The New School at Commonweal

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with retired psychotherapist and Vedic astrologer Kristina Flanagan.

~Co-presented by Point Reyes Books and the Mesa Refuge~ Join us for a conversation between TNS Host Michael Lerner and Author and Journalist Michael Pollan about his new book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. How to Change Your Mind explores the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs—and the spellbinding story of Pollan’s own life-changing psychedelic experiences. This is the second in a series of two conversations between Michael Lerner and Michael Pollan on the subject of psychedelics. Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dr. Brian Bouch for a conversation about integrative oncology—part of our Healing Circles series of conversations. Brian Bouch, MD, has forged a career in medicine incorporating the best of conventional therapies with proven complementary and alternative therapies. A skilled acupuncturist and acupuncture teacher, he founded Hillpark Integrative Medical Center in 1987 and artfully blended Chinese medicine with functional medicine, osteopathic manual therapies, nutritional therapies, and intravenous therapies. Working alongside other medical doctors, licensed acupuncturists, osteopathic physicians, naturopathic physicians, bodyworkers and nurse practitioners, Dr Bouch and his colleagues at Hillpark garnered a reputation for successfully treating complex medical problems untouched by other practitioners. Dr. Bouch retired from office practice in 2016, but continues to provide advocacy services to a limited number of patients, and to mentor advocacy fellows.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dr. Brian Bouch for a conversation about integrative oncology—part of our Healing Circles series of conversations. Brian Bouch, MD, has forged a career in medicine incorporating the best of conventional therapies with proven complementary and alternative therapies. A skilled acupuncturist and acupuncture teacher, he founded Hillpark Integrative Medical Center in 1987 and artfully blended Chinese medicine with functional medicine, osteopathic manual therapies, nutritional therapies, and intravenous therapies. Working alongside other medical doctors, licensed acupuncturists, osteopathic physicians, naturopathic physicians, bodyworkers and nurse practitioners, Dr Bouch and his colleagues at Hillpark garnered a reputation for successfully treating complex medical problems untouched by other practitioners. Dr. Bouch retired from office practice in 2016, but continues to provide advocacy services to a limited number of patients, and to mentor advocacy fellows.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dr. Brian Bouch for a conversation about integrative oncology—part of our Healing Circles series of conversations. Brian Bouch, MD, has forged a career in medicine incorporating the best of conventional therapies with proven complementary and alternative therapies. A skilled acupuncturist and acupuncture teacher, he founded Hillpark Integrative Medical Center in 1987 and artfully blended Chinese medicine with functional medicine, osteopathic manual therapies, nutritional therapies, and intravenous therapies. Working alongside other medical doctors, licensed acupuncturists, osteopathic physicians, naturopathic physicians, bodyworkers and nurse practitioners, Dr Bouch and his colleagues at Hillpark garnered a reputation for successfully treating complex medical problems untouched by other practitioners. Dr. Bouch retired from office practice in 2016, but continues to provide advocacy services to a limited number of patients, and to mentor advocacy fellows.

Join Dr. Lael Duncan and TNS host Steve Heilig for a wide-ranging discussion of innovations and controversies in end-of-life care. Lael is the medical director of consulting services for the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, a Sacramento-based non-profit organization and interdisciplinary partnership of thought-leaders dedicated to promoting high-quality, compassionate care for everyone who is seriously ill or nearing the end of life. She is an expert educator on Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST), end-of-life communication between patients and providers, advance care planning, and legislation that impacts end-of-life care in California. Dr. Duncan consults with health care organizations, medical providers, and communities to improve access to care that honors patient values.

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with one of the most renowned voices of our time, ecophilosopher Joanna Macy. Joanna is a scholar of Buddhism, living systems theory, and deep ecology. Respected in the movements for peace, global justice, and ecological sanity, she interweaves her scholarship with six decades of activism. As the root teacher of the Work that Reconnects Network, her ground-breaking theoretical framework and interactive practices combine spiritual breakthrough with social transformation. Joanna Macy, PhD Joanna’s wide-ranging work addresses psychological issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of an ecological identity, and the clarifying resonance between Buddhist teachings and contemporary science. Her work is used around the world to help people turn despair and apathy in the face of social and ecological crises into constructive, collaborative action. It brings a new way of seeing the world—as our larger living body—freeing us from the assumptions and attitudes that now threaten all life on Earth. Macy graduated from Wellesley College and received her Ph.D in Religious Studies from Syracuse University. She is the author of twelve books, including Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects; World as Lover, World as Self; Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without Going Crazy; and three volumes of translations of Rilke’s poetry.

