The Authors Panel at Sauna Days 2025 | Garrett Conover, Jesse Coomer, Harvey Martin | Sauna Talk 133
In Episode 133 of Sauna Talk, I host a special live authors panel recorded at Sauna Days 2025 featuring Garrett Conover, Jesse Coomer, Harvey Martin, and myself — four writers and educators brought together through a shared passion for sauna, breathwork, cold exposure, wellness, and the deeper search for meaning through lived experience.
Here we have a deeply human conversation about writing, obsession, teaching, intuition, and the challenge of communicating experiences that often transcend words.
Our panel the process of writing books rooted in personal transformation and practical wisdom. I discuss the release of my book: Sauna Build Start to Finish, Garrett reflects on the creation of Sauna Magic, Jesse shares insights from his work on breathwork and cold exposure, and Harvey dives into the evolution from protocol-driven performance science toward a more intuitive understanding of awareness, emotion, and self.
Throughout the discussion, we wrestle with some of the biggest questions facing wellness culture today:
- How do we balance science with intuition?
- Can information alone truly change behavior?
- Why are heat, cold, breath, and nature so transformative?
- What happens when wellness becomes overly prescriptive?
- How do authentic experiences differ from optimization culture?
- Why are so many people searching for meaning, connection, and regulation in an increasingly disconnected world?
The conversation moves fluidly between sauna culture, cold plunging, breathwork, coaching, athletics, creativity, nervous system regulation, and the deeply personal journey of becoming an author. The panel also explores how writing itself changes the writer — and how books become snapshots of who we were at a particular stage of life.
Harvey Martin offers particularly compelling insight into the role of breathwork, heat, and cold exposure in modern athletic performance and mental health, describing breath as the foundation beneath all other modalities. He discusses the growing disconnect between modern lifestyles and natural human rhythms, and how practices like sauna and cold immersion can help people reconnect with themselves physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually.
Garrett Conover shares the origin story behind Sauna Magic, including his desire to document authentic sauna culture through real people and lived experiences rather than staged wellness imagery. His reflections on the “voice” and spirit of sauna become one of the emotional anchors of the conversation.
Meanwhile, Jesse Coomer brings a grounded perspective on the role of science, cautioning against exaggerated wellness claims while emphasizing the profound psychological benefits of practices that intentionally expose people to stress in controlled ways.
What makes this episode unique is its vulnerability and openness. Rather than presenting ourselves as gurus, the panelists speak candidly about uncertainty, evolution, mistakes, growth, and the lifelong process of learning through direct experience.
At its core, this conversation is about reconnecting with something modern life often suppresses: intuition, presence, awareness, and authentic human connection.
Guests featured in this episode:
- Glenn Auerbach — Sauna Build Start to Finish
- Garrett Conover — Sauna Magic
- Jesse Coomer — breathwork and cold exposure author & educator
- Harvey Martin — Breathe, Focus, Excel and Without Words
Recorded live at Sauna Days 2025.