Every day the news is filled with stories of extreme weather that threatens our cities, our health, our futures: tornadoes wiping out whole communities; droughts that ignite catastrophic wildfires; storms flooding roads and destroying infrastructure; rising water levels that jeopardize entire nations; new climate-related diseases that threaten our health. Just as World War II raised an existential threat that united Americans in a common cause, the dangers of climate change are similarly challenging all of our previously held notions of the future—and our only hope is to unite together to take action in a collective movement akin to a war effort.

Tom Steyer has been on the forefront of the climate war for well over a decade, leveraging his investment expertise, business knowledge, and community-organizing skills to support sustainable climate solutions. In his first book, Cheaper Faster Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War, he tells his own story of coming to understand the urgency of climate action, and he showcases the inspiring work of people on the front lines, whose innovative approaches provide hope for meaningful change.

Join Malcolm Clemens Young, Dean of Grace Cathedral, for a conversation with Steyer about why immediate action on the climate front will not only be our key to a healthy and viable future but also an investment in the future of our economy.

Recorded on March 23, 2025.

In her book Jesus For Everyone, Not Just Christians renowned biblical scholar and author Amy-Jill Levine uses stories told by and about Jesus to address the issues dividing us today: economics, family values, the legacy of slavery, nationalism, healthcare, and politics.

Join Malcolm Clemens Young, Dean of Grace Cathedral, for a conversation with Dr. Levine about why Jesus’s historic and cultural influence makes him fascinating, provocative, and relevant for everyone, not only Christians.

Recorded on April 12, 2025.

Give to Grace  You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give

Become a GraceArts Member Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join!

About the Guest Dr. Amy-Jill Levine is the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace; University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, Vanderbilt. Dr. Levine is the first Jew to teach at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and the recipient of the 2023 Hubert Walter Award for Interfaith Cooperation awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury. She is the author of many books, including The Misunderstood Jew and Short Stories by Jesus, and she is the co-editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament.

About the Moderator The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.        

About The Forum The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:    gracecathedral.org/the-forum

Dietary guidelines, alcohol, ultra-processed foods. It seems like new recommendations come out every day. Who is making our food choices?  

Marion Nestle, one of the seven most powerful foodies (Forbes Magazine), is a molecular biologist and nutritionist who started the country’s first academic food-studies program at NYU, bringing attention to the roles that culture, capitalism, and politics play in what and how much we eat.  

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Nestle about how to navigate the science, what we might expect from the next administration, and sneak previews of her next two books. 

How do we live with fire?

Fire is an essential part of California’s ecology. Humans have been using it to shape the California landscape for thousands of years. But today many Californians’ relationship to fire is one of fear. Obi Kaufmann, author of the best-selling California Field Atlas, now asks: How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State, and how do we benefit from its teachings? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource, in The State of Fire: Why California Burns Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. He considers the long history of ecological burns, the varied ways fire behaves across the state, and the lessons we can learn from California’s largest fires of recent decades. Packed with Kaufmann’s signature watercolor maps and paintings, The State of Fire confronts one of California’s most pressing social and ecological challenges. From this maelstrom Kaufmann emerges to share a deepened love for the natural world—and a refreshingly hopeful vision of California’s future.

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Kaufmann about stewardship, resilience, and hope.

At the end of our lives, what do we most wish for? For many, it’s simply comfort, respect, love. On November 10, as we celebrate All Souls’ Day at our Choral Eucharist service, please don’t miss the opportunity to hear also from renowned hospice and palliative care specialist, public speaker, and connector BJ Miller.

On this day of prayer and remembrance for those we love and see no longer, who better to hear from than this deep thinker about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life.

Miller is the co-author with Shoshana Berger of the book A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death; the executive director of San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Project from 2011 to 2016; and the founder of the Center for Dying and Living, a web site designed for people to share their own stories related to living with illness, disability, and loss or caring for those who are.

We are thrilled to announce Patrick Makuakāne as our 2024 Artist in Residence. Patrick is a kumu hula (master teacher) whose work blends traditional hula with contemporary music and movements and uplifts Hawaiian culture and history. With his San Francisco-based dance company, Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wēkiu, he has forged his own unique form of hula—hula mua, or hula that evolves. 

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Makuakāne about exploring the cathedral’s 2024 theme, “the Year of Memory” and inviting the divinity of hula into the cathedral space. 

