Shows
Hear-TellRyan AtkinsonIn this episode of Hear-Tell, Rosalind Bentley—distinguished professor of practice in the University of Georgia’s MFA Narrative Nonfiction program—sits down with recent MFA graduate and freelance journalist Ryan Atkinson for a thoughtful conversation about reporting, trust, and the art of storytelling.
Ryan, now based in metro Atlanta, spent over a decade as a sports writer and editor in newsrooms across the lower Midwest before transitioning into trade publishing.
Last year, he returned to longform with a powerful feature for FanSided, chronicling hurdler Cordell Tinch’s remarkable quest for a spot on the 2024 Paris Ol...
2025-07-1837 min
The Heart of YogaThe Yogic Arts Series: Yantra & the Tantric Arts with Melissa ForbesIn this episode of "The Heart of Yoga " Rosalind kicks off the Yogic Arts Series with a deep and enlightening conversation with artist and Yogini Melissa Forbes. They explore the intersection of art and spirituality through the study of Yantra, numerology, and Jyotish (Vedic astrology). Melissa shares her personal journey into sacred geometry and how these ancient traditions have shaped her practice, teaching, and artwork. Through this conversation, listeners are invited into the rich, intricate world of sacred Yogic arts and the deeper meaning behind these practices. They discuss… The profound relationship between Yant...
2024-09-131h 00
Enjoy Selection of Full Audiobooks in Fiction & Literature, GeneralVirginia Lane is Not a Hero - Rosalind StoppsListen to this audiobook in full for free onhttps://epod.spaceTitle: Virginia Lane is Not a HeroAuthor: Rosalind StoppsNarrator: Stephanie BeattieFormat: UnabridgedLength: 9:56:47Language: EnglishRelease date: 08-29-2024Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers UKGenres: Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Detective StoriesSummary:'It's wise, warm and compelling' Daily Mail
‘This standout read is both dark and uplifting’ Fabulous
* * *
Ever since her beloved Jed died, all Virginia wants is to be left alone. But the little girl who lives down the street is so swee...
2024-08-299h 56
Get Best Full Audiobooks in Mystery, Thriller & Horror, Police & DetectiveVirginia Lane is Not a Hero by Rosalind StoppsPlease visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/693833 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Virginia Lane is Not a Hero Author: Rosalind Stopps Narrator: Stephanie Beattie Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 56 minutes Release date: August 29, 2024 Genres: Police & Detective Publisher's Summary: 'It's wise, warm and compelling' Daily Mail ‘This standout read is both dark and uplifting’ Fabulous * * * Ever since her beloved Jed died, all Virginia wants is to be left alone. But the little girl who lives down the street is so sweet, that even in her grief-fuelled state Virginia’s heart softens whenever she sees her. And that’s why Virginia knows there’s...
2024-08-2905 min
The Heart of YogaThe Lifesaving Power of Yoga with Raúl PetragliaIn this episode of the Heart of Yoga podcast, Raul Petraglia, a former high-flying corporate executive, shares his incredible journey from the high-stress world of luxury hospitality to finding profound peace through the practice of Yoga. Raul opens up about his past life of excess and stress, the physical and emotional toll it took on him, and how a serious health crisis led him to discover Yoga. This transformative experience not only saved his life but also inspired him to dedicate himself to sharing the healing power of Yoga with others, including the corporate world he once inhabited.
2024-08-281h 08
The Heart of YogaFrom The Archives: Are You Born In The Wrong Body?Teaching at Liliana Lakshmi's teaching training, this question arises.. hear the response. In this episode, Mark explores how Yoga can provide a sense of unity and belonging amidst conflict and division in the world. He emphasizes that Yoga is not about seeking or trying to get somewhere, but recognizing and participating in the beauty, power and extraordinary intelligence that is always there, the wholeness and the harmony. Mark argues that religious seeking and presumption of separation are the root of conflict, and Yoga dissolve this illusion. He shares the principles from Krishnamacharya on adapting Yo...
2024-08-1556 min
The Heart of YogaDemystifying Tantra - A Conversation with Domagoj Orlić - Part 2In this episode, Rosalind and Domagoj have an enlightening discussion demystifying Tantra. They explore how Tantra is a path to freedom that teaches you to fall in love with life. Tantra aims to help one realize everything is infinite and discover naturalness, spontaneity and openness to the mystery of life. Rituals in Tantra go hand in hand with meditation and realization of the teachings within oneself. The goal is freedom and absolute independence. They talk about transcending duality between matter and spirit, external rituals and internal experiences, embracing life and relationships as they are.
2024-08-0733 min
The Heart of YogaDemystifying Tantra - A Conversation with Domagoj Orlić - Part 1In part one of this two part episode, Rosalind is joined by Domagoj Orlić to demystify tantra, a profoundly misunderstood spiritual tradition. As both a scholar and practitioner of Tantra, Domagoj sheds light on what Tantra actually is, its key principles and aims, and how it differs from the "Neo-Tantra" appropriated in the West. They explore Tantra's emphasis on liberation through feeling unity with the divine feminine, why ritual and initiation by a guru matters, and how Tantra can help overcome conditioning to realize inherent power. Domagoj clarifies Tantra's nuanced relationship wit...
2024-07-3137 min
The Heart of YogaDiscovering Wholeness and Beauty Amidst SufferingThis episode features Kathrin, a Yoga practitioner and mother of two living in Germany. She shares how she came to Yoga to relieve suffering during the pandemic, and through her daily practice discovered a profound intimacy with her own body and breath. Kathrin describes how Yoga helped her shift from feelings of "not being enough" to simply receiving and participating in each moment just as it is. She and Mark discuss how Yoga connects us to the miracle of life, and talk about translating this experience into everyday life and language. Key topics include releasing s...
