Rachel Brathen Is Using Her Podcast to Amplify Melanated Voices
Rachel Brathen has dedicated this week’s Yoga Girl podcast to allow three members of the Black community a space to share their perspectives, stories, and feelings.
With 30 million downloads, the Yoga Girl podcast is Brathen’s largest platform. Brathen invited Dianne Bondy (@diannebondyyogaofficial), Rocky Heron (@rockyheron), and Maite Onochie (@maite_yoga) to speak from the heart. All money made from the podcast will be donated to the Black Lives Matter movement and organizations of the guest hosts’ choosing.
“Our job as white (and non-Black) people right now is to listen. And I mean LISTEN,” said Brathen in a recent Instagram post. “Don’t let this podcast be something that plays in the background while you do something else – have it be a part of your practice today and part of the work you are doing to acknowledge your role in the societal structure we live in and to dismantle racism both within you and around you.”
Visit Brathen’s Instagram (@yoga_girl) to listen to some of the podcast highlights and read more about the speakers.
“Listening today, you will cry. You will feel. You will want to take action,” said Brathen. “Use your reaction to what you hear as fuel to continue showing up to keep listening, and to fight for justice in every way you can.”
Heron, a musician and yoga teacher, discusses the importance of education in ending racism in America and calls on leadership to step up in the podcast.
These are probably the most personal, most vulnerable, and most honest words I have ever shared publicly about my story and my perspective,” said Heron in a recent Instagram post.
Visit www.yogagirl.com/podcast to listen to the full “Conversations from the Heart” podcast.
