Felipe Gonzalez came to the practice 14 years ago when he first moved to New York City. After several years of practice, he took a leap of faith and completed his 200 hour teacher training at Laughing Lotus, NYC.  His devotion to music, movement, story telling, and spirituality are embedded in all of his classes. Using the techniques of mythology, mantra, yogic philosophy, asana, and Katonah Yoga® theory, he guides practitioners through an experience of breath, vibration, movement, and reflection. 

Felipe is a 500 hour ERYT and Katonah Yoga® teacher based in Santa Monica, CA. He is a founding teacher at GaneshSpace, a community lead organization uplifting marginalized voices and experiences by offering resources and education at the intersections of mindfulness and social justice. He is also an Ambassador for lululemon Santa Monica Store. He is also the co-owner of the LA based Empowered Yoga Studio is open in Venice, CA.

Felipe leads workshops, retreats, and trainings internationally. Drawn to the disciplines of Vinyasa, Bhakti Yoga and Katonah Yoga® theory,  he devotes his practice and teaching with an artist’s soul and a healer’s heart. 

In This Episode:

• Felipe shares what brought him to the practice of yoga and how upon connecting with yoga as a complete practice, he was able to see the connection between personal and collective liberation.

• The intersections of Felipe's identity and how it led to him finding the practice of yoga. 

• Felipe shares some of the red flags he observed in the yoga community that was not aligned with the ethos of yoga.

• What can people do to support the culture without appropriation?

• How the yoga industry breeds spiritual narcissism.

• Felipe shares his experience in opening Empowered yoga studio without any Venture Capitalists and run entirely by teachers.

• How to build a healthy, safe and supportive yoga studio. 

• Why Felipe believes affinity groups are the way to unpack harmful experiences.

• Felipe’s perspective on Guru culture in the yoga space.

Full Show Notes:

• Felipe Gonzalez's Website
• Felipe Gonzalez's Instagram
• Empowered Yoga Instagram
• Empowered Yoga Website
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!

• Join our book club where we can learn in the community!! Visit us at https://www.thewerkpodcast.com/bookclub for details.

• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!

• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast

• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Jesal Parikh (she/they) is an Indian-American yoga teacher, movement educator, podcaster, author and disrupter working on creative solutions for equity in Yoga. She's co-host of the Yoga is Dead podcast and offers movement education through the lens of social justice. Through her work, Jesal aims to uplift those of us who are feeling isolated and marginalized by the yoga industry. 

 

Jesal is co-leading the Functional Anatomy course at Prema Yoga Institute this fall- November 1- December 10th.

Jesal has co-authored a book for Yoga is Dead called "Original Godmothers of Yoga" that is available for purchase now.

 

 

In This Episode:

 

• The events that prompted Jesal and Tejal to start the Yoga is Dead Podcast.
• How Jesal began teaching yoga.
• Sanskrit names if you're not Indian/ South Asian and/or practice the practice of Hinduism.  
• Understanding cultural appropriation.
• Jesal’s views on entrepreneurship in the United States as the basis of colonialism. 
• How white-bodied wellness practitioners can show up and create a culture that centers BIPOC.
• How Jesal reconciled sharing their popular podcast. The advice she gives to other creatives. 
• Whiteness, colorism, and the intersections of privilege and power. 
• Jesal shares what she believes we have to do collectively to do the work. 

 

  FULL SHOW NOTES

• Jesal Parikh Website
• Jesal Parikh Instagram
• Yoga Is Dead Podcast
• Yoga is Dead Instagram
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Join our book club where we can learn in community!! Visit us at https://www.thewerkpodcast.com/bookclub for details.
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Zainab Salbi is a celebrated humanitarian, author, and journalist. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the 25 women changing the world; People Magazine and Foreign Policy Magazine called Zainab one of “100 Top Global Thinkers”.

Zainab is the co-founder for DaughtersforEarth.com, Chief Awareness Officer at FindCenter.com, and host of Redefined podcast. Zainab is also the author of a few books, including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds and her latest Freedom Is an Inside Job. She is also the creator and host of several shows, including #MeToo, Now What? on PBS, and Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi at Yahoo News.

