After years of friendship, Host Rabbi Irwin Keller sits with Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen to explore the influences of her childhood and young life on her lifelong calling as a healer and teacher. Listen closely for the story of her stint as a race car driver. Perhaps you weren’t expecting that.

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.

Host Rabbi Irwin Keller

Irwin has served as spiritual leader of Congregation Ner Shalom in Sonoma County since 2008, a post he took while still writing and performing with the San Francisco-based Kinsey Sicks, known as America’s Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet. His legal advocacy work included authoring the City of Chicago’s first comprehensive human rights law, in effect since 1989, and serving as the Executive Director of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel of the San Francisco Bay Area.

***

The New School is Commonweal’s learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. The New School at Commonweal.

A new-old way of living in place is emerging through a variety of projects and pathways where people are deepening their relationship to land and place-making. Join Host Cassandra Lynn Ferrera with Rako Fabionar as they share about how they are personally and professionally engaging in place-based liberation work--and how the kinds of wayfinding and inhabited learning they are exploring to grow and deepen kinship might be of service to other place-based and bioregional projects.

Rako Fabionar cultivates innovative learning environments for folks to experience deeper connection, insight, and well-being. Rako comes from a family of educators, counselors, organizers, and healers and is connected to the Philippines' Boholano and Eskaya indigenous people. Identified as “one who carries medicine” by elders and spirits of three different lineage traditions, Rako has participated in many healings, apprenticeships, trainings, and formal initiation ceremonies over the last two decades. Often sought out as a land listener, he also supports people during transition, with more than 20 years of experience designing a wide range of transformative initiatives for universities, community-based organizations, businesses, and change networks.

Cassandra Lynn Ferrera is a steward of The Center for Ethical Land Transition and Rako is a steward of the Innovative Learning and Living Institute, both programs of Commonweal that are in service of regenerative and equitable futures. Rako and Cassandra are also both residents and co-stewards of Landwell, a 22-acre wayfinding place for regenerative living, cultural innovation, and community resilience.

***

The New School is Commonweal’s learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

Part of the Festival of Sacred Music Series at The New School at Commonweal

Join us for the third in a series of sacred music celebrations at Commonweal, an afternoon duet of sarod and tabla with Manik Khan and Nilan Chaudhuri.

Part of the Festival of Sacred Music Series

These concerts are presented in collaboration with long-time Commonweal friend Toby Symington, executive director of the Lloyd Symington Foundation and transpersonal astrologer. Held at the solstice and equinox, the concerts—and gatherings afterward—are designed to bring people together in a convivial setting around music which delights, inspires, and elevates the soul. From Toby:

Manik Khan has been steeped in the ancient melodies of North Indian classical music since birth. The youngest son of the legendary Sarod maestro, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, he grew up listening to his father in countless concerts and attending his classes at the esteemed Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. He initially studied tabla under the guidance of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, but the greater call to follow in the footsteps of his family brought Manik, at the age of 13, to formally train on the Sarod with his father. He spent his formative years accompanying his father on stage, touring for the last decade of his father's extensive and iconic performance career. Manik's own solo career has brought him throughout India, South America, and the United States.

Nilan Chaudhuri is a Bay Area based percussionist, educator, and performer. Initiated into the tradition of Indian Classical Music at the age of five by his father, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Nilan has been performing as a tabla soloist and accompanist for nearly two decades. Drawing inspiration from his father’s innovative approach to classical tabla solo,  Nilan was determined from a young age to be a soloist. In addition to maintaining a rigorous performing schedule, Nilan teaches Tabla throughout the Bay Area as a faculty member at the Ali Akbar College of Music, in San Rafael, and as the Director of Percussion at Chitresh Das Institute, in San Mateo. He also serves as an archivist at the Ali Akbar College of Music, where the construction of a musical archive spanning 40 years of his Father’s work, is underway. It’s his lifelong mission to contribute to the preservation and enrichment of Indian Classical percussion. 

***

The New School is Commonweal’s learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for many thousands of listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our YouTube channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts. tns.commonweal.org

#indianmusic #sarod #imamcollective #worldmusic

Join us for the culminating event with our spring 2025 visiting scholar Craig Chalquist. We listen to the earth around us, talk about how our dreams reflect events in the world, discuss and practice active imagination, and practice creative writing as a continuation of engaging the imaginal figures who address us.

The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. 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.

How can we heal ourselves and the earth? How can we engage with the soul of a place? At Commonweal, we have always been grounded by our home place in the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore. Though our work takes place around the world these days, we are always rooted here with the lineage of hundreds of healing retreats held on our land at our Retreat Center. Join TNS Host Susan Grelock Yusem in conversation with Visiting Scholar Craig Chalquist about how we can approach land with curiosity and how we can work with our imagination to re-envision our relationship with the land all around us. 

