The New School at Commonweal

Caroline Casey Vernal Eclipse Scheherezade Convening Trickster Medicine Story-Telling Vernal Eclipse Palm Sunday -Venus-Neptune fantastic romance in Pisces (exalted and all) (note to all melancholics – you can have just as much melancholy as makes you a genius) Scheherezade Convening Trickster Medicine Story-Telling Council Tea The world is raging – so let’s bee the balm! Cahoot with Caroline Casey as she presents astro*mytho*politico navigational guidance for the wild ride ahead Mythological campaign coverage! and ways to be ethically magically effective. The purpose of ritual magic is to spiral into the memosphere expanded wisdom and tolerance. Trickster queries “what qualities shall we cultivate to be “skookum”- (“connected to the spirits and completely competent for the tasks at hand?”) to “dree our weird” (“play our role in Destiny”) The more the merrier the magic! Caroline W. 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: www.KPFA.org 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.” Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jonah Raskin The Strange Life and the Mysterious Death of Jack London Join TNS Host Steve Heilig with biographer and journalist Jonah Raskin about the life and the work of Jack London, one of the most popular American writers. London died 100 years ago, in 1916, at the age of 40. Steve and Jonah, both longtime readers of London’s work, talk about his literary and cultural achievements as well as the enduring mysteries and enigmas in his life. Jonah Raskin Jonah is a biographer, performance poet, and journalist. The author of 14 books, he taught for 30 years at Sonoma State University in the English department and in communication studies. The editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution, he is also the author of Burning Down the House: Jack London and the Wolf House Fire and Mysteries of Jack London: Socialist, White Supremacist, anti-Semite and Lover of Beauty. He writes for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Point Reyes Light, The Bohemian and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Bill Glenn Enneagram: An Archetypal Psychology Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Bill Glenn, a former Jesuit, licensed psychotherapist, and spiritual director with a private practice in San Francisco and Santa Rosa, California. Bill has been working with the Enneagram, an authoritative and unique self-integration system, since 1978, and has conducted workshops across the Bay Area. To make the most of the conversation, here are some suggestions: 1. Click on this link to take the short free test to get a sense of what your type might be. And/Or: 2. Read the Wikipedia entry on The Enneagram of Personality. Note especially the history with G.I. Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo and others as pioneers. Click on Ichazo and Naranjo to learn more about them. William D. Glenn A former Jesuit, Bill is a licensed psychotherapist and spiritual director with a private practice in San Francisco and Santa Rosa, California. He was executive director of Continuum, a Tenderloin-based health care agency that provides care for triply-diagnosed clients. Bill has been working with the Enneagram, an authoritative and unique self- integration system, since 1978, and has conducted workshops on its application throughout the Bay Area. From 1995-2002, he was the convener of Spirit Group, an intentional prayer community, and for ten years co-facilitated Katargeo, a program for lifers at San Quentin State Penitentiary. Glenn is currently a trustee of the Morris Stulsaft Foundation, a trustee of the Graduate Theological Union, and co-chair of the capital campaign for Horizons Foundation in San Francisco. A former board member of the Insight Prison Project, he is past vice president of the board of KQED, past president of the socially responsible mutual fund Working Assets/Citizens Funds, and past president of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Larry Robinson Reanimating the World: Ecopsychology, Mystery, and Poetry Join TNS Host Irwin Keller in conversation with psychotherapist, poet, politician, and activist Larry Robinson. In his wide-ranging work, Larry Robinson addresses the ways in which the world is in need of healing—both on a macro level and in our own suffering souls. He brings to this work a sense of mystery, an openness to paradox, a mythological imagination, an expertise in the new field of ecopsychology and an infectious love of poetry. Join us to discuss how politics, psychology, and poetry can dance together. Poetry recited at the event includes: A Brief For The Defense by Jack Gilbert Snowflakes by Larry Robinson The Cure, Seamus Heaney’s translation of “The Philoctetes,” by Sophocles The Way It Is by William Stafford Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye An Arab Shepherd by Yahuda Amichai Larry Robinson Larry is a psychotherapist, thinker, politician, and poet. As an eco-psychologist, he works to shift our view of psychology from that of fixing a broken apparatus to that of witnessing and nurturing complex soul work. This soul work involves looking beyond our limited commercial culture and making use of nature, mythology, and storytelling to restore a sense of wholeness. A former mayor of Sebastopol, Larry also engages in political and social action, traveling the world to identify new ways of thinking and healing, and translating them back into our culture. In Larry’s view, awakening to healing—both personally and globally—requires an awakening to beauty. This view has made him both a poet and a lifelong purveyor of poetry. His spoken word poetry salons are famous, and his poetry lovers’ listserve, where he posts uncannily apt poetry daily, has more than 1,200 subscribers. His recent volume of poetry, Rolling Away the Stone, is available on Amazon. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rick Ingrasci A Life in Healing: Cultural Transformation and Psychedelic Medicine Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Rick Ingrasci—psychiatrist, community developer, and social entrepreneur. Rick’s passions center on the role of play, art, and creativity in personal and social transformation. His wife, Peggy Taylor, and he have self proclaimed “black belts in throwing a better party….” Rick’s two greatest mentors were Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan, both of whom deepened his interest in the relationship between culture and technology. Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH Rick’s background is in psychiatry, psychedelic medicine, community development, and social entrepreneuring. He practices life coaching, mainly with leaders of non-profit organizations, and is the director of the StoryDome Project — Expanding Worldviews and Transforming the Way We Live and Learn Through the Power of Visual Storytelling. He is co-author of the bestselling Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life. He co-founded Interface (Boston’s largest holistic education center), the American Holistic Medical Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Hollyhock, where he has been convening an annual Hollyhock Summer Gathering since 1986. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rick Ingrasci A Life in Healing: Cultural Transformation and Psychedelic Medicine Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Rick Ingrasci—psychiatrist, community developer, and social entrepreneur. Rick’s passions center on the role of play, art, and creativity in personal and social transformation. His wife, Peggy Taylor, and he have self proclaimed “black belts in throwing a better party….” Rick’s two greatest mentors were Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan, both of whom deepened his interest in the relationship between culture and technology. Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH Rick’s background is in psychiatry, psychedelic medicine, community development, and social entrepreneuring. He practices life coaching, mainly with leaders of non-profit organizations, and is the director of the StoryDome Project — Expanding Worldviews and Transforming the Way We Live and Learn Through the Power of Visual Storytelling. He is co-author of the bestselling Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life. He co-founded Interface (Boston’s largest holistic education center), the American Holistic Medical Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Hollyhock, where he has been convening an annual Hollyhock Summer Gathering since 1986. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rabbi Rachel Cowan Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit ~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for an exploration of spiritual biography with Rabbi Rachel Cowan, known nationally as a pioneer of contemplative practice in Judaism. Her latest book is Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit. Rabbi Rachel Cowan Rabbi Rachel Cowan, formerly the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, is working on a special project on aging with wisdom. She was named by Newsweek Magazine in 2007 and in 2010 as one of the 50 leading rabbis in the United States, and by the Forward in 2010 as one of the 50 leading women rabbis. She was featured in the PBS series The Jewish Americans. She received her ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1989. From 1990-2003 she was program director for Jewish Life and Values at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Her work has been included in Moment and Sh’ma as well as in anthologies, including Illness and Health in the Jewish Tradition: Writings from the Bible to Today, and The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. She is the author, with her late husband Paul Cowan, of Mixed Blessings: Untangling the Knots in an Interfaith Marriage. Her most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Linda Thal and called Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit, was published in June 2015. She lives in New York City, near her two children Lisa and Matt, and four grandchildren – Jacob and Tessa, and Dante and Miles Moses. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Lily Brett Text, Jews, and Rock 'n Roll Join TNS-Sonoma Host Irwin Keller for a conversation with Lily Brett—novelist, poet, rock and roll journalist, and daughter of Holocaust survivors. An Australian based in New York, Lily’s work has struggled to make connections between the disparate facts of our lives, finding in them both humor and home. Lily Brett Author Lily Brett’s life and work span many worlds. Born to Auschwitz survivors in a German DP camp, Lily grew up in Australia as an only child and the only Jew in her circle. With the competing pressures of preserving what was lost and being her own person, Lily went on to become, at age 19, an international rock and roll journalist, interviewing the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger. Eventually she turned to poetry and fiction, going on to publish seven novels, four collections of essays, and eight volumes of poetry. Her literary work explores the lives of Holocaust survivors and their children, the experiences of modern women, women’s relationship with food, and life in New York City. Her novel You Gotta Have Balls was produced for the stage in Vienna and is currently being turned into a musical in Poland. Her most recent novel, Lola Bensky, is a meditation on the experience of being surrounded by the larger-than-life and sometimes tragic rock and roll world while making sense of the larger-than-life tragedy that befell her family. Lily Brett has lived in New York City since 1989. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Sadja Greenwood as they discuss the science of supplements. Sadja Greenwood, MD Sadja Greenwood is a primary care physician with a special interest in women’s health. She has been an activist for women’s health throughout her career, in family planning, reproductive rights, self-care, education, and services for mid-life women. She is the author of Menopause, Naturally (revised edition, 1996). Visit Sadja’s blog for more information. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Francis Weller The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief ~Part of the End-of-Life Conversations Series~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Francis Weller, MFT, co-leader of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Francis is a psychotherapist, writer, and “soul activist,” who synthesizes streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures, and poetic traditions. His latest book is The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief. Francis Weller, MFT Francis Weller, MFT, has introduced the healing work of grief ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, which offers educational programs that integrate wisdom from traditional cultures with the insights gathered from western cultures. His writings have appeared in anthologies and journals exploring the confluence of psyche, nature and culture. Francis is on the staff of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. He has taught at Sonoma State University, New College of California and the Sophia Center in Oakland. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rebecca Burgess Regenerating Community Fiber Systems Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with West Marin educator, writer, and natural dye farmer Rebecca Burgess. Rebecca founded Fibershed, an educational and community development organization which was founded, in part, to increase awareness around toxic chemicals and their central role in both fabric and health. Photos: courtesy Paige Green Photography Rebecca Burgess Rebecca works as an educator, writer, and natural dye farmer. She enjoys knowing the biological roots of where everything comes from—behind everything we own, use, and consume is a story. Instead of continuously feeling downtrodden by the stories behind a material culture, she decided to change the narrative—beginning with her wardrobe. Her “fibershed project” is a statement and a practice that has shown her that she can flourish in a wardrobe constructed completely from the resources of her community (soil to skin). Limiting her wardrobe to the bare minimum, and using local fiber, dye, and labor has been her greatest joy and challenge to date. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jacob Needleman Who Am I? Why Am I Here? Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for another conversation with author, professor, and philosopher Jacob Needleman. Jacob Needleman Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University. He is the author of many books on soul, philosophy, the world’s religions, and the meaning of life. He was featured on Bill Moyers’s acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas. In addition to his teaching and writing, Needleman serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Leroy Lowe Getting to Know Cancer How A Canadian Educator Changed the Global Dialogue on Chemicals and Cancer Leroy Lowe is a Canadian educator who has set out to start a revolution in how scientists think about the carcinogenic potential of low-dose exposures to mixtures of chemicals that are commonly encountered in the environment. He is also changing how cancer researchers think by getting them to explore the ways in which non-toxic chemicals found in plants and foods might be combined to be used for cancer prevention and therapy. Join TNS Host Michel Lerner in this conversation that tells the story of how this remarkable autodidact organized 350 scientists from 31 countries into teams and then provided them with the leadership and vision needed to get them to challenge existing paradigms in both of these critical areas of research. Leroy Lowe Leroy Lowe is a former aerospace engineer and project manager in the Canadian Airforce where he focused on translating basic science into research and development projects in the ocean-tech sector. As a senior manager in industry, he recruited and managed a diverse network of agents, distributors and strategic alliance partners in over 20 countries. He is now a faculty member in International Business at the Nova Scotia Community College and for the better part of the past two decades he has been an active international business consultant for a wide range of entrepreneurs and growing businesses. He has a Master’s degree in Adult Education, an MBA, and a PhD in Biological Sciences. He is also currently the president of Getting to Know Cancer and Neuroqualia. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Diana and Kelly Lindsay Healing Circles Langley Diana Lindsay was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2006. She was given three months to live and told to go on hospice care. But her new granddaughter gave her a powerful reason to live. Even though new medicine was helping some patients with lung cancer, Diana and her husband Kelly felt the medicine would not be enough. So they embarked on an intensive “joy protocol” in which her intuition guided her in both medical and integrative therapies. Her intuitive power of visualization was unusually strong. More recently, they founded Healing Circles Langley to share their experience of healing with others. Healing Circles Langley is a program of Commonweal and a pioneering site for Commonweal’s Healing Circles project. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Diana and Kelly, authors of Something More Than Hope: Surviving Despite the Odds, Thriving Because of Them. Diana and Kelly Lindsay Diana met Kelly Lindsay when he was a biology major and she was a dance and music major at Stanford University. During nearly 40 years of marriage, they have taught college students and children, been global activists, and built the marketing and financial skills to found their own company. In 2006, Diana and Kelly Lindsay were chief executives of Lindsay Communications, a high-tech marketing and communications company serving hundreds of companies from Fortune 100 multi-nationals to start-ups. When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, they realized the customers they most needed to communicate with were Diana’s cells. While she learned how to visualize them and ask for their guidance, he created a high-bandwidth grid with his hands as a Reiki master to power those cells back to health. Today Diana and Kelly speak to anyone facing seemingly insurmountable odds, inspiring them to find something more than hope. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Sadja Greenwood, MD A Life of Changing the Rules Join TNS Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with long-time Bolinas resident Sadja Greenwood, MD, about her life of action and activism in women’s health, teaching, nutrition, and more. They’ll talk about her most recent book, published in 2013, called Changing the Rules: “This novel is set in the 1950s: romance, bohemian life (before the Beatniks), medical school, sex, illegal abortion (safe or deadly), and a young woman’s journey to find her calling. It’s a cautionary tale for today.” Hear the podcast from Sadja’s last visit to The New School: Sadja Greenwood, MD Sadja Greenwood received an MD from Case Western Reserve University and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. She was an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. She worked at Planned Parenthood in San Francisco where she started one of the first Teen Clinics in the United States in 1968, in response to the “summer of love.” She started an abortion clinic at San Francisco Planned Parenthood immediately after the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. She also worked for the International Planned Parenthood Federation in Singapore and in family planning in Latin America, Bangladesh, and Africa. She made a teaching film, Aspiration Abortion Without Cervical Dilation, in 1973 with her mentor and colleague, Alan Margolis, MD. The film was widely used to teach medical techniques for safe abortion. She is the author of Menopause, Naturally (Volcano Press, 1996), which became a popular book for women seeking alternatives to hormone therapy. She published a novel, Changing the Rules, in 2013, which is available at bookstores and at Amazon.com. She is a longtime Bolinas resident and plays in the renowned local celtic group, Midnight on the Water. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Enso House: The Story of a Zen Hospice Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Ann Cutcher, MD, director of Enso House—a hospice on Whidbey Island in Washington State affiliated with the nearby Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery (founded by Zen Master Shodo Harada Roshi). Enso House began in 2001 as a result of his vision of a home for the dying where the qualities of humility, service, compassion, forgiveness deepen in those both giving and receiving care. Ann Cutcher, MD Dr. Cutcher is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has 15 years experience caring for patients in hospices, nursing homes, and hospitals. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Shodo Harada Roshi The Calligraphy of Emptiness, The Zen of Dying Part of the End-of-Life Conversations Series Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Roshi about his experiences with death and dying and for an unforgettable demonstration of his calligraphy. Shodo Harada Roshi Shodo Harada Roshi is Abbot of Sogen-ji, a 300-year-old Rinzai Zen monastery in Okayama, Japan. He is also Abbot of Tahoma Monastery on Whidbey Island north of Seattle. He founded Enso House, a hospice affiliated with Tahoma, where his students attend the dying. He is a master of Japanese calligraphy, and has conducted demonstrations at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. His translator and colleague, Priscilla Daichi Storandt, is co-abbot at Tahoma and a senior teacher in her own right. Find out more on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Kevin Starr, MD Hippocratic Philanthropy: Helping the Poorest Around the Globe Most people agree that philanthropy, whether in the form of foreign aid or local grassroots projects, is a worthy undertaking. But many have long held that philanthropy often fails, wholly or in part, in terms of impact and sustainability. Sometimes it can even make things worse. How do we make philanthropic efforts most effective? What has worked best around the world? Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with Dr. Kevin Starr—a pioneer in developing and supporting workable projects in health, ecology, and economic development—about effective philanthropic strategies and stories. Steve has also worked in developing nations, and co-authored an article with Starr titled Hippocratic Philanthropy: Lessons from International Health. Kevin Starr, MD Kevin Starr, MD, directs the Mulago Foundation and is the founder and director of the Rainer Arnhold Fellows Program, focused on sustainable projects to help the very poorest people around the world. He practiced medicine for decades while exploring the world and for the past decade has devoted himself full-time to studying, designing, and supporting good work around the planet. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Betsy MacGregor, MD In Awe of Being Human ~Part of the End-of-Life Conversation Series~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Dr. Betsy MacGregor, cancer survivor, retired medical doctor, author, and founding board member of Enso House, a hospice residence providing compassionate, holistic care for terminally ill patients and their families. From decades of work as a hospital-based physician and end-of-life researcher, and from her own experience as a cancer patient, Dr. MacGregor has come to view illness and death as profound teachers that carve out in us a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Now retired from clinical practice and living in the Pacific Northwest, Dr. MacGregor remains active as a writer, speaker, and founding Board Member of Enso House. She is author of In Awe of Being Human, a book that shares some of the remarkable experiences that being a doctor led her to witness and participate in. Betsy MacGregor, MD Dr. Betsy MacGregor has a BA from Wellesley College, a Masters of Science in Neurobiology from New York University Graduate School, and an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Over nearly three decades, she trained and worked as a pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist at Beth Israel Medical Center, a major academic hospital in New York City. Dr. MacGregor has conducted numerous educational programs and workshops for health care professionals focusing on the psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of health, healing and end-of-life. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Ananda Brady Ten Years on the Hippie Trail, and Beyond A ten-year odyssey around the world, and what did it all mean? An open exploration of “the sixties” and the legacies of the times. Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in an interview and dialogue with long-time Bolinas denizen Ananda Brady about his new book, Ten Years on the Hippie Trail—an engrossing retelling of his worldwide wandering in the 1960s and 1970s. He will talk of those travels, and explore the deeper questions of why “the Sixties” happened, what has lasted and what was lost, why, and what it all means. Ananda Brady Craig G. Brady was born in a Naval hospital in Oceanside, California, on August 14, 1945 (“VJ Day”—the very day of the wildest American celebration ever, the day that marked the end of WWII). His family moved back to Kansas, where he grew up. In 1966 he moved to Southern California, beginning a four-year process of change that was to alter his beliefs and assumptions on just about everything. To satisfy his deep need for ‘knowing’ he set out on a general quest coupled with a resolve to get to India, no matter how long it took. He tossed himself onto the open road without any plan and only a couple hundred bucks in his pocket, and crossed the border into Mexico, his first time out of the country. He wandered in lonely misery and doubt for a few long weeks, but the day his entire reserve of funds was stolen was the day his adventure kicked into gear, never again to wain. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Catherine Baumgartner Embodied Ecologies: Exploring Biocultural Neuroscience Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Catherine Baumgartner, project director at Embodied Ecologies, a new organization dedicated to building large-scale knowledge and action partnerships that leverage the latest research findings in neuroscience, cognitive science, somatic psychology, and biocultural diversity in exploring and understanding the links between place, embodied experience, language, and culture. Catherine’s exploration of art as an embodied expression of place began 15 years ago, inspired by her experience as a performer with the site-specific dance company Global Site Performance, directed by Marylee Hardenbergh. Seeking further insight into the embodied aspects of place-based artmaking, Catherine turned to neuroscience, gradually piecing together clues that revealed a picture of the human nervous system as the crucial medium through which sensory experience of place is translated into symbolic systems such as art, language, and culture. Find out more about Embodied Ecologies on their website. Catherine Baumgartner Catherine is an artist, interdisciplinary inquirist, and initiator of collaborative projects that explore the ways in which individuals and communities relate to living environments and translate these sensory experiences into worlds of meaning. Her creative practice encompasses movement, poetry, installation art, and collaborative place-based art, and her inquiry into meaning-making draws on multiple fields. She received her master’s degree in Transformative Arts from John F. Kennedy University. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Frances McDormand and Joel Coen Adventures in Collaboration Join us for a conversation with stage and film actor Frances McDormand and writer and director Joel Coen, moderated by Commonweal board member, Eric Karpeles. Up for discussion are the ways in which the creative act, kindled in an individual, often requires active input from others to be realized. Collaboration manifests itself on many levels—personally, professionally, and communally. McDormand and Coen have each made careers forming strong, supportive bonds with other artists in their field. And sometimes they work with one another. Adventures in Collaboration Frances McDormand Actor Frances McDormand studied at the Yale School of Drama. On Broadway, she has appeared in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Good People, Caryl Churchill’s Far Away, and as Stella in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Off-Broadway plays include The Sisters Rosenzweig and The Swan. She has worked extensively with The Wooster Group, in To You, The Birdie!, North Atlantic, as well as in her most recent stage performance in Early Shaker Spirituals. McDormand played Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Gate Theater in Dublin. Her film work includes Promised Land, Moonrise Kingdom, This Must Be The Place, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Burn After Reading, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Friends With Money, Laurel Canyon, Something’s Gotta Give, and Wonder Boys. With her husband, Joel Coen, she made the films The Man Who Wasn’t There, Fargo, Raising Arizona, and Blood Simple. Joel Coen Film writer, director and producer Joel Coen studied at Simon’s Rock and New York University. With his brother, Ethan Coen, he has made sixteen films, beginning with Blood Simple in 1984. Other titles include Inside Llewyn Davis, Serious Man, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Miller’s Crossing, True Grit, and Barton Fink. With his wife, Frances McDormand, he made the films Burn After Reading, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Fargo, Raising Arizona, and Blood Simple. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peter Gleckler Climate Change: What We Know and Don't Know about Where We're Going Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Peter Gleckler, a lead climate change scientist for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an entity established by the United Nations Environmental Programme. Peter Gleckler Peter Gleckler, a Bolinas resident, has been studying climate change for more than 25 years. His most recent research explores how the world ocean has warmed since the 1970s, and demonstrates that the likely explanation for this warming is the increasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide resulting from human activities. In addition to his research, Peter has served in numerous capacities to help advance international collaboration in climate research and modeling. Peter has spent much of the past three years serving as a lead author of the latest scientific assessment produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an entity established by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Peter received his PhD in Atmospheric Science from U.C. Davis in 1993. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Suzanne Ciani Piano Concert Hear the inauguration of our newly gifted grand piano with a concert by Bolinas composer-pianist Suzanne Ciani. Suzanne performed original compositions for piano solo, followed by a conversation with TNS Host Michael Lerner. Ciani’s many recognitions include five Grammy nominations for Best New Age Album, the Indie Award for Best New Age Album and Keyboard Magazine’s “New Age Keyboardist of the Year.” Suzanne Ciani In the early nineties, Suzanne relocated to Bolinas from New York City to concentrate on her artistic career after 20 years as a leader in the field of sound design for film and television, creating award-winning music for a host of high profile Fortune 500 clients. Additionally, she has the recognition of being the first woman hired to score a major Hollywood feature, scoring the Lily Tomlin feature The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Suzanne also brought her special talents to games, scoring original musical FX for Bally’s Xenon Pinball and becoming the first female voice in a game; the story of her creative work became the subject of a television segment of Omni Magazine, hosted by Peter Ustinov. In 1995, she established her own record label, Seventh Wave, after many years as an artist on major labels (Atlantic, Private Music/Windham Hill/BMG/Sony). In addition to her fifteen albums, she has published four books of original piano music through the Hal Leonard Corporation. Her signature composition, “The Velocity of Love,” appears in numerous anthologies of romantic music. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Ken Wilson On the Resilience of Connected Diversities and the Backing of Indigenous Innovation Dr. Ken Wilson serves as executive director of The Christensen Fund, a private foundation established in 1957 and currently focusing on sustaining the “biocultural”—the rich but neglected adaptive interweave of people and place, culture, and ecology. The Fund backs indigenous initiatives to restore relationships between traditional lands, living cultures, and community well being in ways that are not “preservationist” but instead seek to support revitalization and resilience: bottom up processes of innovation and adaptive change. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Ken about his work as a philanthropist focused on indigenous cultures. Ken Wilson, PhD Born in Malawi with a life spread rather across the world, Ken Wilson studied zoology at Oxford and anthropology at University College London where his doctorate focused on indigenous knowledge, health, and human ecology in the agro-pastoral arid savannahs and woodlands of Southern Zimbabwe (a community with whom he is still closely involved). In 2002, after nine years at the Ford Foundation in Africa and then as deputy to the Vice President for Education, Media, Arts, and Culture in New York, Ken was the first non-family executive director of The Christensen Fund. Ken lives in San Francisco and has played a variety of roles in international philanthropy, including as past president of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, and on such boards as the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity and the Seva Foundation. He currently chairs the steering committee of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and is a board member of the Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott Ramblin' On with Ramblin' Jack Jack was King of the Folksingers. -Bob Dylan Nobody I know—and I mean nobody—has covered more ground and made more friends and sung more songs than the fellow you’re about to meet right now. He’s got a song and a friend for every mile behind him. Say hello to my good buddy, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. -Johnny Cash One of the last true links to the great folk traditions of this country, with more than 40 albums under his belt, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is a living legend of American music. A longtime West Marin resident and Grammy Award winner, he has recorded more than 40 albums, influencing countless other well-known musicians. Join Ramblin’ Jack and Commonweal’s Steve Heilig, a veteran music journalist, for an informal talk about Jack’s amazing life story, the many figures he has known and played with through the decades—names like Guthrie, Seeger, and Dylan—and even hear a song or two. Ramblin' Jack Elliott There are no degrees of separation between Jack and the real thing. He is the guy who ran away from his Brooklyn home at 14 to join the rodeo and learned his guitar from a cowboy. In 1950, he met Woody Guthrie, moved in with the Guthrie family and traveled with Woody to California and Florida, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. President Bill Clinton awarded Jack the National Medal of the Arts, proclaiming, “In giving new life to our most valuable musical traditions, Ramblin’ Jack has himself become an American treasure.” He has recorded 40 albums; wrote one of the first trucking songs, Cup of Coffee, recorded by Johnny Cash; championed the works of new singer-songwriters, from Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson to Tim Hardin; became a founding member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue; and continued the life of the traveling troubadour influencing Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Tom Russell, The Grateful Dead, and countless others. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner Body, Soul, and Spirit in Archetypal Psychology In this podcast, Michael Lerner continues his exploration of archetypal psychology with a talk at the Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC. Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principle work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, 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). He has spent the past months reading intensively in archetypal psychology and wants to share the exploration with New School friends. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner Body, Soul, and Spirit in Archetypal Psychology In this podcast, Michael Lerner continues his exploration of archetypal psychology with a talk at the Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC. Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principle work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, 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). He has spent the past months reading intensively in archetypal psychology and wants to share the exploration with New School friends. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Oren Slozberg Dialogue, Art, and Group Intelligence Wicked Problems: problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. (Wikipedia) Many of our core issues—like climate change, economic inequality, and the Middle East—are examples of “wicked problems.” How can we use group intelligence to re-wire our thinking and address these challenges? One approach is through facilitated engagements with visual art, such as the image above. Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Commonweal’s new chief strategies officer and director of the new Dialogue, Art, and Innovations program, Oren Slozberg. Oren demonstrates and explores a visual-arts based process he helped develop and popularize world-wide called Visual Thinking Strategies. VTS builds group intelligence and can be the foundation for a dialogue on complex social issues. Oren Slozberg Oren joined Commonweal in November 2013 as the chief strategies officer and the director of the Dialogue, Art, and Innovation program. Prior to Commonweal, he was the national executive director of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). He started at VTS in May 2006, bringing more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and the arts to the organization. Oren is an expert trainer in VTS, and he has trained hundreds of educators in the process, working in a variety of setting ranging from teachers in elementary schools to college faculty. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

John Gouldthorpe Imagination Is Reality ~Part of the Archetypal Psychology Series~ Join Michael Lerner in his second conversation with archetypal psychologist John Gouldthorpe. Find the transcript of the lecture by James Hillman (mentioned in the podcast) here. Find Michael’s first conversation with John Gouldthorpe here. John Gouldthorpe John has been immersed in the work of archetypal psychology for more than 20 years. In 1989, through the suggestion of James Hillman, he studied with Gordon Tappan at Sonoma State and then stayed on for several years to teach the graduate seminar in Archetypal Psychology. For many years John was a deep tissue massage therapist working with a clientele of psychologists influenced by Stanly Keleman followed by brief period as a clinical psychologist then onto working on the issue of understanding economic globalization and its structural antidote: localized economies. Living in West Marin since 1994, he worked for 8 years helping to start KWMR; for several years he was chairman of West Marin Commons, and spent two years as president of the Point Reyes Village Association. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

John Gouldthorpe Imagination Is Reality ~Part of the Archetypal Psychology Series~ Join Michael Lerner in his second conversation with archetypal psychologist John Gouldthorpe. John Gouldthorpe John has been immersed in the work of archetypal psychology for more than 20 years. In 1989, through the suggestion of James Hillman, he studied with Gordon Tappan at Sonoma State and then stayed on for several years to teach the graduate seminar in Archetypal Psychology. For many years John was a deep tissue massage therapist working with a clientele of psychologists influenced by Stanly Keleman followed by brief period as a clinical psychologist then onto working on the issue of understanding economic globalization and its structural antidote: localized economies. Living in West Marin since 1994, he worked for 8 years helping to start KWMR; for several years he was chairman of West Marin Commons, and spent two years as president of the Point Reyes Village Association. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Robert McDermott Philosophy, Spirituality, and Community—A Professor's Journey Join Michael Lerner in dialogue with California Institute of Integral Studies President Emeritus Robert McDermott as they explore his journey in wisdom philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist spiritualities, inclusive and esoteric Christianity, CIIS and higher education, and anthroposophy—including Waldorf education, biodynamic farming, ecology, arts, and karma (birth, life, old age, death, rebirth). Robert McDermott Robert is president emeritus and professor of philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He served as president and chair of the board of many institutions, including the Rudolf Steiner Institute (1983-94) and the Sophia Project for Mothers and Children at Risk of Homelessness in West Oakland and San Rafael (1999–2014). His publications include: Radhakrishnan (1970), The Essential Aurobindo (1974; 1987), co-editor, The Spirit of Modern India (1974; 2009), Six Pillars: Introductions to the Major Works of Sri Aurobindo (1974; 2012), The Essential Steiner (1984), The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009), The New Essential Steiner (2009), and many essays on philosophy, spirituality, and American thought. He is currently writing Unique Not Alone—Steiner and Others. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Robert McDermott Philosophy, Spirituality, and Community—A Professor's Journey Join Michael Lerner in dialogue with California Institute of Integral Studies President Emeritus Robert McDermott as they explore his journey in wisdom philosophy, Hindu and Buddhist spiritualities, inclusive and esoteric Christianity, CIIS and higher education, and anthroposophy—including Waldorf education, biodynamic farming, ecology, arts, and karma (birth, life, old age, death, rebirth). Robert McDermott Robert is president emeritus and professor of philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He served as president and chair of the board of many institutions, including the Rudolf Steiner Institute (1983-94) and the Sophia Project for Mothers and Children at Risk of Homelessness in West Oakland and San Rafael (1999–2014). His publications include: Radhakrishnan (1970), The Essential Aurobindo (1974; 1987), co-editor, The Spirit of Modern India (1974; 2009), Six Pillars: Introductions to the Major Works of Sri Aurobindo (1974; 2012), The Essential Steiner (1984), The Bhagavad Gita and the West (2009), The New Essential Steiner (2009), and many essays on philosophy, spirituality, and American thought. He is currently writing Unique Not Alone—Steiner and Others. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Ross Chapin Design, Body Knowing, and the Inner Life On Whidbey Island, north of Seattle, the imprint of architect Ross Chapin’s vision of enchanting small homes and livable pocket neighborhoods is palpable. Ross came to Whidbey in the 1970s, drawn by the vision of the Chinook Learning Center, founded by Fritz and Vivienne Hull. Chinook later became the Whidbey Institute. Ross designed Thomas Berry Hall, the Woodland Sanctuary, and the Whidbey Island Waldorf School on the Chinook land. In addition to his professional life as an architect and planner, Ross has an inner life enlivened by a sustained engagement with body and spirit. His work has been deeply influenced by the iconoclastic British architect Christopher Alexander. Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Ross about his work, about Christopher Alexander, and about the evolution of his inner life in a wide-ranging conversation. Ross Chapin, FAIA Ross is a passionate advocate for sensibly-sized homes and pocket neighborhoods—a term he coined for small groupings of households around shared common spaces, which he sees as building blocks for vibrant and resilient communities. Ross has designed and partnered in developing six pocket neighborhoods in the Puget Sound region. He and his colleagues have designed dozens of communities for developers across the US, Canada and the UK. Many have received international media coverage and design awards. Ross is a member of the American Institute of Architecture College of Fellows and the William S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence. Ross is author of Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World (Taunton Press), a Nautilus Book Award Winner and listed by Planetizen as one of the Top Ten Planning and Design Books of 2012. Ross’s work has appeared in more than 35 books, including Sarah Susanka’s Not So Big House series, The Good Green Home, and Solving Sprawl. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Steve Heilig Confessions of an Accidental Activist Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Steve Heilig—healthcare ethicist, environmentalist, and ethnomusicologist—about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, medical ethics, addiction medicine and drug policy, environmental health and ecology, surfing medicine, and music. Steve Heilig Steve is a healthcare ethicist, editor, epidemiologist, environmentalist, and ethnomusicologist with strong roots in Bolinas. Trained in public health, economics, and biology at five UC campuses, Heilig has worked with nonprofits, hospitals and in biotechnology. He has written more than 500 articles on a wide range of topics, with particular interest in reproductive health and rights, death and dying, environmental science and policy, and addiction medicine. Heilig is a co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and is affiliated with the San Francisco Medical Society, California Pacific Medical Center, and Commonweal. He is also a widely published music journalist and author of fiction, poetry, and literary criticism, and a Huffington Post blogger and longtime sometimes editor of the Bolinas Hearsay News. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peter Goldmark When Our Country Loses Its Way Join Host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Peter Goldmark, an environmentalist whose career has included leadership in major governmental, philanthropic, news media, and environmental organizations. Peter C. Goldmark, Jr. Peter is an environmentalist whose career has included leadership in major governmental, philanthropic, news media, and environmental organizations. Goldmark retired in 2010 as director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s climate and air program. He was previously the chairman and CEO of the International Herald Tribune, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the budget director for the State of New York. He is noted for being an advocate for social causes and environmental issues in many of his assignments. Goldmark is the son of Peter Carl Goldmark, who led the development of LP records and invented the first practical color television, among other innovations. He graduated from Harvard University in 1962. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Dick Russell Getting to Know James Hillman Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Dick Russell, author of the first volume of what promises to be the definitive biography of the psychologist James Hillman (1926-2011), the founder of the field of archetypal psychology. Hillman studied and taught at the Jung Institute in Zurich. He went on to critique Jung while also acknowledging Jung’s critical importance to his thinking. After leaving the Jung Institute, he discovered the Renaissance Florentine Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), who had translated Plato into Latin and whose Florentine academy sought to emulate Plato’s academy. Ficino was among the important influences on Hillman’s archetypal psychology. Hillman’s landmark Re-Visioning Psychology was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. This is one of an ongoing series of New School conversations on archetypal psychology and archetypal studies. Dick Russell Dick has published eleven books, ranging from environmental subjects to the genius of African-Americans and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The Life and Ideas of James Hillman, Volume One: The Making of a Psychologist was published in 2013. The authorized biography emerged out of a friendship between Russell and Hillman, who granted many hours of interviews but gave the writer complete freedom to reach and publish his own conclusions. Hillman is not well known in the United States (his book The Soul’s Code was his only best seller). But among those interested in depth psychology, his more than twenty books have been a major contribution. For anyone with a serious interest in Hillman and archetypal psychology, Russell’s biography is required reading. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peggy Taylor Unleashing the Creative Potential in Youth--and Adults Join TNS host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Peggy Taylor, a social entrepreneur known for her work integrating creativity into youth development and group facilitation. Peggy provides accessible arts-based methods for adding life and depth to any program—for youth or adults—and she talks about how her organization PYE: Partners for Youth Empowerment is igniting the creative spark in youth in nine countries. Peggy Taylor Peggy is a social entrepreneur and creativity specialist, known for creative approaches to youth development and group facilitation. She is co-founder and director of training at PYE: Partners for Youth Empowerment, and co-founder of Power of Hope and Young Women Empowered — arts/empowerment programs for youth in the Greater Seattle area. Her new book, written with PYE co-founder Charlie Murphy, Catch the Fire: An Art-Full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Youth, Adults, and Communities is available on her website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Ted Schettler The Ecology of Breast Cancer Breast-cancer is not one disease, but many. The causes are many as well. Join TNS host Michael Lerner in conversation with Ted Schettler—a leader in the development of the “ecological paradigm of health.” His new book The Ecology of Breast Cancer offers a fresh perspective integrating stress, diet, exercise, toxic chemical exposures, EMFs, and more. Ted Schettler, M.D., M.P.H. Ted is an authority on environmental links to reproductive and developmental disorders, neurotoxicity, and other public health problems. He is the science director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, and science advisor to Health Care Without Harm, an international campaign in support of environmentally responsible health care. His books Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment (MIT Press, 1999) and In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development (Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, 2000) describe what scientists know and suspect about environmental causes for a host of disorders from learning disabilities to cancer. They also describe the great uncertainties and the limits of science in establishing links between cause and effect. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Lloyd Kahn The Half-Acre Homestead You want to be more self sufficient, but you only have a small piece of land. What can you do and where do you begin? The reality is that you can’t be completely self-sufficient (even with a large acreage), but self-sufficiency, like perfection, is a direction. Join host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Bolinas’ Lloyd Kahn—editor-in-chief of independent California publisher Shelter Publications and author of Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter—about the tools and techniques he’s developed or settled on during 40 years of raising food and animals, foraging, cutting firewood, and other urban homesteading activities. He’ll talk about what works and doesn’t, the tools he’s found most helpful, and why he still has chickens, but no longer goats or bees. Lloyd Kahn Lloyd is an author, photographer, and pioneer of the green building and green architecture movements. With a degree from Stanford University, he began work as a carpenter in the 1960s, eventually building four houses. Influenced by Buckminster Fuller, in 1968 he started building geodesic domes. Kahn next worked for Stewart Brand as Shelter editor for the Whole Earth Catalog. In 1970 Kahn published his first book, Domebook One, followed the next year with Domebook 2, which sold 165,000 copies. In 1971, he bought a half-acre lot in Bolinas, California, and built a shake-covered geodesic dome (later featured in Life magazine). After living in his dome for a year, Kahn decided domes did not work well: he stopped the printing of Domebook 2 and disassembled and sold his dome. He then went in search of other (non-dome) ways to build – across the United States, Ireland, and England, and the book Shelter (1973) was the result. Kahn’s next book, Tiny Homes On The Move: Wheels & Water, is set for publication in May 2014. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jaune Evans Creative Spirit: A Life of Art, Service, and Contemplative Practice Join host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Jaune Evans—poet, visual artist, and Zen priest—about life, philanthropy, and public service. Jaune Evans Jaune is a poet and visual artist. Ordained as a Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition in 1983, she is now a sangha member of Everyday Zen under the guidance of Norman Fischer, Roshi. Jaune has worked in philanthropy and public service for twenty-five years. She is now managing director of Tamalpais Trust (San Rafael, California) which supports indigenous-led organizations outside of the United States in the areas of human rights, traditional knowledge and education, indigenous rights, cultural integrity, protection of sacred lands and waters, and gender equity. She previously served as managing director of Tides Foundation, executive director of Lannan Foundation, and executive director of the New Mexico Community Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Malcolm Margolin 30 Years of Publishing California Culture Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in this quirky, funny, and poignant conversation with Malcolm Margolin, who is celebrating 30 years of publishing through his small, Berkeley-based indy press, Heyday Books. One of numerous thriving presses in Berkeley, Heyday had its beginnings in the tumult of the 1960s. It has not only survived but become a much lauded publisher of some of the best books on California history and culture. Margolin is also a naturalist and inveterate hiker. Malcolm Margolin Malcolm is the founder of Heyday Books, established in 1974. The mission of Heyday Books is to deepen people’s appreciation and understanding of California’s cultural, natural, historic, literary, and artistic resources. Malcolm’s vision has led the press to be especially active in publishing works by and about the California Indian community. Heyday has published more than thirty books on California Indians and since 1987 has been distributing News from Native California, a quarterly magazine devoted to California Indian culture and history. Many of the existing tribes indigenous to the state of California were nearly wiped out, due to disease, enslavement, and institutionalized genocide. In his role as publisher, Malcolm has supported the revitalization of Native language, dance, basketweaving, storytelling, and religious practice. He is the author of four books, the best known of them being The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Artist Tu-2 (Tu Ying-ming) and Angela Oh 108 Portraits of Compassion — The Blue Portrait Series ~Co-presented with the Institute for Art and Healing~ Join Michael Lerner in a second conversation with artist Tu-2 and his wife, attorney and Zen priest Angela Oh, about the opening of Tu-2’s show at the Commonweal Gallery and the inspiration for his work. This show is the first-ever of portraits from Tu-2’s infinite Blue Series, a series of spiritual portraits in silver pencil on blue paper that reveal the interior qualities of their subjects. Creating these portraits is an act of intense meditation, as Tu-2 works exclusively in a focused meditative state – connected to the subject’s essence, free of ego… and drawing only on the exhale. Find out more and see more artwork on Tu-2’s website. See the show at Commonweal Gallery (by appointment) through December 15, 2013. Watch a beautiful slideshow of the making of, and the inhabiting of, the exhibit at Commonweal Gallery. Tu-2 (Tu Ying-Ming) Tu-2 is a Los Angeles-based Taiwanese-born artist who has created an internationally exhibited, acclaimed body of work in fine art, photography, and film. After a decade of robust success from his Mao-ology and Timeless series, both of which garnered critical acclaim from America to Asia and Europe in the 1990s, he took a prolonged sabbatical from painting to search his soul and reset his spiritual compass. A new body of work emerged: a series of spiritual portraits in silver pencil on blue paper that reveal the interior qualities of their subjects. Creating these portraits is an act of intense meditation, as Tu-2 works exclusively in a focused meditative state – connected to the subject’s essence, free of ego… and drawing only on the exhale. The resulting works of conscious art inspire awakening, affinity, and compassion, and when viewed as a group, illustrate the infinite ways in which humanity is connected through space and time. It is a rare gift to be able to view a multimedia installation of such a large collection, due to the usual constraints of space and logistics. Angela Oh Angela is the former executive director of the Western Justice Center Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advances peaceful resolution of conflict. She has worked as an attorney, public lecturer, and teacher of Zen meditation. In 1992, Oh gained national prominence as a spokesperson and mediating force for the Asian American community during the Los Angeles riots. Thereafter, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton as one of seven Advisory Board members to the President’s Initiative on Race, which was charged with engaging the nation in a dialogue on race relations in the United States of America. Oh is also an ordained priest, Zen Buddhist—Rinzai Sect. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Patrick Holden The Global Food Movement Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Patrick Holden—British biodynamic dairy farmer and advisor to the Prince of Wales. Patrick grew up in London but was deeply influenced by a year he spent in California at the beginning of the seventies. He returned to the UK to study biodynamic agriculture and started a community dairy farm in West Wales in 1973. It is now the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales, with a herd of 75 Ayrshire cows – the milk from which is made into raw milk cheese by his son, Sam. Patrick Holden Patrick is the founding director of the Sustainable Food Trust. Between 1995 and 2010, he was the director of the Soil Association and became a much sought-after speaker and campaigner for organic food and farming. He spearheaded a number of prominent food campaigns around BSE, pesticide residues and GM food. More recently, he was a member of the UK Government’s working group on the Foresight Report into Future of Food and Farming and is advisor to the Prince of Wales International Sustainability Unit. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Francis Weller Beauty, Imagination, and the Life of the Soul Join Michael Lerner in a second conversation with author and soul activist Francis Weller about his work with people living with grief, and his studies and experience with the grief rituals and ceremonies of indigenous cultures. Carried privately, sorrow lingers in the soul, slowly pulling us below the surface of life and into the terrain of death. Learning to hold sorrow and loss close to our hearts is a deep spiritual practice, a fierce and unflinching acknowledgement of the way of the world. This spiritual practice is a tempering of the soul, a gradual deepening that moves us closer to the earth, into an intimacy with our surroundings where we lean into those we love. In his recent book, Entering the Healing Ground, Francis reveals the hidden vitality in grief, uncovered when the heart welcomes the sorrows of our life and those of the world. Francis Weller, MFT Francis is a psychotherapist, writer and soul activist who has developed a style he calls soul-centered psychotherapy, synthesizing diverse streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions. His book Entering the Healing Ground: Grief, Ritual and the Soul of the World discusses creating pathways to reclaiming our indigenous soul, what psychologist Carl Jung called the “unforgotten wisdom” that resides in the heart of the psyche. Recognizing the lack of existing dialogue and the profound need for sacred ritual and grief work in his community and beyond, Weller founded WisdomBridge in Northern CA, an organization that offers educational programs that integrate the wisdom from traditional cultures with the insights and knowledge gathered from western cultures. He is currently completing his second book, A Trail on the Ground: Tracking the Ways of Our Indigenous Soul. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Lazaro Pedroso Santeria (Way of the Saints) Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Lázaro Pedroso, 79, a percussionist and singer from Havana, Cuba. For 50 years, he has been a Santero (priest in the Afro-Cuban Santeria religion). Santeria involves polyrhythms, song, and dance. There are herbal elements, musical elements, magical elements, and prayers, carried over by West African slaves. Lázaro is a professor at two major universities in Havana teaching folkloric tradition, and a sought- after priest who sings ceremonies. He has published Lazo (a translation of 72 songs sung to the spirits of deceased ancestors in the tradition of the Afro-Cuban Santeria religion), Olodumare (an essential encyclopedia of the tradition of the Afro-Cuban Santeria religion), and Patakia (a dictionary of ancient Yoruba words, translated to Spanish and then to English. Lázaro Pedroso Lázaro is a scholar of the song traditions of Yoruba-Lukumí. The Lukumi community in Cuba originated with kidnapped Africans from Oyo, Egbado, and other Yoruba areas in Nigeria and Benin, Africa. Lázaro is a respected batá player, and an elder of the Yoruba-Lukumí tradition, with a half century of experience as a santero (a mediator between people and Olodumare, the Creator) in Havana. Lázaro has been employed as professor of folkloric percussion and professor of the Escuela National de Arte, Instituto Superior de Arte, and senior adviser of the Centro Superior de la Enseñanza Artistica in Havana. He has participated as a musician in festivals of music and dance throughout Cuba. He has also traveled internationally as a leading participant in a folkloric performance tour of France in 1994, a teaching and performance excursion to Mexico in the year 1992, and in 2001 to the United States to give performances, workshops, and classes. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Vicki Robin Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money Join host Michael Lerner in a conversation with the “prophet of consumption-downsizers,” Vicki Robin—co-author of the national best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence and author of Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; what eating closer to home can teach us about food, community and our place on earth (Viking 2014). Vicki has influenced literally hundreds of thousands of people to rethink their consumption and to value the vast non-material forms of pleasure, security, freedom, and prosperity available to all of us. Her work focuses on the intersection of the “big picture” and our daily lives. Vicki Robin Vicki Robin, a prolific social innovator, writer and speaker, is coauthor with Joe Dominguez of the international best-seller, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence. Her new book, Blessing the Hands that Feed Us; what eating closer to home taught me about food, community and our place on earth tells how her experiment in 10-mile eating not only changed how she ate, but also renewed her hope and rooted her in her community. Vicki has helped launch many sustainability initiatives including: The New Road Map Foundation, The Simplicity Forum, The Conversation Cafes, The Turning Tide Coalition, Sustainable Seattle, The Center for a New American Dream, Transition Whidbey and more. For fun, Vicki is a comedy improv actress, appearing frequently with her troupe, Comedy Island. Find out more about Vicki on her website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Diana and Kelly Lindsay Something More Than Hope Host Michael Lerner talks with Diana and Kelly Lindsay, authors of Something More Than Hope: Surviving Despite the Odds, Thriving Because of Them. In April 2006, Diana was diagnosed with incurable stage IV lung cancer. Her doctor estimated the odds of her making it to 5 years were 1%. “How do I make it into the 1% Club?” she asked herself. The answers Diana and her husband, Kelly, discover together—about the healing power of love and joy, and the body’s astonishing ability to communicate its needs down to the cellular level—have not only kept her in good health for seven years but deeply enriched both their lives. The conversation explores how Diana and Kelly sought to see life differently when the world became unrecognizable. “It’s about overturning assumptions, embracing obstacles, and opening one’s heart, mind, and spirit. It’s not just about who we are but what we are—and what we’re capable of doing,” Diana says. We held this conversation on August 8, 2013 in the Lindsay’s living room on Whidbey Island north of Seattle with a circle of a dozen friends who have all been touched by cancer. Find out more about Diana experience on her website. Diana and Kelly Lindsay Diana met Kelly Lindsay when he was a biology major and she was a dance and music major at Stanford University. During nearly 40 years of marriage, they have taught college students and children, been global activists, and built the marketing and financial skills to found their own company. In 2006, Diana and Kelly Lindsay were chief executives of Lindsay Communications, a high-tech marketing and communications company serving hundreds of companies from Fortune 100 multi-nationals to start-ups. When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, they realized the customers they most needed to communicate with were Diana’s cells. While she learned how to visualize them and ask for their guidance, he created a high-bandwidth grid with his hands as a Reiki master to power those cells back to health. Today Diana and Kelly speak to anyone facing seemingly insurmountable odds, inspiring them to find something more than hope. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Duane Elgin The Living Universe Join Michael Lerner in conversation with social visionary Duane Elgin, best selling author of Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich; and Changing Images of Man, which was co-authored with Joseph Campbell. For more than three decades, Duane has defined the cutting edge in consciousness research, in the ecology movement and in future studies. Duane Elgin pioneered the “Voluntary Simplicity” movement with his now classic first book of the same name. Duane Elgin Duane is a social visionary who looks beneath the surface of the turbulence of our times to explore deeper trends transforming our world. In 2006, Duane received the International Goi Peace Award in Japan in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.” His books include: The Living Universe: Where Are We? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (2009) and Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (2010). With Joseph Campbell and others he co-authored the book Changing Images of Man (1982). He worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies of the long-range future. He has also studied ESP and human consciousness in depth. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Eric Karpeles Jozef Czapski's 20th Century Life Polish painter and writer Jozef Czapski (pronounced CHAP-skee) is virtually unknown to American artists and readers of the English language, though he is a figure of considerable historical, political, and cultural importance in both Western and Eastern Europe. Moved by the quality of Czapski’s work and the integrity of his life, Commonweal Board Member Eric Karpeles is writing a book that will be both an introduction to his character and achievements, and a critical assessment of his painting and writing, placing this creative legacy into an historical context. Fresh from his return after a long research trip to Poland, Eric presents an illustrated talk about Czapski to TNS, followed by a conversation with Michael Lerner. Eric Karpeles Commonweal Board Member Eric Karpeles is a painter and writer. Born and raised in New York, he has also lived in India and in France, settling in Bolinas in 2007. His painting career has been shaped by the quest for a spiritual presence in art, and by a negative response to the elitism of the contemporary marketplace. The Rockefeller Chapel is a room-sized painting he completed in 1996, a permanent installation at the HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York City. Karpeles writes about painting and the intersection of literature and visual aesthetics; his book, Paintings in Proust, translated into several languages, was a “book of the year” in the NY Times, the Times of London, and The Wall Street Journal. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.