The Downward Facing Spiritual Spiral

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I felt inspired to touch on numerous different topics including this idea of living in a phantasmagorian world where there is so much chaos, we don't know what is real or fake anymore. California is burning up engulfed in flames, New York City is overwhelmed with traffic thanks to Amazon, Ellen Degeneres has to run to Twitter to explain why she's friends with...

Today on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I felt inspired to record a quick episode after listening to a podcast where Marc Maron is speaking with Edward Norton. Most of the interview is pretty insightful and I recommend you take a listen to the show but I was really struck by Edward's thoughts regarding the impact of social media. He refers to social media as "artificial sweetener." I play a clip fr...

Author/Life Coach Julie Scott joins me today on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. I met Julie about seven years ago in a yoga class in Santa Monica where I was introduced to her by a mutual friend. Right away I was impressed by her friendly demeanor and her positive and contagious energy. Julie was born in New York but she has spent the last 35 years of her life in Southern California where she reside...

I just returned from a quick vacation back in Ohio and New York visiting my family so today on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I felt inspired to share stories and thoughts from my trip and talk about the puzzling behavior I witnessed while I was away. Whether it's passengers on an airplane looking at Instagram during take off, people staring at their phones while working out at the gym, chefs looki...

Today I'm stoked to welcome yoga teacher/model Stevie Finedore to The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. Stevie currently teaches yoga at Alo Yoga in Beverly Hills and she is also the founder of The Limitless Society , a community that offers connection, growth, physicality and inspiration. Stevie is originally from Chicago and while she currently specializes in yoga, yoga sculpt and boxing, her first pass...

Singer/Hip-Hop Artist and yoga teacher Mikey Budd joins me this week on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. I met Mikey about a year ago when I took one of his yoga classes at Playlist in West Hollywood. He has intoxicating energy, a unique ability to connect with his students and he's also an incredible Hip Hop Artist. He's released a few singles this year and plans on releasing a new mix tape this com...

Diana Coconubo joins me once again on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. It's been almost a year since I had Diana on the show so I was obviously thrilled to welcome her back and talk about life, tech and creativity. On a side note, if you haven't listened to my first conversation with Diana, I definitely suggest you go back and check it out because she's hysterical and she was my very first guest on t...

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I am super excited to welcome Meredith Fogg Liebross to the show. I met Meredith maybe five or six years ago at a video taping for an online yoga class. Instantly I was impressed by her intellect and sense of humor, her relaxed low-key attitude as well as her passion for yoga. Meredith has completed over one thousand hours of teacher training with some of the...

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I felt inspired to talk about our culture's obsession with attention. Why are people so wrapped up with getting more attention seemingly all the time? Did Instagram create this craze or has it always been here? When you see people posting non stop selfies on Instagram, do you see the insecurity permeating off your phone? Do you see authentic behavior or someo...

I am thrilled to welcome the owner and founder of Yoga Salt LA and Yoga Salt Wilmington, Tamal Dodge to The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. Tamal grew up living in an ashram in Hawaii and it was here where he learned firsthand from his father about yoga, the physical asanas, the history of the practice and the value of living a deeply spiritual life. The moment you step into one of Tamal's classes, you...

I am thrilled to welcome the Owner of Deli Board SF , Adam Mesnick to The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. Adam is probably best known as the chef and creator of the highly recognized restaurant, Deli Board SF, which serves huge over the top and absolutely delicious sandwiches in the SOMA District of San Francisco. After graduating from college, Adam entered the mortgage banking industry but after the fi...

Today on The Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I continue discussing the disruption of core values at home and why I believe so much of the chaos in the world stems from Instagram and tech invading people's homes. I talk about my curiosity with the TV show Euphoria and why I believe it brilliantly captures the concept of people living "two lives." I also talk about how Instagram wants its users to believe...

Today marks the one year anniversary of The Downward Facing Spiritual Spiral Podcast so to honor this achievement, I felt inspired to record my 65th episode. I never could have imagined creating a podcast would have had such a major impact on my life but it's incredibly apparent to me that starting this show has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.  Huge thanks to all my guests who have...

