Reika Shucart, host of the Full-Time Yoga Teacher Podcast, talks with J about what has become of studio culture and the realities of the profession in 2025. They discuss the differences between Japanese and American cultures, international development and volunteer tourism, teaching 28-30 classes/week, benefiting from online training, earning more money and ethical conflicts, mirrors, vegetarianism, less yoga specific offerings, lifestyle and identity, ashtanga active series, and getting outside the box to witness and inspire students.

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Paul Bramadat, Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at University of Victoria and author of Yogalands: In Search of Practice on the Mat and in the World, talks with J about letting your body settle the score and the anthropology of yoga. They discuss transformation and academic dispassion, experience vs intellectual reasoning, religious studies and small p politics, the response from academic circles to being a yoga teacher, healing properties of practice, coping with the world better, and connection to what animates your curiosity.

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Reggie Hubbard, founder of Active Peace Yoga, talks with J about recovering from a stroke and praying instead of protesting. They discuss his background in politics, the impact of 9/11, realities of a broken system, working for Bernie Sanders, navigating dark nights of the soul, collective liberation, coming into community, political neutrality as a privilege, having a stroke, turning to sound for healing, listening to your intuition, addressing dis-regulation with deep spiritual resonance, and gratitude for every little miracle.

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Aimee Echo, founder of Community Yoga Club/Ashtanga Yoga Long Beach, talks with J about the carrying on of tradition and the evolution of practice. They discuss parallel scenes in 90's LA and NY, sub culture of Mysore rooms, Patabhi Jois touring the US, studying with Sharath and Shruthi, authorization agreements and certification, Jois Yoga, aftermath of Sharath's death, a new "active" series, hands on adjustments, comparing Ashtanga and Desikachar, listening, and casting a shorter net to invite more serious inquiry and practice.

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Abby Hoffmann, founder of Yantra Studio, talks with J about their formative years and opening another yoga center again after they both swore they never would. They discuss ashtanga rooms in the late 90's, classes getting sweaty, being asked to teach before TT’s existed, moving out of the city, bringing yoga to dance training, emergence of rock star teachers, freer approaches to asana, taking a gig at hot studio chain, advantages to the boutique fitness model, learning business skills, patterns of attendance, and being rooted in your community.

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Roberta McGinley, once owner of Tadasana Yoga Studio in Wappingers Falls NY, talks with J about owning centers and finding places to teach. They discuss when Roberta hosted J for a workshop in 2018, different styles and discerning hot, upscaling spaces with showers, moving from space to space, adult spiritual summer camps, unexpected life turns, people still using the Bikram brand, puppy yoga workshops and vin yin classes, ins and outs of hot 26, having your heart touched by yoga, and being with other people in shared intention.

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Judith Valerie, a Raleigh NC tradition for over 30 years, talks with J about sticking to principles and building creative spiritual community. They discuss students that inspire, early childhood experiences of being a pantheist, traveling around India and Nepal, receiving Shaktiput, migrating to Mississippi, hybridizing different styles, the role of alignment cues and adjustments, Interplay philosophy, evolving teacher/student relationships, quotes and poems that affirm hope, keeping things alive in spirit, and trust in letting students come to you.

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Mike Huggins, author of Going OM: A CEO's Journey from a Prison Facility to Spiritual Tranquility, founder of Transformation Yoga Project, and long time friend of the show, talks with J about the state of yoga in the criminal justice system and beyond. They discuss training incarcerated people to be teachers, power dynamics in prison, providing essential life skills, life cycle of the yoga industry, instructor vs teacher, no longer being alternative, differentiation and specialty, and the uniquely human aspects that gives meaning to our lives.

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Check out J's other podcast… J. BROWN YOGA THOUGHTS.