The New School at Commonweal

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.

~ Co-presented by The New School at Commonweal and the Collaborative for Health and Environment ~ The harm to human health from chemical exposures is now recognized as a global crisis on par with climate change and biodiversity loss. Effectively addressing this challenge means adopting new approaches that recognize the complexity of systems with multi-disciplinary approaches, prioritize precaution and prevention, and address disproportionate impacts and environmental injustices. Join Host Steve Heilig for a conversation with Dr. Linda Birnbaum and Dr. Ami Zota, two innovative leaders in efforts to promote environmental health and justice in the United States. Dr. Linda Birnbaum Linda is the former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program. She was granted Scientist Emeritus Status at NIH when she retired and is also a Scholar in Residence at the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University. As NIEHS director, Dr. Birnbaum oversaw research grants and shared the results of cutting edge environmental health research with the public and policy makers. She also met with communities to better understand environmental health concerns and disparities. Throughout her career, Dr. Birnbaum has been particularly effective at bringing forward the mounting scientific evidence of harm of exposures to certain chemicals that are now ubiquitous in our products and environment. Her discussion of the current science has helped to shift our understanding of exposures to include the dangers of chronic low dose exposures and the long term effects of early lifetime exposures. Dr. Ami Zota Ami is a population health scientist with expertise in environmental health, environmental justice, and maternal and reproductive health. Her research focuses on understanding social and structural determinants of environmental exposures and their consequent impacts to women's health outcomes across the life course. Her long-term goal is to help secure environmental justice and health equity among systematically marginalized populations by advancing scientific inquiry, training next generation leaders, increasing public engagement with science, and supporting community-led solutions for structural change. Dr. Zota is the founding director of the Agents of Change in Environmental Justice program which seeks to foster more diverse, equitable and inclusive leaders in environmental and climate justice, training early career scientists from systematically marginalized backgrounds in science communication, storytelling, community engagement, and policy translation. Dr. Zota received CHE’s “20 Pioneers Under 40 in Environmental Public Health” award in 2018. Host Steve Heilig Steve is a longtime senior research associate with Commonweal, a co-founder of the Commonweal Collaborative for Health and Environment, a host of dialogues for the New School, and in other programs originating at or founded at Commonweal. Trained at five University of California campuses in public health, medical ethics, addiction medicine, economics, environmental sciences, and other disciplines, his other work includes positions at the San Francisco Medical Society, California Pacific Medical Center, and as co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. He has served on many nonprofit boards and appointed commissions, and is a trained hospice worker. He is a widely published essayist and book and music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, and many other publications. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: tns.commonweal.org. And like/follow our YouTube and Soundcloud channels for more great podcasts.