The New School at Commonweal

~Part of the Money as Medicine series of conversations at TNS~ Join TNS Host Victoria Santos in a conversation with ancestors and money coach Morgan Curtis and with Xicana climate justice organizer, human rights advocate, and storyteller Niria Alicia Garcia. Morgan and Niria Alicia both live at Canticle Farm, a multi-racial, inter-faith, cross-class, intergenerational intentional community in Lisjan Ohlone territory (Oakland, California). They’ll talk about their journeys transforming ancestral legacies—one from the perspective of a person growing up in a wealthy, privileged family, and the other from the perspective of a person growing up in a migrant farmworker family. Niria Alicia Garcia Niria Alicia is a Xicana Indígena community organizer, educator, storykeeper and human rights advocate devoted to protecting the sacredness of Mother Earth and the dignity of historically oppressed peoples. She is a first-generation proud daughter of immigrant farm worker and forestry workers from Michoacan and Chihuahua, Mexico. In 2019, her climate justice work earned her the national “Emerging Leader Award” from GreenLatinos. This year, the United Nations gave her the highest honor given to young people, naming her the Young Champion of the Earth for North America for her work with Run4Salmon. Niria Alicia believes that true justice and healing will only begin when we rematriate and indigenize land, normalize indigenous values and honor the sacredness of women, 2 spirit peoples, and Mother Earth. Her proudest accomplishments and honors have been learning how to make tortillas in the traditional way from her grandmother, growing her first milpa from her family’s heirloom corn seeds, and inheriting her great-great grandmother’s metate, a culturally significant ancestral tool made from lava rock that has the hand imprints of the strong women she is proud to descend from. Morgan Curtis Guided by the call to transmute the legacy of her colonizer and enslaver ancestors, Morgan is dedicated to working with her fellow people with wealth and class privilege towards redistribution, atonement, and repair of ancestral harms. As a facilitator, money coach and ritualist, she works to catalyze the healing of relationships with self, family, ancestors, community, and the land, enabling the surrender of power and control so that resources can flow towards social, environmental, and economic justice. She is in the process of redistributing 100% of her inherited wealth and 50% of her income to primarily Black- and Indigenous-led organizing and land projects. She is currently a Masters of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, focused on racial justice and healing. Our Host, Victoria Santos, MA Victoria designs and facilitates group processes in communities, organizations, businesses, universities and schools. Warm authentic presence, compassionate communication, commitment to social justice and racial equity, and lifelong learning are threads running through all of Victoria’s work. She brings more than thirty years of experience and leadership in education, community organizing and community development. For ten years, Victoria assisted Sobonfu Somé in leading grief rituals according to the Dagara traditions of Burkina Faso. She is a Spanish-fluent Afro-Caribbean immigrant who was born in a rural village in the Dominican Republic. Music: Devi Daly singing, music composed by Coco Love Alcorn. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Indigenous Writers Address the Seventh Fire * Podcast listeners can follow along with the visual elements of this program at: Slides: https://tns.commonweal.org/app/uploads/2021/11/Ancestor-P2-Slide-1-3.pdf Film excerpts: Seed Mother: Coming Home https://youtu.be/RVqmM_DUZtk Nourishing the Body, Honoring the Land https://vimeo.com/100924901 Braiding the Sacred https://vimeo.com/193666359 Co-presented by the New School at Commonweal and the Center for Humans and Nature—in celebration of the book What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? and the 10th anniversary of the Center’s Questions for a Resilient Future Series Join us for a series of two conversations with indigenous leaders about the Seventh Fire—an Anishinaabe prophecy that points to our current time, with opportunities for healing, solidarity, and Indigenous cultural recovery and revitalization. In this conversation, Host Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Metis) speaks with Rowen White (Mohawk) and Rachel Wolfgramm, PhD (Whakatōhea, Ngāi Takoto, Te Aupouri, Tonga). The follow-up conversation event with Kaylena Bray (Seneca) and Nicola Wagenberg (Colombian) can be found at: https://tns.commonweal.org/podcasts/7th-fire-part-2/#.YZVrKS-B1Z0 Kaylena Bray (Haudenosaunee/Seneca) Kaylena is Turtle Clan from the Seneca Nation of Indians. She has grown up eating traditional white corn, which has given fuel to a career focused on strengthening Indigenous knowledge of traditional agriculture, Native foodways, and environmental health. Her work throughout the Americas has served to educate and strengthen vital links between Indigenous food systems, local economies, and climate change adaptation. She holds degrees from Brown University and the University of Oxford, and currently supports small-scale funding for traditional farming and local economic development initiatives throughout Turtle Island. Nicola Wagenberg, PhD Nicola is a clinical and cultural psychologist and educator. She has worked for more than 20 years with diverse individuals, communities, and organizations on personal and cultural transformation. Since 2005, Nicola has been working with the Cultural Conservancy, directing media projects, and developing and implementing arts and cultural health programs. Nicola is also a psychotherapist in private practice where she sees individuals, couples, and groups in Berkeley, California. Host Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Metis) Melissa is an ecologist and Indigenous scholar-activist. Formerly a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University, she now teaches at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability, Global Futures Laboratory. From 1993 to 2021, she served as the founding executive director and CEO of the Cultural Conservancy and continues to serve as president of their board. She is a contributor and co-editor of What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want To Be? (2021), Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability published (2018), and Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future (2008). She is Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Indigenous Writers Address the Seventh Fire * Podcast listeners can follow along with the visual elements of this program at: Slides: https://tns.commonweal.org/app/uploads/2021/10/What-Kind-of-Ancestor-for-Melissa-Nelson-Rach-29-October.pdf Film: https://youtu.be/RVqmM_DUZtk Co-presented by the New School at Commonweal and the Center for Humans and Nature—in celebration of the book What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? and the 10th anniversary of the Center’s Questions for a Resilient Future Series Join us for a series of two conversations with indigenous leaders about the Seventh Fire—an Anishinaabe prophecy that points to our current time, with opportunities for healing, solidarity, and Indigenous cultural recovery and revitalization. In this conversation, Host Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Metis) speaks with Rowen White (Mohawk) and Rachel Wolfgramm, PhD (Whakatōhea, Ngāi Takoto, Te Aupouri, Tonga). The follow-up conversation event with Kaylena Bray (Seneca) and Nicola Wagenberg (Colombian) can be found at: https://tns.commonweal.org/podcasts/7th-fire-part-2/#.YZVrKS-B1Z0 Rowen White (Mohawk) Rowen is a seed keeper and farmer from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne and a passionate activist for Indigenous seed sovereignty. She weaves stories of seeds, food, culture, and sacred Earth stewardship on her blog, Seed Songs, and cultivates a legacy of seeds and cultural memory with the Indigenous Seedkeepers Network. She is the director and founder of Sierra Seeds, an organic seed cooperative focusing on local seed production and education, based in Nevada City, California. She teaches creative seed training immersions around the country within tribal and small farming communities. Rachel Wolfgramm, PhD (Whakatōhea, Ngāi Takoto, Te Aupouri, Tonga) Rachel is a principal investigator for Nga Pae o te Maramatanga and is currently leading a project along with a team of senior Maori academics and doctoral students investigating leadership in economies of well being. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland Business School and is an active researcher, author, and consultant in sustainability, leadership, intercultural communications, and Maori development. Over the past 15 years, her research has been published in international journals and books and presented at numerous conferences across Europe, the United States, and Asia Pacific. Host Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Metis) Melissa is an ecologist and Indigenous scholar-activist. Formerly a professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University, she now teaches at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability, Global Futures Laboratory. From 1993 to 2021, she served as the founding executive director and CEO of the Cultural Conservancy and continues to serve as president of their board. She is a contributor and co-editor of What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want To Be? (2021), Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability published (2018), and Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future (2008). She is Anishinaabe/Métis/Norwegian and a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