2024-07-2451 min
The Heart of Yoga“Christians need Yoga“ The story of a Christian Yogi with Paul HoffmanThis episode features Paul Hoffman, a devoted Christian who discovered yoga and has found it deeply enriches his religious life and spiritual connection. He shares how yoga complements Christian teachings and practices, helping him integrate breath, movement and prayer. Paul recounts his journey to incorporating yoga into his church community and daily spiritual rituals. He provides insights into how yoga can allow Christians and people of all backgrounds to more fully embody sacred teachings. They discuss... - How yoga created a framework for Paul's daily devotional practice and...
2024-07-191h 10
The Heart of YogaAlready Free: The Life of Yogini Acharya Akia MerrittThis episode features yogini Akia Merritt who shares her life journey growing up in Miami and discovering her capital S Self through yoga sadhana. Akiya recounts the journey from aspiring fashion designer in New York City to becoming a capital-Y Yoga teacher, and the pitfalls of the industry along the way. Relatable to everyone whose journey has taken them far from where they started, and then back home with compassion. Mark and Akia discuss: - Akia’s childhood in poverty, family struggles with addiction, and dangerous neighborhood in Miami - Her...
2024-07-1042 min
The Heart of YogaWomen, Life, Freedom ژن، ژیان، ئازادیThis episode features a powerful and insightful conversation between Mark and a Yogini living in Iran, who we refer to as Sarah for her safety. They discuss the ongoing revolution and protests in Iran, along with the government brutality and oppression people, especially women, face daily. Sarah shares her personal experiences surviving the turmoil, finding refuge through community, and taking action for freedom through sharing yoga's teachings. This episode offers an inside look at Iran's struggle, the universal need for connection, and the hope that comes from within through truly knowing oneself.
2024-07-0350 min
The Heart of YogaYoga Education in Schools Y.E.S. with Andrew RabaRosalind and Andrew meet again to lay out the vision for the Heart of Yoga ‘YES’ programme: Yoga Education in Schools. Andrew shares the vision behind it: for every young person to leave school with a basic yoga education including the ability to practice connection with body and breath at home by themselves. We discuss how the project was born from Andrew's experience teaching yoga at a high school in New Zealand, where he saw firsthand how it benefited both students and teachers. And we discuss the 8-week teen yoga course that is...
2024-06-2654 min
The Heart of YogaFrom The Archive: Mark at The Omega InstituteThis episode is a recording of a talk Mark Whitwell gave at the Omega Institute in New York in 2008. He speaks of Reality itself as an intelligent nurturing force, like a mother. Yoga is our direct participation in this nurturing reality, not an effort to achieve some future spiritual goal. This episode is a dharmic reset-reminder of yoga as participation in union, merging strength and receptivity just as we came into being ourselves through the union of our parents. Mark encourages listeners to see that any pain or difficult circumstance in life is ultimately healing an...
2024-06-1952 min
The Heart of YogaGod And Sex: Part 3Welcome back to “God and Sex” book club part 3. Mark and Rosalind argue about themes of the book around relationship, love and intimacy. Mark goes to the root of things as usual, connecting up the separate self to how relationship chaos plays out, and how yoga intervenes. We discuss the longing for a “soulmate” and whether this idea is useful, reflect on the China teacher training, and a few more controversial subjects relating to intimacy. Be aware some of these subjects may be connected with painful emoti...
2024-06-1354 min
The Heart of YogaIntimacy With The Natual World w/Henriette GerberThis episode explores rekindling our innate connection to nature through yoga and sensing practices. Rosalind has an insightful conversation with her friend Henriette Geber, a yogini with a deep love of the mountains, plants and animals. They discuss how yoga helps us become more sensitive, intuit nature's aliveness, and dissolve harmful ways of relating that assume separation. Henriette shares how yoga empowers her natural affinities, from studying art history to living with the German Alps. We discuss removing overlays of ideology to intuitively relate directly with the living world. ...
2024-06-051h 04
The Heart of YogaAndrew Raba: Keeping Safe with Psychics and SeersIn this week's episode of the Heart of Yoga Podcast, Mark and Andy Raba explore the world of psychics, seers, shamans and sages. As director of the Yoga Education in Schools Charitable Trust in New Zealand, Andy leads initiatives to bring yoga-based health programs to young people in NZ and abroad.With a Master's degree and over a decade of experience fostering literacy in NZ schools, Andrew has extensively published on yoga and meditation and is dedicated to bringing yoga's benefits to students' wellbeing. They discuss how to discern truth from charlatanry, the ethics around predicting the...
2024-03-1452 min
The Heart of YogaNo Such Thing as A Thoughtless State: Embracing Presence Over Ideals in Yoga with Eva KošćakIn this episode, Mark interviews Eva about her journey discovering Yoga and music. Eva shares how she was classically trained in cello as a child but hated the competitive pressure. She dropped music for 18 years until finding Yoga, which helped her rediscover enjoyment and presence. A few years into Yoga, Eva spontaneously picked up guitar and started playing purely for pleasure, posting videos online. Mark and Eva explore how yoga catalyzed Eva's musical reawakening. Yoga helped Eva let go of striving for perfection and future attainment, and instead play music for the joy of each m...
2023-11-271h 04
The Heart of YogaFrom Recognition to Embodiment: A Yogi's Journey with Irina EspositoIn this episode of the Heart of Yoga podcast, Mark has an insightful conversation with his student Irina Esposito about her journey with Yoga. The cosmos and everything in the cosmos is obviously a pure intelligence, energy and an intrinsic harmony. In religious language of ancient India it is Shiva Shakti… or all that is, and there are no problems. This was Irina’s sudden realization. It hit her “like a done of bricks”. This is the realization of an ordinary life of anybody when the Hatha Yoga Tantras are practiced daily, actually, naturally and non obsessively. Lif...
2023-11-1447 min
The Heart of YogaBreathing, Unity, and Healing: On The Yoga Bus with Joseph LauricellaIn this episode, I'm joined by Joseph Lauricella. We dive into Joseph's journey on The Yoga Bus, making yoga accessible to everyone. It is truly inspiring. We talk about the power of yoga for newcomers and the limitations of the popular styles. Joseph shares his motivation behind his book, "Miracle of Body Wisdom," and his vision for authentic yoga education for all. We discuss the discipline of writing a book. Also the function of yoga in dealing with anxiety in tough times. We explore how whole body breathing can boost our well-being and making yoga...
