It's All Happening

I've had a few yoga teachers on the podcast but there was something about this conversation with maha yogi Steve Ross that really sparked my contemplation and imagination like I hadn't felt before. Sure Steve teaches "yoga" in the form of a pretty challenging asana class but he is really a portal into an entire world of knowledge, humor and very profound wisdom that come from his over 40 years of practice. We spent an hour talking about the differences between the western and eastern maps of consciousness, how to make sense of these confusing times, free will and the very essence of our place in the universe. Sounds pretty deep, right? It was. Steve is truly one of the great yogis practicing in the west today.

"Named "Guru of LA" by Vanity Fair, Steve Ross has practiced and taught various styles of yoga and meditation for over thirty years. Host of the wildly popular yoga show on the Oxygen network, Inhale, Steve is also the author of the best selling book Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There's Nothing to Worry About and founder and owner of one of LA's most popular yoga studios, Maha Yoga. His diverse and unique background as having been both a vedic monk and professional rock musician, brings an authenticity and fun filled atmosphere to his classes, meditations and workshops." For more on Steve click here

Human sexuality and the extremely fascinating yet complex rabbit hole that encompasses is one of the most fascinating topics to explore. My good friend Zoë Kors and I spent an hour barely scratching the surface of our cultures relationship to sex, our hang ups, the politics around it and most specifically women's issues and why they are so important. Zoë is an expert in helping women to get in touch with their core divinity that allows them to be the most potent manifestations of their incarnations. I really enjoyed this topic and wonder why I don't talk about it more on IAH, so I'll be sure to have Zoë back on. Enjoy.

Zoë Kors is committed to transforming the way we hold our sexuality—both individually and culturally—and to creating a compassionate, loving world through the cultivation of a sisterhood of wildly-expressed women.

Zoë is the former Senior Editor and Creative Director of LA Yoga Magazine and Origin Magazine. She is a frequent contributor to Elephant Journal, MindBodyGreen, and Aloha.com. Her article, "6 Ways to Have Radically Intimate Sex", quickly went viral and is currently at nearly 2 million views with 20,000 Facebook shares.

She is a certified Co-Active Coach with the prestigious Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, CA, and has a thriving private practice. Zoë's work reflects her extensive study of Tantra, Zen Buddhism, meditation, yoga, breathwork, and other Eastern disciplines, which she blends with more process-oriented modalities of Western psychotherapy and Co-Active Coaching.

www.zoekors.com

Live from the MIND/WAVE event in downtown Los Angeles comes this very special episode on the topic of "Spiritual Materialism." Myself, Daniele Bolelli, Cory Allen and Michael Philip sat atop gloriously high pulpits adorned with emeralds and holy water to instruct all of you on the virtues of sacred practice! Really, we sat on wooden chairs talking about the pitfalls of spiritual materialism and how western influences can make for strange bedfellows with eastern modalities. The other guys on the stage are wonderfully sharp and thoughtful and are all great podcast hosts in and of their own right. I highly recommend you check them all out. Also, I hope we get a chance to do more of these live events that get all of us in the same room. We only started to scratch the surface.

Daniele Bolelli's The Drunken Taoist can be heard here Michael Phillip's Third Eye Drops can be heard here Cory Allen's The Astral Hustle can be heard here

Chris Ryan returns to the podcast! It was so great to have him back and to dive into the mysteries of the human condition and why we do the things we do. Chris is one of the brightest minds around and together we dove into the potentials and optimism of the current state affairs, AI and social media. We of course, also talk about Chris's expertise as it relates to the hunter gatherer era and how it informs our current views on sex, gender roles and sexual identity. Also, read "Sex and Dawn" if you haven't already!

Christopher and his work have been featured just about everywhere, including: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Times of London, Playboy, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside,El Pais, La Vanguardia, Salon, Seed, and Big Think.