The coming years, decades and perhaps generations, will be faced with the enormous task of walking through utterly unknown territory. We are required to develop another set of skills and ways of seeing as we descend ever further into the collective unknown. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner with Soul Activist and Author Francis Weller for a conversation about the simple things that will enable us to navigate through the Long Dark. Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar on Unsplash Francis Weller, MFT Francis Weller is a psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist. He is a master of synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, and The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation, (with Rashani Réa) he has introduced the healing work of ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, an organization that offers educational programs that seek to integrate the wisdom from indigenous cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western poetic, psychological and spiritual traditions. His work was featured in The Sun magazine (October 2015) and the Utne Reader (Fall 2016). Francis is currently on staff at Commonweal Cancer Help Program, co-leading their week-long retreats with Michael Lerner. He is currently completing his third book, A Trail on the Ground: Living a Soulful Life and Why It Matters. Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. He co-founded Commonweal in 1976. His projects include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School at Commonweal and The Resilience Project. A Harvard graduate, he received a PhD and taught at Yale in the early 1970s before moving to Bolinas, California in 1976. He received a MacArthur fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Changing the World through Small Daily Acts, Small Gardens, and Small Groups, with Host James Stark Today’s intersecting crises seem so daunting that it can be hard to fathom our small actions having any real impact. Join Host James Stark for a conversation with Trathen Heckman—founder of the non-profit organization Daily Acts—about how all of us can amplify the power of our daily actions, gardens and groups to unleash the power of community. Trathen Heckman is the founder/Director of Daily Acts Organization, a non-profit dedicated to “transformative action that creates connected, equitable, climate resilient communities.” He also serves on the convening committee for Localizing California Waters and the advisory board of Norcal Resilience Network, and he has helped initiate and lead numerous coalitions and networks including Climate Action Petaluma. Trathen lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while composting apathy and lack. Host James Stark James has focused his work at the intersection of ecology, community resilience, and healing over many decades. With a masters in Environmental Sciences, focusing on Sustainable Community Development and an M.A. in Spiritual Psychology, his work has centered on developing institutions and programs that strengthen the resilience of communities, and serving as a guide for individuals seeking to lead in times of change. He co-founded and co-directs the Regenerative Design Institute on Whidbey Island, Washington, and currently serves as Senior Advisor with Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine, and Staff with Commonweal’s The Resilience Project, both in Bolinas, California. His community work has yielded the co-creation of community-based non-profits that have created replicable models for developing community resilience. He presently co-facilitates the Art of Vitality and Resilience Wayfinding programs at Natura. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented with OMEGA Network~ Podcast listeners: Download a PDF of Richard’s presentation to follow along with the audio program: https://tns.commonweal.org/app/uploads/2021/09/Richard_Heinberg_09-24-21_TNS_Presentation.pdf Join TNS Host Michael Lerner with Richard Heinberg for a conversation about his new book, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival. You can hear other conversations between Michael Lerner and Richard Heinberg on our website: https://tns.commonweal.org Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen previous books, including some of the seminal works on society’s current energy and environmental sustainability crisis. He is senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels. He has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, Yes!, and The Sun; and has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour. He is also the author and narrator of Post Carbon Institute’s 22-video Think Resilience online course. Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. He co-founded Commonweal in 1976. His projects include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School at Commonweal and The Resilience Project. A Harvard graduate, he received a PhD and taught at Yale in the early 1970s before moving to Bolinas, California in 1976. He received a MacArthur fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Part 2 of a 2 part conversation and spiritual biography with Rachel Lang and host Michal Lerner. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Part 1 of a 2 part conversation--find the play list: https://soundcloud.com/tnscommonweal/sets/rachel-lang-intuition Join Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with astrologer and intuitive Rachel Lang. Rachel Lang Rachel is a professional astrologer, psychic medium, and healer. She is a regular contributor to a variety of publications, including Bustle, Brit + Co, LVBX, Romper, PopSugar, and the Omega News. As an internationally recognized speaker, she enjoys sharing her astrological and spiritual knowledge with others and regularly offers presentations, classes, and workshops. She began studying astrology and developing her spiritual gifts more than 20 years ago and has maintained a private practice working with individuals and businesses since 2006. She holds a master’s degree in theology from Loyola Marymount University, with an emphasis on feminist theology and ethics. Photo by Josh Rangel on Unsplash Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented with Spring Creek Project~ Follow along with the videos shown and discussed in this conversation: Common Murre - https://youtu.be/AuGTNgjhW1M Western Sage Grouse - https://youtu.be/RzyoI0r9ddc How can we attune ourselves to the music that surrounds us? How can we bear the sorrow of its silencing? Join author Kathleen Dean Moore and Naturalist Hank Lentfer in virtual conversation with TNS Host Kyra Epstein to celebrate the earth’s wild music and creatures. We hear about Kathleen’s new book—Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World (Counterpoint Press). We hear animal recordings from Hank and learn about how he has crafted a life listening to nature’s music. We watch two “tiny concerts,” videos inspired by Kathleen’s book and put together by the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University.

Join us for a conversation with TNS Host Steve Heilig and artist-naturalist Keith Hansen about his new book of illustrations: Hansen’s Field Guide to the Birds of the Sierra Nevada. Identify and learn about more than 250 birds of the Sierra Nevada. From tiniest hummingbirds to condors with nine-foot wingspans; from lower-elevation wrens to the rasping nutcrackers of the High Sierra; from urban House Sparrows to wild water-loving American Dippers, Field Guide to the Birds of the Sierra Nevada showcases Keith’s sixteen-year project to illustrate the birds of the Sierra Nevada. Download a PDF of Keith’s illustrations to follow along with the audio podcast here: https://tns.commonweal.org/podcasts/hansen-heilig/attachment/keith-hansen-tns-slides-080621/ Keith Hansen Coming from a long line of artists, Keith took up illustrating birds in 1976, his senior year of high school. After extensive travel, he volunteered for the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, both at the Bolinas Palomarin Field Station, and nine adventures to the Farallon Islands. Capturing and gently handling hundreds of birds for banding studies gave him an intimate understanding of their build, anatomy, plumage and character, all crucial things for a budding bird artist. Over the years, he created bird illustrations for books, scientific journals, magazines, newsletters, and logos. Taking about 14 years to illustrate the 320 species that occur in that great mountain range, and five years to write, his latest book is Hansen’s Field Guide to the Birds of the Sierra Nevada. Keith’s workspace, The Wildlife Gallery is located in Bolinas. Host Steve Heilig Steve is a longtime senior research associate with Commonweal, a co-founding director of the Commonweal Collaborative on Health and the Environment, a host of dialogues for the New School, and in other programs originating at or founded at Commonweal. Trained at five University of California campuses in public health, medical ethics, addiction medicine, economics, environmental sciences, and other disciplines, his other work includes positions at the San Francisco Medical Society, California Pacific Medical Center, and as co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. He has served on many nonprofit boards and appointed commissions, and is a trained hospice worker. He is a widely published essayist and book and music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and many other publications.

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with “the point man” for drug policy reform efforts, Ethan Nadelmann. They’ll talk about a wide range of drug policy issues, concerning both illegal and legal substances, what has worked and what has failed, and where to go from here. Ethan Nadelmann Described by Rolling Stone as “the point man” for drug policy reform efforts and “the real drug czar,” Ethan Nadelmann was long widely regarded as the outstanding proponent of drug policy reform both in the United States and abroad. Ethan began his advocacy in the late 1980s while teaching at Princeton; he then founded first The Lindesmith Center and then the Drug Policy Alliance, the world’s leading drug policy reform organization, which he directed until 2017. He also co-founded the Open Society Institute’s International Harm Reduction Development program. Ethan has authored two books on the internationalization of criminal law enforcement (Cops Across Borders and, with Peter Andreas, Policing The Globe), and spoken publicly in roughly forty states and forty countries. His TED Talk on ending the drug war has over two million views. Ethan and his colleagues were at the forefront of dozens of successful campaigns to legalize marijuana, reduce the incarceration of drug law offenders, treat drug use and addiction as health, not criminal, issues, and otherwise promote alternatives to punitive prohibitionist policies. He recently started a podcast about all things drugs called PSYCHOACTIVE. And he has become increasingly engaged in the debate over tobacco harm reduction. Host Steve Heilig Steve is a longtime senior research associate with Commonweal, a co-founding director of the Commonweal Collaborative on Health and the Environment, a host of dialogues for the New School, and in other programs originating at or founded at Commonweal. Trained at five University of California campuses in public health, medical ethics, addiction medicine, economics, environmental sciences, and other disciplines, his other work includes positions at the San Francisco Medical Society, California Pacific Medical Center, and as co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. He has served on many nonprofit boards and appointed commissions, and is a trained hospice worker. He is a widely published essayist and book and music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and many other publications.

Reparative Philanthropy: Releasing Wealth for Social Justice ~Part of the Money as Medicine series of events co-presented with the Center for Healing and Liberation at Commonweal~ We welcome host Victoria Santos to The New School, in this first conversation in our Money as Medicine series of events. In this conversation, Victoria talks with CC Gardner Gleser about her role in transforming the philanthropic landscape to refocus on racial equity. C’Ardiss “CC” Gardner Gleser is an advocate for social impact and social justice work. She is the first director of Programs and Strategic Initiatives at Satterberg Foundation, whose mission focuses on promoting a just society and sustainable environment. She currently serves as a leader on the boards of Andrus Family Fund, Charlotte Martin Foundation, and Philanthropy Northwest. CC founded Black Ivy Manor, which provides funding and other opportunities for Black scholars, artists, and social justice advocates to develop their crafts and voices. CC earned her Bachelor’s degree in African American Studies from Yale University, and an M.Ed. in Education Administration from Seattle University. Our Host, Victoria Santos, MA Victoria designs and facilitates group processes in communities, organizations, businesses, universities and schools. Warm authentic presence, compassionate communication, commitment to social justice and racial equity, and lifelong learning are threads running through all of Victoria’s work. She brings more than thirty years of experience and leadership in education, community organizing and community development. For ten years, Victoria assisted Sobonfu Somé in leading grief rituals according to the Dagara traditions of Burkina Faso. She is a Spanish-fluent Afro-Caribbean immigrant who was born in a rural village in the Dominican Republic. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with Janet Moses. Janet Jemmott Moses, MD Janet involved herself in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age. The New York native was only 22-year-old when she decided to join the front lines as an activist. She participated in picketing and sit-in-movements in New York, before heading to the south to raise funds for the SNCC – the voter organization co-founded by Bob Moses. Eventually, the two fell in love and got married in 1968. Janet received her medical degree at the University of Boston and established herself as a successful pediatrician at M.I.T.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Matthew Barzun about his new book, The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go. About the book: "In this practical and personal journey, Barzun brilliantly layers lessons across history and industries with his own experiences as an internet entrepreneur, political organizer, and US ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden. With lessons for leaders of all types, The Power of Giving Away Power shows how the Constellation mindset shines in some of the most impactful organizations and innovations the world has ever known. And it encourages us all to recognize, as Barzun writes, "the power we can create by seeing the power in others" — and making the leap to lead. Together." Matthew Barzun has always been fascinated about how we can stand out and fit in at the same time. He helped countries do both when he served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom and to Sweden. He helped citizens do both as National Finance Chair for Barack Obama by pioneering new ways for people to have a stronger voice in politics. And he helped tech consumers do both as an entrepreneur when he helped build CNET Networks in the early 90s. Barzun was raised on the East Coast, started his career on the West Coast, and settled in the middle in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Brooke, and their three children. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

