The New Dimensions Café

Carla Marie Manly, Ph.D. is a licensed psychotherapist who’s focus is on fear-based disorders such as trauma, anxiety, and depression as well as women’s issues. With her doctorate in clinical psychology and her master's degree in counseling, Manly merges her psychotherapy skills with her writing expertise to offer easily understood guidance. Through a highly personalized approach that focuses on discovering and understanding each individual's unique needs and life-path goals, Dr. Manly's psychotherapeutic approach blends her clinical knowledge with a holistic, body-mind-spirit approach. She’s passionate about creating healing from the inside out and maintains her clinical practice in Sonoma County, California just North of San Francisco. She is the author of Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend. (Familius 2019).Interview Date: 7/30/2019       Tags: MP3, Carla Marie Manly, constructive fear, destructive fear, flight or fight, childhood trauma, volunteering, Psychology, Health & Healing, Personal transformation

Marc Lesser is a Zen teacher who leads trainings and talks worldwide. He has led mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs at many of the world’s leading businesses and organizations including Google, Genetech and Kaiser. He’s currently CEO of ZBA Associates, a company providing mindfulness-based leadership trainings and creating community by supporting ongoing groups. Previously, he served as CEO and co-founder of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, whose core programs he helped develop within Google. Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years and former director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center. His books include Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less (New World Library 2009), Know Yourself, Forget Yourself (New World Library 2013) and Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons From Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen (New World Library 2019).Interview Date: 6/7/2019    Tags: MP3, Marc Lesser, mindfulness, Norman Fischer, vulnerability, deep listening, ground truth, conflict, failure, Zen, business world, negativity bias, cultivating trust, building trust, connection, Meditation, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Buddhism, Work/Livelihood

Roberto Tostado, M.D., has been practicing medicine for over 26 years and is board certified in regenerative and anti-aging medicine. He’s a fellow of nutritional and digestive medicine at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, dedicating his practice exclusively to preventative and regenerative medicine. He is one of a new breed of doctors pioneering in integrative approach to wellness. Dr Tostado inspires his patients with the simple, powerful idea that good food is medicine. He enables his patients to experience newfound vitality at any age. He received his degrees from Columbia University, the University of Michigan Medical School, and a USC Medical Residency at the California Medical Center in Los Angeles. He founded the IBody Wellness Center in San Marino, California. He is the author of WTF* (or What the Food) Is Wrong with Our Health? A Rebel Physician’s Manifesto for Reversing Disease and Increasing Smiles. (Roberto Tostado, MD 2019) Interview Date: 5/27/2019    Tags: Roberto Tostado, chronic disease, cure disease, manage disease, nutrition, generative medicine, detoxification, medications, toxins, lactobacilli, probiotic, standing up straight, mindset, detoxing our thoughts, Health & Healing

Patricia Sun is a scientific mystic, philosopher, spiritual teacher, and consciousness pioneer. She has traveled the world empowering people to tap into their inherent creative capacity, resulting in new ways of thinking. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 3-1/2 years from the University of California, Berkeley, with two degrees, one in Social Sciences and Psychology and the other in Conservation and Natural Resources. She concentrates directly on creative solutions: "re-creating" thought patterns and "re-perceiving" experience. She’s considered to be a teacher's teacher and leads workshops and gives private consultations. Interview Date: 5/23/2025     Tags: Patricia Sun, racism, intuition, linear mind, logical mind, Niels Bohr, counterintuitive, intuitive mind, the radiant intelligence of love, dark matter. Either/or thinking, duality, black-white thinking, consciousness, right brain intelligence, evolutionary leap, gravity, duality, paradox, Health & Healing, Personal Transformation, Philosophy, Psychology , Social Change/Politics

Mónica Guzmán is a journalist and entrepreneur and is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, a grassroots, cross partisan, organization working to depolarize America. She is cofounder of the newsletter The Evergrey out of Seattle Washington and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents and is a dual US/Mexican citizen. She is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (BenBella Books 2022)Interview Date: 5/15/2025    Tags: Mónica Guzmán, listening, storytelling, curiosity, Braver Angels, depolarizing America, asking permission to talk about sensitive topics, asking open-ended questions, authentic conversations, Glenn Beck, open conversations lead to better understanding, gentle questions, silos of curiosity, uncertainty, misperceptions, Personal Transformation, Social Change/Politics