Zainab started her career when she was 23 years old as the founder and former CEO of Women for Women International, an organization to help women survivors of conflicts. She built the group from helping 30 women to reaching nearly half a million women and raising 146 million dollars in aids and microloans to help them and their families rebuild their lives.

In This Episode:

• Zainab's origin story and the things that shaped her life: war and fear.
• Zainab's family's proximity to Saddam Hussein and the events that led her to leave her home in Iraq to come to the United States.
• Leaving her arranged marriage and the vow she made to help women around the world. 
• How she started Women For Women International.
• The journey Zainab took to connect to the Divine and deepen her spiritual practices. 
• The importance of spiritual practices. 
• Why we need to begin owning our shadow while advocating for others.
• How Zainab has hard conversations with people who need to do the work. 
• Leading with feminine values and Zainab's vision for the future.
• The intention for starting Find Center.

Full Show Notes:

• Zainab Salbi's Website
• Zainab Salbi's Instagram
• Zainab Salbi on Oprah's Super Soul
• Zainab Salbi on Ted Talk
• Zainab's Book Freedom Is An Inside Job
• Redefined Podcast With Zainab Salbi
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Divine Harmony is a mother, mystic, astrologer, mythologist, writer and teacher. With her background in Depth Psychology and Spirituality, she works to weave together the Dark and the Light, the mundane and the sacred, the depths and the heights in order to support personal awakening, healing and wholeness. She sees astrology as an amazing alchemical tool for self-understanding and living a more conscious, integrated life.  Her work includes teaching at yoga and consciousness festivals, teaching beginner and intermediate astrology classes online, writing extensively and consulting with clients.  She has a special interest in the Divine Feminine, the Dark Feminine, Shadow Work, Conscious Relationship and learning how to raise the new children incarnating on the planet today.  

 

In This Episode:

 

• Divine Harmony is an expert on Eris, a new celestial body discovered in 2005. Eris led to the demotion of Pluto and promoted Ceres. Eris is the Goddess of discord and chaos. 
• Eris is a feminine archetype, activist, and guide for the 21st century. 
• The mythology of Eris and how her story represents the discord that reveals the shadow work.
• The relationship between Pluto and Eris and the shadows that are revealed when they have an activation.  
• What Eris in Aries teaches us about our sacred anger and how to use it with intention and purpose.
• How Eris is connected to the Me Too movement. 
• The USA Pluto return and the undigested shadows that this country was built upon. 
• Working with anger, heart anger, and why it’s a powerful and necessary emotion for change. 
• The ways our western culture keeps us disembodied and how it hinders out spiritual growth.
• Divine Harmony’s predictions on America’s Pluto return. The first one occurs on February 20, 2022.
• The importance of shadow work during these times of change. 
• How the energy of the divine feminine archetypes will heal the world.
• The timeline for our astrological reckoning.
• Divine Harmony’s suggestions on how to move through the discord in the collective unconscious right now. 
• The star cycles are 26,000. These are the cycles that mystical traditions have been paying attention to.
• How, across cultures, there have been predictions of this age of darkness, but that we are growing closer to the light.
• The royal fixed stars and regulus the star of leadership. 
• The 2 spiritual practices that helped with Divine Harmony’s awakening. 

 

Full Show Notes:

 

• Divine Harmony Website
• Divine Harmoney Facebook
• Divine Harmony Instagram
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

 

Connect with The Werk:

 

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Anita Kopacz is the author of the Simon & Schuster fiction novel, Shallow Waters . It is the second title that Charlemagne tha God released on his imprint, Black Privilege Publishing. Anita is the former Editor-in-Chief of Heart & Soul Magazine and Managing Editor of BeautyCents Magazine . She is an award winning writer, a Spiritual Psychologist and a certified Tantra coach with a passion to see people thrive. Anita also created the nonprofit, Zero F's Given to raise awareness and help victimized and disenfranchised populations heal from sexual trauma, find their voice, and reclaim their power. She has helped thousands of victims through her work with Zero F’s Given and being on the board for the Center for Safety and Change. Through leading retreats around the world with The Goddess Wisdom Council, working with private clients and storytelling, Anita fulfills her intention to awaken the divine simplicity, pleasure and joy in her life and others.

