CIIS Public Programs

To create a world free from oppression, we have to come face to face with the beliefs, stories, and actions that maintain these systems within ourselves. In Indigenous cultures throughout the world, it's understood that true transformation starts in the body, with a change of heart. But how can we create a new story of transformation and liberation in the world if we haven't learned to heal our own stories?

In this episode, author and shamanic healer Langston Kahn is joined by energy worker and spiritual practitioner Maryam Hasnaa for a deep conversation exploring how we can address the root of past trauma and heartbreak to reclaim our personal and collective power.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on January 26, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Whether we feel unworthy, alienated, or anxious about our place in the world, the absence of belonging is the great silent wound of our times.

In this episode, award-winning author, teacher, and dreamworker Toko-pa Turner and licensed psychotherapist and CIIS Faculty Rachael Vaughan have a nourishing conversation about what it means to belong and the power of our dreams.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 9, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Author, Black feminist, and social justice activist adrienne maree brown has been talking, writing, and celebrating the intersection of pleasure and activism since her much-lauded 2019 book, Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good.

In this episode, CIIS professor and restorative justice expert sonya shah joins adrienne for a powerful and joyful conversation exploring how to tap into the full spectrum of our sensual desires and emotional needs while organizing for justice.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on February 12, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

We all recognize we are living in the midst of a major threshold of transformation, a profound drama facing the Earth community with tremendous consequences at stake. What are the deeper stirrings in the collective psyche today? What is the current planetary situation, and which gods are now in dynamic motion?

In this episode, CIIS professor and cultural historian Richard Tarnas provides a state of the world report on the archetypal context of our national and global moment.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 5, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Like many Americans, social psychologist Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Dr. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Dr. Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity.

Dr. Price began a thorough examination of what they call the “laziness lie”—which falsely tells us we are not working or learning hard enough. Their in-depth research revealed that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history, yet most of us still feel we are not doing enough.

In this episode, CIIS Integral and Transpersonal Psychology program director Kendra Diaz-Ford joins Dr. Price in a conversation encouraging us all to let go of guilt, become more attuned to our own limitations and needs, and resist the pressures to meet outdated societal expectations.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 28, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Born in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, mindfulness teacher Sister Dang Nghiem (Sister D)is an inspiration for anyone who has ever suffered from abuse, life-changing loss, severe illness, or the aftermath of war. Her work brings together her experience as a survivor, certified MD, and ordained Buddhist teacher to offer a body-based, practical approach to healing from life’s most difficult and painful experiences.

In this episode, CIIS Integrative Health Studies Professor Megan Lipsett talks with Sister D about her life, her work, and her newest book to learn how the practice of mindfulness can help us access our strength as survivors and tap into the joy of being alive.

This episode includes a brief guided meditation lead by Sister D. It was recorded during a live online event on January 21, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

CONTENT ADVISORY: This episode contains mentions of abuse, trauma, and violence.

Considered one of the leaders of a current generation of Buddhist teachers, Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, and an authorized Lama—or Buddhist teacher—in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Through his writings, teachings, and travels Lama Rod invites everyone into his life intersections as a Black, queer male who was born and raised in the South, and heavily influenced by the church and its community.

In this episode, Lama Rod is joined by Executive Director of the Counter Narrative Project, Charles Stephens, for a conversation about how unmetabolized anger—and the grief, hurt, and transhistorical trauma beneath it—needs to be explored, respected, and fully embodied to heal from heartbreak and begin to walk the path of liberation.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on January 14, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Chef extraordinaire and popular TV host Martin Yan has spent decades promoting Chinese and pan-Asian cuisines on his popular TV show Yan Can Cook. Passionate about cooking as well as its benefits for health and wellbeing, Chef Yan is known world-wide for celebrating Chinese and Asian cuisines and cultures, encouraging home cooks to explore these important and delicious foodways.

In this episode, clinical medical anthropologist Dr. Meg Jordan joins Chef Yan for an entertaining and illuminating conversation and cooking demonstration exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine, food, and wellbeing.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 12, 2021. A transcript as well as recipes described by Chef Yan in this episode are available at ciispod.com.

You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Five years ago, author and journalist Lauren Martin had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, and a boyfriend she loved, but she was wrestling with feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and irritability.

She began to figure out why she was having these negative emotions and how to control them by posting her thoughts and questions online, a project which soon became the popular online platform Words of Women, a space for women to share their experiences and advice. Ultimately Lauren discovered how to take all her moods, the highs and lows, and regain control. Her research into these negative emotions culminated in her latest book, The Book of Moods.

In this episode CIIS faculty Christine Brooks talks with Lauren about learning to move through negative emotions and embrace all moods, good and bad.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 8, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode originally recorded early in the COVID-19 pandemic during one of our first live streaming online events on April 23rd, 2020.

In this episode, CIIS professor and renowned scholar Richard Tarnas shares astrological insights into the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he describes as “a time in which there are volcanically intense evolutionary pressures for the radical reconfiguration of all life’s structures.”

Richard will be joining us live online again this year on February 5th for a sequel talk on the current state of our world and the planets in 2021. For event details and registration, visit our online winter season brochure at ciispublicevents.com.

A transcript of this episode is available at ciispod.com.