Commentaries from the Edge

By Keren Goldberg

Views on many subjects where we can discover new understandings.

Cover photo by John Goldberg.... more

· Society & Culture

4.8

1212 ratings

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FAQs about Commentaries from the Edge:

How many episodes does Commentaries from the Edge have?

The podcast currently has 105 episodes available.

Commentaries from the Edge episodes:

February 20, 2026 MEDITATION: Navigating Through Uncertain Times with Dr. Marvin J. Southard, Ph.d
The need for calm, for compassion, to feel centered, all attributes that can be result of meditating according to return guest to the podcast, Dr. Marvin J. Southard. He carries an expertise about meditation not only professionally as a leader in the field of mental health, but personally as a long time practitioner. Listen to his ideas of what meditation is, how it can benefit your daily life and instructions on how to begin. Living in a world of constant crisis, as we are, with a sense of turmoil and an increase of violence and anger toward others, it seems a perfect time to introduce a tool that can calm the spirit and open a path to a more peaceful inner life. It may be a tool that each of us in our own way can use to make the world around us a better place.
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27min
January 31, 2026 The Courtroom Goes to the Movies - with Author and UCLA Law Professor Paul Bergman
Podcast Guest Professor Paul Bergman easily expresses a kind of joy and delight he has enjoyed in his over 40 years as a Professor at the UCLA School of Law. As retired and now with the status of Emeritus, he continues to allow his students at the Law School to contemplate their upcoming profession in a special light. Listen and you will hear from a pioneering educator who chartered new directions in how to teach law with great creativity. He added also a most crucial element; a determination to have his students see the practice of law as helping people at a most difficult time in their life. Bergman insists that his students understand their role as advocates for their clients so that they
may have a better life. In general his contribution to the UCLA School of Law, which was transformative, was the idea of developing clinical education where real cases are used as teaching tools, dissected and analyzed, with role playing. An evolution from this idea came his next innovation based on his enthusiasm for films to present famous courtroom scenes in movies in his classes. Bergman discovered that using these movie scenes had a certain power in preparing future Lawyers for courtroom experiences. Today, Professor Paul Bergman is as active as ever, continuing to teach a class at the Law School, writing books and bringing his creative approach to classes he teaches in the community. He is the Author of 15 books including THE COURTROOM GOES TO THE MOVIES.
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46min
October 17, 2025 THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF LOS ANGELES with Director Fernando Guerra, Ph.D
Los Angeles, the City of promise, a history where people came to start life anew, native born Americans and people from around the world. Once again, Dr. Fernando Guerra is a guest on the podcast program for the third time. This year 2025 is closing, a year like no other in Los Angeles. Dr Guerra, Founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles (StudyLA) at Loyola Marymount University, a distinguished local University, has been on the frontlines engaging residents and community leaders regarding the impact of this turbulent year. It began with unprecedented wildfires, walls of fire never seen before decimating two historic neighborhoods. Then as June arrived, the United States Federal government descended upon the City disrupting the life of the City with raids conducted by Immigration Agents in tandem with the military National Guard. They came to a City still in grief and stunned by the fires’s destruction and began spreading fear and terror among immigrant households with a focus on Latino neighborhoods. StudyLA faced these calamities with their traditional method of surveying to find information that could make a difference in the operation of a City facing multiple and unexpected challenges. Listen to Fernando Guerra and learn what the people of Los Angeles are thinking and what kind of remedies Dr. Guerra is suggesting to solve these festering problems. He began the Center inspired by his teaching of young college students. Now he is even more determined to foster civic leaders of the future ready to be agents of change for a better and more equitable City and world.
TO CONTACT - Dr. Fernando Guerra, email, [email protected]
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40min
August 22, 2025 The Play, AUGUST 29, at a time of America In Struggle with Guest Evelina Fernandez
It is the Summer of 2025, a time like no other in Los Angeles, California. There is drama on the streets, especially in Latino neighborhoods, where masked men jump out of unmarked cars and grab people who look like they might not have citizenship papers. It is at this time that the Latino Theatre Company has decided to mount their famous play, AUGUST 29, originally premiered in 1990, about a crisis and a killing in 1970 in East Los Angeles, a mostly Mexican American - Chicano area. Listen to Evelina Fernandez, founding member of the Latino Theatre Company now celebrating their 40th year, who knows the history of abuse toward Latinos in Los Angeles and cities across the USA, and can give first person tales of the back story of the play, AUGUST 29. The theatrical work created long ago inspires us to contemplate where we are as a society in 2025..
AUGUST 29’s last performances at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (LATC) in downtown, Los Angeles are August 22, 23, and 24. Performances will be held in other venues throughout September. It is being produced in partnership with the students of the Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy.
CONTACT: LATC Ticket Office for performance information, (213) 489-0994
FREE ADMISSION

The Los Angeles Theatre Center - Theater 1
Friday, August 22 - 8:00PM
Saturday, August 23 - 8:00PM
Sunday, August 24 - 4:00PM
https://www.latinotheaterco.org/august29
Box Office: (213) 489-0994, [email protected]
514 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Plan Your Visit: DIRECTIONS & PARKING

East Los Angeles College
August 29, 2025 at 8:00 PM (Sold Out)
S2 Recital Hall
https://www.latinotheaterco.org/august29
Box Office: (213) 489-0994, [email protected]
1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Mt. San Antonio College
September 18, 2025 at 7:00 PM
September 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Sophia B. Clarke Theater
https://www.latinotheaterco.org/august29
Box Office: (213) 489-0994, [email protected]
1100 N. Grand Ave.,
Walnut, CA 91789
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40min
April 28, 2025 THE OFFICE OF LIFE, JUSTICE AND PEACE at the L. A. Catholic Archdiocese
A visit to the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese gives the opportunity to enter a world envisioned by the L. A. Archbishop Jose Gomez, and Pope Francis just days after his passing. And how can we describe that vision? One way is to picture the great power of a Church with a following of five million across the expanse of Parishes in Southern California, dedicating this power to making a better life for all, Catholic and non-Catholic. The vision manifests itself clearly in the subject of this episode - the Archdiocese Office of Life, Justice and Peace. Michael Donaldson, Office Director, and Jeanette Gomez Senerviatne, Director of the Whole Person, are carrying forward all that Pope Francis and Archbishop Gomez would hope for. They are addressing the most pressing issues in every community they serve, giving voice to the voiceless, collaborating with and creating partnerships to bring supportive resources to individuals and families. Listen to how their programming acts as a showcase for good emanating from a global city like Los Angeles. At this time, as the three of us sat together in conversation, grateful for Pope Francis, we are dedicating the episode to him, and remembering the way he brought us to focus on the suffering while celebrating the joy of life. The Office of Life, Justice and Peace will continue developing projects and activities in that spirit. “Hope never disappoints”, is what he said in his last Easter message to the world.
TO CONTACT: [email protected] - for Michael Donaldson
[email protected] - for Jeanette Seneviratne
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49min
December 23, 2024 MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FRONTLINES, Francisco Tan
As the podcast theme of community emergency outreach programs at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) comes to an end for the month of December, 2024, it is clear that creative innovation is making a difference. In this episode, Francisco Tan, Psychologist and head of the LACDMH Psychiatric Mobile Response Team (PMRT) takes us into the field with his description of what his program does and how his Teams function. We learn about his eight Teams that include various skilled professionals who may include a Social Worker, a Nurse and a Community Health Worker, perhaps a Peer, someone with lived experience who has dealt with emotional distress. The Teams of PMRT are available 24/7 and can be reached by calling the LACDMH Access telephone number, (800) 854-7771. Members of a Team are ready to respond wherever the person is located to provide a multipurpose service - to evaluate, to collaborate with other agencies and resources, and to provide consultations and linkages for continued services when necessary. The overriding goal for the PMRT, as well as for all the programs in the Emergency Outreach and Triage Division of LACDMH, is to promote the opportunity for people to remain in their community with necessary supports. It is the most satisfying outcome for those in a mental health crisis. As this 2024 year draws to an end, we hear the bells ringing - “Goodwill Toward Humankind and Peace on Earth”.
The LACDMH 24/7 access number for help is 1-800-854-7771
The National Suicide Crisis Line is #988
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37min
December 20, 2024 MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FRONTLINES, Episode #15 with Miriam Brown, L.C.S.W
Miriam Brown leads the way at the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) with the broadest view of the ways the department can and will
respond to a long menu of emergencies in a City like Los Angeles, California. Her expertise, and even more, her dedication, has brought her to the position at LACDMH of Deputy Director of the Emergency Outreach and Triage Division. Her many years of work in this field has made LACDMH an innovator and a model leading the way for mental health departments throughout the USA and beyond. Miriam admits you have to have a certain kind of personality to face the demands and difficulties of mental health community outreach work with emergencies that are presented to her staff every day on a 24/7 basis. These emergencies often require close cooperation and training with Police, Fire, Public Health, and Probation departments, community organizations and not least of all, School Districts. She has spent decades forging links to all these important partners in responding effectively to those in need. The width and breath of what she overseas with her staff is enormous. Here are a few examples; threat assessments reported by a school official, a criminal act committed due to a mental illness, a family argument out of control, a person displaying high risk behavior. Miriam wants us to understand that this outreach is a reflection of the aggressive way LACDMH is reaching into all corners of the Los Angeles community hoping to help people avoid incarceration, hospitalization, encouraging ways people with mental illness may be able to function in the community with necessary supports. She brings the necessary wisdom and devotion to these varied tasks and with her steady leadership makes a healthier and better Los Angeles.
