Experience The Upper Bench for unique sauna expeditions. Immerse in Finnish sauna traditions, embrace the allure of hot-cold bathing, and relish wood-burning sauna tales. Ignite your passion for sauna culture as we cover topics like sauna tech, wellness, and others. Join Eero, Risto, and Sam on a global quest for the authentic warmth of saunas. Unleash the sauna adventurer within - subscribe now! 🧖🏻♂️#heat #steam #coldplunge #thermal #sweatbathing #finnishculture #health
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
34%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchExperience The Upper Bench for unique sauna expeditions. Immerse in Finnish sauna traditions, embrace the allure of hot-cold bathing, and relish wood-burning sauna tales. Ignite your passion for sauna culture as we cover topics like sauna tech, wellness, and others. Join Eero, Risto, and Sam on a global quest for the authentic warmth of saunas.
Recent episodes include "Defining sauna" (12 October 2026, 62 minutes), "The Radiant Debate" (24 September 2026, 66 minutes), and "Dan Sarya of Michigan Sauna" (25 August 2026, 60 minutes).
The Upper Bench publishes roughly monthly, with episodes averaging 56 minutes across 79 episodes.
Booking probability for The Upper Bench is 34%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. The Upper Bench requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. The Upper Bench's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for The Upper Bench are Fitness, Golf & Recreation. The Upper Bench has a society audience.
The Upper Bench is a society podcast with 79 episodes published.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Episode #79
Episode 79 - Eero, Sam, and Risto grapple with the question of, "What is sauna?"LINKS https://www.theupperbench.com https://www.instagram.com/upper.bench.podcast/ https://www.facebook.com/theupperbench Theme Music...
Episode #78
The Radiant Debate Episode 78 - Sam, Risto, and Eero tackle the radiant question. Is radiant heat bad in the sauna?LINKShttps://www.theupperbench.comhttps://www.instagram.com/upper.bench.podcast/https://www.facebook.com/...
Episode #77
Episode 77 - Dan Sarya of Michigan Sauna joins the Upper Bench crew. Dan's passion is to share the "smile" of his Finnish cultural heritage with the rest of North America. We hear how he started his mobile sauna...
Bill Gifford, author of Hotwired, and sauna fanatic joins us to discuss the science of sauna and how a trip to Finland totally transformed his perspective on health. LINKS https://www.instagram.com/billgifford/...
Risto revisits his presentation from the Upper Peninsula History Conference in Marquette, Michigan: “Adventures in Researching the History of Finnish Sauna in North America.”From rare books and university archives to...
Aaron Vainikka from Finnbilt joins the show to discuss his Finnish-American sauna heritage and share his thoughtful but unorthodox takes on the Finnish steam bath. LINKShttps://www.theupperbench.com...
Episode #73
Episode 73 - Sam is building a new sauna, so we take a look!
Episode #72
James and Dan join us to share their stories of growing up Finnish-American in Maine, saunaing as kids, and building their own saunas. The Sauna: A Gift from the Finns...
Sam and Glenn chat about sauna construction during Finlandia Foundation's Sauna Week 2026. Finlandia's Sauna Week playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgbPg6jjsQ3R2NrV6j00TpqWyq1BVYzlX&si=IRzTXHpZ60A-9OyJ
Lassi answers audience questions and discusses with Risto and Minea during Finlandia Foundation's Sauna Week 2026. Full talk: https://youtu.be/LwFL7pdK-T0 https://saunologia.fi CONTENT00:00 Ventilation 04:59 How does...
Episode #69
Charts and graphs!Risto, Eero, and Sam are joined by Walker, Minea, and Ruut for Finlandia's Sauna Week 2026. We discuss Sauna Culture, Infrared, McSauna, and Ugly Saunas. And, of course, there are tons of graphs!Check...
Episode #68
Sam, Eero, and Risto catch up after National Sauna Week and swap notes on public saunas, especially the big question of whether you can throw water on the rocks and how good the rest/cool-down setup is. Sam tells a...
Episode #67
Selection from Eero's final speech as Finlandia Foundation National's lecturer of the year. Given January 20th at Scandinavia House in NYC. See their website and youtube channel for the full presentation...
Episode #66
Risto shows Sam and Eero even more Yooper saunas! National Sauna Week Schedule https://www.nationalsaunaweek.com/sessions-and-registration CHAPTERS 00:00 Our news 07:54 Sauna 1 17:17 Sauna 2 22:56 Sauna 3 26:52 Sauna 4...
Episode #65
We first met Todd Shearer at our 2024 Toronto meet-up. His enthusiasm for sauna was apparent from the start. We had a great time exploring the Canadian banya scene with him. But that isn't the end of his story. He went...
Episode #64
Episode 64 - David Kosins and Joshua Womack join the Upper Bench to talk schvitzing in general and the Cleveland Schvitz in specific. We learn how they discovered sauna and what their current practices are like today...
Have we oversimplified sauna? A brief history of sauna marketing in North America. Episode debuted at the Seattle Sauna Festival 2025
Nathan's Journey from Infrared to Real Sauna. A candid journey from infrared hype to authentic Finnish sauna, highlighting why real heat, löyly, and hot–cold contrast are so compelling. We discuss practice over...
Episode 61 - Risto, Eero, and Sam return to the Upper Bench to dig into public vs. private sauna, heater tech (smoke, wood, flip-lid electric), masonry vs. metal, a simple rating framework for public saunas—and Sam’s...
Episode #60
Episode 060 - Eero and Risto brainstorm about the NASS ambassador program and how to categorize different saunas in North America.If you have ideas, please leave them in the comments!
Recent guests on The Upper Bench. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
Head of Trustee Services, Sauna Digest
Sauna Bath Company
Luumu - Finnish Living
PitchCentric classifies The Upper Bench under these industries. Guests from them are the closest fit, and each links to the best podcasts in that industry.
Shows with the most semantically similar episode content. Pitch one, pitch all; producers cluster.
The Sauna Trail
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Sauna Talk
Steam `n Soul - Sweat. Talk. Connect.
The Immerse Podcast
Sauna Twins Podcast by Finnmark Sauna
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