The New School at Commonweal

Diana and Kelly Lindsay Healing Circles Langley Diana Lindsay was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2006. She was given three months to live and told to go on hospice care. But her new granddaughter gave her a powerful reason to live. Even though new medicine was helping some patients with lung cancer, Diana and her husband Kelly felt the medicine would not be enough. So they embarked on an intensive “joy protocol” in which her intuition guided her in both medical and integrative therapies. Her intuitive power of visualization was unusually strong. More recently, they founded Healing Circles Langley to share their experience of healing with others. Healing Circles Langley is a program of Commonweal and a pioneering site for Commonweal’s Healing Circles project. Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Diana and Kelly, authors of Something More Than Hope: Surviving Despite the Odds, Thriving Because of Them. Diana and Kelly Lindsay Diana met Kelly Lindsay when he was a biology major and she was a dance and music major at Stanford University. During nearly 40 years of marriage, they have taught college students and children, been global activists, and built the marketing and financial skills to found their own company. In 2006, Diana and Kelly Lindsay were chief executives of Lindsay Communications, a high-tech marketing and communications company serving hundreds of companies from Fortune 100 multi-nationals to start-ups. When she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, they realized the customers they most needed to communicate with were Diana’s cells. While she learned how to visualize them and ask for their guidance, he created a high-bandwidth grid with his hands as a Reiki master to power those cells back to health. Today Diana and Kelly speak to anyone facing seemingly insurmountable odds, inspiring them to find something more than hope. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Shodo Harada Roshi Zen and the Art of Dying ~Co-presented with Commonweal Healing Circles~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner in conversation with Zen priest Shodo Harada Roshi. This is the Roshi’s third visit to TNS, and the next conversation in our End-of-Life Conversations series. Also, see our new video of a spiritual biography conversation between Michael and the Roshi. Shodo Harada Roshi Shodo Harada Roshi is Abbot of Sogen-ji, a 300-year-old Rinzai Zen monastery in Okayama, Japan. He is also Abbot of Tahoma Monastery on Whidbey Island north of Seattle. He founded Enso House, a hospice affiliated with Tahoma, where his students attend the dying. He is a master of Japanese calligraphy, and has conducted demonstrations at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. His translator and colleague, Priscilla Daichi Storandt, is co-abbot at Tahoma and a senior teacher in her own right. Find out more on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Betsy Stroman The Sausalito Village Experience: Will this help us in West Marin? Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Betsy Stroman—founder and former director of Sausalito Village, a volunteer-based non-profit organization that has been offering services to support independent senior living since October 2010. Their mission is to enhance the ability of members to live independently, remaining active and integral to their community as they age. Betsy Stroman Betsy is a founder and former president of the board of Sausalito Village. She stepped down from the board presidency in spring 2015, but remains vice president of the board. Sausalito Village is primarily volunteer based, and their fees are low — and they waive fees for people for whom even their low fees are out of reach. Betsy self published a book about a Sausalito artist: The Art and Life of Jean Varda. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peter Coyote The Rainman's Third Cure ~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ Renowned actor, narrator, author, activist, and singer/songwriter, Peter Coyote has produced his second autobiographical memoir, The Rainman’s Third Cure. Join him for a wide-ranging discussion with TNS Host Steve Heilig about his story and the broader world. Photo: courtesy of Peter Coyote. Peter Coyote Peter Coyote first became politically active in his college years in the 1960s in an anti-nuclear protest that brought him to Kennedy’s White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis. From there he came west to become an integral part of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and then the Diggers, the famed anarchist soul of the Haight-Ashbury sixties scene, followed by a period in a commune in Olema. He was chair of the California State Arts Council during Jerry Brown’s first term as governor, then got back into acting and launched a stellar career involving more than 140 films, even more projects using his Emmy-winning skills as narrator, and more. His first book Sleeping Where I Fall included a Pushcart Prize-winning chapter, and his new memoir The Rainman’s Third Cure is a candid and searching reckoning with his childhood and subsequent life. He has recently been ordained as a Buddhist priest. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

~Co-presented with Pt Reyes Books~ Jacob Needleman Time and the Soul: A Spiritual Biography ~Co-presented with Pt Reyes Books~ Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for the next in his series of spiritual biographies—this one with author, professor, and philosopher Jacob Needleman. Jacob Needleman Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University. He is the author of many books on soul, philosophy, the world’s religions, and the meaning of life. He was featured on Bill Moyers’s acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas. In addition to his teaching and writing, Needleman serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Kate Hoepke The Village Movement: Aging in Community Join TNS Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with Kate Hoepke, the executive director of San Francisco Village—a community-based membership organization that empowers older adults who wish to continue living on their own terms in the homes and neighborhoods they love. SF Village provides community, support, and services to help members remain independent, connected and fully engaged as they age. SF Village is a leader in the Village Movement catching on all over the country. Currently there are over 160 villages in 40 states and another 100 in development. The Village-to-Village Network, a nonprofit organization, supports the growing Village movement with resources, peer-to-peer networking and an annual conference. California leads the country in Village growth; the state is home to about 35 Villages, with another 15 in development. Kate Hoepke Kate’s background in community building spans 25 years and a developmental continuum from early childhood to retirement. Since 2001, she has worked with older adults and currently serves as the Executive Director of San Francisco Village. Prior to working in the retirement field, she organized social support networks for families with young children, called Mothers Clubs. She founded 40 clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area, which have served approximately 500,000 families to date. Kate has a BA in Sociology and an MBA from San Francisco State University. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Mark Renneker, MD Medical Advocacy for People with Cancer and Other Serious Conditions ~Co-presented with Healing Circles~ We are delighted to present a special day-long training with one of the foremost authorities on clinical advocacy for people with cancer. A longtime Commonweal friend, Mark’s incisive vision of clinical advocacy is invaluable for all engaged in Healing Circles and for others who share these interests. View both part 1 and part 2 of the event video on our Vimeo site. Download the handouts from Mark’s talk: Medical Advocacy Topics No Stone Unturned Mark Renneker, MD Dr. Mark Renneker is a board-certified family physician who lives in San Francisco. He has a unique medical practice that he describes as clinical advocacy. He specializes in working with patients and families who are facing complex medical situations. He doesn’t take on their care, but helps them leave no stone unturned, as to learning about and pursuing all possible diagnostic and treatment options, including experimental, mainstream, alternative, and integrative medical strategies. Most of his work is by phone, with patients from across the country and around the world. Mark’s work in clinical advocacy has generated significant interest. He has sponsored workshops at Commonweal on clinical advocacy and now teaches a course on the subject for medical students at University of California-San Francisco, where he is on the clinical faculty. Mark is also a dedicated surfer, and is the founder of the Surfer’s Medical Association. He has surfed giant waves from the Arctic to the Antarctic, but surfs regularly at Maverick’s and Ocean Beach, where he lives with his wife, the painter Jessica Dunne, and their large iguana. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Mark Renneker, MD Medical Advocacy for People with Cancer and Other Serious Conditions ~Co-presented with Healing Circles~ We are delighted to present a special day-long training with one of the foremost authorities on clinical advocacy for people with cancer. A longtime Commonweal friend, Mark’s incisive vision of clinical advocacy is invaluable for all engaged in Healing Circles and for others who share these interests. View both part 1 and part 2 of the event video on our Vimeo site. Download the handouts from Mark’s talk: Medical Advocacy Topics No Stone Unturned Mark Renneker, MD Dr. Mark Renneker is a board-certified family physician who lives in San Francisco. He has a unique medical practice that he describes as clinical advocacy. He specializes in working with patients and families who are facing complex medical situations. He doesn’t take on their care, but helps them leave no stone unturned, as to learning about and pursuing all possible diagnostic and treatment options, including experimental, mainstream, alternative, and integrative medical strategies. Most of his work is by phone, with patients from across the country and around the world. Mark’s work in clinical advocacy has generated significant interest. He has sponsored workshops at Commonweal on clinical advocacy and now teaches a course on the subject for medical students at University of California-San Francisco, where he is on the clinical faculty. Mark is also a dedicated surfer, and is the founder of the Surfer’s Medical Association. He has surfed giant waves from the Arctic to the Antarctic, but surfs regularly at Maverick’s and Ocean Beach, where he lives with his wife, the painter Jessica Dunne, and their large iguana. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Joanne Kyger On Time: Poems 2005-2014 ~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ There is no poet with more whimsically tough a mind… She’s the best of the west. —Robert Creely No other poet of my gen­eration has been able to make the pleasures and particu­lars of the ‘everyday’ as luminous and essential and cen­tral. —David Meltzer A longtime Bolinas resident, Kyger will read from her work and be in discussion with her longtime friend and admirer, Steve Heilig of The New School. Copies of her brand new book On Time: Poems 2005-2014 (City Lights Publishers) will be available for purchase and signing. Joanne Kyger One of the major poets of the SF Renaissance, Joanne was born in 1934 in Vallejo, CA. After studying at UC Santa Barbara, she moved to San Francisco in 1957, where she became a member of the circle of poets around Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan. In 1960, she and then-husband Gary Snyder traveled in Japan and India where, along with Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, they met the Dalai Lama. She returned to California in 1964 and published her first book, The Tapestry and the Web, in 1965. In 1969, she settled in Bolinas, where she continues to reside today. She has published more than 30 books of poetry and prose, including Strange Big Moon, The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964 (2000), As Ever: Selected Poems (2002), and About Now: Collected Poems (2007), which won the 2008 Josephine Miles Award from PEN Oakland. She occasionally teaches at Naropa University. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Sadja Greenwood, MD A Life of Changing the Rules Join TNS Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with long-time Bolinas resident Sadja Greenwood, MD, about her life of action and activism in women’s health, teaching, nutrition, and more. They’ll talk about her most recent book, published in 2013, called Changing the Rules: “This novel is set in the 1950s: romance, bohemian life (before the Beatniks), medical school, sex, illegal abortion (safe or deadly), and a young woman’s journey to find her calling. It’s a cautionary tale for today.” Hear the podcast from Sadja’s last visit to The New School: Sadja Greenwood, MD Sadja Greenwood received an MD from Case Western Reserve University and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley. She was an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco. She worked at Planned Parenthood in San Francisco where she started one of the first Teen Clinics in the United States in 1968, in response to the “summer of love.” She started an abortion clinic at San Francisco Planned Parenthood immediately after the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. She also worked for the International Planned Parenthood Federation in Singapore and in family planning in Latin America, Bangladesh, and Africa. She made a teaching film, Aspiration Abortion Without Cervical Dilation, in 1973 with her mentor and colleague, Alan Margolis, MD. The film was widely used to teach medical techniques for safe abortion. She is the author of Menopause, Naturally (Volcano Press, 1996), which became a popular book for women seeking alternatives to hormone therapy. She published a novel, Changing the Rules, in 2013, which is available at bookstores and at Amazon.com. She is a longtime Bolinas resident and plays in the renowned local celtic group, Midnight on the Water. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.