The LACDMH 24/7 access number for help is 1-800-854-7771
The National Suicide Crisis Line is #988
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32min
December 20, 2024 MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FRONTLINES, Reuben Wilson
The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) has developed a robust way of delivering vital services to people suffering from a mental health crisis. It has grown over the years and rests firmly in 2024, in a campaign called - “Who Do I Call for Help”? It is a campaign for the community introducing a national number #988, available 24/7. That number is a key part of the LACDMH program, the Alternative Crisis Response Unit. It is an alternative because it frees Police and directs these type of calls to people who have the expertise to bring support to the crisis. Reuben Wilson is the LACDMH head of that Unit and responsible for coordinating the many teams of people and community resources ready to respond to the incoming calls. He comes to that position with over a decade of experience working with personnel responding to crisis as a Deputy Mayor with the former Mayor of Los Angeles. The Help Line, #988 is linked to the staff of the Didi Hirsch organization and in partnership with LACDMH, begins the process of bringing trained caring to callers in emotional crisis. The continuing message to the public is that there is a Countywide system in place providing - someone to call, someone who will respond and somewhere to go if treatment and further care is needed. Reuben explains how this safety net for those in emotional crisis works as he readies to spread posters and cards across the vast region of the sprawling County of Los Angeles, California, advertising that help for all in need is a call away. 9-8-8, for support with suicidal crisis or mental health-related distress.
The LACDMH 24/7 access number for help is 1-800-854-7771
The National Suicide Crisis Line is #988
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33min
December 15, 2024 MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FRONTLINES, Bac Luu at the LAPD Headquarters
Here is some good police news. Here is a tale of lessons learned from past mistakes. Here, come and listen to ways institutions, organizations, work cultures and people always have the potential to change for the better. Bac Luu, a leader with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), is heading a program that is embedded in the offices of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). In this episode he takes us into a world where LACDMH and LAPD have forged a beneficial partnership decades in the making. It is most importantly a benefit to the community as this partnership makes the job of policing and the job of helping people in crisis a chance to have more positive outcomes. It all began back in 1993, when mental health staff came to work side by side with police in a program called Systemwide Mental Health Assessment Response Teams (SMART) and a companion program, Case Assessment Management Program (CAMP). These programs bring to the streets and into homes, a team of a Police Officer and a Mental Health Professional where it is so often needed. In the last dozen years this approach has grown with Los Angeles, California looked at around the nation and the world as a model for creating important teamwork. Time has seen these teams grow in this City with expanded hours of joint training and with a deepening awareness of what both policing and mental health have to offer one another. Bac Luu is a leader we can learn from and who has built on the accomplishments of a pioneer in the field, Chuck Lennon. We can only hope that such a successful partnering grows in the coming years as the need for the teamwork only is increasing as a benefit to all communities.
The LACDMH 24/7 access number for help is 1-800-854-7771
The National Suicide Crisis Line is #988
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42min
November 28, 2024 MENTAL HEALTH ON THE FRONTLINES: Elizabeth Cope
A few years ago the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) went forward to create new kinds of services in unchartered waters. What developed was a courageous and innovative program called, Street Psychiatry-HOME (Homeless Outreach Mobile Engagement) Team. It was courageous because certain techniques to help seriously mentally ill people living on the streets had never been tried before. Innovative because a Psychiatrist was bringing care outside to the streets, and The Team was made up of various disciplines - Nurses, Social Workers, Peers - all working as one to save lives.
This episode is the final one of a four part series on the story of this program’s successes, with Elizabeth Cope, the Administrator and Co-Manager of 220 staff who are spread throughout the Los Angeles, California area. Here is another program leader with the same kind of dedication and enthusiasm that is bringing positive results and awards of recognition for their excellence in serving the unhoused. The program model takes will, takes funding and takes vision to implement in stemming the tide in Los Angeles and other locales, of people pouring onto the streets to live under freeway passes, tents and other ways, unable to be housed, living in dire circumstances. The LACDMH is investing in this model with the department’s motto as an operating attitude - Hope, Wellness and Recovery.
The LACDMH 24/7 access number for help is 1-800-854-7771
The National Suicide Crisis Line is #988
...more
42min

FAQs about Commentaries from the Edge:

How many episodes does Commentaries from the Edge have?

The podcast currently has 105 episodes available.