We are giving away 5 signed copies of Shallow Waters books to 5 different winners! Make sure to follow @thewerkpodcast @anitakopacz and @shallowwatersbook and comment on @thewerkpodcast the one thing you're doing to do The Werk. The winners will be announced on January 31, 2022. 

In This Episode:

• How Anita’s upbringing around empowered Black women informed her worldview and how her experience changed when she stepped into a world that reflected something different to her. 
• Anita's experience as Editor and Chief of Heart and Soul magazine which was a platform for wellness for Black women. 
• Her metaphysical experiences that led to her getting her Masters in Spiritual Psychology.
• Anita’s book Shallow Waters about Yemaya, the Yoruba diety of the sea.   
• Connecting with water, Black people’s fear of water, and the ancestry of the middle passage. 
• The element of water and its healing properties and Anita’s intentional usage of water in the book. 
• The process of writing her book and how getting it published was Divine timing. 
• What Black privilege means to her. 
• The work that White folx need to do and the work that BIPOC need to do. 

Full Show Notes:

• Anita Kopacz Instagram
• Goddess Wisdom Council
• Shallow Waters Book

• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

YK Hong has been working with organizations around anti-oppression, learning, leadership, and organizational culture shift for over 20 years. Through talks, workshops, writing and coaching, YK works with organizations and companies across the globe to facilitate processes in strategic planning, organization development, and anti-oppression.  They also specialize in digital security and machine learning, using algorithms and data to show compelling paths for transformation at all levels of organizational growth. More at ykhong.com.   In This Episode: 

• YK talks about their experience as a Korean immigrant moving to the Southern US. 
• How protest culture within Korea and the LA riots shaped their view of the world; specifically, how Anti-Blackness was prevalent in both cultures.
• How their anti-oppression work was informed by their experiences both living in South Korea and the Southern US. 
• How the concept of race and racism differs based on country and culture.
• YK's perspective on Koreans' collective intergenerational trauma, identity and culture.
• How the US lacks a unified voice due to colonization.
• The violence that is depicted in films, is the manifestation of the violence of capitalism.
• How defensiveness is built into white supremacy.
• YK's advice on how to call people out if they are causing harm - in an effective manner.  
• For some large companies, particularly in the wellness space, the conversations have begun to shift and evolve towards liberation.
• The meaning of collective liberation as they see it. 
• How anti-oppression work exists to free everyone who is affected: BIPOC, Non-Binary + LGBTQIA+, and Disabled. 

Full Show Notes:

• YK's Website
• YK's Instagram
• YK's Twitter
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

This episode is supported by The Class a cathartic workout experience that guides you to strengthen the body and notice the mind to restore balance. The listeners of The Werk Podcast are welcome to try The Class for ONE MONTH FREE. Click the link in the show notes.

Soeuraya Wilson is a teacher of The Class. She also lends her experience to The Class's teacher training and their in-house podcast. Soeuraya’s class is described as a returning to the self. You will move through resistance, create contraction, and feel the release in expression as you engage in dialogue with your body and mind. Soeuraya's class is a direct reflection of how she uses her social media platform for her activism.

In This Episode:

• Soeuraya shares her origins story, her ancestral lineage, and how that shaped her worldview. 
• Her journey towards working in the wellness industry and the circumstances that led to her teaching at Soul Cycle, a boutique cycling studio in NYC.
• Her experience as a multi-racial woman living and working in an industry that is not represented by BIPOC. 
• The need for the wellness and fitness industries to support the mental, emotional, and physical health of BIPOC communities.
• How she found purpose through teaching. 
• When a parent company acquires a boutique business and how that changes the corporate culture. 
• The lack of care that many group fitness instructors experience, particularly BIPOC, when social challenges arise and when corporations are asked to take a stand.
• How she found herself standing against a big corporation who she felt didn’t provide care and compassion for its employees during the pandemic nor during the BLM resurgence.
• How we as consumers can protest effectively through the power of choice in friends, in how we spend our money, and through the conversations, we choose to have. 
• How many boutique brands can create an abundant and luxurious experience that many of their employees don’t have access to.
• How The Class stepped up in the wake of being called in and lost some of their original clientele in the process.
• How we can change the system from the inside.
• The steps that The Class is taking towards being more inclusive. 
• Wellness versus Well-being 

