Listen in on conversations about environmental health science, co-presented by two Commonweal programs: The New School and the Collaborative for Health and Environment. Find out more: tns.commonweal.org and healthandenvironment.org. And you can find all of The New School's podcasts on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

Collaborative for Health and Environment

~Part of the Widening Circles Series Co-Presented with Healing Circles Global~

Join us for an intimate conversation with Michael Lerner, Commonweal President, and the acclaimed Janie Brown, founder of Callanish Society, a grassroots non-profit organization in Vancouver, BC, for people living with, and dying from, cancer.

In this conversation, we’ll explore:

The personal impact of intentional healing in removing obstacles and supporting healing in every possible way.

How to set the conditions for healing in the retreat setting.

How radical acts of love can promote healing up to the moment of death.

Find out more about Healing Circles Global: healingcirclesglobal.org
Find out more about The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org.

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New School Conversations

2021:04.23 - Janie Brown & Michael Lerner: Intentional Healing: Transformative Retreats

~Part of the Roots of Resilience in An Age of Crisis series co-presented with Real Food Media~

Seed savers Kristyn Leach of Namu Farm and Second Generation Seeds in Yolo County, California, and Jessika Greendeer of Dream of Wild Health in Twin Cities, Minnesota, will talk about the “why” behind their seed-saving practices. Together with Host Tiffani Patton, Jessika and Kristyn will explore the role of seed-saving in preserving and connecting to culture and why we need seed diversity to withstand the climate crisis.

(Photo: Tiffani Patton)

Kristyn Leach grows Asian crops in California’s Central Valley. Her focus is on preserving and adapting Korean plants, agronomic wisdom, and culture. She partners with the Namu Restaurant Group, providing their restaurants with produce and working with their chefs and cooks on breeding projects. She founded a seed line within Kitazawa Seed Company, the oldest purveyor of Asian vegetable seeds in the United States, called Second Generation Seeds. Second Generation is a collaborative project that hopes to connect or reconnect communities of the Asian diaspora with the crops that have sustained them.

Jessika Greendeer is a Ho-Chunk Nation tribal member from Baraboo, Wisconsin, and a member of the Deer Clan. She is currently the seed keeper and farm manager at Dream of Wild Health. Jessika has worked as the Agricultural Division Manager for her nation and had previously served as a garden mentor within her nation’s organic community gardens. She is a U.S. Army combat veteran and completed a Veteran-to-Farmer training program at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania.

Host Tiffani Patton is a lifelong “foodie” turned activist, writing and researching food system change for more than seven years. A gifted writer and storyteller, she leads several areas of educational programming, communications strategy, engagement, and internal operations at Real Food Media. She co-produces and co-hosts the Real Food Reads and Foodtopias podcasts with Tanya Kerssen. Tiffani brings years of active engagement in food policy discussions, event organizing, storytelling for change, facilitating important discussions around food system transformation, and the connection of art, music, and culture to food in the Bay Area and beyond.

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.

2021:05.21 - Kristyn Leach, Jessika Greendeer & Tiffani Patton - Seed-Saving

Join Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen in conversation with host Michael Lerner as she reads from and discusses her newest children’s book “The Birthday of the World: A Story About Finding Light in Everyone and Everything”

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.

2022:09.21 - Rachel Naomi Remen and Host Michael Lerner - The Birthday of the World

Science, Storytelling and a New War on Cancer / Kristina Marusic, Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, Sandra Steingraber and Host Kristin Schafer

If we can stop cancer before it begins, why don’t we?

This question motivated a deep-dive inquiry into cancer prevention for award-winning journalist Kristina Marusic. Her exploration uncovered an often invisible community of creative, talented individuals who dedicate their careers to identifying and challenging environmental drivers of cancer. In this CHE Café conversation, Kristina will share highlights from her book, A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention. She’ll then be joined by Children’s Environmental Health Network Executive Director Nsedu Obot Witherspoon and renowned biologist, author, activist, and cancer survivor, Dr. Sandra Steingraber. The group will explore the power of storytelling as a tool for communicating complex scientific issues, and reaching people in ways that motivate action for change.