2018:04.16 - Rachel Naomi Remen - Out of the Fire: A Time of Discovery by The New School at Commonweal

We are being called to a new mode of being human in the age of the Anthropocene. We are discovering our role within a vast evolving universe that gave birth to us and that orients and grounds us. We are seeking ways to nurture ourselves and the life community in an age of disruption and diminishment. Journey of the Universe narrates the epic story of the unfolding of the Universe, Earth, and humans over billions of years. Our discussion will explore this Emmy Award winning film, book, and conversation series that can inspire transformative and healing change for a flourishing future. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Yale Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker about the significance of our universe story in the environmental and social challenges of our times.

Noted actor, narrator, author and activist Peter Coyote discusses the current state of money and falsehood in politics and the news.

In the second of our TNS-Sonoma Living in the Ashes series events exploring issues related to the 2017 North Bay fires, join TNS Host Irwin Keller in conversation with Sharyle Patton, director of the Health and Environment Program and the Biomonitoring Resource Center at Commonweal. Much of Sharyle’s work involves understanding and testing the effects of toxic chemicals on our bodies. Particularly, she has been working with firefighters, researching the effects of both smoke inhalation from fires and the chemicals used to fight them. We’ll explore what that research might mean for county residents in the aftermath of the fires. Sharyle Patton Sharyle founded and has been directing the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Centerfor 20 years. Her program, working with such entities as Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, the Environmental Working Group, California Department of Public Environmental Health Investigations Branch, International Association of Fire Fighters, and the NGO network, Coming Clean Collaborative, has pioneered the implementation of biomonitoring projects initiated by community-based organizations and the communication of the data from such projects to project participants. Sharyle is also special projects director for Commonweal’s Collaborative on Health and Environment, a network of more than 3,000 health professionals, scientists, and representatives from health-affected groups interested in exploring linkages between environment and health outcomes. From 1998 to 2001, Sharyle was northern co-chair for the International POPs Elimination Network, which worked closely with governments to formulate the Stockholm Convention, a legally binding treaty that eliminates or severely restricts 12 of POPs chemicals.

Noted author, editor and futurist Stephan A. Schwartz in conversation with Michael Lerner.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner and Commonweal Integrative Law Institute’s Pauline Tesler for a conversation with Dr. Fred Luskin about his work on the powers of forgiveness. The conversation will explore the intersection of Fred’s work with Commonweal’s many healing programs and with the Integrative Law Institute’s work on conflict resolution in legal disputes involving important human relationships. Dr. Luskin’s forgiveness work has been applied in veteran’s hospitals and churches to help in resolving legal disputes, with cancer patients as psycho education, and in psychotherapy. Dr. Luskin’s work has been made into a PBS pledge drive video called Forgive for Good. He has been interviewed many hundreds of times in world-wide media, including the New York Times, O Magazine, Today Show, Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Huffington Post, and CBS Morning News.

Hanmin Liu and Jennifer Mei of Wildflowers Institute in conversation with Commonweal president and TNS host, Michael Lerner.

Historian and author Adam Hochschild wrote King Leopold's Ghost, To End All Wars, and Bury the Chains. He was a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1964, a co-founder of Mother Jones, and a writer and editor for Ramparts. This conversation had a slide presentation given during the first approximately 45 minutes. A PDF of that presentation is available at the following link so that listeners may generally follow along: http://tns.commonweal.org/new-school/audiofiles/podcast/Adam_Hochschild_Spain_slides.pdf

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with composer, educator, and internationally recognized consultant on learning, Aaron Stern. Aaron founded the Academy for the Love of Learning, an innovative non-profit educational institution based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Academy has led to community-based programs including Teacher Renewal, El Otro Lado in the Schools, multi-generational programs such as Lifesongs, and a city-wide mentorship program called Inspire. Aaron conceived the Academy with musician Leonard Bernstein, and continues to serve as its educational leader and president. Aaron Stern founded the Academy for the Love of Learning, which was conceived with musician Leonard Bernstein, as a “think and do tank” to develop, practice, and foster research on its transformative learning methods, which are designed to activate the natural love of learning in people of all ages. Aaron also conceived and co-founded Ventana, an organization that aims to transform the workplace by supporting a reconnection with and enlivening of ethical values, an alignment of values with practices, and the cultivation of capacities for transformative learning within or across organizational contexts. Aaron is a fellow of the Mind & Life Institute and is currently a member of its Board of Trustees. Stern has served on the boards of various educational and social benefit institutions and currently serves on the boards of trustees of two major philanthropic foundations.

Benjamin P. Marcus is the Religious Literacy Specialist with the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute, where he examines the intersection of education, religious literacy, and identity formation in the United States. Join Commonweal Executive Director Oren Slozberg in conversation with Ben on the subject of religious studies in the educational system. Benjamin P. Marcus has developed religious literacy programs for public schools, universities, U.S. government organizations, and private foundations, and he has delivered presentations on religion at universities and nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad. He is a contributing author in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook on Religion and American Education, where he writes about the importance of religious literacy education. In 2016, Marcus was awarded a grant from the Germanacos Foundation to write lesson plans about religion for public secondary schools and to convene a regional conference on religious literacy pedagogies with teachers, administrators, subject matter experts, and professional consultants. He earned an MTS at Harvard Divinity School and studied religion at the University of Cambridge and Brown University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

Fall of 2017 has seen radical changes in the physical and psychic landscape of Northern California. The fires that began late Sunday night, October 8th, quickly engulfed homes and dreams, woodlands, and security. Many of us awoke in the middle of the night to the acrid smell of smoke, sensing that something was wrong. Only later, with the dawn light, were we able to see the extent of this disturbing truth. Everyone has been affected, whether we lost a loved one, a home, a beloved pet, our place of employment, a trail that we cherished, or simply our sense of faith in the ordinary assurances of daily life. We are living in a collective field of sorrows that will take a long time to metabolize. Join TNS Host Irwin Keller and Francis Weller in sharing thoughts to help us tend our soul during traumatic times. Through poetry, song, simple ritual and our mutual vulnerability, we will create a sudden village to hold what we cannot hold alone. Francis Weller, MFT, 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.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for another conversation with physician, artist, and author Michael Samuels, one of the foremost experts in body, mind, spirit medicine today. Michael Samuels, MD, is a physician, artist, guided imagery specialist, and author. His best selling books The Well Body Book and the Well Pregnancy Book were amongst the first books in self help and holistic medicine. As a physician, he has worked with guided imagery and patients with life threatening illness for more than 25 years. His book Seeing With the Mind’s Eye was the first book on guided imagery and is the classic in the field. As director of Art As A Healing Force, an organization which networks artists and healers, he is a leading expert on art and healing and creativity and healing. Michael attended Brown University where he studied Yoga and shamanism under Kees Bolle, Carlos Castanada’s teacher. He then went to New York University College of Medicine and became a research immunogeneticist studying how white blood cells make antibodies. After his residency, he was in the Public Health Service as a physician on the Hopi and Navaho reservation and has gone on to be a healer in many capacities.

David Best and his crews built the first Burning Man Temple in 2000, which marked the beginning of a new and profound ritual for the tens of thousands of participants who attend Burning Man each year. After days of writing prayers on the structures, of affixing offerings from one’s life such as pictures, paintings, or of leaving the ashes of loved ones, the Temple are burned on Sunday nights. David has done other major temple projects in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland, London's Burning festival, San Francisco, Detroit, and elsewhere. In this presentation and discussion with The New School Host Steve Heilig, David will talk about his efforts and inspirations, with visual images of this striking and even awe-inspiring work.

Michael Lerner in conversation with Dr. Erlene Chiang

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with David Smith, co-founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in San Francisco on Haight Street. David served as medical director at the clinic for 39 years, which was originally founded as a response to the medical needs of thousands of young people who descended upon San Francisco for the Summer of Love. The clinic was initially funded through proceeds of benefit concerts, many of which were organized by Bill Graham, with bands such as Big Brother and the Holding Company, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ravi Shankar, and George Harrison. David Smith, MD is a medical doctor specializing in addiction medicine, the psycho-pharmacology of drugs, new research strategies in the management of drug abuse problems, and proper prescribing practices for physicians. He is the founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics of San Francisco, a fellow and past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, past president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, past medical director for the California State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, past medical director for the California Collaborative Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. David is also an adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco and the founder and publisher of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Love Heals: A Talk at the Intergral Yoga Institute in San Francisco Michael talks about the healing power of love, the different fates of romantic love and friendship, the question of whether the universe is a living creative force, and the play of archetypes in love. He reads love poems from Rilke, Rumi, Hafiz, Mary Oliver and others.

