This episode, we ditch the man-made world and run for the hills for a dose of nature’s own medicine: forest bathing. We learn about the mental and physical benefits of engaging with the outdoors through the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku. We get pointers on how to talk to trees...more

Image source: Seaweed collected near Jersey, England, during the 1850s. From Collectors Weekly. Imagine you’re a human tofu cube marinating in a giant bowl of miso soup. Well, that briny, umami broth is pretty close to what it’s like to take a seaweed bath. This episode, we explore seaweed bathing,...more

Walk through the galleries of any great art museum and you’ll likely happen upon paintings of people (usually women) bathing. This trope has been ingrained in our visual vocabulary that it hardly merits a second glance. But why have artists been drawn to this subject, and how has it become...more

What do maroon pajamas, shaved ice, and mugwort have in common? They can all be found in a Korean spa! This episode, we make a bathing pilgrimage to Korea– well Los Angeles’ Koreatown, to take a grand tour of Korean spas. Also known as jjimjilbangs, Korean spas are a mainstay...more

Welcome to The Soak, stories about how we get clean! For our first episode, we explore the history of public pools as spaces of socialization and social change in the United States. We also visit the The Plunge in Richmond, CA, and talk about the grimier side of public swimming....more