Peter's Podcast

Peter's Podcast is like a pay-what-you-will yoga class. Please support it by dropping your donation at Patreon.com. Thanks!

In this episode, I speak with Serge Cashman, a former student of mine, now a teacher and owner of Unit 108 Yoga in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Serge started practicing yoga by accident, bartering photography for yoga classes with Sabine Heubusch, who introduced him to ISHTA Yoga.

He completed his 200hr training at Namaste Williamsburg with Debbie Desmond and later went on to the 500hr ISHTA training. He took restorative training with Mona Anand and Gina Menza, and Yin Yoga and Insight Meditation with Sarah Powers, as over time his interests shifted more towards a meditative practice. He is Reiki certified. He is grateful to Indra Devi and Paramahamsa Madhavadas for helping to keep yoga alive in the modern world.

Join me and Aino Siren in BALI! Details at siren-spirit.com

This meditation class starts with a talk about how our stuck emotions make it hard to meditate. We use a variety of methods to deal with our emotional reactions, but when we don't get to deal with them, they can come back to disturb us in a variety of ways. Today's meditation is a kriya yoga practice that helps us let go of emotions we're aware of and those we no longer even remember.

In this episode, I catch up with fellow ISHTA Yogiraj Tamara Graham in Perth, Australia. A  yoga lover since her teens, Tamara Graham started teaching Yoga in New York at her friends' request.  Soon after, she completed one of the first ISHTA Yoga Teacher Training programs, when it was Be Yoga. She had a complete a-ha experience with Al realizing that he was her teacher.

She returned to Perth Australia, as a single mother of 3, and started teaching there. From her first classes in an empty church hall, she’s grown Tamara Yoga to a thriving community of thousands, with 2 large studios, an internationally recognized school with hundreds of graduates from Tamara Yoga Teacher Training and Retreats in Margaret River, Bali and now with Mona Anand in India. Tamara is the representative for ISHTA Yoga in Australia. She was initiated Yogiraj, or Master, by Alan finger.  

She’s made Yoga DVDs, and regularly interviewed by newspaper, radio and wellness publications as a yoga authority. Tamara’s love of yoga and enthusiasm for teaching is infectious; — in her own words, Spreading peace, love and joy’s her  jam. You can sign up for her new project: Tamara's Talks on how to have a super wonderful day.

I had the great fun last month — on Alan Finger's birthday — of syncing up our opposite-side-of-the-globe schedules to hear about Tamara’s activities and plans.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Today's episode is the second in our California correspondence with Erika Pahk. Erika has graced me with her presence in classes training and retreats over the past handful of years. This summer, she’s working in L.A., where she’s agreed to check in as our summer west-coast correspondent. In our first installment, we got to hear a little about Erika’s new home. In this episode we get real about facing challenges, whether they're dramatic or conversely, there's nothing going on. And we talk about philosophy, as we always do.

Erika grew up in the wilds of Los Angeles and has been a yoga person since childhood. She first encountered the Ishta lineage in 2008 at a craft school in North Carolina, with my good friend, teacher Kate Shroeder, and became an Ishta practitioner the week she moved to NY in 2011. 

Erika is an Ishta-trained 200 hour yoga instructor with many additional specialty certifications, and she received her first Reiki attunement in 2018. She also has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Some of you already know Erika, and I’m glad to introduce the rest of you as we get her observations and insights this summer.

Things that get mentioned:

Podcasts stay afloat as labors of love. But they also need to pay the bills. Some do this through random ads. Others can get by by being infomercials for whatever’s being talked about on the podcast. I’m hoping to support Peter’s Podcast much like a pay-what-you-will yoga class. There’s no box at the door here, so instead I’m using the digital equivalent. That’s why I am asking you to please support Peter’s Podcast on Patreon.com. Instead of a box, there’s a link. It’s easy, it’s flexible if you want to vary your support, and most of all, it keeps this podcast going. And thank you to everyone who is already a Patreon Patron!

Puy Navarro is an ISHTA Yoga Senior Teacher, Spanish native actress and a theater producer, focusing on Social Issues and Human Rights. She has been working in New York since 2005. Puy began writing when she felt the need to turn the play she had produced at the United Nations into a film script. Puy's script "Life is a Dream" was selected at Dreamago 2014, Stephen Frears' International Writers Lab. She has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from NYU. She has worked for the Rubin Museum of Art as a Story Teller for their “Sleepovers”, she has written short stories and has performed for “The Moth” at their community programs. Puy is leading a Writers Workshop at ISHTA Yoga.

BALI Retreat: February 8-15 in Ubud. Details here or at peterferko.com

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In our first Peter's Podcast Roundtable, Wendy Newton, Aino Siren and I talk about what happens when you venture beyond yoga class. We talk from the perspective of teachers who want to lead workshops and retreats and of students who may not even know that one of these formats would mean a whole new understanding and practice. I share how much I learned from moving beyond yoga classes.

Wendy is teaching a workshop on the Yoga Sutras at ISHTA on August 17.

Aino and I are leading a retreat in Bali with Wendy as special guest instructor on February 8-15. Save the date for that one!

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In today's episode, I speak to Dr. Jennifer Rhodes, whom I met when she took ISHTA Teacher Training and Meditation Training. Jenny is a licensed clinical psychologist, dating/relationship coach, image consultant, 200 hour ISHTA trained yogi, and founder of Rapport Relationships, LLC.

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ISHTA Yoga teacher and Polarity practitioner Jenny Bloom makes another wonderful appearance on the pod. We discuss how we evolve through practice and how that evolution can help your relationships, and helps make better teachers.

I mention Shuddhananda Bharati, a tantra yogi who influenced ISHTA Yoga founder Alan Finger.

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Namaste

Happy Summer everybody!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would be mixing up the conversations on the podcast, including some more monolog/discussions of topics. Another way is launching today thanks to Erika Pahk. Erika has graced me with her presence in classes training and retreats over the past handful of years. This summer, she’s working in L.A., where she’s agreed to check in as our summer West Coast correspondent. In our first installment, we get to hear a little about Erika’s new home, how it is to uproot from your yoga practice place and find another, how yoga helps in the corporate environment, and we talk turkey about philosophy, as we always do.

Erika grew up in the wilds of Los Angeles and has been a yoga person since childhood. She first encountered the ISHTA lineage in 2008 at a craft school in North Carolina, with my good friend, teacher Kate Shroeder, and became an ISHTA practitioner the week she moved to NY in 2011.

Erika is an ISHTA-trained 200 hour yoga instructor with many additional specialty certifications, and she received her first Reiki attunement in 2018. She also has a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Erika's superpowers include composing emoji poems and finding the perfect collection of tools for others. She listens to A LOT of podcasts, prefers fiction to spiritual texts and learns best through active listening and kinetic engagement. Her current art project involves taking many neighborhood flower walks - check out her Instagram stories @yourgemfriend.

Please support Peter's Podcast on Patreon!

Happy Summer Solstice and Midsummer! I talk about life as cycles and politics as an example of peaks vs. cycles. I also ponder Plato's idea of the philosopher king in light of this year's election. Enjoy!

Support Peter's Podcast on Patreon. Thank you!