A featured speaker from TED in Long Beach, CA to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House to the Einstein Forum in Pottsdam, Germany, Chris has consulted at various hospitals in Spain, provided expert testimony in a Canadian constitutional hearing, and appeared in well over a dozen documentary films.

https://chrisryanphd.com

There are many great teachers and musicians who have come on the IAH podcast but I have to say that the magic, wisdom and love that Jai Uttal brought to the kitchen table was like nothing else. Jai effortlessly weaves together stories, knowledge and devotion into one voice like few others can do. We talked about his early days studying with Ali Akbar Khan, the landscape of spirituality and the 1960s, his passion for Indian classical music and kirtan and of course Neem Karoli Baba. Hearing Jai tell these stories had me forgetting that I was supposed to be on the other side of the table guiding the conversation. It was as if I was I was floating down the Ganga yearning for more of the unique musical magic that Jai creates. His new album "Roots, Rock, Rama!" is out now.

Jai Uttal has been rightly hailed as a world music pioneer. Singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he was among the first to hear the universal heartbeat in the variegated rhythms of the globe. But his powerful, plangent voice and panoramic musical vision have also long been at the core of the yoga community's tradition of call-and response devotional chanting known as kirtan. While his music is deeply rooted in Indian classical tradition—he studied long and hard under the Indian sarod master Ali Akbar Khan—it is also plentifully imbued with echoes of reggae, rock, folk, Brazilian music, Bollywood and other sounds from across the musical universe. All of these diverse and colorful strands are woven together beautifully on Roots, Rock, Rama!

www.jaiuttal.com

Why are relationships so hard? If you're anything like I am you've spent immeasurable time and effort clawing away at romantic relationships that just never seem to work out. For me personally, it's been by far the biggest supplier of grist for the mill. When the offer came across my desk to have Stan on the podcast I immediately jumped on it because I not only wanted to bring his wisdom to you but I also wanted to get into the deep end of my own issues. I got so much out of this one. We talked about the patterns within relationships, our nervous systems, gender roles and history, neurobiology and why that plays a role and techniques for dealing with conflict. Stan is smart, wise, very well educated and compassionate. Check out his site, books and this podcast!

Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT, is a clinician, researcher, teacher, and developer of A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy® (PACT). He has a clinical practice in Calabasas, CA, where he has specialized for the last 15 years in working with couples and individuals who wish to be in relationships. He and his wife, Tracey Boldemann-Tatkin, developed the PACT Institute for the purpose of training other psychotherapists to use this method in their clinical practice.

In addition, Dr. Tatkin teaches and supervises first- through third-year family medicine residents at Kaiser Permanente, Woodland Hills, CA, and is an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine. He is on the board of directors of Lifespan Learning Institute and serves as a core member on Relationships First, a nonprofit organization founded by Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt.

www.stantatkin.com

In so many ways todays comedians really are the philosophers of the day. The medium allows these great minds to tackle tricky, touchy and controversial subjects in a way that can't be done without humor to offset peoples preconceived notions or the dreaded political correctness. Adrienne Airhart is no exception to this art - she came by the kitchen table to talk about her life as a comedian, how psychedelics are influencing her work and how a difficult and traumatic early life led to a breakthrough in becoming an incredibly strong woman. I really enjoyed getting into her mind and thought waves, I hope you do too!

Intro Rant: Death. Yes, death.

Adrienne Airhart is a comedian, writer and "cannabis professional." My degree is in linguistics, with an emphasis on the history of the English language. By night I am a stand up comedian, a presence which bleeds into much of my creative writing, as humor is the tie that brings compassion and education into interesting text. My favorite topics involve cannabis and general "woke-ness", ranging from environmental issues, cultural divides, psychedelics, and learning how to survive a scary political climate.

@craydrienne

Kelly MacLean joins IAH this week on a thoughtfully inspiring and comedically enlightened episode of the podcast. Kelly is not only an observant and socially biting comedian but she also grew up a Buddhist and maintains a pretty serious practice well into her adult life. Through the premature death of her brother she learned to put life, the spirit world and all it's amazement into perspective like few can ever do in life. We talked about death, bardos, comedy and a lot more in this hour. Enjoy the show!