High John Eve-holiest day in New Orleans – with Amikaeyla Gaston drumming, singing, and calling in the spirits. Cahoot with Caroline Casey as she presents astro*politico*mytho*ritual navigational guidance for the wild ride ahead. Caroline Casey Caroline is the host-creator and weaver of context for The Visionary Activist Show on Pacifica Radio Network Pacifica station KPFA (94.1) in Northern California, replayed on Los Angeles’ KPFK (and can be heard live on the web at 2pm PT on Thursdays, and by pod-cast subscription.) The show is dedicated to: anything we need to know to have a democracy; critique and solution; and the acknowledgement that we humans cannot solve the innumerable rude crises we’ve imposed on our planetary kin by ourselves—but only by humbly partnering with Nature’s evolutionary Ingenuity, aka Trickster. Her guests are leading contributors to a culture of reverent ingenuity, all teased into pertinence, and has been called “one of the best radio shows in America.”

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with Don Lattin, award-winning journalist and author of Changing Our Minds: Psychedelic Sacraments and the New Psychotherapy. There’s a quiet revolution underway in our understanding of how psychedelic drugs work and how they can be used to treat depression, addiction and other disease. In his new book, Don offers an engaging look at the recent history and credible prospects for using MDMA, psilocybin, and ayahuasca to treat mood disorders and promote spiritual well‐being. Don Lattin is an award‐winning author and journalist. His five previously published books include The Harvard Psychedelic Club, a national bestseller that was awarded the California Book Award, Silver Medal, for nonfiction. His feature articles have been published in dozens of leading magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, where Lattin worked as a staff writer for 20 years.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Lynn Getz, therapist, social worker, and founder of Portland-based organization AEIOU&Y. Lynn is multi-disciplinary therapist and classically trained social worker. She understands the inner connectedness of dynamic relationship. She has focused on cultivating the union between experience and perception. Her work grows out of the earliest traditional medicines that use one's innate healing capacities. Lynn uses the five senses to activate a deeper connection with the intellect and sensorial experience. She works extensively with colors, scents, herbal essences, and crystals to help us understand our potential to restore and expand our well being. She believes that coming in contact and working with our core essence is our most important endeavor as human beings. Lynn is based in Portland, Oregon. Find out more about her on her website. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal at tns.commonweal.org

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with Frank Ostaseski—Buddhist teacher, international lecturer, and a leading voice in contemplative end-of-life care—about his new book: The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. The profundity of the dying process is so powerful any notion we have of managing or controlling this experience is naïve. To imagine that at the time of our dying we will have the physical strength, emotional stability, and mental clarity to do the work of a lifetime is a ridiculous gamble. Yet Frank wants to extend us an invitation—five invitations, actually—to sit down with death, to have a cup of tea with her, to let her guide you toward living a more meaningful and loving life. Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher, the visionary co-founder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, Wisdom.2.0, and teaches at major spiritual centers around the globe. His groundbreaking work has been featured on the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Own Terms, highlighted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and honored by H.H. the Dalai Lama. He is the author of "The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully."

Join Commonweal Co-Founder and TNS Host Michael Lerner in a new series of community conversations drawing on 40 years of Commonweal work and his diverse interests outside Commonweal. “I take the title from Carl Jung’s autobiography. This new series is an exercise in personal freedom for me. I hope you will join us for a new chapter at The New School, an experiment in the emergent.” Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal. He is president emeritus and co-founder of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press).

Join us for a conversation with Elise Miller, long time director of CHE, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and Michael Lerner.

Alison Luterman The Largest Possible Life Join New School host Irwin Keller for an evening of talk with poet and playwright Alison Luterman about how we live our lives to the fullest, and how we tell our stories – turning our days into poetry, written sometimes in ink and sometimes in flesh and blood, breath, and action. Alison Luterman is a poet, essayist and playwright. Her books include the poetry collections Desire Zoo, The Largest Possible Life, and See How We Almost Fly; and a collection of essays, Feral City. Luterman’s plays include Saying Kaddish With My Sister, Hot Water, Glitter and Spew, Oasis, and The Recruiter, and a musical, The Chain. Her writings have been published in many journals and anthologies. She has taught writing at The Writing Salon in Berkeley, the Esalen Institute, and the Omega Institute, as well as at high schools, juvenile halls, and poetry festivals. She is a political activist and a homebody and a dog person who fell in love with a cat. She lives in a rambling old house in Oakland with her musician husband and the aforementioned cat, dividing her time between writing and looking for her keys.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner with Walter Murch for conversation and discussion from the new book about Walter’s astrophysics work, Waves Passing in the Night: Walter Murch in the Land of the Astrophysicists. Written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Lawrence Weschler, the book is a profile of Walter Murch—a film legend and amateur astrophysicist whose investigations could reshape our understanding of the universe. The book was based on work presented at The New School in March of 2015. Walter Murch For film aficionados, Walter Murch is legendary: a three-time Academy Award winner, arguably the most admired sound and film editor in the world for his work on Apocalypse Now, The Godfather trilogy, The English Patient, and many others. Outside of the studio, his mind is wide-ranging; his passion, pursued for several decades, has been astrophysics, in particular the rehabilitation of Titius-Bode, a long-discredited 18th century theory regarding the patterns by which planets and moons array themselves in gravitational systems across the universe. Though as a consummate outsider he’s had a hard time attracting any sort of comprehensive hearing from professional astrophysicists, Murch has made advances that even some of them find intriguing, including a connection between Titius Bode and earlier notions—going back past Kepler and Pythagorus—of musical harmony in the heavens. Unfazed by rejection, ever probing, Murch perseveres in the highest traditions of outsider science.

Anna O’Malley The Ecology of Community Medicine The approach to medicine and healing within our current medical system is falling short of achieving improved health outcomes, much less optimal vitality. A majority of chronic diseases, so costly to “manage” and “treat” medically, are preventable and often reversible by aligning our behaviors, our thoughts, our actions with that which heals. Delivering medical care while building community strengthens the social context within which behavior change happens. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner with Integrative Physician Anna O’Malley in a conversation about the ecology of community medicine and her work in the Art of Vitality program at the Regenerative Design Institute at Commonweal Garden and in West Marin.

TNS host Irwin Keller in conversation with Chas Nol in a spirited discussion titled "Radical Faeries - Unleashing the Sissy Boy."

~with Gail Needleman offering an introduction to the Gurdjieff music~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a fourth conversation in a series with philosopher and author Jacob Needleman. They explore his “life-within-life” as both an engaged pupil of the Gurdjieff Work and also as a scholar and teacher confronting the great unanswerable questions of the heart.

Co-sponsored by the “Of One Soul” Campaign of the Interfaith Council of Sonoma County~ Join TNS Host Irwin Keller in a conversation with scholar, writer, and speaker Sumbul Ali-Karamali. Sumbul is a lawyer, scholar, and frequent spokesperson on matters of interest to Muslim Americans and Muslim women. Her books and columns have helped translate for mainstream Americans both the history of Islam and Muslim Americans’ everyday realities.

Peter Orner Not Alone Tonight at Least ~Co-presented by the Bolinas Library, The New School at Commonweal, and Point Reyes Books~ Join us for a reading and conversation with TNS Host Steve Heilig and writer Peter Orner. Peter teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers as well as at San Francisco State University, where he is currently chair of the Creative Writing Department. He is a member of the Bolinas Volunteer Fire Department. Peter Orner Chicago-born Peter Orner has lived in the San Francisco Bay area for sixteen years. He is the author of two novels (The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, 2006, Love and Shame and Love, 2010) and two story collections (Esther Stories, 2001, and Last Car Over the Sagamore Bridge, 2013), as well as the editor of two oral histories (Voice of Witness). Orner’s fiction and non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Granta, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, The Southern Review, and many other publications. His stories have been anthologized in Best American Stories and twice received a Pushcart Prize. Orner has been awarded a the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a two-year Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship, as well as a Fulbright to Namibia. A new book of oral history set in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, co-edited with Evan Lyon, will be published in January, 2017. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

A Community Reading with Eric Karpeles ~Co-sponsored by Point Reyes Books~ Please join TNS host Eric Karpeles for another panoramic community event, a chorus of mixed individual voices reading from the pages of one of America’s most impassioned nature lovers.

