Ash Williams is an anti-carceral and reproductive justice organizer. He received his BA in Philosophy from UNC Charlotte in 2015 and his MA in Ethics and Applied Philosophy from UNC Charlotte in 2016. For the last five years, Ash has been vigorously fighting to expand abortion access by funding abortions and training other people to become abortion doulas.

In this episode, Ash and Anjali discuss:

• How Black queer and trans folks have been and are at the frontlines of justice and liberatory movements

• Abortion and the medical industrial complex

• Decolonizing birth and learning from reproductive justice history

• How we can refuse binaries

• How each of us can disrupt and heal from carceral logic and lean into Abolition

• Building solidarity across movements: How can we show up as allies?

Connect with Ash on Instagram @ashwilliamclt

CALLS TO ACTION:
• Donate to your local abortion fund.
• Seek out your local abortion doula collective to find out how you can support them.

Also, thank you to the support of our partner Offering Tree! Check them out offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

Chemi Lhamo is a community organizer and a human rights activist. She served as the Community Health Lead at Parkdale People’s Economy and on the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust’s board. She is recognized in Maclean’s Top 50 Power List and as the Toronto Urban Hero for Social Issues for 2022. Formerly the CEO/President among many other roles at the University of Toronto Scarborough Student’s Union, she has served the board of Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario and Students For a Free Tibet Canada.

In this episode, Anjali and Chemi discuss:

Connect with Chemi on Instagram @chemilhamoooo 

Call to action: Sign the petition (here) for Thermo Fisher CEO Marc Casper to stop collecting of DNA from Tibetans.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit Civil rights artist, organizer, and theorist who has worked with hundreds of organizations to better understand the urgent issues of racial, caste, and gender equity. Working across disciplines she is an innovative strategist and thinker that has built bridges between many communities around the world.

Through her work at Equality Labs, Thenmozhi has mobilized the South Asian American community to confront their historical trauma and to break the silence about caste, and to commit to ending caste apartheid, gender-based violence, white supremacy, and religious intolerance. Thenmozhi previously co-founded Third World Majority, an international media training organization and collective that supported people from disenfranchised

Her intersectional, cross-pollinating work—research, education, art, activism, and digital security—helps to create a more generous, global, expansive, and inclusive definition of South Asian identity, along with safe spaces from which to honor the stories of these communities. Thenmozhi’s work has been recognized by the U.S. Congress, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Producers Guild of America Diversity Program, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Sorbonne, Source Magazine, Utne Reader, The National Center for the Humanities, The National Science Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She is a frequent contributor on issues related to South Asia, caste, gender, and racial Equity, as well interfaith issues and peacebuilding, and has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Guardian, ABC, and NBC news.  She was also an inaugural fellow of the Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist,  Atlantic Foundation for Racial Equity, and is a current fellow at Stanford Center for South Asian Studies. 

In this episode, Anjali and Thenmozhi discuss:

You can connect with Thenmozhi on her website and on Instagram @dalitdiva.

We're so grateful for our sponsor, OfferingTree – an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more.

Coming Soon: The Love of Yoga Podcast

Take a listen to this excerpt from Anjali's interview with Thenmozhi Soundararajan, author of The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition.

The full episode will be released January 6, 2023. Subscribed to be notified when the first episode drops!

In this final episode of the Accessible Yoga Podcast, Anjali and Jivana discuss: 

What does it mean to make yoga accessible?

The danger of oversimplifying a yoga practice

The importance of reflecting on who we see as “experts” in yoga

How caste still influences yoga today 

 The nuances of saying “I’m not the teacher for everyone”

Accessible Yoga Association’s newest podcast - For the Love of Yoga with Anjali Rao

Saira (NOT Sara) Rao grew up in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Indian immigrants. For forty years, she wasted her precious time aspiring to be white and accepted by dominant white society, a futile task for anyone not born with white skin. Several years ago, Saira began the painful process of dismantling her own internalized oppression. Saira is a lawyer-by-training, a former congressional candidate, a published novelist and an entrepreneur. Saira is the co-founder of Race2Dinner, the New York Bestselling Co-Author of White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How To Do Better and the subject and Executive Producer of the documentary Deconstructing Karen.

In this episode, Anjali and Saira discuss:

Connect with Saira on Twitter or on Instagram @race2dinner @sairasameerarao 

Purchase Saira's book: White Women Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better

Watch Saira's documentary: Deconstructing Karen

Teo Drake is an organizer, a teacher, and an artisan who works in wood and steel.

