We have invited back two of our most popular guests, Johnny Gillespie and Neil Taylor, to explore 'What is Yoga?' Johnny, Neil, and Derek discuss several themes around known aspects of the physical practice – including alignment and balance; however, the guys also hit on more subtle themes, such as skillfulness, connection, vulnerability, and wisdom that most probably don’t consider when rolling out the mat.

Neil Taylor is a bodyworker and a meditation and yoga teacher, in the Boston area, and Johnny is based in Wilmington, Delaware. He is the founder and owner of Empowered Wellness Studio and the creator of The Balanced Athlete, an online and studio-based functional fitness program that teaches people how to mindfully move their bodies.

In this special bonus episode, Larry Milburn shares several stories about his work teaching men Yoga. You can also listen to Larry's full episode, titled "Reckoning Poses and Working Out the Gunk with Filmmaker, Podcaster, Yoga Instructor Larry Millburn" for more of Larry's insights, advice, and stories.

In 1995 Larry Millburn wandered into the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles not knowing what he was looking for and the path ahead. Sensing he needed to find a healthier approach to balance out some bad habits he told the studio owner at the front desk that he was looking to get “out of his body” to which she replied, “No, you need to get into your body.” In this conversation, Larry shares his long path with yoga beginning in his early 20s as a young actor and musician, and how he later reconnected with the practice in 2005 when he needed to fill a void in his life. Eventually, his curiosity, practice, and path lead him to become a deeply committed and passionate yoga teacher at Charym Yoga Studio in Connecticut. And when not on the mat in his reckoning pose, Larry can be found hosting his Roadie Free Radio podcast and leading yoga classes on Follow Your Drishti.

Highlights from over forty interviews, this episode is a great companion listen for any new or seasoned practitioner with offerings ranging from how yoga has helped overcome back issues to real break-through experiences on a deeper, personal level. If you have any doubts about your practice and are looking for some reminders on why you found yoga, pop this string of hard-earned wisdom on your favorite Bluetooth speaker and roll out the mat.

A top athlete all his life, participating in varsity sports, long-distance races, triathlons, crossfit and cycling, Dave Johnson first experienced yoga in 2013 while vacationing in Tulum, Mexico at an outdoor palapa at the beach and felt a connection and awareness in his body that he had never experienced before – and by the time that first savasana ended he was hooked. When he got home, he found free online classes on YouTube and started practicing in his garage. Not long afterward, Dave and his wife Marisa each completed the 500-hour teacher certification and eventually studio owners themselves in Albuquerque where they’ve cultivated a community around their hot yoga experience at SWEAT Yoga Studio.

First introduced to Bikram yoga while working for Akamai Technologies in the early 2000s, Derek Vanderwarker was initially impressed by the physical experience of the ninety-minute, one hundred-degree studio practice: the heat and sweat made for a quick fix after a long weekend of unhealthy choices and helped keep the pounds off. But it wasn’t until sixteen years later when he returned to yoga to untangle the leg, hip, and back injuries that had dogged him for nearly five years, that his practice began to have purpose. In 2021 he launched Guys Talking Yoga, a podcast designed to inspire men to consider the practice of yoga as a door into a better way of living by sharing the stories of other men and the benefits they have experienced along the way.

Derek is a 500-hour certified yoga instructor who did his 200-hour training with Alsion West and 300-hour training with Jason Crandell. He is the creator and host of the Guys Talking Yoga podcast.

Retired Major Mark Voelker (USMC) shares his path with yoga and how the practice has helped him develop the mind-body connection, learn to make better choices off the mat and be a teacher and leader for others in need. He’s a certified yoga and meditation teacher, Warriors at Ease graduate and Level 1 instructor. Mark is also a team lead at Semper Fi Odyssey where he works with injured and combat-wounded U.S. Marines and other service members through their transition back to a life out of uniform but continued service to the country. SFO is a six-day, holistic transition-assistance program that provides injured and critically ill active-duty military service members and veterans an opportunity to not only gain valuable employment resources, but also life planning skills to assist with their re-entry into the civilian sector. Primarily focused on their career advancement, SFO also reinforces the significance of mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and social well-being, to ensure long-term success for these individuals.