~Co-presented by The New School at Commonweal and the Collaborative for Heath and the Environment~

Kristina Marusic is an author and journalist who covers issues related to environmental health and justice for Environmental Health News. A New War on Cancer: The Unlikely Heroes Revolutionizing Prevention is her first book. Marusic is the co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (a.k.a. NLGJA), and previously worked as a freelance journalist covering LGBT equality, feminism, social and environmental justice, activism, and politics with bylines at CNN, Slate, Vice, Women's Health, the Washington Post, MTV News, The Advocate, Logo TV's NewNowNext, and Bustle, among others. She believes true, well-told stories have the power to change the world for good.

Sandra Steingraber, PhD, a senior scientist with the Science and Environmental Health Network, is the author of a trilogy of award-winning books on environmental health: Living Downstream_ : An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment (adapted as a documentary film in 2010); Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood_; and_ Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis_. The 2018 documentary film Unfractured tells the story of New York State’s fracking ban, featuring Steingraber as its subject.

Nsedu Obot Witherspoon, MPH, is the executive director for the Children's Environmental Health Network  (CEHN) and a key spokesperson for children’s vulnerabilities and the need for their protection. She holds leadership roles in many spaces, including the External Science Board for the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes at NIH, the Health/Science initiative of the Cancer Free Economy Network and the National Environmental Health Partnership Council. Nsedu is also member of the Board for Pesticide Action Network North America and the Environmental Integrity Project, and serves on the Maryland Children’s Environmental Health Advisory Council. Nsedu is a proud mom to four children.

#environmentalhealth #publichealth #environmentalhealthnews #waroncancer #newschoolcommonweal #commonweal

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.

2023:06.13 Kristina Marusic: Science, Storytelling and a New War on Cancer

Join Host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Gary Cohen, founder of Healthcare without Harm. They will trace the evolution of the modern health and environmental justice movement over the years, starting in 1996, when Gary founded the organization after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified medical waste incineration as the leading source of dioxin, one of the most potent carcinogens. You can hear a past conversation with Gary here, one of the first conversations at The New School.

Gary Cohen
Gary is a co-founder and president of Health Care Without Harm (http://noharm.org ), the international campaign for environmentally responsible healthcare. HCWH is working to prevent disease and illness in society by assisting the healthcare sector to understand the links between a healthy environment and healthy people and helping hospitals become more environmentally sustainable as well as anchors in their communities for resilience, equity and community wellness. He is president of Practice Greenhealth, a U.S. membership affiliate of HCWH with over 1300 hospital members. He is also the co-founder of Greenhealth Exchange, a sustainable purchasing cooperative in the U.S. healthcare sector. Gary is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, which provides free medical care to the survivors of the Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal. Gary was awarded the MacArthur "Genius:" award in 2015, and the Champion for Change for Climate Change and Public Health by the White House in 2013. He was also awarded the Skoll Global Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2006 and the Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service Award in 2007.

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.

#commonweal #newschoolcommonweal #healthcarewithoutharm #healthcare #greenhealthcare #dioxin #toxics

2023:09.08 - Gary Cohen: The Evolution of the Modern Health and Environmental Justice Movement

~Co-presented with Commonweal’s Collaborative for Health and the Environment~

We’re now in the dangerous, uncharted territory climate scientists have been warning about for decades. Meanwhile, biologists and toxicologists are sounding the alarm about surpassing the “planetary boundary” for chemical pollution, beyond which both ecosystems and our health are endangered. We know climate change and chemical pollution are related in ways that can accelerate both crises, but does their interlinked nature also offer opportunities? Join Host Kristin Schafer with biologist and systems thinker Dr. Elizabeth Sawin and chemicals expert and clean production advocate Beverley Thorpe as they explore opportunities to prioritize solutions that concurrently address climate change and the global crisis of chemical contamination — while also improving public health, equity and economic vitality. 

