Sauna Talk: Bruce Oreck, former US Ambassador to Finland

Today on Sauna Talk, please welcome Bruce Oreck, who joins us from his off grid home in Baja Mexico. During this episode, we talk about sauna, Finnish sauna. We learn from his experiences being hosted and welcomed by Finns all over the country. As US Ambassador to Finland during the Obama administration, he served for a long period, from 2009 – 2015. He says with a wink that this long post “was made possible because when they called from Washington looking for me, I told my secretary to tell them that I was out of my office.”

While in Finland, Bruce became enamored with all things sauna, and especially the smoke sauna (savusauna). The smoke sauna is the traditional, revered style of sauna going back centuries. In a smoke sauna, the fire is open inside the sauna building, heating rocks directly for hours.

Let’s hear from Bruce as we share his love for Finland and good sauna.

This is such a great episode!

Bruce is very well spoken, as you can imagine. He lets us in behind the curtain as to what US ambassadorship is all about. He shares from an American perspective what it’s like to live in Finland.

I have lost count with the number of people who have gotten into sauna, really good authentic sauna, from their time in Finland.