Expert Interview

Expert Interview: Emily Bent on What a Social Spa Owes the Privacy-Conscious

Today we're speaking with Emily Bent, Co-Founder at Othership, the top-rated social spa in North America, offering guided sauna and ice bath experiences designed to help people regulate their nervous system and connect with others. Othership runs four locations across Toronto and New York City, with sessions built on an alcohol-free, device-free format: phones stay in a locker, and every session runs on guided structure rather than open-ended, unmonitored downtime.

Bugged.com has spent more than three decades in technical surveillance countermeasures, sweeping boardrooms, offices, homes, and vehicles for hidden microphones, cameras, and wiretaps on behalf of executives, businesses, and government clients. A large share of our own clients have already put real time and money into knowing a space is actually clear before they speak freely in it, and that same instinct rarely switches off just because the subject changes from security to rest. We were eager to speak with Emily about how Othership builds a space that earns the same trust, why the physiology of contrast therapy backs up what people feel in the room, and what it means to offer real connection without asking anyone to be seen more than they want to be.

Question 1Bugged.com's clients spend real time and money making sure their conversations and spaces are private. Where does that same person go when they want to actually unwind, somewhere that respects the same instincts that make them careful everywhere else?

Emily: That's a gap we noticed early on. People who invest in physical privacy rarely have an equivalent practice for winding down; rest gets treated as an afterthought, something you handle by just switching off, which isn't how a vigilant mind works. Othership was built on a different premise: decompression deserves the same intentional design as security. Sessions are alcohol-free, and phones stay in a locker for the full 75 minutes, not as a rule imposed on people but as a structural choice that removes the reasons to stay guarded in the first place. As a social spa, we're not asking anyone to trust a vibe. We're removing the actual conditions, recording, impaired judgment, unplanned exposure, that make carefulness a reasonable default everywhere else, so the instinct to protect yourself can rest for an hour because nothing in the room requires it.

Question 2What's actually happening physiologically when someone moves between sauna heat and cold plunge, especially for someone whose day-to-day work keeps them in a heightened, alert state?

Emily: Heat and cold pull on opposite ends of the same system. In the sauna, heart rate rises and blood vessels dilate as the body works to cool itself, a mild, controlled form of cardiovascular stress. The cold plunge reverses that: vessels constrict, breathing sharpens, and the stress response fires briefly before settling. The sense of being alert and calm at once comes from that rebound; once you exit the cold, the nervous system's recovery side takes over more strongly than after either extreme alone. For someone whose job keeps them scanning for risk all day, that's a useful contrast, because it's practicing the transition itself, not just the relaxed state. Our saunas run 80 to 85 degrees Celsius with low humidity, and our ice baths sit between 0 and 4 degrees Celsius, structured around guided intervals rather than open-ended exposure. We keep the language evidence-informed rather than mystical: this is a physiological process with a known mechanism, not a belief system you have to buy into.

Question 3Our company exists because people want to know a space is actually clear of anything watching or recording. How does Othership build that same sense of a truly clear space, just for relaxation instead of security?

Emily: We think about it in similar terms to a sweep, minus the equipment. Every guest checks in, stores their belongings in a locker, and moves through the space without a phone in hand. There's no ambient recording culture here; the design assumes people want to be present without being documented. A trained guide leads each session, so the room has a defined structure rather than being open and unmonitored. That predictability is the point. Just as a swept room lets you speak freely because you've verified the conditions, a session at Othership lets you exhale because the format itself, no devices, no alcohol, a guide keeping time and tone, has already ruled out the usual reasons to stay on guard. We didn't build it as a security feature; we built it because people relax more completely when the space itself makes distraction and exposure structurally difficult, not just discouraged.

Question 4For someone who wants real connection without feeling exposed or performative, how is Othership's model different from a typical spa or wellness retreat?

Emily: Most traditional spas are built around solitude: a treatment room, alone, with a practitioner working on you. That's restorative, but it doesn't address the stress that comes from isolation. Othership works differently. Sessions happen in a shared sauna and cold plunge with a guide setting the pace, but nobody is required to perform sociability; you can sit quietly next to someone or talk with them, and both are normal. That's a deliberate departure from the retreat model, where connection often means structured icebreakers or forced vulnerability. My husband, Robbie, and I started this because we kept noticing people wanted company during recovery, not performance during it, and existing wellness spaces weren't built for that middle ground. As a social spa, we treat company as optional infrastructure: present if you want it, invisible if you don't. That's a meaningfully different promise than a typical spa, which asks you to either isolate completely or opt into curated social programming.

Question 5As more people, including our own clients, think carefully about privacy and where their attention goes, where do you see the demand for spaces like Othership heading?

Emily: We think this is a durable shift, not a trend cycle. People who've gotten deliberate about securing a conversation or a device tend to extend that same deliberateness to how they rest, who they let into a room, and what they let compete for their attention. That's less about wellness as a category and more about intentional living catching up with itself. We're expanding across North America because that instinct shows up consistently across cities, not just in one market. If that describes how you already think about your time and privacy, come experience what a social spa built around the same instincts feels like. No pressure, no pitch, just an hour that respects the guard you've already earned the right to put down.