CIIS Public Programs

Through her work and writing, Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad centers and celebrates Black, queer, radical thought and invites us to embrace the ways our inner lives, creative fire, sensuality, and expressions of love can ignite and sustain revolutionary liberation. * Her latest book, The Fire Inside, examines the writings of Audre Lorde and James Baldwin through a Dharmic lens, and discusses how two of Amer...

In this episode sexologist Kaamna Bhojwani and Chair of the CIIS Human Sexuality department Michelle Marzullo explore how we can use AI in ways that expand human flourishing—in our relationships, in our learning, and in our work. * As AI becomes embedded in both our inner lives and our institutional structures, the personal and the systemic are increasingly mirroring one another. Kaamna and Michel...

Award winning poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong’s work weaves together personal stories, historical context, and cultural criticism to ultimately create an emotional and impactful exploration of Asian American personhood. Her widely praised book of essays Minor Feelings explores her experiences as an Asian American woman and is an essential text for reframing our understanding of race in America....

What is creative leadership? It could mean leadership that’s distributed and collaborative, rather than top-down and authoritarian. It could mean leadership that’s flexible enough to continually reinvent its structures and approaches to meet emerging circumstances. It could mean leadership that views diversity and difference as opportunities for learning, growth, and creative synergy rather than a...

Bön is among the oldest indigenous spiritual traditions in the world. It originated in Central Asia thousands of years ago in what is now Tibet and is still being practiced globally today. Rooted in ancient cosmology, visionary practices, and ritual technologies, the tradition of Tibetan Bön offers a distinctive and sophisticated understanding of mind, embodiment, and awareness that speaks directl...

For centuries, Filipino lifeways were presented to outsiders through the distorted lens of colonization—and the oppression, exploitation, and denigration suffered by Filipino ancestors are well-documented. In his work, psychologist and author Carl Lorenz Cervantes draws from Filipino folklore, language, and culture to reorient toward an Indigenous worldview: one that rejects being seen as a passiv...

Around the world, practitioners are rediscovering what artists, cultural workers, and community healers have long understood: that creativity and human connection are powerful forces for wellbeing. * In this episode CIIS faculty Dr. Christine Brooks and Dr. Elizabeth Markle discuss how arts-based practices, dynamic community experiences, and connection-centered programming are reshaping the landsc...

Why do we love who we love? Why do we stay in unfulfilling relationships, and stray from rewarding ones? Is it ever a good idea to open a relationship? And why do some long-time couples crash and burn while others stay madly in love? Evolutionary biologist, author, and Executive Director of the world-renowned Kinsey Institute, Dr. Justin Garcia examines these questions and more in this conversatio...

With rejection and intense commitment being such integral parts of any artist’s life, many struggle to stay with the creative process. Author and CIIS Faculty in the Interdisciplinary Arts program, Cindy Shearer has spent decades helping artists stay with their craft. In her book, Stay with Writing, Cindy encourages writers to understand themselves as artists, and for artists across all mediums to...

Many of us feel disconnected from our family stories and traditions, which can create a sense of loss of home and belonging. Pacha philosopher and ecopsychologist Lorena Saavedra Smith believes reconciling with our ancestors’ traditions and weaving ourselves back into our history is a therapeutic endeavor that deserves to be embarked upon with respect and authenticity. * In this episode, Lorena is...

In her book Who We Are Becoming Matters, Zen teacher and Indigenous Hawaiian leader Norma Kawelokū Wong asks “Who do we need to become to move forward in togetherness and mutual responsibility?” Norma invites us to reckon with 4 essential inner capacities—courage, compassion, aloha, and strategic wisdom. We must cultivate and embody these capacities, not just to survive, but to shepherd ourselves...

The 20th century’s discovery of LSD and subsequent use of various psychedelics in both therapeutic practice and popular culture has been a deeply transformational event in modern civilization. It has carried the power of a collective initiatory rite of passage, yet often without an adequately containing ritual structure, indigenous wisdom tradition, or clinical knowledge to mediate that transforma...

In his latest book, How I Know White People Are Crazy and Other Stories, psychologist Jonathan Lassiter pulls back the curtain on the mental health system and reveals the hurdles that Black psychologists and students are forced to endure in the field. * In this episode, Dr. Lassiter is joined by CIIS Expressive Arts Therapy core faculty Chevon Stewart, for a thought-provoking conversation explorin...

Seedkeeper, author, mentor, and founder of Sierra Seeds, Rowen White is a passionate activist for Indigenous seed and food sovereignty. With the increasing industrialization of our food and the erosion of biodiversity within cultural contexts, Rowen works to guide and mentor mindful eaters and food/seed sovereignty leaders in their capacity to lead, vision, and nourish a deep-rooted transformation...

What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening? * In her critically acclaimed novels and immensely popular works of nonfiction including Eat Pray Love and Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert expands our understanding of creativity, spirituality, and love. This episode features a powerful c...

Tantra and Yoga are practices rooted in Indic spiritual traditions that share long, intertwined and complex histories. Often, we encounter tantra and yoga as forms of exercise, self-care, sex, or as pathways to personal wellness. However, these powerful, multifaceted practices are much more than that. * In this episode, Dr. Anna Corwin, Chair of the CIIS Women’s Spirituality Program facilitates an...

In her work, sex therapist and author Dr. Lucie Fielding seeks to move trans sexualities from the margins of gender-affirmative clinical practice to centering pleasure and sparking creativity and empathic attunement within the client-provider relationship. In the latest expanded second edition of her groundbreaking book, Trans Sex, she offers new concepts such as gender-pleasure and solidarity to...

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. * It is possible to heal ourselves and our planet if we are open to the power of integrating multiple and often conflicting views. In their lives and work, authors and CIIS faculty m...

Life is perpetually, endlessly filled with change: new jobs and new loves, unfamiliar places and faces. And entwined in that change is loss: loss of what was or is, or what could have been. Amid this shifting landscape, author Ann Tashi Slater has found power in embracing impermanence through the Tibetan Buddhist belief in the intermediate state of bardo. * In this episode, Ann is joined in an ill...

In this episode, CIIS Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness professor Sean Kelly has a deep and fortifying conversation with psychotherapist and author Francis Weller. * Together they explore ways of moving together through the anxieties, difficulties, and sacred transitions of 21st-century life. Featuring insights from Francis’s latest book, In the Absence of the Ordinary, this conversation fr...

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. * Parts Work, also known as Internal Family Systems, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is a transformative tool that conceives of every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts led by a core Self. Parts Work allows you an all-access pass to...

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. * Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? In this episode, clinical psychologist Margaret Boucher has an illuminating conversation with NPR journalist Rhaina Cohen on the power of platonic partnerships and how the thrill, int...

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 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. * Harvard-trained anthropologist and autho...

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 Dr. John J. Prendergast’s decades of experience as a psychotherapist and spiritual teacher, the area of the body that’s most difficult for people to connect with—given our survival fear and trauma—is our physical and energetic ground. In his work, he finds...

We are living in a world where the depths of division, violence, and destruction can no longer be ignored. Escalated forms of harm require an equally escalated response. Yet social movements often use tactics that tend to escalate an “us vs. them,” “right vs. wrong” worldview not conducive to healing. Activist, trainer, and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice Kazu Haga argues this...