WATER | Thirsty California: Water, Agribusiness, and the Future of Food ~Part of the Roots of Resilience in An Age of Crisis series co-presented with Real Food Media and Mother Jones magazine~ Join Anna Lappé with award-winning journalist Tom Philpott and Janaki Jagannath, of the Community Alliance for Agroecology and the 11th Hour Project, to talk about the state of water in California. As record wildfires and drought plague the state, what are advocates for farmers and farmworkers advocating for? What threats do we face and how do we take them on? Photo: Unsplash Tom Philpott is the food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones and author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It (Bloomsbury 2020). Prior to joining Mother Jones in 2012, he worked for five years as the food editor and columnist for Grist Magazine. His work has won numerous awards, including a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. He was a cofounder in 2004 of Maverick Farms, a small organic vegetable farm and center for sustainable food education in Valle Crucis, North Carolina. In past lives, he has worked as a farmer, line cook, a community college teacher, and a finance writer. Janaki Jagannath is Program Manager of the Food and Ag Program at the 11th Hour Project. Previously she worked in the San Joaquin Valley of California who work to advance agricultural and environmental policy towards justice for communities bearing the burden of California’s food system. She has worked at California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. in Fresno enforcing environmental justice and worker protections such as access to clean drinking water for unincorporated farmworker communities. Janaki has assisted in curriculum development for the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems degree at UC Davis and has farmed in diversified and orchard crops across the state. Janaki holds a B.S. in Agricultural Development from UC Davis and a producers’ certification in Ecological Horticulture from UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology. Host Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author, a renowned advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain, and an advisor to funders investing in food system transformation. A James Beard Leadership Awardee, Anna is the co-author or author of three books on food, farming, and sustainability and the contributing author to fourteen more. One of TIME magazine’s “eco” Who’s-Who, Anna is the founder or co-founder of three national organizations including the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund. In addition to her work at Real Food Media, Anna developed and leads the Food Sovereignty Fund, a global grantmaking program of the Panta Rhea Foundation. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

What Justice Looks Like: Two Young Women’s Voices in Art Join TNS Host Ladybird Morgan for a conversation with two young women filmmakers who are finding their voices through film and other media. They share their view of what is happening in our world, what they see is possible, and how the arts can be a way to shape the voices of culture. We share two of their short films (2 minutes) during the webinar. Isabel Lena Fernandez Isabel is an eighteen-year-old artist who spends the preponderance of her time scrapbooking, painting, writing poetry, and watching films. She watches films the way others listen to music: religiously and constantly. She works at The Armory Center for the Arts and presently attends Pasadena City College. Isabel has a passion for parks and recreation and aspires to be employed as a Death Valley Park Ranger. She unwaveringly loves the untouched earth, the sand dunes, and the hemorrhage of stars in the desert’s sky. Anika Velasquez Anika is a 17 year old, Latinx, actress/screenwriter who is currently working on an original TV show. Anika is also an academic and attends her local high school as well as Santa Barbara City College, with hopes of getting degrees in both film and English. Anika prioritizes diverse representation, and believes that everyone has a story worth telling. Host Ladybird Morgan, RN, MSW Ladybird is program director and co-founder of the Humane Prison Hospice Project, and has been working in end-of-life care as a registered nurse, clinical social worker, and educator for 20+ years. She has worked with organizations including The Zen Hospice Project and Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Ladybird has guided medical practitioners, families and private caregivers to find their clearest voice as they step across significant thresholds in life and in preparing for death. Currently she facilitates the training of The Brothers Keepers Peer Support/ End of Life Caregiving at San Quentin, is a Palliative Care consultant with Mettlehealth.org, co-facilitates Last Acts of Kindness with Redwing Keyssar, and supports Commonweal’s Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, and The New School. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: https://tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Part of the Roots of Resilience in An Age of Crisis series co-presented with Real Food Media~ Seed savers Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm and Second Generation Seeds in Yolo County, California, and Jessika Greendeer of Dream of Wild Health in Twin Cities, Minnesota, will talk about the “why” behind their seed-saving practices. Together with Host Tiffani Patton, Jessika and Kristyn will explore the role of seed-saving in preserving and connecting to culture and why we need seed diversity to withstand the climate crisis. (Photo: Tiffani Patton) Kristyn Leach grows Asian crops in California’s Central Valley. Her focus is on preserving and adapting Korean plants, agronomic wisdom, and culture. She partners with the Namu Restaurant Group, providing their restaurants with produce and working with their chefs and cooks on breeding projects. She founded a seed line within Kitazawa Seed Company, the oldest purveyor of Asian vegetable seeds in the United States, called Second Generation Seeds. Second Generation is a collaborative project that hopes to connect or reconnect communities of the Asian diaspora with the crops that have sustained them. Jessika Greendeer is a Ho-Chunk Nation tribal member from Baraboo, Wisconsin, and a member of the Deer Clan. She is currently the seed keeper and farm manager at Dream of Wild Health. Jessika has worked as the Agricultural Division Manager for her nation and had previously served as a garden mentor within her nation’s organic community gardens. She is a U.S. Army combat veteran and completed a Veteran-to-Farmer training program at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania. Host Tiffani Patton is a lifelong “foodie” turned activist, writing and researching food system change for more than seven years. A gifted writer and storyteller, she leads several areas of educational programming, communications strategy, engagement, and internal operations at Real Food Media. She co-produces and co-hosts the Real Food Reads and Foodtopias podcasts with Tanya Kerssen. Tiffani brings years of active engagement in food policy discussions, event organizing, storytelling for change, facilitating important discussions around food system transformation, and the connection of art, music, and culture to food in the Bay Area and beyond. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Social media and other technology have a huge influence on our minds, behavior, and spirit. How do we best navigate our high-tech horizon in ways that allow for wholeness and presence? Join TNS Host Rabbi Irwin Keller in conversation with Aden Van Noppen, founder and executive director of Mobius, an unconventional collective of technologists, scientists, activists, and spiritual teachers dedicated to creating a world in which technology brings out the best in humanity. Aden Van Noppen was a senior advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the Obama White House Office, where she developed the led programs that leverage tech as a tool for social and economic justice. After that, she spent a year as a resident fellow at Harvard Divinity School focusing on the intersection of tech, ethics and spirituality and was an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Aden was also part of the founding leadership team of The Sanctuaries, the first interfaith arts community in the country. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, The New York Times, WIRED, and elsewhere. Host Irwin Keller Rabbi Irwin Keller has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County, California, since 2008. His past work included LGBT advocacy, HIV legal services, and 21 years as a singing drag queen with The Kinsey Sicks, America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. Irwin’s sermons and essays on Torah, mysticism, God, politics, disillusionment, and hope can be found on his blog, Itzik’s Well, found at irwinkeller.com. Irwin is a steward and faculty member of Commonweal’s Taproot Gathering. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~ Join Oren Slozberg and Diana Lindsay, co-directors of Healing Circles Global for a conversation on the beginnings of Healing Circles and how it has evolved into a global resource for healing, social connection, and meaningful service. In this conversation, we’ll explore: The ideas from Christina Baldwin, Ann Linnea, Parker Palmer, Michael Lerner, and Janie Brown that deepen the work of Healing Circles Global. Offering welcoming, safe, and nourishing circles for healing and connection for anyone from anywhere at no to low cost. Providing meaningful experiences of learning, service, and belonging for our global community of healing circles volunteers. Creating a sustainable, loving, global community for healing circles work. Find out more about Healing Circles Global: healingcirclesglobal.org Find out more about The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org. *** Don't forget to like and subscribe. And, to get news of upcoming events or new resources, follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/TNSCommonweal) and Instagram (instagram.com/tnscommonweal/).

