The New School at Commonweal

James Morris Two Conversations about Ibn 'Arabi Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Islamic and religious studies scholar James Morris in The New School at Commonweal’s ongoing series on the great Sufi poet Ibn ‘Arabi. James Morris, PhD James is currently professor of Theology at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and religious studies at the University of Exeter, Princeton, Ob...

James Morris Two Conversations about Ibn 'Arabi Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Islamic and religious studies scholar James Morris in The New School at Commonweal’s ongoing series on the great Sufi poet Ibn ‘Arabi. James Morris, PhD James is currently professor of Theology at Boston College, and has previously taught Islamic and religious studies at the University of Exeter, Princeton, Ob...

Michael Lerner, PhD Death and Dying: Lessons from the Commonweal Cancer Help Program ~Co-presented with the Coastal Health Alliance~ Over the past 26 years, Commonweal has offered more than 150 week-long retreats for people with cancer though the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Many participants find the experience transformative. Conversations about death and dying are a core part of the retreats...

Sim Van der Ryn Ecological Design Sim Van der Ryn is a visionary pioneer in ecological design. For more than 40 years, Sim has been at the forefront of integrating ecological principles into the built environment, creating multi-scale solutions driven by nature’s intelligence. He has served as California’s first energy-conscious State Architect, authored seven influential books, and won numerous h...

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD Stories and Poems at the End of Life Join Rachel Naomi Remen, MD—one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body holistic health movement and the first to recognize the role of the spirit in health and the recovery from illness—in a time for stories that open discussion about the “edge of life.” As a master story-teller and public speaker, she has spoken to thousands of people...

Josiah Tink Thompson Gumshoe: Sleaze or Existential Hero? Private detective Tink Thompson was a Haverford philosophy professor who taught Nietzsche and Kierkegaard before he became a sleuth. He has worked on the Kennedy assassination, the Oklahoma bombing, and the Patty Hearst kidnapping. He is a big fan of Dashell Hammett, and he believes you can trace noir detective fiction back to the cultural...

Pia Infante The Impeded Stream Is the One That Sings When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work. And when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. Wendell Berry Michael Lerner interviewed Pia Infante as part of a spontaneous evolution of a whole series of intervie...

John Esterle Two Conversations The Whitman Institute is a unique foundation in San Francisco that focuses its grants on organizations and projects engaged with dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. The Institute is a supporter of The New School at Commonweal—and has also supported a remarkable number of the thought leaders we have interviewed at The New School. John Esterle is the exe...

John Esterle Two Conversations The Whitman Institute is a unique foundation in San Francisco that focuses its grants on organizations and projects engaged with dialogue, critical thinking, and civic engagement. The Institute is a supporter of The New School at Commonweal—and has also supported a remarkable number of the thought leaders we have interviewed at The New School. John Esterle is the exe...

John Wick and Peggy Rathmann Marin Carbon Project ~Co-presented with Mainstreet Moms: Organize or Bust, Transition West Marin and the Marin Agricultural Land Trust~ Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to reverse global warming: we must also reduce the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Join Michael Lerner in this conversation about The Marin Carbon Project, which is inv...

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, and Christina Puchalski, MD Spiritual Dimensions of End of Life Join Rachel Naomi Remen and Christina Puchalski—two pioneers in the discussion of spirituality in healthcare—in conversation about the spiritual dimensions of the end of life. Christina Puchalski, MD Christina Puchalski, MD, MS, is the executive director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and H...

Richard Grossman The Tao of Ralph Waldo Emerson Richard Grossman is a Commonweal friend of 25 years. As a respected medical educator in “the other medicines,” (the title of another of his books), Grossman participated as a guest staff member in one of the early Commonweal Cancer Help Programs in the 1980s. He then started his own Cancer Help Program at Wainwright House in Rye, New York. He now tea...

Colin Greer A Discussion on Spinoza and the World Today Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Colin Greer about the philosophy of Jewish-Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza and how they apply to philanthropy, social justice, and the world today. Colin Greer Dr. Colin Greer has been the President of The New World Foundation since 1985. Formerly, he was a Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He is t...