Geoffrey Roniger has been leading yoga classes for over twenty years and is the founder of Freret Street Yoga in New Orleans and Yoga Unbound, a hybrid studio model offering online, studio, and private training classes and instruction. He has apprenticed with globally renowned teachers Richard Rosen and Rodney Yee and completed the advanced studies program at Piedmont Yoga Studio. During his teaching career, Roniger provided on-site instruction and developed corporate wellness programs for various companies including Salesforce.com, Amyris Biotechnologies, Beverly Prior Architects, Juice Design, and Urban Revision. After volunteering for the Urban Zen Foundation at both their V-Day and the Special Olympics events, in 2012 he was appointed to Urban Zen Foundation’s faculty for the Integrative Therapy Program in New York. Geoffrey Roniger has been featured in Yoga Journal as well as in a Gaiam video, Yoga Now.

As a former athlete who was approaching his fortieth birthday and weighing two hundred and eighty pounds, Art Massolo never thought he would consider yoga. But when stuck in a rut, and recognizing psychotherapy and other western approaches weren’t providing the tools and perspective he needed, Art began his yoga path by attending a two-week immersion program of “love, community, peace, and great health” – the things guys rarely permit themselves to access. In this conversation, Art shares his thoughts on the Yoga Sutras, keeping a regular mantra, shifting one’s thoughts, dealing with stress, overcoming rejection, navigating various injuries and life itself through his evolving practice and perspective.

Leon Barnett was never a gym guy. After twenty-five years in the restaurant business, and being in recovery for seventeen, he knew he needed to make a change. But that change wasn’t going to happen if he wasn’t willing to make it. In this conversation, Leon shares his story about starting his path with yoga at the age of fifty-four and his experiences working through his first few classes. Along the way we get into the importance of focus while doing yoga postures, paying attention to your breath, and the notion of progress – accepting where you are and not worrying about where you are not. Coach Leon teaches at the Empowered Wellness Studio in Wilmington, Delaware.

In Southern California during the mid-1960s, most twelve-year old boys were focusing on Sandy Kofax, Don Drysdale, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. However, young Rich Driscoll was captivated by Autobiography of a Yogi, the best seller by Parmahansa Yogananda. Ever the seeker and student, Rich’s path and interest in meditation took him to Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship as a curious teenager, absorbing Ram Dass’ Be Here Now on his weekends, and later to the University of Colorado in Boulder – the epicenter of American Tibetan Buddhist movement in the 1970s – and eventually to Morocco with the Peace Corp. During a mid-life struggle with loss, his meditation practice became a grounding force and eventually strengthened and intertwined with hatha yoga through the guidance and support of two amazing women who kept him on his path.

Dr. Loren Fishman is a physiatrist with a private practice in Manhattan and he is also a professor at Columbia University Medical School where he teaches Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine. He discovered yoga in the 1970s while reading a copy of BKS Iyengar’s Light on Yoga in India and was so inspired he traveled to meet the author who ultimately inspired him to learn and use yoga to help heal people. Since then Loren has become a world-recognized pioneer in the treatment of low back pain, piriformis syndrome, osteoporosis, rotator cuff tear, and other conditions. He has authored or edited over 96 academic articles and has written many books about yoga and medical conditions. But most importantly, in all his years of experience, research, and medical practice, he hasn’t found anything that compares to the healing powers of yoga.

In 2012, seventeen-year-old Jan Andrysek was playing ice hockey in Prerov, a small town in the Czech Republic, when he was introduced to yoga by his coaches during his off-season training. Initially skeptical, he quickly realized yoga helped with strength, mobility, injury prevention, stress management, breathwork – and just getting a good night’s sleep. So in 2019, convinced that more hockey players like him would benefit other players, he and his business partner launched Yoga for Hockey – an online subscription-based training program with content and training specifically tailored to introduce hockey players of all ages to the practice of yoga.

Today’s conversation is with twenty-year yoga practitioner Knight Kiplinger, an economic journalist who is Editor Emeritus of the Kiplinger financial media company in Washington, D.C., publishers of business forecasts and personal finance advice – known for the weekly Kiplinger Letter, monthly Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and daily Kiplinger.com. Kiplinger was CEO and publisher until the sale of the company in 2019 to Dennis Publishing of London, England, and today he is CEO of Outlook, Inc., a family real estate investment company. He is one of America’s most respected economic journalists and business forecasters. Over his long career, Knight was a guest on every major news network, including CNN, NPR, and C-SPAN, with appearances on The Today Show, Marketplace, CBS This Morning, Wall Street Week, and The Larry King Show. In his writings, speeches, and media appearances, he cuts through the complexity of financial subjects with clarity and foresight.

