Free Your Inner Guru

Laura Tucker

Welcome to Free Your Inner Guru, the podcast for discerning seekers, with all the community and none of the cult. Hosted by Sedona “sweat lodge” survivor Laura Tucker, Free Your Inner Guru® is known for big conversations about the state of the self help industry, cult dynamics and indoctrination, self growth, creativity and spirituality. Laura and guests share stories and insights from their journey so we can all learn how to connect to our inner wisdom in a healthy and socially conscious way.

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Top 10 Free Your Inner Guru Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Free Your Inner Guru episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Free Your Inner Guru for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Free Your Inner Guru episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Spot the Red Flags with Steve McCready

Free Your Inner Guru

10/13/21 • -1 min

It’s a podcast swap! Steve McCready is our guest host, and I’m at the guest microphone.

Steve McCready is the host of The Sensitive Rebel podcast. He is here to interview me about life before, since, and lessons learned from my involvement in the self help industry and my involvement in “that sweat lodge.” Over on the Sensitive Rebel, you will find an episode called Laura Tucker Helps Steve Free His Inner Guru.

Steve McCready is a coach with a background as a psychotherapist. Steve and I share many interests including psychology, photography, and creativity.

After a couple of Zooms geeking out on art and gear, we had a “what if” conversation about interviewing each other. To shake things up, we decided to be guests on our own shows!

The timing is serendipitous. The 12th anniversary of the Sedona sweat lodge was October 8th. A dozen years later, I’m still peeling back layers of this experience and sharing them, but mostly on other podcasts!

Steve’s background as a therapist enables him to hone in on challenging topics with empathy. He speaks with authority to their impact on psychology and mental health, making him the perfect host for this conversation.

No joke, by the time we finished, I was tempted to title this episode “Would Someone Please Just Give Me a Red Flag?!?”

Conversation highlights:

Why I’m rebelling against the status quo in the self help industry.
Cult dynamics and toxic leaders in our current social environment.
The twists and turns of my journey that led me to “that sweat lodge.”
Creativity and photography – learning the rules in order to break them.
Societal pressure on women at certain ages from the patriarchal status quo.
The real secret of the North American self help movement. It’s steeped in privilege.
The rapacious nature of “sell them what they want, give them what you think they need.”
The clarity that’s come this past year, learning about indoctrination and cult dynamics.
Recognizing when we are getting swept away by our feelings, so we can actually see the red flags waving in our faces.

Mentioned in this episode:

Thank you, Steve for being a kind and empathetic host. My interview of Steve for episode 23 of The Sensitive Rebel is here

Connect with Steve McCready

Website – sensitiverebel.com
Website – stevemccready.com
Instagram – @thesensitiverebel

Support Free Your Inner Guru:

Become a Patreon Supporter – patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru
Check out the Leadership Community – freeyourinnerguru.com/community
Shop the merchandise – freeyourinnerguru.com/shop

Stay in touch:

Subscribe to the Free Your Inner Guru newsletter
Instagram – @freeyourinnnerguru

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Psychedelics, Politics and Predators with Kathleen Oh

Free Your Inner Guru

03/28/22 • -1 min

Prior to 2020, Kathleen Oh believed anti-vaccination was the best way she could protect her children.

In this compelling conversation, Kathleen shares how a courageous and empathetic friend led her to understand the deep-seated racism and white privilege underlying her beliefs. Kathleen shares how stepping away from her former community put her on a path of healing and awareness of cult dynamics in her midst.

In this first episode of 2022, Kathleen Oh and Laura take a deep dive into psychedelics, altered states, politics and predators in the world of personal transformation. And why it’s necessary for all coaches to critically evaluate the training and bigwigs in their coaching lineage.

Kathleen Oh is an integration coach helping people on their self-exploration journeys. She educates and guides curious explorers through microdosing psychedelics & breathwork, and most importantly, heal and expand into all that’s possible. She is sought after for her authentic, soft-but-confident approach.

Personally, Kathleen has overcome childhood trauma, depression and addiction.

