Hey everyone, I'm Andrea Ferretti and this is episode 216 of Yoga Land.

Today my guest is Susanna Barkataki.

Susanna is a yoga unity activist.

She is a lover of the humanities.

And she is the author of a new book

called Embrace Yoga's Roots,

Courageous Ways to Deep deepen your yoga practice.

Over the past few years, Susanna's writing on her blog and her Instagram account

have garnered a lot of attention.

She shared her thoughtful perspective on yoga and cultural appropriation.

I like in the interview that she refers to herself as a rebel rouser

because indeed she does share things in a straightforward way and is trying to

nudge us toward critical thinking and toward acknowledging the ways that yoga in the West has moved away

from honoring yoga's roots. Her book is fantastic. I highly recommend it and I will put a link to purchase it on the

show notes page. I wish I had had more time with her. There's so much to talk about and unpack. But we did get to talk about her

definition of cultural appropriation. This tendency to either glamorize or sterilize the roots of yoga practice.

The antidotes to cultural appropriation

and why this needs to be a continuing conversation and not just something that we feel like we have to get perfect,

otherwise we shouldn't engage in it at all. It's a great conversation and I so appreciate

her willingness to just to speak up and to be solutions oriented and to be open-minded.

So enjoy the interview with Susanna.

All right, Susanna, well, I'm just so happy that you're here today.

...