CIIS Public Programs

Healthy boundaries. We all know setting healthy boundaries can help us to achieve work/life balance, cope with toxic people, and enjoy rewarding relationships. But what does “setting healthy boundaries” really mean? How can we successfully express our needs without offending others? In this episode, licensed counselor and relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab is joined in conversation with licen...

Most of us understand grief as sorrow experienced after a loss—the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a change in life circumstance. According to author and Buddhist end-of-life caregiver, Breeshia Wade, grief is bigger than what’s happened to us, larger than a reaction to a one-time event. It is something that is connected to what we fear, what we love, and what we aspire to. Dra...

Empaths not only sense other people’s emotions, but also absorb them—sometimes to their disadvantage, often leading to overwhelming sensory overload and feelings of confusion or low self-esteem. Their willingness to help and please others might make them prey to opportunists or cause them to give away more energy than they can afford. But international speaker, cancer survivor, and author Anita Mo...

On each Tuesday of this month, in celebration of Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voices, we are revisiting conversations from our archives that feature AAPI writers, thinkers, artists, and healers. Today we are revisiting an episode from February 2020 in which Kazu Haga is joined by CIIS professor and restorative justice expert Sonya Shah for a conversation about his life, Kingian Nonv...

It is well known that mental healthcare and therapy are not systems that are readily accessible to everyone, especially those from marginalized communities. Created and maintained by white men, most traditional therapeutic practices do not address systematic oppression, ancestral trauma, LGTBQIA+ mental health and wellness, and the general mental, emotional, or physical plight of BIPOC and margina...

On each Tuesday of this month, in celebration of Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voices, we are revisiting conversations from our archives that feature AAPI writers, thinkers, artists, and healers. Today we are revisiting CIIS Integrative Health Studies Professor Megan Lipsett’s conversation with mindfulness teacher Sister Dang Nghiem recorded in January 2021. Megan talks with Sister D...

The field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has been growing rapidly in recent years with decriminalization efforts moving forward on local, state, and federal levels. Ketamine was first developed in the 1960s as a surgical anesthetic for humans. In recent years, it was discovered that ketamine also has rapid acting anti-depressant and anti-obsessional properties. In this episode, clinician an...

On each Tuesday of this month, in celebration of Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voices, we are revisiting conversations from our archives that feature AAPI writers, thinkers, artists, and healers. Today we are revisiting an episode recorded in October 2016 featuring author and hip hop journalist Jeff Chang in conversation with novelist and poet Adam Mansbach on the cultural history—an...

Joy and resilience: we need both to thrive. But even though resilience is rightly buzzing as a self-care goal, we live in a world that makes it attainable to some and inaccessible to others. In her latest book, Joyous Resilience: A Path to Individual Healing and Collective Thriving in an Inequitable World, Pakistani American Clinical therapist Anjuli Sherin offers a culturally informed, body-cente...

On each Tuesday of this month, in celebration of Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voices, we are revisiting conversations from our archives that feature AAPI writers, thinkers, artists, and healers. Today we are revisiting a conversation from October 2020 featuring journalists Angela Chen and Sabrina Imbler speaking about Angela’s book Ace, what it means to be asexual in a world that’s...

There’s much more to astrology than weekly horoscopes, personality types, and predictions for the future. For astrologer and transformational coach Jennifer Racioppi, it is a guide to living in sync with the natural rhythms of the universe to achieve optimal health and success. In this episode, Jennifer is joined in conversation with meditation guide and author Rebekah “Bex” Borucki. They discuss...

In her work, racial justice educator Rachel Ricketts has developed heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices to dismantle white supremacy by addressing anti-racism from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spiritually aligned perspective. In this episode, A-Ian Holt, director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford joins Rachel for a conversation about her latest book, Do Bette...

To create a world free from oppression, we have to come face to face with the beliefs, stories, and actions that maintain these systems within ourselves. In Indigenous cultures throughout the world, it's understood that true transformation starts in the body, with a change of heart. But how can we create a new story of transformation and liberation in the world if we haven't learned to heal our ow...

Whether we feel unworthy, alienated, or anxious about our place in the world, the absence of belonging is the great silent wound of our times. In this episode, award-winning author, teacher, and dreamworker Toko-pa Turner and licensed psychotherapist and CIIS Faculty Rachael Vaughan have a nourishing conversation about what it means to belong and the power of our dreams. This episode was recorded...

Author, Black feminist, and social justice activist adrienne maree brown has been talking, writing, and celebrating the intersection of pleasure and activism since her much-lauded 2019 book, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. In this episode, CIIS professor and restorative justice expert sonya shah joins adrienne for a powerful and joyful conversation exploring how to tap into the fu...

We all recognize we are living in the midst of a major threshold of transformation, a profound drama facing the Earth community with tremendous consequences at stake. What are the deeper stirrings in the collective psyche today? What is the current planetary situation, and which gods are now in dynamic motion? In this episode, CIIS professor and cultural historian Richard Tarnas provides a state o...

Like many Americans, social psychologist Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Dr. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Dr. Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side...

Born in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, mindfulness teacher Sister Dang Nghiem (Sister D)is an inspiration for anyone who has ever suffered from abuse, life-changing loss, severe illness, or the aftermath of war. Her work brings together her experience as a survivor, certified MD, and ordained Buddhist teacher to offer a body-based, practical approach to healing from life’s most difficult and pa...

Considered one of the leaders of a current generation of Buddhist teachers, Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, and an authorized Lama—or Buddhist teacher—in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Through his writings, teachings, and travels Lama Rod invites everyone into his life intersections as a Black, queer male who was born and raised in the South, and heavily influenced...

Chef extraordinaire and popular TV host Martin Yan has spent decades promoting Chinese and pan-Asian cuisines on his popular TV show Yan Can Cook. Passionate about cooking as well as its benefits for health and wellbeing, Chef Yan is known world-wide for celebrating Chinese and Asian cuisines and cultures, encouraging home cooks to explore these important and delicious foodways. In this episode, c...

Five years ago, author and journalist Lauren Martin had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, and a boyfriend she loved, but she was wrestling with feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and irritability. She began to figure out why she was having these negative emotions and how to control them by posting her thoughts and questions online, a project which soon became the popular online plat...

This week, we are revisiting an episode originally recorded early in the COVID-19 pandemic during one of our first live streaming online events on April 23rd, 2020. In this episode, CIIS professor and renowned scholar Richard Tarnas shares astrological insights into the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he describes as “a time in which there are volcanically intense evolutionary pressures for t...

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with neuroscientist Matthew Walker about his groundbreaking exploration of sleep and its transformative power to change our lives for the better. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on October 9th, 2017. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo about self-compassion, astrology, and why you should never look at your crush’s chart. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on March 20th, 2019. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with journalist Celeste Headlee exploring ways to have meaningful conversations in a politically and socially polarized time. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on February 22nd, 2018. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.