Full Show Notes:

• THE CLASS FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL
• Soeuraya's Instagram
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel
• Le Labo 

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it, and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Ayesha Khan, Ph.D., (she/ they) is a neurodivergent Infectious Diseases Scientist, Germ doctor, grassroots organizer, writer, educator and abolitionist decoding the science of social justice, collectivism, neurodiversity & trauma. Dr. Khan is building the foundations of a novel field of study- Abolitionist Science, to use evidence-based science to drive anti-capitalist grassroots movement strategy and shape daily praxis (i.e. the application of revolutionary political theory in our daily life and relationships). A glimpse of her art activism is on instagram @wokescientist   Ayesha also studies the impact of capitalism and systemic intergenerational oppression on ecological and community health outcomes. As an educator, she crafts unique, creative educational pedagogy to break down complex scientific or political concepts to make them accessible to everyone. Her activism focuses on Palestinian liberation, prison & police abolition, dismantling internalized capitalism, neurodivergence advocacy, decolonizing psychology & medicine, South Asian minority rights and immigrant or migrant worker rights. Her specialty is outreach, cross-community coalition and solidarity building, community education, and anti-capitalism organizing.   To support Dr. Khan's work and sustain community mutual aid efforts: Venmo: Ayesha-Khan-4 or Cashapp $ayeshakhan4 or Paypal.me/ayeshakhan4   Dr. Khan is a Siddi (Afro-Indian), Queer, Muslim, immigrant born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in several countries from Russia to Saudi Arabia, spending most of her childhood in the Middle East. She received her Bachelor's in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, and Global Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015 and her Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases from the University of Texas Health Science Center and MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2020. Dr. Khan is currently a visiting faculty in infectious diseases at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile.  Her medical research focuses on the development of infectious diseases diagnostics and novel treatment strategies to combat antibiotic resistant superbugs in low-resource settings. 

In This Episode:

• Dr. Ayesha's impressions on America versus her experiences in other parts of the world regarding health and healthcare.
• American privilege, supremacy + medical apartheid.
• Why doing the work requires critical thinking, discernment and taking the time to learn.
• For people who mistrust the government, how they can navigate through making decisions about their health.
• The anti-vaxx industry
• Ayesha's observations on the spiritual and wellness influencers on anti-vaxx misinformation and their end-game.
• Ayesha shares that knowing we are all complicit in the systems of oppression is actually liberating.
• Ayesha shares what we all have to do for revolution.
• The harmful impacts of capitalism on all aspects of our lives.

Full Show Notes: Dr. Ayesha Kahn Linktree Dr. Ayesha Kahn Instagram Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram Laura Chung Instagram The Werk Podcast Instagram The Werk Podcast Website

YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Milagros Phillips is a keynote speaker, TEDx presenter, four times author, and certified coach. She designs strategic learning programs for organizations seeking to enhance their Diversity Equity & Inclusion initiatives through race literacy. Her programs use history, science, research, and storytelling to create compelling, life-transforming experiences. For more than 35 years Milagros has consulted, designed, and facilitated programs across many industries. She is an artist, a Reiki Master and Teacher, a Sound Therapist, Teacher of A Course in Miracles, and the creator of Race Demystified, a compassionate approach to healing from racial conditioning. Her latest book, CRACKING THE HEALER'S CODE - A Prescription for Healing Racism & Finding Wholeness. Milagros is a recipient of the 2021 NEW THOUGHT WALDEN AWARD for Interfaith/Intercultural Understanding. She serves on the American Ballet Theater (ABT) RISE Advisory Council   In This Episode:

• How she got the calling to do “The Werk” at the age of 13, in response to the death of Dr. King.
• How her healing and spiritual journey brought her to do race work. 
• How the understanding of frequency helps us tap into the frequency of racism in order to transform through race work.
• The different modalities Milagros uses in her healing and race work. 
• On our racial caste systems.
• How racism is the part of our human history that people don’t speak of which is similar to a family secret and why learning about history helps you fill in the missing pieces.
• How the concept of “specialness” has led to White privilege and why it is so challenging for White folks to give up.
• How personal and global belief of supremacy-based expertise makes us feel we can enforce what has worked for us on others.
• How the "cold weather" people see abundance vs the "warm weather" people. 
• How White supremacy infantilizes us and perpetuates supremacy. 
• How and why humans have shifted into a state of denial in order to make sense of our paradigm.
• How racism follows the same pathology as alcoholism and drug abuse.
• How shame and blame do not lead to healing the world of White supremacy.
• The difference between anti-racism work and healing racism work. 

Full Show Notes:

• Milagros Philips Website
• Race Demystified
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

 

Connect with The Werk:

 

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.

Lily Diamond is a writer, educator, and advocate harnessing the power of storytelling to democratize wellness and empower women through accessible practices for inner and outer nourishment, and revolutionary acts of self-care for our earth and human communities.    She is co-creator of What’s Your Story? alongside bestselling author and lifelong activist Rebecca Walker. Together they co-authored What’s Your Story?: A Journal for Everyday Evolution.

Lily is also creator of internationally beloved blog Kale & Caramel and author of bestselling memoir-cookbook Kale & Caramel: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table, celebrated as one of the top cookbooks of 2017 by the New York Times, The Independent, Cooking Light, mindbodygreen, and more.

Her writing has appeared in VICE, Healthyish, the Huffington Post, Better Homes & Gardens, Refinery29, EatingWell, and more. Her work is informed by two decades of study, certification, and international teaching in the art and practice of meditation, yoga, and psychosomatic therapies. She is a devoted co-conspirator to organizations decolonizing food and wellness for all, and one of the originators of the Influencer Inclusion Rider.

Lily has spoken, taught, and appeared on tv, at conferences, and at bookstores nationwide, including for Goop, Summit Series, Well + Good, Yale University, Cameron Diaz’s Tuning In, Hallmark Home & Family, Sounds True, Food Network, Museum of the African Diaspora, Busboys and Poets, and many more.

She graduated magna cum laude, phi beta kappa from Yale University and lives in Maui, Hawai‘i, where she grew up, on occupied native Hawaiian land. She is currently the consulting director of the Maui Sustainability Initiative, working towards food sovereignty and self-sufficiency for the island.

In This Episode: 

• Lily references "Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono" which is Hawaii's state motto in Native Hawaiian; translated to English means, "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness." 
• Lily’s perspective on wellness and how it’s our birthright that we don’t just opt into. 
• How Lily’s childhood upbringing on Maui formed her connection to the land and her viewpoint on capitalism and plantation culture.
• Lily's personal observations of the effects of the pandemic-induced mass exodus to Hawaii by wealthy Americans.
• The lack of self-consciousness around race in Hawaii is paired with a false narrative that it is a utopic melting pot.
• Her personal journey with the work, and knowing her place, and how to show up as a White woman in a way that makes her a true ally.
• The harm caused by spiritual bypassing and ignoring real pain and harm and how this damages liberation movements by denying the truth.
• Lily’s career in blogging was the gateway for her influencer career on Instagram so why did she want to leave it? How she created the inclusion rider for BIPOC influencers.
• How doing the work is quite similar to confronting oneself as one done in therapy.
• Her intention with the What's Your Story journal that she co-created with Rebecca Walker and how journaling can be the pathway for transformation. 
• How acknowledging our interconnectedness is the beginning of our healing. How this is the only hope to heal the planet socially, politically, and in the wake of climate change.

FULL SHOW NOTES

• Lily Diamond Website
• Lily Diamond Instagram
• Laura Chung Instagram
• Brittany Simone Anderson Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Instagram
• The Werk Podcast Website
• YouTube Channel

Connect with The Werk:

• If you enjoyed the podcast and you feel called, please share it and tag us!
• Subscribe, rate, and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help more people discover it!
• Follow on Instagram @thewerkpodcast
• Let us know your favorite guests, lessons, or any topic requests.