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.

Subscribe to SaunaTimes.com for more authentic sauna conversations, builds, culture, and community.

#sauna #finnmark #contrasttherapy #wellness #saunaculture #coldplunge #aufguss #communitysauna #saunatalk #saunadays #saunatimes

In this of Sauna Talk, Glenn Auerbach is joined bench-side by Josh Leddy of Get Sweaty with Leddy and sauna builder Leif Kjorness of Excelsior Saunas for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation recorded after multiple sauna and cold plunge rounds on Lake Ann in Minnesota.

What unfolds is more than a discussion about sauna. It's a conversation about craftsmanship, friendship, healing, community, and the ways sauna culture continues to evolve while still holding onto its roots.

Josh shares how his lifelong connection to sauna eventually inspired him to launch Get Sweaty with Leddy, a YouTube channel and podcast focused on natural healing, pain management, and meaningful conversations that happen best on the sauna bench. He talks about his upcoming mobile sauna project, his vision for creating immersive wellness gatherings through movement and music, and why sauna creates a unique environment where people can truly connect without barriers.

Leif reflects on his journey from custom home building into the sauna world, and how building saunas became more than construction work — it became a calling. He discusses craftsmanship, quality building principles, the importance of slowing life down, and the fulfillment that comes from creating spaces where people gather, reflect, and reconnect with themselves and each other. The conversation also dives into the details behind the "party sauna" concept, including large panoramic windows, skylights, thoughtful ventilation, and building mobile saunas designed to foster memorable shared experiences.

Throughout the episode, Glenn shares stories from the early days of SaunaTimes, the origins of Sauna Days on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and his own formative sauna experiences hitchhiking through Finland and Sweden as a young traveler. Together, the three discuss the rise of mobile sauna culture in Minnesota, the power of hot-cold contrast therapy, the difference between manufactured cold plunges and natural bodies of water, and the emotional reset that happens when people gather around heat, steam, cold water, and conversation.

There are moments of humor, reflection, and philosophy woven throughout — from stories about cutting fresh ice holes by hand to discussions about social media fatigue, authentic community building, and the importance of finding your own operating system for life. Glenn closes by sharing the personal framework that grounds him today: Freedom, Enoughness, Nature, and Simplicity.

This episode captures what sauna culture is really about at its best: generosity, vulnerability, camaraderie, and the simple but profound experience of being fully present together.

Topics discussed include:

• Mobile sauna culture
• Sauna building and craftsmanship
• Sauna Days and grassroots sauna community
• Cold plunging and winter swimming
• Natural healing and pain management
• Lake Superior sauna culture
• Music, movement, and sauna gatherings
• The mental and physical benefits of contrast therapy
• Friendship, reflection, and slowing down
• The future of sauna culture in America

Guests:

• Josh Leddy — Get Sweaty with Leddy
• Leaf Kjorness — Excelsior Saunas

n this live panel from Sauna Days 2025, Glenn welcomes two of the most thoughtful voices in sauna research, Dr. Ashley Mason of UCSF and Earric Lee of the Montreal Heart Institute, for a candid conversation about the current state of sauna science, where the evidence is strong, where it is still emerging, and why integrity matters when talking about health benefits in the sauna world.

This episode goes far beyond the usual wellness headlines. Ashley and Earric dig into the real responsibility that comes with promoting sauna for health, especially in a moment when many businesses lean on scientific claims to sell sauna experiences, home builds, and products. Rather than oversimplifying the message, this discussion brings nuance, humility, and rigor to the bench.

Earric shares insights from two major projects: a cardiac rehabilitation study exploring whether regular sauna bathing can improve outcomes for patients with coronary artery disease, and a sweeping review of roughly 80 years of heat-therapy research, covering everything from traditional sauna and infrared sauna to hot water immersion and foot baths. One of the big takeaways: despite all the enthusiasm around sauna today, the actual number of long-term published studies is still surprisingly limited, and the field has a lot of room to grow.

Ashley brings the mental health lens, drawing from her work on depression, insomnia, and body-based therapies that do not rely on drugs. She explains how heat exposure may relate to thermoregulation, serotonin pathways, and mood improvement, and describes the striking relationship between body temperature and depression. In her research, some people with depression appear to run "hot," not because of fever, but because their bodies do not cool as effectively. That opens a fascinating question: can changing body temperature help change mental state?

Together, Glenn, Ashley, and Earric explore the difference between clinical research and practical sauna use. They talk about why researchers sometimes use intense protocols that are not meant to be copied at home, how long heat exposure may matter more than many people realize, and why dosage, frequency, and total heat load are still not well defined. The conversation also touches on the challenge of translating laboratory findings into real-world sauna practice, especially for people seeking guidance they can actually use.