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~ Join us for an intimate conversation with Michael Lerner, Commonweal President, and the acclaimed Janie Brown, founder of Callanish Society, a grassroots non-profit organization in Vancouver, BC, for people living with, and dying from, cancer. In this conversation, we’ll explore: The personal impact of intentional healing in removing obstacles and supporting healing in every possible way. How to set the conditions for healing in the retreat setting. How radical acts of love can promote healing up to the moment of death. Find out more about Healing Circles Global: healingcirclesglobal.org Find out more about The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org. *** Don't forget to like and subscribe. And, to get news of upcoming events or new resources, follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/TNSCommonweal) and Instagram (instagram.com/tnscommonweal/).

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~ Moving Forward: Circles for Healing and Coming Together / Michael Lerner, Parker Palmer, Christina Baldwin, Diana Lindsay, Lisa Simms-Booth, and Rahmin Sarabi, moderated by Oren Slozberg We are transitioning into a post-COVID world with challenges on many levels, from our own health, national polarization and the global polycrisis. Facing these challenges, the need for healing and circle work is as important as ever, maybe even more. Moderated by Oren Slozberg, executive director of Commonweal, an intergenerational panel with Christina Baldwin, Parker Palmer, Michael Lerner, Rahmin Sarabi, Lisa Simms Booth and Diana Lindsay will reflect on circle work in our new unfolding world. Find out more about Healing Circles Global: healingcirclesglobal.org Find out more about The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org.

