Working in Yoga

Hosted by Rebecca Sebastian

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199

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Join yoga studio owner, yoga teacher, yoga therapist, and yoga non-profit founder Rebecca Sebastian for a water cooler discussion of what it is to work in the yoga world. We will talk about our experiences, good & bad, connect with each other, share tips freely, and tell our stories. Many years ago a yoga-teacher friend of mine said to me “the one things I don’t like about being a yoga teacher is there’s no water cooler”. And he was right. (thanks James). So let’s use this podcast as our water cooler. This past year, especially, has been so hard for us. Let’s talk about it. Share our stories, our unique jobs, and a sense of community that we all need. Want in? Take a listen.

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60 recent

October 15, 2026Episode 19745 min

Online Yoga, Accessibility & Building Without Burning Out — With Becky Aten

We talk a lot about what gets lost when yoga moves online. We don't talk nearly enough about what becomes possible. Becky Aten — back on the podcast after her earlier conversation about yoga and neurodiverse populations — joins Rebecca for week 4 of the online teaching series to make that case clearly. Online yoga is often wildly more accessible than in-person, and the yoga world needs to stop treating that as a footnote. For neurodivergent practitioners especially, the ability to go at their own pace, adapt to their own capacity, and participate without the sensory and social demands of a studio environment is not a consolation prize — it's the whole point. Becky and Rebecca also get into the sustainability side: sliding scale pricing and what it quietly does to both teachers and students, the cooperative culture fantasy vs. the reality of doing things yourself, and why building something slow and loving online might be the antidote to the hustle culture that the online space tends to produce. There is no one right way to build online. This conversation is proof. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga/Inside Yoga Magazine Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine Community Sponsorships List Becky’s Website

October 12, 2026Episode 19612 min

What Now? Part 1: Find Each Other

"Okay, but what now?" It's the question Rebecca hears more than any other. After months of looking at what went wrong in this industry, from Yoga Alliance's leadership to the organizations that stepped back to the career path nobody built, it's time to talk about what comes next. In this first episode of a five-part series, Rebecca starts with an honest admission: she doesn't have all the answers, and she doesn't think any one person should. Instead, she makes the case for the move underneath every other move: finding each other. You'll hear why organizing almost always starts local, what ten teachers comparing notes can change, the objections that keep us isolated, and exactly how to start a network with one message this week. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine

October 8, 2026Episode 19547 min

Building an Online Membership & Preserving Your Body of Work — With Keri Marino

A lot of yoga teachers still have real questions about how an online membership works in practice — and Keri Marino has the answers. In week 3 of the online teaching series, she and Rebecca get into the mechanics and mindset of building a membership that actually holds people over time: email touchpoints that keep students engaged between sessions, the case for adding a live component, how to film in a way that feels authentic and connected even when nobody's on the other end of the camera yet, and why giving yourself full permission to enjoy the practice while you're recording changes everything about how the content lands. They also get into something Rebecca thinks about a lot — how legacy teachers can use online platforms to preserve and transmit their bodies of work, and what gets lost when that work stays locked behind high-ticket offerings that most students can't access. Plus a conversation about AI, agency, orientation emails, and why membership models take longer than people expect — and are worth it anyway. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine Keri’s Website

October 5, 2026Episode 19413 min

Inside Yoga Magazine Issue 2 — The Accountability Issue

Accountability is one of the most overused and underdelivered words in the yoga industry. A soft-focus apology post is not accountability. A teacher quietly pulled from the schedule with no explanation is not accountability. Issue 2 of Inside Yoga Magazine — The Accountability Issue — is built around one argument: that accountability in yoga is performed rather than practiced, and the public has noticed. In this solo episode, Rebecca walks through what's inside. Magnolia Zuniga's unflinching piece on yoga's predator problem and the deflection tactics the community reaches for every time. Nana Amoako-Anin bringing a Truth and Reconciliation framework to the question of what repair actually requires. The Real Hours Project data sitting alongside parallel research from Singapore, converging on the same structural problem from opposite sides of the world. The grievance processes at Yoga Alliance and IAYT examined honestly for what they produce. And Rebecca's own most personal writing yet — four myths yoga professionals carry, and what each one costs. The issue closes with a story about lying to a man in a grocery store in 2013, and what it took to figure out why. This is what the magazine is for. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine

October 1, 2026Episode 19345 min

Evergreen Courses, Learning Outcomes & Building an Online Yoga Business — With Summer Huntington

