CTZN

In this podcast, we speak with Jacoby Ballard (he/they), a social justice educator, yoga teacher and author of the new book A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation. Jacoby helps us understand and hold the intersections of yoga and capitalism and white supremacy by referencing the heart teachings of yoga that provide a pathway to liberation and collective wellbeing.

This podcast is a whole journey of joy and laughter AND asking really hard questions about who we are and how we heal. Our guest, Vivette Jeffries Logan, is a powerful and seasoned facilitator of race equity work. And she’s a mother, a chef, a mentor and a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Together we explore what it means to be curious and critical of how we’ve been shaped by a toxic dominant culture AND how we hold space for our humanness.

We often talk on this podcast about how relationship is fundamental to transformative change work - whether we’re exploring how to work across lines of difference, or how to reach across the political aisle or how to build a culture of care that takes care of everyone. Our next guest offers a path of depth and hope and shows us the importance of radical relationship as we navigate an unjust world and work toward collective wellbeing. Kate Johnson is a buddhist meditation teacher and author of the book Radical Friendship which makes a case for friendship as a radical practice of love, courage and trust, and a path that paves the way for profound social change.

Hala Khouri, a brilliant yoga teacher and somatic counselor specializing in trauma joins us this week on CTZN podcast. She just wrote a book called Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilient, Stay Connected Amidst the Chaos -- which I would imagine is most people’s desire these days. This podcast about trauma and anxiety, but it is also about how we take care of ourselves and one another, how we navigate the chaos of this moment with creativity, and how we practice change in small and big ways.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an activist, social justice warrior, author, anti-racism consultant and trainer, intuitive healer, and yoga teacher and practitioner. Her new book, Finding Refuge: Heartwork for Healing Collective Grief is a beautiful and necessary invitation for us to tend to the shattered parts of ourselves so that we can embrace our wholeness and do the work of healing the collective heart.

CTZN Podcast is back with a powerful line up of healers and leaders who are revolutionizing recovery. Kicking off the seasons is Tracee Stanley, a veteran yoga and tantra teacher who is devoted to yoga nidra, meditation, self-inquiry, nature as a teacher, and ancestor reverence. Her new book Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation & Awakened Clarity is medicine for this moment as she challenges us to receive rest so that we can remain awake to our full potential.

This episode is a part of a series hosted by our friends at Faith Matter Network called “How We Get Through: Collective Resilience in a World on Fire”. It features Minister Lauren Cunningham, Francisca Porchas Coronado, Rev Brandon Wrencher and Minister leea allen and offers a really cool behind the scenes perspective by leaders who are innovating and adapting community spaces for healing and grieving and transformation.

This episode features Kazu Haga, Xan West, organizers from the chilean movement La Coordinadora Feminista 8M and Carinne Luck and explores how movements in and of themselves are healing - how healing has been woven in from building relationships in small teams to exploring how to create containers for rage and healing in the streets and bring in intentional joy.

In the fall of 2020 we found ourselves in the midst of a pivotal election, a global pandemic, economic collapse, escalating action to end the war on Black life and more. Holding so much at once - even the victories - can be straining and overstimulating to our bodies and spirits.   This episode comes from a series hosted by our friends at Faith Matters Network called "How to Get Through: collective resilience in a world on fire". It was designed to prepare social justice movements to weave healing and care into our lives and work before, during and after crises and big “movement moments” like this one.

This conversation has been a long time coming for all of us who are navigating both wellness practice and social justice. Because it is not enough to just do the right thing in this moment, we have to go back to the roots to heal and repair what has been broken and violated. And we have with us today a true teacher in that work. Susanna Barkataki is an Indian yoga practitioner, teacher, and now author of the recent book Embrace Yoga’s Roots: Courageous Ways to Deepen Your Yoga Practice.

This is another powerful session from the 2020 CTZN Summit on Building a Politics of Care featuring Nelini Stamp from Working Families Party, Rev angel Kyodo williams, author of Radical Dharma, Anasa Troutman of The Big We and Carinne Luck organizer extraordinaire.

This podcast was a part of our 2020 CTZN Summit about how to meet his moment with love and justice and build a politics of care that doesn't leave anyone behind. And this conversation is really special. It features Ruby Sales, a deeply committed grassroots activist, eloquent theologen and veteran of the southern freedom movement, Rev Dr Jacqui Lewis who is a nationally sought after preacher, activist and author and Micky Scottbey Jones, also known as the justice doula and creator of brave space.

