Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Jonah Raskin The Strange Life and the Mysterious Death of Jack London Join TNS Host Steve Heilig with biographer and journalist Jonah Raskin about the life and the work of Jack London, one of the most popular American writers. London died 100 years ago, in 1916, at the age of 40. Steve and Jonah, both longtime readers of London’s work, talk about his literary and cultural achievements as well as the enduring mysteries and enigmas in his life. Jonah Raskin Jonah is a biographer, performance poet, and journalist. The author of 14 books, he taught for 30 years at Sonoma State University in the English department and in communication studies. The editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution, he is also the author of Burning Down the House: Jack London and the Wolf House Fire and Mysteries of Jack London: Socialist, White Supremacist, anti-Semite and Lover of Beauty. He writes for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Point Reyes Light, The Bohemian and the Anderson Valley Advertiser. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Bill Glenn Enneagram: An Archetypal Psychology Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Bill Glenn, a former Jesuit, licensed psychotherapist, and spiritual director with a private practice in San Francisco and Santa Rosa, California. Bill has been working with the Enneagram, an authoritative and unique self-integration system, since 1978, and has conducted workshops across the Bay Area. To make the most of the conversation, here are some suggestions: 1. Click on this link to take the short free test to get a sense of what your type might be. And/Or: 2. Read the Wikipedia entry on The Enneagram of Personality. Note especially the history with G.I. Gurdjieff, Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo and others as pioneers. Click on Ichazo and Naranjo to learn more about them. William D. Glenn A former Jesuit, Bill is a licensed psychotherapist and spiritual director with a private practice in San Francisco and Santa Rosa, California. He was executive director of Continuum, a Tenderloin-based health care agency that provides care for triply-diagnosed clients. Bill has been working with the Enneagram, an authoritative and unique self- integration system, since 1978, and has conducted workshops on its application throughout the Bay Area. From 1995-2002, he was the convener of Spirit Group, an intentional prayer community, and for ten years co-facilitated Katargeo, a program for lifers at San Quentin State Penitentiary. Glenn is currently a trustee of the Morris Stulsaft Foundation, a trustee of the Graduate Theological Union, and co-chair of the capital campaign for Horizons Foundation in San Francisco. A former board member of the Insight Prison Project, he is past vice president of the board of KQED, past president of the socially responsible mutual fund Working Assets/Citizens Funds, and past president of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Larry Robinson Reanimating the World: Ecopsychology, Mystery, and Poetry Join TNS Host Irwin Keller in conversation with psychotherapist, poet, politician, and activist Larry Robinson. In his wide-ranging work, Larry Robinson addresses the ways in which the world is in need of healing—both on a macro level and in our own suffering souls. He brings to this work a sense of mystery, an openness to paradox, a mythological imagination, an expertise in the new field of ecopsychology and an infectious love of poetry. Join us to discuss how politics, psychology, and poetry can dance together. Poetry recited at the event includes: A Brief For The Defense by Jack Gilbert Snowflakes by Larry Robinson The Cure, Seamus Heaney’s translation of “The Philoctetes,” by Sophocles The Way It Is by William Stafford Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye An Arab Shepherd by Yahuda Amichai Larry Robinson Larry is a psychotherapist, thinker, politician, and poet. As an eco-psychologist, he works to shift our view of psychology from that of fixing a broken apparatus to that of witnessing and nurturing complex soul work. This soul work involves looking beyond our limited commercial culture and making use of nature, mythology, and storytelling to restore a sense of wholeness. A former mayor of Sebastopol, Larry also engages in political and social action, traveling the world to identify new ways of thinking and healing, and translating them back into our culture. In Larry’s view, awakening to healing—both personally and globally—requires an awakening to beauty. This view has made him both a poet and a lifelong purveyor of poetry. His spoken word poetry salons are famous, and his poetry lovers’ listserve, where he posts uncannily apt poetry daily, has more than 1,200 subscribers. His recent volume of poetry, Rolling Away the Stone, is available on Amazon. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rick Ingrasci A Life in Healing: Cultural Transformation and Psychedelic Medicine Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Rick Ingrasci—psychiatrist, community developer, and social entrepreneur. Rick’s passions center on the role of play, art, and creativity in personal and social transformation. His wife, Peggy Taylor, and he have self proclaimed “black belts in throwing a better party….” Rick’s two greatest mentors were Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan, both of whom deepened his interest in the relationship between culture and technology. Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH Rick’s background is in psychiatry, psychedelic medicine, community development, and social entrepreneuring. He practices life coaching, mainly with leaders of non-profit organizations, and is the director of the StoryDome Project — Expanding Worldviews and Transforming the Way We Live and Learn Through the Power of Visual Storytelling. He is co-author of the bestselling Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life. He co-founded Interface (Boston’s largest holistic education center), the American Holistic Medical Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Hollyhock, where he has been convening an annual Hollyhock Summer Gathering since 1986. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rick Ingrasci A Life in Healing: Cultural Transformation and Psychedelic Medicine Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Rick Ingrasci—psychiatrist, community developer, and social entrepreneur. Rick’s passions center on the role of play, art, and creativity in personal and social transformation. His wife, Peggy Taylor, and he have self proclaimed “black belts in throwing a better party….” Rick’s two greatest mentors were Buckminster Fuller and Marshall McLuhan, both of whom deepened his interest in the relationship between culture and technology. Rick Ingrasci, MD, MPH Rick’s background is in psychiatry, psychedelic medicine, community development, and social entrepreneuring. He practices life coaching, mainly with leaders of non-profit organizations, and is the director of the StoryDome Project — Expanding Worldviews and Transforming the Way We Live and Learn Through the Power of Visual Storytelling. He is co-author of the bestselling Chop Wood, Carry Water: A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life. He co-founded Interface (Boston’s largest holistic education center), the American Holistic Medical Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Hollyhock, where he has been convening an annual Hollyhock Summer Gathering since 1986. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rabbi Rachel Cowan Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit ~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for an exploration of spiritual biography with Rabbi Rachel Cowan, known nationally as a pioneer of contemplative practice in Judaism. Her latest book is Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit. Rabbi Rachel Cowan Rabbi Rachel Cowan, formerly the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, is working on a special project on aging with wisdom. She was named by Newsweek Magazine in 2007 and in 2010 as one of the 50 leading rabbis in the United States, and by the Forward in 2010 as one of the 50 leading women rabbis. She was featured in the PBS series The Jewish Americans. She received her ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1989. From 1990-2003 she was program director for Jewish Life and Values at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Her work has been included in Moment and Sh’ma as well as in anthologies, including Illness and Health in the Jewish Tradition: Writings from the Bible to Today, and The Torah: A Women’s Commentary. She is the author, with her late husband Paul Cowan, of Mixed Blessings: Untangling the Knots in an Interfaith Marriage. Her most recent book, co-authored with Dr. Linda Thal and called Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience and Spirit, was published in June 2015. She lives in New York City, near her two children Lisa and Matt, and four grandchildren – Jacob and Tessa, and Dante and Miles Moses. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Lily Brett Text, Jews, and Rock 'n Roll Join TNS-Sonoma Host Irwin Keller for a conversation with Lily Brett—novelist, poet, rock and roll journalist, and daughter of Holocaust survivors. An Australian based in New York, Lily’s work has struggled to make connections between the disparate facts of our lives, finding in them both humor and home. Lily Brett Author Lily Brett’s life and work span many worlds. Born to Auschwitz survivors in a German DP camp, Lily grew up in Australia as an only child and the only Jew in her circle. With the competing pressures of preserving what was lost and being her own person, Lily went on to become, at age 19, an international rock and roll journalist, interviewing the likes of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Mick Jagger. Eventually she turned to poetry and fiction, going on to publish seven novels, four collections of essays, and eight volumes of poetry. Her literary work explores the lives of Holocaust survivors and their children, the experiences of modern women, women’s relationship with food, and life in New York City. Her novel You Gotta Have Balls was produced for the stage in Vienna and is currently being turned into a musical in Poland. Her most recent novel, Lola Bensky, is a meditation on the experience of being surrounded by the larger-than-life and sometimes tragic rock and roll world while making sense of the larger-than-life tragedy that befell her family. Lily Brett has lived in New York City since 1989. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Sadja Greenwood as they discuss the science of supplements. Sadja Greenwood, MD Sadja Greenwood is a primary care physician with a special interest in women’s health. She has been an activist for women’s health throughout her career, in family planning, reproductive rights, self-care, education, and services for mid-life women. She is the author of Menopause, Naturally (revised edition, 1996). Visit Sadja’s blog for more information. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Francis Weller The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief ~Part of the End-of-Life Conversations Series~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in another conversation with Francis Weller, MFT, co-leader of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Francis is a psychotherapist, writer, and “soul activist,” who synthesizes streams of thought from psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures, and poetic traditions. His latest book is The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief. Francis Weller, MFT Francis Weller, MFT, has introduced the healing work of grief ritual to thousands of people. He founded and directs WisdomBridge, which offers educational programs that integrate wisdom from traditional cultures with the insights gathered from western cultures. His writings have appeared in anthologies and journals exploring the confluence of psyche, nature and culture. Francis is on the staff of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. He has taught at Sonoma State University, New College of California and the Sophia Center in Oakland. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rebecca Burgess Regenerating Community Fiber Systems Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with West Marin educator, writer, and natural dye farmer Rebecca Burgess. Rebecca founded Fibershed, an educational and community development organization which was founded, in part, to increase awareness around toxic chemicals and their central role in both fabric and health. Photos: courtesy Paige Green Photography Rebecca Burgess Rebecca works as an educator, writer, and natural dye farmer. She enjoys knowing the biological roots of where everything comes from—behind everything we own, use, and consume is a story. Instead of continuously feeling downtrodden by the stories behind a material culture, she decided to change the narrative—beginning with her wardrobe. Her “fibershed project” is a statement and a practice that has shown her that she can flourish in a wardrobe constructed completely from the resources of her community (soil to skin). Limiting her wardrobe to the bare minimum, and using local fiber, dye, and labor has been her greatest joy and challenge to date. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.