The New School at Commonweal

Michael Lerner speaks at Tahoma One Drop Monastery on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Michael Lerner, Commonweal Co-Founder, and Steve Lerner, former Commonweal Research Institute Director, offer the third of a series of conversations about Commonweal’s story for The New School. Steve Lerner was among the earliest partners in founding Commonweal. He directed the Commonweal Research Institute, and he and Burr Heneman launched the campaign to stop oil drilling off the Northern California Coast. He played a key role in Commonweal campaigns for juvenile justice reform, for sustainable development, and for environmental justice. Steve Lerner Steve served as the early research director of Commonweal. He is the author of Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor; Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today’s Environmental Problems; The Earth Summit: Conversations with Architects of an Ecologically Sustainable Future; and Beyond the Earth Summit: Conversations with Advocates of Sustainable Development. Learn more about Steve’s book, Sacrifice Zones. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Steve Lerner The Commonweal Story (part 3) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Michael Lerner, Commonweal Co-Founder, and Steve Lerner, former Commonweal Research Institute Director, offer the third of a series of conversations about Commonweal’s story for The New School. Steve Lerner was among the earliest partners in founding Commonweal. He directed the Commonweal Research Institute, and he and Burr Heneman launched the campaign to stop oil drilling off the Northern California Coast. He played a key role in Commonweal campaigns for juvenile justice reform, for sustainable development, and for environmental justice. Steve Lerner Steve served as the early research director of Commonweal. He is the author of Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor; Eco-Pioneers: Practical Visionaries Solving Today’s Environmental Problems; The Earth Summit: Conversations with Architects of an Ecologically Sustainable Future; and Beyond the Earth Summit: Conversations with Advocates of Sustainable Development. Learn more about Steve’s book, Sacrifice Zones. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

The Paleovedic Diet: A Complete Program to Burn Fat, Increase Energy, and Reverse Disease Join TNS Host Michael Lerner and Rebecca Katz, Director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal, for a conversation on a deeply sophisticated approach to integrating the Paleolithic diet with Ayurvedic Medicine with Akil Palanisamy, MD. Participants may find that what they thought was a healthy paleolithic diet differs considerably from what Dr. Palanisamy recommends. Akil Palanisamy, MD Akil is a Harvard-trained physician who is trained in functional medicine and integrative medicine. He completed his premedical training at Harvard University in biochemistry followed by medical training at University of California – San Francisco and Stanford. He studied with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. His passion in life is to help people achieve health and balance through natural means, without pharmaceuticals whenever possible. He is the author of The Paleovedic Diet (January 2016) and practices medicine at The Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner and Waz The Commonweal Story (part 2) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Commonweal co-founder Michael Lerner and long time Cancer Help Program staffer and yoga teacher Waz offer the second of a series of talks about Commonweal for The New School Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, The New School at Commonweal, and Healing Circles. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Michael Lerner and Burr Heneman The Commonweal Story (part 1) During this 40th anniversary year for Commonweal, Commonweal co-founders Michael Lerner and Burr Heneman offer the first of a series of talks about Commonweal for The New School. During this first presentation, and in future presentations in the series to be held later in the year, Michael hopes to explore the following: Sometimes a Great Notion: A history of Formative Ideas at Commonweal Bending the Arc: Changemakers at Commonweal Grace Under Pressure: Commonweal’s First Decade Purpose: A Work Community in Service to Life Michael says, “Looking backward is not easy for me because my focus is always on what we are doing and what we can do next. But it will be a pleasure to look back—and look forward—in the company of The New School community.” Michael Lerner, PhD Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal and of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, The New School at Commonweal, and Healing Circles. He is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Caroline Casey Vernal Eclipse Scheherezade Convening Trickster Medicine Story-Telling Vernal Eclipse Palm Sunday -Venus-Neptune fantastic romance in Pisces (exalted and all) (note to all melancholics – you can have just as much melancholy as makes you a genius) Scheherezade Convening Trickster Medicine Story-Telling Council Tea The world is raging – so let’s bee the balm! Cahoot with Caroline Casey as she presents astro*mytho*politico navigational guidance for the wild ride ahead Mythological campaign coverage! and ways to be ethically magically effective. The purpose of ritual magic is to spiral into the memosphere expanded wisdom and tolerance. Trickster queries “what qualities shall we cultivate to be “skookum”- (“connected to the spirits and completely competent for the tasks at hand?”) to “dree our weird” (“play our role in Destiny”) The more the merrier the magic! Caroline W. Casey Caroline is the host-creator and weaver of context for The Visionary Activist Show on Pacifica Radio Network Pacifica station KPFA (94.1) in Northern California, replayed on Los Angeles’ KPFK (and can be heard live on the web: www.KPFA.org at 2pm PT on Thursdays, and by pod-cast subscription.) The Show is dedicated to: anything we need to know to have a democracy; critique and solution; and the acknowledgement that we humans cannot solve the innumerable rude crises we’ve imposed on our planetary kin by ourselves—but only by humbly partnering with Nature’s evolutionary Ingenuity, aka Trickster. Her guests are leading contributors to a culture of reverent ingenuity, all teased into pertinence, and has been called “one of the best radio shows in America.” Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

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.