Crush Keynote Speaker: Katja Pantzar, Journalist and Author

Katja Pantzar is a Helsinki-based writer, journalist, editor, speaker and moderator who grew up in Canada with stints in New Zealand and the UK. She is the author of The Finnish Way (Penguin Random House/2018), a bestselling non-fiction book about Nordic well-being, winter swimming, and sisu (resilience) that has been translated into 24 languages. Her follow-up book, Everyday Sisu (Penguin Random House/2022), explores through research-based knowledge how we can better take care of each other and our planet with sisu, that unique form of resilience and courage.

Her newest book,The Power of Hot and Cold: From Sauna to Sea (Hodder UK/2024), a unique collaboration with sauna expert Carita Harju, is the first international English-language title on Finnish contrast therapy – the age-old tradition of combining sauna with cold-water dipping – written from an inclusive perspective. Her newest mini-guidebook, Helsinki by Sauna (Siltala), will be published in spring 2025. 

Katja’s work has been featured in media ranging from Le Figaro, Le Monde, and El País, to Vogue US, the Washington Post, and the New York Review of Books.

Katja is currently writing her third sisu book, a cultural guide to Finland through its resilient women, past and present, who have shaped the Nordic nation, women’s rights, and the world.

Photo: Katja Tähjä