Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Russell Jaffe, MD The Alkaline Way: Diet, Supplements, Detoxification, and Real Health Reform Join Michael Lerner in another conversation with a remarkable Commonweal friend, Russell Jaffe, M.D. Russ will talk with us about his book and research, The Alkaline Way: Diet, Supplements, Detoxification, and Real Health Care Reform. Russell Jaffee, MD Trained in clinical pathology at the National Institutes of Health, Russ served on the permanent NIH staff as a practicing molecular biologist and molecular pathologist. In the course of his later career, Russ has worked extensively in optimal health, nutrition, oriental medicine, and color and music therapy. He was the founding chairman of the Scientific Committee of the American Holistic Medical Association. In 1984, Dr. Jaffe developed the lymphocyte response assays (LRA) by ELISA/ACT tests. These tests enable physicians to examine the responses of patients’ immune systems to challenges. He is also the founder of Perque, a nutritional supplement company. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Eric Karpeles My Book Is A Painting: Marcel Proust and the Resonance of the Visual Image Artist and Commonweal Board Member Eric Karpeles, author of Paintings in Proust, presents this illustrated talk about the visual images alluded to in Marcel Proust’s writing. Paintings in Proust has received considerable acclaim in the United States, Britain, and France, where the French edition sold out its first printing in three weeks. Salman Rushdie called it his favorite book of the year. The New York Times claimed the book elicited “the literary equivalent of a hosanna.” A New York Observer critic wrote that the work is “authoritative, intelligent, amusing, and can be enjoyed without prior exposure to Proust.” The same can be said about Eric’s talk, which, while specifically about Proust, is also generally about the mind of the artist and the creative process. Eric Karpeles Commonweal Board Member Eric Karpeles is a painter and writer. Born and raised in New York, he has also lived in India and in France, settling in Bolinas in 2007. His painting career has been shaped by the quest for a spiritual presence in art, and by a negative response to the elitism of the contemporary marketplace. The Rockefeller Chapel is a room-sized painting he completed in 1996, a permanent installation at the HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York City. Karpeles writes about painting and the intersection of literature and visual aesthetics; his book, Paintings in Proust, translated into several languages, was a “book of the year” in the NY Times, the Times of London, and The Wall Street Journal. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jeffrey and Leila Masson Dogs Never Lie About Love and Other Topics When animals are no longer colonized and appropriated by us, we can reach out to our evolutionary cousins. Perhaps then the ancient hope for deeper emotional connection across the species barrier, for closeness and participation in a realm of feelings now beyond our imagination, will be realized. Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with Jeff and Leila Masson about their reflections and their books, including Dogs Never Lie About Love. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Jeffrey is a writer who lives with his family in New Zealand. He has been a professor at several universities in Canada and America. After serving as projects director of the Sigmund Freud Archives, he wrote a series of books critical of psychiatry and therapy. In the 1990s he turned his attention to animals, and in particular, their emotional lives. His book When Elephants Weep became an international best seller, as was Dogs Never Lie About Love. Since those two books, he has published six more books about animals. Please visit Jeffrey’s website for more information. Dr Leila Masson Leila is a pediatrician interested in disease prevention through healthy nutrition and lifestyle. Her goal is to help her two sons and her husband—and all her patients—to live in optimal health. She provides biomedical treatment for children on the autistic spectrum, a wholistic approach to behavior and learning challenges, as well as assessment and treatment of children with allergies and other pediatric health problems. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Cindy Sage and Nancy Evans Wireless or Wellness? New wireless technologies have changed the face of the world in the last decade. Cell and cordless phones, and the wireless towers that send their signals around town have very real bioeffects. Decision-makers and the public are just learning about possible health risks of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). What can you do to help protect your health? Join Michael Lerner in conversation with two national authorities on the impact of electromagnetic fields on our health. Both Cindy and Nancy co-facilitate the EMF Working Group of the Collaborative for Health and the Environment. Cindy Sage Cindy Sage is the owner of Sage Associates, Montecito, CA. She also is a Research Fellow at Orebro University Hospital, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Department of Oncology, Orebro, Sweden. She and 14 other scientists and public health experts have written a definitive report on the science and public health implications of wireless technologies, and co-editor of the BioInitiative Report. Nancy Evans Nancy Evans is a health science writer and editor with more than three decades of experience in health science publishing. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, Nancy became a leader in the grassroots breast cancer movement, and has spoken on breast cancer issues nationally and internationally. She is currently Health Science Consultant to the Breast Cancer Fund in San Francisco. Nancy is the original editor of State of the Evidence: The Connection Between Environment and Breast Cancer, published by the Breast Cancer Fund in a new 5th edition. Nancy has co-produced three documentary films: Rachel s Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer Children and Asthma Good Food, Bad Food: Obesity in American Children. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Julia Brody, PhD Endocrine Disruptors in Indoor and Outdoor Air Dr. Julia Brody and her team at the Silent Spring Institute in Massachusetts are well-known pioneers in exploring linkages between toxic chemicals exposures and breast cancer, prompted by the high incidence of breast cancer in Cape Cod. Upholding the legacy of Rachel Carson in exploring how environmental threats contribute to disease incidence, Brody has produced compelling results from her work in Cape Cod. Recent work has brought her team to Richmond and Bolinas where the team as tested a number of homes for the presence of toxic chemicals in indoor and outdoor air. Householders in both towns found the results surprising. Like most people, they assumed that exposures to toxicants occurred primarily if one were to live near an industrial area, a military facility or near the site of some sort of chemical accident. Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with Julia about her research, which indicates that many of us may be additionally exposed to toxicants through the use of products we use everyday, products such as cleaners, personal care products, paints, solvents, or the materials we use in constructing our houses. Julia Brody, PhD Julia, executive director of Silent Spring Institute, is a leader in research on breast cancer and the environment and in community-based research and public engagement in science. Brody’s current research focuses on methods for reporting to people on their own exposures to hormone disruptors and other emerging contaminants when the health effects are uncertain. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Mark Gerzon Decision-Making As If Consciousness Matters Mark Gerzon is a leader in building global community and conflict resolution. His passion is designing environments that meet Einstein’s transformative challenge: to ensure that we do not try to solve problems on the same level awareness at which they were created. Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Mark Gerzon about decision making and the importance of nurturing a consciousness that elicits our deepest wisdom. Mark Gerzon Mark is founder and president of Mediators Foundation and author of Leading Through Conflict: How Successful Leaders Transform Differences into Opportunities. You are also invited to visit EastWest Institute website …working to make the world a safer place by addressing the seemingly intractable problems that threaten regional and global stability. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Terry Tempest Williams Finding Beauty in A Broken World Terry is one of the most exquisite and powerful voices for healing ourselves and the earth. Terry has been called “a citizen writer” who speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A gifted naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, Terry has shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. “So here is my question,” she asks, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?” Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Terry about her book, Finding Beauty in A Broken World. Terry Tempest Williams Known for her impassioned and lyrical prose, Terry is the author of the environmental literature classic, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert; and The Open Space of Democracy. Her book Finding Beauty in a Broken World, was published in 2008 by Pantheon Books. She is a columnist for the magazine The Progressive. In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2009, Terry Tempest Williams was featured in Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks. She is also the recipient of the 2010 David R. Brower Conservation Award for activism. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

James S Gordon, MD Life Lessons in Healing: Cancer, Trauma, and Mind-Body Medicine Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with James S. Gordon, MD, about healing, cancer, trauma, and the mind-body connection. From our podcast: Depression is not a sentence. The signs and symptoms are a signal: your life is out of balance. It is possible to discover and to right the imbalances, and in undertaking the process—taking the journey—you can heal yourself and become more healthy and more whole than you ever have been. —James S Gordon, MD James S Gordon, MD Jim Gordon is one of America’s leading authorities in mind-body medicine. He founded the influential Cancer Guides training program, sponsors the premier Food as Medicine training, and conducts Healing the Wounds of War trainings in Israel, Gaza, and other conflict zones. Jim Gordon is the founder and director of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), clinical professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at Georgetown Medical School, and recently served as chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Therese Poulsen Yoga for Trauma Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Therese Poulsen—yoga teacher, acupuncturist, doula, and founder/director of Breath of Hope Foundation, which brings hope to impoverished children in south Asia. Therese Poulsen Therese, a long time educator and holistic healer, brings nearly twenty years of experience in teaching and practicing yoga to the Breath of Hope Foundation as founder and director. Her interest in Eastern philosophy and medicine began with a study of acupuncture, including a clinical internship in China and the completion of an advanced degree. She then became a massage therapist and a doula—a birth counselor and midwife, building a busy holistic practice assisting women and their families to prepare emotionally and physically before, during, and after childbirth. These multiple areas of specialization and her first-hand experience with integrative therapy eventually led her to the study and practice of yoga, which has since become her life’s work and passion. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Shodo Harada Roshi Dharma Talk and Meditation Harada Roshi (Roshi means “teacher”) is heir to the teachings of Rinzai sect Zen Buddhism as passed down in Japan from Hakuin and his successors. Harada Roshi’s teaching includes the traditional Rinzai practices of daily sutra chanting, zazen (seated meditation), sanzen (private interviews with the teacher), susokkan (breathing), koan (‘past cases’) study, samu (work), sesshin (intensive retreats), teisho (lectures by the teacher), and takuhatsu (alms receiving). Join Shodo Harada Roshi for this meditation, dharma talk, and another meditation. The dharma talk is translate from Japanese into English. Shodo Harada Roshi Shodo was born in 1940 in Nara, Japan. He began his Zen training in 1962 when he entered Shofuku-ji monastery in Kobe, Japan, where he trained under Yamada Mumon Roshi (1900-1988) for twenty years. He was then given dharma transmission (inka) and was subsequently made abbot of Sogenji monastery in Okayama, Japan, where he has taught since 1982. In September 1989, Harada came to the United States to provide instruction for students and in 1995 founded One Drop Zendo (or, Tahoma One Drop Zen Monastery) on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, where the practice mirrors the practices found at Sogen-ji. Nearby the Tahoma One Drop Monastery, Harada has opened a hospice known as Enso House in 2001. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.