Kivia: The Spirit of Sauna Podcast (2025)

24/12/2024

Planning a Christmas Eve sauna? Don’t forget about the saunatonttu! 🇫🇮🍄✨

In Finnish folklore, the saunatonttu are elves that live in your sauna, protecting the space and all who visit it.

However, it’s important not to upset the saunatonttu, especially on Christmas Eve, so there are a few key rules:

1️⃣ People — especially children — should speak in soft voices in the sauna and not misbehave.

2️⃣ Wrap up your Christmas Eve sauna session early in the evening, so the saunatonttu have enough time to enjoy a relaxing sauna themselves.

3️⃣ Before you leave the sauna on Christmas Eve, be sure to leave some beer, a few treats and enough water in the bucket for the saunatonttu (it’s only polite ☺️).

What happens if you make the saunatonttu mad? Oh, no big deal, they’ll just burn your sauna down! So yeah, probably best to keep them happy. 😬🔥

👉 Do you have a saunatonttu in your sauna? If so, what do you do to keep them happy on Christmas Eve?

📸: Aarikka

17/11/2024

Sauna friends! Canada’s FIRST-ever sauna summit is happening this January and you can be a part of it! ♨️

The West Coast Sauna Summit takes place Jan. 17-19, 2025, at the stunning Loon Lake Retreat Centre, just an hour outside Vancouver, BC.

This event is your chance to:

🤝 Connect with other sauna lovers, entrepreneurs, operators, builders, practitioners and wellness pioneers from across Canada and the U.S.

🌲 Relax, recharge and dream big at a mountain lake resort in the Pacific Northwest rainforest (with four lakeside saunas!)

⭐ Hear from keynote speakers and industry experts (I’ll be there to talk about the evolving nature of sauna culture in North America and how we can continue to create a thriving sauna culture in the future 📈)

🚀Be on the cutting edge of the sauna industry in North America as we enter an exciting new chapter!

Space is limited, so be sure to follow West Coast Sauna Summit and head to their site to secure your spot now!

🎟️ westcoastsaunasummit.ca

P.S. This event wouldn’t be possible without these amazing headline sponsors — be sure to check them out!

Homecraft Saunas
Theraluxe Home Wellness
SaunaBuilder
The FinnishSauna.ca
Aerth Saunas
Balthen Creative

22/09/2024

Have you ever wished you could experience a smoke sauna in North America? THIS is your chance! 💨

Ryan Brush is a man with a dream: to build and offer a traditional Finnish smoke sauna experience on Orcas Island in Washington state.

If successful, Olya Sauna will be the first public Finnish smoke sauna in America in nearly a century.

To make this dream a reality, Ryan has started a Kickstarter campaign — you can check it out here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shyotkin/orcas-island-smoke-sauna

➡️ A $50 USD donation gets you 10% off your first booking when the sauna opens.

➡️ Make it $100 and you’ll also get a copy of “Building a Traditional Finnish Smoke Sauna,” a book by master sauna builder Jarmo Hiltunen, who’s working on the project.

➡️ A $260 USD donation will earn you and a guest a 4-hour sauna session when it opens with full access to the facilities.

It’s an exciting project and I can’t wait to experience it for myself — be sure to follow olyasauna on Instagram for updates and more! 🔥

31/08/2024

So this was pretty special — it’s not every day that I help build a sauna for bonafide YouTube stars! 🔥

Eamon and Bec are a Toronto-based couple who are always seeking new adventures and facing life’s challenges head on.

And as their 1.2 million YouTube subscribers can attest, they’ve definitely inspired others along the way.

➡️ Their goal: To transform their 500-square-foot backyard into the sauna refuge of their dreams, and I think that’s exactly what we did — installing a four-seat electric barrel sauna (with HUUM heater) and cold plunge tub.

Huge thanks to Bec and Eamon for letting me be part of this adventure with them — I hope you guys are enjoying your backyard retreat! ♨️

Watch the full video on YouTube here: https://linktr.ee/kiviasauna

20/08/2024

What a thrill to be featured on CBC today! 🔥

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting CBC Radio’s Joe Pavia at my home in Waterloo for a sauna session/interview.

I gave him a tour of my home sauna, and talked about my new role as Sauna Ambassador for Sauna From Finland — and you know the correct pronunciation of “sauna” definitely came up! ☺️

➡️ You can catch the full interview online along with a video clip and article. Click here to check them out: linktr.ee/kiviasauna

Thanks to Joe Pavia, Keena Alwahaidi and everyone at CBC Radio in Kitchener-Waterloo for giving me the opportunity to do what I love to do — share my passion for sauna and help as many people as possible discover the myriad of benefits it can bring to their lives! 🙏

16/08/2024

This Tuesday, be sure to tune in to CBC Radio for my interview with reporter Joe Pavia! 🎙️🔥

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of hosting Joe at my home in Waterloo for a sauna session/interview.

As tends to happen in the sauna, our conversation spanned a wide array of topics — from my recently being named the new Sauna Ambassador for Sauna From Finland to what exactly it is about sauna that keeps us coming back for more.

➡️ The segment will air at 7:40 am EDT on The Morning Edition with Craig Norris on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo” (89.1 FM).

