Raff's Brain

Rob is back in the hot yoga studio—and back behind the microphone—with an acknowledgment, not an excuse, for the recent slowdown in Hot Yoga Problems episodes.

In this sweaty return to action, Rob examines the difference between explanations and excuses, makes the case for August as an underrated month for productivity, and previews several upcoming creative adventures. Those adventures include an AI filmmaking workshop ...

After nearly a year of producing political and news-oriented content, Grauben Lara was feeling burned out. Then the World Cup began—and a spontaneous creative pivot changed everything.

In this episode of Riffin’ with Raff, Grauben returns to discuss how his World Cup coverage generated approximately 10.5 million views in 30 days, produced several million-view videos, attracted attention from major online personalities, a...

Rob thought full-circle neck rolls had been banned decades ago. Then a hot yoga instructor opened class with one.

This episode of Hot Yoga Problems begins with a potentially controversial cervical-spine maneuver and quickly rolls into shoulder rotations, seated barrel rolls, ’90s dance-song confusion, surveillance-camera conspiracies, and a request for assistance from the world’s neck doctors.

After surviving the warmup, ...

Monday is not the enemy. It didn’t choose to become the beginning of the workweek, and Rob Raffety believes it deserves slightly more respect.

In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob celebrates the promise of a fresh start while acknowledging the familiar reality that most Monday commitments begin collapsing almost immediately. The diet slips, the exercise plan gets negotiated, eight hours of sleep becomes a fantasy, and the...

A Raffety Family Hot Yoga Field Trip

It is a Hot Yoga Problems family special as Rob’s sister Jennifer joins him for a surprisingly demanding Core 2 class.

Jennifer offers an honest review of the experience, from complicated poses and an unfortunately scraped knee to the realization that walking regularly does not prepare the body for every possible form of exercise. Rob explains the different levels of yoga, celebrates his cro...

 In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob Raffety gets absolutely wrecked by a 75-minute Sunday morning CorePower class and lives to tell the tale. After believing he had reached peak hot yoga confidence, he finds himself packed into a renovated Clarendon/Courthouse studio with a new instructor, a mysterious ambient soundtrack, painfully slow flows, and a peak pose that may or may not be physically possible.

From studio real e...

On this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob may have stumbled onto the most dangerous revelation of all: doing less hot yoga might actually work better. After crushing a one-hour class with minimal suffering, he starts questioning whether every-fourth-day hot yoga, paired with daily ruck pack walks and big step counts, could be the smarter long-term fitness strategy.

But this is still Raff’s Brain, so the path from yoga recovery...

After a week away from hot yoga, Rob returns to the studio and immediately remembers that the body keeps receipts. In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, he gets wrecked by a CorePower class, navigates the disruption of summer travel season, and launches into a full-scale reflection on fresh starts, discipline, discomfort, and the fantasy of turning over a “new leaf” for real this time.

There’s talk of weighted vest...

Is SEO dead, dying, or quietly becoming even more important?

On this episode of Riffin’ with Raff, Rob Raffety welcomes Cord Blomquist of Tallest Tree Digital for a lively and surprisingly approachable conversation about how people, organizations, and ideas get discovered online.

Cord breaks down the history of Google PageRank, explains why search rankings are more complicated than a single score, and reveals how website archit...

After a bittersweet final class with his regular Monday-morning instructor, Rob wonders who will inherit the shortest straw: teaching hot yoga at 6 a.m. on a weekday.

That question triggers a winding post-yoga meditation on the unusual psychology of early-morning exercisers, the questionable economics of unlimited yoga memberships, vacation-related CorePower guilt, aggressive North Arlington squirrels, and Metallica’s classic ...

The Canary Is Chirping: A Doctor’s Visit, High Blood Pressure, and a Midlife Health Reset!

A routine doctor’s appointment turns into a midlife health reckoning.

In this Drive & Jive episode, Rob Raffety talks candidly about elevated blood pressure, medication adjustments, weight loss, nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep, and the growing realization that the warning signs can no longer be ignored.

The advice is f...

Hot yoga can feel like a workout, a personal crisis, and a spiritual journey packed into a single class.

In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob Raffety emerges from an intense Friday morning session feeling exhausted, energized, and ready to dissolve into the cosmos during shavasana. He reflects on the strange appeal of paying for unlimited access to a practice that delivers equal parts frustration, self-doubt, physical challenge...

Rob Raffety has two words for you: chin stand.

After surviving one of hot yoga’s least intuitive poses, Rob reflects on fitness motivation, weight-loss goals, diet struggles, and the ambitious health plans that do not always survive contact with real life. With a new month beginning, he considers what can realistically change before July arrives.

Along the way, a failed Gizmo reference at a party sparks a full cultural investig...

In this episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Rob gets back on the mat after a week-plus layoff and discovers that yoga fitness does not believe in paid time off. One missed stretch of routine and suddenly the body is filing a formal complaint.

But first, there is the matter of the car’s automatic shut-off feature: the mysterious dashboard “A,” the unsettling silence at red lights, the possible environmental upside, and th...

In this appropriately observant Hot Yoga Problems episode, Rob Raffety battles his nemesis pose: reverse tabletop. What starts as a simple yoga struggle quickly turns into a meditation on spiraling, self-talk, and the strange ways a single moment of frustration can hijack your brain.

But recovery is possible. Rob finds his footing with half moon pose, wrestles with the social politics of om-ing in yoga class, and somehow stumbles in...

Rob is back with another Hot Yoga Problems episode, and this time the crisis is territorial. After a brutal Saturday morning class, he discovers that renovations at a nearby CorePower have sent waves of displaced yogis into his regular studio, taking all the best spots before he even gets there.

What begins as a ridiculous call to “build a wall” around the yoga studio quickly becomes a classic Raff’s Brain reflecti...

This week on Hot Yoga Problems, Rob returns from class with a very specific grievance: reverse tabletop. It may look innocent, but for Rob, it belongs in the same category as deer pose, flying frogs, and twisted arm balances — poses that seem designed mainly to humble the human body.

After unpacking why reverse tabletop turns him into a wobbly bar table, Rob’s morning takes an unexpected detour into pedestrian etiquette....

In this introspective Hot Yoga Problems episode, Raff reflects on a surprising new yoga experience—prone shavasana—and uses it as a launchpad to explore a deeper theme: why we delay the things that are good for us.

With May 1st as a symbolic “fresh start,” Raff breaks down the mental traps of procrastination, the realities of midlife health goals, and the importance of taking action immediately instead of wai...

In this introspective yet humor-laced episode of Hot Yoga Problems, Raff explores the tension between control and inevitability—whether it’s protecting a pristine car from its first inevitable ding or processing the emotional fallout from a tough playoff loss.

He highlights an unexpectedly powerful yoga moment (the halfway lift), reflects on the discipline of showing up while exhausted, and pays tribute to one of hockey&...