Offline, Kathleen lives in Niagara, Ontario, loves to hike with her dogs. She feels most connected when in nature. Her favourite moments are in the darkness and the deep cold of a Canadian winter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Dr Janja Lalich – janjalalich.com

Take Back Your Life Recovery Workshops

Past episodes: Dr Janja Lalich, Nathanael Garrett Novosel, AdaPia D’Errico

Connect with Kathleen online:

Website – coachkathleenoh.com
Instagram – @therealcoachoh

Support Free Your Inner Guru:

Become a Patreon Supporter – patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru
Rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or Castbox
Shop the merchandise – freeyourinnerguru.com/shop

Stay in touch:

Subscribe to the Free Your Inner Guru newsletter
Instagram – @freeyourinnnerguru and @thatlauratucker

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Wolf Terry: The Yoga and Wellness Worlds are Sick

Free Your Inner Guru

07/29/21 • 65 min

Wolf Terry joins Laura Tucker for a conversation about her controversial Yoga Journal article “Getting Vaxxed Was My Act of Ahimsa.”

Wolf Terry is a contributing writer for Yoga Journal. She left teaching yoga at the beginning of the pandemic after years of working at every level of the $88 billion industry in order to become a full-time writer.

In 2018 Wolf lost her younger brother and best friend to suicide, mere months after her child was born. Since then she has been an advocate for mental health, as well as an outspoken activist on crucial social justice issues.

Wolf recently came under fire in the Yoga and Wellness community for her Yoga Journal article “Getting Vaxxed Was My Act of Ahimsa” in which she calls out the yoga community for abandoning its ethics.

Host Laura Tucker is a survivor of the 2009 fatal sweat lodge at a spiritual and self help retreat in Sedona, Arizona. She and Wolf discuss their common concerns for the yoga, wellness, spiritual and self help industries including:

what Ahimsa means
ethical concerns when profit comes before people
spiritual bypassing
toxic woo culture in westernized yoga and spirituality
indoctrination and cult dynamics in wellness communities
the influence of the racist and misogynist ideology of the QAnon and Pastel Q influencers on vaccination rates and the spread of misinformation and disinformation across the internet

Mentioned in this episode

Wolf Terry’s Yoga Journal article – Getting Vaxxed Was My Act of Ahimsa

Yoga Journal’s teaser post on Instagram

The Story Behind Free Your Inner Guru

Documentary – Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray

Wondery podcast – Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment

Conspirituality Podcast – Ep 61 – From Anti-Feminism to Anti-Vax with Dr Annie Kelley

Dr Annie Kelley’s podcast Vaccine: The Human Story

Free Your Inner Guru Leadership Community on Discourse

Lindsay Keefe Yoga Therapy

Steve McCready – The Sensitive Rebel Podcast

Connect with Wolf Terry

Instagram – @wolfgini
Website – wolfgini.com

Become a podcast supporter

Become a patron on Patreon – https://patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru
the fun new hoodies, t-shirts and sustainably printed notebooks. (Use LAUNCH15 at checkout for 15% savings.) – https://freeyourinnerguru.com/shop

Connect with Free Your Inner Guru® online

Website – freeyourinnerguru.com
Instagram – instagram.com/freeyourinnerguru
Join our Leadership Community! Live conversation twice a month on Zoom, and full access to our Discourse community. freeyourinnerguru.com/community

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Sean Tucker: The Meaning in the Making

Free Your Inner Guru

12/17/21 • 71 min

Sean Tucker is a photographer, filmmaker and writer who inspires fellow creatives through his popular YouTube channel and new book “The Meaning in the Making,” in which he shares his philosophy for the creative life.

Before Sean became a photographer, he studied theology and worked as a Baptist priest in South Africa. You’re going to hear about his journey into and out of the priesthood, then into photography, why he started his Youtube channel, and wrote his recent book The Meaning in the Making where he demystifies the creative process.

You’re going to love this rich conversation. It touches on all the topic categories of this podcast: creativity, spirituality, finding and using your voice, and stepping away from structured, institutionalized religion.

