What if the most important yogic posture was curiosity? That’s how Paul Bramadat, a scholar and practitioner, approaches research on a personal passion. He describes his new book Yogalands as “a skeptical but devoted insider’s perspective” on postural yoga and its place in the world.

As we discuss, this involves nuanced thinking on its practical benefits, the role of religion, the significance of politics and ways to engage with contemporary debates about guru abuses and cross-cultural borrowing. The book emerged from interviews with teachers, reflecting diverse views on how “yoga is this, but also that”.

Our conversation explores, among other topics:

* What it might mean to teach “yoga for adults”

* Tensions between yogic and academic worldviews

* Why healing from trauma is such a common paradigm

* Whether practitioners retreat into “anti-worlds”

* If yoga is political, which values define it

Paul works as a professor at the University of Victoria, where he is director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society. He also teaches Ashtanga yoga.

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