Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, and Kristina Flanagan Goddess Archetypes in the Ring Cycle and in Us: Psychological, Political, and Spiritual Parallels ~Co-presented with Point Reyes Books~ Join Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, and Kristina Flanagan in a lively discussion with Michael Lerner for lovers of archetype, myth, opera, and Jung. This year’s SF Opera presents a powerful interpretation of Die Walkure, showing Brunhilde’s evolution from an archetypal Athena into a “true hero,” a woman with courage and compassion, free of being an extension of her father. Fricka and Freya have qualities that connect them to a diminished Hera and Aphrodite. There are strong parallels between patriarchy’s effect on the planet, and the end of the World Ash Tree and Erda’s wisdom. Wagner’s genius is in the multiple levels of meaning. Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD Jean is a Jungian analyst , psychiatrist, and author. Her book, Ring of Power: Love vs. Power in the Ring Cycle and in Us, connects archetypal psychology, dysfunctional family psychology, and patriarchy. The archetypes she described in Goddesses in Everywoman and Gods in Everyman—based on Greek myths—transfer readily from Zeus on Olympus to Wotan and Valhalla. The symbol of the World Ash and the deeper significance of it is in her new book, Like a Tree: How Trees, Women, and Tree People Can Save the Planet. Find out more at her website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Frank Ostaseski Being A Compassionate Companion ~Co-presented with the Coastal Health Alliance~ Caring for people who are dying can be an intense, intimate, and deeply alive experience. It often challenges our most basic beliefs. It is a journey of continuous discovery, requiring courage and flexibility. We learn to open, take risks, and forgive constantly. Taken as a practice of awareness, it can reveal both our deep clinging and our capacity to embrace another person’s suffering as our own. This conversation with Michael Lerner aims at supporting professionals or those caring for family members or friends facing life-threatening illness. Frank Ostaseski In 1987, Frank helped form the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America. In 2004, he created Metta Institute to broaden this work and seed the culture with innovative approaches to end-of-life care that reaffirm the spiritual dimensions of dying. A primary project of Metta Institute is the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, and many others. His website has more information. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Sarah Hobson Working with Women in Sub-Sahran Africa When Sarah Hobson travels in the developing world and sees green hills, she wants to walk into them. She is drawn to peasant villages untouched by modern life. In the 1970s Sarah disguised herself as a boy and traveled through Iran alone. She wrote a book about it. As a documentarian, writer, and foundation director, Sarah has devoted herself to women in peasant communities around the world. Now executive director of the New Field Foundation, she is supporting village women in Sub-Saharan Africa in their quest for sustainable livelihoods. In this interview at The New School at Commonweal, Sarah talks with Michael Lerner about her adventures, her philanthropic strategy, and her efforts to balance family and work. Sarah Hobson Sarah is a writer, documentary film-maker, and foundation director. A West Marin resident, Hobson is author of Through Iran in Disguise and executive director of New Field Foundation, which supports rural women creating change in sub-Saharan Africa. Hobson previously served as executive director of International Development Exchange (IDEX), partnering with community organizations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America on grassroots economic development. She is founder and trustee of Open Channels, a British nonprofit working with indigenous peoples in Africa to define their lands, resources, and rights. Hobson is author, contributor and editor of eight books and producer of many documentaries for television. She is a mother and grandmother, with a strong sense of the critical issues facing the world today. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Steve Heilig The Modern Evolution of Death ~Co-presented with the Coastal Health Alliance~ For the past century or so, more humans than ever before have lived in a historical bubble of relative affluence, medical sophistication, philosophical discussion, and unprecedented longevity. Modern times have had significant impacts on how we think and feel about death, and what we try to do about it. The limits of our lives and our technologies have raised many questions, most still unanswered. You won’t get many, if any, of those answers from this discussion, but in this conversation, Steve Heilig talks with Commonweal’s Susan Braun to shed some light on the ways sophisticated, modern people confront death and dying in our times. Steve Heilig Steve is director of Public Health and Education for the San Francisco Medical Society and the Collaborative on Health and the Environment at Commonweal, co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and a clinical ethicist at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He is also a trained hospice worker and former volunteer and director of the Zen Hospice Project. A longtime book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications, he has authored more than 400 pieces on a wide range of medical, public health, ecological, literary, and other topics. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Gregory Orr The Blessing: Poetry as Survival Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Gregory Orr, considered by many to be a master of short, lyric free verse. Much of his early work is concerned with seminal events from his childhood, including a hunting accident when he was twelve in which he accidentally shot and killed his younger brother, followed shortly by his mother’s unexpected death, and his father’s later addiction to amphetamines. WARNING: Because of the subject matter, listeners should be prepared for what is, to some, emotionally difficult content. Gregory Orr Gregory was born in 1947 in Albany, New York, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He is the author of nine collections of poetry, including How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); Burning the Empty Nests (1997); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; and Gathering the Bones Together (1975). He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985). Read more about Gregory Orr on Poets.org. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Gregory Orr The Blessing: Poetry as Survival Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Gregory Orr, considered by many to be a master of short, lyric free verse. Much of his early work is concerned with seminal events from his childhood, including a hunting accident when he was twelve in which he accidentally shot and killed his younger brother, followed shortly by his mother’s unexpected death, and his father’s later addiction to amphetamines. WARNING: Because of the subject matter, listeners should be prepared for what is, to some, emotionally difficult content. Gregory Orr Gregory was born in 1947 in Albany, New York, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He is the author of nine collections of poetry, including How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); Burning the Empty Nests (1997); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; and Gathering the Bones Together (1975). He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985). Read more about Gregory Orr on Poets.org. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Margaret Kripke, PhD Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk ~Co-presented with the Breast Cancer Fund~ Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D., recently co-authored a pioneering Report on Cancer and the Environment as a member of the President’s Cancer Panel. This report has reverberated through the global public health community as the first authoritative science-based report to recognize the contribution of environmental factors in cancer. Join Jeanne Rizzo (president of the Breast Cancer Fund), Susan Braun (then executive director of Commonweal), and Michael Lerner (co-founder of Commonweal), in this conversation with Margaret that took place shortly before she spoke to a large audience at Fort Mason in San Francisco about her experience on the President’s Cancer Panel. Margaret L. Kripke, Ph.D. Margaret is a professor of immunology and executive vice president and chief academic officer of the University of Texas Anderson Medical Center. She was appointed to the President’s Cancer Panel by President George W. Bush and is currently serving her second term. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Stuart Lord, PhD East-West Contemplative Education at Naropa University Dr. Lord, president of Naropa University, talks with Michael Lerner about his journey from being a foster child to leading America’s foremost center of contemplative education. Dr. Lord previously led civic education, community service and religious and spiritual life programs at both Dartmouth College and DePauw University, where he guided relief efforts in New Hampshire’s Upper Valley, the Mississippi Delta and the areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. He has also worked in Bangladesh, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Sierra Leone. Dr. Lord brings a unique voice to the contemplative community with a strong focus on reaching out to serve low income communities and communities of color. Dr Stuart C Lord Stuart, a nationally recognized expert in service learning, multicultural and spiritual education, and leadership and ethics, became the fifth president of Naropa University on July 1, 2009. At Dartmouth College and DePaww University, he served as an administrator and managed civic education, community service and religious and spiritual life programs. Stuart served as executive director of the 1997 President’s Summit for America’s Future, working under General Colin Powell during the Clinton administration. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peter Kingsley The Great Taboo: A Story Waiting to Happen Michael Lerner talks with Peter Kinsgley, an internationally recognized writer and lecturer, about his groundbreaking work on the origins of western spirituality, philosophy and culture. Through his writings as well as lectures he speaks straight to the heart and has helped to transform many people’s understanding not only of the past, but of who they are. Peter Kingsley, PhD Peter is the author of four books which, in the space of only a few years, have exerted the profoundest and most far-reaching influence outside as well as inside academia. His new book, about the forgotten connections between Mongolia, Tibet and the origins of western civilization, became available in November 2010. After graduating with honors from the University of Lancaster, England, in 1975, Peter Kingsley went on to receive the degree of Master of Letters from King’s College Cambridge before being awarded a PhD by the University of London. He has worked together with many of the most prominent figures in the fields of classics and anthropology, philosophy and religious studies, ancient civilizations and the history of both healing and science. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Kai Lee Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment Kai Lee, Ph.D., has written a beautiful book called The Gyroscope and the Compass: Integrating Science and Policy for the Environment about real-world work toward sustainability. “I have come to think of science and democracy as compass and gyroscope—navigation aids in the quest for sustainability,” he writes. Join Michael Lerner for a conversation that explores the interface of science, policy and large-scale philanthropy. Dr Kai Lee Dr. Kai Lee joined the David & Lucile Packard Foundation in June 2007 as program officer with the Conservation and Science program, where he is responsible for the science subprogram. Before joining the foundation, Kai taught at Williams College from 1991 through 2007, and he is now the Rosenburg Professor of Environmental Studies, emeritus. He directed the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams from 1991–1998 and 2001–2002. Lee also taught from 1973 to 1991 at the University of Washington in Seattle. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University and an A.B., magna cum laude, in physics, from Columbia University. He is the author of Compass and Gyroscope (1993) and coauthor of the National Research Council study, Our Common Journey (1999). He is a National Associate of the National Research Council. He is a member of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for a Sustainability Transition, and served most recently as vice-chair of the National Academies panel that wrote Informing Decisions in a Changing Climate (2009). Earlier, Lee had been a White House Fellow and represented the state of Washington as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council. He was appointed in 2009 to the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.