🎧 You can also listen to the interview live online at CBC.ca here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio

11/08/2024

If Mikkel Aaland gives you a tip on where to sauna, you definitely pay attention. 🔥💯

Recently, I had the chance to visit Archimedes Banya on the advice of acclaimed sauna historian Mikkel Aaland, as it’s his go-to sauna when he’s at home in San Francisco.

A Russian bathhouse on the shores of San Francisco Bay, Archimedes Banya is a place — as owner Mikhail Brodsky says — “to come with friends and celebrate life.”

Packed with plenty of old world charm, Archimedes draws on ancient sweat-bathing traditions from Greece, Turkey, Germany and Russia.

At the same time, Archimedes has plenty of offerings to attract a modern crowd — from spa services and rooftop yoga to its “Schvitz N Giggles” comedy nights.

It’s an incredible place, but don’t take my word for it — Archimedes was just featured in Mikkel’s excellent sauna docu-series, “Perfect Sweat.”

➡️ Click below to watch a clip — and if you’re ever in San Francisco, make a point of stopping by!

🎥 saunachannel.com/all-episodes/archimedes-banya via Sauna Channel

09/08/2024

Summer time is sauna time! ☀️💦🎉

Who else is hitting the sauna this weekend, and where will you be doing it? Let me know in the comments below!

📸: cedarandstonesauna in Minnesota, where the sauna fun never stops 🥳

25/07/2024

Today on the Kivia podcast — it’s our SEASON 3 FINALE! 🎙️ And we’re asking a big question…

Does sauna make people happier?

(Spoiler alert: It definitely does! 💯)

We’re looking at the data as well as sharing our own personal experiences with sauna and happiness, and looking back at some of our favourite insights from past guests.

Then, we’re taking you behind-the-scenes to hear from some of the members of the Kivia team about the impact of sauna in their own lives, and the topics they hope we delve into for Season 4… (yes, we’re already making plans for Season 4! 🤓).

🎧 Catch the episode on our website, on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Listen now: linktr.ee/kiviasauna

📸: henssski

23/07/2024

Such a pleasure to be a guest on Sauna Talk! 🎙️🎉

Sauna Talk is the official podcast of SaunaTimes, hosted by the OG sauna podcaster himself, Glenn Auerbach.

Glenn first discovered sauna in 1985 after a chance encounter while travelling in Scandinavia, and he’s been enjoying saunas, building saunas and advocating for them ever since — in his home state of Minnesota and beyond.

During our chat, we covered a range of topics — from the World Sauna Forum to my recent sauna op-ed in The Globe and Mail to what we both consider to be the “holy trinity” of a great sauna cooldown.

👉 You can catch our full conversation on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts!

https://www.saunatimes.com/sauna-talk-podcast/sauna-talk-alan-jalasjaa

11/07/2024

NEW PODCAST EPISODE OUT TODAY! 🔥

Sauna has exploded in popularity in the UK over the last five years — from 5-star luxury spas to grassroots mobile saunas. 🇬🇧

Even more unexpected has been the rise of “aufguss” — the art of using rhythmic towel movements to circulate heat, air and essential oils in the sauna — and our guest on the latest episode of the Kivia podcast has been leading the charge!

Deborah Carr is a UK-based sauna master and the founder of Anada. She’s also the Aufguss Lead for the British Sauna Society and, last year, was part of the first-ever British team to compete at the International Aufguss Championships (AUFGUSS-WM). 🏆

In this episode, Deborah shares her thoughts on the UK sauna surge, what it was like learning aufguss during the pandemic (hint: it involved a lot of Zoom calls and towel waving in her dining room), and where she sees the British sauna movement heading next. 🚀

Download the episode now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts!

🎧 https://linktr.ee/kiviasauna

03/07/2024

Wow! It’s pretty rare that I’m at a loss for words, but this left me speechless.

I’m truly honoured to share with you that I’ve been named the new Sauna Ambassador for Sauna From Finland, becoming only the third non-Finn and first-ever Canadian to receive the distinction.

As many of you know, Sauna from Finland is kind of like the Finnish embassy — but for sauna! 😉

Led by the incredible Carita Harju, the organization’s goal is to promote authentic Finnish sauna experiences in Finland and beyond, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be recognized by them in this way.

So what does being a Sauna Ambassador entail, exactly?

Well, I was given this honour because of my passion for authentic Finnish sauna — particularly my passion for sharing it with as many people as possible — and that’s exactly what I plan to keep doing.

Whether through my podcast, Kivia: The Spirit of Sauna, or through my sauna visits and travels around the globe, I’m excited to have this platform to share my love of sauna with even more people, especially here in North America.

➡️ Stay tuned — I’ll be sharing more details soon! And in the meantime, be sure to sign up for my email list if you haven’t already at kivia.ca.

To Carita, Titta Pervis, and everyone at Sauna from Finland: thank you for bestowing me with the honour of a lifetime. It means the world and I look forward to doing you proud! 🙏

P.S. Big thanks to the previous Sauna Ambassador, Jake Newport of Finnmark Sauna - Finnmarksauna.com, for officially “passing the ladle” to me at the World Sauna Forum in Finland in June! 💦

Kivia: The Spirit of Sauna Podcast