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in an intimate, wide-ranging conversation with Parker Palmer—accomplished writer, teacher, activist, community organizer, and founder and senior partner emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal. Their rekindled friendship provides rich territory for embracing the challenge of becoming whole over the course of a lifetime. In this conversation, we explore: Why “no fixing, no saving, no advising, no setting each other straight.” Creating circles of trust to sustain the journey to an undivided life. How to value ignorance in search of a life of love and service. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Part of the Roots of Resilience in An Age of Crisis series co-presented with Real Food Media. https://realfoodmedia.org In this wide-ranging conversation, we’ll hear from UCSF Associate Professor of Medicine Dr. Rupa Marya along with A-dae Romero-Briones of the First Nations Development Institute discuss efforts around the country to take on the aftermath of centuries of government-sanctioned and led land dispossession and cultural decimation. Together with TNS Host and Author Anna Lappé, Rupa and A-dae will share strategies toward a vision to protect and uplift Native agro-ecological traditions, including efforts to rematriate thousands of acres of land across the country. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~ Join host Diana Lindsay in conversation with Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, co-founders of PeerSpirit and The Circle Way. Christina and Ann trained thousands of people in The Circle Way around the world. They consulted with organizations and communities who want to give more voice to everyone around the circle, whether the conversation takes place in a board room, a nurses’ lounge, or a community. In this conversation, we explore: How the circle is common first culture, one of the building blocks that allowed us to become social beings—from the campfire to the council fire and onward. Why cultures developed a “neutral” structure of circle that could be adapted to different uses by different peoples. Stories of how the structure of circle becomes a foundational tool for personal, local, and global change. Find out more about Healing Circles: healingcirclesglobal.org Find out more about The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Michael Lerner via zoom at the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented with the Bolinas Museum~ Point Reyes National Seashore is home to a significant Marconi wireless radio station built in the early 20th Century; Commonweal is based on the transmitting station grounds in an Art Deco structure, built by Marconi’s successor company, RCA. The surviving buildings and antenna fields are now on the National Register of Historic Places. Here, as was Marconi’s dream, the first transoceanic signal, from Bolinas to Hawaii, was achieved in 1914. The history of worldwide wireless radio transmission is more than technological: it launched an age of wireless communication which is still evolving. It contains its own language (Morse code), culture (among radio operators, and as lifelines to ship crews), and overarching sense of purpose. Join us for a conversation with Carola DeRooy Davis, retired archivist and curator of the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Museum and Archives. Carola and Irwin will discuss the history of the Marconi/RCA stations and their cultural reverberations (including their impact in the development of the town of Bolinas). We will also hear about the tremendous efforts made to ensure preservation of this site, which threw a lifeline to ships at sea and land stations around the world for 84 years. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with writer, speaker, and editor David Lorimer. David’s recent book, A Quest for Wisdom: Inspiring Purpose on the Path of Life was published in 2020 by Aeon Books. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Ladybird Morgan to witness and participate in a Wisdom Circle with Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win) and Susan Balbas, indigenous women leaders and elders. They will explore what is most alive for them today; talk about their work in social justice, environment, and community-building; and discuss what they are carrying forward and what they are letting go of in these changing times. Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, Woman Stands Shining) Pat is a Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker. She is a voice for global peace, and her paintings are created as tools for individual, earth and global healing. She draws upon the Indigenous sciences of Thriving Life to reframe questions about sustainability and balance, and she is devoted to supporting the next generations, Women’s Nation and Men’s Nation, in being functional members of the “Hoop of Life” and upholding the honor of being human. Susan Balbas Susan (Cherokee/Yaqui) is a community organizer and carries valuable expertise in all levels of nonprofit operations and management. She is board chair of the nonprofit Front and Centered, a statewide coalition of over 60 community of color-led organizations working toward environmental justice, and executive director of Na’ah Illahee Fund, a Native-led community-based organization that advances sustainable Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. Mother of three and grandmother of three, Susan has studied extensively with herbalists, is an avid gardener, cook, and a voracious reader of historical novels. Host Ladybird Morgan, RN, MSW Ladybird has worked as a registered nurse, clinical social worker, healer and educator for 20+ years. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Humane Prison Hospice Project whose mission is to implement end of life care in prisons by supporting and training prisoners to be caregivers. Ladybird has worked with many organizations including The Zen Hospice Project, Hospice by The Bay, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Commonweal and the UCSF/ MERI Center’s Last Acts of Kindness Program. She holds space for families and caregivers, medical practitioners, as well as directors of programs and institutions around the world to find their clearest voice as they step across significant thresholds in aging, life and at death. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dwight McKee, MD, about innovative responses to COVID-19 and cancer. This is part one of a two-part conversation. Dwight McKee, MD Dwight brings a comprehensive perspective to the practice of oncology and hematology and is at the forefront of the application of integrative medicine to the field of cancer care. He is board certified in medical oncology, hematology, nutrition, and integrative and holistic medicine. He co-authored a textbook on Herb, Nutrient and Drug Interactions (Mosby 2008), recently completed After Cancer Care with Gerald Lemole, MD, and Pallav Mehta, MD (Rodale 2015), and edited the Cancer Strategies Journal from 2011 to 2014. He received his MD degree from the University of Kentucky in 1975, followed by a rotating surgical internship at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. Host Michael Lerner Michael is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. He co-founded Commonweal in 1976. His projects include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School at Commonweal and The Resilience Project. A Harvard graduate, he received a PhD and taught at Yale in the early 1970s before moving to Bolinas, California, in 1976. He received a MacArthur fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dwight McKee, MD, about innovative responses to COVID-19 and cancer. This is part two of a two-part conversation. Dwight McKee, MD Dwight brings a comprehensive perspective to the practice of oncology and hematology and is at the forefront of the application of integrative medicine to the field of cancer care. He is board certified in medical oncology, hematology, nutrition, and integrative and holistic medicine. He co-authored a textbook on Herb, Nutrient and Drug Interactions (Mosby 2008), recently completed After Cancer Care with Gerald Lemole, MD, and Pallav Mehta, MD (Rodale 2015), and edited the Cancer Strategies Journal from 2011 to 2014. He received his MD degree from the University of Kentucky in 1975, followed by a rotating surgical internship at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. Host Michael Lerner Michael is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. He co-founded Commonweal in 1976. His projects include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School at Commonweal and The Resilience Project. A Harvard graduate, he received a PhD and taught at Yale in the early 1970s before moving to Bolinas, California, in 1976. He received a MacArthur fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with author, journalist, and Covering Climate Now executive director Mark Hertsgaard about what’s next for climate change, the defining issue of our time. Now that climate denial has been voted out of the White House, what are the paths and the obstacles to progress in Washington and abroad, including a strengthened the Paris Agreement? What role can civil society, especially the news media, play? We know of no better expert on the “big picture” and what is or isn’t being done than our special guest for this talk. Join us. Mark Hertsgaard has covered climate change since 1989, reporting from 25 countries and much of the United States in his books Earth Odyssey: Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future and HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, as well as for outlets including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, Scientific American, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Le Monde, L’espresso, NPR, the BBC, and Link TV. He is the environmental correspondent and investigative editor at large at The Nation and a co-founder of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism initiative committed to more and better coverage of the climate story. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with rabbi, teacher, writer, music-maker, and performer Irwin Keller. Rabbi Irwin Keller Irwin has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County, California, since 2008, and received his rabbinic ordination through the ALEPH ordination program in 2021. He is a co-founder and steward of the Taproot Community – a deep dive into mystical learning and spiritual practice for activists, artists and community ritualists. He was a lawyer and advocate (including being the primary author of Chicago’s first gay rights law), and was a singer in America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, the Kinsey Sicks, dubbed by NPR “the Royal Shakespeare Company of drag performance.” In his blog, Itzik’s Well, he writes about life, loss, family, hope, change, Torah, gender, sexuality and the usefulness of an outsider’s perspective. Host Michael Lerner Michael is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. He co-founded Commonweal in 1976. His projects include the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, The New School at Commonweal and The Resilience Project. A Harvard graduate, he received a PhD and taught at Yale in the early 1970s before moving to Bolinas, California, in 1976. He received a MacArthur fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Irwin Keller for a conversation with artist and oceans activist Josie Iselin. Josie creates hauntingly beautiful artwork featuring the seaweed and kelp of our Bay Area coastline and ocean. Her research accompanies the image-making process and leads her ever deeper into the science and ecology of the near-shore ocean universe. Co-presented with The Mesa Refuge. https://mesarefuge.org Watch a video about Josie’s work to accompany this podcast at: https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qlgrl-vrjnY Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ Commonweal invites all to join in the return of Frank Ostaseski, a renowned teacher, in discussion with his friend, student, and New School Host Steve Heilig. In recent years Frank has endured both heart and stroke incidents, and he will talk about living through those challenges, his long friendship with the late Ram Dass, and more. Frank has distilled hard-won lessons from his own life journey and synthesized 30 years of being with dying into his personal brand of wisdom. He is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. Copies are available for purchase at Point Reyes Books. Frank Ostaseski is a pioneer in end-of-life care. In 1987, he cofounded the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America, guiding a model for mindful and compassionate care for almost 20 years. In 2005, he founded the Metta Institute, training countless healthcare clinicians and caregivers and building a national network of educators, advocates and guides for those facing life-threatening illness. He inspires and engages audiences from Harvard Medical School students, to Mayo Clinic clinicians, and Wisdom 2.0 seekers. His work has been highlighted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, featured by Bill Moyers on his PBS television series On Our Own Terms and honored by H.H. the Dalai Lama. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

For nearly three decades, Commonweal, through its Juvenile Justice Program, has been an active and influential advocate for reforms of the California juvenile justice system. Now, the Governor has signed historic legislation (SB 823) that will permanently close the state’s youth prisons system, shifting all state-committed youth to county facilities and programs. This webinar will explore the impact of the closure bill on law enforcement, probation, and other government agencies as well as the impact on youth and community organizations. Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with David Steinhart—the Juvenile Justice Program Director who helped lawmakers draft the reform bill. David Steinhart has been the director of the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program since 1992. He is recognized, both within California and nationally, as an advocate, expert and author on a wide range of youth justice issues. In California, David was a prime architect of the landmark 2007 juvenile justice realignment law (SB 81) that moved non-violent youth out of the state Division of Juvenile Justice and into local control with more than $100 million per year million in state funds. David also co-drafted California’s Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act which has provided local agencies with more than $100 million per year in state funds for youth programs since its inception in 2000. On the national front, David is the principal advisor on detention risk assessment to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI)—now active in 37 states. David has trained justice system personnel on detention reform in more than 30 states. He is the author of the JDAI Practice Guide on Juvenile Detention Risk Assessment. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Thomas Yeomans, author of writings on psychosynthesis and spiritual psychology as well as three volumes of poetry and a children’s book. He presently consults to individuals and organizations in Europe and North America on issues of personal and social change and transformation. Thomas Yeomans, PhD is the founder and director of the Concord Institute. His background includes education at Harvard, Oxford, and the University of California with professional work in the fields of literature, education, and psychology. Since 1970 he has worked as a psychotherapist, teacher, and trainer of professionals in Psychosynthesis and, more recently, Spiritual Psychology throughout North America and in Europe and Russia. In the last decade he has developed a theory and practice of group work within a spiritual context which he uses in training and consulting to organizations in this country and abroad.