This conversation was a part of the 2020 CTZN Summit, a gathering of courageous conversation to explore how to navigate this moment and create a politics of community care. And this conversation with Prentis Hemphill and Francisca Porchas Coronado really challenges us to dig deep and reckon with how we got here and how we can show up for one another.

The 2020 election is fast approaching and the stakes are really high. While voting, of course, isn’t the only tool of participation and intervention, it is an essential part of our democracy. In the wake of the 2016 election, our guest, Jenna Arnold, hosted listening circles around the country to understand why 53% of white women voted for Trump. She wrote a book that captured those learnings called Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Frontlines. This podcast is particularly for white women who are reckoning with their complicity and how to show up in this critical political moment to make things right.

This episode features Micky ScottBey Jones, also known as the Justice Doula. She is an author, speaker, facilitator and the Director of Healing & Resilience Initiatives with the Southern-based collective Faith Matters Network. And one of the gifts she has given the movement is a practice called Brave Space, which is exactly what happens between us on this podcast as we dig into the in-between spaces in our relationships and movements.

This interview was a part of our inaugural CTZN Live event—a new monthly live broadcast of the podcast that invites YOU the community to join the conversation...and we were so blessed to feature Lama Rod Owens, author of two of our favorite books at CTZN WELL: .the newly released Love & Rage and Radical Dharma, which he co-authored with Rev angel Kyodo williams and Dr. Jasmine Syedullah.

This recording is from a live event featuring Michelle Cassandra Johnson on Juneteenth 2019. Michelle has been a regular on CTZN Podcast - she has been an antiracist trainer for over 20 years, the author of the must read book skill in action and my co-conspirator in the work of Race & Resilience. This conversation isn’t just about Juneteenth and the history of racism in America, it's not just about how white supremacy is at work on our bodies and minds, it's not just about reparations and strategies for liberation, it's about relationship and humanity and how to this work across lines of difference.

Valarie Kaur is a filmmaker, public speaker, civil rights activist and author of the book See No Stranger - which is an urgent manifesto about revolutionary love to heal ourselves and transform the world around us. This conversation is about how relationship can transform us and what’s possible when we embody a revolutionary love that transcends separation, scarcity and supremacy.

Wellness Beyond Whiteness is one of our favorite conversations we've ever had at CTZNWELL - exploring how we perpetuate a culture of exclusion in wellness spaces, how to move beyond #DiversityAndInclusion, and what’s the cost of whiteness on our wellness.

Many are questioning the role and efficacy of incarceration all together. And one of those advocates is Oneika Mays, the first Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where she works one-on-one with incarcerated people to help them cope with the stress and trauma of incarceration and foster resilience for re-entry and recovery.

Priya Parker, author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters and host of the new Together Apart Podcast, says in every group there is a beautiful conversation that could actually change people, you just have to find out what that is.

Today we're talking about righteous anger and indignation with writer and activist Soraya Chemaly. Her book Rage Becomes Her explores how women's expressions of anger are vital to their own health, freedom, and wellbeing.

This virus is exposing our inequities, leaving some people more physically and economically vulnerable than others. In the absence of systems that protect people in times like these, it’s up to us to respond. Nicole Cardoza and Ryan LeMere chat with Kerri Kelly about what we can do to show up right now.

This week, we're dreaming bigger with Justin Michael Williams, a pop star, meditation teacher, and author of the new book, Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us.

Today, we're talking to Layla Saad, author, speaker and teacher on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change, and the author of the book, Me and White Supremacy.

We’re talking with writer, producer, and entrepreneur Anasa Troutman, who besides being a well-known cultural disruptor and love activist, is challenging us to go beyond justice and towards sustainable joy for all.

Perhaps the most frequent question I get asked is, “How do I show up in this moment?” To help us answer that is the amazing Katie Loncke of Buddhist Peace Fellowship, one of the most throw-down, committed activists I know. But what makes her unique is that she’s as committed to who she’s being as to what she’s doing. Katie helped create “Build Block Be,” a holistic framework for how we respond that acknowledges and celebrates all of our unique roles, strategies, and medicine as necessary and essential for how we bring forth collective liberation.

