Yoga With Jake Podcast

Heather Mason, MA, MA, MSc, is the founder of The Minded Institute, The Yoga in Health Care Alliance, and joint founder of the APPG on Yoga. She holds master’s degrees in Buddhist Studies, Psychotherapy, Medical Physiology, and has extensive education in Neuroscience. Heather has been a yoga teacher since 2001 and specialised in yoga therapy for mental health since 2007. As a world leader on this topic, Heather has lectured at universities from Harvard to UCL and at an array of academic conferences around the world. She was the first person in the UK to train with the Boston Trauma Center to offer yoga for trauma, launched a yoga programme at The Maudsley’s Traumatic Stress Service, and has been training others in yoga therapy for PTSD since 2012. In 2023 Heather co-created the world’s first yoga therapy psychotherapy accredited training programme.

The Minded Institute Website

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Dr. Ali Seidenstein is an orthopaedic surgery resident at Johns Hopkins and longtime yoga teacher with nearly 20 years of experience which included three years living and studying in India. Before medical school, Ali was on faculty at NYU’s School of Engineering, where she continues to advise premedical students. Her Ph.D. research focused on how trauma and PTSD influence gene expression through epigenetic changes. She continues to bridge science and movement in her clinical research on yoga and musculoskeletal health, she currently is the lead on a clinic trial for Yoga and scoliosis. Ali is also the founder of Kids Who Care, a nonprofit she launched over 20 years ago to support youth advocacy and leadership. A third-generation orthopaedist, she is proud to carry on her family’s legacy in medicine. 

She lives in Baltimore with her husband, a radiology resident, and with what little time they have left after the hospital, they can usually be found hiking, cooking plant-based meals, or planning their next adventure.

Ali's Website

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Jivana Heyman, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings and supporting yoga teachers. He’s the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body; Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion; and The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body. His books, classes, and trainings support yoga teachers and yoga therapists in finding ways to bring creativity and collaboration into their teaching while still respecting the ancient yoga tradition. Learn more at jivanaheyman.com.

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Dr. Tracey Shors is a Distinguished Professor in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University, where she is also a member of the Center for Collaborative Neuroscience. Dr. Shors has more than 150 scientific publications in journals including Nature, Science, PNAS and Nature Neuroscience, and her research findings have been featured in popular publications such as Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on NPR and CNN. Her research efforts were recently recognized with W. Horsley Gantt Medal from the Pavlovian Society for the"noble pursuit of truth."

Dr. Shors’ research program studies how our brains learn, including how they learn to ruminate on trauma-related memories and how this process can interfere with our everyday lives, while making still more memories. Dr. Shors is also focused on identifying effective tools for reducing repetitive thoughts that reinforce our everyday traumas. Her popular press book, Everyday Trauma (Flatiron,
2021), reviews the causes and consequences of trauma as well as the most effective treatments. It has been translated in six languages. Her brain fitness program, known as MAP Train My Brain combines “mental and physical” training with silent meditation and aerobic exercise to enhance brain health through effortful learning. To try out her free 6-week online course, sign up at
maptrainmybrain.com.

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Dr. Susanna Søberg is a Danish scientist and expert in cold and heat therapy, with a PhD in metabolism. She's the founder of the Soeberg Institute and creator of the Thermalist Method and Søberg Principle, which combine cold and heat exposure to improve health. Søberg's research focuses on how deliberate exposure to heat and cold can improve metabolism, reduce stress, and promote longevity. 

Susanna's Website

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Natalia Mehlman Petrzela is a historian of contemporary American politics and culture. She is the author of CLASSROOM WARS: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford University Press, 2015), and FIT NATION: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession (University of Chicago Press, 2023). She is Executive Producer and host of the podcast EXTREME (BBC/Novel) and host of WELCOME TO YOUR FANTASY ( Pineapple Street Studios/Gimlet). She is a columnist for MSNBC, a frequent media guest expert, public speaker, and contributor to outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Atlantic.

Natalia is a Carnegie Corporation Fellow and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Grant. She is currently working on two new books, a short history of the school culture wars, and a history of the Hamptons, with historian Neil J. Young. She is executive producer of a documentary series based on FIT NATION, in development with TIME Studios. Natalia began her career as a public school teacher, and she is currently Lead Historian on the Jewish American Hidden Voices curriculum for the New York City Department of Education, forthcoming in 2025.

Natalia is Professor of History at The New School, co-founder of the wellness education program Healthclass 2.0, and a Premiere Leader of the mind-body practice intenSati. Her work has been supported by the Spencer, Whiting, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations, the Carnegie Corporation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She holds a B.A. from Columbia and a Ph.D. from Stanford and lives in New York City.

Want a Better Relationship With Your Teen Children? Exercise With Them. -WSJ

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Leslie Kaminoff, co-author of the bestselling book “Yoga Anatomy” and creator of YogaAnatomy.net, is a yoga educator and internationally recognized specialist with over four decades’ experience in the fields of yoga, breath anatomy and bodywork. His approach to teaching combines intellectual rigor, spontaneity and humor, and is always evolving.

Link to Leslie's Instagram. 

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Today, I share a podcast that I had the honor to be a guest on: The Brain Shaman Podcast, where I talk about why I started practicing yoga, how I went from college wrestler to men’s yoga teacher. I also discuss men’s health, men’s mental health, and why I believe yoga is uniquely equipped to help men work through their challenges and do so without it being awkward or forced. Please go support Michael Waite and the brain shaman podcast, he did a really nice job with this, I’m very pleased with our conversation.

The Brain Shaman Podcast

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Jonathan Rosenthal, MD is a neurologist in NYC and a yoga student of Sri Dharma Mittra. He is passionate about understanding how yoga affects the brain. He hosts educational events on neuroscience and yoga, conducts scientific research on yoga, and teaches yoga to clinical populations.

Jonathan's Website

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Dr. Steffany Moonaz is a yoga therapist and researcher in Southern California. She serves as Research Director at Southern California University of Health Sciences and Professor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. She became curious about the importance of mind-body activities at a young age and has always had a passion and a curiosity about the healing power of mindful movement. She completed undergraduate work in biology and dance at Oberlin College, earned an MFA from University of Maryland as well as a CMA from the Laban Institute and spent eight years at Johns Hopkins University, helping to develop and evaluate a yoga program for individuals with the chronic diseases of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, which became the basis for her PhD in public health.

Along with ongoing research collaborations with major research institutions worldwide, Dr. Moonaz is working to bring yoga to people with arthritis directly, as well as educating yoga teachers and yoga therapists about the unique needs of this population. She currently leads Yoga for Arthritis teacher training programs and serves as a mentor for several emerging researchers who are working to study the effects of yoga for various health conditions. Dr. Moonaz also serves on the faculty of several other yoga and yoga therapy training programs, including Integral Yoga, Phoenix Rising, and The Mindfulness Center.

Dr. Moonaz’s work has been covered by Time, HuffPost, the Baltimore Sun, and U.S. News and World Report. She has been invited to speak at Emory University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins Palliative Care, and the Smithsonian. Her Arthritis-Friendly Yoga DVD, produced by the Arthritis Foundation, became their best-selling product when it was released in 2013. Her first book, Yoga Therapy for Arthritis: A whole-person approach to movement and lifestyle, was published by Singing Dragon Publishers in December of 2018, and she has contributed to several other widely used yoga texts. Her second book, Driving Home, a memoir, was released in 2024 by Freisen Press and shares an unforgettable year of identity, responsibility, and the unexpected lessons of adversity. 

Steffany's Website: https://www.arthritis.yoga/

Steffany's Instagram: @yogaforarthritis

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