2023-10-231h 03
The Heart of YogaKurtis Goodwolf x Mark Whitwell: A Voyage to India, Mark's First StepsIn this episode, we dive deep into Mark's transformative journey to India. Mark shares his personal experiences and first impressions upon arriving in this vibrant and diverse country. He discusses how The Beatles' presence in Rishikesh influenced his interest in Indian wisdom traditions, making it a global phenomenon. Mark reflects on the powerful impact of rock music from England and the U.S. on his life, particularly highlighting the musical genius of Ray Davies from The Kinks. He opens up about his initial moments in India, painting a vivid picture of the sights, sounds, and emotions that...
2023-09-0742 min
The Rose WomanKundalini Tantra with Christine Marie MasonKundalini Tantra is an ancient art of harnessing inner energy for self-discovery, profound intimacy, and spiritual awakening. In honor of sexual health awareness month, we return to our roots- we talk tantra, love, sex, the root chakra and moolabhanda and the pelvic basin and so much more.We cover some Kundalini basics, including accessing and taming the energy coiled at the base of the spine, and some tantric practices like the three muscle sets in the pelvic basin. Christine also offers a how to on yab yum with a partner, as a beginning exercise.
2023-09-0140 min
The Heart of YogaYoga Adapted to Cultural Context: Japan with Minami TakashimaOur guest today is our wonderful collaborator in Japan, Minami Takashima. Minami is a yogini and heart of Yôga teacher, teaching in the traditions of the hathayoga non dual Tantra. She has written the introduction to the Japanese second edition of Mark Whitwell’s Yôga Heart and teaches throughout Japan and the world. Born in Sapporo, Japan, she found that early life spiritual awakenings were not really helping with the pain of corporate life and socialization, but were rather making society’s misalignment with nature’s flow even more obvious and miserable. One day, she...
2023-07-0740 min
The Heart of YogaClayton Joseph Scott Talks of Music, Addiction, Seeking and SurrenderClayton Joseph Scott is a singer, songwriter and master Yoga Teacher. Born in Los Angeles, California, he attended Santa Monica High School. Clayton lived most of his life as a street hustling native of Venice Ca. He was raised in the culture of musicians and pioneers of the counter culture. Clayton speaks clearly about over coming addiction of every kind. He was in his own words, a gourmet addict, masterful at keeping addictions finely counteracting each so as to hold them in all in place. Until…. ? As a Yôga enthusiast (one of his addi...
2023-06-161h 39
The Heart of YogaWhat is a Yogini? Liliana Lakshmi : From India to the Americas and Bali to Berlin (#50)Liliana Lakshmi and her husband Satya are renowned yoga teachers, whose influence extends from India to the Americas, and from Berlin to Bali. Liliana, born into tribal culture of indigenous shamans of Colombia was quickly able to understand the shamanic cultures of ancient India, their yogas of participation and the profound realization of their ancient cultures, both of India and the Americas. Liliana is the hope of humanity, and she will not be exploited by any mere belief systems or point of view. She embraces all life and all cultures in the samyama of truth, the spotlight of absolute...
2023-03-2950 min
The Heart of YogaA Yogini Amidst Unspeakable Love and Pain (#49)Ernessa Bergman is a world-travelling Yogini, Mother and Biosynthesis / Somatic Body Psychotherapist who is currently living and working in Tel Aviv, Israel. She reflects on her long friendship with Mark at trainings around the world and her life as a mother and yoga teacher. In this episode you will hear... '' ...you torture yourself with the insanity of trying to get enlightened or something, or the insanity of trying to get to God. It is completely insane. It creates the separate self that is seeking.'' ''...In the heart, that's where it...
2023-03-0151 min
The Heart of YogaThe Yoga Confessions - Mark interviews Rosalind Atkinson (#48)Mark Whitwell interviews Rosalind Atkinson about her life with yoga and realisations. In particular, Mark asks about her academic studies of english literature, especially the mystic poet William Blake, and the relevance of these studies to her life in yoga. This episode will be of interest to anyone with a mixed experience in academia or poetry, who is interested in the yogic process of making inspiration relevant to our lives right now. We also discuss the last two years of teaching around the world through zoom, and end with a little teaser about a new...
2023-02-141h 12
The Heart of YogaAnne-Tyler Harshbarger: From Prima Ballerina to Real Yoga for Real People (#47) What is natural movement for a human being? In this episode we are graced with the presence of Anne-Tyler, yogini of the Americas and her profound story of evolving movement patterns from the strictures of ballet into the natural forms for a human body. Mark and Anne-Tyler discuss learning to dance from a young age in the UK and developing her skills when moved back to the US, and how it wasn't obvious that ballet is a very unnatural way of movement. They discuss abuse of power in the world of ballet and the feeling of being replaceable at any min...
2022-10-111h 23
The Heart of YogaPatrick Ryan: In the World Not of the World (#46)Mark and his dear friend Patrick collude at the beach in Australia to discuss Patrick's life of Yoga and insight. They unpack the lie of "trying to get there" through Yoga. Get where? We are already here! Patrick breaks down the regular Australian conditioning of beer and sport, and relates how one sentence from a partner inspired a quest for change. They chart the murky waters of addiction to asana, and transforming it to participation in reality. Patrick teaches Yoga and Tai Chi in Australia, Sri Lanka and Fiji, and has been the...
2022-08-0351 min
The Heart of YogaHow to be a Yoga Teacher with Maja Dakskobler and Mark Whitwell (#45)This podcast tells the story of Maja’s transition from social activism to Yoga revelation. How Yoga becomes the means to enacting the change we want to see. As Gandhi said.. “be the change you want to see.” In this conversation we hear once again the process to become an actual Yoga teacher in real life and community. From Sloviana Maja’s background and society has had its own traumas and horrific trials. Life has been difficult. Maja speaks of her personal victory in the midst of societal patterning, hostility and despair. As a government public h...