As a queer and trans long-term HIV/AIDS survivor, the practices and philosophies of yoga and Buddhism have been both life-saving and provided the foundation for his organizing and teaching.

He is a co-founder of the Transforming Hearts Collective, a collective dedicated to the spiritual care and liberation of queer and trans people, and has served in leadership in several different organizations in the worlds of HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ advocacy, faith and spirituality, well-being, and anti-oppression, including being a founding member of the Transgender Law Center’s project Positively Trans and serving on the faculty and board of Off the Mat, Into the World.

His writing can be found in the anthology Yoga and Body Image and at the blog Roots Grow the Tree, and his artisan crafts can be found at The Tinkering Gnome

Connect with Teo: www.transformingheartscollective.org | @TeoDrake

This week's episode is a recording of Teo Drake's keynote at the Accessible Yoga Conference Online: Practice Isn’t Meant to “Fix”, It’s Meant to Heal. 

Tejal Patel is a first-generation Indian American yoga teacher, writer, podcaster, and community organizer.

She advocates for yoga through a social justice lens and educates and empowers individuals and groups around the world to do the same.

She accomplishes this with the Tejal Yoga online studio, the abcdyogi global community, and the Yoga is Dead Podcast.

In this live episode, Jivana and Tejal discuss:

Connect with Tejal: @tejalyoga

Enjoy one free class at Tejal Yoga, now through Dec 31, 2022 Use code: 100PP-AYCTY at tejalyoga.com

Tejal Yoga offers accessible movement and continuing education in a warm online environment. Our knowledgeable South Asian instructors are committed to the authentic and spiritual practice of yoga. Join us for any of these community-focused practices: Meditation: All Beings, Meditation: BIPOC Centered Pranayama & Breath Control Pranayama & Breath Slow Poses & Philosophy, Meditation: On Philosophy, Meditation & Sun Salutations, Restorative Poses & Poetry Readings, Science & Spirituality Satsang, Go Beyond The Asanas

Learn more at tejalyoga.com

Anusha is the Wellness Consultant for Hoag Hospital, one of the top rated hospitals in the USA where she leads on integrative medicine and implementing mindfulness and meditation practices for maternal mental health programs, early risk assessment for breast & ovarian cancer prevention programs and breast cancer survivorship programs. Anusha is very passionate about her work in STEM and is one of the first people to create a meditation program to be used in clinical research at Hoag Hospital. Anusha is a sought after motivational speaker around the world on the science of mindfulness and meditation and the intersection of wellness and social justice. She has delivered keynotes for health and wellness conferences, Universities, Fortune 500 companies and corporate events across North America and the UK.

Anusha has over 15 years of international senior management experience working for Fortune 50, 100 and 500 global corporations, social justice non-profit organizations & private companies in three continents. She holds a BA, MA, Diploma in Mentoring, Certified Professional Life Coach qualification, Yoga Teacher E-RYT and is a Meditation Practitioner. Anusha is an Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University on the intersection of wellness and social justice, a Contributing Editor at Yoga Journal, the world’s largest Yoga magazine, a Faculty Member with Off The Mat and a community partner with the Yoga and Body Image Coalition. Anusha is also a Teacher and Presenter at Kripalu, North America’s largest Yoga Center and Retreat, Ambassador with Yoga International and an Ambassador with the Food + Wellness Equity Collective.

Women’s health and social justice is at the heart of all that Anusha is involved with. Anusha is on the Medical Advisory Board of the national non profit Living Beyond Breast Cancer and an Advisory Board Member with Yoga Ed, an organization focused on merging science and Yoga and introducing these practices to children and teens in educational settings around the world.

Anusha co-founded the movement Women of Color + Wellness @wocandwellness which is focused on decolonizing wellness and making yoga and wellness more equitable, accessible, and inclusive. Anusha’s first book Meditation with Intention: Quick & Easy Ways to Create Lasting Peace was released in January 2021 by Llewellyn Worldwide.

You can order your copy today HERE.

In this episode, Anjali and Anusha discuss:

The Accessible Yoga Podcast is back for Season 3 with a live podcast recording as a part of the grand opening of the new Accessible Yoga Community!

In this special episode, Jivana and Anjali discuss: