Accessible Yoga Podcast

In this episode, Michelle joins Tristan Katz as Tristan begins a summer podcast takeover for Anjali Rao!

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner. She has led dismantling racism work in many settings for over two decades and has a background and two decades of practice as a clinical social worker. Michelle’s work centers on healing from individual and collective trauma, coming back into wholeness, and aligning the mind, body, spirit, and heart. 

This conversation explores many themes relating to Michelle’s books, including:

Be sure to check out Michelle’s most recent book, We Heal Together: Rituals & Practices for Building Community & Connection, and pre-order her upcoming book, A Space for Us: A Guide for Leading Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Affinity Groups!

You can connect with Michelle through her website and Instagram—she has lots of amazing upcoming events and offerings so be sure to check those out and support her work.

For those new to Tristan, you can learn more about them on their website and you’ll find them on Instagram as well.

Free Resources for Teachers

We are grateful for the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. They also offer FREE resources and webinars for yoga teachers — check it out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga.

As she transitions into a brief summer hiatus, in this episode Anjali:

Want to share feedback or suggestions?

We'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts here.

If you're offering praise, let us know if we can use your comment as a testimonial in our public-facing communications and include your name and pronouns. 

A huge thank you to the support of our podcast partner OfferingTree — an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out at www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount and access FREE webinars today!

Saira Rao is an activist, producer of the provocative documentary, Deconstructing Karen, co- author of White Women: Everything You Already Know about Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, and host of radically honest conversations at Race2Dinner. Since our last conversation on this podcast, Saira has embarked on a new movement effort, called Here 4 the Kids, to push “unexplored and unprecedented action to end gun violence”.

During this conversation, Saira and Anjali discuss:

• Saira and Regina’s experiences of hosting sold-out events all over the country at Race2 Dinner conversations

• Gun violence is the number one cause of deaths for children in the United States. How we move past the political gridlock

• How dominant culture is complicit in suppressing efforts to end gun violence

• What Here 4 the Kids is

• How listeners who want to be a part of this movement can join in

• Join the Denver June 5th Here 4 the Kids sit-in! It's history in the making!

Check out https://here4thekids.com/ and follow them on Instagram to learn more about how you can get involved with Here 4 the Kids today! You can follow Saira on Instagram and keep up with everything she’s up to here. Thank you, Saira, for this incredible and timely conversation!

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

This conversation with Dr. Sravana Borkataky Varma demystifies Tantra. Sravana is a historian, educator and social entrepreneur, currently working as a Lecturer at Harvard University and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she teaches introductory courses on World Religion and higher level courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religion and Film and the History of Yoga. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit, Lumen Tree Portal. Sravana invests in building communities with individuals from various faith backgrounds who believe in kindness, compassion and fulfillment.

In this conversation Anjali and Dr. Sravana Borkataky Varma discuss:

You can find Dr. Sravana Borkataky Varma on Instagram, sign up for her newsletter to stay updated on everything she’s up to in the world, and check out her website. 

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

The Dalai Lama is a symbol of hope and peace for millions of people all over the world, and has given the world much, so generously for decades. The world saw an edited clip of the Dalai Lama and a child that went viral a few weeks ago. Many non-Tibetans were numb, outraged, shocked and dismayed at an interaction that brought up much discomfort based on personal and collective history of harm and abuse by religious leaders and Yoga teachers who have misused and abused their power.

Since then, Tibetan leaders, activists and practitioners, and people from the community have spoken up about how this has been misinterpreted. An expression of affection, a phrase often used by Tibetan elders misconstrued. This conversation unpacks all this with Chemi Lhamo, a repeat guest on the podcast. Chemi is a community leader and human rights activist, often called to speak about Tibet on global platforms.

During this conversation, Chemi and Anjali discuss:

• The impact of the video and how the ensuing backlash felt in the Tibetan community

• The intergenerational trauma of displacement and erasure from the Dominant cultural narratives

• How Tibetans in Tibet are responding to this situation Differences in cultural norms of affection and expression; the harm of ethnocentrism

• Reflections on how non-Tibetans can show solidarity with the Tibetans right now

• What we can learn from this and how we can move forward

• How we can practice discernment at a time like this

• How we can anchor ourselves into the teachings

• How we can be in solidarity with the Tibetan people

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

Born and raised in rural India, Prachi Patankar was raised by a freedom-fighter grandmother and parents deeply involved in anti-caste, feminist, and peasant movements. Over two decades in New York City, she has been an activist, educator, grantmaker, and writer involved in social movements which link the local and the global, police brutality and war, migration and militarization, race and caste, women of color feminism and global gender justice. Through her work, Prachi has been involved in innovative projects to link social justice movements between the United States and the Global South.

