BYOBlanket: Bring Your Own Blanket » Podcasts

One of our most honored teachers and an overall amazing human being, founder of Lightyear Leadership, Former Lululemon Director of Possibility, Susanne Conrad joins us on this episode of BYOBlanket!

Happy holiday season, blanket ninjas! This episode with our teacher, hero, and friend Nancy is all about using your words to create a life and an experience that aligns with what it is you want to see, hear, and believe. No big deal. Just kidding–it’s a huge deal! Language and words are arguably THE most […]

WOW! We are in awe that Manorama chose to come on the show this week. Manorama (pronounced, by the way, muh-NOR-muh in an American accent) is a world-renowned Sanskrit teacher from New York City and founder of the Luminous Soul Method. She is coming to BIG Power Yoga in Houston, TX this weekend to lead […]

What a blessing that we have our great teacher, Sarah Montross, on the show again. This short and sweet episode expounds on the why of studying Yoga–that Yoga is a practical study on fulfilling the “why” of life and that it is for anyone that will open themselves up to the teachings. Plus, Sarah invites […]

Thank you for your patience in our releasing of Season 4 — as you all know, it’s been a wild ride in 2020 and 2021. We’re kicking off this season with our good friend and highly-sought-after teacher Mallory Littell to talk about Karma Yoga and it’s principles in Choice-Based Action. Listen up for 30 minutes […]

Teacher, author, consultant, speaker, and leader Danielle Fanfair is on the show with an engaging and entertaining conversation about connection, learning, and wisdom through the scope of the Enneagram. The Enneagram of Personality is a model developed over centuries that can teach us more about who we are, how we act, and how to move […]

Founder of the I Like to Move It Movement, BIG Power Yoga instructor, and all around amazing leader/great friend, Nathan Herrington joins us on the show today! We talk about how moving the body is a profound experience, and it doesn’t always have to be yoga-style movements. Nathan has an extensive background in leadership development […]

We’ve got Dani Quattrone on the show today, yoga instructor and mom extraordinaire talking about all things “gratitude.” We have a very real discussion on the practice of being thankful and how that effects everything we humans do. On this episode, Dani goes public with this big announcement: SHE PUBLISHED A CHILDREN’S BOOK! The book […]

Get your soul ready to be touched AND to laugh, for Nana Baffour, yoga teacher and school teacher makes her debut on the show, and it is spicy, hilarious wisdom! The subject of this episode: “Finding Yourself” Nana teaches science at a public school during the pandemic and is a graduate of BIG Power Yoga’s […]

Y’all, we’ve got BOTH Nancy and Jenny on the show today, wow! They are both returning guest ninjas and took an hour out of their day to response to questions that YOU provided, listeners! These women are incredible yoga teachers and leaders as they practice what they preach in their own lives and share with […]

Catherine Njeri, yoga teacher and community leader, joins us all the way from Nairobi, Kenya and we are PUMPED to release this episode. Catherine’s stories and words of empowerment are what you need to listen to. She is one of the facilitators of Africa Yoga Project’s annual 200-hour yoga teacher training in Nairobi and a […]

We finally got him! Regie Ahmad! Some of you listeners may know Regie well from his transformational yoga classes he teaches at BIG Power Yoga in Houston. If you have not yet been acquainted with Regie, you’re in for a treat because Regie is one of the kindest, most humble, and therefore more empowering yoga […]

We’re honored and thrilled to have Cash on the show with the topic he brought to the blanket fort: the black experience. We stand for black lives and the disestablishment of institutions and systems that undermine the well-being and success of black individuals and the black community. In just one little way of using our […]

At a time when many of us have collectively “come out” as actively anti-racist and strive to listen to the black community, we are more than happy to offer up our platform as another access to hearing black voices. This episode comes to you from Raven Brown, a POC from Denver, also queer, and also […]

A short meditation is the way to go if you’re feeling pressed for time and tempted not to sit in meditation at all today. Janan makes the daunting task of meditation easy, simple, and effective as she has trained extensively in Baptiste Yoga meditation techniques! Tune in for 6 minutes and be with yourself in […]

Spend 15 minutes of your day quieting down and tuning in deeply as Maria guides you through a mental practice of Love and Kindness — in Spanish! So many guided meditations exist in English, so now if you or someone else is a Spanish speaker, you can save this meditation to listen to again and […]

