Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

In his newly published spiritual memoir, I Came Here Seeking a Person, Bill Glenn shares the joys and the traumas of growing up gay and Catholic in the 1950s and 60s. A one-time Jesuit seminarian, he explores the longing for and the obstacles to living a life of faith, service, and wholeness in today’s world. He also explores the impact of being a newly out gay man in the terrible opening years of the AIDS epidemic, and what the aftereffects of those experiences have been. The memoir is an ode to love, joy, and faith, and to living fully amidst, as he calls it, “the all of it.” 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. Host Irwin Keller Rabbi Irwin Keller has been the spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County, California, since 2008. His past work included LGBT advocacy, HIV legal services, and 21 years as a singing drag queen with The Kinsey Sicks, America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. Irwin’s sermons and essays on Torah, mysticism, God, politics, disillusionment, and hope can be found on his blog, Itzik’s Well, found at irwinkeller.com. Irwin is a steward and faculty member of Commonweal’s Taproot Gathering. #commonweal #newschoolcommonweal #growingupgay #nershalom #irwinkeller Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Host Michael Lerner for a conversation with photographer, environmental campaigner, and writer Ravi Agarwal. Ravi Agarwal Ravi has an inter-disciplinary practice as a photographer/ artist, environmental campaigner, writer, and curator. Bridging the divide between art and activism, he addresses the entangled questions of nature and its futures using photography, video, text, and installation. His work ranges from the long documentary to the conceptual and performative. He has regularly published photobooks and diaries (Ambient Seas, 2016, Extinct? – 2009, Have you seen the flowers on the river- 2007, Immersion. Emergence – 2006). The book Down and Out, – OUP 2002, was a first major photographic work on migrant labour in India. His latest book, Multispecies Speculations and Growing Lexicon, is part of his multispecies art project “Samtal Jameen, Samtal Jameer,” supported by the Prince Claus Foundation. Find out more on his website. Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). #commonweal #newschoolcommonweal #photography #nature #resilience #naturephotography #migrantlabour #india Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~Co-presented by The New School at Commonweal and CancerChoices~ Join Thomas Smith, MD, with Host Michael Lerner for a conversation about easing cancer pain and suffering. Uncontrolled pain creates unnecessary suffering, but when pain is controlled, quality of life improves dramatically. Compassionate, expert help is available for people with cancer experiencing pain. Thomas J Smith, MD Thomas is a professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of Palliative Medicine for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He has a lifelong interest in better symptom management, communication, and improving access to high quality affordable care. Thomas is a fellow in the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and is listed among the top oncologists and palliative care specialists in the country. He has taught palliative concepts in more than a dozen countries and helped start over 100 new programs. Host Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

What Stories Does the Land Hold? is a conversation series co-presented by the Center for Humans and Nature and The New School at Commonweal as part of the Center’s Questions for a Resilient Future Series Join Host Christine Luckasavitch (Anishinaabeg and mixed settler) in conversation with Māori artist, designer, activist, and researcher Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka. Tanya’s work is deeply rooted in Indigenous environmental knowledges, encouraging a deeper connection to ancestral place on a global scale through her artistic practices. This conversation will center around storytelling, community building, working alongside our plant relatives, and Indigenous futurisms. Tanya Te Miringa Te Rorarangi Ruka Tanya is a Māori Indigenous artist and designer living in Te Whānganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, Capital City of New Zealand). She is of Ngati Pakau, Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, Te Mahurehure Ngapuhi, and Waitaha descent. She is active in environmental issues from an Indigenous perspective in Aotearoa and globally. Working with the Waitaha Executive Grandmothers Council, she has been documenting and mapping the sacred stories of her Tupuna ancestors as evidence for tribal environmental issues involving land and water protection claims through the Treaty of Waitangi. As a Māori artist she is inspired by her ancestry and the creation stories that place the land as Ancestor and the Master Navigator voyagers of the Pacific who always kept their eyes on the horizon in hopeful anticipation, bringing the tribe safely to land. You can hear her speak on YouTube: City Talks: Kaupapa Mauri. Christine Luckasavitch Christine is an Omàmìwininì Madaoueskarini Anishinaabekwe (a woman of the Madawaska River Algonquin people) and belongs to the Crane Clan, and is of mixed settler ancestry including Irish, Swedish, and Polish. Christine continues to live in her ancestral territory, land that her Ancestors have called home since time immemorial. Christine is the owner of two Indigenous knowledge-based companies, Waaseyaa Consulting and Waaseyaa Cultural Tours, both dedicated to enhancing the awareness and understanding of Algonquin Anishinaabeg history and culture. She is executive director of Native Land Digital, an Indigenous-led not-for-profit dedicated to providing free education of Indigenous territories and knowledge systems across the world. Christine has worked as an archaeologist, educator, and in the realm of Indigenous politics. She spends most of her time out on the land, and has a keen interest in learning more about traditional plant use. She is currently writing her first book, Ondjitigweyaa Madaoueskarini Omàmìwininì (Algonquin People of the Madawaska River Headwaters). Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