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Chris Desser—environmental lawyer and community activist. From our podcast: For me meditation practice… creates a place for me of rock bottom truth. Which isn’t to say that true things aren’t unfolding in the process, but it is a place where one just knows. And that knowing is—it’s not just that it’s a comfortable place to be, it’s an essential place to be… and I think that that rock bottom truth is for me a place of clarity of intent. Christina L Desser Chris is a fellow of On the Commons, a think tank focused on developing the concept of The Commons as an overarching analytical structure organizing across sectors and disciplines. She served on the California Coastal Commission and the San Francisco Commission for the Environment. In 2003, she co-founded Women’s Voices, Women Vote, a project that successfully increased the participation of single women in the electoral process. She was co-editor of Living with the Genie—Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Island Press, 2003). Chris has practiced environmental law has served on the boards of many companies, foundations and progressive non-profits including Women Donors Network, The Rockwood Leadership Program, Patagonia, Mother Jones Magazine, and the Rainforest Action Network.

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with nurse midwives Ariska Razak, RN, and Carol Densmore, CNM, talking about birth and the healing wisdom of earth-based traditions. Ariska Razak, RN, CNM, MPH Arisika’s work integrates the disciplines of Women’s Studies/ Women’s Spirituality, and Women’s Health and Spiritual Dance, through the incorporation of the teachings of earth-based spiritual traditions, women’s spirituality, and women’s health into the language of movement and dance. She has worked as a nurse midwife, health care provider, and health care administrator for over 25 years, serving as staff nurse-midwife and director of the Nurse-Midwife Service at Highland Hospital in Oakland; director of the Alameda County Pre-term Delivery Prevention Project, and Assistant Administrator for Ancillary services at Cowell Hospital, UC Berkeley. Carol Densmore Carol brings 25 years of experience in education, program development, and clinical care to her current position as the Director of the Cambridge Health Alliance Doula Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This unique, multicultural program offers emotional, social, and educational support for childbearing women at the Cambridge Birth Center and Cambridge Hospital. She has attended births in Boston area hospitals and homes, a Mexican border birth center and an Indian desert village. In India, she traveled extensively and researched the training of village health workers and traditional midwives. She holds Master’s Degrees in Education and in Public Health from Boston University and is a Certified Nurse Midwife.

Across the United States, thousands of people, most of them in low-income or minority communities, live next to heavily polluting industrial sites. In Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Toxic Chemical Exposure in the United States, Steve Lerner tells the stories of twelve communities, from Brooklyn to Pensacola, that rose up to fight the industries and military bases causing disproportionately high levels of chemical pollution. He calls these low-income neighborhoods “sacrifice zones”—repurposing a Cold War term coined by U.S. government officials to designate areas contaminated with radioactive pollutants during the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with Steve about the residents of a new generation of “sacrifice zones,” tainted with chemical pollutants, who need additional regulatory protections.

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of Commonweal Garden, founder Avis Rappaport Licht—and Regenerative Design Institute founders Penny Livingston Stark and James Stark—speak with Michael Lerner about their work with the earth and teaching hundreds of programs on permaculture, nature awareness, and leadership. Join them as they honor all those who have contributed to making the Commonweal Garden what it is today.

~Co-presented with the Mesa Refuge~ Please join New School host and Zen Meditation teacher Jaune Evans in conversation with Buddhist meditation and organic gardening mentor Wendy Johnson. This dialogue will be grounded in the examination of four core principles of Zen Buddhism and gardening: cultivating the way, maintaining fertility in your practice, propagating new life, and tending the earth. There will be ample opportunity to interact with the presenters during this practical presentation. Wendy is a Buddhist meditation teacher and organic gardening mentor who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began practicing Zen Buddhist meditation in 1971 and has led meditation retreats nationwide since 1992 as an ordained lay dharma teacher in the traditions of Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the San Francisco Zen Center. As one of the founders of the organic farming program at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, Wendy has been teaching organic agriculture and meditation for decades. Since its inception in 1995, she has been a mentor and advisor to the Edible Schoolyard Project affiliated with Chez Panisse restaurant. She served as a founding instructor of the College of Marin’s innovative Organic Farm and Gardening Project established in 2009, where she taught organic agriculture for the first seven seasons of the program. In 2000 Wendy and her husband, Peter Rudnick, received the annual Sustainable Agriculture Award from the National Ecological Farming Association. She is the author of Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate, published by Bantam in 2008. Jaune Evans is the executive director of Tamalpais Trust, which supports global indigenous-led organizations. She is a Soto Zen teacher and priest in the Everyday Zen sangha guided by Norman Fischer. Jaune also leads the Heart of Compassion sangha in Point Reyes on Friday mornings at the Presbyterian Church. Her love for stories and West Marin have deep roots. She has served as a board member and advisory committee member of the Mesa Refuge, and has also received two of Mesa’s writing fellowships. Jaune is a new member of the Commonweal Board of Directors, former director of the Institute for Art and Healing at Commonweal, and is currently a facilitator in Commonweal’s Healing Circles program. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

