July 15, 20925, Unceded Ohlone Land, aka Oakland, California

This project is an act of radically taking up space. Systems of patriarchy and racism terrorize. But I cherish my inner experiences, because they are mine.

I acknowledge my privilege of living in a white body, and how that shapes the visibility, risk, and access I experience, even in fear and pain.

The practice of witnessing myself helps me to be able to witness and empathize with the experiences of others and is a gentle invitation for you, too.

In this episode: stream of consciousness processing of external events and body sensations. A practice of self witnessing that is healing me.

Created by Kadie KellyWriting, voice, editing, production, and sound engineering by Kadie KellyMusic: “Eclipse” written, performed, produced, and engineered by Kadie KellyVisit kadiekelly.bandcamp.com for more.

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Hi friends,

Welcome to Episode 6 of this podcast series!

I’m joined by my longtime teacher and the widely beloved Margi Young—a yoga instructor whose presence has quietly helped shape my own healing path over the years. Margi is known for her decades of teaching in the Bay Area and around the world—from Bali to Brazil to Berkeley—but more than her impressive credentials, what stands out most is the joy and groundedness she brings to every room.

I first dropped into her class before many things in life shifted. In recent years, as in-person studio classes reopened, I found myself returning more consistently—and more tenderly.

In this conversation, we talk about:

* The grounding power of practice

* What it means to witness someone else’s healing

* Grief, humor, and downward dog

* Our yoga adventures in India

We also touch on the joy her choreography brings her, the silliness of TikTok dances, the high that singing in community choir brings her, and what it means to keep creating—not for perfection, but for connection (and to keep ourselves away from doom scrolling).

Thank you for this conversation, Margi. May it find those who can benefit from the steady joy and deep care you bring into the world.

With care,Kadie

About Margi Young

Margi Young has been teaching yoga and mindfulness practices since 2001 after earning her Master’s Degree in Dance and Choreography from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her classes integrate breath, anatomy, alignment, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Buddhist teachings on compassion and mindfulness. Also taking a cue from the most profound teachers, she teaches with joy, levity, and humor and encourages her students to take their yoga “off the mat.” One of her mantras is “find gurus everywhere."

Margi began her teaching career at Cyndi Lee’s OM Yoga Center in NYC, where she taught for a decade before returning to her hometown of San Francisco. She holds an E-RYT 500 credential with Yoga Alliance and certifications in restorative yoga (Judith Lasater), mindfulness (Mindfulness Training Institute), prenatal yoga (Integral Yoga Institute), pelvic floor yoga (Leslie Howard), and craniosacral therapy (Ellen Mossman). Named one of the 100 most influential yoga teachers in America by Sonima magazine, Margi’s approach is accessible, thoughtful, and deeply grounded in experience.

Margi currently leads classes at Nest Yoga in Oakland, as well as teacher trainings, and retreats both online and around the world. Her recorded yoga and meditation classes are available on Yoga Anytime (yogaanytime.com) and Movement for Modern Life (movementformodernlife.com), and more about her work can be found at margioyoung.com.

Hi friends,

I wanted to share this with you. The words to this song came to me effortlessly the other night, and today, while exploring different sounds, I felt moved to record a simple, understated version.

Lately, I’ve been pondering:How can I offer my art?How can I heal the obstructions in my voice?

These lyrics claim different moments with faith that I hope you can relate to and can hold you:

Faith, where ya have me going?Faith, what you having me knowing?Faith, where the wind is blowing…I’m faith, till the morning birds lowing…

I feel fortunate to be blessed with faith—in something. I don’t fully understand it, and sometimes I feel like I am faith, embodied. Esoteric, I know—but it both excites and grounds me.

Anyway, I like it and wanted to share it with you. It’s in progress. More to come.

With love,Kadie

In this episode, Kadie Kelly sits down with john ros (they/them), a queer, non-binary conceptual installation artist, educator, and founder of StudioELL, for a conversation that moves with tenderness and a sharp sense of political urgency. Together they explore the meaning of daily practice, the politics of care, and the many forms resistance can take in creative life.

john reflects on their long-running project dia a dia Buendia—a daily ritual of documenting life as a form of artistic practice—and how it draws from feminist thinkers and artists like Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Silvia Federici, and Tricia Hersey. They discuss how everyday acts—grocery shopping, parenting a cat, making a meal—become sites of creativity and meaning when framed with intention.

