Synopsis
Candid conversations about yoga and beyond with outspoken teacher and writer, J. Brown, founder and director of Abhyasa Yoga Center in Brooklyn, NY. A leading voice in the Slow Yoga Revolution, J advocates for a more intimate, breath-centered, therapeutic yoga practice geared towards well-being and lessening of pain. On topics ranging from yoga philosophy, to the business of yoga, to subjects unrelated to yoga, J and his esteemed guests always have something interesting and intimate to share.
Episodes
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Dr. Lauren Tober - "The Frontline of Mental Health Care"
26/02/2024 Duration: 46minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Dr Lauren Tober, creator and author of Mental Health Aware Yoga, talks with J about the intersection of psychology and yoga for mental health. They discuss the limitations of a clinical approach, the DSM5, doing an n=1 study, finding the right treatment methodology, differences in pedagogy, importance of relationship, supporting students, mental health integrating with the gunas, protocols for helping people feel safe, touch and consent, and staying within or widening our windows of tolerance to better cope with life.
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Ryan Kurczak - "Stepping into a Samadhi State"
19/02/2024 Duration: 55minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Ryan Kurczak, host of The Kriya Yoga Podcast, talks with j about understanding and appreciating what is real. They discuss being ordained into Kriya Yoga by Roy Eugene Davis, the history of Self Realization Fellowship, scalability and maintaining direct connection, vedic astrology, occultism, dramatizing your spiritual path, Ishvara Pranidhana, Samkhya, Jesus Christ, a universal principle of love, creating grooves in your consciousness, Samahdi, and learning to pay attention to the essence of what is divine rather than the manifestation of form.
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Tara Stiles - "Online Influence and a Return to Creativity"
12/02/2024 Duration: 48minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Tara Stiles, co-founder of Strala Yoga, returns to compare notes with J about the current state of the yoga world. They discuss the ray of humanity that brought them back together, letting go of brick and mortar spaces, online trends moving from brands to influence, opening up the conversations around spirituality, connecting across divides, gentle yoga becoming trauma informed, training the algorithms to curate your internet experience, the appropriate use of touch, and reacclimating to in person teaching and co-regulating together.
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Jonathan FitzGordon - "Learning to Move and Be Well"
05/02/2024 Duration: 49minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Jonathan FitzGordon, creator of the CoreWalking Program and Rejuvenation Movement Method, talks with J about learning how to move and be well. They discuss teaching people how to walk and stand, extreme sensitivity and hypermobility, Jonathan's three knee surgeries, alignment and choosing not to do certain poses, appropriate practice in group classes, core tone, strength that comes from balance, integrated conditioning, how we see ourselves in space, changing perspectives, and getting to know yourself and heal.
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Paul JJ Alix - "Strict Protocols for Committed Students"
29/01/2024 Duration: 01h02minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Paul JJ Alix, founder of Yoga for All, talks with J about his time during the formative years of yoga coming into the mainstream and the rifts between teaching and consumerism that emerged. They discuss the intersection of meditation and ballet, being an early adopter of pilates and choosing yoga as a focus, meeting TKV Desichackar, teaching in NY and setting conditions to attract only committed students, causing a raucous over start times at Ananda Ashram, the need for clarity, staying true to principles, and the enduring power of practice.
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Nate Klemp - "Strategies for a Distracted and Polarized World"
22/01/2024 Duration: 48minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Nate Klemp, author of OPEN: Living with an Expansive Mind in a Distracted World, talks with J about making your life your practice, digital realities, and political universes. They discuss the limitations of thinking to experiencing, the tradition of living philosophy, blogging about a life beyond logic, family life and yogic caves, the 80/80 marriage plan, a mindset of radical generosity, strategies for addressing screen cravings and addiction, lethal mass partisanship, and when surrendering to joy and possibility becomes your only best option.
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Josh Thomas - "Being Expansive Amidst Deep Suffering"
15/01/2024 Duration: 52minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Josh Thomas is a friend of J's who joins the show to talk about intuitive facility and luminous darkness. They discuss transition states, being motivated by an undercurrent of "not good enough-ness," dissolving boundaries and destruction of ego structures, becoming somebody to become nobody, parapsychology proven real beyond probability, fear of being shunned by the culture, taking belief out of the equation, spiritual healing, radiating peacefulness in everyday life, and marking your intention to a guiding true north of love.
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Weena Pauly - "Impulse Towards Aliveness"
08/01/2024 Duration: 48minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Weena Pauly, creator of SE+AM (Somatic Experiencing + Authentic Movement) and host of the Reverence for Impulse Podcast, talks with J about reclaiming how your body wants to move and the focus of seeing and being seen. They discuss sturdy containers for letting the unknown be revealed, nothingness and staying with trembling discomfort, distinguishing impulse from being impulsive, attributing value, power dynamics and reciprocity of wisdom, hope for our children, and experience as a language of the divine.
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Keith Parker - "Chakras and Auras are Real"
01/01/2024 Duration: 01h31sYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Keith Parker, co-founder of Field Dynamics and host of the Field Dynamics Podcast, talks with J about energy healing, the human aura, and infinity exploring the finite. They discuss transitioning from music to yoga, being tamed by India, striving for liberation or enlightenment, limits of a materialistic paradigm, seeing human auras, gross/subtle/causal relationships, the structure of a soul, Chakras and identity, palpating energy, magical realms, higher intelligence and serving a greater good, and helping to bring subtlety into the foreground of perception.
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Year End Check in with J - "Standing at a Crossroads"
25/12/2023 Duration: 37minJ repeats his ritual of reflecting on where he’s at what he’s facing as the year comes to a close. He discusses his cat being diagnosed with diabetes, the Dalai Lama's twitter/x account, genetically modified butter, the feeling of not being able to say what you really think, trying to open a yoga center, predictions from the 2016 Yoga in America study, a changing internet, making ends meet, taking stock in the exchanges that make all the difficulties worthwhile, and somehow finding the resilience and fortitude needed to meet life's uncertainty. To subscribe and support the show… GET PREMIUM. Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.
