Yoga Conversations Past and Present with Carol Horton, PhD

intelligent edge yoga

The intelligent edge yoga podcast was produced by Kathryn Anne Flynn; author of Teach Kind, Clear Yoga: A Guide for Practitioners and Teachers. To learn more about Kathryn, practice online, or find retreats and training opportunities, visit kathrynanneflynn.com

Show Notes:

A conversation about yoga conversations with Carol Horton, PhD, including the early days of the yoga blogging community, how the change in tone in the yoga community has prompted some changes in her work, and staying focused on being of service to others.

• Carol’s academic background, even her dissertation, on politics and race in Political Science, and her current shift away from yoga writing toward political writing
• Her earlier career in the non-profit sector looking at class and inequality in early childhood, and then moving into a sociological context of modern practice
• The Yoga Service Council’s work on racial issues, outreach and accessibility of yoga, including the criminal justice system, for veterans, and an upcoming book on sexual trauma survivors
• Seeing the zeitgeist of yogic inquiry in the yoga community and academics, including the history of yoga coming to America
• Early yoga blogging community in about 2010, connecting with other yogis, and why she wrote Yoga PhD and co-edited The 21st Century of Yoga
• The current conversations that need to be had in the yoga community, including the rising nationalism and use of yoga as a political tool by Prime Minister Narenda Modi
• Why it’s a good thing that your reading list will never be entirely read
• The shift toward a more politicized dynamic and the pull toward a desire for concrete answers, and how that can be difficult in the context of spiritual inquiry that are always in process (thus resist absolute)
• Some of the aggressive nature of online conversation in the yoga world that errs toward polarization and the disincentives to moderate voices in social media
• Identifying as a yogi within your life as a whole and figuring out how to keep growing as a human being and being of service to others