The conversation deepens as john shares the layered story of coming into their identity as an artist. Born to immigrant classical musicians—one a cello prodigy—they were encouraged to pursue stability, not art. It wasn’t until college, after struggling through science courses and discovering painting, that john realized art was where they belonged. That moment of belonging—late-blooming but undeniable—unfolded into a practice of radical honesty, demystification, and generosity that now defines their teaching and artistic approach.

Kadie and john speak candidly about the unseen labor of artists, the precariousness of creative life, and the importance of building networks of care. They emphasize how professional development, mentorship, and community are not add-ons but integral to the life of a working artist. For john, love is not just a value—it’s a methodology.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to live your art fully, or how to hold space for others while carving out your own, this episode offers a glimpse into the joy, complexity, and courage of that path.

john ros (they, them) is a queer, non-binary, multiform conceptual installation artist working between New York City, Eastern Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts. They are currently a Ph.D. student at Tufts University and hold an MFA from Brooklyn College, CUNY, and a BFA from SUNY Binghamton. john’s mixed media conceptual installations focus on ritual as performance, space/place, light and time. Their work has been exhibited internationally and is held in collections worldwide. They are the director of studioELL, a space for radical education in studio art practice, which they founded in London, England, in 2015. john also teaches at the SMFA at Tufts University in Boston, MA, and Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT.

For a longer version please visit: https://www.johnros.com/biography/

https://www.johnros.com/projects/dia-a-dia-buen-dia/

Pink showed up and taught me new things when I began this journeyof writing a word that came to mind for each letter of the alphabet,then looking up their definitions,and creating a declarative sentence from each one.

It became a process of discovery, not just of language,but of the emotions and memories tied to those words."Pink" wasn’t just a color, it became a doorway.

What truths might surface if you gave each letter of the alphabet a chance to speak?

If you are interested in creating your own alphabet poem, I am offering an online workshop Sunday, May 18th just for you. You can find out more here.

If this podcast resonated with you like, subscribe and comment to add to the energy. If it made you think of someone in your life who could use this message today, share it with them, as well as a hug.

Sending you love,

Kadie

This is a relatively simple classical piece. However, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t taken thousands of hours to be able to play. It started with tinkering on the keys as a child.

Tinkering on the keys is something. It leads to desire for more, which leads to more. Short exercises that seem impossible, became familiar. Notes and symbols that would make me cry for not being able to immediately understand what to do, lead to me understanding. I kept going because there was beauty in every step.

That’s all that motivates me today, still.

We are living through uncertain times, and I can’t help being brought back to my passions. I am glad they have taken root because they are grounding me.

What may have started small, but is grounding you now?

Sending more of that,

Kadie

P.S. Special thanks to Ondine Young for helping me with voicing 🎶

Oakland, April 21, 2025

As conversations in this country continue about who gets to name what—monuments, military bases, entire histories—it’s also worth asking:

What happens when we take our names back?When we tell the truth about where they came from?

This episode is about the quiet weight of inherited shame—and the decision to release it.About initials I didn’t choose.And the story I finally chose to tell.

In Episode 1, I talked about names passed down through lineage and land.This week, I’m talking about the names that are harder to carry—and what it means to let them go.

I’ve always been fascinated by how names shape perception.

I once read that the city of Modesto, California, was almost named after a man—but he was too modest to accept the honor.So they named it Modesto instead.

That story stuck with me.The idea that someone would reject recognition—and how that one choice still echoes through the name of a whole city.

On the other end of the spectrum,I’ve always admired Sigourney Weaver—not just as an actress,but for her name.

She chose it for herself as a teenager,pulling it from a minor character in The Great Gatsby.

The name Sigourney means conqueror. It became her.

That has always stayed with me:how a name can feel like destiny—but only once you’ve claimed it.

Names have power.And that’s what this episode is about:recognizing the weight a name can carry—and deciding whether or not to carry it forward.

I’m not sharing this just to tell my own story.I’m sharing it to hold up a mirror—to who we are,to how we’re shaped,and to what we’ve inherited, even when we don’t know it.

Shame can be passed down quietly.Silence, too.But by telling the truth, we start to loosen their grip.

And maybe—just maybe—that’s how things begin to shift.

Little by little.

🎧 Listen in—and if this episode resonates with you, consider supporting the journey:

* ❤️ Like this post to show your appreciation.

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Thank you for being part of this journey.

With love and presence,Kadie

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