In early June I sat down for a fun conversation centering on Song style xingyiquan in Beijing with Raphael Smith (dialling in via Zoom), ably hosted by xingyiquan lover Byron Jacobs, who is an accomplished xingyi and bagua practitioner in his own right and has his own Youtube channel called Mushin Martial Culture (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg_V6eznSvYOFz2naGlgRpg). It was really interesting to compare my own experiences with the way that Raphael, who is a disciple of respected Beijing Song style master Li Yujie, learned Song style, and Byron was able to chime in on several concepts (such as the ability to change direction of power) from a Hebei xingyi perspective. Raphael has developed his own teaching methodology based on his studies of xingyi, taiji and fighting experience called Jing Wu Pai: https://www.jingwupai.com/.
As we had so much ground to cover the conversation ended up a tad long at slightly over 2 hours, and I do aim eventually to have a transcript available. However, in the meantime, here is the video of the conversation for those who are interested: