J. Brown Yoga Talks

Cristina Kuhn opened The Yogi Underground last year and invited J to teach some workshops there. They sat down to talk about the process of becoming a teacher and opening a center, all while being a wife and mother of three children. From her experience of being out there in the “big bad yoga world” teaching in gyms to the intricacies and nuances of managing her own local center, Cristina shares her viewpoint and insights. There is also a secret reveal that forms a precursor for another meeting.

Lilia Mead was the owner of Go Yoga in Brooklyn NY, recently closed after fifteen years of operation. J taught there as a senior teacher for seven years before he opened a center himself. They sit down together to talk over the last twenty years, just in time before Lilia’s permanent move to Los Angeles. The discussion tracks from the early nineties until today and comments on the way yoga teachers are trained, make a living, and the immense changes that have taken place affecting both.

For more than five years, J has been buying yoga mats from yogalifestyle.com. He always appreciated that it was independently owned and operated. So he decided to have a talk with the owner, Ray Greenberg. They discuss how he fell into the yoga supply business, nuances in the yoga products market, insider business considerations (i.e. Amazon), and how things have changed in the yoga world. Ray speaks passionately about both yoga and the products he sells.

J spends time with Roberta Karp, a long-time friend and student. They talk about Roberta’s ongoing struggle with chronic pain, due to several chronic conditions including diabetes, fibromyalgia and colitis. Roberta shares openly about her grieving process after her husband’s death and how yoga has been a “game changer.” J and Roberta come together on what it means to be OK despite our difficulties, and the beauty that life holds.

Renowned yoga teacher and author, Elena Brower, talks with J about the early boom times, the rise and fall of Anusara yoga, closing her own center after twelve years, what it’s like to teach 10,000 people at once, and the challenges of making a living as a yoga teacher in today’s climate. They reminisce on their shared past and discuss Elena’s forthcoming projects, including a new book with co-author Gabrielle Hartley entitled: Your Elegant Divorce.

J sits down with the former manager of BackBay Yoga Boston, Ryan Cunningham, to discuss how he got to yoga, became the manager of BackBay, and the surprising announcement that Yoga Works bought the center three days before J got there to teach workshops. They also discuss the realities of conducting yoga teacher training, the role it plays in a yoga education, and the dawning realities that independent yoga teachers and centers are facing.

J talks with Richard Karpel about his brief tenure as the President and CEO of the Yoga Alliance. They discuss the circumstances surrounding his hiring, limitations in not-for-profit structures, working with boards of directors, the need for ‘radical transparency’, and the ‘yoga of bureaucracy’. J also shares an example of how yoga is applied in his personal life, and comes clean on his ambivalence regarding the Yoga Alliance.

Distinguished yoga teacher and movement expert Amy Matthews and J talk about their dance, theater and movement roots, shared history, and ongoing evolution as yoga teachers. Amy gives background and insight into the field of Somatics and they engage in spirited debate on subtle points of disagreement, exploring the relationship between our movement and practice patterns and how we are in the world.

J. decides to start a podcast. In this first episode, he talks with his producer, friend, and long-time student, Josh Sitron. They discuss how he came to do yoga back in 1993, how he found his way to J's yoga class, their reacquaintance years later which led to producing J's yoga video, and why J is starting the podcast.. Josh openly shares his struggles with depression, anger, the recent stress from his wife's cancer, and how yoga has helped him through it all.