Many of you know this beautiful, wonderful human being: Sean Silvera @seantsilvera of Baptiste Power Yoga San Francisco! If you don’t, you’re about to! Sean is a Tier 3 1200-hr certified Baptiste Yoga Influencer and co-owner of @baptistepoweryogasf. Years ago, he served as a Marine and eventually made his way into teaching yoga in his studio, to incarcerated […]

How do you get a yoga bod? Do yoga! Mona Heep, fellow yoga teacher and first international BYOBlanket guest ninja, spends some time chatting about the importance of body movement and spending time in physical sensations to shift the mind and emotions. This is a great episode to reaffirm what us current yogis love about […]

BIG Power Yoga co-owner, Out Here Yoga co-owner, and LIVE ALIVE Adventures co-owner Laura Rust blesses the mic with her sage words on utilizing the methodology of Baptiste Yoga. She is a leader in the Baptiste community and has facilitated we-don’t-know-how-many Baptiste programs, including both of our assisting courses back in the day! Laura is […]

Wow, BOTH Sarah Montross and Gioconda Parker, each returning guests, are together on this episode about the complementary practices of “form” and “flow” yoga. This conversation is incredibly insightful and will leave you wanting more–we sure did! They have almost half a century of combined yoga teaching experience, so please enjoy this absolute gift of […]

One of our favorite people on this planet came on the show in this episode all about getting inspired. Melinda Luksch is a yoga teacher extraordinaire: she travels the world teaching, leading teacher trainings, and has founded multiple successful yoga centers! Boom! She is a pro at doing the work of inspiration and creation to […]

We made this episode out of some inquiry work we’ve each been doing in this strange time called the “global pandemic.” Fear seemed to parade all about, including under our skin at times. We were inspired to create a different episode format to talk about things that aren’t that comfortable to talk about. You better […]

Jenny’s back, hooray! In this episode, we give you a behind-the-scenes look at the journey to being a yoga teacher as a profession, what goes into being a yoga teacher, and how yoga is way more than just the poses! It is a v funny episode with three funny ladies, so sit back, relax and […]

We thought it would be fun and educational (yes, they go together, and yes we both were A students) to do a yoga trivia episode! In this episode, we quiz each other on the world of yoga via questions we wrote for each other. Play along with us and keep your own score! By the […]

WELCOME TO SEASON 3 OF BYOBLANKET! #blanketninjas goin’ strong! What an amazing first guest of this season we got: Nancy Perry, co-owner of BIG Power Yoga! She was on the list. *dramatic music* In this episode, Nancy responds to listener-submitted questions about pretty much anything–and most of the questions are on empowerment, leadership, and goal-setting. […]

This is episode 12 of our second season! She is the bookends of this season: Sarah Montross joins us again to continue with yoga philosophy. We discuss the last three niyamas of the eight limbed path: tapas (zeal, heat, or rigor), svadyaya (self-study or study of the texts), and isvara pranidhana (surrender to god/source). This […]

This is episode 11 of our second season! We had so, so, so much fun with Eliza Ogasawara, fellow yoga teacher and very warm, wise human being. This is an episode where you will definitely laugh and also relate to our journeys, stories, and insights on the subject of santosha. Santosha was many translations so […]

This is episode 10 of our second season! We’re giving you a short and sweet episode that overviews our interpretation of what the energetic anatomy system is. Janan chose this topic because she is a huge proponent of utilizing what humans know about science and physics to describe and even find proof in the things […]

This is episode 9 of our second season! The one, the only, THE Angie Currell joins us for an amazing episode all about carrying on the legacy of yoga. Whether you take yoga, teach yoga, or you’re looking to get into yoga, we’ve all got some great ruminations about the longevity of this practice in […]

This is episode 8 of our second season and someone flew all the way from Kenya to be on our podcast: Gioconda Parker! Ok, well, maybe she flew from Kenya to just come home, though she did make time to be on the show! What a special episode with such a wise, kind teacher. Gia […]

This is episode 7 of our second season and WE FINALLY GOT HER: co-owner of BIG Power Yoga, Nancy Perry! She’s an inspiration to us as a leader, yoga teacher, and powerful badass woman overall. We also know her as a small business guru for growing her companies from idea seedlings to bustling, big, flourishing […]

This is episode 6 of our second season and you get the opportunity to hear a wife-to-wife conversation! We discuss a topic Maria chose: the illusion of separation. It’s a pertinent topic in the era of Twitter wars (and real wars). We lay out our opinions on the table in the hopes of continuing to […]