A major thread throughout the panel is the distinction between traditional sauna and infrared sauna. Earric shares data from the literature showing a fairly even split in long-term published work between the two, while also noting that many infrared studies come from the same Japanese "Waon therapy" tradition. Ashley explains why her own clinical work uses controlled infrared whole-body heating: not because it is culturally superior, but because it allows researchers to isolate heat as a variable and reliably elevate core temperature over time.

The panel also gets refreshingly honest about what remains uncertain. Can a traditional sauna session raise core temperature to the same levels used in clinical depression studies? Maybe, but probably not easily. Is cold plunging necessary? Not necessarily. Does contrast therapy add something meaningful beyond helping people stay in the heat longer? The science is still catching up. Are there clear protocols for children, older adults, athletes, or people with type 1 diabetes? Not yet, at least not with the level of certainty most people would hope for.

There is also a strong practical thread in this episode. Earric encourages sauna bathers to keep a sauna log, much like an exercise log, tracking time, temperature, frequency, and personal response. The idea is simple but powerful: if sauna is a stressor that leads to adaptation, then paying attention to your individual dose matters. Ashley adds an important layer to that idea by reminding listeners that human beings are not static. Age, fitness, depression, stress, sleep, and general health all influence how the body handles heat.

Audience questions help widen the discussion even further. The panel touches on core temperature versus skin temperature, wearable technology, the limits of common thermometers, the role of sweating and blood redistribution, how cold exposure may or may not complement sauna, the possibility that some sauna benefits come not just from heat but from social connection, rest, hydration, and ritual, and why future research needs better control groups to separate these effects.

What emerges is a thoughtful, grounded, and deeply useful conversation: sauna science without the chest-thumping, without the overclaiming, and without losing the wonder. This episode is for sauna builders, bathers, researchers, health professionals, and anyone who wants a clearer picture of what heat can do for the human body and mind, and what questions still deserve honest study.

In this episode: Dr. Ashley Mason and Earric Lee discuss the current state of sauna research, long-term heat therapy studies, traditional sauna versus infrared sauna, depression and thermoregulation, cardiac rehab, body temperature tracking, dosage and duration, cold exposure, aging, children and heat, diabetes considerations, and why the future of sauna science depends on asking better questions with more rigor.

In this episode of Sauna Talk, Glenn sits down with Bill Gifford, author of Hotwired: How the Hidden Power of Heat Makes Us Stronger, for a wide-ranging conversation on sauna, heat adaptation, and the connection between physical challenge and mental well-being.

Bill shares how his journey into heat began through personal stress, scientific curiosity, and his reporting on the powerful effects of sauna and thermal exposure. Together, Glenn and Bill explore the famous Finnish sauna research of Dr. Jari Laukkanen, the role of heat in cardiovascular and mental health, and the way sauna can act as both a physiological reset and a social connector.

They also dive into Bill's experience training for the brutal Hotter Than Hell 100, what heat adaptation teaches us about resilience, and why sauna offers something much bigger than simple recovery. From neurotransmitters and stress relief to friendship, veterans' healing, and the culture of bathing, this episode shows how heat can make us stronger in body, mind, and spirit.

Click here to purchase Bill's new book.

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.

In this special episode of Sauna Talk, the tables are turned as Adam Pambatanaka, COO of Therme Group U.S., steps into the interviewer's role and puts Glenn on the bench.

Recorded live at Sauna Village in New York City in February 2026, this conversation dives into Glenn's own sauna origin story, from getting hooked in the Baltic archipelago to helping champion mobile saunas, sauna building, and public sauna culture across North America.

Adam guides the discussion through the big themes that have shaped Glenn's work with SaunaTimes: the rise of sauna in the public domain, the DIY sauna movement, floating saunas, sauna villages, and the growing momentum behind authentic bathing culture in the U.S. Along the way, Glenn reflects on how far sauna has come, what still matters most, and why both home sauna and public sauna can thrive side by side.

This episode also explores the spirit of sauna itself: fewer rules, more listening; less protocol, more presence. For newcomers, enthusiasts, builders, and operators alike, this is a wide-ranging conversation about heat, cold, freedom, and the human connections that happen on the bench.

Stay tuned through the end for bonus coverage with Sami Ranta, Finnish sauna designer and builder of the village's flagship performance sauna, who shares thoughtful perspective on sauna design, freedom in bathing culture, and why beautiful "mistakes" can lead to great sauna.

In this episode:

• Glenn's sauna origin story

• From backyard sauna to public sauna movement

• The rise of mobile saunas and sauna villages

• Home sauna vs. public sauna

• SaunaTimes, sauna circuits, and DIY resources

• Guidance for first-time bathers

• Bonus conversation with Sami Ranta on sauna design and innovation

A heartfelt, wide-open episode that offers listeners a rare chance to hear Glenn's own story, in his own words, from the other side of the microphone.

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.