Most online yoga studios are built like a sandbox — open-ended, come-when-you-can, no clear progression. Summer Huntington thinks there's a better way. In week 2 of the online teaching series, she joins Rebecca to talk about learning outcomes — identifying what students are actually working toward and building material that feeds directly into that — and why that framework changes everything about how you design an online offering. They also get into the case for having one clear offer instead of many, why small email lists consistently outperform large ones, the underrated market for private and individualized online experiences, and what it actually means to build a body of work rather than just a content library. Plus: what-to-expect emails, office hours, and why getting comfortable on camera is a skill worth developing even if the tech still intimidates you. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine Summer’s Website

September 28, 2026Episode 1928 min

The Mock Turtle, A.K.A. Institutional Abandonment — The Tears

The Mock Turtle cries through the whole story. The tears are real — the Tortoise taught them that. Nothing changes. This episode closes out the series with the hardest piece: organizations that perform concern about misconduct and student safety, without the accountability mechanisms that would make that concern mean anything. It’s not an angry episode — it’s closer to an autopsy. And it’s the hinge into where this work goes next. The One Thing: this episode doesn’t end with a task. It ends with where the series is headed next — and an invitation to be part of building what the organizations won’t. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine

September 24, 2026Episode 1911 hr 8 min

Teaching Yoga Online With Intention & Community — With Nyk Danu

Rebecca doesn't say this lightly: this is one of those conversations where she found herself thinking she was talking to someone who is genuinely a better teacher than her. Nyk Danu has developed such a nuanced, intentional approach to teaching yoga online that this episode is practically a masterclass. She and Rebecca kick off a five-episode series on online yoga teaching by getting into what most people get wrong — the assumption that the relational depth of in-person teaching can't be replicated online. Nyk has built a warm, community-driven online teaching practice that works precisely because none of it is accidental. They cover how she creates a sense of home on Zoom, the cameras-on vs. cameras-off debate, why semesters make sense as a teaching model, hybrid class structures, niching as a differentiator in a crowded online space, and some genuinely practical advice for anyone who has ever recorded for another studio's platform. If you teach online or want to, start here. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine Nyk’s Website

September 21, 2026Episode 1908 min

The Mock Turtle, A.K.A. Institutional Abandonment — The Education

The Mock Turtle’s school taught Reeling and Writhing, and Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision — taught by the Tortoise, because he taught them. It’s absurd. It’s also, this episode argues, an almost exact map of how yoga credentialing works. This episode looks honestly at what credentials actually prepare working teachers for, who’s selling them, and what it means that the organizations selling the credentials have signaled — in their own language — that building jobs isn’t their job. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine

September 17, 2026Episode 18939 min

Studio Ownership, Heartbreak & the Right to Evolve — With Jessica Patterson (Part 2)

This is the conversation Rebecca wishes she could have had when she owned her studio. In Part 2 of this conversation with Jessica Patterson, they move from theory into the deeply personal territory of what it actually costs to own a yoga studio — and why the industry has made studio owners into villains when many of them started this work trying to build a sanctuary. Jessica and Rebecca talk about the shift in power dynamics that comes with ownership and the isolation it creates, the heartbreak of telling a community you've evolved when they've frozen you in a particular moment in time, and the difference between self-agency and self-determination in an economic climate that nobody chose. They also get into the latent shame that comes with business difficulty, why blaming individual owners for systemic problems is both unfair and counterproductive, and the simple but radical truth that you don't have to keep doing the things you're good at. One of Rebecca's favorite conversations on the podcast. It earns that. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine The Network Checklist Jessica’s Website

September 14, 2026Episode 1888 min

Tweedledum and Tweedledee, A.K.A. The Menopause Pivot

Tweedledum and Tweedledee look identical from a distance — but they’re not the same, and the real stakes are happening just out of frame while everyone argues about the rattle. Menopause and perimenopause content is a real, legitimate growth area for yoga professionals — the demand is genuine and the science backs it up. But this episode is about the difference between a teacher arriving at this work because it’s where their career has been heading, versus a teacher pivoting because the topic is trending. From the outside, the content can look the same. From the inside — for the women being served — it’s everything. The One Thing: a self-check for anyone considering menopause-focused content, regardless of which side of that line you’re on. RESOURCES Working In Yoga Website Working In Yoga Newsletter The Back Room Inside Yoga Magazine