This is episode 5 of our second season with our good friend and guest, Jenny Noonan aka @choosing.motherhood (you can read a great article she wrote this year about “mom guilt” here!). We talk all about how we reconcile religion with the practice of yoga and Jenny’s perspective is really powerful. This is a great […]

Welcome to BYOBlanket’s second season! This is episode 4 of our second season, and we have someone who is a BIG DEAL! Marlon Hall, everyone. He’s an anthropologist, yoga teacher, author, professor, father, and more–spending any amount of time with him is such a big upgrade to ours (and your) lives. Check out this episode […]

Welcome to BYOBlanket’s second season! In episode 3 of season 2, we are #blessed with guest Kelsey Konsen (@yogabalancehtx), corporate and private yoga instructor and ex-religion and philosophy university professor! Wow! In this episode, get ready to gain so many golden nuggets of wisdom from Kelsey as we discuss the topics of impermanence and non-attachment […]

Welcome to BYOBlanket’s second season! Episode 2 of season 2 we have mystery guest… Who is this mystery guest?! You’ll have to listen to find out! We talk about the stigma surrounding doing an ancient Eastern practice in a place like the United States. Side note: neither of us are white (Janan is half) so we […]

Welcome to BYOBlanket’s second season! This season, we are focusing our blanket fort conversations around something we are very passionate about: anything and everything yoga. Now listen, if you are currently “not into yoga” or “don’t like yoga,” we recommend giving these episodes a chance. Our intention is to delve into what yoga really is […]

Ah, the great college debate. Should you go to college and probably incur a lifetime of debt for a piece of paper, or should you persevere, find a way, and gain intellect, a degree, and patience? Join Janan and Maria along with Ana, Frank, Annalisa, and John as they reminisce over their glory days. Their […]

It’s not his story or her story — it’s they story. Despite this kinda terrible play on words, this episode is excellent because of our guest, Joshua Stokes. He’s a sociologist, comedian, and amateur historian who enlightens us all on the history of Haiti. Janan and Maria talk about their own historical interests. And we […]

What a perfect guest we had in Dr. Lisa Borik Vickers, professional opera singer and doctorate of the arts, to discuss all things creativity. Creativity serves a vital purpose in our lives and we believe everyone is creative in some way–and that cultivating creativity is a practiced skill in and of itself! We also interview […]

In this episode with guest ninjas, Ashley and Matt, we talk commitment. What are you committed to? Why is it important to talk about it? How do you honor those commitments?! What is also great is Ashley and Matt are equally as weird (aka fun) as we are. We end the conversation with talking about […]

What is evil? Does it exist? Are you evil?! Let’s discuss! Join Maria and Janan with their incredibly eloquent guest ninja, Rachael, as they discuss the ins and outs of the concept of evil. Often when living in a world of yoga, leadership, and empowerment, we find ourselves ignoring the extremes of our reality and […]

We’ve got a great show for you with guest ninjas Joe Down and Chris Herber. All four of us are self-proclaimed nerds about outer space, quantum mechanics, the philosophy of science/physics, and consciousness. In fact, we nerded out so hard, we talked for two hours, leading to another two part episode. Look out for patron-submitted […]

We’ve got a great show for you with guest ninjas Joe Down and Chris Herber. All four of us are self-proclaimed nerds about outer space, quantum mechanics, the philosophy of science/physics, and consciousness. In fact, we nerded out so hard, we talked for two hours, leading to another two part episode. Look out for patron-submitted […]

Join Janan and Maria as they talk MONAAAYYYY (money) with Brett Harmeling on Episode 6 of BYOBlanket. Brett is a very successful financial advisor with a great way of doing things, so we loved having him on the show. Not only do we talk about smart ways to be with money, we also discussed the […]

Janan and Maria are joined by a panel of gays in their biggest blanket fort yet! Meet Russell, Caroline, Brittanie, and Haley as they discuss their coming out stories, their various challenges they face as non-straight folk living in the south, and how they powerfully and humorously overcome whatever gets in their way of being […]

Janan and Maria are joined by a panel of gays in their biggest blanket fort yet! Meet Russell, Caroline, Brittanie, and Haley as they discuss their coming out stories, their various challenges they face as non-straight folk living in the south, and how they powerfully and humorously overcome whatever gets in their way of being […]

Janan and Maria interview Jenny Noonan this week on an episode all about the mother of all subjects: motherhood! Jenny is qualified to lead this episode’s discussion because she is a mom and therefore practices motherhood on the reg. Also, we know her as an extremely knowledgeable source of advice and levelheadedness, so we gained […]