Ciis Public Programs & Performances

Considered one of the leaders of a current generation of Buddhist teachers, Lama Rod Owens is a Buddhist minister, author, activist, and an authorized Lama—or Buddhist teacher—in the Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. Through his writings, teachings, and travels Lama Rod invites everyone into his life intersections as a Black, queer male who was born and raised in the South, and heavily influenced by the church and its community. In this episode, Lama Rod is joined by Executive Director of the Counter Narrative Project, Charles Stephens, for a conversation about how unmetabolized anger—and the grief, hurt, and transhistorical trauma beneath it—needs to be explored, respected, and fully embodied to heal from heartbreak and begin to walk the path of liberation. This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on January 14, 2021. A transcript is available at ciispod.com. You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Pu

Chef extraordinaire and popular TV host Martin Yan has spent decades promoting Chinese and pan-Asian cuisines on his popular TV show Yan Can Cook. Passionate about cooking as well as its benefits for health and wellbeing, Chef Yan is known world-wide for celebrating Chinese and Asian cuisines and cultures, encouraging home cooks to explore these important and delicious foodways. In this episode, clinical medical anthropologist Dr. Meg Jordan joins Chef Yan for an entertaining and illuminating conversation and cooking demonstration exploring Traditional Chinese Medicine, food, and wellbeing. This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 12, 2021. A transcript as well as recipes described by Chef Yan in this episode are available at ciispod.com. You can also watch a recording of this and many more of our conversation events by searching for “CIIS Public Programs” on YouTube.

Five years ago, author and journalist Lauren Martin had a good job in New York, an apartment in Brooklyn, and a boyfriend she loved, but she was wrestling with feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and irritability. She began to figure out why she was having these negative emotions and how to control them by posting her thoughts and questions online, a project which soon became the popular online platform Words of Women, a space for women to share their experiences and advice. Ultimately Lauren discovered how to take all her moods, the highs and lows, and regain control. Her research into these negative emotions culminated in her latest book, The Book of Moods. In this episode CIIS faculty Christine Brooks talks with Lauren about learning to move through negative emotions and embrace all moods, good and bad. This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 8, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode originally recorded early in the COVID-19 pandemic during one of our first live streaming online events on April 23rd, 2020. In this episode, CIIS professor and renowned scholar Richard Tarnas 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.” Richard will be joining us live online again this year on February 5th for a sequel talk on the current state of our world and the planets in 2021. For event details and registration, visit our online winter season brochure at ciispublicevents.com. A transcript of this episode is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with neuroscientist Matthew Walker about his groundbreaking exploration of sleep and its transformative power to change our lives for the better. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on October 9th, 2017. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with astrologer Jessica Lanyadoo about self-compassion, astrology, and why you should never look at your crush’s chart. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on March 20th, 2019. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation with journalist Celeste Headlee exploring ways to have meaningful conversations in a politically and socially polarized time. This episode was originally recorded live with an in-person audience on February 22nd, 2018. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

What exactly is sexual attraction and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, romance and consent, and the pressures of society? In her latest book, Ace, journalist Angela Chen set out to further understand her own asexuality by examining the perspectives of a diverse group of asexual people. In this episode, Angela is joined by journalist Sabrina Imbler for a conversation about what it means to be asexual in a world that’s obsessed with sexual attraction, and what the ace perspective can teach all of us about desire and identity. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 29, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

One of the most distinguished voices in American literature, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet N. Scott Momaday has devoted much of his life to celebrating and preserving Native American culture, especially its oral tradition. A member of the Kiowa tribe who was born and grew up on Indian reservations throughout the Southwest, Dr. Momaday has a deep attachment to the land he knows well and loves deeply. In his latest book, Earth Keeper: Reflections on an American Land, Dr. Momaday reflects on his native ground and its influence on his people and the person that he is. In this episode, Indigenous scholar and activist Melissa Nelson talks with Dr. Momaday about his life, his work, and the importance of remembering that the Earth is a sacred place of wonder and beauty; a source of strength and healing that must be protected before it’s too late. Dr. Momaday reminds us that we must all be keepers of the Earth. This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 12, 2020. A transcript is ava

This week, we are revisiting an episode from our archives featuring a conversation about food, family, and more with author and chef Nik Sharma originally recorded on December 4th, 2018 in front of a live audience at CIIS. We recognize that our university’s building in San Francisco occupies traditional, unceded Ramaytush Ohlone lands. If you are interested in learning more about native lands, languages, and territories, the website native-land.ca is a helpful resource for you to learn about and acknowledge the Indigenous land where you live. Visit ciispod.com for a transcript of this episode.

Rick Doblin, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), has been a relentless advocate for developing legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics paired with psychotherapy for decades. In this episode, licensed psychotherapist and CIIS assistant professor Gisele Fernandes has a fascinating conversation with Rick about the future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Diving into his vast knowledge of the science of psychedelics, Rick discusses how drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA affect your brain. He shares how, when paired with psychotherapy, psychedelics could change the way we treat PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and more. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 23, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com. CONTENT ADVISORY This episode contains references to the existence of traumatic events such as assault, rape, and suicide.