As we close out 2021, Sean gives us a real sense of what it’s like to bring all parts of ourselves to our work, as evidenced in his philosophical approach to photography. He wants us to put our voice out into the world, imbue it with more meaning to tell a better story and give a deeper truth.

This is an intense and hopeful conversation, one that I hope takes you into the next year with a renewed creative focus of your own.

I give you The Meaning in the Making, a conversation with Sean Tucker.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sean Tucker, The Meaning in the Making: The why and how behind our human need to create

Connect with Sean online:

Website – seantucker.photography
Instagram – @seantuck
Youtube

Support Free Your Inner Guru:

Become a Patreon Supporter – patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru
Rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or Castbox
Shop the merchandise – freeyourinnerguru.com/shop

Stay in touch:

Subscribe to the Free Your Inner Guru newsletter
Instagram – @freeyourinnnerguru and @thatlauratucker

Bridgit Dengel Gaspard: Get Across Your Finish Line

Free Your Inner Guru

12/16/20 • 65 min

Author and therapist Bridgit Dengel Gaspard explains how the double bind is often the cause of why we get stuck just short of accomplishing our goals. Have you ever been caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to find a palatable - let alone winnable - option? If you've ever felt this way, you'll recognize your situation as a double bind. "One of the best-kept secrets of your Inner Critic is that it plays both sides of the double bind. It tells you that you're not good enough as it pushes you to be better." No one enjoys being stuck and the misery is amplified when we have accomplished multiple steps toward a cherished goal - whether breaking a bad habit, losing weight, building a business, finding a mate, or finishing a degree - but just can't seem to complete it. In The Final 8th: Enlist Your Inner Selves to Accomplish Your Goals, Bridgit Dengel Gaspard guides readers through the process of identifying and speaking with their inner selves - such as the inner critic, perfectionist, artist, and risk-taker - to figure out which of them are supporting their goal and which are impeding it. Bridgit explains the key concepts of voice dialogue and how we can use this method to enlist the wisdom of our inner selves to get across the finish line. She guides me through the Voice Dialogue Method so that we can have a living, breathing example of how this method works. Then we take a deep dive into "the double bind" and how essential it is to understand this dynamic in our lives if we truly want to be free. Bridgit Dengel Gaspard, LCSW, is a former performer who earned a master's degree from Columbia University and teaches at numerous professional settings including Omega Institute. She is a former performer who earned a master's degree from Columbia University and teaches at numerous professional settings including Omega Institute. Conversation highlights: How Bridgit discovered Voice Dialogue and why she is focused on people who are stalled short of the finish line of their goal. Meeting your primary and secondary Inner Selves Why it’s healthy to talk to the different parts of yourself. A surprising conversation with one of Laura's inner selves. What we can all learn from our Inner Asshole. (Yes, we all have one!)Deep dive: The unresolvable dilemma of the double bind and how unwinding it frees up your energy and gives you more choice.Deep dive #2: The parentified child - celebrating latch-key kids. Children of the 70s finally have their moment.Why the Final 8th is a success issue.Practicing safe success: strategies to get across the finish line, assuming it is a finish line that wants to be crossed. Mentioned in this episode: Book - The Final 8th: Enlist Your Inner Selves to Accomplish Your Goals Bridgit's website Twitter - @bridgitgaspard Instagram - @bridgitdengelgaspard Want more conscious conversations in your life? Support the podcast and join the Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community at patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru More information about the Leadership Community here