2022-06-231h 02
The Heart of YogaFinding Our Own Sadhana with Manisha (#44)In this episode we are graced by world-friend & yogini without borders Manisha Lebel. Yoga Teacher, Naturopath, Herbalist & Wisdom Holder. Manisha and Rosalind discuss how Manisha's extensive yoga practice, teaching and academic research backgrounds resonated straightaway with the breath principles Mark was passing on. We talk about being an outsider, New Zealand colonial patterning, people pleasing (especially as women), and how we can cut through indoctrination and authoritarianism of all kinds and stand in our own ground. We cut through the illusions of generational barriers to express our heartfelt gratitude for the friendship of each other.
2022-05-111h 20
The Heart of YogaFinding Our Own Sadhana with ManishaIn this episode we are graced by world-friend & yogini without borders Manisha Lebel. Yoga Teacher, Naturopath, Herbalist & Wisdom Holder. Manisha and Rosalind discuss how Manisha's extensive yoga practice, teaching and academic research backgrounds resonated straightaway with the breath principles Mark was passing on. We talk about being an outsider, New Zealand colonial patterning, people pleasing (especially as women), and how we can cut through indoctrination and authoritarianism of all kinds and stand in our own ground. We cut through the illusions of generational barriers to express our heartfelt gratitude for the friendship of e...
2022-05-101h 20
The Heart of YogaBecoming a Yoga Teacher "Capital Y" (#43)How do we make the shift from practitioner to teacher? Who should become a teacher? How do we make sure we don't become "One more monkey" in the yoga industrial complex? How to keep the heart in yoga? Mark interviews Andrew about his experience of this process and emergence from the middle-class massage into a life of meaning, play, & subversive subtlety as a practitioner & teacher. Andrew talks about his current project offering yoga in high schools for both students and teachers, drawing on his own experience as a disillusioned teenager chafing against the restrictions of school and...
2022-04-231h 04The Heart of YogaHow to Find a Yoga Teacher''How to find a good yoga teacher? How do you find a teacher that you trust, and can generate a connection with? Not only that, but find a teacher that does not see themselves in a position of power and does not have your monetary value as student in their ’business’ as a priority?" In this episode Mark and Rosalind talk about this most basic of questions, along with the even more basic questions of why we would even want a yoga teacher, and what that is anyway. Some aspects we cover: - The ori...
2022-04-0456 min
The Heart of YogaInitiation Into Wisdom with Alesha Keen (#41)A conversation between Rosalind and Alesha Keen, yogini & important teacher of the UK. Alesha is breaking new ground in England, drawing upon her decades of experience across yoga, psychotherapy, and numerous other modalities from West and East to help individuals "bloom in their own garden." In our wide-ranging discussion, she offers us her first-hand yogic perspective on the initiations into embodied wisdom through our life, including the profound gateway into eldership of the menopause. Some of the other things we discussed: - The need for Yoga to be adapted to our bodies and l...
2022-03-281h 09
The Heart of YogaThe Yoga of Business and the Business of Yoga with Ryan Stanley (E40)Ryan Stanley is the Heart of Yoga in San Diego. He teaches from the heart to the heart of everybody. The message from UG Krishnamurti that "there is nothing to be liberated from" hit him like a tonne of bricks, and since then he has been restructuring his practice, yoga studio and teaching around this whole-body realisation. Here he talks with Mark about the transition from 'yoga sales' to yoga instructor to an actual Yoga Teacher, sincerely caring about self and others. He has managed to bring all the other styles and put them into the context of the breath pr...
2022-03-211h 17
The Heart of YogaSybille Schlegel in the Heart of EuropeMark sits down with long-time friend and German Yogini Sybille Schlegel to reflect on many things, including the dreadful shadow of war in Europe, with its grim echoes of the past. Sybille draws on her background in history and present role as co-founder and teacher of Hatha Vinyasa Parampara Studio in Mainz. A student of Sanskrit, she talks about the journey from conscientious western academic to whole-body understanding. Sybille speaks about discovering the principles of Krishnamacharya and the implications for her teaching and community, the influence of the sage Nisargadatta Maharaj, and the impact of yoga on all relationships. As we...
2022-03-121h 30
The Heart of YogaYogi Jeremiah Brimlow, Urban Angel of New York in conversation with MarkFrom the banks of the holy Ganga to the East Village, Manhattan, Jeremiah Brimlow and Mark’s friendship has flourished. Jeremiah is a bridge of the ancient world to the modern times, of east and west, but also of the early days of yoga arriving in New York City to the current situation. Mark and Jeremiah reflect on the shifts they have seen, on the legacy of the US counterculture, and staying in the pure essence of spirituality in a confused world of spiritual business. Jeremiah is the Urban Angel because he does just that. In this episode you will hear...
2022-01-051h 13
The Heart of YogaIntimacy with Life with Malika Warda and Mark WhitwellMalika Warda is a mystic Yogini poet currently residing in the land of ancient light, Western Australia, and co-founder of the extraordinary yoga, meditation and sound healing studio Cntrspace in Perth. She is the author of a book of poetry by the same name, a photographer, and a deep explorer of the human experience, drawing on her Yogic, Palestinian and Australian Indigenous heritage. Malika and Mark speak about her journey to find the real depth Yoga offers, the impact of finding it on her relationships with self and others, the unfolding of a profound yogic sexuality, and healing the...
2021-12-1835 min
The Heart of YogaDevaraj and Mark on Yoga and ReligionWhat is the relationship between Yoga and religion? Following on from last week’s episode with Janet Marshall talking about Yoga and Catholicism, this week we are honoured to be joined by Devaraj from Chennai, speaking from his perspective about the relationship between religion and Yoga. Is Yoga Hinduism? How do the two intersect? Devaraj was born and lives in the city where Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar taught for many years, and where they established the Krishanamacharya Yoga Mandiram, there to this day. He holds a fascinating perspective on Yoga and how it has empowered his...
