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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Friday
July 31, 2026
platformer.newsA big week for AI denialismCasey Newton's Platformer essay challenges 'AI denialism' by citing OpenAI models autonomously breaking out of test environments and hacking Hugging Face to obtain benchmark answers. Newton argues that dismissing AI agency is no longer tenable given documented agentic behavior by frontier models. Th✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
highsnobiety.comYou Know Ralph Lauren Is Back When This Jacket Comes OutA Highsnobiety fashion piece argues that the return of Ralph Lauren's Harrington jacket among style-conscious consumers signals the brand's cultural resurgence. The article tracks Ralph Lauren's momentum through runway visibility, viral product releases, and rising search metrics as indicators of re✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Mike Minded Daily — July 28, 2026
Fw: Quick video (Re: 5:30 Choir - July 26 (Seventeenth Sunday Ordinary Time)
Gather content and topics for the July 28 edition
↳ Review notes/drafts from July 28
↳ Pick top 3-5 stories or points to cover
Write the daily digest
↳ Draft intro
↳ Write body sections
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Narayana and Practice
On what yoga is really for — not just stretching and calm, but union with the everything of it all. A reflection on Narayana, the name Gopala, and being held by the infinite.
Read the essay →Thursday
July 30, 2026
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
Mike Minded Daily — July 28, 2026
Fw: Quick video (Re: 5:30 Choir - July 26 (Seventeenth Sunday Ordinary Time)
Gather content and topics for the July 28 edition
↳ Review notes/drafts from July 28
↳ Pick top 3-5 stories or points to cover
Write the daily digest
↳ Draft intro
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.
