It's our pod-iversary! We've been doing the Commune Podcast one whole year now, and Jeff takes a look back on some of his favorite conversations. What have we learned this past year and how can we weave these lessons into our lives and relationships? We thank you for being such an important part of Commune and hope you're just as excited as we are for the year ahead!

Marianne Williamson is a world-renowned spiritual teacher and bestselling author (Return to Love). She’s also an activist and former congressional candidate. The thread in her career is one of spiritual transformation and political activism, but when Marianne began speaking and writing on those topics, a professional path wasn't really visible. In this episode, we hear about how Marianne carved her own career path, and talk about what happens when we look at the history of American politics through a global, spiritual lens.

Jeff: Hi, I’m Jeff Krasno and welcome to Commune, where every week we explore the ideas, values and practices that bring us together and help us live healthy and purposeful lives. 

What do you want to be when you grow up? I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when someone asked a young Marianne Williamson that question. Today, it can be difficult to sum up everything she has done in her life. 

She’s a spiritual teacher, a...

What does childbirth look like from the doctor’s perspective? And how can women better work with their doctors – and the medical system as a whole – to improve the labor and delivery experience? This week Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz shares insights, stories, and hospital hacks with Schuyler Grant, host of Commune's 21-day program Empowered Birth.

If you are pregnant (or thinking about it), head on over to onecommune.com/birth to take the program completely free from August 12-September 1.

Schuyler Grant: I'm Schuyler Grant, and welcome to Commune, where each week we explore the ideas and practices that bring us together and help us live healthy, purpose-filled lives.

You may have already heard that I've curated a new course that launches this month called Empowered Birth. And to that end, we've been digging into the culture of birth in the US on the podcast, and it's inspired all kinds of questions, some of which I hope I can answer on the podcast today. Yesterday...

Why does our birth culture treat low-risk women like high-risk patients? And how does that impact birth outcomes? Schuyler Grant, host of Commune's 21-day program Empowered Birth talks with midwife Elizabeth Bachner on how to navigate the pressures of the modern medical system and make even a hospital birth more homey.

To learn more about the Empowered Birth course and to take the program completely free from August 12-September 1, go to onecommune.com/birth.

Schuyler VO: Hi, I'm Schuyler Grant and welcome to Commune, where each week we explore the ideas and practices that bring us together and help us to live healthy purpose-filled lives.

I'm taking over the mic from Jeff for a few weeks because I've curated a brand new kind of Commune course. It's a 21-day deep dive into pregnancy, childbirth, and early postpartum called Empowered Birth. We're offering the course for free to mamas, and mamas-to-be, and their partners, and other support team from August 12th to September 1st. If...

Think for a moment about the stories you tell yourself about childbirth… None of us remember our own births, and many of us don’t even know our mother’s (or father’s) story of how we were born. And the births we hear about are usually the dramatic or traumatic, because a smooth, easy birth doesn’t make much of a story.

What’s more, the way babies are born in movies and on TV certainly doesn’t help paint a picture of diversity and nuance in labor… you don’t see many women in a birth tub or crawling around on all fours on Grey’s Anatomy. In fact the power of the imagery most of us have – a woman on her back, screaming bloody murder – is more than pernicious… it is a recipe for stalled labor.

In today’s episode, guest host Schuyler Grant attempts to change that imagery, starting with the story of her birth day.

If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, check out Schuyler's new Commune...

What does it mean to live a “perfectly imperfect” life? To quote the Tao, “all can see beauty as beauty, only because there is ugliness.” Life is not an "either-or" condition, but a series of "ands." We are beautiful AND may need lose a few pounds. We feel like we are struggling AND we are also exactly where we are supposed to be in our journey. Author and nutritionist Kimberly Snyder is here to help you better understand, through mindset, diet, and self-care rituals, how to create harmony in body and soul.

Jeff VO: Welcome to Commune, where each week we explore the ideas and practices that bring us together and help us live healthy, purpose filled lives. I’m your host, Jeff Krasno.

What does it mean to live a “perfectly imperfect” life? To a lot of us, it can sound like an oxymoron. How can two opposites both be true? But, as we sometimes say of our friends, family or lovers — opposites attract. That the energy of life, much like...

Do you really know what’s in your beauty products? You might be putting toxic chemicals on your skin and in your body, and not even know it… 

Labels are often designed to confuse or hide the truth — so how can you know what’s safe? 

Join us for Clean Beauty, a 10-day journey to demystify your self-care routine from top to bottom.

In this course you will learn: 

Label literacy and how to determine what is actually in your product. (If you see “Fragrance,” put it back! We’ll tell you why)

Which chemicals are especially toxic and how to avoid them

What “Organic” and “All-Natural” actually mean in the cosmetics industry

How traditional beauty products are processed and how that affects your health

Powerful home practices for total body nourishment

How to choose products for children, babies, and young families

"Clean beauty” doesn’t have to be expensive

If you’re someone who loves...

On the one hand, the U.S. Constitution separates church and state, but on the other, our inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is "endowed by the Creator." In this episode, Jeff muses on the spirituality of the founding fathers and how our politics has frequently strayed away from those values. What would a modern political platform look like if we built it on the basis of universal spiritual principles?

Jeff: There is much written in personal development about rediscovering our original nature, finding our infinite soul, going back to that place where there is only love and compassion and empathy.

Jeff: And recently I've started thinking about that in a more national and sociopolitical context where like the individual, our nation, America, also has an infinite soul and original nature. These were the inspired ideals of our founders as they birthed this country, inspired by notions of the Enlightenment Era and really repudiating a caste system in Europe...

Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee, creators of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy, are on a mission to heal our broken healthcare system by treating the patient and not just the disease. Their program trains healthcare workers and the yoga community in the modalities of yoga therapy, Reiki, essential oil therapy, nutrition and contemplative care — both to manage the stress of being a healthcare provider, and to help patients heal holistically.

Jeff VO: Welcome to Commune, a global wellness community and online course platform featuring some of the world’s greatest teachers. We’re on a mission to inspire, heal, pass down wisdom, and bring the world closer together.

This is the Commune podcast, where each week we explore these ideas and practices to help us live healthy, connected, and purpose-filled lives. You can learn more about our courses, our community, and everything else we do at onecommune.com.

Today we talk with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman Yee, two pioneer...

Jeff and his dad, Richard Krasno, explore the complexities and joys that define fatherhood. How does your experience as a child affect the way you parent? And how can life's ups and downs shape the role a father plays in his children’s lives. This is a conversation about the power of love to turn unexpected challenges into unique and meaningful relationships.

Richard Krasno: I'm Richard Krasno, and I'm noted mostly for being father of Jeffrey and Eric Krasno these days. I'm semi retired. I had a career as a philanthropist, and as a professor, and as a government servant interested in international affairs, and mostly in healthcare and healthcare policy.

Jeff Krasno: I've often equated having my own children as, you're sort of moving from being the nucleus of your life to an electron. You're moving from sort of the center of the universe to this thing kind of spinning outside looking in. What was your expectation around being a father, and how did the reality meet that...