What's all this talk about unionizing yoga? In preparation for this week's episode about the YogaWorks teachers' unionization effort, Sarah wanted to get an understanding of what yoga teacher working conditions really look like and why someone would want to unionize. In this episode, Sarah talks to Effie Morgenstern, Boston based yoga teacher and participant in the class-action lawsuit against CorePower yoga, shares a bit about her experience and why she thinks unionization might be a smart move for yoga teachers.

You can listen to all our episodes and read transcriptions of the full-length episodes at www.shutupandyoga.com/podcast.

Want to learn more about the unionization movement?
Follow @unionize_yoga on Instagram or learn more about their work at linktr.ee/unionizeyoga. 

You can connect with Effie at www.instagram.com/efffervescent

Share your own yoga stories today! Reach out to Sarah via any of the following links: 
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Tea Time Talk 2 - Unions for Yogis?

A bi-weekly podcast about all things yoga-ish. Host Sarah Dittmore interviews a new guest each episode about a different yoga-themed topic. Expect a touch of cynicism, a healthy dose of judgment, a whole lot of questions, and just the right amount of laughter. This podcast is produced in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga.

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Health & Fitness

This week, Sarah talks with Melanie Klein about Yoga and Body Image. Melanie C. Klein, M.A., is a sought-after empowerment coach, thought leader and influencer in the areas of body confidence, authentic empowerment, and visibility. With over 20 years experience and notable credits including advising the Santa Monica College Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, working closely with Global Girl Media and running the LA chapter of Women, Action and the Media; she has dedicated her passion, knowledge and coaching skillset to the empowerment of innumerable women through increasing confidence, self-esteem and worth. 

She is also a successful and highly acclaimed writer, speaker, and professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies. Her areas of interest and specialty include media literacy education, body image, and the intersectional analysis of systems of power and privilege. 
She is the co-editor of Yoga and Body Image: 25 Personal Stories About Beauty, Bravery + Loving Your Body (Llewellyn, 2014) with Anna Guest-Jelley, a contributor in 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Politics and Practice (Horton & Harvey, 2012), is featured in Conversations with Modern Yogis (Shroff, 2014), a featured writer in Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Mindful Living (Llewellyn, 2016), co-editor of Yoga, the Body and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis with Dr. Beth Berila and Dr. Chelsea Jackson Roberts (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), Yoga Rising: 30 Empowering Stories from Yoga Renegades for Every Body (Llewellyn, 2018) and the co-editor of the new forthcoming anthology, Embodied Resilience through Yoga (Llwelleyn, 2020). She co-founded the Yoga and Body Image Coalition in 2014 and lives in Santa Monica, CA.

Connect with her:
Melanie: http://www.melaniecklein.com/ or @melmelklein 
Yoga and Body Image Coalition:http://ybicoalition.com/ or @ybicoalition

Find her books: 
http://www.yogaandbodyimage.org/
http://www.yogarisingbook.com/ You can connect with Sarah at:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Ep 13 - Yoga & Body Image

This week, Sarah talks with Ganja Yoga founder, Dee Dussault, about the integration of marijuana and yoga. In this episode, Sarah and Dee discuss how ganja yoga came to be and what the benefits (and potential pitfalls) exist in marrying cannabis and yoga.

Dee Dussault 
Dee Dussault is the yoga first teacher to offer public cannabis yoga classes. Over the past decade, she’s brought her classes, which she calls Ganja Yoga, to thousands of students in over a dozen US cities. 

A seasoned yoga practitioner of twenty-three years, Dee is also an international speaker and the author of the Harpercollins book by the same name. Ganja Yoga has been featured in publications like The New York Times, Business Insider, Newsweek, and LA Yoga, as well as major International media from India to France. 

A lover of bliss, Dee also works as a sex coach who specializes in tantra yoga and cannabis-enhanced intimacy. She works with singles and couples in Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping them tap into their radiant embodied selves. Her training was in the Tantric tradition of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

You can connect with Dee on Instagram or at https://www.deedussault.com/

You can connect with Sarah at:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Ep 12 - Ganja Yoga

Join Sarah as she discusses valuing yoga teachers in the studio environment with Marcela Xavier, Founder & Program Director of Bread and Yoga. 

You can connect with Marcela at www.breadandyoga.com or on Instagram.

ABOUT MARCELA XAVIER
Marcela Xavier is an introvert with big dreams. Originally from Brazil, Marcela was born into a big family with some really strong women that deeply influenced her path. From her grandmother (who was always cooking) to her mother and aunts (always full of wisdom and opinions), each had a very specific impact on guiding who Marcela is. She moved to the US at the age of 18 and has been forging her own path ever since. Marcela founded Bread and Yoga, a small community studio in the Inwood neighborhood in Upper Manhattan in 2009. She is  an experienced yoga teacher and holistic health counselor, a labor support doula and childbirth educator. She is committed to being a community catalyst, creating programming that informs, challenges and inspires her community. Bread and Yoga was/is very much a dream anchored in making an impact by building an inclusive healing and gathering space for the community.

When not at the studio Marcela is hanging out with her husband and two teenagers, cooking and eating, occasionally sewing, and always dreaming.

Share your own yoga stories today! Reach out to Sarah via any of the following links:
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Tea Time Talk 6 - Valuing Teachers

This week, Sarah talks with Bend and Bloom founder, Amy Quinn Suplina. In light of the unionization movement, these two women explore what it means to run an ethical yoga studio and how studios in New York City might be impacted by the move to unionize.

Amy Quinn Suplina 
Amy has been teaching yoga since 2002 and founded Bend + Bloom in 2008.  She teaches a breath-based, contemplative Vinyasa that challenges us to find space in our bodies so that we can find room in our lives to live well and more fully.  She completed her first yoga teacher training with Kimberly Wilson, Simon Park, and Darren Main at Tranquil Space in Washington, DC in 2002 and with Cyndi Lee of Om Yoga in 2005. 

Her early days of teaching were balanced by her career in social justice and human rights organizing.  Amy believes contemplative practices, like yoga and meditation, are essential components to transform our habits so we can build and embody new skills to manifest what we care about in our lives and the world. 

Amy is trained in teaching Trauma Sensitive Yoga by the Trauma Center of Boston and completed the two-year Embodied Anatomy and Physiology course at the Breathing Project with Amy Matthews. She is also a certified Physioyoga Global practitioner. Amy integrates explorations of anatomy and physiology into her class by designing purposeful sequences that weave asana, pranayama, bandha work, and focused inquiry.  She is a mentor with the amazing Africa Yoga Project based in Nairobi.

You can connect with Amy on Instagram or find Bend and Bloom on Instagram and at https://www.bendandbloom.com/.

You can connect with Sarah today at: 
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Thank you to Plum Deluxe for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.plumdeluxe.com/ today to order delicious loose leaf teas or join their Loose Leaf Tea of the Month Club for just $10/month! Use the code "TBM10" at check out to save 10% on all purchases.

The Beginner's Mind is created in partnership with Shut Up & Yoga. Check out their books at www.shutupandyoga.com/books or join the conversation via the new Facebook group, Shut Up & Yoga Forum for Modern Yogis.

Ep. 11 - Ethical Studio Management

We've spent so much time getting to know our guests... but what about the host herself?? This week, get to know Sarah Dittmore! In this Tea Time Talk, Sarah discusses her journey with yoga and how she found herself hosting a yoga podcast. 

You can connect with Sarah today at: 
instagram.com/tbmpodcast
facebook.com/thebeginnersmindpodcast
sarahdittmore@gmail.com

Tea Time Talk 2 - Unions for Yogis?

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