Join us for a conversation with TNS Host Michael Lerner and film maker Lata Mani. The Poetics of Fragility (63 minutes) is a kaleidoscopic exploration of the texture, vitality, and aesthetics of fragility. Shot in the San Francisco Bay Area in September 2015 by co-directors Lata Mani and Nicolás Grandi, the film features internationally renowned scholar-activist Angela Davis, the acclaimed playwright and critic Cherrie Moraga, Nora Cortiñas, the inspiring founding member of Madres de Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora, actor-dancer Greg Manalo, feminist performance artists Thao P. Nguyen and Martha Rynberg, theater scholar Jisha Menon, healer Christopher Miles, creative writer Xochitl M. Perales and the young trombone talent, Jasim Perales. Find out more on their websites: www.thepoeticsoffragility.com http://latamani.com Lata Mani Lata is a feminist historian, cultural critic, contemplative writer, and filmmaker. She has published on a broad range of issues, from feminism and colonialism, to illness, spiritual philosophy, and contemporary politics. She is the author of The Integral Nature of Things: Critical Reflections on the Present (Routledge 2013), Interleaves: Ruminations on Illness and Spiritual Life (Yoda 2011), Sacred Secular: Contemplative Cultural Critique, (Routledge 2009) and Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (University of California Press 1989).

Join TNS Host Irwin Keller in a conversation with musician, teacher, and activist Holly Near. Holly is an acclaimed songwriter, producer, and recording artist with more than 40 creative years and 30 recordings. Respected around the world for her music and activism, her joy and passion inspire people to join in her celebration of the human spirit. Holly Near Born in Ukiah, CA in 1949, Holly began singing in high school, including work with a local folk group. She built on her performing career with acting parts on Mod Squad and appeared in a number of guest roles in seminal 70s TV shows like Room 222 and The Partridge Family. In 1970, she was a cast member of the Broadway musical Hair. In 1971, she joined the Free The Army Tour, an anti-Vietnam War road show of music, comedy, and plays organized by antiwar activist Fred Gardner and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. In 1972, Holly was one of the first women to create an independent record company, paving the way for women like Ani DiFranco and others. She has been recognized many times for her work for social change, including honors from the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Organization for Women, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences–and she was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year and received the Legends of Women’s Music Award. Holly is a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights. She teaches, presenting master classes in performance craft and songwriting to diverse audiences. Her most recent CD, “Peace Becomes You,” was released in 2012. photo credit: Irene Young

Listen to remarks from Commonweal Founder Michael Lerner, Chief Strategies Officer Oren Slozberg, and Cancer Help Program Medical Director Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, at the occasion of Commonweal's 40th anniversary luncheon.