Multisolving Institute a think-do tank that helps people implement solutions that protect the climate while improving, equity, health, biodiversity, economic vitality, and well-being. Beth writes and speaks about multisolving, climate change, and leadership in complex systems for both national and international audiences. Her work has been published widely, including in Non-Profit Quarterly, The Stanford Social Innovation Review, U.S. News, The Daily Climate, and System Dynamics Review.  In 2010, Beth co-founded Climate Interactive, which she co-directed until 2021. Since 2014, Beth has participated in the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, a continuing dialogue on issues of climate change and sustainability. She is a biologist with a PhD from MIT who has been analyzing complex systems related to climate change for 25 years. Beth trained in system dynamics and sustainability with Donella Meadows and worked at Sustainability Institute, the research institute founded by Meadows, for 13 years. Beth has two adult daughters and lives in rural Vermont where she and her husband grow as much of their own food as they can manage.

Beverley Thorpe
Beverley is Co-Founder of Clean Production Action, and has researched and promoted clean production strategies to advance a non-toxic economy internationally since 1986. She was the first clean production technical expert for Greenpeace International on chemical and waste issues. Bev’s work on alternatives to PVC, organohalogens and hazardous waste incineration helped drive momentum for safer substitution practices in company practices. As the NGO representative in the first United Nations Environment Programme for Cleaner Production, she promoted the value of public participation in industrial policies. Bev received her degree in Geography from Leicester University, UK and is an annual lecturer at Lund University in Sweden on chemicals policy and corporate practices. She is a past Director of Greenpeace International and a founding board member of the Story of Stuff in the US. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

Host Kristin Shafer
Kristin is director of Commonweal’s Collaborative for Health and the Environment, and three decades of experience in the field of environmental health and justice. After working as a Communications Specialist at EPA and with World Resources Institute in Washington, DC, she moved back to Northern California where she held various roles—including executive director—over her 25-year tenure at Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America. Kristin holds a Masters in Social Change and Development from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She lives with her husband in downtown San Jose where she loves to bike ride and garden, and currently serves as board co-chair for the community-building urban farm, Veggielution.

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.

2024:01.25 - Elizabeth Sawin & Beverley Thorpe - Multisolving for Climate, Chemicals & Health

Each year, the gas and oil industry produces billions of tons of waste — much of it toxic and radioactive. The fracking boom has only worsened the problem. Where does this waste go? In this webinar, co-presented with the Collaborative for Health and Environment and the Science and Environmental Health Network (SEHN), Host Kristin Schafer will explore the topic with author Justin Nobel, Dr. Larysa Dyrszka, and James Brugh, a tribal member of Fort Berthold in western North Dakota.

To follow along with Dr. Dyrszka’s presentation you can download the slide deck here: https://www.healthandenvironment.org/assets/images/Larysa%20Dyrszka%20slides.pdf

Justin Nobel writes on science and environment for United States magazines, literary journals, and investigative sites. His investigation into the radioactivity brought to the surface in oil and gas production was published in 2020 with Rolling Stone Magazine, “America’s Radioactive Secret,” and awarded best long-form narrative by the National Association of Science Writers. Justin’s reports on this in his latest book, Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It (Simon & Schuster 2024).

Larysa Dyrszka, MD, is a pediatrician and has been a United Nations representative to ECOSOC with the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations, where her work was focused on children’s rights, particularly health.

James Brugh is a writer, husband and father, and tribal member of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota. He lives in the community of Four Bears and has advocated tirelessly for the protection of his family, the environment, and his community against rampant and relentless oil and gas development.

#commonweal #environmentalhealth #newschoolcommonweal #dirtyoil #radioactiveoilfields #toxicoilfield

2024:03.06 - Justin Nobel, Larysa Dyrszka & James Brugh - Petroleum 238

~Co-presented with Commonweal’s Collaborative for Health and the Environment and University of California San Francisco’s Science Action Network~

Scientific findings can inform stronger policies that protect public health — which sometimes negatively impacts profits of companies that produce health-harming chemicals and products.

