Hi, I’m Michael.
I teach insight practices — yoga, meditation, and a few less obvious ones — to people building things in leadership and technology.
Handpicked. Curated. No ads. No spam. Cozy and real, made daily by Michael.
Read MichaelFilter
Get the hand-curated daily edition and follow the Journals. No feed, no algorithm, no slop.
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.
Open the full Journal & Field Ledger →
Saturday
July 25, 2026
futurism.comAI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible ScaleAI companies are bulk-buying physical books published before 2022, destroying them to scan and ingest their contents for training language models. This practice exploits first-sale doctrine and targets pre-LLM texts as 'clean' training data, with intermediaries like ISBNdb facilitating anonymous bul✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
highsnobiety.comSupreme Is So BackSupreme streetwear brand has experienced a major sales resurgence in 2026 after years of declining relevance, with secondary market sales up 19% and reclaiming its position as top-selling apparel brand on StockX. The turnaround is attributed to controversial releases like a $3,798 casket and strong✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
thisiscolossal.comFelicia Chiao’s Domestic Scenes Reflect the Emotional Structures of Daily LifeFelicia Chiao creates warm, surreal illustrations of domestic scenes using pencil, ink, and watercolor that explore emotion and mental health through layered, flower-filled compositions. Her work features stacked objects, curious characters, and ordinary household elements that reflect both timeless✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Yoga Class
Wish Kazi Happy Birthday
New booking request
get bent
Yoga Class
Wish Kazi Happy Birthday
New booking request
get bent
Yoga Class
Wish Kazi Happy Birthday
New booking request
Teaching a Lineage I Never Fact-Checked
For years I could recite my lineage and couldn’t have told you which parts were history and which were marketing. So I ran an audit on my own values — and built the answer instead of only preaching it. Culture and Context is the humanities companion that lets you hold the source, not the paraphrase.
Read the essay →
Meditation Changed DNA: Mindfulness and Cellular Aging
A 2014 study found that meditation practice produced measurable changes in gene expression related to cellular aging and inflammation.
Read the essay →Friday
July 24, 2026
futurism.comGoogle’s Immense Greed Is Destroying the Open WebGoogle's AI-powered search features are drastically reducing publisher traffic by surfacing AI summaries instead of directing users to original sources. Major outlets like USA Today, Reuters, and Politico are debating whether to block Google entirely, even as doing so risks further traffic loss. The✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50
bbc.co.ukScientists find building blocks of birdsong's 'spectacular diversity'French researchers analyzed over 116,000 birdsongs from 3,000+ species and identified eight fundamental sound motifs (three trills, three whistles, chaotic notes, harmonies) underlying all birdsong diversity. Environment shapes composition: tropical birds use simpler motifs to cut through dense soun✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Yoga Class
Wish Kazi Happy Birthday
New booking request
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.