2021-12-0749 min
The Heart of YogaYoga as the Practical Means to Actualize Scripture with Janet MarshallMark Whitwell discusses with Yoga Teacher Janet Marshall of California the process of becoming a Yogini and Transmitter of Yoga. Janet talks about how Yoga helped her to actually understand for herself what was being talked about in the sacred text of her religious culture. They discuss going beyond the restrictions of the usual life, and surviving getting lost in the sea of Yoga knowledge and coming back to the simplicity of the heart.Janet Marshall is a mother of three and Yoga Teacher in Southern California, and is deeply versed in Yoga philosophy and the Yoga...
2021-12-011h 22
The Heart of YogaWeaving Community Health: Ilil Lunkry and Tali Tali CollectiveIlil is the Heart behind Tali Tali collective, a social enterprise to nurture indigenous weaving traditions (tali tali means weaving) and create income for rural women, including here on Taveuni island, Fiji. Rosalind speaks with her about Tali Tali, the extraordinary hand made Yoga mats they are helping bring to the world, and the "Woven Village" program just completed, which included teaching yoga in the rural indigenous villages of Taveuni Island. Ilil talks about the joys and challenges of adapting Yoga to the needs of the women, being sensitive to Christian culture and traditional village culture.
2021-11-1150 min
The Heart of YogaThe Yin and Yang of Yoga: The Heart of Yoga in ChinaRonan Tang and Xi Zhu are a bridge for humanity between East and West, master translators and facilitators of the Heart of Yoga in China. Together they facilitate the unity of ancient wisdom traditions. What is the relationship between Daoism and Veda, between Yoga and Chinese Traditional Wisdom practices? What is the relationship of ha-tha yoga to the yin and yang of the Dao? How does Tai Chi relate to Yoga? Ronan and Xi are the living examples of the answers to these questions in China, dear friends bringing together the wisdom traditions of their culture with those of their...
2021-11-021h 00
The Heart of YogaStaying Local, Going Global with Jessica PattersonJessica Patterson is the founder and director of Root Centre for Yoga and Sacred Studies, which she offers to the world from her home in Colorado Springs, USA. Jessica is someone who has managed to successfully keep the heart in Yoga. She escaped the "Yoga Industrial Complex," and continues to teach purely as the force of nurturing in local community — and beyond. Jessica speaks with Mark about keeping the Centre going through the pandemic, whilst always acknowledging that "Yoga is Not Commercial Activity". This episode will be heart-food for all practitioners and teachers "swimming against the stream" of commercialism and heg...
2021-10-261h 14
The Heart of YogaYoga Without the Struggle with Mark and RosalindYoga is not seeking for a future idealism. Yoga is participation in the given Reality (capital R). The beauty, the wonder, the power, the harmony that is intrinsic to your life. Yoga is not to use the body or the mind to seek. Yoga is to give the body and all ordinary conditions over to the capital-R Reality, which is its context. The collaboration of great luminaries has freed yoga from the unnecessary struggle that leaves so many people injured or disappointed. Mark and Rosalind discuss the implications of Yoga without struggle. In this episode you will h...
2021-10-191h 14
The Heart of YogaYoga and Psychedelics with Andrew Raba and Mark WhitwellSince psychedelics first escaped the research environment and sparked the counter-culture in the mid twentieth century, they have been aligned with the traditions of the East. But how do Yoga and psychedelics relate to each other? Are they complementary? Or antagonistic? Mark and Andy discuss the original counterculture, the current "psychedelic renaissance" and latest applications to mental health, as well as their own experiences. In this episode you will hear... 01.32 High school Yoga catching on. The Divine is not located elsewhere. The colonization of spirit based cultures. 08:00 Scr...
2021-09-271h 11
The Heart of YogaFrom Addiction to Freedom with Simone KingMark and Simone discuss the roots of addiction, its cause and its cure. Simone relates her journey through her husband's early death and being mother to three little boys through to adulthood. Simone holds a PhD in nursing and works in the field of chronic pain. She is the author of Yoga Rx for the 12 Steps, and working on a new book on helping friends and family deal with addiction in their loved ones. Simone's story is a reminder that Motherhood is yoga. Our teacher Krishnamacharya would say that mothers are the nurturers of the community, therefore they must be nur...
2021-09-191h 06
The Heart of YogaFinding Our Own Authority with Minami TakashimaMinami Takashima was a successful business woman in corporate Japan, and here she tells her story of stepping out of exploitation and corporate hierarchy and stepping into her own power. Minami and Rosalind talk about the role of Yoga in this journey and how it has inspired her to teach across different countries and languages. The key theme is finding the authority of our experience and power. Minami offers private sessions in person in Nelson, New Zealand, and over Zoom in English and Japanese. You can find her on Instagram here : @yogawithminami In this episode you will h...
2021-09-0657 min
Reach Truth PodcastYoga and Intimacy with Rosalind AtkinsonTasshin speaks with Rosalind Atkinson (@wholebodyprayer) about yoga, daily practice, romance, sexuality, intimacy, and the spiritual path.
Rosalind on Twitter
Rosalind's Website
Rosalind on Instagram
Rosalind discussing William Blake with River
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2021-09-011h 41
The Heart of YogaMike B and The UniverseMike Bucher is a musician in Los Angeles. His band, Iglu and Hartley have had hit singles around the world — great uplifting rock and roll. He now ventures forth as "Mike B and the Universe" with has solo album just released, 'Bloom Baby Bloom'. Mike is a yogi and a teacher in the heart of yoga. Mike speaks candidly about staying real in the midst of celebrity and the life of a working musician, and speaks about how Yoga has been a catalyst for his life, music and relationship. He teaches in Los Angeles and on...
2021-08-301h 05
The Rose WomanProfound MeetingsAs the podcast community grows, Christine reintroduces herself and the purpose of the show through four stories of profound meetings in her own life, and puts the question out: what meetings have been profound for you? What is a profound meeting?Paying attention to the first hit. Mentions: Jill Manchester, Marty StollerCapacity and Calling out the Best in Others: ROTC boot camp at Ft. Knox, KY and meeting Drill Sargent CollinsSelf Acceptance and Not Power Yoga: Meeting Mark Whitwell (15 min in) (also mentions Rosalind Atkinson Jodi Blumstein, Baron Baptiste, Parayoga and Rod Stryker, Esalen Institute)Forgi...