As a body justice advocate and leader Dr. Joy Arlene Renee Cox believes that the spaces carved out by third-wave feminism and the fat liberation movement fail at achieving true inclusivity and intersectionality. She believes that fat Black women need to create their own safe spaces and community—instead of tirelessly working to educate, chastise, and strive against dominant groups. Dr. Cox’s latest book, Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Communities of Our Own, breaks down the myths, stereotypes, tropes, and outright lies we’ve been sold about race, body size, belonging, and health. In this episode, educator and sexologist Bianca I. Laureano talks with Dr. Cox about rejecting the myths and lies that hold back fat Black women, and ways for their communities to flourish. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 7, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

Both science and philosophy have traditionally conceived of the self as though it were separate from the world. Italian philosopher, psychologist, and AI engineer Riccardo Manzotti asks us to consider consciousness in a radical new way: Our conscious experience is actually one and the same with the external world. In this unique conversation, philosopher Abre Fournier joins Riccardo as he offers an exploration of the nature of consciousness and our everyday life through Spread Mind Theory. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 17, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

Shot at by police as an 11-year-old child for playing baseball in the wrong spot, as an adult Larry Ward continued to experience racialized trauma when his home was firebombed by racists. At Plum Village Monastery in France, he found a way to heal with his teacher, Vietnamese peace activist and Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Now a Zen Buddhist teacher and author, Dr. Ward's work examines the causes and conditions that have led us to our current state, and he finds—hidden in the crisis—a profound opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a human being. This is an invitation to transform America’s racial karma. In this episode, Women's Spirituality Professor Alka Arora talks with Dr. Ward as he shares what he has learned through his own life and work, and invites us to transform our society and heal our racial karma. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 6, 2020. A transcript is available at ciispod.com.

We live in a world where entitlement, incivility, and narcissism are incentivized. How do we learn to negotiate a world that often gaslights us and empowers the loudest and most toxic voices? In this episode, CIIS Community Mental Health professor and psychologist Elizabeth Markle has a conversation with psychologist and narcissism expert Dr. Ramani Durvasula exploring the new normal of narcissism and incivility and how to stay sane in a narcissistic world. This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 2, 2020. A transcript of this episode is available at ciispod.com.

In these pandemic times, and times of racial justice uprising and reckoning, the failure of U.S. and global health care systems to meet human need or to even ensure the basic safety of health care providers continues to be revealed. How did we get here? In this episode, CIIS Faculty and multi-sector social justice organizer Mordecai Ettinger offers an exploration of the hidden history of white supremacy and colonization embedded in the Medical Industrial Complex(MIC)—a web of institutions—from hospitals, dialysis centers, and nursing homes, to health insurers, big pharma, and the corporate polluters that they are entangled with. Mordecai addresses the myriad ways in which the MIC generates, perpetuates, and upholds ableism—particularly racialized medical ableism—as among the most dangerously violent and destructive forces of our times. Finally, Mordecai offers a vision for hope, a path forward for transforming the MIC and creating alternatives for health and healing, a crucial part of humanity’s collective

Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. In Mikki Kendall's latest book, Hood Feminism, she takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hyper-sexualization, she delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux and issues a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists. In this episode, psychologist and CIIS Professor Danielle Drake talks with Mikki about writing Hood Feminism, her life, and the lessons she has learned. This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 23, 2020.

We all tell ourselves stories about who we are. Many of these stories are self-critical and disempowering. Through the practice of self-compassion, we can rewrite these stories and become more authentic and powerful versions of ourselves—transforming not only our own lives but also the lives of those around us. For author Marianne Ingheim the practice of self-compassion changed her life in ways big and small, helping her unlearn harsh self-criticism, survive multiple tragedies, and live more authentically. In this episode, Integral Psychologist Kendra Diaz-Ford talks with Marianne about her experiences unlearning self-critical patterns in order to live a happier, more courageous life.

This week, we are showcasing selections from three previous episodes featuring California-based voices for change. We begin with Kazu Haga joined in February 2020 by CIIS professor and restorative justice expert Sonya Shah for a conversation about his life, his experiences utilizing Kingian Nonviolence, and his book, Healing Resistance. The second selection features Boots Riley, the writer and director of the movie Sorry To Bother You, and lead singer of The Coup discussing creativity and activism with Bay Area writer Chinaka Hodge live on stage in September 2018. We close the episode with an excerpt of an inspiring conversation recorded live in San Francisco in November 2019 featuring Dolores Huerta. Latinx studies professor Maria L. Quintana talked with Dolores about her life and work as a revolutionary and inspirational leader dedicated to activism, feminism, and the future of America. This episode contains explicit language.

In this episode Kirah Tabourn, educator, creator, and astrologer of THE STROLOGY, talks with Bay Area astrologer and medium Jessica Lanyadoo about her life and work, her book Astrology for Real Relationships, and how her book—and astrology more broadly—can be applied to a diverse set of relationships and our current times. This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on August 27, 2020.