Sweet is strong. A podcast for readers of romance, listeners who need a calm place to park their ears for a little bit, & for survivors of sexual violence. In this podcast I make space to explore ways of being, ways of being sensual, ways of being present, and just ways of being myself. I am Dr. Roopa Bala Singh, your host. Roopa is a former law school professor of race and property. Dr. Singh has a law degree from UC Berkeley, a Masters in Cinema Studies from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and a PhD in law and history from Arizona State University. Roopa is a former Director at the San Francisco Rape Crises Center (Community Initiatives, SFWAR). Roopa comes from gharana-trained, nationally recognized Indian classical musicians, as well as revolutionary lawyers and resisters in India. She was born in the Southside of Chicago, at the University of Chicago, and was raised across the United States (CA, NY, PA), India, and Sweden. Roopa and her son, Ravi Ali, are both overseas citizens of India and American citizens. The poetry continues. On her most recent trip to India, she lived in Kerala for a year with her son, while researching the lives of yoga teachers and wellness tourism workers.Â
Dr. Roopa Bala Singh (JD, MA, PhD)
In which I hum with you, and hum with my audience. They say good things happen when you are aligned. Mind, body, spirit, work, play. Discipline. Practices. Aligned. I've been watching The Last Dragon with my son. An essential part of the hip hop cinema canon, and so fucking good. Peace, he says, be my sanctuary. Oh, just a beautiful film. One of the things I like most about it, is how weird the heroine is, how gorgeous and totally strange and searing and true she when she sings. Sexiness has so many layers. Untold and dimensions too. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Lay Your Head on My Pillow has gone live. Episode 11 was recorded in community at Octavia's Bookshelf, one of LA's beloved independent bookstores. Host, Dr. Roopa Bala Singh (hi), tells stories, shares laughs, and hums with a live and loving audience. The podcast will be live all through 2024, and episodes will post biweekly (like a paycheck, mid-month and end of month). Video: Here is a short visual of a joke about parenting and the morning race to school, and the full episode will be on Youtube by Jan 31 midnight (Pacific Time) at: https://www.youtube.com/@laypodWarning: Cussing. Gaaliyan. Mentions of love making. May not be amenable to sped up listening, like music, generally. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Hum, a poem by Mary Oliver. A place to stay in riyaaz, the hum. Hum, a way of bridging the gap between comfort in public speaking and discomfort in singing. Hum, a method of filling the body with sound. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
In this episode of the Lay Your Head on My Pillow Podcast I riff on Silent Night, the classic Christmas song, which is sweet, and beautiful in its prayer, for a mother and child to be present where "all is calm, all is bright." This is unplugged, acapella, not mixed down. Just chilling, and sharing a slice of my daily life. The song also brings in the idea of the Virgin. This reminds me of innocence. I've been listening to Krishnamurti more, and innocence is central to his definition of meditation. He moves away from the idea that meditation is defined by how you sit, or how long you can be silent. Instead, he centers innocence - says meditation is moving from innocence to innocence. I talk some about this. I also talk about resting. I wish you a sweet rest. Lay Your Head on My Pillow supports your good rest. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Dec 17 is the day we celebrate Rumi, his union with the beloved, his death. So this episode is dedicated to Mevlana Jalal Al Din Rumi, including some insights into the politics of translating Rumi, into his father - also a scandalously sensual scholar and jurist (ahem). I share some Rumi poems, and talk about crying. And share a remix to a poem I once read in a Stephen King book some decades back, a tongue twister from the early 1900's. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Today I share 6 healings for betrayal. Welcome to the Lay Your Head on My Pillow podcast, where the vibe is cozy, hopefully sweet, and the intention is to, you know, offer some wisdom with some warmth. In a cold cold world, you know, full of so much ignorance, swirling around. So let's get into it.Today, I'm going to be talking about betrayal, focusing on self betrayal. Such as the betrayal of what you thought were good friends, lifelong friends, childhood friends or your true love, your soulmate, your twin flame and all that, perhaps you can notice that there's so much external focus on the actions of another and let that story be your own. Giving yourself attention. Healing from betrayal does involve giving yourself attention, sometimes self-attention is the most difficult thing, especially if you've dealt with neglect. then giving yourself any attention can feel. Truly uncomfortable, seems to be unjustifiable to give oneself any attentionI'm going to go into a list of six different perspectives on encountering and dealing with betrayal, particularly self-betrayal. And hopefully, those will be a source of support for you. And then we're going to go into an excerpt from a romance. A love scene that I am working on for my young adult novel. It's a sort of a love scene. But it's really about nature. And it's about the tide. Coming in and going out.youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
