Favourite podcasts
I was listening to a podcast…
My friends groan every time I start a sentence this way! I LOVE podcasts and lots of the ones for and by yoga teachers are among my favourites. At some point I’ll do a blog post championing them. For now though, here are three great podcasts for those of you who want something a bit less niche.
Mindful In Minutes
Mindful In Minutes is a weekly podcast created by @yogaforyouonline Kelly Smith. Each episode is a different guided meditation, generally lasting about 15 minutes. Don’t worry if you’re new to meditation or have found it difficult in the past: you just hit play and listen to Kelly talk! Some of my recent favourites have been Morning Mantras (which includes a full-body scan), Mind Clearing Meditation (perfect for the end of a busy day), and Springtime Relaxation Meditation (which includes visualization). I love doing these meditations lying in bed, and save them on my downloaded podcasts so that I can use the meditations without having to go online immediately upon waking or just before sleep.
Yoga Is Dead
Yoga Is Dead is a six-episode series exploring how yoga is consumed, and often misinterpreted in the west. It’s presented by Tejal Patel and Jesal Parikh, who are Indian-American yoga teachers with lived experience of the topics they discuss. Each episode looks at a particular subculture within the yoga industry, such as veganism or teacher training, presenting detailed research in a clear but humorous way. If you want to learn about why yoga is much more than an exercise programme or broaden your media consumption to include people of colour in the yoga industry, this is a great place to start. I also recommend following @yogaisdeadpodcast on Instagram, plus Tejal’s @tejalyoga and Jesal’s @yogawalla individual accounts.
The Food Chain
The Food Chain is a BBC World Service programme that releases a new episode is week. Recent topics have included designing kitchen gadgets, food apartheid in the U.S., and the creation and acceptance of food emojis. Topics are generally explored by three guests, each from different countries, and there are also occasional episodes that take the form of interviews with one cook or food writer. It’s a great way to learn about current and historical issues in food production and consumption, and the daily nature of food in our lives means that conversations also show us much about the wider experiences of those featured in the programme. For those of us who want to engage with yoga as a practice of inclusion and social justice, this is a great place to start becoming more aware about the choices and limitations faced by others.
What are you listening to at the moment? I’d love to hear your recommendations and expand my own listening further.