Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

David Bonbright What International Philanthropy Can and Cannot Do David Bonbright has been an international grantmaker with the Ford Foundation in Africa during the end of apartheid and with the Aga Khan Development Network in pre- to post-911 Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. Originally from Ross, California, David is based in London with his talented South African filmmaker wife, Elaine Proctor. Join Michael Lerner in a conversation with David about his project he calls Keystone Accountability, creating a better way for foundations, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists, and other civil society actors to evaluate the actual effectiveness of third-sector projects. David Bonbright David is founder and chief executive of Keystone. Over the past three decades, as a grantmaker and manager with Aga Khan Foundation, Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, and Ashoka, David has sought to evolve and test innovative approaches to strengthening citizen self-organization for sustainable development as an alternative to prevailing bureaucratic, top-down models of social service delivery and social value creation. While with the Ford Foundation, he was declared persona non grata by the apartheid government in South Africa. In 1990 he returned to South Africa and entrepreneured the development of key building blocks for civil society, including the first nonprofit internet service provider, the national association of NGOs, the national association of grantmakers, and enabling reforms to the regulatory and tax framework for not-for-profit organisations that were among the first laws passed by the newly elected Mandela government. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Rachel Kyte Investing in Women, Equity, and Sustainability Join Michael Lerner for this conversation with Rachel Kyte, director of the Environment and Social Development Department at the International Finance Corporation. Rachel Kyte Rachel, a British national, became director of the Environment and Social Development Department at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in January 2004. The IFC’s new performance standards serve as a basis for Equator Principles which have now been adopted by over 50 financial institutions. A graduate of the University of London and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, she has worked extensively within the environment, women’s, and health movements as a policy analyst and advocate. Rachel has worked with and for private sector concerns on private/public partnerships in the fields of health and environment and has served as an advisor, and on the boards of a number of NGOs, private philanthropic foundations, the United Nations, and government. She has taught negotiation and public policy at a number of institutions. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Teddy Cruz Beyond Borders: Local Architectural and Planning Solutions Urban designer Teddy Cruz ‘s work dwells at the border between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, inspiring a practice and pedagogy that emerges out of the particularities of this bicultural territory and the integration of theoretical research and design production. Join host Chris Desser, a fellow at the Tomales Bay Institute and co-editor of Living with the Genie: Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery, in a conversation about local architectural and urban planning solutions for global political and social problems. Teddy Cruz Teddy has taught and lectured in various universities in the U.S. and Latin America, and in 1994 he conceived and began the LA/LA Latin America / Los Angeles studio, an experimental summer workshop at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles. During 2000-05, he was associate professor in the school of architecture at Woodbury University in San Diego where he began Border Institute to further research the urban phenomena at the border between the United States and Mexico. He has been recently appointed associate professor in Public Culture and Urbanism in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. His firm, Estudio Teddy Cruz, was selected among eight other firms as one of the national “Emergent Voices” in architecture by the Urban League in New York City. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim Living Cosmologies: Nature and Spirit Converging Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Yale scholars and historians of religion Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim about the interface between religion and the environment, the cosmology of nature, and their organization, Emerging Earth Community. Mary Evelyn Tucker Mary is a senior lecturer and senior scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003) and many other books. More about Mary Evelyn Tucker. Find out more about Mary Evelyn on her website. John Grim As a professor of religion John taught courses in Native American and indigenous religions, religion, and ecology, ritual, and mysticism in the world’s religions. He is currently a visiting scholar at the Institution of Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, and president of the American Teilhard Association. His published works include: The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and, with Mary Evelyn Tucker, a co-edited volume entitled Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000). Find out more about John on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Peter Kingsley Finding What Is Real Join Michael Lerner in conversation with author, researcher, and professor Peter Kingsley about spirituality, culture, and philosophy. Peter Kingsley Peter is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work on the origins of western spirituality, philosophy, and culture. He is the author of the books Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic; Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition; In the Dark Places of Wisdom; Reality; and A Story Waiting to Pierce You. Peter emigrated with his wife to the United States in 2002, and teaches and writes in North Georgia. He is currently a Research Associate at Emory University in Atlanta as well as an honorary professor both at the University of New Mexico and at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Find out more about Peter on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Geoff Lawton Permaculture Design Join permaculture teacher, designer, and speaker Penny Livingston-Stark as she hosts this New School conversation with Geoff Lawton, Australian permaculture teacher and advocate. Geoff Lawton Since 1985, Geoff has undertaken thousands of positions consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in seventeen different countries around the world. Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-government organisations and multi-national companies. In October 1997, Bill Mollison, upon his retirement, asked Geoff to establish and direct a new Permaculture Research Institute on the 147 acre Tagari Farm previously developed by Bill. Geoff Lawton developed the site over three years and established The Permaculture Research Institute as a registered charity and global networking centre for permaculture projects. Geoff Lawton is the managing director of The Permaculture Research Institute. Find out more about Geoff on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Jacob Needleman Why Can't We Be Good? Overcoming Obstacles to Our Higher Ideals Join this conversation between author and philosophy professor Jacob Needleman and Steve Heilig, the director of Public Health and Education for The San Francisco Medical Society and a research associate for The Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) at Commonweal. Jacob Needleman Jacob is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and the author of many books, including The American Soul, The Wisdom of Love, Time and the Soul, The Heart of Philosophy, Lost Christianity, and Money and The Meaning of Life. In addition to his teaching and writing, he serves as a consultant in the fields of psychology, education, medical ethics, philanthropy, and business, and has been featured on Bill Moyers’s acclaimed PBS series A World of Ideas. Find out more about Jacob on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Parker Palmer, PhD The Politics of the Brokenhearted Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Dr. Parker Palmer—an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality, and social change. From our podcast: I think what our times require of us is a profound understanding of how we’re all called to stand in the tragic gap between what is and what could and should be, without falling out into one side or the other of that gap…both corrosive cynicism and irrelevant idealism take us out of the action, as it were. —Parker Palmer Parker Palmer, PhD Parker served for fifteen years as senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education. He now serves as senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute. He founded the Center for Courage and Renewal, which oversees the “Courage to Teach” program for K-12 educators across the country and parallel programs for people in other professions, including medicine, law, ministry, and philanthropy. Find out more about Parker on his website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Sandra Steingraber, PhD Healing Inside Out: A Poet's Quest, A Mother's Journey Join Michael Lerner in conversation with Sandra Steingraber, a mother, an American biologist, cancer survivor, poet, and author in the tradition of Rachel Carson. From our podcast: There are a million things that suddenly you have to learn about, that you never thought about before, when you become a new parent. But for me that responsibility includes the evidence linking air pollution to premature birth, or mercury contamination in fish to learning disabilities. And I don’t really feel any sense of conflict between the joy of parenting and the responsibility of taking care of the environment. They both spring from the love one feels for one’s child. —Sandra Steingraber Sandra Steingraber Sandra received her doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan and master’s degree in English from Illinois State University. She is the author of Post-Diagnosis, a volume of poetry, and coauthor of a book on ecology and human rights in Africa, The Spoils of Famine. She has taught biology at Columbia College, Chicago; held visiting fellowships at the University of Illinois, Radcliffe/Harvard, and Northeastern University; and served on President Clinton’s National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. Find out more about Sandra on her website. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Pete Myers, PhD Environmental Health Science: Human and Ecosystem Health Join Michael Lerner in conversation with environmental scientist and author Pete Myers. From our podcast: All this time we’ve been talking about problems. We’ve got to start showing there are practical, realistic solutions… I think one of the most important things we can do right now is to figure out how to get more resources into the field of green chemistry so that when we identify something that is dangerous, not only can we offer an alternative to the consumer, but we can argue in front of people making public health decisions that that molecule isn’t necessary because there’s a replacement. —Pete Myers Pete Myers, PhD Pete is founder, CEO, and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is also coauthor of Our Stolen Future (1996), which explores the threats posed by man-made chemical contaminants to fetal development and human health, and he is senior advisor to the United Nations Foundation (Washington, DC). From 1990-2002 Myers was director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, a private foundation supporting efforts to protect the global environment and to prevent nuclear war. He received his doctorate in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley, and lives in Virginia. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.