🔥😅 It’s time to take your clothes off

🎶 Get pumped for 10 hours of music at City Hall Plaza. The Mojo Boston Music Festival is taking over on May 9 with AC Slater, Discip, The Bends, The Gringos, and other local artists. Expect live art, food trucks, a vendor village, and a full bar. B-Side Members get $10 off tickets.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

A gaggle of finance bros, two grad students, and a journalist (me) walk into a sauna.

No, this isn’t the start of an HR complaint. It was my Saturday at Moki Sauna in Southie, where several half-naked strangers and I squeezed into a 170-degree room, followed by a shocking cold plunge. And this scene? It’s happening all around Boston.

Here’s what to know:

🔥 Saunas are moving from “me time” to “us time.” Americans have typically treated saunas like a bonus feature at gyms or hotels, usually enjoyed solo. “It’s something you just happen to do after your workout,” said Peter Russell, founder of Timbre Thermal Retreat in Revere. But local businesses like Moki and Timbre are flipping the script and making sauna time a social ritual.

🧖 In this universe you don’t meet for drinks, you meet for sauna. “Ten years ago, people thought this was ‘very LA,’” said Remedy Place CEO and founder Jonathan Leary. Sauna sessions are a group affair at the social wellness club in the Seaport. “Today, it’s part of a much larger global cultural shift. People need connection, they just want it in ways that support their health instead of compromising it.” Leary said more guests come in with a plus one than solo. They’ve also seen an uptick in group bookings, from birthdays to bach parties.

💪 Our arrival to the sauna party is part of a perfect cultural storm: A bump in health consciousness post-COVID, younger generations spending more on wellness, and a noticeable pullback from drinking. And until recently, many third spaces didn’t make money unless you left with a hangover, Russell said. 

👀 Don’t get it twisted, communal saunas aren’t new here. Look north to Chelsea and you’ll find Dillons, the oldest-operating steam bath in the country. Look south to Pembroke and you’ll find Uljas Koitto Temperance Society, home to a 100-year-old, volunteer-run, Finnish sauna. Venues like Moki, Timbre, and Remedy Place offer a certain kind of “cool” factor that’s helped launch saunaing into Boston’s mainstream.

♥️ But strip away the “cool factor” and “vibes,” what’s left is … “you’re doing this really hard thing, maybe with strangers, maybe with friends, and there’s something human about that,” said Paige Swanson, founder of Bathers, a soon-to-be bathhouse in Somerville. After all, sitting in a hundred-something-degree room isn’t exactly easy. “A sauna is like the great equalizer,” noted Mark Peloquin, Moki’s founder. “And I think that’s very refreshing for people to be in a space where you’re not being judged, and you are on the same level playing field of everyone else.”

🎭📸 Pop stars aren’t the only ones experimenting with alter egos. Persona: Photography and the Re-Imagined Self shows how artists have been re-inventing themselves for decades, with 80+ works that blur reality, performance, and self-image in the best way. It’s on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for just four more weeks, alongside Picturing Isabella (TLDR: how Isabella Stewart Gardner cultivated her own public persona). Go on a Thursday and stay until 9, or pull up on Saturdays from 1–4 p.m. to make your own cyanotype persona art. Advanced reservations are recommended.

🚋 The Green Line is getting a glow-up. NBC10 shared an early look at the MBTA’s incoming Type 10 Green Line trains, which are being built in New York right now. They’re basically made for the “why is it so packed?” era: bigger cars, more modern tech, and improved accessibility. Even the driver gets a fancy new cab — with a door! The first four pilot trains hit the tracks later this year, with passenger service expected to launch in early 2027. 

🕷️ PSA: Tick-borne illnesses are the stuff of nightmares. Early-season ticks are often in the nymph stage, meaning they’re tiny (aka easy to miss), and most tick-borne illnesses tend to spike in summer. Lyme is still the big one, but officials also have an eye on the mysterious alpha-gal syndrome, which causes a severe reaction to red meat. If you’re going out, protect yourself with repellent, long sleeves, pants, and socks, and always do a tick check. And if you feel weird after eating a burger, talk with a doctor stat.