K A Tucker: Simply, Forever Wild

Free Your Inner Guru

11/26/20 • 69 min

K A Tucker writes captivating stories with an edge. K A Tucker has published 31 books and is the internationally bestselling author of the Ten Tiny Breaths and Burying Water series, He Will Be My Ruin, Until It Fades, Keep Her Safe, The Simple Wild, Be the Girl, and Say You Still Love Me. Her books have been featured in national publications including USA Today, Globe & Mail, Suspense Magazine, Publisher's Weekly, Oprah Mag, and First for Women. She has been nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance 2013 for TEN TINY BREATHS and Best Romance 2018 for THE SIMPLE WILD. KEEP HER SAFE made Suspense Magazine's Best of 2018 list for Romantic Suspense. While her success as an author is impressive, K.A. is also a fierce advocate for children with autism and human rights. Kathleen also happens to be my sister-in-law. Every now and then we’d be talking life, and business, and I’d say something like “you should come on the podcast.” Well, we finally made that happen this past summer just as she was in the middle of a book launch. And guess what? She’s in the middle of another one now. Since we recorded in the summer, there’s been a few updates that I’ll give you at the end. Because, well, she’s prolific in her craft. In the meantime, enjoy this conversation that alternates between all-business and two sisters-in-law having a laugh, mostly at ourselves. And a little bit at each other. Conversation highlights Kathleen shares what it was like to start writing on maternity leave, and continue while parenting two children with very different needs.Transition from corporate career to full time author.Genre switching - from Young Adult Fantasy to Contemporary Romance.The business of being an author.From self publishing to publisher contract to self publishing.Deadlines and motivation, writing with a gun to your head.Building the writing muscle and finding rhythm.Balancing creativity with the left brain activities of the business.Having a voice on issues vs keeping your opinion to yourself as a creative and public figure.Impact of the pandemic on fiction writing.Delayed gratification and grey hair.On self care, self forgiveness, and giving yourself grace. Mentioned in this episode: Website - katuckerbooks.com Instagram: @katucker_Facebook: @katucker.author The Simple Wild Series: The Simple Wild Wild at HeartForever Wild Ten Tiny Breaths Wondery’s Guru: The Dark Side of EnlightenmentApple PodcastsSpotify Free Your Inner Guru® Episode 67 with Charles Wilson Laura's Instagram - @lauraatucker Want more conscious conversations in your life? Support the podcast and join the Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community at freeyourinnerguru.com/leadership-community. Enjoy!

Jessica Tracy: The Impact of Pride on Authentic Leadership

Free Your Inner Guru

04/28/18 • 51 min

Jessica Tracy, author of Pride: The Secret of Success shares her perspective on the impact of pride on success, leadership and why all leaders are vulnerable to the darker side of pride. Pride: The Secret of Success is a must-read for new, emerging and established leaders, and anyone in a position to choose a leader, whether it’s in corporate, community, political or the self help world. Conversation highlights: Jessica Tracy explains the two types of pride: authentic and hubristic pride How the self-conscious emotions of pride, shame, embarrassment and guilt influence our identity. The difference between authentic pride and hubristic pride. Pride is not just one thing. How the two types of pride create two different types of leadership. Is pride a sin, or is it healthy and adaptive? Jessica Tracy’s scientific view of the two conflicting types pride: It’s OK to feel pride, but it’s important to monitor which type of pride you feel. Why having a healthy sense of pride makes it easier to be successful. How “faking it until you make it” can lead to self-doubt and be a recipe for more hubris. Why praise can be addictive. Pride and Leadership Why it’s difficult to discern the difference between an authentic prestigious leader and a dominant narcissistic leader without contextual information. Donald Trump as a fantastic example of someone who regularly conveys hubristic pride and grandiosity. The surprising truth about dominant leaders and uncertainty vs prestigious leaders and how people feel in their environment. Pride and Narcissism The relationship between pride and narcissistic behavior. The grandiose charmers and the malignant entitled: two very different kinds of narcissism The role of shame in narcissism. The Hubris Trap: Narcissism is a continuum. Everyone varies in how narcissistic they are as a character trait. Pride and Success Pride is essential to success. Why human nature includes this emotion that makes us feel good about our identity. Dean Carnazes as an example of life change motivated by noticing a lack of pride. Dr Jessica Tracy’s advice for new, emerging, and established leaders Let’s get rid of the stigma surrounding pride. The idea that we should avoid feeling pride is not right. Think about and understand the difference between authentic and hubristic pride. Authentic pride is about finding something that is meaningful to you and then working hard to attain that thing. If you want to continue feeling authentic pride, keep earning it. Find ways to contribute. If we’re doing something that makes us feel good about ourselves, chances are it’s contributing to society. Jessica Tracy, PhD is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia where she is the Director of the UBC Emotion and Self Lab. The research at the Lab is focused on the place where self and emotions meet – the self-conscious emotions of pride, shame, embarrassment and guilt. I first became aware of Jessica and her work when I chanced upon a live interview she did during the hardcover launch of her ground-breaking book Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. It was literally a “stop the car!” moment, as I pulled over to take notes. Take Pride has just been re-released in paperback with the new title Pride: The Secret of Success. Mentioned in this episode: Dr Jessica Tracy’s book Pride: The Secret of Success Follow @ProfJessTracy on Twitter Want more conscious conversations in your life? Support the podcast and join the Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community at freeyourinnerguru.com/leadership-community

