Recorded live at Sauna Days 2025, this episode of Sauna Talk brings together a thoughtful panel of doctors who sauna for a grounded conversation on heat, health, and the real role of sauna in modern life.

Glenn is joined by Dr. Jeremiah Eisenchenk, Dr. Brandon Dotson, Dr. Brittany Kimball, and Dr. Ashley Mason for a lively discussion on what we know, what we don't know, and why sauna continues to matter for both personal well-being and community connection.

This conversation explores:

• cardiovascular health and the most-cited sauna studies
• sleep, mood, depression, stress reduction, and mental health
• sauna and respiratory health
• recovery, inflammation, and everyday wellness
• detox claims, hydration, and where the evidence stands
• the difference between lived sauna experience and overhyped wellness marketing
• why more rigorous sauna research is still needed

What makes this episode special is the balance: medical perspective, personal experience, Finnish-American sauna tradition, and a shared respect for sauna as both practice and place.

Recorded lakeside with the Sauna Days crowd in the room, this is a conversation about more than research. It's about why people keep returning to sauna—for clarity, healing, friendship, and that feeling that some things still can't be improved by screens or speed.

In this special episode of Sauna Talk, I'm joined inside one of the Culture of Bathing Sauna Village saunas in New York City by three fellow authors whose work explores heat bathing culture from very different perspectives. This conversation was recorded on the sauna bench during the 2026 Culture of Bathing Festival in New York City.

Recorded during Culture of Bathing 2.0 gathering on the East River, this conversation brings together authors Yuval Zohar (Towards a Nude Architecture), Emma O'Kelly (Sauna: The Power of Deep Heat and Wild Sauna), Bill Gifford (Hotwired: How Heat Makes Us Stronger), and yours truly Glenn Auerbach (Sauna Build: Start to Finish).

On the bench, as conversation flows and steam rises, our discussion moves across continents and traditions—from Japanese sento bathhouses and onsen towns to the surprising explosion of wild sauna culture along the coasts of Great Britain.

Along the way we explore:

• The global revival of sauna and bathhouse culture
• Why community bathing is making a comeback
• The science behind heat, mood, and the "sauna high"
• Japan's evolving bathing traditions
• The rapid growth of sauna culture in the UK
• The empowering idea that anyone can build their own sauna

At its core, this conversation reflects a shared belief among all four authors: good heat knows no borders.

Today on the bench, we sit withValtteri Rantala, A Finn living in Vancouver BC since 2016. Val started a Sauna company in Vancouver in 2019. And in the shadows of Western Red Cedars, we'll hear the origin stories of the budding West Coast Sauna Summit at Loon Lake Lodge and Retreat center, one of the pins on Val's Vancouver Sauna Circuit.

We just returned from the second West Coast Sauna Summit here in 2026. And I was able to attend last year's inaugural Summit in 2025. The Vibes at the West Coast Sauna Summit are quite familiar to me, as founder and lead contributor for Sauna Days, Larsmont Cottages, Two Harbors Minnesota.

The similar vibe is: a collection of mobile saunas, a kick ass facility, access to clean cold water, and mix in a hundreds or so like minded thermal enthusiasts and some Sauna Talk presentations, stir the soup, and what we are met with are wonderful, collaborative, spontaneous connections. Endorphins rushing between rounds, legal libations sprinkled in like fresh basil.

Anyhow, back to the Vancouver Sauna Circuit. In addition to the Loon Lake Lodge and Retreat Center, Val dots the SaunaTimes sauna map with a few other bathhouses. And in this episode we get to hear a little bit more about these facilities. Let's keep in mind that as you click around the SaunaTimes map, and the Vancouver Circuit specifically, clicking the Vancouver Circuit button again will bring us out to all the bathhouses on the map. A circuit is not meant to be all inclusive. A circuit is a Scouts window into their city, collection, community. And let's not forget the adjacencies, where "people like us do things like this." and in Val's case are a couple hikes and restaurants within the Vancouver area.

