Podcast Sauna Rocks

As Oulu celebrates its year as European Capital of Culture 2026, the Oulu Sauna Festival 2026 puts one of Finland’s most distinctive cultural traditions at the heart of the programme: With thirteen extraordinary saunas - from a shipping container and horse carriage to a floating river sauna - this episode explores what makes a sauna a sauna. We discover Finnish and Estonian traditions, rituals, conversations and community, and ask how an ancient tradition can become a space for culture, creativity and connection in a modern city.

Saunafestival

Oulu2026

Music: Oskari Sivonen & Viljami Pruiksma duo

My name is Gabriela and this is my podcast “Sauna Rocks”. Today, I want to take a step back and tell you what this podcast is all about. What kind of episodes you can expect and how an episode comes to life.

To start the new year, I set out to experience Kuuma Sauna, a network of self-built Nordic-style saunas popping up across the Netherlands.

In this episode, I visit two very different sauna settings: an urban landscape in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, part of the vast Port of Rotterdam, and a stormy winter night on the North Sea beach in Scheveningen near The Hague.

To book the Kuuma Sauna-experience, visit https://kuuma.nl/

#1 - (Short) My First Sauna | Finland, Löyly, Ice Swimming & Sauna Culture
In this introductory episode, I tell the story of my very first Finnish sauna experience: a summer school trip to the island of Ruissalo near Turku, Finland.

This prologue sets the stage for Sauna Rocks, a podcast about sauna travel and the worldwide sauna bathing traditions.