(A posting of a conversation from 2014 TNS Archives) Join us for conversation and with TNS Host Oren Slozberg and Lennon Flowers, founder of The Dinner Party: a community of mostly 20- and 30-somethings who’ve each experienced significant loss and who get together over dinner parties to talk about it and the ways in which it continues to affect their lives. Together, they’ve pioneered tools and community through which young people who’ve experienced significant loss can use their shared experience as a springboard toward living better, bolder, and more connected lives. Lennon Flowers Lennon is the co-founder and executive cirector of The Dinner Party. Lennon lost her mom during her senior year of college, following a four-year fight with lung cancer. It had been more than three years since her passing when she hitched up her wagon and headed West to Los Angeles. Suddenly 3,000 miles away from home and the friends she’d known for years, she found she no longer had anyone with whom she could talk about her mom, and explore the way in which her life, death, and absence continued to affect her. So when Carla, a friend, colleague, and soon-to-be roommate, invited her over for dinner, it was a no brainer. Lennon most recently served as community director for Ashoka’s Start Empathy. She has written for YES! Magazine, Forbes, Elephant Journal, Open Democracy, EdWeek, and GOOD. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Co-presented with The Resilience Project at Commonweal This year we have all witnessed how major global stressors—from climate change and income inequality to pandemics and autocracy—can impact each other and cause massive, cascading changes in our world. At the same time, other factors including pollution, artificial intelligence, population growth, and social media seem unstoppable forces that escalate other risks. Many fear that a broader systems collapse could be a plausible scenario. Given what we know, how do we respond? In this roundtable conversation, join Christina as she brings together scholars, designers, and activists to share their perspectives on the polycrisis. Audience questions and comments will enrich the dialogue, and the moderator will lead participants in a creative exercise to generate new language and insights. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented with Real Food Media~ Just about twenty years ago, several dozen of the nation’s leading scientists, ethicists, and environmentalists gathered in Bolinas, California, at Commonweal to draft a declaration of principles for the regulation, policy, and commercialization of the emerging technologies of genetically engineered organisms. The result? The Pacific Declaration. Now, two decades later, with the rapid expansion of genetically engineered organisms throughout the food system and emergent in animal agriculture and beyond, the wisdom—and caution—of The Pacific Declaration is just as relevant; its words prescient. To mark this anniversary milestone and reflect on the current context and what we can learn from this history, join us in a conversation with Anna Lappé—the daughter of one of the Declaration’s founding signatories—as well as author Claire Cummings, The Center for Food Safety’s Rebecca Spector, The Cultural Conservancy’s Melissa Nelson, and others at the forefront of the conversation about genetic engineering and the future of food. Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author, a respected advocate for food justice and sustainability, and an advisor to funders investing in food system transformation. A recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award, Anna is the co-author or author of three books and the contributing author to more than a dozen others. Anna’s work has been translated internationally and featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Gourmet, Oprah Magazine, among many other outlets. A frequent public speaker, her popular TEDx talks have been watched nearly one million times. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Jewish mystical traditions offer the adept a rich array of practices and paradigms supporting personal and communal healing and renewal. These include text, sacred time, sensory experience, meditation, imagination, play, and teshuvah—an annual and ongoing process of realigning the self with the cosmos. Join TNS host Irwin Keller in conversation with scholar and mystic, Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg, as they discuss Judaism’s esoteric side and what it might offer all of us in broken times. Rabbi Elliot Ginsburg, PhD Reb Elliott is Associate Professor of Jewish Thought and Mysticism at the University of Michigan, and rabbi of the Pardes Hannah minyan in Ann Arbor. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and taught at Oberlin College, before coming to Michigan. He has received an NEH Fellowship and a Kellogg Foundation grant supporting his scholarship. Reb Elliot has written two books on the kabbalistic celebration of Shabbat and is currently working on a scholarly study of Jewish mystical prayer and meditation, and a multi-tiered study of Judaism as spiritual practice. Reb Elliot received his rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1998, and is senior faculty in the rabbinic ordination program of the Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Oncologist Dr. Donald Abrams is a true pioneer on many important fronts—AIDS care, medical cannabis research and policy, the “right to die,” and integrative cancer care. He has also participated in a number of Commonweal’s projects, providing invaluable expertise. A full professor of medicine at UCSF, he has just retired after a long career and will talk about some of the many issues he has confronted and maybe some lessons learned. Join him and his longtime friend and colleague TNS Host Steve Heilig this inspiring informal talk. Watch our 2014 two-part video series with Donald: https://tns.commonweal.org/podcasts/donald-abrams-m-d Donald Abrams, MD: He co-edited the Oxford University Press textbook Integrative Oncology with Andrew Weil, MD. He was also named a “Top Cancer Doctor” in Newsweek’s 2015 Special Health Issue on Curing Cancer. Prior to specializing in oncology, Dr. Abrams worked in the field of HIV. He has conducted numerous clinical trials investigating complementary therapies in patients with HIV, including therapeutic touch, traditional Chinese medicine interventions, medical marijuana, medicinal mushrooms, and distant healing. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig and Anna O’Malley in a conversation exploring the role of physician in society at this planetary moment, community resilience in the face of COVID, and allyship with nature. Anna O'Malley, MD Anna is an integrative family and community medicine physician, founded and directs Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine in the Commonweal Garden, and cultivates the medicine of connection to self, one another, and the Earth. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

The Learning Community Series at The New School Join TNS host Steve Heiig with two long-time members of the Commonweal community, Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, and Marion Weber. Rachel is a master story-teller and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. She is the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather's Blessing, both international best-sellers. Marion is a pioneer of the healing arts movement, a long-time sand tray practitioner in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, the inventor of group sand tray, and a deep seer into the wisdom and mystery traditions. Rachel Naomi Remen: Rachel is a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Founder and Founding Director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), which was at Commonweal for decades and is currently at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She is one of the best known of the early pioneers of wholistic and integrative medicine. As a medical educator, therapist, and teacher, she has enabled many thousands of physicians to find individual meaning and purpose in the practice of medicine and thousands of patients to remember their power to heal. More than 30,000 medical students have completed The Healer’s Art, her groundbreaking curriculum for medical students taught at the majority of medical schools in America. A master storyteller and observer of life, her bestselling books, <Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings have sold more than 2 million copies and have been translated into 21 languages. Rachel has had Crohn’s disease for more than 65 years and her work is a unique blend of the wisdom, strength, and viewpoints of both doctor and patient. Marion Weber: Marion is a life-long healing artist who did her own healing through tapestry making for five years, going from fire energy to light. She then worked in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, helping patients find new meaning through playing with symbols. She developed the group sand tray to help doctors find connections that were beyond their burnout. Now she is old and the natural world continues to entrance her as do her pandemic puppets! Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

The Learning Community Series at The New School Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a webinar conversation with Lisa Simms Booth, the executive director at the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. The Smith Center is a Washington, DC-based health, education, and arts nonprofit that develops and promotes physical, emotional, and mental resources for people affected by cancer. Lisa Simms Booth: In addition to serving as executive director for the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Lisa previously served as senior director of patient and public engagement at the Biden Cancer Initiative. Prior to joining the Initiative, she was at FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, playing leadership roles in partnership development, external affairs and operations. Lisa’s experience also includes working for political and advocacy organizations including LISTEN, Inc., The Alliance for Justice, Time Dollar Institute, Children’s Defense Fund, Democratic National Committee and the National Rainbow Coalition. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

The Learning Community Series at The New School Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in webinar conversation with Carl Safina, writer, marine conservationist, PBS host, and MacArthur fellow. Carl Safina’s lyrical non-fiction writing explores how humans are changing the living world, and what the changes mean for non-human beings and for us all. His work fuses scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action. His writing has won a MacArthur “genius” prize; Pew, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundation Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He grew up raising pigeons, training hawks and owls, and spending as many days and nights in the woods and on the water as he could. Safina is now the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University and is founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. He hosted the PBS series Saving the Ocean, which can be viewed free at PBS.org. His writing appears in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, Audubon, Yale e360, and National Geographic, and on the Web at Huffington Post, CNN.com, Medium, and elsewhere. His books include the classic, Song for the Blue Ocean. Carl is author of ten books including Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel. His most recent book is Becoming Wild; How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife Patricia and their dogs and feathered friends. More at CarlSafina.org and SafinaCenter.org . Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.