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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Wednesday
July 29, 2026
hackaday.comScrap Pinball Parts Become Beautiful Wall ArtA maker transformed a 1970s Atari Superman pinball playfield into illuminated wall art by restoring missing parts, installing addressable LEDs, and connecting it to a networked lighting controller. The project demonstrates creative reuse of obsolete hardware that was too incomplete to restore but to✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
bbc.co.ukRussia charges Telegram founder Durov with facilitating terrorismRussia's FSB has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism, alleging the platform was used by Ukrainian intelligence for recruitment and coordinating attacks inside Russia. Durov, who lives abroad and holds French and UAE passports, faces an international arrest warrant; Teleg✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
npr.orgMore Americans are going bankrupt. What does that mean?Personal bankruptcy filings in the U.S. rose nearly 50% from 2021 to 2024, with over half a million filed last year. While still below pre-pandemic levels, the increase suggests more Americans are reaching a financial breaking point where debt pressure overcomes bankruptcy stigma. Experts view this✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
amiga.lychesis.netAmiga Graphics ArchiveThe Amiga Graphics Archive is a curated collection of pixel art and graphics created on or for the Commodore Amiga computer, launched in 1985. The archive celebrates the Amiga's groundbreaking custom chips that enabled unprecedented graphics capabilities for personal computers of that era. The site✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
Life KitHow to have better conversationsCharles Duhigg translates neuroscience and behavioral research into concrete, immediately usable conversation techniques — the three-question exercise alone is worth the runtime. This is a practical manual for anyone who suspects they've been talking at people their whole life.✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50New member: Maia Wagner — needs follow-up
Greg Cooke Yoga Club membership
Mike Minded Daily — July 28, 2026
The Guilds of Practice
Long before studios and certification programs, disciplines like yoga, martial arts, and music moved through something closer to a guild system. Not corporations, not franchises. Communities organized around the transmission of skill. The purpose wasn't growth. It was continuity. A guild-like structure worked a certain…
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.