Visiting Scholar Craig Chalquist, PhD

Craig is program director of Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation at National University and a former associate provost and several other administrative and leadership roles. His background includes group counseling, depth psychology, mythology, ecopsychology, terrapsychology, and philosophy and wisdom studies. He presents, publishes, and teaches at the intersection of psyche, story, nature, reenchantment, and imagination. He has published more than twenty books, including the hopeful Lamplighter Trilogy. His motto is: “Converse with everything!” Visit Chalquist.com.

Host Susan Grelock Yusem, PhD

Susan is a researcher, storyteller, and super-curious human. She believes that psychology can be a generative force for environmental sustainability and social justice. Susan is a depth-based community psychologist who has built teams and led communications for over 20 years in the regenerative food space. Her work is centered in the imaginal and narrative repair. She is a reader, writer, and runner. She serves as Commonweal’s Head of Innovation and Strategy. susangrelockyusem.site

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.

We usually think of the land as a backdrop to human affairs. But in ancient tales, places and their creatures show up as vital characters in the story. What do hills and fields say? Streams and rivers? Geology? How do all these and other eco-presences show up in our moods, our struggles, even in our dreams? What are our homes and roads trying to tell us?

During his 3-month residency at The New School, Craig Chalquist invites us all to explore how imagination has been used in many times and cultures as a path toward redemptive, transformative knowledge and new practice—and how we might engage imagination today to re-envision our relationships to ourselves and the land all around us.

In this first virtual event with Craig, meet him, learn how imagination has been used in various traditions as a source of wisdom and change-making, and begin a process that will continue through June—when you can meet him in person while he is in Bolinas. To prepare for the May 29 event, bring an example of a dream with some aspect of nature in them. What about this dream inspires(d) you? How has that inspiration changed you?

Other events with Craig:

Tuesday, June 10 | 1-2:30 Pacific Time (in person and via Zoom)

Dreaming the Soul of the Earth: Re-imagination as a Remedy for Our Times | TNS Visiting Scholar Craig Chalquist with Host Susan Grelock Yusem

Tuesday, June 17 | 1:00pm-3:00pm Pacific Time (in person, or join 1-2pm via zoom)

Walk, Dream, Write: Writing Workshop with TNS Visiting Scholar Craig Chalquist

Craig Chalquist, Ph.D., is program director of Consciousness, Psychology, and Transformation at National University and a former associate provost and several other administrative and leadership roles. His background includes group counseling, depth psychology, mythology, ecopsychology, terrapsychology, and philosophy and wisdom studies. He presents, publishes, and teaches at the intersection of psyche, story, nature, reenchantment, and imagination. He has published more than twenty books, including the hopeful Lamplighter Trilogy. His motto is: “Converse with everything!” Visit https://Chalquist.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.

Join us for conversation with author and spiritual advisor Yeye Teish and host Cassandra Ferrera, director of Commonweal’s Center for Ethical Land Transition.

Chief Iyanifa Fajembola Fatunmise (Yeye Luisah Teish)

Yeye is an American author of African and African-diaspora spiritual cultures. She also is an affluent ritualist, keynote speaker, and spiritual advisor on a global scale. Primarily known for Jambalaya: The Natural Woman’s Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, a women’s spirituality classic published in 1985 by Harper & Row Publishers. This book has been translated into German, Spanish, and Dutch. She has contributed to 40 anthologies, most notably Spiritual Guidance Across Religions: A Sourcebook for Spiritual Directors and Other Professionals Providing Counsel to People of Differing Faith Traditions. As an Oshun priestess (Yoruba Goddess of Love and Sensuality), Yeye continues to officiate over spiritual retreats, rituals, and workshops that span over 40 years since her introduction into the Ifa spiritual practice.

Host Cassandra Ferrera

Becoming a person of place is Cassandra’s orienting cosmology, and her activist real estate career is informed by this path. She became a real estate agent in 2003 as a single mom needing to support her family, and was compelled to understand how market capitalism prevents so many people from a direct and secure relationship with Earth. She committed early on to learning how to support cooperative living and to find ways to decommodify and deprivatize Land. As someone with mixed European settler ancestry, Cassandra is keenly aware of the paradox of how those with white colonial privilege have often been displaced from land-based culture. Cassandra listened her way forward, guided by the generosity of spirit, mentors, and friends who would help her co-found The Center for Ethical Land Transition. Through the work of ethical land transitions, Cassandra works to transform conventional real estate practice in service to Land, cultural reunion, and reparative justice.

#yeye #oshun #yoruba #ifa #commonweal #newschoolcommonweal

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.

John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. Join us for a conversation with David Sheff—author of this intimate and revelatory biography of Yoko Ono, and the #1 New York Times bestseller, Beautiful Boy. David’s biography delves into her groundbreaking art, music, feminism, and activism. Join us for a conversation about the book, exploring how she coped under the most intense, relentless, and cynical microscope while being falsely vilified for the most heinous cultural crime imaginable: breaking up the greatest rock-and-roll band in history. Hosted by Steve Heilig, who once bowed respectfully and silently to Yoko Ono in New York City’s Central Park, and she bowed back. Co-presented with Point Reyes Books.

