Outer Travel - Inner Journey: Best Podcasts on Books

Best Podcasts on Books

Dec 16, 2020

Annica Lindberg

Sense of Yoga

Annica started a blog in Swedish about her yoga journey. She wrote whenever she felt so alone in her practice and wrote almost every day for 10 years. Through her blog, she got connected to other people, gained friends despite practicing yoga at home (her teacher was online and her friends were not with her. She shared with readers and friends the struggles she stumbled upon in her practice, who later encouraged her to write a book.

Her self-published book gained a lot of attention and respect and attracted followers. It was a thoughtful narration of getting herself to the mat which is not a natural thing for her all the time and how that struggle led her to discover her center. To Annica, those small situations in a person’s life are what showed her that she’s into something else now.

“The more I trust the things I do, the more I get what I need.”

Sonja Radvilla

Fears and Desires

Sonja lets us into the back curtains of writing the book. Some parts were difficult for her to write. One of the characters even came out after all of the struggles of telling the story in a more interesting way.

The book is like a strange universe—Sonja specifically wanted the characters to have universality but also a creation of intersecting realities of India and other places Sonja loved.

Priya Basil

Be my Guest: Reflections and Discussions While Sharing Food

For Priya, we live in a time where food has somehow become an identifier, a part of the statement of who you are and how you want to be seen in the world. For me, my eating—being a vegetarian and leaning towards vegan—was an ethical choice. For others, it can also become oppressive and restrictive. But there’s joy, the possibility for connection, and discovery in food. And so her book was about celebrating those and the possibilities that give us the chance to talk about bigger issues of how we live together and share while acknowledging that there should be a sense of responsibility in our choices.

To Alexandra, this book and the author have so much guts to tackle an important topic and open a sensitive discourse. It takes tremendous openness and clarity to bring these thoughts out to a broader audience. But to Priya, she approached the difficult aspects of this book by confronting her doubts and struggles.

Take the steps that are possible for you at a particular moment. Recognize that we don’t always get it right completely but encourage ourselves and others to keep making better choices.”

Jessica Sanders

Love your Body

Jessica wrote the book from her deep involvement and passion for Body Positivity a movement started by lesbian women to acknowledge the body in its truth. It’s about combating fatphobia in our culture and the shame it creates in individuals that could be potentially a very damaging thing for an individual.

But Jessica is not only about it, but self-acceptance of all kinds, promoting kindness and self-care, and emotional resilience. And these important themes brought out her second book for teens and young adults and possibly a third book specifically for boys and male adults.

“I’m just trying to be as intuitive as possible because I think that is when the best stuff happens.”

Elisa Marie Collins

Becoming a Super Ager

Elisa, in her book Super Ager, bravely explains how pervasive individualistic culture made us think that older people are useless. Looking at the form, the fire element (the competition), and just what we see on the surface, makes us think that older people are useless. And this is in contrast with the wisdom that older adults actually possess and impart—the wisdom of seeing the bigger picture.

In this podcast, Elisa walked us through the intriguing Blue Zones, or the places where there is a higher concentration of super-agers, and unboxed the phenomena in these places so we can adopt the habits for a fuller, longer life that super-agers enjoy.

“We don't necessarily have to isolate ourselves to become a super ager, but we could set things up where we're supporting each other.”

Gianna Shamone

Becoming a Writer

To Gianna, her writing flourished because she was just letting it flow. Forget about the pressure of being ‘good enough’, of targeting to get published—when a thought or feeling or even a question pops in and triggers words in her head, she would just grab a pen and paper go with it.

But she so believes that writers are born—and that happens when one feels the want of writing. Her advice was simply to learn to have the confidence of just doing it. Because she strongly believes that we are all able to write because we are all able to communicate. It's just when we start overthinking that it blocks us to do it.

“Finding peace in the moment is a new favorite thing of mine.

It makes me feel more alive than anything else—calm, steady.

Only my breathing and my heartbeat remind me of the physical shell I chose this time.

Everything else flows and hovers around me.

And I can feel the energy flowing.”

Links mention in the podcast