2021-08-1232 min
The Heart of YogaIntimacy with the Living World, with Kelsey BarrettKelsey Barrett is a modern-day witch. She is a practicing herbalist and Yogini. Mark says: “In previous centuries she would have been burnt at the stake for her strange powers that threatened the knowledge authority of orthodoxy. She would have been shunned to the outskirts of the town, a forest dweller with twigs and moss in her hair and strange garb. These days the public realize she has useful healing powers, so allow her to enter the town or village.” Kelsey combines medicinal herbs, Yoga and intimacy arts to help her friends navigate the...
2021-08-081h 16
Chill out Offering of Full Audiobooks in Self Development, Health & WellnessBeginner’s Guide to Murder - Rosalind StoppsListen to this audiobook in full for free onhttps://epod.spaceTitle: Beginner’s Guide to MurderAuthor: Rosalind StoppsNarrator: Charlotte Strevens, Cornelia ColmanFormat: UnabridgedLength: 10:34:41Language: EnglishRelease date: 07-22-2021Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers UKGenres: Comedy, Satire & ParodySummary:* Longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award 2022 *
‘Guaranteed to hook you . . . At times both touching and darkly funny’ Anna Bailey, Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones
‘A beguiling, beautifully crafted treat of a novel. It holds so much wisdom yet wears it so li...
2021-07-2210h 34
Welcome to Dave's Music RoomImages, Divertimentos, and Mississippi GoddamEpisode #21: Images, Divertimentos, and Mississippi Goddam
Uploaded: July 17, 2021
Alessandro Melani: Sinfonia à 5
I. [0:50]
II. [1:36]
III. [1:38]
IV. [1:58]
Dennis Ferry, natural trumpet
Gordan Murray, organ
Jonathan Rubin, lute, theorbo
Chiara Banchini, violin
Enrico Gatti, violin
Käthi Gohl, ‘cello
Cléna Stein, contrabass
HARMONIA MUNDI FRANCE MUSIQUE D’ABORD HMA 1905137
Virgil Thomson: The Feast of Love [7:40]
David Catworthy, baritone
Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
Howard Hanson, conductor
MERCURY LIVING...
2021-07-162h 23
The Heart of YogaYoga is Relationship (Part 1)Yoga IS Relationship. What does that mean? I thought it was doing the splits on the beach and posting it on Instagram? I thought it was living alone in a cave for twenty years until you could live on just air? Mark and Rosalind explore just exactly HOW yoga transforms our relationships, and lift the lid on some of the challenges and dysfunctions in relationships that make yoga sorely needed. Some previous relationship dysfunctions get aired as examples of the usual mess and how it can change. We discuss...
2021-07-0554 min
The Heart of YogaSpecial Episode: Heart of Yoga Global Teacher ConversationIn this special episode, we share (with permission) edited extracts from a May weekly “Teacher’s Gathering” in the Heart of Yoga Studio. Mark is speaking about who can teach Yoga, about what is required to teach Yoga, and about being your authentic self. Teachers around the world share their experience, discussing what the role of the teacher really is, how to cope with teaching on zoom, and whether you can even decide to be a yoga teacher. A capital-R Reality check and sense of communal support for all teachers out there. This...
2021-05-291h 12
The Heart of YogaIt’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)In this week’s episode, Mark and Rosalind talk about the expansion of consciousness that happened in the 60s and beyond, “on wings of song.” It was the Beatles going to Rishikesh that first took Mark to India, and we tease out these connections between the two “freedom systems” of Yoga and rock and roll. We listen to the Kinks with the first use of sitar-like drone on a western pop song (“See My Friends”) and talk about Little Richard’s riotous performances as group therapy for a repressed society. Can rock and roll be legitimately...
2021-05-121h 08
The Heart of YogaOn Board the Yoga Bus with Joseph LauricellaAs yoga studios shut down across the world, yoga teacher Joseph Lauricella came untethered from his Chicago teaching space, yet he wanted to find a safe way to be in Nature and continue to share practices of breath and intimacy with yourself with people. The ‘The Yoga Bus’ project was born. Continuing public education into Yoga as spiritual practice, so much more than fitness. Joseph Lauricella is the author of 3am Bull Rider, a memoir about living on the road across the United States in 1995, Codi and the Maple Tree, a children’s book b...
2021-04-231h 20
The Heart of YogaHow to Be a Person: with Mark Whitwell and Andrew RabaMark sits down again with his friend Andrew Raba to talk about education, cultishness, ambition, choosing a career path, the mess that is our early twenties, psychedelics, and learning Yoga. What is self-understanding? Where do we find it? Is ambition a positive or negative quality? How do we know what to do with our lives? What is Yoga exactly and how can it help? How do I find my natural directions? Mark and Andy discuss these questions and others, under the overarching theme of Yoga and the empowerment of self-responsibility, making the choice to love and to...
2021-03-251h 09
The Heart of YogaYoga, Love and Grief with Durga Julia SanchezIn this week’s episode we are joined by the eternal warm love presence of Durga Julia Sánchez, musician, yogini, and inspiration. Durga speaks to us from her home country of Colombia of her extraordinary heart-connection with her beloved teacher and husband Ramgiri, and the immense process of courage that is calling us all to open our heart to one another. And of the heart-wrenching process of grief that we must go through when that love transitions from in the body to the formless, as it will for us all. And the role of Yoga in all...
2021-02-261h 04
The Heart of YogaFrom Yoga as escape to Yoga as embrace — Mark Whitwell and Ana BerryIn this episode, Mark sits down (over Zoom) with his dear long-time friend Ana Berry: musician, media presenter, actress, Yoga teacher and mother. Ana describes growing up in Oklahoma and the saving influence of jazz and gospel, and the imprint of culture upon her mother as a beauty queen and TV personality. From Hollywood to New York, her search for Yoga that didn’t just exacerbate body self-hatred culminated in meeting Mark in a class in LA, followed by initiation into the ancient roots of Yoga with Mark at the Kumbh Mela in India. Wh...