Thomas Kirsch, MD The Red Book: Reflections on Jung and the Jungians Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with Thomas Kirsch about The Red Book, Carl Jung’s richly illustrated record of his descent into his inner world, created in a period of personal crisis following his break with Sigmund Freud. Published in 2009 for the first time, The Red Book has been a surprise best seller and reviewed in m...

Robert Bray Healing Traumatic Stress Disorders with Thought Field Therapy Traumatic and developmental stress disorders in their many forms are epidemic condition of our time. Mainstream psychology has a very limited array of tools to help people with these conditions. Robert Bray is a psychotherapist based in San Diego who works primarily with clients with post-traumatic stress disorders. Michael...

Edd Conboy Healing People, Healing Organizations Edd is not your typical therapist. He combines his training and real world business experience in his effort to help clients get unstuck and create new pathways in their lives. Edd also works with individuals whose normal stress has advanced into a state of distress, including trauma and post traumatic stress syndrome, supporting them as they move i...

David Servan Schrieber The Instinct to Heal: Treating Depression, Anxiety, and Cancer without Drugs or Talk Therapy Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with psychiatrist, best-selling author, and 20-year cancer survivor David Servan Schrieber. Their conversation touches on his work with patients under stress and trauma using healing modalities such as EMDR. David died in 2011, two years after th...

Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman Righteous Chops on the Family Farm Join Michael Lerner in this conversation with Commonweal neighbors Bill Niman and Nicolette Hahn Niman about their compassionate ranching practices on Niman Ranch and about Nicolette’s new book, Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms. Nicolette Hahn Niman Nicolette is a rancher, attorney, and writ...

Fritjof Capra Science for Sustainable Living To understand how nature sustains life, we need to move from biology to ecology, because sustained life is a property of an ecosystem rather than a single organism or species. Over billions of years of evolution, the Earth’s ecosystems have evolved certain principles of organization to sustain the web of life. Knowledge of these principles of organizati...

Eric Karpeles It's About Lyme: Film Screening A two-part community awareness program for the town of Bolinas, this was a community discussion, film screening of Under Our Skin, and conversation with film producer Andy Abrahams Wilson to learn more about one of the fast growing epidemics in our world today. How does one contract Lyme? What is the protocol once one is infected? What is the long rang...

TKV Desikachar and Kate Holcombe Healing Yoga Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with TKV Desikachar and his senior student Kate Holcombe about his teaching healing yoga method, based on T Krishnamacharya’s fundamental principle that yoga must always be adapted to an individual’s changing needs in order to derive the maximum therapeutic and personal benefit. TKV Desikachar TKV Desikachar is the...

Walter Murch Music of the Spheres: Rediscovering the Harmonic Relationship among Planets Walter Murch is an Academy Award-winning film editor and sound producer, but his greatest historical contribution may yet prove to be in astronomy, where he has refined and rehabilitated an ancient observation that the planets and moons in our solar system are arranged in a harmonic relationship that gives sci...

Catharine A. MacKinnon Are Women Human? Reflections on Sexual Violence Join Michael Lerner in conversation with feminist legal scholar and leading public intellectual and political philosopher Catharine MacKinnon about legal views on sexual violence. Catharine A. MacKinnon Catharine is America’s foremost feminist legal scholar and a leading public intellectual and political philosopher. She has ma...

Keith Block, MD Life over Cancer: Program for Integrated Cancer Treatment Join us for a presentation from Keith Block about his book, Life Over Cancer, an encouraging, compassionate, and authoritative program every cancer patient deserves in order to have the best chance for recovery and restoration of health. Keith is a longtime Commonweal friend and an extraordinary resource for cancer patients...

Hanford Woods and Eric Karpeles What Is Art? Reading Shakespeare and Tolstoy Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Shakespearean professor Hanford Woods and artist Eric Karpeles about Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tolstoy’s What Is Art. Familiarity with both works of art is optional but recommended. Hanford Woods Hanford teaches Shakespeare at Dawson College in Montreal and is a longtime Bolinas res...