David Sheff

In 1980, David Sheff met Yoko and John when Sheff conducted an in-depth interview with them just months before John’s murder. In the aftermath of the killing, he and Yoko became close as she rebuilt her life, survived threats and betrayals, and went on to create groundbreaking art and music while campaigning for peace and other causes. Sheff shows us Yoko’s nine decades—one of the most unlikely and remarkable lives ever lived.

Host Steve Heilig

Steve Heilig is an editor, epidemiologist, ethicist, environmentalist, educator, and ethnomusicologist trained at five University of California campuses. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and of San Francisco Marin Medicine at the medical society he has long been part of. A former volunteer and director of the Zen Hospice Project, AIDS Foundation, and Planned Parenthood, he has helped improve laws and practices in reproductive and end-of-life care, drug policy, and environmental health. He is a longtime book critic and music journalist and emcee of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. He’s been part of Commonweal for 30 years now.

***

The New School at Commonweal is a collaborative learning community offering conversations about nature, culture, and inner life---so that we can all find meaning, meet inspiring people, and explore the beauty and grief of our changing world. 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.

#commonweal #newschoolcommonweal #yokoono #yoko

Rest and renew in a rich sonic atmosphere. Deborah creates deep, resonant sounds through evocative vocal tones accompanied by alchemy crystal bowls and antique Himalayan bowls. This is a time to let go of social engagement while being together in sacred space. Find something to lie or sit upon and anything else to make yourself comfortable. You are also welcome to sit in a chair or stand and quietly move.

Deborah Koff-Chapin

Deborah has been holding sacred space through sound since she began using her voice and drum to facilitate Touch Drawing workshops in 1980. Her early vocal openings developed in the 1970s within the practice of Long Dance with Elizabeth Cogburn. She later trained in classical voice with Maestro David Kyle. Deborah’s alchemy crystal bowls and antique Himalayan bowls now serve as a harmonic foundation for her improvised vocal attunements. She offers Song Bath Sanctuary weekly online and monthly at Healing Circles on Whidbey Island. Deborah is the originator of Touch Drawing and creator of SoulCards. Find out more.

#commonweal #artheals #healingart #soundbath #deborahkoffchapin #touchdrawing

We are living through prophetic times—what some call the metacrisis, others name as a rupture, others see as an opening. What does it mean to navigate this moment with wisdom? And what role does wealth play in this transition? This panel brings together cosmologists, system architects, scholars, and funder-activists to explore:

How do we make sense of where we are and what is being asked of us in these times? What is the role of wealth holders and funders in this time of unraveling?

How might wealth be liberated from extractive systems and reoriented toward life-affirming transitions? Moderated by Lynn Murphy.

Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea Aanya and Kyah Jayden Abayomi, the grateful life-partner to EJ, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, self-styled ‘trans-public’ intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak (along with Professors Molefi Kete Asante and Augustine Nwoye).

Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining) is of the Diné Nation (often known incorrectly as “Navajo), and was also adopted into the Lakota Spiritual way of Life. She is a mother, grandmother, activist, artist, and international speaker. She identifies as a “radical bridger” of worlds and paradigms, with a focus on sharing from her own deep inquiry into Thriving Life Paradigm.

Matthew Monahan is the founder of Ma Earth (maearth.com), an emerging initiative to bring more funding into community-led nature protection and restoration. He is also a co-founder and steward at Biome Trust (biometrust.earth), a philanthropic foundation devoted to ecological health and education, and Mangaroa Farms (mangaroa.org), a regenerative farm and forest project in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Baljeet Sandhu is a Punjabi-British knowledge weaver, community organiser, and equity designer with more than 30 years of experience in social and economic justice, innovation, and systems change work. Baljeet founded the Centre for Knowledge Equity to serve as an ecosystem space for practitioners creating life-affirming alternatives for the future.

Julian Corner has been CEO of the UK-based Lankelly Chase Foundation since 2011. Lankelly Chase is a 60 year old social justice foundation that was the first in UK philanthropy to test systems change approaches. It has since been in a process of deep inquiry and evolution which culminated in 2023 with the announcement that it would end its work within 5 years and redistribute its assets.

Taj James is a father, poet, practitioner, strategist, designer, and philanthropic and capital advisor. He is the Founder and former Director of the Movement Strategy Center, Curator at Full Spectrum Labs and Principal at Full Spectrum Capital Partners. Taj thrives building community around the shared questions that matter most in our lives: how can we build the relationships and express the love needed to transform our world?

Moderator Lynn Murphy

Lynn is the co-director of Transition Resource Circle and co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy, Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse. She is an educator, strategic advisor, and organizer among funders and activists, with a focus in the geopolitical South.