2021-02-141h 05
The Heart of YogaLife is Spirals - Melissa Forbes, Yogini, Artist, Yantra CreatorA special edition of the Heart of Yoga podcast as Melissa Forbes speaks about her life as an artist and Yoga practitioner and her friendship with UG Krishnamurti. How do we describe him? It’s difficult, but with love and gratitude, delight and humour, Melissa and Mark reminisce about their unusual friend - Melissa travelled with UG for the last five years of his life as his companion and “balance.” She speaks about the power of art to help people use their right brain instead of the dominant left-brain, her obsession with spirals as the...
2021-02-0754 min
The Heart of YogaYogis Are Not Built on Assembly Lines - Frederic "Champagne" Ballario and Mark WhitwellThese interviews are useful because they describe how many different kinds of people receive Yoga and make use of Yoga, and how Yoga is functioning in their personal and unique lives. “Yogis are not made on assembly lines.” In this episode, Mark speaks with Frederic Ballario, his long-time friend, on his process of discovering the breath and the Yoga of wine and Tea. Frederic describes moving from Champagne, France to California, USA, many years ago and searching for the truth in wine. Frederic is a master of Tea and Wine, and he explains how...
2021-01-261h 09
The Heart of YogaLiving One Breath at a Time with Susan Swan and Mark WhitwellIn this episode, Susan Swan and Mark Whitwell talk about Susan’s experience as a Yoga teacher, including suffering a stroke and continuing to teach while rehabilitating. Susan speaks about recovering language through breath, swearing and the sound of OM, coming face to face with the reality that we live one breath at a time, and teaching yoga in hospital to help other patients recover. Together, long-time friends Mark and Susan discuss the inevitable decline of the body, finding contentment despite it all, the pain of facing judgement and abandonment, and some possible positive outcomes fr...
2021-01-151h 04
Mark WhitwellMark Whitwell and Rosalind Atkinson | God and Sex: Now We Get Both Part 2In this Part 2 (you don't need to listen to part 1 first!) of God and Sex discussion, Mark Whitwell and Rosalind talk about:
Why we need both strength and receptivity
How we develop receptivity via our asana
Why we must address the denial of the feminine and put a spotlight on sex as a topic rather than avoid it
How a Yoga practice is the context in which we become receptive in relationship with another
How sex and intimate relationships are a direct participation of Mother Nature's grand plan
But do you have to be in an intimate relationship...
2021-01-1157 min
The Heart of YogaGod and Sex: Now We Get Both Part 2 with Mark Whitwell and Rosalind AtkinsonIn this Part 2 (you don't need to listen to part 1 first!) of God and Sex discussion, Mark and Rosalind talk about: Why we need both strength and receptivity How we develop receptivity via our asana Why we must address the denial of the feminine and put a spotlight on sex as a topic rather than avoid it How a Yoga practice is the context in which we become receptive in relationship with another How sex and intimate relationships are a direct participation of Mother Nature's grand plan But do you have to be in an intimate relationship to...
2021-01-0857 min
The Heart of YogaI WANT SIDDHIS - Mark and Rosalind talk Yogic SuperpowersIn this episode Rosalind grills Mark on the promises made by the Yoga tradition, Yogananda’s classic ‘Autobiography of a Yogi,’ the lust for superpowers and supernatural experience and how it affects everyone, and what Mark’s favourite superpower is. What are siddhis anyway? What is the "psychic greed" that we may be numbed into by culture? Understanding spiritual promises as the axiom of modern society Mark talks about Gurus and miracle-makers he met in India and his response "Autobiography of a Yogi": truth or fiction? The transformational power of despair. How the yoga teacher extracts life-denying hopes and fant...
2020-12-221h 41
The Heart of YogaNeil Boyd – Yogi, Farmer and Friend“Dear friends, I was born in the spring of ‘54 to a farmer father and school teacher mother. Both of them children of homesteader parents. After grade 12 , in 72/‘73, I backpacked and worked through Europe and Northern Africa for nearly nine months. Returning home I began farming and attending an agricultural college receiving a diploma in Ag Production. I bought my first land when I was 18, and have been making a living raising crops and cattle ever since. I married well in ‘81 and together we have raised three children. I had the opportun...
2020-12-071h 13
The Heart of YogaFrom India to Germany in the Guru Parampara of Krishnamacharya – with R. SriramSriram is my Gurubhai – brothers of the same teacher. He is particularly interesting to me in that he is indigenous to South India, born into the society and language of Krishnamacharya and Desikachar. Whereas I migrated into that culture and knew nothing of it in my early life. As a modern man in the West, Sriram is an extremely informed Yoga teacher who is able to communicate the nuance of the culture of our teachers in modern and useful ways. Sriram speaks of growing up in South India as a radical young explorer of life an...
2020-11-252h 04
The Heart of YogaBelonging to Yourself with Litiana Lagibalavu and Mark WhitwellLitiana returns to the podcast for part two of this conversation on how yoga helped her throw out colonial and religious legacies from her body and embrace her own indigeneity, and truly feel at home in her body. Mark and her discuss her experiences, her vision for teaching dissociated world leaders, and their shared relationship with the Indian High commissioner and her poetry honouring Fiji. “You can't change anybody until you love them first.” Her conflict between feeling at home, but never fully belonging to her own self Yoga as a process of belonging to y...
2020-11-1146 min
The Heart of YogaA Return to Love: A Conversation with Karen WilliamsProducer, creator, model, Yoga and Qi Gong teacher, and advocate for empowered aging and beauty at all ages, Karen Williams joins Mark from New York City to talk yoga, healing, transforming attitudes to aging, embracing difference and emotionally surviving the US elections. Karen Williams is equally at home in front of or behind the camera. She is on a mission to revitalise global attitudes toward aging and embodiment, sharing the obvious truth that each one of us is already the beauty of life. A resident of New York City, Karen is leading the way to...