WelcomeWhy fast?A list of reasons why I fastFasting and Romance: PoemsFood, addiction, healing & supporting our digestion & "gut instinct"youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Welcome to the Lay Your Head on My Pillow Podcast. I am Roopa, Dr. Roopa Bala Singh. I am doing this podcast, especially for those who are curious about sex and romance after sexual violence. I want to be clear that when I say it's a podcast for those curious about sex and romance after sexual violence, I want to be clear that there really is an after, but there's also really not an after. So I myself, for example, I'm approaching a halfway point where at least half of my life I will have been free from exposure to sexual violence. So in a way there is an after for me, there is an after of sexual violence in the home. In the larger sense, we are in a time of rising chaos, and rape has long been a tool of war, When we have sex and healthy romance, we're doing so in an environment where alongside us is all of this chaos and suffering around sex and our bodies. So the tagline is cute and it's true, you know, a podcast for those curious about sex and romance after sexual violence or perhaps the sexual violence that your spouse or your partner has experienced. I need to be honest that, what this is, is me carving out space to push back against, rape culture, and porn culture, of which our internet is still so saturated by that, you know what I'm saying? I myself identify as a survivor of about 20 years of exposure to sexual violence in the home. I have worked in the past as a director, program director at San Francisco County's Rape Crisis Center.I have worked with women and girls survivors of sexual violence in prisons. Most recently I was a law professor and I still write about how our bodies are considered property, in various ways and realms.I'm also a poet.youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
The author's podcast evolves to give the author time to write. Hello again. We start with a little bit about me, and why I am doing a podcast with - what - literally me, myself, and I, as De La Soul sang. I used to have a traditional podcast, it was called Critical Yoga Studies, in which I interviewed luminary friends. The Lay Pod is a little more jazz, in the sense of being experimental & based on years of meticulous practice. What's the experiment? How to live, and why live, in my own life. I live to write, so that's one thing. I get into the pod by sharing an essay excerpt, from an essay called Stove Cooked Smile. In the essay, and in the book of essays on the whole, I riff on the idea Tocqueville made real, about observing the daily ins and outs of Democracy in America. What is it like on the ground, here, now? A lot of microwaved smiles, a lot of hoarding, and a thin, icy freeze over many, many faces. Next, a succinct meditation. A bit about mudra. A bit about coming back to your breath. Reminding yourself about loving-kindness. Ruminating on the realm of the neutral. This feels powerful, in this day and age when every single thing feels intense. Cultivating feeling neutral about anything, for me, is a high challenge. Then romance, for what is Lay Your Head on My Pillow without romance. After I share that passage, I take a big sister/cool auntie moment to talk about what it means to make love, and how joining physical bodies is one thing, but then noticing how you still can feel one another in your body even after, even days after is a special thing. Being present to what all it means to make love is part of the oomph of this passage. Last, I take the extended goodbye, very desi style goodbye. The goodbye includes a passage from the Dhammapada, for good measure. Which tells you how extended this goodbye really is. No but truly, I end by sharing that I am the friend who has the home, that when people come over, they invariably take a nap in. I am talking routinely, I am that friend, where everyone ends up laying their head on my pillows. So I hope to share that comfort, that calm down and rest vibe with you. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Stevie Wonder sang, love's in need, of a love today. That's true. So that's what we are doing in this episode. Love song in Hindi, dedicated to the lonely. It's a thread, an idea I am excited to share with you. Love scene from my forthcoming novel: "He knows a lot about songs." Journal excerpt: Intelligence is fraught for women, for many - from my workshop series on A.I. at Octavia's Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Los Angeles, CA.Guided meditation: Maitri practice, a loving kindness, guided meditation. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
Depression is a thief of the highest order. I know. It can help to be in your body. Not obsessively, mind you. But in a gentle, listening, curious way. To hear the beat of your body. youtube: @laypodig: @dr.roopabalasinghemail: r@roopabalasingh.com
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