Lee Harris: Energy Speaks for a New Decade

Free Your Inner Guru

01/15/20 • 81 min

Lee Harris is an intuitive guide, speaker, musician and author of Energy Speaks: Messages from Spirit on Living, Loving and Awakening. Lee Harris’s journey as a channeler began in 1998 when he first heard the voice of his spirit guides, known as The Zs, while on his way to work on the London Underground train. I first became aware of Lee’s work in 2016 when I was looking for resources for a quickly changing world and navigating some fairly sticky challenges. Lee documents the powerful spiritual wisdom that the Zs have provided him over the last two decades in his book Energy Speaks. In this interview, we explore Lee’s journey as an intuitive, and how he is managing the responsibility of leadership as his influence and organization experience rapid growth. As we move into a new decade, Lee’s work and the Zs message on living, loving, awakening, and leading are more relevant and powerful than ever. Conversation highlights The story of when Lee first met The Zs When your spiritual search asks you to return to your human life with all you’ve learned Why using your spiritual power for negative, egoic desires never works. What the Zs are really talking about when they say, “You are a Lightworker.” Moving self care from concept to action. Why holding a lighter place and finding your strategies are important in challenging times. Practicing ultra discernment: How Lee views and practices his responsibilities as a leader. The energy exchange when we relate to each other. How The Zs view enlightenment. Why getting caught in wanting the world to be harmonious is a trap. Radical Expression: How to hold a loving, gracious, but clear place around speaking your truth. Memorable moments: “Spending too long in despair about world not looking the way you want it to, is not going to get you anywhere.” “The way I live my life now – focus one day at a time as much as I can, to pay attention to my own personal balance as much as I can, while I’m also serving the things that I serve in the world.” Mentioned in this episode: Lee Harris’ book Energy Speaks: Messages from Spirit on Living, Loving and Awakening Visit Lee’s website – leeharrisenergy.com Follow the Free Your Inner Guru Podcast Instagram – @freeyourinnerguru Facebook Want more conscious conversations in your life? Support the podcast and join the Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community at patreon.com/freeyourinnerguru

Suzanne Wylde: The Art of Coming Home

Free Your Inner Guru

04/21/21 • 91 min

Suzanne Wylde is the author of The Art of Coming Home - Common sense self-development exercises to educate, inspire, and empower you. Suzanne is an acupuncturist, holistic coach, and alternative therapist. She and I met online a number of months ago. Her pragmatic straightforward approach led to an invitation to come on Free Your Inner Guru for a deep dive. We get into her varied experience and education, and the conversation lands on processing emotions. It’s fitting. Emotions are running all over the place. They always are, but the COVID-19 roller ride coaster keeps going. Suzanne has given me a link to share with you: an online version of chapter 9 in her book, Processing Our Emotions. The focus on emotion raises the question - and creates an opportunity to begin to unpack an important question - How are we to discern what we pay attention to, and allow to influence our thoughts and behavior so that we don’t become vulnerable to undue influence? I was asked yesterday and started writing a list based on my past experience. The first thing I wrote was “be able to identify when your emotions are being activated - by external events, past triggers, or manipulative tactics.” So here we are with an episode that touches on staying grounded, accepting what’s going on around us, even when we don’t like it, and processing emotion. Suzanne shares some tools that may be helpful as we each navigate our way forward. If you’re struggling, I encourage you to connect with a professional - coach, therapist, doctor, and resist the temptation to isolate. We’re all human, after all. We need support and connection to help us through. Conversation highlights: What Suzanne means by “coming home,” and why she calls it an art.The advantages and disadvantages of being “highly sensitive.”Positivity and shadow work - the paradox of self help.The problem of prescriptive leadership, and prescriptive coaching.How empathy does not always lead to helping others.Grounding, acceptance and processing emotion: topics from The Art of Coming Home that are relevant today. Mentioned in this episode: Preview chapter from The Art of Coming Home: Chapter 9 - Processing Our Emotions Book - The Art of Coming Home: Common-sense self-development exercises to educate, inspire and empower you. Science Direct article - Empathy and compassion Connect with Suzanne online Website - Instagram - Facebook Connect with Free Your Inner Guru Support on Patreon Instagram - Facebook Join the conversation – Check out the Free Your Inner Guru Leadership Community Support the podcast on Patreon or shop the fun new hoodies, t-shirts and sustainably printed notebooks. (Use LAUNCH15 at checkout for 15% savings.)