~ Co-presented with CancerChoices ~ Join Commonweal Cancer Help Program alumna Sue Mondello with Host Michael Lerner as they explore her hospice experience and the view from the edge of life. Host Michael Lerner Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press). Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Host Michael Lerner for another series of spiritual biography conversations with social activist and community leader Orland Bishop. Together, they look at his life and work, working from his book, The Seventh Shrine: Meditations on the African Spiritual Journey from the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop. This four-part conversation is a follow up to the 2011 spiritual biography (also four parts) Michael hosted with Orland. And read a news article about the Sacred Hospitality of Orland Bishop on the Commonweal news pages. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Host Michael Lerner for another series of spiritual biography conversations with social activist and community leader Orland Bishop. Together, they look at his life and work, working from his book, The Seventh Shrine: Meditations on the African Spiritual Journey from the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop. This four-part conversation is a follow up to the 2011 spiritual biography (also four parts) Michael hosted with Orland. And read a news article about the Sacred Hospitality of Orland Bishop on the Commonweal news pages. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Host Michael Lerner for another series of spiritual biography conversations with social activist and community leader Orland Bishop. Together, they look at his life and work, working from his book, The Seventh Shrine: Meditations on the African Spiritual Journey from the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop. This four-part conversation is a follow up to the 2011 spiritual biography (also four parts) Michael hosted with Orland. And read a news article about the Sacred Hospitality of Orland Bishop on the Commonweal news pages. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Join Host Michael Lerner for another series of spiritual biography conversations with social activist and community leader Orland Bishop. Together, they look at his life and work, working from his book, The Seventh Shrine: Meditations on the African Spiritual Journey from the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop. This four-part conversation is a follow up to the 2011 spiritual biography (also four parts) Michael hosted with Orland. And read a news article about the Sacred Hospitality of Orland Bishop on the Commonweal news pages. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Love is all there is. The love for our friends, our family, our work, our home, our country, and for ourselves. Let's make love our way of life. Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, and Karen Drucker will share songs and stories about living from the heart. See all of the events with Rachel and Karen on our website [ tns.commonweal.org/series/story-music ] Rachel Naomi Remen, MD Rachel is a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Founder and Founding Director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), which was at Commonweal for decades and is currently at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She is one of the best known of the early pioneers of wholistic and integrative medicine. As a medical educator, therapist, and teacher, she has enabled many thousands of physicians to find individual meaning and purpose in the practice of medicine and thousands of patients to remember their power to heal. More than 30,000 medical students have completed The Healer’s Art, her groundbreaking curriculum for medical students taught at the majority of medical schools in America. A master storyteller and observer of life, her bestselling books, Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings have sold more than 2 million copies and have been translated into 21 languages. Rachel has had Crohn’s disease for more than 65 years and her work is a unique blend of the wisdom, strength, and viewpoints of both doctor and patient. Karen Drucker Karen’s message is all about healing and love--whether singing one of her positive message songs or sharing stories that are funny, inspiring, and heart opening. She is a keynote speaker, women’s retreat facilitator, and entertainer who has recorded 22 CDs of her inspirational music. Karen is also the author of the best selling book Let Go of the Shore: Songs & Stories To Set The Spirit Free. Her chants and songs are used around the world and often help people deal with illness and loss, or help them fill the need to feel more centered for the day. Karen’s intention is to make a difference by using her music to open hearts and share a message of hope, acceptance, and love. Find out more about Karen on her website: karendrucker.com Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.