Mark Nepo is a poet and philosopher and a most eloquent spiritual teacher. In 2015 he was given a Life-Achievement Award by AgeNation and in 2016 was named by Watkins: Mind Body Spirit as one of the Most Spiritually Influential Living People. He was part of Oprah Winfrey’s The Life You Want Tour in 2014 and has appeared several times with Oprah on her Super Soul Sunday program on OWN TV. As a cancer survivor, Mark devotes his writing and teaching to the journey of inner transformation and the life of relationship. His the author of many audio learning projects and over 20 books including:· The One Life We’re Given: Finding the Wisdom That Waits in Your Heart (Atria Books 2016) and The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life (St. Martins' Essentials 2025)Interview Date: 5/9/2025   Tags: Mark Nepo, aging, new normal, pathologizing aging, pain, cancer, ground of being, metaphor of the iceberg, spider web over a rushing stream, being truthful, honest and open, authenticity, deep listening to one another, compassion, monorhaphis sponge, gratitude, metaphor of waves on ocean, Personal Transformation, Philosophy

Carissa Carter is the academic director at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) and a former geologist. Her work focuses on systems thinking, climate innovation, and design futures. Scott Doorley is the creative director at Stanford’s d.school. He has worked at the intersection of storytelling, physical space, and creative education, and has a background in film and media. They are co-authors of Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future.Interview Date: 4/4/2025.   Tags: Carissa Carter, Scott Doorley, design, fiction, storytelling, awkwardness, appreciation, creativity, humility, insight, metaphors, future, Buckminster Fuller (Bucky Fuller), David Byrne Creativity, Design Thinking, Personal Transformation, Emotional Intelligence, play, creativity

Sky Nelson-Isaacs is a physicist, musician, teacher, parent, and activist. He has many years of experience as a physics and math instructor and has also worked in the software industry. His current work involves research in the field of quantum foundations and has published a growing body of peer-reviewed work developing the foundation of a theory of synchronicity. He has also earned recognition as a singer, songwriter, and performer. He is the author of Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World (North Atlantic Books 2019)Interview Date: 5/10/2019   Tags: MP3, Sky Nelson-Isaacs, synchronicity, meaningful coincidences, choices, connection, authenticity, responsiveness, LORAX Process, momentum, Science, Personal Transformation, Philosophy

Kate Gustin, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who received her education from Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley. She’s worked in a variety of settings such as a mental health practitioner: Outpatient psychiatry, Community Mental Health Clinics, VA Hospital, College Counseling Services, and currently in private practice in San Rafael in Northern California. She integrates the science of positive psychology and leads classes, workshops, and trainings throughout the region. Dr. Gustin offers No-Self Help – an approach to identity, relationship, and responsibility that draws on the spirituality of eastern wisdom traditions and advances in western psychology. She is the author of The No-Self Help Book: 40 Reasons to Get Over Your Self & Find Peace of Mind (Non-duality Press 2018) Tags: Kate Gustin, no-self, no self, primordial consciousness, selfing, spaciousness, lamps of light analogy, Philosophy, Personal Transformation, Psychology, Meditation

Ellen Grace O’Brian is a yogacharya (an esteemed yoga teacher) and the founder and spiritual director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, a meditation center and spiritual community in the tradition of Kriya Yoga, based on the teachings Paramahansa Yogananda brought to the U.S. in 1920. The Center for Spiritual Enlightenment is headquartered in San Jose, California. She is the author of many books including The Moon Reminded Me (a book of poetry)(Homebound Publications 2017), Living the Eternal Way: Spiritual Meaning and Practice in Daily Life (Center for Spiritual Enlightenment Press 2009), The Jewel of Abundance: Achieve Success and Prosperity through the Principles of Yoga (New World Library 2018) Tags: Ellen Grace O’Brian, Kriya Yoga, prosperity, true wealth, abundance, affirmations, financial wellbeing, ego’s default, small self, separation from source, Ela Gandhi, spiritual resources, essential wholeness, sufficiency, inner peace, worry, Spirituality, Personal Transformation, Meditation