[Listen] LMU Graduate Yoga Studies Podcast
Loyola Marymount University proudly presents the Graduate Yoga Studies Podcast.
From in-depth discussion with academics in the field of Yoga studies to meaningful conversations with leaders in the global community, LMU Yoga Studies Graduate Students investigate yoga through history, texts, philosophy, Sanskrit, embodied practice, and social engagement.
Join Graduate Assistants Serenity Tedesco and Taina Rodriguez-Berardi for the inaugural season of the podcast where they challenge the popular understanding of yoga and the field of yoga studies with critical questions about authenticity, race, social justice, appropriation, colonialism, power dynamics, accessibility, and more.
The vision for this podcast is to provide contemplative yoga education that directly applies to modern life and transforms your relationship with yoga itself. To our listeners, supporters, and future scholars, this is also a sneak peak of what you’ll learn and discuss as a student in the LMU Graduate Yoga Studies program.
EPISODE DESCRIPTIONS
EPISODE 0: Join LMU Graduate Yoga Studies students, Taina Rodriguez-Berardi and Serenity Tedesco, for this new podcast series. In this episode, they introduce themselves and the founder of the graduate Yoga Studies program, Dr. Christopher Chapple. Listen to learn about their yoga origin stories, the program, and spiritual insights from years of dedicated research and embodied practice. Subscribe now for updates.
EPISODE 1: Dr. Christopher Jain Miller is the Bhagwan Mallinath Assistant Professor of Jain Studies in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He also teaches in the Yoga studies program with a focus on critical yoga studies and ethnographic research in a modern yoga setting. We discuss the history of yoga, yoga and politics, veganism, yoga philosophy, ahimsa (non-violence), and more. Join the conversation -- leave us a comment on @LMUYogaStudies.
EPISODE 2: Zombies. Yoga. Goddess worship. Intersectional Feminism… these are all topics we dive into with Dr. Tracey Sayuki Tiemeier, Associate Professor of Theological Studies at LMU. Dr. Tiemeier is a dynamic professor who kicks-off the yoga studies program with the Foundations of Yoga course which deconstructs and then reconstructs a new yogic reality for the budding scholar. We explore identity and its role in the spiritual journey -- from socio-cultural belonging to its place in academia.
EPISODE 3: Why is yoga philosophy important? Our hosts, Taina and Serenity, passionately discuss the answer with Dr. Shyam Ranganathan of YogaPhilosophy.com. We also dive further into his keynote presentation from LMU Yoga Day 2020, where he focused on sovereignty, ethics, and the big questions underlying yogic ideology. Tune in to learn how to critically approach everyday life as a yogi.
EPISODE 4: Marsha Banks-Harold is a true pioneer. She is an engineer. She is the first and only Black woman director of an accredited Yoga Therapy Training program and is the owner of PIES Fitness Yoga Studio based in Alexandria, VA. She is also a mother to us all through her compassionate social justice work. In this conversation, she invites our listeners to take action, stretch our empathy muscles, and work together for a more equitable, accessible, and loving community.
EPISODE 5: Cohort 7 residential students reflect upon the two-years of personal transformation they encountered during the Graduate Yoga Studies program. They reminisce on their first meeting, the global health pandemic and zoom student-life, and the collective call for social justice action after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Get the inside scoop on the program and student experience -- from taking the first leap of faith to the catharsis of the culminating thesis project. Apply today: https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/yoga/