Chats Over Coffee With My Yoga Teacher

In this episode Peter (a stand-up comedian) and Kayla (a yoga teacher) chat about what trauma is, Kayla’s trauma informed yoga teacher training, fight/flight/freeze responses, playing possum, consent frameworks, human’s attempts at domesticating various animals, what to do in a bear attack, Werner Herzog’s film ‘Grizzly Man’, exorcisms, and framing situations so that people feel in control. Plus P...

This time out Peter (comedian) and Kayla (yoga teacher) chat about The Bible (don’t get put off yet!). They discuss the differences in the tones of the gospels and why that may be, gospels and Bible books that didn’t make the canon, Jesus as a moral philosopher, how Christianity's malleability meant it could move with the enlightenment, miracles, Paul vs Jesus, the historical accuracy of the nativ...

Our yoga teacher and stand-up comedian duo once again meet up to chat over a hot drink. This time it's about whether we've lacked unifying cultural references since 1997, and then there's a long discussion about laughter. They discuss why we laugh in certain settings, why one person falling over might be funny but another person falling isn't, the concept of punching up and down, comedy or laughte...

The yoga teacher Kayla McCormack and the comedian Peter Brush return to chat about the hips, memory and the perception of time. Discussion includes stuff on hip anatomy, flexibility, whether emotions are really stored in our hips as some in the yoga community believe, the fallibility of our memories, repressed memories and the scandal of the recovered memory movement, Freud, when we form our funda...

Peter and Kayla (a yoga teacher and a stand-up comedian) chat about what EFT tapping is, and its possible therapeutic benefits. Also discussed are acupuncture and meridian lines, Chinese medicine, how the geography of a region may affect the culture of the people who live there, echinacea, placebos and the problem of self-reporting in medical studies, limiting beliefs, the genuine positive effects...

Our yoga teacher (Kayla) and comedian (Peter) combo chat about the contraceptive pill, how it works, it's physical and cultural impact, the potential for a male contraceptive bill, theories of evolutionary psychology for differences in sexual behaviour, managing menstrual cycles whilst playing elite sport, and whether we've been seduced into thinking there's a technological or pharmaceutical answe...

In this episode a yoga teacher (Kayla) and a comedian (Peter) chat about aging, whether western society actually reveres the elderly, lost knowledge, the invention of the teenager, living in a high-tech image-based culture, if solar flares will knock out all of our technology one day, cycles of fashion and political thought, the demographics of people in political life, representative democracy vs...

A yoga teacher (Kayla) and her faithful student (Peter, who is also a comedian btw) discuss resolutions, how easy it is to set and keep them, whether having a moral focus underpinning a resolution makes it easier to keep rather than just setting a specific goal, fake meats, the ethics of certain diets, the flaws and potential politicisation of nutritional information, the naturalistic fallacy, eun...

In this episode Peter and Kayla (comedian and yoga teacher, respectively) chat about the abdominal muscles, what and where they are, the benefits of maintaining healthy ones to help breathing and posture, and whether or not we should all be aiming to get a 6 pack. Also discussed are whether we live in a pro or an anti-natal society, aging and population control, vicariously living your holiday thr...

Your favourite yoga teacher and comedian combo chat over a hot drink about mortality, day of the dead celebrations, having 4000 weeks to live, and how healthy our relationship is to death in the western world. Also discussed are whether aliens are here now visiting us, the feasibility of speed of light space travel, the origins of life, if human beings can really think rationally about evolution,...

Our yoga teacher and comedian combo discuss a conspiracy theory as to who might be behind the decline in religion in the west, followed by a chat about mudras. Topics include what mudras are (they're like poses for the hands, kind of) and the different meanings applied to them in different kinds of Eastern thought. Also discussed are bacteria vs us, western vs eastern medicine, whether you can tan...

A yoga teacher (Kayla) and a comedian (Peter) have a chat over a hot drink about the breath, breathing techniques, nose vs mouth breathing, where the lungs actually are, the roots of anxiety as a survival technique, the perfect sized tribe, magic mushrooms, hallucinogens or psychedelics in therapy, and whether you should just level with your kids and teach them all the swear words form day one. Al...

