Intimate Practice is a podcast about how we love ourselves through transformation, for justice-rooted changemakers practicing hope, offering each other care, and tending to a better world.
This show is hosted by Shivani Mehta Bhatia, writer and conflict facilitator for the social sector. Learn more and connect at www.shivani.co/podcast.
books that feel like dances, with Cody Cook-Parrott
hi, friend. This week on Intimate Practice, I sit down with writer, dancer, quilter, facilitator, and all-time creative powerhouse Cody Cook-Parrott to talk about their new book, The Practice of Attention: Cultivating Presence in a Distracted World. We begin, as always, with a love story (this one took sixteen years), and then wander through attention as a practice of intimacy, the difference between spontaneity and impulsivity, and what power and empowerment look like when you’re the one holding the off switch.
Along the way, we talk about writing groups, books that feel like improvisational dances, and the permission slips we write for ourselves and each other. So brew your favorite cup of tea, put your phone in another room, and join us.
for more:
Learn more about Cody and subscribe to their newsletter Monday Monday: codycookparrott.com (https://www.codycookparrott.com/)
The Practice of Attention (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-practice-of-attention-cultivating-presence-in-a-distracted-world-cody-cook-parrott/a90f7db40fef836e?ean=9781649634146&next=t&next=t&affiliate=5140)
Cody’s podcast, Common Shapes: codycookparrott.com/podcast (https://www.codycookparrott.com/podcast)
Cody’s writing group, Landscapes (https://www.codycookparrott.com/landscapes)
Amelia Hruby, Your Attention Is Sacred Except on Social Media (https://yourattentionissacred.com/)
Subscribe to the Intimate Practice newsletter (http://shivani.co/newsletter)
As always, you can reach me at hello@shivani.co (mailto:hello@shivani.co)
29 Oct 2025
000. welcome to intimate practice
Intimate Practice is a podcast about conflict, care, and change — and how we stay human while transforming systems of power. Hosted by conflict midwife and transition designer Shivani Mehta Bhatia (https://www.shivani.co/), it’s a space for tending to rupture and repair, practicing intimacy and integrity, and building the relational architecture that can remake the world. Made for justice-rooted leaders, creatives, and change-makers who are ready to live conflict — not just manage it — and who know transformation begins in relationship. Begin your own practice of repair with How to Apologize: The Architecture of Repair (https://www.shivani.co/apologize) — a free email course on apology, accountability, and change.
Subscribe to Intimate Practice to join the conversation — and stay close to what’s tender.
28 Jun 2024
03. learning slowly
inside this episode:
summer reading lists
the gift of libraries
safety and containers
communities of practice.
links:
📚 Download THE PEOPLE’S SYLLABUS (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/syllabus), a free reading list for a revolutionary summer
Join the waitlist (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/people-health-waitlist) for THE PEOPLE’S HEALTH (https://www.tulsi.studio/the-peoples-health): discount code and enrollment info coming soon!
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/)
Learn more about our work: www.shivani.co (http://www.shivani.co) or www.tulsi.studio (http://www.tulsi.studio)
some links may be an affiliate link, which means we can earn a small commission if you purchase through them. your support helps us make this podcast!
6 Jun 2024
02. tending the revolution
02. tending the revolution
I recorded this episode the day after the bombings in Rafah, a night that has stayed with me like so many of the nights we have witnessed over the last seven months.
On this episode, I share my story of being a public health worker deployed to the COVID-19 pandemic response in 2020 and 2021 – like so many thousands of public health and health care workers.
Tune in to hear about why I hate the word “burnout” and what I use instead. You'll hear about recovery, the return of a creative spark, and my dream for what comes next – including a little sneak peek of this summer's community of practice, THE PEOPLE’S HEALTH (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/people-health-waitlist). Enrollment opens on June 20!
Links
Parable of the Sower (https://bookshop.org/a/10567/9781538732182), by Octavia Butler
THE PEOPLE’S HEALTH: Join the waitlist (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/people-health-waitlist)
Subscribe to the weekly newsletter (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/)
Learn more about our work: www.shivani.co (http://www.shivani.co) or www.tulsi.studio (http://www.tulsi.studio)
some links may be an affiliate link, which means we can earn a small commission if you purchase through them. your support helps us make this podcast!
16 May 2024
01. what is a practice of intimacy?
What is a practice of intimacy?
how do we define practice, and intimacy? what are our intimate practices?
how is practice emergent? how is intimacy modulated by power?
Links
Stephanie Tillman, Feminist Midwife: “vulnerability, safety, love, risk, nakedness, and tenderness (https://feministmidwife.substack.com/p/fm-weekly-49-5bd).”
Mariame Kaba: “Safety is not something that I can possess in a permanent, personal way. Safety isn’t a thing: it’s a social relation (https://thebaffler.com/latest/illusions-of-safety-kaba).” (h/t Ayana Zaire Cotton (https://ayanazairecotton.com/))
Sonya Renee Taylor in conversation with Prentis Hemphill (https://pca.st/e5fwlqvd)
adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy (https://bookshop.org/a/10567/9781849352604)
Subscribe to the newsletter (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/) for weekly stories from the studio
Follow us on insta: @shivanimb (https://www.instagram.com/shivanimb) and @tulsistrategies (https://www.instagram.com/tulsistrategies/)
Learn more about our work: www.shivani.co (http://www.shivani.co) and www.tulsi.studio (https://www.tulsi.studio/)
some links may be an affiliate link, which means we can earn a small commission if you purchase through them. your support helps us make this podcast - thank you!
15 May 2024
00. welcome to intimate practice
Welcome to INTIMATE PRACTICE, a podcast about power, trauma, relational skills, and intersectional praxis. On this show, we'll explore the questions that are the foundation for equity and justice work:
How do we steward power well, when power has been wielded against us?
How do we mend what has been torn by conflict or trauma, and how do we repair what needs to be restored?
How do we imagine and create what could be, instead?
Subscribe to join us in the exploration.
Links:
read our bookshelf (https://bookshop.org/lists/tulsi-strategies) (affiliate link)
subscribe for weekly stories from the studio (https://tulsi.myflodesk.com/) on healing and nourishment
learn more about our work at www.shivani.co (https://www.shivani.co)
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