Actor, writer, producer and all around wacky cool guy, Sean Cowhig joins me on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast. Originally from Boston, Sean moved out to Los Angeles to not only pursue an acting career, but to "become famous." He shares stories about his early days as an actor and why he had to choose between playing basketball and performing in a play. He talks about his love/hate relationship with...

Los Angeles based yoga teacher and my friend Calvin Corzine joins me for a special yoga edition "Emergency Podcast." A couple months ago, Calvin came up with the idea of posting "tub talks" where he shares his views or poses questions about various topics surrounding the yoga community. In his latest post, he asks his followers if "pretty pictures" inspire or ultimately make people feel jealous or...

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I share thoughts regarding truth versus perception. There is an omnipresence of lies and false information constantly enveloping the world and I get the sense it's anybody's guess what's true or false anymore. To make matters worse, people are primarily posting falsified impressions of their lives on Instagram, which means the line between truth and the perce...

Joe Nicchi, owner of the now infamous CVT Soft Serve Food Truck joins me on the Downward Facing Spiritual Spiral Podcast. If you haven't heard the story before, over the last eight weeks, Joe's life has completely been turned upside down being featured in The LA Times , Time Magazine , Newsweek and even The Today Show. Joe was getting tired of "influencers" asking for free ice cream in exchange fo...

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I am thrilled to welcome the multi talented Derek Beres to the show. When it comes to introducing Derek, I don't even know where to begin because he has his hands on so many different creative pursuits and projects. First and foremost, Derek is a writer and he has already written nine books all of which can be found on Amazon and his latest book Whole Motion...

On today's episode, I am freaking stoked to welcome the incredibly talented singer/songwriter and lead singer of the alt-rock band OURS , Jimmy Gnecco to The Spiritual Spiral Podcast. I first heard about Jimmy almost seventeen years ago when a friend of mine gave me a copy of his first record called Distorted Lullabies. From his soaring vocal range that can truly take your breath away to the power...

Today on the show, I'm really excited to welcome Beverly Hills and Culver City based Dermatologist, Dr. Vicki Rapaport to the Spiritual Spiral Podcast. I met Vicki almost ten years ago and I was instantly struck by her welcoming and caring personality as well as her overall warmth and professionalism. She is easily one of the most well known and highly regarded dermatologists in all of Los Angeles...

Today on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I talk about an issue that stems from the Instagram culture and why I believe Instagram is creating a world of immense narcissism where people can't stop thinking about themselves. I play a clip from a recent interview on The Ringer between Kara Swisher and Bill Simmons and I talk about why it's so valuable to take time to get our of your own head. I also tal...

Super talented LA based singer/songwriter TRISHES joins me on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast this week. I read about Trish a couple months ago in the LA music blog Buzzbands and I was instantly struck by her voice, the subject matter of her lyrics and her overall creative talent. Although she was born in Boston, she spent her childhood in Trinidad until the age of 7 when she then moved to New Jersey...

Los Angeles based drummer Jake Reed joins me on The Downward Facing Spiritual Podcast. I met Jake about six months when I started recording some new music and I am so stoked I met him because he's truly an incredible musician. Seriously, if you're a songwriter or in a band and you're looking for a drummer, he is super talented, easy to work with and a complete pro. We talk about music and drumming...

Today on The Downward Facing Spiritual Spiral Podcast, I talk about the apparent fear and controversy surrounding my podcast and how did the idea of sitting down and having a conversation become so challenging for some people. I talk about Instagram's decision to potentially get rid of the "like" feature and I wonder if it's because they truly care about our culture's mental health or is it becaus...

Santa Monica based yoga teacher Vytas Baskauskas joins me on the Spiritual Spiral Podcast this week. Vytas is one of the most well known yoga teachers in the country and he was my primary yoga teacher for almost three years. He currently teaches at Yoga Works Main Street , online at Udaya.com and Beachbody and he teaches at Power Yoga East,  a donation based yoga studio in Santa Monica. We talk ab...