Ciis Public Programs & Performances

This episode featuring spiritual teacher Thomas Hübl along with cosmologist and CIIS professor Brian Swimme was recorded during a live streaming webinar on May 9th, 2020. During their conversation, Brian and Thomas explore the cosmos and discuss ways to move from being a society informed by trauma to a society that heals trauma. To find out more about CIIS and public programs like this one, including our upcoming online trauma healing workshop with Thomas Hübl, visit our website: ciis.edu

This episode featuring digital artist Rhonda Holberton and curator Ceci Moss was recorded during a live streaming webinar on April 10, 2020. Their conversation explores the intersection of art and technology and ways art in the digital age can provide new pathways for understanding our world and ourselves.

This episode featuring CIIS professor and renowned scholar Richard Tarnas was recorded during a live streaming webinar on April 23rd, 2020. In his talk, Richard 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.” To see the image referenced by Richard during this episode, visit our website: ciis.edu

This episode showcases selections from three previous episodes featuring poets who explore a variety of social justice issues through their work. This episode contains explicit language. Part One The episode begins with poet and scholar Cameron Awkward-Rich joined in conversation with writer and curator James Fleming. Cameron reads first from his recent award-winning book Dispatch followed by a poem from his 2016 book Sympathetic Little Monster, which broke new ground in Trans, Queer, Black, and American poetry. Part Two This excerpt features the poet Layli Long Soldier in conversation with San Francisco poet Brynn Saito. Layli reads a selection from her collection of poetry WHEREAS, and talks with Brynn about her journey writing these poems in response to the congressional resolution “Apology to Native Peoples.” Part Three The episode closes with diversity and inclusion specialist Denise Boston in a conversation with author and academic DaMaris B. Hill that spans poetry, history, and current events to il

Author and psychedelic explorer Chris Bache’s book, LSD and the Mind of the Universe chronicles his experiences and insights from 73 high-dose LSD sessions conducted between 1979 and 1999. This became the philosophical adventure of a lifetime, but one Chris had to keep largely hidden from his colleagues and society. In this episode licensed psychotherapist and CIIS Professor Gisele Fernandes talks with Chris about his 20-year journey into the depths and heights of consciousness.

Modern technology has, and continues to transform the ways we grow, prepare, distribute, eat, and think about our food. In this episode, food journalist Larissa Zimberoff and social sciences professor Julie Guthman share insights into food culture and examine the trends and technologies that are transforming the world of food. Is the future of food looking bleak or better than ever? This episode contains explicit language.

Suzy Ross is an assistant professor and coordinator of recreation therapy and complementary and alternative medicine at San Jose State University, California. In this episode, CIIS Chief of Staff and psychologist Richard Buggs talks with Dr. Ross about finding our path in life, journeys of personal transformation, and her book The Map to Wholeness.

With over 20 years of experience practicing and teaching Kingian Nonviolence, leading trainer Kazu Haga offers a practical approach to resolving conflict first practiced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement. In his work, Kazu reclaims the energy and assertiveness of nonviolent practice and shows that a principled approach to nonviolence is the way to transform not only unjust systems, but broken relationships. In this episode, Kazu Haga is joined by CIIS professor and restorative justice expert Sonya Shah for a conversation about his life, Kingian Nonviolence, and his book, Healing Resistance. This episode contains explicit language.

For most of his life, Boston-based artist P.Carl lived as a girl and a queer woman, building a career, a life, and a loving marriage, yet still waiting to realize himself in full. After fifty years, he embarked on his gender transition amid the rise of the Trump administration and the #MeToo movement—a transition point in America’s own story. In this episode, recorded shortly after the release of P. Carl’s memoir, Becoming a Man: The Story of a Transition, CIIS Human Sexuality Program Chair Michelle Marzullo talks with P. Carl about his personal journey, as well as gender, power, and inequality in America.

In this episode, Ecology and Religion Professor Elizabeth Allison provides an exploration into spiritual ecology. Discover how deepening our relationship with the natural world helps us thrive.

