All right, here we are. This is Jay Brown Yoga Talks podcast. My name is Jay Brown,

and I would like to welcome you. Whoever you are, whether you are a new listener

or a returning friend, it's no small thing that you've chosen to put your attention here.

And I really appreciate it. Thank you. If this does happen to be your first ever time listening,

some part of me wants to suggest that it might not be the best episode to listen to first.

That might just be my own insecurities, but this is an unusual episode.

Normally, I have a guest on.

I usually do some talking in an intro and an outro,

but the thrust of the episode is me connecting with someone else.

But every once in a while, I have done a solo episode.

I believe this is maybe the fifth or sixth time I have ever done it

in the 10 years of doing the show.

So it's very rare that I do this,

but this week is a sort of special occasion.

This is the 500th episode of the show.

And I felt like I needed to take a sort of point of privilege to celebrate that for one, but also talk about some things that I feel like need or

want to be talked about. And I can't always do that in just like 10 minutes

at the beginning and the end of an episode. So I decided to give myself this time. And, you know,

if you're not familiar with me or interested in hearing me talk about stuff, there's all kinds of amazing people who've been on

the show and all kinds of learning and continuing education that's there. So I wouldn't want

you to get turned off to all of that because of me rambling on about stuff that you're not so

interested in. But for many of you, especially those of you who've been listening since the beginning,

...