CIIS Public Programs

This is the CIIS Public Programs Podcast, featuring talks and conversations recorded live by California Institute of Integral Studies, a non-profit university located in San Francisco on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone Land. * Shaped by her own experience with the death of her father and her time co-founding The Dinner Party, a leading peer-support organization for people who’ve experienced a major loss,...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * More than 10 million millennials are caring for aging parents before they've been able to fully launch their careers and consider starting their own families, and that's not including the incalculable numbers of people affected by long COVID. Writer and caregi...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * A Black Feminist, activist, professor, and author, Loretta J. Ross has spent five remarkable decades in activism. She’s deprogrammed white supremacists and taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism and it’s worked because the power of her message com...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * In challenging times, it can be important to access a multitude of healing pathways, and we can use astrology as a supportive tool to understand both the current moment and access our personal and collective agency. * In this episode, Humanistic Astrologer, ps...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Lifelong activist and educator Dean Spade dares us to decide that our interpersonal actions are not separate from our politics of liberation and resistance. Many activist projects and resistance groups fall apart because people treat each other poorly, trying...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * In her work, author, organizer, and designer Aida Mariam Davis explores the historical and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism, making explicit the ways that extraction, oppression, and enslavement serve the goals of empire—not least by severing ancestral c...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Generational silence is a term applied to families who have experienced suppressed thoughts or repressed emotions for at least two generations. Generational silence addresses both the cycle and impact of issues like substance abuse, religion, racism, education...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * This special episode features CIIS Professor Emeritus and cultural historian Richard Tarnas sharing illuminating insights into the nature of human consciousness and the cosmos. In this talk, Richard explores one of C. G. Jung’s most crucial contributions to ps...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * The Ten Oxherding Pictures is an image series that visualizes the Buddhist training path to enlightenment. The Ten Oxherding Pictures have served as a spiritual teaching tool for centuries, guiding seekers through the steps of awakening. But how are these imag...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * In this episode, 86th generation Zen master and Indigenous Hawaiian leader Rōshi Norma Wong is joined by CIIS Associate Professor Sonya Shah for an illuminating conversation exploring spiritual activism and how to envision co-creating new worlds from one in cr...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * As we approach the first season change of the year, we are finding ourselves inclined to revisit this conversation centered on time and ritual featuring author Sasha Sagan and CIIS Interdisciplinary Arts professor Carolyn Cooke. * Sasha Sagan was raised by sec...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Michelle Tea is best known for her book, Modern Tarot, which is now a cult classic. Her latest book, Modern Magic, explores her magical roots. Sharing how she crafted her own magical practice, Michelle offers a framework to tap into the distinctive magic that...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * For over 40 years somatic sex educator Dr. Betty Martin has explored the nuances of consent. In her framework and book, The Wheel of Consent, Dr. Martin traces the fundamental roots of consent back to our childhood conditioning. As children, many are taught th...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Talking about death is often deemed morbid or taboo, but to fully embrace life, scientists, psychologists, and spiritual leaders all agree—contemplating death is the key to living a life with meaning. In this episode, Joanna Ebenstein, author and founder of Mo...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Emerging research in psychological and philosophical circles is showing us that there is more to the good life than past or current conversations suggest. Psychological richness is the missing piece to the good life, and, Lorraine Besser, a founding investigat...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Each person has a unique, ever-changing relationship to hope. Hope alone can be transformational—but in moments of despair, or when you’re up against profound injustice—it isn’t enough on its own. As we enter a new year full of complicated hopeful feelings, we...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * When a film touches us, makes us laugh, and has that feel-good spirit, we want more of it. We want a sequel! In this episode, psychotherapist and CIIS Assistant Professor in the Integral Counseling Psychology program Emily Marinelli is joined by therapist and...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * In the context of non-monogamy, compersion or the emotion of positive empathy is understood as sharing our partner’s joy regarding their other intimate relationship or relationships. Drawing upon her seminal research with consensually non-monogamous individual...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Majority cultural norms in the United States suppress our ability to truly feel our grief and each person’s experience with grief is as unique as the grief itself. Writer, somatic practitioner, and artist Camille Sapara Barton’s take on grief speaks directly t...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * In anticipation of our upcoming workshop exploring shamanic tools for liberating our true longing with author and shamanic healer Langston Kahn, we are revisiting his conversation with energy worker and spiritual practitioner Maryam Hasnaa. In this deep conver...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Choctaw multimedia artist Tricia Rainwater’s wide-ranging work is rooted in themes of identity and grief. Her artistic practice offers a perspective through the lens of a Choctaw survivor. In her most recent series, Falama: to return, she shared a sustained de...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * Dr. Thema Bryant is a psychologist and leading mental health expert with more than two decades of experience in clinical psychology and trauma recovery. As a trauma survivor herself, she knows that trauma and everyday challenges can cause us to disconnect and...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * As we continue to navigate years of collective upheaval, are there ways for us to face the complexities of our time with joy, authenticity, and connection? Prentis Hemphill, embodiment practitioner, therapist, and activist, shows us that we don't have to carry...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * This week, we are diving into our archives in preparation for the northern hemisphere’s upcoming winter season which brings with it a call for all earthly beings to rest. In this episode, we are revisiting CIIS Integral and Transpersonal Psychology program dir...

Some podcast apps may not display links from our show notes properly, so we have included a list of links at the end of this description. * What role does dominant culture play in how we experience the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and deeper existential mysteries of our bodies? Dr. Roger Kuhn, a Poarch Creek Two-Spirit Indigequeer activist, artist, sex therapist, and somacultural theorist, beli...