Hi, I’m Michael.
I teach insight practices — yoga, meditation, and a few less obvious ones — to people building things in leadership and technology.
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About
Twenty years teaching yoga, running a studio, and thinking about what insight practices actually do. They sharpen attention — and attention is the bottleneck on every hard problem, personal or professional. I write about that intersection, work one-on-one with leaders and builders, and run The Yoga Club in D.C.
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Tuesday
July 21, 2026
newyorker.comMadonna and the Muppets Made the Case for LoveA World Cup halftime show featuring Madonna, Muppets, and global pop stars positioned music and celebrity as a universal solution to cultural division. The spectacle relied on the premise that entertainment can transcend boundaries and unite disparate audiences through shared emotional experience. T✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50get bent
Performing the Practice vs. Reading It: Why Inheritance Isn’t Understanding
A student asked me why the closing sequence comes last, and I heard how much of what I knew was inheritance, not understanding. I could have written a post about it. Instead I built the map — 81 lessons, on a platform I own. The thing is the proof.
Read the essay →
The Impossible Scroll
For two thousand years, the Herculaneum scrolls were unreadable. Carbonized by Vesuvius in 79 AD. Touch one and it crumbles. Unroll it and you destroy the only copy. So they sat there — full of text, completely sealed.
Read the essay →Monday
July 20, 2026
futurism.comGen Z Appears to Be Reversing No-Drinking Trend, Now Lurching Toward AlcoholismNew research shows Gen Z alcohol consumption jumped from 66% to 74% in three years, reversing earlier trends of abstinence. The shift is attributed partly to pandemic timing—many Gen Zers hit legal drinking age during lockdowns—and their drinking patterns (more cocktails, more social occasions) diff✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
georgetowner.comWaymo Is Rolling Into WashingtonWaymo, Alphabet's autonomous vehicle company, is testing self-driving cars in Washington D.C. with human safety drivers as it prepares to launch driverless ride-hailing services. The District presents unique challenges including unpredictable traffic, protests, motorcades, and complex intersections,✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Kiss of the Spider Woman: Ashtanga, Authoritarianism and Art
Michael Joel Hall recounts his visit to the Gala Theater in Columbia Heights to watch a Spanish production of ‘Kiss...
Read the essay →Practice with us this season
Two ways to go deeper before the year turns — a full Ashtanga study season in DC, and an intimate Mysore retreat on the coast of Mexico.
Self Practice by the Sea
A Mysore retreat on the Riviera Maya.
Four mornings of practice, four nights on the coast, a private home with a rooftop pool. Small on purpose — four spots only.
Ashtanga Study Group
Three series. One room. One season.
Sixteen Tuesday cohort nights and sixteen Sunday all-levels sessions — Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced A, side by side. Choose your cohort.
Books by Michael Joel Hall
Six books on Ashtanga, systems, and the craft of a practice. Functional Ashtanga is free; the rest are $10 each, or all six for $50. EPUB + PDF, instant download.
Functional Ashtanga
The manifesto and the method — the whole project’s front door, built on one principle: agency, not compliance.
Free
Self Practice
The method as a manual — how to build an intelligent, sustainable self-practice from the first breath.
$10
Ashtanga 2.0
The philosophy — a postmodern deconstruction of yoga’s authority, and the grounded mysticism that survives it.
$10
Mechanism, Not Magic
The thinking underneath the practice — yoga as a system for clear, honest leadership on and off the mat.
$10
How to Build a Yoga Club
The playbook for the room itself — how to build a practice space that lasts, without burning out or selling out.
$10
Your Life Is Art
The systems primer — stocks, flows, and feedback loops, and the craft of composing a life.
$10
Press
Interviews, bylines, and the occasional controversy.
What is Ashtanga Yoga? The Benefits of This Challenging Practice
“Ashtanga demands fitness, flexibility, and focus — a calming, yet sweaty form of moving meditation.”
Read →Yoga Teacher Recovers, But Attack Highlights a Job’s Health Care Issue
The catalyst for my ongoing advocacy around economic precarity in the yoga teaching profession.
Read →Building Resilience in This Political Climate
A practice sequence for finding strength and clarity when the news is loud.
Read →Responding to Rand Paul on Free Yoga for Government Employees
“They are in less pain, physically and mentally. They go on and do a better job.”
Read →Does Yoga Really Foster Transformation?
On why I practice — to cultivate the conditions required for transformation.
Read →Mysore, the Place and the Practice
A long conversation with Chris Parkinson about my journey, cross-training, and the trajectory of yoga in D.C.
Listen →The Newsletter
A daily email on consciousness, leadership, technology, and practice. No fluff. Unsubscribe anytime.
Get in Touch
Questions, collaborations, speaking, coaching inquiries — send a note.
