Purity Culture, Authentic Yoga & Which Bodies Come to Matter — With Jessica Patterson (Part 1)

Jessica Patterson is doing something rare — she's working through a PhD in religious studies focused on yoga and yoga bodies while remaining fully embedded in the yoga professional world as a teacher, studio owner, and trainer. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, she and Rebecca get into the ideas that don't get enough airtime in the industry: which bodies come to matter in yoga spaces, how proximity to authenticity functions as a marketing strategy, and the purity culture that quietly shapes how yoga professionals judge each other and themselves. They talk about Orientalism — the idea that the East is pure and the West corrupt — and why that framing isn't just intellectually lazy, it's actively harmful to the profession. They get into the difference between training yoga teachers and training yoga performers, the franchising of bodies and teaching styles, and the mob mentality that can emerge when cultural appropriation anxiety meets social media. This one is dense, honest, and worth every minute.

Perfectionism, Activism & White Supremacy Culture in Yoga — A Revisited Conversation With Colice Sanders

This is one of those conversations Rebecca keeps sending people back to — and for good reason. First recorded in March 2024, this discussion with Colice Sanders on perfectionism and activism in the yoga space holds up in every way that matters, and has only gotten more relevant since. Colice brings serious precision to the conversation — defining terms, naming the ways white supremacy culture shows up in yoga and social justice spaces, and making a clear-eyed case for why awareness without focused action is where we keep missing the mark. They also get into how perfectionism gets weaponized to police each other in yoga and activist communities, the difference between critique worth sitting with and shame designed to silence, and how moral superiority quietly infiltrates even the most well-intentioned spaces. An updated conversation with Colice is coming in July — things have shifted enough since 2024 that it was time. Start here first.

The Quiet Transactional Culture of Yoga and Wellness

In yoga and wellness spaces, we talk a lot about community, connection, and belonging. But what happens when those relationships start to feel conditional—or quietly transactional?

In this episode, Rebecca explores the subtle shift from being in relationship to being useful in the industry. She unpacks the language of “collaboration” and “alignment,” the pressures of visibility and scarcity, and how businesses built on belonging can blur the lines between care and obligation.

This is a conversation about relational burnout, consent in professional relationships, and what it might look like to rebuild community without extraction.