Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Investigative Historian Mark Dowie about the struggle shared by thousands of native peoples around the world for aboriginal title and self-determination. Mark’s recently published book is The Haida Gwaii Lesson: A Strategic Playbook for Indigenous Sovereignty. Mark Dowie is an investigative historian, a former publisher and editor of Mother Jones magazine and former editor-at-large of InterNation, a transnational feature syndicate based in Paris. His recent books include The Haida Gwaii Lesson: A Strategic Playbook for Indigenous Sovereignty, Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict Between Global Conservation and Native Peoples, and American Foundations: An Investigative History. During his forty year media career Mark has written, edited, or published more than 200 investigative magazine articles and has won 19 journalism awards including four National MagazineAwards. He is a founding director of the Center for Investigative Reporting and taught science, environmental reporting, and foreign correspondence at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters by John F. Kennedy University.

Join author Brian C. Wilson in conversation with Michael Lerner as they discuss Brian's book, "John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age."

Join TNS Steve Heilig in conversation with Marsha Rosenbaum, author and director emerita of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance, where she spearheaded work on youth and drugs. Marsha Rosenbaum received her doctorate in medical sociology from the University of California at San Francisco in 1979. From 1977 to 1995, Rosenbaum was the principal investigator on National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded studies of heroin addiction, methadone maintenance treatment, MDMA (Ecstasy), cocaine, and drug use during pregnancy. She is author of Women on Heroin, Pursuit of Ecstasy: The MDMA Experience (with Jerome E. Beck), and Pregnant Women on Drugs: Combating Stereotypes and Stigma (with Sheigla Murphy). Rosenbaum has written opinion pieces for the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Newsday, and many others. She regularly speaks to PTAs, other parent groups, schools, drug treatment and prevention professionals, and the media about teenagers and drugs, Ecstasy, and drug policy issues.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation on why microgrids are gaining popularity in California, the United States and around the world with the experts: Peter Asmus (Research Director with Navigant Research); Margaret Bruce (Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition); and Darren Malvin (CEO of Marin-Based American Solar).

Community-Led Conservation: Zambia's Mukungule Nature Conservancy In the North Luangwa Valley—one of the most biodiverse and intact wilderness areas left in Africa, with some of the highest remaining concentrations of wildlife left on the continent—illegal wildlife poaching had decimated wildlife, bringing once-vast elephant herds to the brink of extermination. Hammer Simwinga, a Zambian environmentalist, saw that extreme poverty was driving villagers to environmentally harmful practices, counter to traditional African values. He created an innovative program that reduced poverty and transformed poachers into caring conservationists protecting their cultural and natural heritage. Elephant and wildlife populations rebounded. The deep link between indigenous communities and their lands—experiential, spiritual, biological—is something not yet fully appreciated in conventional approaches to conservation, but that may be key to saving the earth’s future. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with award-winning environmentalist Hammer Simwinga.

Join us for a conversation with James K Thornton, founder of Client Earth and host, Michael Lerner.

Join us for a conversation with Celeste Mergens and host, Michael Lerner. Celeste Mergens, Founder & CEO, Days for Girls Celeste founded Days for Girls after a trip to Kenya in 2008, when she learned that girls in an orphanage were facing huge challenges each month because they lacked access to hygiene options. What first began as an effort to supply disposable pads quickly evolved into a more sustainable solution. Her engineering and sewing experience drove the Days for Girls Kit design, which went through 28 iterations all informed by extensive feedback from women and girls around the world. ​

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in part two of a two part conversation with Beatrice Chestnut, one of the most accomplished interpreters of the enneagram in our times. Her book, The Complete Enneagram, is widely recognized as one of the best resources for enneagram students. This seminar is primarily designed for people with at least a basic knowledge of enneagram. Reading or a familiarity with Chestnut's book in advance of the event will help prepare you for the conversation.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in part two of a two part conversation with Beatrice Chestnut, one of the most accomplished interpreters of the enneagram in our times. Her book, The Complete Enneagram, is widely recognized as one of the best resources for enneagram students.  To follow along with Beatrice Chestnut's presentation while listening to part one of the podcast, or just for reference, please download the following PDF file at: https://tns.commonweal.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/03/Commonweal_Enneagram_talk.pdf This seminar is primarily designed for people with at least a basic knowledge of enneagram. Reading or a familiarity with Chestnut's book in advance of the event will help prepare you for the conversation.

Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with retired psychotherapist and Vedic astrologer Kristina Flanagan.