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Cherry blosoms in bloom. Public domain image via pxhere.com
Spring Forward: A Time for Renewal and Discovery
April 03, 2020
On this week’s show, we explore self-discovery and renewal through yoga, one author’s rediscovery of her family’s Kabbalistic heritage, and a new interpretation of the Resurrection.
Ashley Litecky Elenbaas, courtesy Sky House Herb School & Apothecary
The Journey into the Healing Arts: From Mindful Meditation to Healing Foods April 03, 2020
As the nation enters the third week of social distancing to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, more people are turning to yoga, meditation, and immune-boosting foods.  Host Amber Khan sits down for a backyard conversation, six-feet apart, with herbalist, meditation and yoga teacher Ashely Litecky Elenbaas.  Elenbaas traces her interest in the healing arts to her early health challenges with asthma and allergies, describing her spiritual journey as a practitioner of Vaishinism, one of the major Hindu denominations. Elenbaas teaches classes in herbal medicine, field botany, western energetics, and custom herbal formulation and is the founder partner and director of Sky House Herb School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Ashely Litecky Elenbaas, founding partner and director of Sky House Herb Schoo & Apothecary.
Cover of The Mystics of Mile's End, courtesy Harper Collins
Searching for Answers: The Mystics of Mile End Author Makes an Unlikely Discovery April 03, 2020
When Sigal Samuel sees her grandmother meticulously peeling the egg on the Seder plate, she can’t resist asking why. The answer sparks more questions that inspire the author and journalist to travel to India where she makes a startling discovery: her Indian family’s deep roots with Jewish mysticism. Sigal traveled to India where she searched for her ancestors' legendary Beit Kabbalah (House of Kabbalah), visited a Jewish cemetery, and accidentally joined a theosophical society.

Sigal Samuel, reporter for Vox, former religion editor of The Atlantic, and the author of The Mystics of Mile End.
Cover of
Discovering Meaning in Art: A Religion Scholar Makes a Startling Discovery April 03, 2020
Easter images and messages center on the resurrection story of Jesus … but is it the right one? That question led religious scholar and theologian John Dominic Crossan on a journey. The Professor Emeritus of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago went on a historical pilgrimage tracing the Apostle Paul’s steps through Byzantine times.  Along the way, Crossan discovers the artistic depictions render a different story.

John Dominic Crossan, Professor Emeritus of religious studies at DePaul University, Chicago, and co-author with Sarah Sexton Crossan of Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision.



Music for this week's episode by MC Yogi, Podington Bear, and Blue Dot Sessions.