Sauna Talk

What does it mean to be "3 Percent Finn" yet feel deeply connected to Finnish sauna culture?
For Sauna Talk Episode 137, Glenn sits down with Michael Nordskog, author of The Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition, recorded live at Sauna Days 2026.
Michael grew up in the heart of North American sauna country, and his work has helped document a sauna tradition that runs deep through northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the greater Lake Superior region.
In this conversation, Michael and Glenn get into Finnish ancestry, Northwoods sauna culture, the traditions that took root around Lake Superior, and the way sauna gets passed down through families and communities.
It's also a conversation about place, identity, and why authentic sauna has endured in this part of the world long before the current wave of sauna popularity.
For those of us who believe sauna is more than a hot room, Michael's perspective is an important reminder: the buildings matter, the löyly matters, but so do the stories and the people who keep the tradition alive.
Recorded live at Sauna Days 2026.
This episode of Sauna Talk is brought to you by Homecraft, makers of quality sauna heaters and sauna equipment. Homecraft has been building sauna products for generations and continues to support the culture of good sauna across North America.
Learn more about Homecraft at homecraftsaunas.com.

In Episode 135 of Sauna Talk, Glenn Auerbach welcomes psychotherapist Sierra Blake for a live conversation recorded at Sauna Days 2026 on the shores of Lake Superior.
Sierra brings a graduate background in mental health psychology from the University of Minnesota, along with clinical experience working in trauma and addiction medicine. Her work explores the relationship between mind and body, including the potential psychological effects of sauna and cold-water immersion.
This conversation moves beyond the usual discussion of what heat does to the body and asks a bigger question: What can shared sauna experiences do for our relationships, our communities, and our sense of belonging?
Sierra explains how heat and cold create manageable stress, followed by a calming nervous-system response that may support openness, awareness, and connection. She also shares emerging research suggesting that the benefits of communal sauna may come not only from the heat itself, but from ritual, emotional synchrony, shared challenge, and the feeling of belonging to something larger than ourselves.
Glenn, Sierra, and the Sauna Days audience explore:
• The connection between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
• Sauna, cold water, and the mind-body relationship
• Why shared challenge can bring people closer together
• The difference between routine and ritual
• Sauna as a generator of "loose ties" and everyday community connection
• The role of mindfulness, meaning, and intention in sauna practice
• Sauna as a third space outside of home and work
• The potential for sauna to become part of a healthier social infrastructure
• Why there may be no single "best" way to sauna
Across cultures, sauna and bathing traditions have long served as places for healing, reflection, storytelling, and community. This episode offers a thoughtful look at why sauna's deepest value may lie not only in what happens inside the body, but in what happens between people.
Recorded live at Sauna Days in May 2026.
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USA Sauna Celebration: Reflections on Good Heat, American Ingenuity, and the Spirit of Freedom
For this special July 4 edition of Sauna Talk, Glenn reflects from island cabin country near the Superior National Forest in northeast Minnesota, looking out across open water and thinking about sauna in America: where it came from, what it means today, and the people helping carry the flame forward.
As the United States celebrates 250 years since its founding, this episode gathers excerpts from several of Glenn's favorite Sauna Talk conversations with American sauna personalities and sauna-adjacent voices. Together, they form a tribute to the deep and growing sauna culture in the United States — a culture shaped by Finnish immigrants, small-town manufacturers, researchers, builders, bathers, and longtime sauna nuts who understand that good heat knows no borders.
We begin with Bruce Oreck from Episode 72, former United States Ambassador to Finland, who shares how Finland corrected his American misunderstanding of sauna and introduced him to the deeper rhythm of good heat. From smoke saunas to the Finnish Sauna Society, Bruce reminds us that America could use not just more hot rooms, but more sauna culture: rounds, cool downs, conversation, patience, humility, and time together on the bench.
Next, we hear from three American sauna stove makers as featured in Sauna Talk Episode 120. Their conversation brings us to the heart of the sauna: the stove. These are small-town American manufacturers building durable heat sources close to home, with family history, shop-floor knowledge, local jobs, and real accountability behind every stove. In a world where so much is distant and disposable, their work speaks to craftsmanship, simplicity, and American ingenuity.
From there, the episode moves into sauna science with Dr. Ashley Mason, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Ashley studies whole body hyperthermia, sleep, depression, body temperature, and the effects of heat on the body and mind. While she is careful to distinguish traditional sauna from the controlled heating practices used in her lab, her research helps explain something many sauna bathers already feel: heat changes us. It brings us out of the narrow band of climate-controlled modern life and back into a more dynamic relationship with the body. This conversation with Dr. Mason can be heard in entirety in Sauna Talk Episode 102.
Finally, from Episode 123, Glenn turns to Mikkel Aaland, author of Sweat and one of the great connectors in global sweat bathing culture. Mikkel offers a wider lens on what makes bathing traditions endure across generations. It is not enough to have the best sauna on the block. The deeper goal is to get the block into the sauna. For sauna culture to last, it needs the physical, the social, and the spiritual. It needs safety, community, respect, generosity, and shared experience.
Taken together, these excerpts celebrate the American sauna movement at a special moment in time. Sauna can live in a backyard, a research lab, a bathhouse, a welding shop, a mobile trailer, a tent, a cabin, or a community gathering place. But wherever it lives, the best sauna experiences point us toward something simple and deeply human: warmth, freedom, equality, connection, and the joy of sitting together in good heat.
Happy July 4, happy Independence Day, and welcome to Sauna Talk.

Recorded live before a full audience at Sauna Days 2025, this special episode of Sauna Talk brings together four authors, educators, and lifelong students of human experience for a conversation that moves well beyond sauna itself.
Joining me are Garrett Conover, author of Sauna Magic; Jesse Coomer, author and educator in breathwork and cold exposure; Harvey Martin, author of Breathe, Focus, Excel and Without Words; and myself, Glenn Auerbach, author of Sauna Build from Start to Finish. Together, we explore the experiences, obsessions, and questions that led each of us to write books and dedicate years of our lives to sharing what we've learned.
Our discussion ranges from sauna culture, cold plunging, breathwork, athletics, coaching, and creativity to broader questions about wellness, personal growth, and what it means to live an examined life. We talk about the tension between science and intuition, the limits of protocols and optimization, and why authentic experiences often teach us more than information alone. Along the way, we reflect on how writing changes the writer, how teaching changes the teacher, and how books become snapshots of who we were at a particular moment in our own journeys.
The conversation is candid, thoughtful, and at times deeply personal. Rather than presenting ourselves as experts with all the answers, we share stories of uncertainty, evolution, mistakes, and discovery. Whether discussing sauna, breath, cold exposure, nervous system regulation, or the search for meaning and connection in modern life, a common theme emerges: the most valuable lessons often come not from information, but from direct experience.
If you've ever wondered why practices like sauna, breathwork, cold immersion, and time in nature can have such a profound impact on how we feel, think, and connect with ourselves and others, you'll find plenty to reflect on in this conversation.
Recorded in the Great Lake Room at Sauna Days 2025, this is a live authors panel about writing, learning, teaching, and the lifelong pursuit of awareness, presence, and authentic human connection.

What happens when the exploding UK sauna movement meets the rapidly evolving North American sauna scene?
Recorded live at Sauna Days 2025 on Minnesota's North Shore, this episode of Sauna Talk features a wide-ranging conversation with Jake Newport of Finnmark Sauna in the UK. Together, Glenn Auerbach and Jake explore where global sauna culture is headed next — from grassroots mobile saunas and floating bathhouses to luxury urban wellness spaces, aufguss experiences, and the rise of social sauna culture.
Jake shares the remarkable story behind Finnmark Sauna and the transformation of sauna culture across the UK over the last decade. What was once dismissed as "hot dry boxes" in hotels and gyms has evolved into a thriving movement centered around contrast therapy, community, craftsmanship, ritual, and meaningful human connection.
Topics include:
The rise of sauna culture in the UK and parallels with the USA
Mobile sauna movements, beach saunas, and floating saunas
Othership, guided sauna experiences, and modern wellness trends
Authentic sauna culture vs. commercialization
Aufguss and curated sauna rituals
Building community through heat and cold
Sauna entrepreneurship and the future of the industry
Why education and experience matter more than marketing hype
The importance of purpose, connection, and slowing down
This episode also features audience discussion and insights from leaders helping shape North American sauna culture, including conversations around social sauna spaces, accessibility, manufacturing, wellness businesses, and preserving the roots of authentic sauna practice.
If you care about where sauna culture is going — and how to build it without losing its soul — this is an episode you won't want to miss.
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