yoga and meditation

When Bikram Choudhury was first teaching yoga in the 1970s at his yoga studio in the basement of a Beverly Hills bank building, he very much represented the ascetic ideal of the yoga guru, sleeping on…

Ellie Burrows and Lodro Rinzler had their big idea over a cup of tea. Certain details change with the telling (was it a nail salon or a hair salon?), but here’s the official version: during a teatime…

Once again, RD’s editors have asked me to think about stories at the intersection of religion and culture that mainstream journalism passes over or treats inadequately. It takes a sour disposition to…

A further response to Andrea Jain

The conversation continues: a response to Kyle Garton-Gundling

Pat Robertson, the notorious and influential television evangelist and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, is not new to the yogaphobic maelstrom that has been brewing for as long as…

What inspired you to write Selling Yoga? Near the beginning of my graduate school career, I had the opportunity to travel to Rajasthan to research Jain traditions and came upon the Jain Shvetambara…

From the passing of Iyengar to homophobic yoga to the Super Bowl, yoga made headlines and continued to evolve in 2014.

I went to India searching for spiritual enlightenment. I found a neoliberal heaven that catered to my worst possible self. That’s almost true. I took my journalism class to India this past spring to…

Modi’s recent efforts are mired in inaccurate myths of yoga’s static essence and Indian origin.