For more than four decades, Don Lattin has written about the social, spiritual, and political aspects of the psychedelic drug movement as a newspaper reporter, freelance journalist, and the author of four books of narrative non-fiction. In this episode, KQED Science senior editor Kat Snow has a conversation with Don looking back on the long, strange trip his career has been.

Elizabeth Markle is a clinical psychologist turned radical community health innovator who brings decades of intentional community experience to her re-visioning of healthcare. In this episode, health coach Susanna Merlo talks with Dr. Markle about her journey launching her community and “behavioral pharmacy”, Open Source Wellness, and her vision for the transformation of our nation’s clinical and social systems.

Chani Nicholas is a beloved astrologer and queer feminist activist with a loyal online following. For her, astrology isn’t about passively accepting our fate, it’s about action. In her inspirational and socially conscious weekly horoscopes, she encourages her devotees to take control—to confront themselves, their desires, and their needs—to fulfill their potential using the power of the stars. Recorded live at the Herbst Theatre shortly after the release of her book You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance, this episode features Chani in three parts. Beginning with a chart-reading and conversation with Fania E. Davis, a leading national voice on restorative justice, followed by a conversation with CIIS Professor Sonya Shah, and finishing with questions submitted by the audience.

In her latest book, Hivemind: The New Science of Tribalism in Our Divided World, psychologist and emotion regulation specialist Dr. Sarah Rose Cavanagh leaves no stone unturned in her quest to understand how social technology is reshaping the way we socialize. In this episode, Dr. Cavanagh is joined by CIIS professor Zara Zimbardo for a conversation on how communities can sync up around shared ideas, how this hive mentality is contributing to today's polarized times, and how to make sense of the dissonance around us.

Somatic therapy combines talk therapy and bodywork to treat a wide range of psychological and physiological conditions, ranging from stress and anxiety to depression and PTSD. Nowhere has somatics proven more effective than in the treatment of trauma. In this episode, author and somatics practitioner Staci Haines is joined in a conversation with therapist and CIIS professor Emily Marinelli. They discuss Staci’s book The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice, and share a restorative justice approach to somatic therapy, integrating mind-body healing with social activism.

With an immensely rich and complex history spanning several millennia, India offers an overwhelming palette of visual options. Indian classical art is filled with hidden symbolism. When decoded, we find these symbols still hold powerful meanings today and help us to better understand the human experience. In this episode, dancer, painter, and actor Mesma Belsaré describes the geometric design principles behind some of the classical images in Indian art and their hidden meanings.

An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta has become one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century, and one of the most important activists in American history. Now 89 years old, she continues the fight to this day. In this episode, recorded live in San Francisco in November 2019, Latinx studies professor Maria L. Quintana has a conversation with Dolores Huerta about her life and work as a revolutionary and inspirational leader dedicated to activism, feminism, and the future of America.

Abby Chava Stein is the tenth-generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement. In 2015, she came out as a woman, and she now works as a transgender activist. In this episode, Keshet LGBTQIA+ education specialist Randi Reed talks with Abby about her book Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman.

Leah Vernon is a style blogger, plus-size Muslim model, public speaker, and activist. In her book, Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim, she takes to task the myth of the perfect Muslim woman. In this episode, poet and social justice activist Rabi'a Keeble talks with Leah Vernon about her love-hate relationship with her hijab and her faith, race, weight, mental illness, domestic violence, sexuality, the millennial world of dating, and the process of finding her voice. This episode contains explicit language.

Author, editor, and filmmaker Sasha Sagan was raised by secular parents—the astronomer Carl Sagan and the writer and producer Ann Druyan. They taught her that the natural world and vast cosmos are full of profound beauty, that science reveals truths more wondrous than any myth or fable. In this episode, Sasha is joined by author Carolyn Cooke for a conversation about her first book, For Small Creatures Such as We, a memoir and social history that explores ritual as a form of memory that ties generations together.