Sauna Talk

Anyone lucky enough to have a hard copy of Mikkel Aaland’s 1978 book Sweat can page through his journey into the various sweat bathing practices and traditions from all over the World. Throughout his book, we enter with Mikkel into a Mayan Temescal, a Russian Banya, a Japanese Mushu-buru, a Native American Sweatlodge, and of course a Finnish sauna, amongst other cultural sweat tradition practices. Throughout his global journey, Mikkel gained an understanding of the common human experience. The communal experience and the experience of getting clean, and in my words, the ability to feel and say “aaaahhh” when water is tossed on hot rocks to create steam. As a young world traveler, Mikkel put it all together. He was able to connect the dots of these different “sweat” practices, and has helped us come to the realization that we, as humans, share a special bond of sweat practices, and we aren’t really all that different as a species. Fast forward to 2019, and Mikkel was deep into another form of world travel. He