Give to Grace  

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give 

  Become a GraceArts Member 

Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join! 

 About the Guest 

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, Kumu Patrick Makuakāne studied hula with the kumu hula (master teachers) John Keola Lake, Robert Uluwehi Cazimero, and Mae Kamāmalu Klein; under Klein’s tutelage he received the title of kumu hula in 2003. He is the director and founder of Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wēkiu, a community-centered hula company and cultural organization, since 1985. While grounded in the traditions of hula, his artistry crafts a provocative treatment of tradition that leaps forward in surprising and meaningful ways. His work explores an expansive variety of cultural traditions and colonial impact, including colonization, reclamation of Native Hawaiian agency, and gender fluidity. Patrick also serves as a spiritual advisor at San Quentin State Prison for the Hawaiian Religious Spiritual Group. Makuakāne was a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. 

 About the Moderator 

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.    

 About The Forum 

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  More about Grace Forum Online:    

gracecathedral.org/the-forum 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers is one of the Episcopal Church’s leading thinkers around 21st-century ministry and mission. She is a priest, author, speaker, and friend who currently serves as the Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation Care. She is the author of Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation as well as The Episcopal Way; Church’s Teaching for a Changing World and Ancient Faith, Future Mission: Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition. She has worked for many years at the intersection of practice and reflection, renewal and justice. 

The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry stated that her latest book, The Church Cracked Open; Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community, “will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history.” 

In this critical yet loving book, Canon Stephanie explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way. The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation. 

Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Canon Stephanie about who we are, why God placed us here, what difference that makes to the world, and what the Episcopal Church will look like over the next 50 years. 

Give to Grace  

You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give 

Become a GraceArts Member 

Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join at gracecathedral.org/join. 

About the Guest 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Stephanie Spellers is one of the Episcopal Church’s leading thinkers around 21st-century ministry and mission. She is a priest, author, speaker, and friend who currently serves as the Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation Care. She is the author of Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other, and the Spirit of Transformation as well as The Episcopal Way; Church’s Teaching for a Changing World and Ancient Faith, Future Mission: Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition. She has worked for many years at the intersection of practice and reflection, renewal and justice. Her latest book, The Church Cracked Open; Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community is an important response to the question, “What will The Episcopal Church look like over the next 50 years?” Prior to accepting her current position as Assisting Priest at St. Bart’s Church Center, she taught at General Theological Seminary, served as a Canon in the Diocese of Long Island, and founded The Crossing, a ground-breaking church within St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston. Canon Stephanie spent five years as Chaplain to the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops, co-chaired the Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism, and directed new ministry initiatives for the Center for Progressive Renewal. Canon Stephanie began her career as an award-winning religion journalist in Knoxville, Tennessee; a job she took after graduating from Harvard Divinity School, where she studied religion and social change movements. She later graduated from Episcopal Divinity School and, in 2018, received an honorary doctorate from The General Theological Seminary for her contributions to the Christian faith and the wider Church. She grew up in Frankfort, Kentucky, and maintains close ties to her extended family there. 

About the Moderator 

The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.    

About The Forum 

The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  Learn more about The Forum here:    

gracecathedral.org/the-forum

What is it like to be blessed with riches in an era of stark political divisions and near-Dickensian economic differences? How mind-boggling are the opportunities and access, how problematic the downsides? Does one’s experience differ depending on whether the money is made or inherited, whether you are male or female, white or black? Does being a have among have-nots make someone a bad person? Finally, how does our collective thirst for financial “security,” and our stubborn belief in our opportunities for social mobility, explain how we got to the point where nearly half of Americans have no wealth at all? These are some of the questions that Michael Mechanic, a longtime senior editor and writer at Mother Jones magazine, set out to explore in his book, Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live—and How Their Wealth Harms Us All. Jackpot is the product of deep reporting and dozens of interviews with fortunate citizens—company founders and executives, superstar coders, investors, inheritors, estate lawyers, lobbyists, lawmakers, academics, sports agents, wealth and philanthropy professionals, concierges, luxury realtors, Bentley dealers, and even a woman who trains billionaires’ nannies in physical combat. Among other plaudits, the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer described Jackpot as perfectly timed—”an entertaining and eviscerating peek behind the velvet curtains.” Salesforce founder Marc Benioff wrote that the book “skillfully explores the impact of great wealth on people’s lives and society.” And Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist David Kay Johnston opined, unsolicited, that Mechanic’s “writing is elegant, his storytelling sublime. Well worth the time of anyone who wants to understand the effects of our make-the-rich-richer policies.” Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Mechanic about his compassionate, character-rich, perversely humorous, and ultimately troubling journey into the American wealth fantasy and where it has taken us. Give to Grace  You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give Become a GraceArts Member Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join at gracecathedral.org/gracearts. About the Guest Michael Mechanic is a longtime senior editor at Mother Jones magazine, where he writes and edits everything from breaking news to award-winning essays and feature stories. Born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, he earned degrees in biochemistry and cellular biology from UC Berkeley and Harvard before heading back to Cal for a master’s in journalism. Michael lives in Oakland with his wife, Laura, and a few oddball animals. He plays five musical instruments in his spare time. Jackpot is his first book. About the Moderator The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.    About The Forum The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.  Learn more about The Forum at  gracecathedral.org/the-forum