A yoga teacher (Kayla) and a comedian (Peter) discuss building strength, why powerlifting is good for women, tangible goals vs vague goals, longevity and living forever, uploading our brains to a computer, Derek Parfit and the ethics of teleportation, the art vs the artist question, Peter's celebrity lookalike, gurus, and whether it's wise to have human beings as your heroes. Kayla's Website: www....

Here we are again with yet another episode of the world's best comedian and yoga teacher podcast (to our knowledge). In this one Peter (comedian) and Kayla (yoga teacher) discuss wrist anatomy and health, RSI, carpal tunnel syndrome, the best oils, GM foods and the evolution of agriculture, dinosaurs in the bible, a very good looking rat, and whether we could use technology to wipe out all of the...

After discussing the threat to their jobs from ChatGPT, Peter and Kayla (a comedian and a yoga teacher respectively) chat over a hot drink about disgust and ethics, whether athletes are actually healthy, the idea of taking 10,000 hours to master a skill and the neck, including common neck issues and health, how we're not owls, a magic yoga trick that can make you turn your head further and 2 pillo...

Peter and Kayla (the comedian and the yoga teacher) chat about why it is good to be upside down sometimes, how it may help blood flow, mean potentially fewer night-time bathroom trips and the other benefits of inversions. Other topics include if ghosts exist and what they might be, whether all of western civilisation is linked to Christianity, debunking The Da Vinci Code, the secret of 'coffee nap...

A yoga teacher and a comedian (Peter and Kayla) tell some dad jokes before a big chat about metaphysics, philosophy and morals after Peter finally finishes reading an Iris Murdoch book. Topics include altruism, morality in a secular world, what on earth metaphysics is, Hobbes vs Rousseau, ethics in the rules of yoga philosophy and religious texts, widening the circle of empathy to include more tha...

In this one Kayla (yoga teacher) and Peter (Comedian) chat about matter, anti-matter and dark matter, they discuss what all these things are, where we find them, and if we can learn any lessons from their mysteries. Other topics include whether the moon affects human behaviour, long sleeve t-shirt anxieties, plus Peter's possibly dreadful analogy where the composition of the universe is compared t...

Kayla and Peter (our yoga teacher and comedian duo) chat about 'the hard problem' of consciousness, theories and definitions of what consciousness is, AI, how much more complicated Facebook would be if Buddhism was real, sex robots, what the song 'we didn't start the fire' tells us about the nature of memory and then Kayla explains what exactly a Yoga Nidra is. There may be a free 'Yoga Nidra' rel...

In this one Peter (the comedian) and Kayla (the yoga teacher) chat about energy. They discuss the ideas surrounding karma, energy levels, charisma, crystals and the comfort/horror of being comprised of stardust from the Big Bang, plus there's a joke about an American rock band of dubious quality. Kayla's Website: http://kaylamccormackyoga.com/ Peter's Website (includes live dates): https://www.pet...

Our comedian and yoga teacher combo chat over a hot drink about detoxing, they discuss pollutants, the psychology of dealing with immediate dangers vs long term ones, regulation, and democracies vs benevolent dictators. If that sounds too heavy, don't worry, other topics include bouncy castles, how we got notification dopamine hits before mobile phones, and whether Peter has trained himself to be...

After a brief public service announcement up top, Kayla (our yoga teacher) and Peter (our comedian) chat about the brain. Topics include how to maintain good brain health, the myths and mysteries of the mirror neuron, free will, whether consciousness is located in the brain or elsewhere, phantom limb syndromes, and some other stuff about whether using local honey is being a bit 'in your face' to t...

Our yoga teacher and comedian duo briefly chat about alternative names for the show before diving into the topic of attention. They discuss dealing with distractions and the struggle to become engrossed in a task, the natural or unnatural attention spans of humans, the old days when they used to think novels would rot your brain and whether fiction is potentially more expanding than non-fiction, s...

Peter and Kayla chat about the back, including stuff about posture, whether human's evolving as bipeds is the origin of our back issues, and why even just listening to the podcast could be good for your back health. Other topics include tailored underwear and dogs watching Shakespeare, while Peter realises that his prospects of becoming a professional sportsman are starting to narrow. If you would...

In this episode our comedian and yoga teacher duo chat about writing terrible stuff as a teenager, a botched mugging attempt on a London Night Bus, and digestion. Kayla explains how yoga practise or philosophy could help your digestive system, while Peter shares his secret magic formula for settling a full stomach. Why not follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kaylamccormackyoga/ or htt...