First of all, this is the first podcast we’ve ever recorded on a school bus, which felt appropriate given it was a conversation with the Nicole Cardoza, the founder of Yoga Foster, which is focused on making yoga in schools elementary. Nicole is a disruptor, a creator, and a connector who is constantly moving the line forward of what’s possible in wellness. She recently launched Reclamation Ventures, an impact fund dedicated to investing in underestimated entrepreneurs closing the wellness gap, and is innovating towards a more accessible wellness for everyone.

In this episode, we're talking to the writer, runner and recovering addict, Charlie Engle, who I met many years ago over our shared love for running, but whose story blew me away. Known to many as "The Running Man," Charlie managed to go from rock bottom to resilience many times over. And he continues to push the limits of what is possible for the human body and for human kind.

Dr. Maytha Alhassen is a Syrian-American journalist, poet and scholar, working to bridge the worlds of social justice, academic research, popular culture and healing arts. And on this episode of CTZN Podcast, she schools us on the history of immigration and white domination in America. May was born a learner only to grow up in a white America that treated her multi-linguistic skills as a deficiency. She always found school to be regressive and disappointing, and set out to learn all the truths on her own terms and is speaking them out loud. In this episode, May educates us on the real history of Muslim bans and immigration restrictions and how it's not about whether immigrants are welcome or not, it's about white supremacy. And it's about understanding our relationship to one another so that we can testify to justice with our words and actions.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is shaking things up in the yoga world and speaking all the truths about toxic culture and white supremacy so that real healing is possible. She is a social worker, yoga teacher, long time race equity trainer and author of the book Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World. And she is showing us what radical self care really looks like.

Ana Maria Archila is a resistance icon. She’s known by many as the “lady in the elevator” after her confrontation with Senator Jeff Flake went viral during the confirmation hearings for Justice Kavanaugh. But that wasn’t her first rodeo. Ana Maria has been disrupting, bird-dogging and advocating for human rights and dignity since she emigrated here at the age of 17. She teaches us that disruption is essential to slowing things down and getting people in power to listen. Everyday people speaking truth to power is what this country is all about.

Today, we are talking with Chief Empowerment Officer, Heidi Sieck. She is the founder of #VOTEPROCHOICE, a long-time advocate for reproductive rights, and a bad-ass feminist. And when she is not getting pro-choice candidates elected or lobbying Congress, she is throwing down alongside me on the street, in the Capitol, at the Supreme Court or wherever we are needed. She’s here with us today to help us make sense of the recent abortion bans that are sweeping our nation and take back our rights.

Today we’re talking to Nadia Bolz-Weber, who is one of the most provocative and unexpected voices in Christianity today. She is a former stand up-comic, NY Times best selling author and founding pastor of the House for All Sinners & Saints, a Lutheran church in Denver, Colorado. But beyond her accolades and achievements, she is brutally honest, hilarious, vulnerable and profoundly wise. The Washington Post calls her a “tatted up, foul-mouthed champion to people sick of being belittled as not Christian enough for the Right or too Jesus-y for the Left." And she is committed to making a spiritual home for Junkies, Drag Queens, Outsiders and everyone in between (which is my kind of church).

This conversation with Rachel Cargle is fierce and it is important. And while white folks need to #dothework, as Rachel says, it’s not really about us. It’s about protecting Black lives. And so she invites us to consider how we are really showing up and for what purpose. It’s not enough to attend an event or post something on social media. Real “allyship” looks like going to get our people, paying our privilege forward and listening - really listening - to Black women and following their lead.

Why is it so hard for white people to talk about race? In this episode, we talk with Robin DiAngelo about white fragility and the defensive moves that white people make when confronting or challenged with racism.

adrienne maree brown is never satisfied with the obvious, the visible, the surface - but rather endeavors to dig deeper, to go underneath and to venture beyond what we think we know about ourselves and one another. Her book, Emergent Strategy, has been a disruptive force in the movement in all the best ways - challenging us not just to do better, but to BE better. Join us for a provocative episode of CTZN Podcast that explores accountability and redemption, reclaiming pleasure and making like slugs.

In this episode, we are talking with Mark Gonzales - architect, storyteller, creator and author - about reshaping the public imagination and waging beauty on all fronts. He challenges us to ask hard questions of who we are and why we are here. And to be more imaginative, to dream bigger about how we can create new stories and structures that reflect our values: love, beauty and belonging.

