Sir James Mallinson, 5th Baronet of Walthamstow (born 22 April 1970) is a British Indologist,  writer and translator. He is recognised as one of the world’s leading experts on the history of medieval Hatha Yoga. Mallinson became interested in India by reading Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim as a teenager; the book describes an English boy travelling India with a holy man. Mallinson is described as “perhaps the only baronet to wear dreadlocks. He let his hair grow out from 1988 on his first visit to India during his gap year. He is the co-author with Mark Singleton of  Roots of ..read more

Protima Rodrigues is the founder of True Bay India - India’s first homegrown Ashtanga Yoga Workshop and Retreat Organiser, bringing top International Ashtanga yoga teachers to India, since January 2019.  Protima creates awareness as a yoga practitioner, on mental health, social justice, inclusivity, equality, diversity and believes that, yoga is for all, devoid of any barriers. She discovered Ashtanga Yoga in early 2015, in a chance last-minute plan, to go to a Himalayan Ashtanga Yoga retreat. She was a Vice-President in a Private Equity Company at the time. She connected with the practic ..read more

Bryan Kest has been practicing yoga since 1979 and has been teaching since 1985. He developed his unique, distinctive style of yoga, called Power Yoga, in 1979. Over the years, this style, an amazing workout for the body, mind and spirit, has made him a well-known, popular teacher across the country and around the world. His mainstream popularity is matched by an authentic foundation in the ancient practice of yoga and a long path of development as a yogi (a practitioner of yoga). At age 15, Bryan uprooted from his native Detroit home to make a life change in Hawaii. He moved to live with his ..read more

Edward Clark is the creator of Tripsichore, the London-based yoga performance group that has delighted audiences around the world. The performance company was created to explore the possibilities of a form of theater that would celebrate yoga philosophy and extraordinary physical prowess. Edward began studying yoga in 1978. Notable among his teachers are Narayani and Giris Rabinovitch, but he also admires Ashtanga vinyasa, Sivananda, Iyengar, and viniyoga practices. The Tripsichore group has practiced daily for the past 20 years. Constantly devising and refining its techniques for asana, prana ..read more

Simon Borg-Olivier is a polymath of the movement world. A forerunner of yoga in Australia and a teachers' teacher. He also holds two BSC's an lectures regularly for a number of University science departments.  This is his second time on our podcast, expressly this time to talk about the impact of breath upon movement in preparation for an upcoming workshop on breath at Keen On Yoga to accompany this podcast. In this conversation Simon gets quite technical as to how to utilise the diaphragm for the sake of connecting breath to the inner functioning of the body. Not exclusively referring to ..read more

Liz Koch comes from an academic background as a teacher of sculpture. However, her speciality in this is the spacial element of sculpture. One day she happened upon a yoga class and realised this was what was actually being denied in the dissemination of yoga.  The space for one’s own experience of being, outside notions of alignment focussing on the rigid column of the spine. Soon after Liz was asked to writing for yoga journal, and these articles ended up turning into the book Core Awareness. This was really the first serious discussion of the psoas, published in the 90s when hardly any ..read more

In this Keen on Yoga Podcast Adam talks with Bettina Campolucci Bordi, wellness guru, retreat chef and creator of Bettina’s Kitchen.  She is the author of Happy Food and her second book 7 Day Vegan Challenge, out now, enables anyone to include as many plant based recipes into their repertoire as possible. Over the last few years she has appeared on Saturday Kitchen, has had recipes featured in the Telegraph and Sunday Times, been endorsed by Jamie Oliver and Conde Nast. Born in Denmark to a Bulgarian/Danish mother and a Norwegian father Bettina spent her first 11 years in T ..read more

Mariela Cruz is quite a force.  She has been a student of Sharathji Jois since 2003. She first arrived in Mysore to Gokulam and there was no internet so she simply knocked on the door and Pattabhi Jois opened and invited her into the family terrace.  That same day she met her Guru Sharath and he asked her to stay for one month only. Busy with children and family responsibilities back in her then country Costa Rica she was not able to stay but tasted the honey and could only think about going back to India.  Mariela's favourite quote is practice and all is coming. She feels ..read more

Dr. Robert Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training he was tutored in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore by his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda. He is the author of twelve books including Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution and the Aghora series, which discusses his experiences with his mentor during the years 1975 – 1983. (Information on all of his books can be found here) Dr. Svoboda was born in Texas in 1953, an ..read more

Nea established Ashtanga Yoga Dubai in 2013 and the yoga shala Nilaya House in 2017, a yoga studio offering a full range of yoga classes which she runs and teaches from. She received level 2 authorisation from Sharathji Jois in 2010. She also is an avid student of yoga philosophy as well as running an ethical textile business working with local Indian woman to ensure fair conditions and pay. In this podcast Nea and Adam are discussing the female menstrual cycle. As a man, you may notice him floundering at points. However, as a teacher of many women he thought it an extremely important subject ..read more