Seth Godin: The Practice of Picking Yourself

Free Your Inner Guru

11/18/20 • 43 min

Seth Godin is the author of 19 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. Seth’s also the founder of the altMBA and The Akimbo Workshops, online seminars that have transformed the work of thousands of people. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You might be familiar with his books Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip , Purple Cow, and This Is Marketing, an instant bestseller around the world. His newest book is The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. Conversation highlights: Why courses don’t work.The change Seth seeks to make.What marketing is and what marketing is not.What it means to pick yourself.Scarcity as a tenet of the industrial age.Why you get to pick yourself.Different kinds of fame and the smallest viable audience.Empathy and generosity as core values and compass of leadership.The solution for imposter syndrome and self censorship.The pandemic. Now what are we going to do?How Seth built the Creative’s Workshop and wrote The Practice.The process of turning “pro.”Why streaks are important.Perfection, perfect, and good enough.The mistake of listening to unqualified critics.The journey of the creative professional vs the journey of the hack.Marketing and moralitySynchronous vs asynchronous communication and learningThe role of genre in creating an impact with your work, or hiding from it.Where The Practice fits in the book store. Mentioned in this episode: Seth's blog Book: The Practice: Shipping Creative Work The Creative's Workshop Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community Winter of Self CareTM Workshop Memorable Quotes from Seth Godin: "Our craft, our work, our art is an act of generosity, that if we can get out of our head that we are taking, and embrace the idea that we have a chance to give. Then, we’re more likely to give to people.You can’t use it as an excuse to hustle people, to take. Use it as fuel for finding the thing inside you that you can actually contribute. give, simply because they can." "Every time the world has gone sideways, Spanish flu, WWII, the world has got better because people show up. Not from the top. Not because it’s an edict. Because you and me say, “How can I make things better?”" "It’s up to us if we are picking ourselves to decide what we want to be known for. It’s essential that we not permit ourselves or anyone else deniability just because it’s “doing my job.” I think if you’re doing your job, you’re responsible for the work whether or not someone asks you to do it." 📷 Photo credit: Darius Bashar Want more conscious conversations in your life? Support the podcast and join the Free Your Inner Guru® Leadership Community at freeyourinnerguru.com/leadership-community

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FAQ

How many episodes does Free Your Inner Guru have?

Free Your Inner Guru currently has 98 episodes available.

What topics does Free Your Inner Guru cover?

The podcast is about Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Podcasts, Self-Improvement and Education.

What is the most popular episode on Free Your Inner Guru?

The episode title 'Wolf Terry: The Yoga and Wellness Worlds are Sick' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Free Your Inner Guru?

The average episode length on Free Your Inner Guru is 45 minutes.

How often are episodes of Free Your Inner Guru released?

Episodes of Free Your Inner Guru are typically released every 14 days.

When was the first episode of Free Your Inner Guru?

The first episode of Free Your Inner Guru was released on Apr 6, 2017.

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Comments

Paige Friend

@paigefriend

Jun 23

Former cult member turned podcaster - insightful conversations