Erin Schrode was an activist in the womb. By the age of 13 she had started a non-profit called Turning Green, a global student-led movement devoted to cultivating a healthy, just and thriving planet through education and advocacy around environmentally sustainable and socially responsible choices. She is young and passionate and hungry.

In this episode, we are sitting down with Dr. Chelsea Roberts, school teacher, yoga influencer, activist and truth-teller, as we talk about breaking the silence and how to live up to the promise of oneness in yoga and wellness communities. She believes in the power of yoga in restorative justice work and is on a mission to create more inclusive and authentic spaces of healing.

Jamia Wilson is many things: an activist, a feminist, a storyteller, a media-maker and a thought leader. But more than anything, she is a truth teller. In this podcast, you experience the full power and spectrum of Jamia’s feminist truth and perspective. And what I found most compelling in our conversation was her ability to be both brave and vulnerable at the same time. Jamia isn’t afraid to get uncomfortable, to tackle tough issues and to hold the complexity of our intersectionality. The deeper that we're willing to go within ourselves - in our own ability not just to speak the truth, but to know it - the more we can hold the truth for others.

In our conversation, Paola Mendoza talks about our capacity to hold two truths at the same time. And she really embodies that. She is relentless in her resistance to the racist policies of this administration, to defending and protecting the undocumented community, and to fighting for the freedom and wellbeing of women and children. But she is simultaneously passionate in her expression, ecstatic in song and dance, and generous in her love as an organizer and mother. And she shows us that we can be many things at the same time. We need to be.

In this episode, we are talking about love. Not the mushy, romantic kind of love. But Real Love - how to love when it’s hard or less obvious; how to love when we don’t agree; how to love in the face of so much division and oppression. And we are turning to the incredibly wise Sharon Salzberg, meditation master and and best-selling author. Sharon has been teaching Metta meditation, or loving kindness, since 1974. She’s been seminal, not just in bringing meditation and mindful practice to the west, but in modernizing the practice, making it relatable and accessible. Her latest book, Real Love, does just that. In our conversation, we tackle everything from loving our enemies to empathy burn out to befriending our inner critic and to voting as an act of love.

Tarana Burke set the #MeToo movement in motion long before the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the Alyssa Milano tweet or the Time’s Up campaign. It actually began more than a decade ago in Alabama to support brown and Black survivors of sexual violence. Since then, the call has gone viral, and Tarana is on a mission to help survivors navigate what comes after the hashtag. Whether you're a survivor or an ally, everyone has a place in this movement, she says. And as you’ll hear in this interview, she is proving that a movement of radical healing is not only possible, it’s happening.#MeToo is not just a movement for white cisgender women. It's about giving young people language, survivors a way forward, and the community coming together to combat sexual assault.

She's blunt, brilliant, hilarious, and an abundance of wisdom. Seane Corn is a world renowned master yoga teacher, but to just call her a yoga teacher feels absurd. She is a provocative and moving public speaker. She's the founder of the nonprofit, Off the Mat Into the World, which has trained over 5,000 people in how to bridge personal transformation and social change. And she's about to be an author for her first book, which knowing her, will be a juicy “tell all” about her journey from spiritual practice to social action. But, what you will experience of Seane on this podcast, and what I know of her in person, is that she is relentless in her pursuit of truth and transformation.

Today, we are talking with Marianne Williamson, spiritual activist, best selling author, and total bad-ass. But what most people don't know about her is that she is a political powerhouse. In this episode, we’re talking about the relationship between spirituality and politics, how to be a strong woman in today’s world and getting back to loving America again. I call Marianne Williamson the matriarch of our movement. Because she’s not just bringing it on the spiritual front, she is bringing it on the political front and blazing a trail for what she calls integrative politics - a politics that is rooted in love and humanity and what we are here to do for one another.

Reverend angel Kyodo williams, born and raised in New York, is an ordained zen priest and sensei. She is acclaimed author of Radical Dharma and Being Black: Zen and the art of living with fearlessness and grace, and that is a perfect title to describe her. She is a force of nature. In this episode, Rev angel talks about how we need to hold the intersectional complexity of who we are in America and how we came to be here. She challenges us to go beyond what is politically correct or socially acceptable and do the simple and radical thing of practicing justice and being in relationship with one another.