Known for bringing loneliness and social connection into the national conversation, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy joins host Serena Bian at Commonweal’s New School to reflect on the deeper currents beneath his work. Beginning with his spiritual biography, we explore the questions, traditions, and experiences that shaped his understanding of service, healing, and what it means to belong.
What role can art play in helping us meet this moment? As communities face growing loneliness, burnout, environmental anxiety, and civic division, the arts can create spaces for healing, connection, and hope. Join us for part 2 of this podcast, a conversation with Visiting Scholar Dr. Catherine Olweny and Host Lisa Simms Booth.
Part of the Art and Healing Series
What role can art play in helping us meet this moment? As communities face growing loneliness, burnout, environmental anxiety, and civic division, the arts can create spaces for healing, connection, and hope. Join us for part 1 of this podcast, a conversation with Former National Endowment of the Arts Chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, Stanford Arts Director Deborah Cullinan, and Host Lisa Simms Booth.
Part of the Art and Healing Series
In part 10 of the Secret Body series of conversations, Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book The Superhumanities.
Part of the The Secret Body Series
Join us for a conversation exploring healing at a time of transformation—contemplating what Michael Lerner points to as the coming revolution in human consciousness and what it means for all of us as individuals, communities, and as a planetary species.
Join Host Susan Grelock Yusem in conversation with David George Haskell to talk about his new book, How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries.
Bringing with her the traditional Aboriginal practices of dadirri—a sacred practice of deep listening, reflection, stillness and connection to the land—and yarning—a conversational practice used by indigenous Australians to share knowledge, stories, and culture, Dr. Catherine Olweny offers another pathway to Mastering the Art of Being. Cultivating this presence is a gift she found in her own life, one she shares with other clinicians, and one we can learn from as well. Follow along with Commonweal New School’s Summer 2026 Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny journey as resident through her writings, podcasts, and exercises gathered during her visit.

Jeanine M. Canty is a visionary scholar whose groundbreaking work illuminates the profound connections between consciousness, thought, and our relationship with the natural world. Her teaching weaves together social justice, ecological wisdom, and transformation. By reading her writings and watching or listening to recordings of her time in residence, you can explore how mind and spirit intersect with ecological healing in your own life.
Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. In this ongoing series of conversations, Jeffrey talks with Host Michael Lerner about his body of work—more than 13 groundbreaking books about the mystical and the erotic, the relationship of mind and matter, and parapsychological phenomena. Michael has been reading, talking, and meeting with Jeffrey for more than a year now, immersing himself in the consciousness worldview that Jeffrey presents in his books and teaching. Follow Michael's journey through these conversations.
One of our most beloved voices, Rachel Naomi Remen, died August 8, 2026. We offer this course in honor of her presence, which will be greatly missed. Rachel spent a lifetime at the threshold between medicine and mystery. This course gathers recordings from her decades at Commonweal New School, inviting you to sit with her not as a distant authority but as a companion—someone who spent her life listening closely to what it means to be human.
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