Intro Rant: going with in vs. the rise in consumer spending

Kelly MacLean is an American stand up comic, writer and actress. She is an alumnus of The Groundlings in Los Angeles and winner of Jimmy Kimmel Live's 'Funniest College Kid in America' contest.

@thekellymaclean

The Tao Of Comedy

This episode grew out of my desire to take a focussed look at race in America. Through all the chaos of the talking heads, Obamas mixed departure and Trump's inexplicable rise it felt like a good time to examine this crucial issue in a way that felt more human and community based. I turned to two of the wisest and most insightful men I know to help unpack the discussion into areas that are impossible to do on my own. Roland Poindexter and Tony Moss joined me Katonah Studios in Marina Del Rey for an hour "panel" like format of the podcast. So much can be said here but this interview reminded me more than ever that unless we're going to meet on the road of understanding, tolerance and love that we're going to stay mired in the weeds of insanity.

Intro Rant: a reading of a crucial Obama speech from 2008

Roland Poindexter is a creative executive with over 20 years experience in television programming. Over the course of his career he has produced over 1,000 hours of television and his shows have earned more than 30 Emmy Awards. Currently, Poindexter is Vice President, Television Development for 20th Century Fox Animation. In this position, he overseas the development & production of television series, specials and web based short form content based of animated theatrical franchises, including "Ice Age" & "Rio" and live action theatrical franchises like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." Previously Poindexter served as Senior Vice President, Current Series Animation for Nickelodeon, supervising annually over 200 hours of original production for the #1 kids cable network including such favorites as "SpongeBob SquarePants," DreamWorks Animation's "The Penguins of Madagascar" & "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness," and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

Tony Moss returns to IAH, from...

From Tonymoss.me

"I am a artist, recording artist, and event producer influenced by 20 years of entheogenic study. My work is a synthesis of my interests in art, spirituality, and science, with passionate emphasis & interest in the evolution of human consciousness and greater under-standing and reverance for nature.

I've been called a mystic and a rationalist.

I marvel at the very presence of our being. I see "God" in evolution. I see God in everything."

@iamlifeproject

We are all DEVO! This episode stops by the famous Mutato Studios on the Sunset Strip to sit down with the legendary Mark Mothersbaugh. For over an hour I took part in one of the most brilliant, though provoking, inspiring and wacky conversations that I've ever been a part of. First and foremost, I'm a fan of Mark's and of DEVO. They were one of the most influential bands of my youth through their ahead of their time use of multi media and music. Mark was so generous with his telling of the story behind the de-evolutionary roots of the band as well as his journey into being a soundtrack composer. Mark's view of how technology, media, culture and music fits into one cohesive narrative is unparalleled. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Mark Mothersbaugh is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, author and visual artist.

Mothersbaugh's music career spans more than 40 years. He came to prominence in the late 1970s as co-founder, lead singer and keyboardist of the new wave band Devo, which released a Top 20 hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It". The band has maintained a cult following throughout its existence. Mothersbaugh is one of the main composers of Devo's music and made major lyrical contributions to the band's songs. He is one of only two members (along with bass player Gerald Casale) who have been with Devo throughout its entire history.

In addition to his work with Devo, Mothersbaugh has made music for television series, films and video games via his production company, Mutato Muzika, most notably as the composer for the popular long-running animated series Rugrats for its entire 13-year run, as well as all three theatrical films. He also has had a solo career which has included four studio albums: Muzik for Insomniaks, Muzik for the Gallery, Joyeux Mutato and The Most Powerful Healing Muzik in the Entire World. In 2004, he was honored with the Richard Kirk award at the BMI Film and TV Awards for his significant contributions to film and television music. Additionally, Mothersbaugh was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Kent State University in 2008.