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Katie Hemphill - "Biomedical Engineering to Animistic Wonder"
18/12/2023 Duration: 47minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Katie Hemphill, author of We Are The Forest, talks with J about expanding the scope of our understanding through embodied living and collective healing. They discuss why Katie decided to study biomedical engineering, discovering yoga and marathon running, programming a cell, a problem/solution perspective, corporate jobs, grey areas in risk analysis of medical devices, meaning making in scientific process, nutrition science, optimizing connection, balanced containers, and questioning the stories that shape our reality.
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Radha Metro-Midkiff - "Gurus, Disciples, and Institutions"
11/12/2023 Duration: 50minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Radha Metro-Midkiff, Executive Director for the Integral Yoga Institute New York, talks with J about Swami Satchidananda, Integral Yoga, and the major shifts in the industry and culture that have taken place over the last few years. They discuss her childhood growing up at Yogaville, her relationship to Swami Satchidananda, choosing faith or fear, teachings and the growth of institutions, the difference between the guru and the human being, authentic transmission of yoga, and making sense of life’s complexity through transparent dialogue.
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Brett Larkin - "Youtube, Kundalini, and Yoga Industry"
04/12/2023 Duration: 45minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Brett Larkin, founder of an award-winning YouTube channel and Uplifted Online Yoga Teacher Training, talks with J about building her platform and the state of yoga online. They discuss graduating from NYU, exploring different styles of practice, creating fitness and dance video games, starting to post on YouTube and gaining subscribers, leveraging social media, legitimizing online training, the influence of kundalini yoga and asking hard questions, working with Ayurveda, energy bodies, and learning from the past so we can proceed with integrity.
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Diana May - "Having a Regulated Nervous System"
27/11/2023 Duration: 45minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Diana May talks with J about yoga for the nervous system and somatic experiencing. They discuss moving to a big city before leaving and being closer to nature, dissociation from our bodies, being with the full range of human emotion, somatic experiencing based on the work of Dr Peter Levine, resonance fields, lowering levels of activation, honoring the value of anxiety and becoming less defensive of our responses, making a nervous system supported class, tolerance for different views, and maximizing capacity for connection.
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John Stirk - "Awakening to the Unknown"
20/11/2023 Duration: 53minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. John Stirk, author of Deeper Still, talks with J about formation, transformation, and the feeling of existence. They discuss changing expectations for careers in yoga, digging deeper to change your perspective, the condition of understanding, getting in touch with insightfulness, healing fragmentation by highlighting that which is indivisible, transformation instead of information, authentic intelligence, mental indigestion, becoming more sensitive, knowing through direct perception, and relating to the unknown in an intelligent way.
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Philip Deslippe - "The Truth About Yogi Bhajan and 3HO"
13/11/2023 Duration: 51minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Philip Deslippe, author of From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric, talks with J about his research into the real story behind Yogi Bhajan and the yoga empire he created. They discuss Philip's time as a Kundalini teacher, 3HO, the role of students in editing and elevating teachers to master status, legitimizing something by deferring to a false antiquity, value calculations within corrupted traditions, the life and significance of William Atkinson, the paradox of benefiting from hucksters, and possibilities for what yoga teaching might look like in the future.
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Ruth White - "Iyengar's UK Roots and the Essence of Yoga"
06/11/2023 Duration: 45minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Ruth White, author of Presence: The Truth of Yoga, talks with J about the earliest days of BKS Iyengar coming to the UK and developing a practice that endures. They discuss practicing in a living room with BKS Iyengar, the difference between classes in Pune compared to the UK, standardization and growth, whether or not Iyengar was an abusive teacher, starting a yoga prop company, why Iyengar focused primarily on postures, going inward, and the dropping away of ego identifications so we can see each other as one and the same.
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Cristina & Diego - "Experiencing the World in Barefoot Shoes"
30/10/2023 Duration: 45minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Cristina & Diego, founders of Origo Shoes, talk with J about the philosophy behind barefoot shoes and our relationship to the natural world. They discuss the developmental issues their daughter faced and how that led to barefoot shoes, the detriment of conventional ideas about footwear, specifications that make a shoe barefoot, educating people about the benefits and making the appearance more accessible, doing business according to your values, embracing simple as better, and the benefits of slower living and a return to basic principles.
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Joe Simek - "Goals and Trajectories for Yoga Centers"
23/10/2023 Duration: 50minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Joe Simek, co-owner of Dragonfly Yoga and co-founder of The Fiaria Project, talks with J about coming back from the pandemic and moving forward with purpose. They discuss the reopening of his brick and mortar space, leases and sustainability, competition among centers, re-envisioning memberships and community, shifting from information to transformation, economics of surrender, issues of certification and accreditation, marketing with soul, and the changing dynamics by which we set roots and measure success.
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Mark Walsh - "Trauma, Embodiment, and Facebook Bombs"
16/10/2023 Duration: 45minYou are listening to the free version of J. Brown Yoga Talks. To hear the rest of our conversation, please subscribe to podcast premium at: https://www.jbrownyoga.com/premium. Mark Walsh, host of the The Embodiment Podcast and author of Embodiment: Working with the Body in Training and Coaching, talks with J about facilitating life skills and navigating the world around us. They discuss the emergence of coaching in the yoga world, embodiment as a practice and a principle, creating the largest online embodiment conference ever, trauma work and fads, early days of trolling online, political trends, decadence and the luxury of despair, overcoming grief, and the importance of finding ways to make sense and meaning.