In this episode, Anjali and Prachi discuss:

• Prachi’s background growing up in rural India and how that informs her work and life now

• How caste system as the oldest system of social stratification and the most insidious has been institutionalized

• The manifestation of caste in the diaspora

• The inroads of caste abolitionists into some institutions

• Ways in which we can be allies and in solidarity with the movement

• Prachi’s thoughts regarding the intersection of caste and Yoga

• Prachi’s non-negotiables of self care

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

rüdrāksh chand is an organizer, anti-carceral practitioner of abolition, lifelong student of Yoga, an artist at large.

Tristan Katz is a trans-queer equity inclusion facilitator and consultant/teacher/space holder, and creator of courses on Conscious Marketing. They are also on the Board of Accessible Yoga and are working on their first book!

In this episode Anjali, rüdrāksh, and Tristan discuss:

• rüdrāksh and Tristan’s introductions into the teachings and practice of Yoga

• The ways in which the Dominant culture manifests in Yoga spaces, especially for gender non-conforming practitioners.

• Holding the tension between the performativity and the necessity of TDOV and other days/ months of celebration

• Commodification of yoga and social justice programs 

•Allyship is a verb as you say, in the context of the attack on trans rights, ways  to be in solidarity with the trans community

• Mutual aid as an ongoing practice of solidarity

Indu Arora is a Yoga and Ayurveda teacher, mentor, and author, based out of the USA. She considers herself a student for a lifetime. Indu has been sharing about Yoga philosophy, Yoga Therapy, and Ayurveda for the last two decades across more than 50 cities worldwide. Her unique gift is making Yoga and Ayurveda a practice, which is equally useful and accessible for a beginner as for a sincere seeker who has made Yoga a lifelong journey. She is inspired by and taught under Kriya Yoga, Himalayan Yoga and Kashmir Shaivism Yoga lineages. She has studied in a traditional Guru-Shishya parampara. 

Her teaching style is rooted in empowering and inspiring students to awaken the inner Guru through insight, discernment and self-inquiry. Her core philosophy is ‘Yoga is a Work-in and not a Work-out’. 

She is the author of Mudra: The Sacred Secret (2015), Yoga: Ancient Heritage, Tomorrow’s Vision (2019), and SOMA: 100 Heritage Recipes for Self-Care (e-book, 2020; updated hard copy, 2022).

In this episode, Anjali and Indu discuss:

Resources:

The Mudras discussed in the episode are:

You can connect with Indu on Instagram, Facebook, and her website! 

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

Residing at the intersection of leadership and mindfulness, Shawn creates sacred spaces for stillness and self-inquiry to help changemakers align their strengths, intention, and impact. Reckoning with his own contemplation of burnout, purpose, and alignment from a career in higher education and student affairs for over 10 years, Shawn transitioned out of his role as Associate Dean of Student Life & Leadership at Morehouse College in the fall of 2021 to focus more on mindfulness and stillness-based training programs and workshops.

He is a Buddhist Dharma practitioner, whose impact filters through the practices of meditation, sound healing, yoga nidra, restorative yoga (E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP®), and Gallup-Certified Strengths coaching, with a blend of over 18 years of personal practice and trainings. In addition to holding community space through classes, he provides training in leadership and strengths-based development, and workshops in mindfulness, meditation and sound healing. He has contributed workshops, practices, and educational opportunities for celebrities like Questlove, and various yoga studios and colleges, Yoga International, Embodied Philosophy, Sounds True One, the Human Rights Campaign, Spotify and Lululemon. He currently serves as the Community Engagement Specialist for Muse®, the neuro-technology, brain health, and meditation company.

While being a proud dog dad, a hardcore gamer, and lover of all things anime, Shawn also hosts a podcast called The Mindful Rebel® Podcast that creates a platform to continually explore this unique intersection of leadership and mindfulness.

In this episode, Anjali and Shawn discuss:

• Shawn’s personal journey into Yoga and other mind-body-spiritual transformative practices: From academia to a spaceholder of folks in the justice movement

• Finding the connective tissue between academia and Buddhist teachings

• Liminality liberatory movements: the need to consciously acknowledge and cultivate spaces

• Reimagining “ not knowing”

• How systems and institutions of Dominant Culture work against the slowing down

• Non-negotiable rituals and processes to cultivate capacity

• How we can cultivate spaces that allow for mindful processing/metabolizing change

You can connect with Shawn on Instagram at @shawnj_moore and by signing up for his newsletter where he periodically drops new practices for his community.

A huge thank you to the support of our partner OfferingTree - an all-in-one, easy to use business platform for classes, courses, memberships and more. Check them out www.offeringtree.com/accessibleyoga to get a discount today!

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!