During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Michael Lerner, Commonweal Co-Founder, and Rachel Remen, MD, Medical Director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, offer the fourth in a series of conversations about Commonweal’s story for The New School. In addition to being the Medical Director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program for almost 30 years, Rachel directed the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (ISHI) at Commonweal for 25 years. One of ISHI’s programs, the Healer’s Art, has reached almost 16,000 medical students at medical schools around the world. Rachel is the author of Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings, best sellers in many languages around the world. Rachel Naomi Remen, MD Rachel is a nationally recognized medical reformer and educator who considers the practice of medicine to be a spiritual path and a path of service. She is internationally acclaimed as one of the earliest pioneers in the Integrative Health movement, and among the first to practice and teach a medicine of the whole person. As a doctor with a 63-year personal history of Crohn’s disease, she brings the perspective of both physician and patient to her pioneering work and her approach to medical education. She is clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, clinical professor of community health at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, founder and director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness at Wright State University, and cofounder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program that was featured in the highly acclaimed Bill Moyers PBS series, Healing and the Mind. Her many groundbreaking curricula enable physicians and other health professionals worldwide to recognize their work as spirit in action, strengthen their calling to heal and renewing their commitment to compassionate service.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a two-part spiritual biography conversation with Jerry Jampolsky, MD, and Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, PhD. Jerry is the founder of Attitudinal Healing and the first Center for Attitudinal Healing in 1975 and Diane founded and currently directs Attitudinal Healing International. Health is defined as inner peace and healing as the letting go of fear. Attitudinal Healing is a cross-cultural method of healing that helps remove self-imposed blocks such as judgment, blame, shame and self-condemnation that are in the way of experiencing lasting love, peace, and happiness. The approach and philosophy are based on universal principles and people of all ages, beliefs, walks of life and cultures benefit from the practice of Attitudinal Healing. Gerald G. Jampolsky, MD Jerry is a graduate of Stanford Medical School and is internationally recognized in the fields of psychiatry, health, business, and education. In 1975, Jerry established the first Center for Attitudinal Healing in Marin County, California, so that people of all ages, faiths and cultures who are facing illness, catastrophic events, loss and life challenges could have free support services. Since then, a global network of independent Centers have continued to emerge in dozens of countries on five continents. In 1982 Jerry founded the international project Children as Teachers of Peace, a program that offered children an opportunity to express their feelings, ideas, fears and hopes for a better world. In 1987 Jerry co-founded the AIDS Hotline for Kids. He is also the best-selling author of numerous books including the classics Love is Letting Go Of Fear, Teach Only Love, and Goodbye To Guilt. Diane V. Cirincione-Jampolsky, Ph.D Diane is the founder and executive director of Attitudinal Healing International. She holds a B.S. in Organizational Behavior as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She currently serves on the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees of the World Business Academy, a nonprofit think tank and action incubator working to inspire business to assume responsibility for the whole of society with a primary focus on environmental sustainability. Diane is a businesswoman, therapist, international lecturer, and author/co-author of seven books in multiple languages. She and Jerry have lectured and worked with universities and organizations in 61 countries and have co-authored several books together including Love is the Answer, Change Your Mind – Change Your Life, Finding Our Way Home, and A Mini Course For Life.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a two-part spiritual biography conversation with Jerry Jampolsky, MD, and Diane Cirincione-Jampolsky, PhD. Jerry is the founder of Attitudinal Healing and the first Center for Attitudinal Healing in 1975 and Diane founded and currently directs Attitudinal Healing International. Health is defined as inner peace and healing as the letting go of fear. Attitudinal Healing is a cross-cultural method of healing that helps remove self-imposed blocks such as judgment, blame, shame and self-condemnation that are in the way of experiencing lasting love, peace, and happiness. The approach and philosophy are based on universal principles and people of all ages, beliefs, walks of life and cultures benefit from the practice of Attitudinal Healing. Gerald G. Jampolsky, MD Jerry is a graduate of Stanford Medical School and is internationally recognized in the fields of psychiatry, health, business, and education. In 1975, Jerry established the first Center for Attitudinal Healing in Marin County, California, so that people of all ages, faiths and cultures who are facing illness, catastrophic events, loss and life challenges could have free support services. Since then, a global network of independent Centers have continued to emerge in dozens of countries on five continents. In 1982 Jerry founded the international project Children as Teachers of Peace, a program that offered children an opportunity to express their feelings, ideas, fears and hopes for a better world. In 1987 Jerry co-founded the AIDS Hotline for Kids. He is also the best-selling author of numerous books including the classics Love is Letting Go Of Fear, Teach Only Love, and Goodbye To Guilt. Diane V. Cirincione-Jampolsky, Ph.D Diane is the founder and executive director of Attitudinal Healing International. She holds a B.S. in Organizational Behavior as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She currently serves on the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees of the World Business Academy, a nonprofit think tank and action incubator working to inspire business to assume responsibility for the whole of society with a primary focus on environmental sustainability. Diane is a businesswoman, therapist, international lecturer, and author/co-author of seven books in multiple languages. She and Jerry have lectured and worked with universities and organizations in 61 countries and have co-authored several books together including Love is the Answer, Change Your Mind – Change Your Life, Finding Our Way Home, and A Mini Course For Life. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with Andreas Weber, a Berlin-based book and magazine writer and independent scholar. Andreas’ work has focused on a re-evaluation of our understanding of the living, and the disconnection between humans and nature, arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unravelling around us. In his recent book, The Biology of Wonder, Andreas proposes a new approach to the biological sciences, a “poetic ecology” which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us, showing that subjectivity and imagination are the prerequisites of biological existence. Dr. Andreas Weber Dr. Andreas Weber has degrees in Marine Biology and Cultural Studies, and collaborated with theoretical biologist Francisco Varela in Paris. His work has appeared German magazines and journals such as GEO, National Geographic, Die Zeit and Greenpeace Magazine. Weber teaches at Leuphana University and at the University of Fine Arts, Berlin. He has published more than a dozen books, most recently the English editions of Enlivenment: Towards a Fundamental Shift in the Concepts of Nature, Culture and Politics (Heinrich Böll Foundation 2013), and Biology of Wonder: Aliveness, Feeling and the Metamorphosis of Science (New Society Publishers 2015). Andreas is part of the staff of und.Institute for Art, Culture and Sustainability, Berlin, which is devoted to link the fields of art and culture with the field of sustainability, and to develop exemplary models of productive exchange. Andreas was named as the 2016 Jonathan Rowe Commons Fellow at the Mesa Refuge, a writing residency center in Point Reyes, CA Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner speaks at Tahoma One Drop Monastery on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Michael Lerner, Commonweal Co-Founder, and Steve Lerner, former Commonweal Research Institute Director, offer the third of a series of conversations about Commonweal’s story for The New School. Steve Lerner was among the earliest partners in founding Commonweal. He directed the Commonweal Research Institute, and he and Burr Heneman launched the campaign to stop oil drilling off the Northern California Coast. He played a key role in Commonweal campaigns for juvenile justice reform, for sustainable development, and for environmental justice. Steve Lerner Steve served as the early research director of Commonweal. He is the author of Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor; Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today’s Environmental Problems; The Earth Summit: Conversations with Architects of an Ecologically Sustainable Future; and Beyond the Earth Summit: Conversations with Advocates of Sustainable Development. Learn more about Steve’s book, Sacrifice Zones. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Steve Lerner The Commonweal Story (part 3) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Michael Lerner, Commonweal Co-Founder, and Steve Lerner, former Commonweal Research Institute Director, offer the third of a series of conversations about Commonweal’s story for The New School. Steve Lerner was among the earliest partners in founding Commonweal. He directed the Commonweal Research Institute, and he and Burr Heneman launched the campaign to stop oil drilling off the Northern California Coast. He played a key role in Commonweal campaigns for juvenile justice reform, for sustainable development, and for environmental justice. Steve Lerner Steve served as the early research director of Commonweal. He is the author of Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor; Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today’s Environmental Problems; The Earth Summit: Conversations with Architects of an Ecologically Sustainable Future; and Beyond the Earth Summit: Conversations with Advocates of Sustainable Development. Learn more about Steve’s book, Sacrifice Zones. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

