which I co built in 1996 and is still humming along strong. The sauna is 3.5 hours North of Minneapolis, MN close to the Boundary Waters Canoe area on Lake Vermilion, one...

Today's Sauna Talk podcast episode is with Lewis Jenkinson, who shares with us his heart and soul of good sauna. Today on the bench we welcome Lewis Jenkinson from the absolute midpoint of England, just North of Manchester. With the rise in interest of sauna – real sauna – (not lightbulbs, toaster ovens, or other minimally ventilated fragmentations), it's interesting to learn how others have becom...

Today on Sauna Talk, we meet with photographer George Cory, who is documenting the British sauna movement. George Cory is reporting in from Folkestone on the Southeast Coast of England. He is a current master's student studying photography and is an avid sauna enthusiast. We catch up with George in his hometown in Great Britain. He is one of the first photographers in the UK to immerse himself in...

Greetings from  Sompasauna  in Helsinki. Today we visit with Yana who takes us through her deep connection to sauna, from Aufguss at the large public saunas in Germany, to the Danish Sauna Association, and now with her employment with  Studio Puisto , a Helsinki based architectural firm that focuses on sustainable hospitality and sauna design. Here we have a look at their new commercial sauna proj...

Today on the bench we hear from several guests attending Sauna Days 2022 at Larsmont Cottages. What a great time we had, sharing our collective and individual passions about sauna. We came from all over, but are united in spirit! Let's here from: 1. Katy,  Sisu & Löyly , Grand Rapids, MN. Who has a sauna by the Lake Superior shoreline, build and converted from an old Fish House on site. 2. Eric, ...

Dr. Jonathan Bricker is a Professor of Public Health Science at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and University of Washington in Seattle. A recipient of over $25 million dollars in research funding, and author of over 110 scientific publications, Dr. Bricker's research focuses on developing and testing health habits that prevent cancer. He has been enjoying sauna since his first exposure in 1991...

Why are there no saunas in elderly homes?" "I work with infrared, but it is more of a treatment… Infrared is not connected to the Norwegian culture of badstu (sauna)." Today on Sauna Talk, we visit with Lasse Erikson, reporting in from the outskirts of Oslo, Norway. Lasse is a Sweat enthusiast with a mission to bring more sauna and sweat experiences to the world. He is head of Norges Badstulaug, a...

"The feeling I get with wood fired (sauna) is so much deeper than any kind of heat I've every experienced. I feel human when I get out of a wood fired sauna." Today on the sauna bench, we are joined by Mindstrong Harvey, founder, CEO, of  The Mindstrong Project . Many of us may not have heard of the Mindstrong Project, but if you were a pro athlete talking about performance, breath work, contrast...

Please welcome Alex Blyashuk to the Sauna Talk podcast. Though sauna in Belarus is quite popular, Alex, a native of Belarus, didn't grow up with sauna (or banya as it is called in his home country) but discovered the Russian style sauna experience through several road trips from his hometown in Buffalo, NY up to Toronto, Canada. Alex and his buddies would pack up their car, often on Fridays, head...

Today on Sauna Talk, we welcome a random, spontaneous, non rehearsed or edited collection of Finns, talking about sauna. I didn't make a big deal about this interview process. I simply approached a few Finns on the street today, in Helsinki. I didn't stick my microphone in people's faces, but tried to be respectful in approaching a few people who didn't seem to be hurried, or appeared to have an i...

Today on the bench we welcome Jon Sabes to Sauna Talk. Jon is a successful entrepreneur, founding multiple companies in the health and insurance industries. Jon is a high performing athlete, completing several marathons and triathlons, events that just thinking about their rigor makes me want to hit the "no thanks" button and take the short tour to the sauna bench and cold plunge, and hear about t...

Hi John, welcome to saunatimes. I thought I'd start by having you share how and when you first got started with the WHM and cold water exposure. Most of my life I've had a terrible relationship to the cold. I hated cold water and if it dropped below 60F I would bundle up like I was preparing for an Arctic adventure. In 2013, when a friend let me know about a Wim Hof workshop that was being held in...

I'm pleased to present my second Sauna Talk podcast interview with Daryl Lamppa. Who is Daryl Lamppa? A third generation sauna stove builder, born and bread in Tower, Minnesota. 100% Finn, and married to a Finn, Cheryl. After marriage, as a young man, Daryl and his father in law built their newlywed house, and milled lumber for the build from Norway pines on their property. Daryl and Cheryl have l...