Industry intimidation of researchers who explore the impact of exposure to chemicals and other substances on human health is a longstanding problem. When Dr. Herbert Needleman found his credibility under fire after publishing data linking children’s lead exposure to lower IQs in the early 1980s, he offered this advice to early career environmental health scientists:

“Do not avoid difficult areas of investigation. Take risks. If scientists exclusively choose the safe routes, avoid controversial research problems, and play only minor variations of someone else’s themes, they voluntarily turn themselves into technicians. Our craft will indeed be in peril.”

At a time when strong, independent science is more important than ever, corporations are ramping up attacks on scientists in the environmental health field. In this CHE Café conversation, Dr. Lisa Bero and Dr. Lariah Edwards will share their own stories of industry intimidation, and reflect on steps needed to protect researchers and maintain scientific integrity.

CHE Director Kristin Schafer will host the conversation.

Lisa Bero, PhD is a Chief Scientist at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at Colorado University. She is a leader in evidence synthesis, meta-research and studying commercial determinants of health, focusing on tobacco control, pharmaceutical policy, and public health. She provides international leadership for multidisciplinary teams studying the quality, use and implementation of research for health and health policy. Dr. Bero has developed and validated qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing bias in the design, conduct and dissemination of research. She has pioneered the utilization of internal industry documents and transparency databases to understand corporate tactics and motives for influencing research evidence. She is internationally recognized for her work and serves on national and international guidelines committees such as US National Academies of Science Committees and the World Health Organization Essential Medicines.

Lariah Edwards, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist at the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University’s School of Mailman School of Public Health. She is also an alumna Fellow and current Assistant Director of Agents of Change in Environmental Justice. Dr. Edwards’ research focuses on understanding the health effects of and addressing exposure disparities to hormone-altering chemicals commonly found in consumer and personal care products. As part of this work, she collaborates with WE ACT for Environmental Justice on its campaign that seeks to educate consumers about the dangers of toxic beauty products. Dr. Edwards also draws on her experience in the areas of chemical policy and regulatory applications and science communication, as she feels addressing exposure disparities requires a multidisciplinary approach.

2024:08.12 Lisa Bero and Lariah Edwards - Protecting Scientists from Industry Intimidation

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

An Afternoon of Indian Classical Music with Manik Khan and Nilan Chauduri

Orland Bishop
Spiritual Biography
In this remarkable series of four interconnected conversations, we trace Bishop’s spiritual biography from his childhood in Guyana to his teen years in Brooklyn, his college years in California, and the subsequent conscious emergence of his shamanic journey. These conversations with Michael Lerner took place in the presence of a small group of friends at The New School at Commonweal.

Orland Bishop combines an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies with a deep dedication to human rights advocacy and cultural renewal. He was a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Violence at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and has consulted for many human development organizations in the United States and internationally.

Orland is co-founder and Executive Director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, California, a unique organization devoted to the mentoring of young people and the creation of communities to support them. Through ShadeTree, Orland has pioneered approaches to urban truces and working with at-risk youth that combine indigenous wisdom and practices with contemporary methodologies designed to mentor the human potential and create intentional communities. He has developed processes that support people to come into deeper inner and collective agreements in order to heal violence and social exclusion. Orland is currently focusing on understanding the deeper meaning money as a pathway to designing new economic forms that support healthy community life.

Orland Bishop
Orland Bishop is the founder and director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, where he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentors at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers, and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland’s work in healing and human development is framed by an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies, primarily those of South and West Africa.

Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

2011.08.17:  Orland Bishop - Spiritual Biography Part 4

Join TNS Host Steve Heilig in conversation with one of the most renowned voices of our time, ecophilosopher Joanna Macy. Joanna is a scholar of Buddhism, living systems theory, and deep ecology. Respected in the movements for peace, global justice, and ecological sanity, she interweaves her scholarship with six decades of activism. As the root teacher of the Work that Reconnects Network, her ground-breaking theoretical framework and interactive practices combine spiritual breakthrough with social transformation.

