My final episode of the podcast. Thank you for listening!

Dorothy Dao is a Ralph Gracie Berkeley black belt currently training at AOJ. In this episode, we talk about her time living and training abroad, how she’s learned to address burn out, and what she hopes to get out of her last year competing in the adult division.

6 months post-surgery, I reflect on what my life has been like in the absence of jiu jitsu.

Andrea Hixson is a filmmaker who recently released a full length documentary on women in jiu jitsu. American Jiujiteira follows Andrea’s journey traveling the country with her husband as she embarks on her first year and a half of training jiu jitsu. The documentary is a mix of her own triumphs, struggles, and reflections, along with interviews of jiujiteiras of all levels. In this conversation, we talk about what it was like to create this project, what she learned training at so many gyms, and why it's great to suck at jiu jitsu.

When Rose Miller picked up and moved across the country to San Diego, she didn’t have a clear idea of the path ahead of her. Eventually, her long standing interest in martial arts was met with a series of fortuitous events that led her to jiu jitsu. Drawn by the opportunities for discipline, growth, and accountability, Rose quickly found a home in the gentle art. She appreciated both the intense physicality of it as well as the intellect and came to view it as an expression of her life philosophy. In this conversation, Rose and I talk about fear, vulnerability, and recovering from injury. She shares her experiences competing and how learning how to lose better helped her learn how to win.

In this episode, I'm joined by Nia Blackston Doyle. While she once thought she was going to be a white belt forever, she is now a black belt with multiple World Masters medals, including gold at purple and brown belt. In this episode, we talk about what it was like for her to come back to the mats after giving birth, how she’s seen the culture at our gym change over time, and why it’s important to have more women in jiu jitsu.

Ariana Chandra is a judo black belt, jiu jitsu brown belt, and recent Masters Worlds gold medalist. She and I chat about how she prepared for the competition, how she feels about her new belt, and what she’s reaching for next.

I go to Masters Worlds and learn what an AC joint is the hard way. A few days post-surgery, I share my experience so far.