Medium Rare

Medium Rare

Mateo Osorio

Jul 21, 2026

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It’s been hard to publish to this blog to since I started it years ago. The more time has passed since the last post, the more it feels like the upcoming post I’m writing has to be grand, has to be the lava of a volcano that’s been slowly growing and developing power since it last erupted into the world. If it’s been months since Mateo published anything, surely it’s because he’s been writing thousands of words, revising them, editing them, making them perfect.

Now it’s even bigger. My last post was about the most memorable day of my life. It still is. The day the volcano of life erupted.

It’s hard to describe how much has happened to me, what I’ve been through, what I’ve learned and how it’s been.

And many of you are incredibly curious about how I am, what I have, what the surgery was like, how it looks for me, what to expect from the cards that were dealt to me in this world. I’ve been struggling to think about how to address this, and how to use this same platform where I’ve opened myself and shared with the world.

It’s been 6 months, what do I have to say??

Many things. Perhaps too many. Too hard for me to live up and follow this post.

So for now, let’s ignore it.

And instead I will explain the history of saunas and why they’re the coolest thing ever.

Löyly sauna in Helsinki, Finland. My class went as part of my urban design semester in Copenhagen.

Steam baths were first invented in about 4,000 B.C in Greenland/Newfoundland. We’ve found big stone ruins that are quite similar to modern sauna layout, with scorched stones and water pools. Some used them to get clean, some for practicality, some used them because they became an important part of culture or religion. They became so popular that multiple civilizations adopted them around the world, especially in the last few hundred years.

Turkish Hammams, Swedish Baths, Native American Sweat Lodges, and many more versions of heat rooms have played a big role in people’s lives.

Perhaps the most epic ones were the Roman Thermae - the huge bathhouse complexes. They had pools, exercise courtyards, cold plunges, markets, and important business and politics were discussed with all the senators naked and sweating next to each other.

Maybe the United Nations should try it out.

My mom and I went to Troia, an ancient Roman empire town in a small peninsula near Lisbon, Portugal. One of the civilization’s largest fish drying and salting facility. They had a large bath house connected to the main factory, where it’s likely the owner and merchant did his negotiating when other merchants showed up to get some fish.

To maintain your body temperature, your body works hard. Heart rate and blood circulation go high because blood vessels get much wider - exercising your cardiovascular system.

The blood flow in your brain (plus the slowed down breathing, and mental+psychological process) keeps the cortisol level down and dopamine high.

High heat and humidity air opens up your respiratory system, clearing out your sinus and improving your breathing.

There are many doctors (and MANY wannabe doctors) that say saunas have significant clinical benefits. Even more doctors don’t agree that they are clinically relevant at all.

I’m not sure

but how beneficial it is, but afterwards they makes me think that saunas are doing something special for me.

I’ve become increasingly obsessed with saunas. For years I’d go once in a while, but only for a few minutes. When in Cape Town earlier this year, Tomas got us to go to the sea-side sauna the night we got back from Afrikaburn (African Burning Man). A great chill way to relax after the big adventure, and prep us for a much-needed 12 hour sleep.

It was not chill. It was a

guided

sauna. Which means that all 15 of us go in at the same time, with a sauna master, a rugby-player sized machine with a funny sauna hat. The sauna master guides our breathing, explains how our feelings are evolving, how to accept it. He plays increasingly energized music.

Master is also in charge of löyly - making steam by pouring water on the scorching hot stones. He uses rhythmic, sweeping towel movements to waft the steam over the room and directly onto our faces, making it feel like we’ve taken a step into Hades’ inferno.

The master tells us when to exit the sauna. Not like previous saunas I’ve been to, where participants leave whenever their body is completely overheating. Here, the 12 of us sit there, melting, burning, incinerating, covering our eyes and ears because the air is made of fire, until the sauna master releases us from the hottest sauna I’ve ever been in. We’d step outside being medium-rare and go straight to the ice baths, where he times us for (at least) two minutes. And again, and again.

The sauna master’s words actually resonated with me. It made me think of my body. Of what I have. What I’ve been given, and what I’ve created from it. What’s left and what’s missing.

In that dark dark sauna, with great music and my eyes closed, I felt grateful. That I am healthy enough to fly to South Africa. To read. To have deep conversations with Tomas at 4am in the middle of the desert. To be able to sit in a sauna for way longer than I thought anyone could survive, and feel my body and consciousness completely connected.

Before surgery you’ll never know whether you’ll recover and be normal again. Whether there’s a long list of things may never have a chance to do.

I didn’t share it with Tomas, but I cried at one point in the sauna. Because I felt lucky. Even though I was medium rare.

I’m back.

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