Joanna Macy, PhD
Joanna’s wide-ranging work addresses psychological issues of the nuclear age, the cultivation of an ecological identity, and the clarifying resonance between Buddhist teachings and contemporary science. Her work is used around the world to help people turn despair and apathy in the face of social and ecological crises into constructive, collaborative action. It brings a new way of seeing the world—as our larger living body—freeing us from the assumptions and attitudes that now threaten all life on Earth.

Macy graduated from Wellesley College and received her Ph.D in Religious Studies from Syracuse University. She is the author of twelve books, including Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects; World as Lover, World as Self; Active Hope: How to face the mess we’re in without Going Crazy; and three volumes of translations of Rilke’s poetry.

2018:04.29 - Joanna Macy - World as Lover, World as Self: The Wisdom of our Grief and Outrage

A beautiful song about transformation and renewal by Coco Love Alcorn, arranged and recorded by Devi Daly for West Marin Choir. Thanks to Wholehearted Chorus and Lisa G. for teaching me this song!

The River

Reb Irwin performs this beautiful setting of Psalm 148:1-6 by Yoel Sykes of Nava Tehila(www.navatehila.org). On guitar is Suzanne Shanbaum; on bass is Lynn Keller. Coming soon: an enhanced version with additional Ner Shalom singers and instrumentalists.

Text:

הַלְלוּיָהּ הַלְלוּ אֶת־יְיָ מִן־הַשָּׁמַיִם הַלְלוּהוּ בַּמְּרוֹמִים:    
הַלְלוּהוּ כָּל־מַלְאָכָיו הַלְלוּהוּ כָּל־צְבָאָיו: 
הַלְלוּהוּ שֶׁמֶשׁ וְיָרֵחַ הַלְלוּהוּ כָּל־כּוֹכְבֵי אוֹר:    
הַלְלוּהוּ שְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמָיִם וְהַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעַל הַשָּׁמָיִם: 
יְהַלְלוּ אֶת־שֵׁם יְיָ כִּי הוּא צִוָּה וְנִבְרָאוּ:   
 וַיַּעֲמִידֵם לָעַד לְעוֹלָם חָק־נָתַן וְלֹא יַעֲבוֹר:

Haleluyah. Haleluyah. Haleluyah. Haleluyah.
Halelu et Adonai min hashamayim. Haleluhu bamromim. 
Haleluhu kol malakhav. Haleluhu kol tz'va'av.
Haleluhu shemesh v'yareach. Haleluhu kol kokh'vei or. 
Haleluhu sh'mey hashamayim v'hamayim asher me'al hashamayim.
Y'halelu et shem Adonai ki hu tzivah v'nivra'u. 
Vaya'amidem la'ad l'olam, chok natan v'lo ya'avor.

Hallelujah! Praise Adonai from the heavens; praise Yah in the heights.
Praise Yah, all you angels; praise Yah, all heaven's host.
Praise Yah, sun and moon; praise Yah, all you stars of light.
Praise Yah, heaven of heavens, and you waters that are above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Adonai; for God commanded, and they were created. Yah established them for ever and ever; Yah's law shall endure.

Hallelujah (Solo Version)

The New School presents conversations, book signings, art, and lectures with thought and action leaders of our time. We are a learning community of 4,000 people in the Bay Area and around the world dedicated to learning what matters. 

TNS focuses on the emergent, seeking out the thought and action leaders who are bringing discussion, beauty, and change to the world. We present events and podcast them in many areas: arts and sciences, health and the environment, and inner life. We follow streams of inquiry, including our End-of-Life Conversations, and series on Resilience, Archetypal Psychology, and Healing Circles.

2024:08.12 Lisa Bero and Lariah Edwards - Protecting Scientists from Industry Intimidation

The New School at Commonweal

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