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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Monday
August 24, 2026
washingtonian.comDC Could Get Another Grand Prix Next Year, Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Karen Attiah, and a Blue Frog Draws Fans to FairfaxA local DC news roundup from August 2026 covering three unrelated stories: the possibility of another IndyCar Grand Prix in Washington DC in 2027, an arbitrator's order for the Washington Post to reinstate columnist Karen Attiah after her firing, and public interest in a rare blue-colored tree frog✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50washingtonian.comDC Could Get Another Grand Prix Next Year, Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Karen Attiah, and a Blue Frog Draws Fans to FairfaxA local news roundup covering DC-area events including a potential IndyCar Grand Prix return, the Washington Post's ordered rehiring of columnist Karen Attiah, and various administration updates. The piece is a daily digest format mixing cultural recommendations (Butthole Surfers documentary), food✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
washingtoncitypaper.comThe Needle: Washington Post Ordered to Rehire Columnist, Experts Say Trump Doesn’t Need a New Bunker, Pentagon Is Firing Journalists, and MoreA political roundup covering recent events including a Washington Post columnist's reinstatement after wrongful termination, Supreme Court allowing construction on Trump's controversial bunker/ballroom project despite lower court rulings, Pentagon firing journalists at Stars and Stripes for defendin✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
The $636 Rent Subsidy That Built My Yoga Career (And Won’t Build Yours)
How decades of below-market rent — not discipline or talent — quietly underwrote a yoga teaching career that's no longer possible to build.
Read the essay →Sunday
August 23, 2026
10% Happier with Dan HarrisThe Evidence for Aliens, the Afterlife, Bigfoot, Sea Monsters, and More | Miguel SanchoA reformed ABC News skeptic maps exactly how much epistemic humility the evidence actually warrants — topic by topic, with wit and rigor. Rare combination of journalistic standards and genuine open-mindedness without tipping into credulity.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Practice 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.
Recent Writing
Fresh off the press.
Get in Touch
Questions, collaborations, speaking, coaching inquiries — send a note.
