Saira Rao is an activist, producer of the provocative documentary, Deconstructing Karen, co- author of White Women: Everything You Already Know about Your Own Racism and How to Do Better, and host of radically honest conversations at Race2Dinner. Since our last conversation on this podcast, Saira has embarked on a new movement effort, called Here 4 the Kids, to push “unexplored and unprecedented action to end gun violence”.

This conversation with Dr. Sravana Borkataky Varma demystifies Tantra. Sravana is a historian, educator and social entrepreneur, currently working as a Lecturer at Harvard University and at University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she teaches introductory courses on World Religion and higher level courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Religion and Film and the History of Yoga. She is also the co-founder of the non-profit, Lumen Tree Portal. Sravana invests in building communities with individuals from various faith backgrounds who believe in kindness, compassion and fulfillment.

The Dalai Lama is a symbol of hope and peace for millions of people all over the world, and has given the world much, so generously for decades. The world saw an edited clip of the Dalai Lama and a child that went viral a few weeks ago. Many non-Tibetans were numb, outraged, shocked and dismayed at an interaction that brought up much discomfort based on personal and collective history of harm and abuse by religious leaders and Yoga teachers who have misused and abused their power.

Born and raised in rural India, Prachi Patankar was raised by a freedom-fighter grandmother and parents deeply involved in anti-caste, feminist, and peasant movements. Over two decades in New York City, she has been an activist, educator, grantmaker, and writer involved in social movements which link the local and the global, police brutality and war, migration and militarization, race and caste, women of color feminism and global gender justice. Through her work, Prachi has been involved in innovative projects to link social justice movements between the United States and the Global South.

rüdrāksh chand is an organizer, anti-carceral practitioner of abolition, lifelong student of Yoga, an artist at large.

Tristan Katz is a trans-queer equity inclusion facilitator and consultant/teacher/space holder, and creator of courses on Conscious Marketing. They are also on the Board of Accessible Yoga and are working on their first book!

Indu Arora is a Yoga and Ayurveda teacher, mentor, and author, based out of the USA. She considers herself a student for a lifetime. Indu has been sharing about Yoga philosophy, Yoga Therapy, and Ayurveda for the last two decades across more than 50 cities worldwide. Her unique gift is making Yoga and Ayurveda a practice, which is equally useful and accessible for a beginner as for a sincere seeker who has made Yoga a lifelong journey. She is inspired by and taught under Kriya Yoga, Himalayan Yoga and Kashmir Shaivism Yoga lineages. She has studied in a traditional Guru-Shishya parampara. 

Residing at the intersection of leadership and mindfulness, Shawn creates sacred spaces for stillness and self-inquiry to help changemakers align their strengths, intention, and impact. Reckoning with his own contemplation of burnout, purpose, and alignment from a career in higher education and student affairs for over 10 years, Shawn transitioned out of his role as Associate Dean of Student Life & Leadership at Morehouse College in the fall of 2021 to focus more on mindfulness and stillness-based training programs and workshops.

Ash Williams is an anti-carceral and reproductive justice organizer. He received his BA in Philosophy from UNC Charlotte in 2015 and his MA in Ethics and Applied Philosophy from UNC Charlotte in 2016. For the last five years, Ash has been vigorously fighting to expand abortion access by funding abortions and training other people to become abortion doulas.

Chemi Lhamo is a community organizer and a human rights activist. She served as the Community Health Lead at Parkdale People’s Economy and on the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust’s board. She is recognized in Maclean’s Top 50 Power List and as the Toronto Urban Hero for Social Issues for 2022. Formerly the CEO/President among many other roles at the University of Toronto Scarborough Student’s Union, she has served the board of Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario and Students For a Free Tibet Canada.

Thenmozhi Soundararajan is a Dalit Civil rights artist, organizer, and theorist who has worked with hundreds of organizations to better understand the urgent issues of racial, caste, and gender equity. Working across disciplines she is an innovative strategist and thinker that has built bridges between many communities around the world.

Through her work at Equality Labs, Thenmozhi has mobilized the South Asian American community to confront their historical trauma and to break the silence about caste, and to commit to ending caste apartheid, gender-based violence, white supremacy, and religious intolerance. Thenmozhi previously co-founded Third World Majority, an international media training organization and collective that supported people from disenfranchised