2020-11-061h 18
The Heart of YogaEnding Patterns of Limit: A Conversation with Domagoj OrlićFrom dark times in Europe through to personal victory. Croatian yoga teacher Domagoj Orlić joins Mark and Rosalind to speak about his twenty-year friendship with Mark, his evolution from a gymnast to a yogi, the influence of J Krishnamurti, and the confluence of Sri Vidya and yoga in his life. What a precious conversation with a dear friend and holder of yoga. “Powerful peace and peaceful power of a life lived straight from the Heart, for the Heart.” - Domagoj Orlić Domagoj Orlić first met Mark Whitwell in about 2000, following an interes...
2020-10-291h 21
The Heart of YogaStudies with Krishnamacharya: A Conversation with Richard SchechnerThis week we are so very glad to welcome Richard Schechner, who is a director, pioneer and founder in the field of performance studies, author of innumerable books, Professor Emeritus at New York University, editor of The Drama Review, and… a dedicated practitioner of the yoga he learned from his teacher, T. Krishnamacharya, in Chennai (then Madras) in 1971-72. What a blessing to talk life and India with this great thinker, who also happens to be a holder of the torch of yoga. In this episode, Mark, Rosalind and Richard discuss: How Richard came to...
2020-10-221h 06
The Heart of YogaBecoming Sane in the Yoga Circus - Q&AIn this episode, Rosalind takes the position of the everywoman yoga teacher, interviewing Mark on a lot of the questions and concerns people have as yoga teachers in our modern yoga scene. Rosalind and Mark discuss: The initial habit to put teachers on a pedestal and how we undermine it. What is “the Mick Jagger effect”? Dealing with embarrassment of being associated with the ‘yoga industrial complex’ and fear of not being able to give people what they have been led to believe yoga is. Do people really want their breath? Do they want intimacy? Or just sti...
2020-10-161h 02
The Heart of YogaClaiming Your Self in a World of Suffering with Mark and Andrew RabaIn this episode of The Heart of Yoga podcast, Mark and Andrew discuss: The relationship between Yoga and autonomy: empowerment, ideologies, and power structures Becoming your true Self and the role of culture in that process The acknowledgement of the teacher intervention in Yoga The teacher in Yoga: not a social, nor personal identity, but rather the force of Mother Nature's nurturing and local community The indoctrinated need for authority and how we can get free of it Yoga as a tool for lifting preconditioned patterns How Yoga empowers social activism The role of patience in yoga student-teacher...
2020-10-0831 min
The Heart of YogaGod and Sex: Now We Get BothGod and Sex: Perhaps the two most powerful and loaded words in the English language. This book is a serious, yet not humourless, stake in the ground for bringing the two words together in their intrinsic harmony as the creative force of life. Why a few publishers were frightened by the title “God and Sex” How sex has been vulgarized by religious culture and the burden of pornography How, by separating the concepts of God and Sex, humanity has made both of them useless, and created the whole Sex taboo in the first place Post-religious shock synd...
2020-09-301h 02
The Heart of YogaFrom Rebellion to Yoga with Litiana LagibalavuIn today’s episode, Mark interviews Litiana Lagibalavu, a yoga teacher, entrepreneur, lawyer in training, Indigenous Fijian, and a fierce activist philosopher building essential bridges between the ancient traditions of yoga and modern people of all kinds. She shares her story, her observations on teaching yoga in Fiji, and her journey into Yoga: Why she got interested in yoga in the first place and how it helped her find herself again The limitations of her own individual yoga training at the time and why she came to the Heart of yoga teacher (un)training on Taveuni If...
2020-09-1937 min
The Heart of YogaYour Body Loves Its BreathBreath is our direct participation in the power of the cosmos that you are. It is the central feature and even the purpose of asana, and yet is all but lost in much modern yoga. Breath is given lip service rather than careful engagement. Yet public attention is now turning to the power and healing potential of that overlooked miracle, our own breath. “If you can breathe, you can do Yoga!” Breath is the link between body and mind. Our body loves its breath and the inhale loves the exhale and vice versa. In t...
2020-08-291h 02
The Heart of YogaRemembering Desikachar and the Krishnamurtis in India, Switzerland and New ZealandT.K.V. Desikachar left us a vast wealth of practical knowledge about life and yoga by passing the precious jewels of wisdom from his father, Krishnamacharya. We continue to receive the gifts of Desikachar’s dedication to his father Krishnamacharya’s teachings and their friendships with Jiddu and UG Krishnamurti. Mark Whitwell first met Desikachar and his father in 1973, following extensive travels in India. He had met many gurus and yogis, but was struck by the fact that Desikachar and his family had no pomp and ceremony, no business agenda, and no need for name...
2020-08-291h 05
The Heart of YogaWhat is the heart of yoga?Mark Whitwell has been teaching yoga around the world ever since he first met his yoga teachers, T.K.V. Desikachar and his father T. Krishnamacharya, in Chennai in 1973. He realised straight away that our body loves its breath, the inhale loves the exhale and vice versa, and that yoga is an immensely practical and useful tool for everyone to respond to inspiration and grace. The Heart of Yoga is the result of these precious meetings. In this opening podcast episode, Rosalind Atkinson interviews Mark about the origins and purpose of the heart...
2020-08-291h 02
The Rose WomanSexologist Sunny Rodgers@Sunsplashrodgers on InstagramDr. Sunny RodgersSex Toy ConciergeGuest Bio:Dr. Sunny Rodgers is the Founder of Sunsplash Media Group, a consultant firm that helps people and companies expand into wellness lifestyle brands via product development, marketing, and as a spokesperson. She has worked in the wellness product industry since 2000. Rodgers founded The Institute of Intimate Health in 2019. She received her PhD in Human Sexuality in 2020, her masters degree as a Clinical Sexologist in 2017, and her certification as an accredited Sexual Health Educator in early 2018. She...
2020-08-0356 min