When the Guru Falls: Meryl Davids Landau on Yoga Bind, Betrayal, and the Courage to Begin Again 🧘♀️🔥
Release Date: 06/12/2026
The Not Old - Better Show
Right now, inside your body, cells are dividing. Each time they divide, they must copy an enormous instruction manual: your DNA. Most copies are remarkably accurate. Some acquire changes. We tend to think of DNA as fixed. You receive it from your parents, carry it through life, and perhaps pass part of it to your children. But scientists are finding that inheritance is only the opening chapter. As we grow older, our cells collect mutations. Sunlight can leave its mark on skin cells. Tobacco smoke can alter cells in the lungs. Inflammation, infection, copying errors, environmental exposures,...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
👔 The most powerful costume may be the one we stopped noticing. In Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men, fashion historian and former Broadway costume designer Chloe Chapin follows an extraordinary transformation. Men moved from colorful coats, patterned waistcoats, and elaborate display to the plain, dark suit. That change carried political meaning. During the early American republic, restrained clothing came to represent democracy, rationality, masculinity, seriousness, and public authority. Plainness became a choice that looked increasingly natural. Chapin...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
🦬 Before highways, subdivisions and shopping centers, the American East belonged to giants. Bison moved through Indiana and Illinois. Elk ranged across Appalachia. Wolves and cougars lived in forests we now consider entirely human territory. Then they disappeared. Now, some are returning. 🌲 But recovery gets complicated when an elk crosses a highway, a bison needs a fence or a wolf appears near someone’s home. Environmental writer Andrew Moore joins me to discuss his fascinating new book, The Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness. 🎙️ How much...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
🌲🧭 Some lives begin again at the trailhead. On this episode of The Not Old Better Show, I speak with Melanie Radzicki McManus, author of Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail. Melanie hiked 1,100 miles across Wisconsin in 36 days, moving through forests 🌲, prairies 🌾, wetlands 💧, farms 🚜, glacial landscapes 🪨🧊, and small-town gathering places 🤝. The mileage is impressive. The message is even better: there is no one way to hike. You can section hike. Use a shuttle. Stay in a motel. Walk with friends. Start small. Begin safely. 👣 For adults 60+, that...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
Working for the Common Good: The People Behind America's Smithsonian The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🏛️ What if one of America's greatest career opportunities is hiding inside a museum? 🤔 Discover the people, purpose, and passion behind the Smithsonian with Fredie Adelman. 🎙️ Listen now! 🇺🇸✨ #Smithsonian #America250 🏛️ What if museums are some of the most innovative workplaces in America? Most of us think of museums as places to visit. But they're also places where scientists, engineers, educators, conservators, veterinarians,...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
👂🫀 Is your body trying to tell you something? 🤔 Bestselling author, reveals what science says about listening to your body for better health, strength, and longevity. 🎧✨ Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening? The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🫀 We spend a lot of time asking what’s new in health. 🤔 Maybe the better question is… what has our body been trying to tell us all along? That question became the foundation of one of my favorite recent conversations on The Not Old Better Show with physician and bestselling author, , author of the...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
👂🫀 Is your body trying to tell you something? 🤔 Bestselling author, reveals what science says about listening to your body for better health, strength, and longevity. 🎧✨ Your Body Is Talking. Are You Listening? The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series 🫀 We spend a lot of time asking what’s new in health. 🤔 Maybe the better question is… what has our body been trying to tell us all along? That question became the foundation of one of my favorite recent conversations on The Not Old Better Show with physician and bestselling author, , author of the...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
Fitness Freedom: Exercising While Traveling or On the Go, Episode 2 The Not Old Better, American Council on Exercise (ACE) Live Long Better Interview Series Travel is an obstacle course with coffee. ☕✈️ Dr. Sabrena Jo shares how adults 60+ can stay mobile in airports, hotels, cars, and real life. #FitnessFreedom Travel has a way of telling the truth about our bodies. ✈️ The airport is not just an airport. It is an obstacle course with coffee: long corridors, heavy bags, tiny seats, rental cars, hotel beds, unfamiliar chairs, and the occasional gate change that feels...
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
Maintaining Independence Through Functional Fitness, Episode 1 The Not Old Better, American Council on Exercise (ACE) Live Long Better Interview Series Fitness after 60 deserves a better headline. It is not about vanity. It is not about punishment. And it is certainly not about pretending we are all training for the Olympics. At its best, fitness is about freedom: the freedom to rise from a chair, climb stairs, carry groceries, reach a shelf, and keep participating in the life we have built. 🏡 In this upcoming American Council on Exercise Live Long Better conversation, I’ll speak with Dr....
info_outlineThe Not Old - Better Show
The Anti-Hype Beauty Episode: Good Housekeeping’s April Franzino on Testing, Trust, and the Aging Well Core Promise to the Listener The Not Old Better Show Good Housekeeping Good Better Best Interview Series Beauty advice has moved from the department store counter to the magazine page to the endless scroll. That shift matters, especially for adults 60+. Today, consumers are trying to make sense of sunscreens, retinol, dark spot correctors, fragrance, skin-tightening products, “anti-aging” claims, and social media recommendations that often sound more certain than the evidence allows. On...
info_outlineWhen the Guru Falls: Meryl Davids Landau on Yoga Bind, Betrayal, and the Courage to Begin Again 🧘♀️🔥
The Not Old Better Show, Art of Living Interview Series
Today, we’re talking about story, spirit, betrayal, friendship, and the search for something steady when life throws us off balance.
My guest is award-winning author, independent health journalist, certified yoga teacher, and returning fan favorite, novelist Meryl Davids Landau. Meryl is the author of what she calls mindful women’s novels, including Downward Dog, Upward Fog, the award-winning Warrior Won, and now her third novel, Yoga Bind.
This new book brings us back into a circle of spiritually seeking women, but this time, the ground underneath them shifts. Janelle, the central character, is moving along her spiritual path when a serious accusation against her revered yoga guru forces her to ask a painful question: If the teacher is tainted, are the teachings tainted too?
That’s a powerful question. And it’s not only about yoga. It’s about trust. It’s about community. It’s about how we hold complexity when someone we admire disappoints us, or worse. And for many of us, especially as we get older, it’s also about how we keep growing without becoming cynical.