CIIS Public Programs

What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, romance and consent, and the pressures of society? In her latest book, Ace, journalist Angela Chen set out to further understand her own asexuality by examining the perspectives of a diverse group of asexual people. In this episode, Angela is joined by journ...

One of the most distinguished voices in American literature, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday has devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially its oral tradition. A member of the Kiowa tribe who was born and grew up on Indian reservations throughout the Southwest, Dr. Momaday has a deep attachment to the land he knows well and...

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation about food, family, and more with author and chef Nik Sharma originally recorded on December 4th, 2018 in front of a live audience at CIIS. We recognize that our university’s building in San Francisco occupies traditional, unceded Ramaytush Ohlone lands. If you are interested in learning more about native lands, lan...

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), has been a relentless advocate for developing legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics paired with psychotherapy for decades. In this episode, licensed psychotherapist and CIIS assistant professor Gisele Fernandes has a fascinating conversation with Rick about the future o...

As a body justice advocate and leader Dr. Joy Arlene Renee Cox believes that the spaces carved out by third-wave feminism and the fat liberation movement fail at achieving true inclusivity and intersectionality. She believes that fat Black women need to create their own safe spaces and community—instead of tirelessly working to educate, chastise, and strive against dominant groups. Dr. Cox’s lates...

Both science and philosophy have traditionally conceived of the self as though it were separate from the world. Italian philosopher, psychologist, and AI engineer Riccardo Manzotti asks us to consider consciousness in a radical new way: Our conscious experience is actually one and the same with the external world. In this unique conversation, philosopher Abre Fournier joins Riccardo as he offers a...

Shot at by police as an 11-year-old child for playing baseball in the wrong spot, as an adult Larry Ward continued to experience racialized trauma when his home was firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France, he found a way to heal with his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Now a Zen Buddhist teacher and author, Dr. Ward's work examines the causes...

We live in a world where entitlement, incivility, and narcissism are incentivized. How do we learn to negotiate a world that often gaslights us and empowers the loudest and most toxic voices? In this episode, CIIS Community Mental Health professor and psychologist Elizabeth Markle has a conversation with psychologist and narcissism expert Dr. Ramani Durvasula exploring the new normal of narcissism...

In these pandemic times, and times of racial justice uprising and reckoning, the failure of U.S. and global health care systems to meet human need or to even ensure the basic safety of health care providers continues to be revealed. How did we get here? In this episode, CIIS Faculty and multi-sector social justice organizer Mordecai Ettinger offers an exploration of the hidden history of white sup...

Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. In Mikki Kendall's latest book, Hood Feminism, she takes aim at the legitimacy...

We all tell ourselves stories about who we are. Many of these stories are self-critical and disempowering. Through the practice of self-compassion, we can rewrite these stories and become more authentic and powerful versions of ourselves—transforming not only our own lives but also the lives of those around us. For author Marianne Ingheim the practice of self-compassion changed her life in ways bi...

This week, we are showcasing selections from three previous episodes featuring California-based voices for change. We begin with Kazu Haga joined in February 2020 by CIIS professor and restorative justice expert Sonya Shah for a conversation about his life, his experiences utilizing Kingian Nonviolence, and his book, Healing Resistance. The second selection features Boots Riley, the writer and dir...

In this episode Kirah Tabourn, educator, creator, and astrologer of THE STROLOGY, talks with Bay Area astrologer and medium Jessica Lanyadoo about her life and work, her book Astrology for Real Relationships, and how her book—and astrology more broadly—can be applied to a diverse set of relationships and our current times. This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live onli...

Drawing on her decades of clinical experience with couples, and incorporating spiritual practices, social justice perspectives, current news stories, and neuro-scientific findings, Dr. Molly Howes has developed an unsparing, accessible and ultimately optimistic model for apologies. In this episode, Artificial Intelligence scientist and a Buddhist teacher Nikki Mirghafori talks with Dr. Howes about...

Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset) is a Native American attorney, teacher, and award-winning activist who grew up on the Penobscot Indian Reservation (Indian Island), Maine, and is the author of Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. In this episode, she is joined in a conversation with healer and movement builder Brenda Salgado. Together they explore Native Ame...

Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, viewing art is a creative act that can be a catalyst for inquiries into our world. In this episode, writer, artist, and curator Cindy Shearer explains how viewing artworks from the vantage point of its makers allows us to experience art-making from the inside out—drawing from what undergirds art in all forms as information and inspiration. This episo...

Fifty years after meaningful efforts toward civil rights, the US remains overwhelmingly unjust. Our current solutions to make the world more equitable and just—from desegregation to diversity and representation—are not enough. In this episode, somatic psychologist Sherri Taylor talks with author Calvin Baker about his book A More Perfect Reunion, in which he presents a profound, masterful reading...

As the first Latinx person to direct national domestic policy issues, Cecilia Muñoz knows the difficulties of getting ahead without trailblazers to follow. In her latest book, More than Ready, she offers lessons inspired by both the challenges she faced and the victories she achieved in the White House. Cecilia’s own life and work taught her tactical tools, tools that women of color can look to, a...

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to more fully reveal injustices, inequities, and imbalances that contribute to climate change, ecological degradation, and economic instability that threaten our individual and collective well-being. This potent time invites us to consider questions like: How can we cultivate individual, collective, and ecological resilience in this unstable new reality? What lesson...

When facing anxiety, we usually try to make it go away. But what if this emotion was actually trying to help? According to empathy pioneer and author Karla McLaren, when we ignore or repress our anxiety, it can overwhelm us, but when we learn to welcome anxiety, we can access its remarkable gifts. In this episode, Karla is joined by licensed psychologist Elizabeth Markle for an in-depth conversati...

As social distancing becomes a new way of life, connecting with friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors can be difficult and stressful. Suddenly we find ourselves in a new social landscape at a time when we need our communities most. Many are experiencing feelings of isolation and depression. All over the world, from balcony sing-alongs to Zoom graduation parties, people are finding new ways to...

As he approached his 30th birthday, Sopan Deb found comfort in his day job as a writer for the New York Times and as a practicing comedian. But his stage material highlighting his South Asian culture only served to mask the insecurities borne from his family history. Theirs was an ostensibly nuclear family without any of the familial bonds. In Sopan’s latest book, Missed Translations, he raises th...

“Quit being a drop. Make yourself an ocean.” Rumi’s inspiring and deceptively simple poems have been called ecstatic, mystical, and devotional. For writer and activist Melody Moezzi, they became her lifeline. Melody’s latest book, The Rumi Prescription, follows her path of discovery as she translates Rumi’s works for herself, gaining wisdom and insight in the face of a creative and spiritual roadb...

Activist and writer Kevin Powell has emerged as one of the most acclaimed voices in America today, tackling some of the biggest issues of our time through his writing and speaking. In this conversation with former CIIS School of Consciousness and Transformation Dean Kathy Littles recorded on October 15, 2018, Kevin shares his thoughts shortly after the publication of his most recent book My Mother...

What dreams might be taking root through this nightmare? How might works of cli-fi and other apocalyptic narratives help us prepare for our future and face our mounting anxieties? In this episode, therapist and cultural anthropologist Zara Zimbardo and narrative strategist and climate activist Patrick Reinsborough pose and explore questions like these and more as they deepen, sharpen, and expand u...