📜 The BPL is bringing “live updates” from 1776. The BPL’s Copley branch is opening “Declarations: Printing a New Nation,” which features eight rare printings of the Declaration displayed together for the first time in a public show. The whole point: The Declaration wasn’t always a sacred artifact — it started as fresh, chaotic breaking news, spreading through early American print culture. The exhibition is meant to prompt perspective and appreciation as the nation celebrates its 250th. Call us biased, but this one’s def worth a look. 

🎬 Matt Damon is basically SNL royalty at this point. Cambridge’s very own Matt Damon is hosting “Saturday Night Live” on May 9 for the third time. And even when he isn’t the official host, he still pops up in iconic cameos (e.g.: his Kavanaugh cold open lives rent-free). Annnnd … the episode’s musical guest is Noah Kahan, who’ll be fresh off the release of his new album, “The Great Divide.” He already boasted about it on IG. <3

🧼 Get sudsy with spring scents. The Great American Beer Hall in Medford is hosting a spring soap-making workshop on April 13. You'll craft handmade goat's milk soaps with spring-inspired scents like lavender, lemon, and eucalyptus. 

📚 Relive the book fair glory days. Porter Square Books is bringing their Grown Up Book Fair to Aeronaut Brewing on April 11. Browse staff favorites, bestsellers, and those gift-y items that made school book fairs legendary. 

🪴 Swap plants, skip the price tag. Bring propagations or seedlings to Lamplighter Brewing's Earth Day Plant Swap on April 11 at their Broadway location in Cambridge. Trade with other plant people in good condition (no pests allowed!). 

👗 Shop your neighbors’ closets. Style Exchange is bringing its neighborhood thrift pop-up to The Great American Beer Hall on Saturday, April 11. Consign your own clothes (they provide the racks) or just browse what locals are selling. 

💃 Last indoor dance party before summer. Three DJs will keep you dancing until close at LoveStrukk 2026 on April 11 at Marsh Post in Cambridge. Wear colorful beads to signal your vibe: black means "just here to dance." Tickets are $17-$25. 

✨ Tassels, brunch, and a show. Burlesque Brunch returns to The Burren in Davis Square on Sunday, April 12, with tickets priced at $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Enjoy New England's best burlesque performers as they showcase classic routines while you enjoy brunch and drinks. 

🖼️ Take your time at the museum. Admission is free at The Boston Athenaeum’s Slow Art Day on Saturday. Drop in to explore on your own, or register for guided sessions where you'll spend 10 minutes looking closely at art, then discuss with a docent.

⚔️ Medieval mayhem at the Speedway. The Riverside Revelry Renfaire is taking over Charles River Speedway on April 11 and 12. Expect knight fights, circus acts, 90+ vendors, and food and beer from local spots. Costumes and cosplay encouraged.

A cabin door BLEW OPEN on a plane leaving Nantucket this week … and somehow, that’s not even the wildest part.

It’s as spooky as it sounds: A cabin door on a Cape Air flight departing Nantucket opened shortly after takeoff, prompting the crew to turn back. Thankfully, everyone was perfectly fine … almost too fine. 

Because when we saw this video, we expected panic. Chaos. At least one scream. But instead, everyone was … kinda chill?

One woman flashed a smile while snapping a pic. Other passengers kept looking forward. The pilot glanced back at the videographer and smirked. Hello?! THE DOOR?!

The aircraft has since been taken out of service for evaluation. Good. But maybe run a quick check on everyone onboard, too. That level of calm feels medically unprecedented.

— Written by Emily Schario, Kaitlyn Johnston, and Claire Nicholas

😅 Thanks for reading! We want whatever they took before this flight.

💜 Special shoutout to today's sponsor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for supporting local journalism and bringing culturally rich experiences to our city. 

🏢 The results are in: 50% of B-Siders are apartment dwellers pretends to be shocked. One gloated, “Who shoveled snow this winter … not me!! My apartment is worth every penny!!” I know that’s right!

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