Welcome to this episode of Sauna Talk recorded on multiple sauna benches at the Culture of Bathing Sauna Village in New York City. I'll keep this introduction brief as we turn the microphone over to four pillars behind the second annual Culture of Bathing gathering. This year, the gathering was layered adjacent to the opening of New York Cities first sauna village. A village of 15 architecturally-distinct saunas set along the Williamsburg waterfront.

Featuring:

Mikkel Aaland: The Godfather of Sweat

Cosmin-Nicolae Cîrîc: King of the Sauna Experience

Robert Hammond: President and Chief Strategy Officer, Therme Group US, United States

Adam Bamba Tanaka: Chief Operating Officer, Therme Group US

Event Info:

Culture of Bathing Sauna Village, New York City NY

15-17 saunas, NEW YORK'S FIRST EVER SAUNA FESTIVAL

DOMINO PARK, WILLIAMSBURG

FEBRUARY 12 — MARCH 1, 2026

7AM TO 10PM DAILY.

More information is here.

Today's episode comes to you from the recent West Coast Sauna Summit, outside Vancouver BC Canada, where I had the honour of interviewing Mikkel Aaland, the Godfather of Sweat, live in front of a packed room of thermal enthusiasts.

It's no secret that Mikkel has been a mentor to me, in sweat, in sauna, and in life. What I've always admired is his refusal to stay inside the box. Instead, he works the edges of it, where things are more interesting, more impactful, and where real change actually happens.

In this conversation, we dig into three ideas that are front and center for him right now:

• Sauna Aid,
• A different operating model for bathhouse owners and aspiring saunapreneurs,
• And sustainability through his three-pillar approach to the sweat bathing ecosystem —physical, social, and spiritual.

Mikkel may be ten years my senior, but he can hang, and party, with people half his age. Timeless, ageless, and endlessly curious.

I'm proud to present my conversation with Mikkel Aaland.

For more with Mikkel Aaland, please check out my 2020 interview with Mikkel here. And my 2016 interview here.

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 you'll get right to the heart of it. Deep Wave. A nod to the nerdiness without the pedantic edge. Keegan can talk in great technical detail about different wavelengths of heat and steam, but he's well past trying to impress. He's relatable and genuinely fun to Sauna Talk with. Deep heat. That wave that feels so good on the bench.

That's enough.

When we consider the holy trinity of good sauna (heat, steam, ventilation), the first two we can get our arms around, but ventilation is oblique—impossible to see, harder to feel, and easy to misunderstand.

But Keegan has earned the title of "thermal whisperer" among fellow sauna aficionados. He's the one who taught me that air is a fluid and should be understood as such. So when we talk about good ventilation, we talk about the lazy river. Stay tuned for more in this episode—why this is what we aim for, and how many saunas can achieve it naturally and passively without the mechanical buzz-kill easy street.

Keegan brings it down to earth. And I'm overjoyed to have made my way out to his prairie-style sauna on his property west of the Twin Cities. I love his sauna. Spiritual Patina rating: solid 9.0.

Within this article on SaunaTimes are a few photos taken from Keegan's sauna. And you can check these out and it'll likely bring you right there with us, on the bench, where we recorded this episode for you.

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, but sometimes solving for the cold is more of a challenge." And in this case, the time to leave the hot room is when the idea of a fresh cold lake plunge in Lake Michigan, just steps away, is about the best idea you've ever heard.

And each Sauna Circuit includes a few gems and "adjacencies." These are special places shared with you by Kev, the Chicago Sauna Scout. These adjacencies are in the spirit of "people like us do things like this." For example, the Navy Pier and Lakefront Path give Chicago visitors a real flavor of the city, and also a chance to get some exercise before round one. And there's some extra special restaurants to check out – each conveniently adjacent to a Chicago bathhouse, like Smoke Daddy BBQ, Lou Malnattis Pizza, and SuperDawg Drive-In, just to name a few.

So, whether you live in Chicago, or thinking of heading to Chicago for a vacation, or on the march to the Windy City for work or a trade show, this Sauna Circuit is right here for you. To access, simply go to SaunaTimes.com, click on the Sauna Circuit map, and then the Chicago Sauna Circuit.. and from there, you're well on your way.

Let's visit with Kev, and bring you along to the Chicago Sauna Circuit.