The Paleovedic Diet: A Complete Program to Burn Fat, Increase Energy, and Reverse Disease Join TNS Host Michael Lerner and Rebecca Katz, Director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal, for a conversation on a deeply sophisticated approach to integrating the Paleolithic diet with Ayurvedic Medicine with Akil Palanisamy, MD. Participants may find that what they thought was a healthy paleolithic diet differs considerably from what Dr. Palanisamy recommends. Akil Palanisamy, MD Akil is a Harvard-trained physician who is trained in functional medicine and integrative medicine. He completed his premedical training at Harvard University in biochemistry followed by medical training at University of California – San Francisco and Stanford. He studied with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. His passion in life is to help people achieve health and balance through natural means, without pharmaceuticals whenever possible. He is the author of The Paleovedic Diet (January 2016) and practices medicine at The Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner and Waz The Commonweal Story (part 2) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Commonweal co-founder Michael Lerner and long time Cancer Help Program staffer and yoga teacher Waz offer the second of a series of talks about Commonweal for The New School Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, The New School at Commonweal, and Healing Circles. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner and Burr Heneman The Commonweal Story (part 1) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Commonweal co-founders Michael Lerner and Burr Heneman offer the first of a series of talks about Commonweal for The New School. During this first presentation, and in future presentations in the series to be held later in the year, Michael hopes to explore the following: Sometimes a Great Notion: A history of Formative Ideas at Commonweal Bending the Arc: Changemakers at Commonweal Grace Under Pressure: Commonweal’s First Decade Purpose: A Work Community in Service to Life Michael says, “Looking backward is not easy for me because my focus is always on what we are doing and what we can do next. But it will be a pleasure to look back—and look forward—in the company of The New School community.” Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, The New School at Commonweal, and Healing Circles. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.