Perennials Podcast

Episode 52: What Was Missing with Khay Muhammad

Recently, Khay Muhammad called me up to ask if we could do a follow-up to our conversation for Episode 45: Belonging in Yoga. Khay explained to me that something important was missing from that episode, and she wanted to make it right. This episode is for Khay to explain what (or rather, who) was missing--and why. 

It's a conversation about patriarchy, white supremacy, and trauma; a discussion of how these forces affect us on personal and collective levels, in our lifetimes and inherited from generations before us. Khay generously models what it looks like to notice and meet those forces within and around us, and then take the next step to break the chain and create a new way of being. She does it with courage, humility, strength, integrity and compassion. May we listen with humility, sorrow and hope, and put Khay's modeling to good use in our own lives. 

Episode 51: How You Matter with Maya Sanyal, Part 2

Maya Sanyal and I continue our conversation about purpose by getting a little deeper and more philosophical. Maya talks about how she responds to questions that many of us ask ourselves at some point in our lives when we are faced with trying for something: “Who cares?” “Why does it matter?” and “Who do I think I am?”

Maya believes it is possible to be deeply grateful and content while also ambitious. She believes in the power of presence and creating spaciousness in our lives. Maya has worked to notice, question and dismantle her own thinking traps and hurtful thought patterns, and she offers hope that we can, too. 

Episode 50: How You Matter with Maya Sanyal, Part 1

Maya Sanyal is many things: a career and academic counselor; a mentor and teacher; a writer; a friend; a loving dog mom; a passion skeptic; a purveyor of hope; a business woman. 

In Part 1 of our conversation, Maya and I talk about her career trajectory, which includes navigating the communal culture she comes from and the individualistic culture of the U.S.; earning a PhD in English literature and a Masters in Counseling; and years of teaching and advising students in the university classroom, Writing Center and Career Center. Maya's newest incarnation is being an entrepreneur with AlkaDevika Project Solutions.

Maya shares her thoughts on our cultural obsessions with passion, excitement and quick fixes, rather than knowledge, values and patience. We talk about our shared aversion to learning about money and finances, and why it's important to have that knowledge in order to then decide how to use it. 

Maya also opens up about her history with depression, and why she now sees it as a gift. 

Maya has too much wisdom to squeeze into just one episodes. Come back here tomorrow for Part 2!