Sauna LIVE: Behind the sweat at ISC26

Sep 21

Some of the most interesting people in the global sauna world are coming to Oslo in September. Sauna LIVE is where you get to know them, and not just their work.

Sauna LIVE is the fourth thematic stage at ISC26, alongside Global Sauna Culture, Sauna & Health, and Architecture, Technology & Sustainability, and it works differently from the other three. No lectures, no slides. Instead you get conversations that are personal, unrehearsed and human, films on the big screen, and authors talking about their books. Behind the sweat, in other words.

It runs all day Friday and Saturday. Every slot is a maximum of 30 minutes.

Three rooms, all on the ground floor at Rebel

Sauna LIVE stage (Auditorium 0100): most of the program
EXPO Arena: some of the film screenings and Mikkel Aaland's book launch
Skraa Bar: most of the book talks. The bar is open from 12:30 until 18:30 both days, so this is also a good place to mingle, network and take a break throughout the afternoon.

Anything outside the Sauna LIVE stage is marked with its location in the schedule.

Friday starts at 10:45 with a welcome from Sauna LIVE co-sponsors Finnmark and Periode.

Live podcasts

Our five favourite global sauna podcasts are bringing their microphones to Oslo, and over the two days they make ten episodes in front of you. Real conversations with some of the most interesting people in global sauna, as they happen, with nothing edited out afterwards.

Sauna Twins by Finnmark Sauna (UK), hosted by Max and Jake Newport
Kivia: The Spirit of Sauna (Canada), hosted by Alan Jalasjaa
SaunaTalk (USA), hosted by Glenn Auerbach
Spirit of Sauna (Finland), hosted by Laura Foon
Badstuprat (Norway), hosted by Stig Arild Pettersen

Films

Sauna Channel, our congress and streaming partner, is showing three of its productions on the big screen, and one of them has never been seen by anyone.

Friday at 13:00 is the world premiere of Fire Between the Fjords — Norway's Sauna Revival, a brand new documentary about the Norwegian badstue boom. We are giving it a proper premiere, with refreshments and a few words from Sauna Channel before the lights go down, so arrive well before we roll the film. Stay in the room afterwards: at 13:30, Stig Arild Pettersen records a live Badstuprat episode with Sauna Channel producer Samuel Aarnio about Sauna Channel, the Norway film and the work behind it.

Two more chances to see it on Saturday:

09:30 in EXPO Arena, straight after Mikkel Aaland's book launch at 09:00
13:00 on the Sauna LIVE stage, straight after Sauna Twins by Finnmark Sauna meet architect Sami Rintala at 12:30

Sauna Channel brings two more films to ISC26: The Spirit of the Löyly (Friday 11:30) and Tampere, the Sauna Capital of the World (Saturday 11:30).

And on Saturday at 14:00, James Mugavin and Jan Nåls screen their own short film "Löyly", followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Book talks

Five authors, interviewed on stage about their books. Most of it happens in Skraa Bar while the bar is open, which is a very good place to spend half an hour.

Lassi Liikkanen, The Guide to Finnish Sauna Maintenance, interviewed by Erlend Klette (Friday, Skraa Bar)
Hallgrim Rogn and Knut Lerhol, Badstufolk, interviewed by Juan Reina (Friday, Skraa Bar)
Mikkel Aaland, book launch: Sweat and Naked Sweat — Legacy Edition, interviewed by Minea Herwitz (Saturday, EXPO Arena)
Kaarina Kailo, Sauna Culture, Sweat and Spirituality: On the Architectonics and Cosmology of Sacred Space, interviewed by Rosanna Cooney (Saturday, Skraa Bar)
Rosanna Cooney, Sweathouse: The Rediscovery of Ireland's Ancient Sauna Tradition, interviewed by Emma O'Kelly (Saturday, Skraa Bar)

See the full programme

Who is on, when, and in which room:

Thank you

Sauna LIVE exists because of three partners. Finnmark and Periode co-sponsor the stage, and Sauna Channel is our congress and streaming partner. Their contributions are what make a stage like this possible, and we are enormously grateful.