Note: The music stops at 0:50. September 29, 2024 at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco  Join Grace Cathedral Dean Malcolm Clemens Young for an engaging conversation with the Ninth Bishop of California, The Rt. Rev. Austin Keith Rios, who was installed as Bishop in August. As the chief pastor of the diocese, Bishop Rios is entrusted with leading, supervising, and uniting our congregations, ministries, and diocesan institutions. Notably, he is the first Latino bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California. Discover more about his journey from his birthplace in Texas to the other places he has called home: Rome, Italy; North Carolina; Wisconsin; Louisiana; and now, the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn about his previous role as the rector of St. Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church in Rome — a vibrant, multilingual community that supports The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center. Find out what Bishop Rios is looking forward to as he becomes part of the region’s fabric and discovers how its many wonderful people and places will shape the trajectory of his life. Give to Grace  You can help us bring the arts to life at Grace with a gift today to The Forum. gracecathedral.org/give Become a GraceArts Member Love engaging dialogue? We offer a special cultural membership program, GraceArts, focused exclusively on the arts and well-being. GraceArts allows a wider community to belong to and support Grace, with discounts and benefits on a robust schedule of events. Learn more and join! About the Guest The Rt. Rev. Austin Keith Rios was ordained and consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of California on May 4, 2024. He served in the coadjutor role until after the retirement of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marc Handley Andrus on July 31, 2024. Following Bishop Marc’s retirement Bishop Rios assumed the role of Ninth Bishop of California, becoming the diocese’s chief pastor. He is responsible for leading, supervising, and uniting our congregations, ministries, and diocesan institutions. Bishop Rios is the first Latino to be elected as a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California. His heritage includes Mexican American ancestry from his father’s side and Scottish and English ancestry from his mother’s side. Although English was spoken at home, Bishop Rios decided to embrace his Latino heritage at an early age by learning Spanish, which he now speaks fluently along with Italian. Before joining the Diocese of California, Bishop Rios served for 12 years as the rector of St. Paul’s Within the Walls Episcopal Church in Rome, Italy, a multilingual and multicultural community that houses and offers The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center as its primary outreach. Additionally, he spent five years as the Rector of La Capilla de Santa Maria, a Spanish-speaking congregation in Hendersonville, North Carolina, while also serving as the Canon for Spanish-Speaking Ministries in the Diocese of Western North Carolina. Bishop Rios has served the wider Episcopal Church in various capacities, including multiple terms as a deputy to the General Convention. In 2018, he was elected to a six-year term as a trustee of the Church Pension Fund and served as Vice Chair of its Investment Committee. In 2024, he was elected Vice Chair of the Church Pension Fund and re-elected as a trustee. Bishop Rios calls several places home, including Texas, where he was born; Rome, Italy; North Carolina; Wisconsin; Louisiana; and now, the San Francisco Bay Area. With its distinct character and tremendous diversity, Bishop Rios looks forward to becoming part of the region’s fabric and discovering how its many wonderful people and places will shape the trajectory of his life. Bishop Rios holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, and a Master of Divinity degree from The Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. He was ordained as a priest in 2005. He is married to Maleah Rios and has one child. About the Moderator The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner. About The Forum The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.   More about The Forum: gracecathedral.org/the-forum