Kevin Geniza is a 2020 graduate of the University of Oregon where he was a leader on the golf team that won the PAC-12 conference title and was runner-up in the 2017 national championship. He was drawn to play for the Ducks because their coach, Casey Martin, incorporated yoga into the team’s fitness program where they were instructed to work on their breath and explore who they are as student-athletes and individuals. In this conversation, Kevin shares how he was introduced to yoga at Oregon, the challenges and joys of being a professional golfer, and how yoga and breathwork have improved his range of motion as well as his awareness on the course and being the best version of himself.

Today’s guest is Robert Stern, an Assistant Professor of History and Legal Studies at Saint Thomas More University. While in his mid-thirties, Robert initially found yoga as a way to get through long winters as a graduate student. Yoga gave him physical benefits and also served as an outlet to deal with the stress of traveling to and from Cincinnati to Chicago while looking after his ailing father. Along the way, his appreciation for the physical practice grew into a focused interest in handstands. Robert found handstands sharpened his focus as the combination of mental and physical coordination forced him to be in the moment. In this episode, Robert shares more about how a handstand practice has helped him and how it might help you, too.

A veteran of the Iraq War and with 28 years of uniformed service, Dr. Vincent Arnold has supported and served nearly all the branches of the US military, including the Air Force, Coast Guard, Marine Corp., and the Navy before retiring with the rank of Chaplain in 2007. Upon his retirement from active military service, Dr. Arnold served as the first civilian Clinical Director and Department Head for the Deployment Health Center (DHC), becoming one of the largest in the Navy to include a comprehensive Post Deployment Health Reassessment screening program, creation of a PTSD multidisciplinary treatment team, and establishment of the Autonomic Neuropsychological Assessment Metric Program. He subsequently served as a Pastoral Counselor at Naval Medical Center, Camp Lejeune, where he worked directly with wounded warriors in the areas of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)and mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI). Specializing in holistic-oriented mindfulness-based pastoral counseling, Dr. Arnold offered individual, couple, and group sessions in Integrative Restoration Yoga Nidra (iRest) and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR).  He continues to offer non-fee-based pastoral counseling and workshops and retreats on ‘I Rest in Him.’ In addition to his service as a board director with Warriors at Ease, Dr. Arnold is an ERYT 200 yoga instructor and Certified iRest®Yoga Nidra Teacher. Dr. Arnold received a BA in Religion from Emmanuel College, an MDiv from Duke University, a Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Renewal from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Argosy University.

In 2018 Brian Linton retired from the Army with the rank of sergeant first class after nearly thirty years of service. And while his aunt introduced him to yoga way back in the 1980s, he didn’t get really into the practice until he signed up for a 200-hour teacher training program to give him something to do during the lockdown. What he found was not only exposure to many physical modalities of yoga, but also a deeper understanding of the spiritual side of the practice which helped him navigate the mind-body challenges of post-traumatic stress after his service.

As a first sergeant in the US Air National Guard, Dominic Stanley’s job is to provide support in regards to health, morale, welfare, etc. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also a yogi who both practices and teaches yoga. Dominic found yoga after returning from deployment in Iraq, while dealing with some of the struggles and challenges associated with the return to civilian life. He was already physically active, but his wife saw a Groupon for a hot yoga place and suggested he try it. Shortly after, Dominic was attending yoga class every day and soon after that, he did his 200-hour yoga teacher training. Dominic pursued a variety of specialized training, including the Warriors at Ease Level 1 training, which was important to him as supporting the Veteran population – of which he is a member – is near and dear to his heart.

David Truesdale, a registered yoga teacher (RYT) and Certified Warriors at Ease teacher, is the founding board member of the Texas-based nonprofit Warrior Spirit Project. He serves others by sharing his passion for yoga and providing free trauma-informed yoga and iRest meditation to veterans and first responders in the great Dallas area. David grew up in a US Marine Corps family and spent over twenty-seven years with the Department of the Navy as a Special Agent with Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). As part of his NCIS duties, he was deployed to Iraq as a Counterintelligence team leader in 2004 and to Afghanistan in 2011-2012 as an Individual Augmentee to the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). David has received numerous awards and commendations, including the U.S. Navy Superior Civilian Service Award, the U.S. Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award, DoD Counterintelligence Team Award, and a Joint Civilian Service Commendation Award from CPA Administrator Paul Bremmer. David is a member of Save a Warrior (SAW) Cohort 063 and feels compelled to continue supporting U.S. military personnel whether they are still active duty or post service.