About
The Soak is a podcast about how we get clean. It is equal parts anthropological investigation, travelogue, and excuse for us to experience other cultures through one of humanity’s most mundane rituals: the bath
Throughout history, bathing has taken on many guises: a chore, a refuge, a necessity, a social contract. In the USA, our days often start with ducking beneath a showerhead, an unremarkable habit, except when we pause to think about the centuries of technology, science, and superstition that led us to this particular moment where indoor plumbing, Axe body wash, and personal privacy converge. Bathing is much more than lather, rinse, repeat. It reflects our circumstances, priorities, fears, and fantasies. It is at once private and communal, ancient and cutting-edge.
On each episode of The Soak, we explore the many ways and reasons people wash, groom, purge, and cleanse themselves, others, and their world. We not only document these often-unseen moments, but also reflect on what these routines might reveal about the people who perform them.
The Soak is the chance for you, dear bathers, to discover and marinate on the most obscure and opulent bathing insights from across time and space.
Alana M Miller
Alana has been connecting curious people with interesting information in libraries, museums and archives for over a decade. She has been taking baths her whole life. more
Amiee Flynn-Curran
Amiee is working on her PhD in Anthropology at the National University of Ireland. She can be found teaching Material Culture when she’s not in the field, in the bath, or recording. more
Theme and interstitial music created by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Website designed by Ronan Flynn-Curran.
Logo designed by Enrique Barrios.