Beyond Cancel Culture: On Healing, Conflict, and Community
Facilitator and writer Shilpa Jain deeply understands the nature of being human. She is well known in her East Bay community for hosting more than 250 “Yes Jams!” over the last decade, encouraging laughter and play as she facilitates groups through conflict. Working with change makers—activists, artists, healers, executives, and young people—she helps them navigate conflict from a place of freedom and joy.
Serpent’s Gift
In part 5 of this series, Host Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book The Serpent’s Gift—Reflections on the Study of Religion. The book is a provocative call for a complete reorientation of religious studies—a reversal of the Adam and Eve story—aimed at a larger understanding of the world, the self, and the divine. He considers Feuerbach’s Gnosticism, the untapped mystical potential of comparative religion, and even the modern mythology of the X-Men.
Mend Your Mind and Reinhabit Your Greater Self
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The Art of Peacebuilding: Haiku, Accompaniment, and Courageous Love
A thousand dew dropsBubbling on clover leavesGlisten morning sun —John Paul Lederach Join Host Serena Bian and international peacebuilder John Paul Lederach in exploring questions about how—in a world filled with animosity—we can help things “glisten.” The conversation explores ways to accompany communities to bring forward their deepest sense of their nature and purpose, as […]
Bridging Mind and Nature
During this second event with Fall 2025 Visiting Scholar Jeanine Canty, we look at various notions of self—ecological, multicultural, and transpersonal—and engage in some experiences and reflections that embody this. Host Susan Grelock Yusem will be in conversation with Jeanine for the first hour, followed by a half hour of experiential work with Jeanine.
Beyond Cancel Culture: on Healing, Conflict, and Community
Join Host Serena Bian with community builder, facilitator, and writer Shilpa Jain for a conversation exploring how conflict can bring us into greater clarity, purpose, and alignment.
Reclaiming Wildness: Introductory Lecture
Within this introductory talk with Fall 2025 Visiting Scholar Jeanine M. Canty, her first event in residence at The New School, we look at dualities within the western human’s psyche to reclaim our ecological and transpersonal identities and to access pathways for healing.
Esalen
In part 4, Jeffrey Kripal and Host Michael Lerner explore Jeffrey’s remarkable history of Esalen in Esalen—The American Religion of No Religion. This astonishing cultural history of the famed retreat and conference center in Big Sur provides a panoramic insight of West Coast counter-culture over the past half century. No one serious about understanding our times should miss it. You can find more information on his website jeffreyjkripal.com.
2025 Year-End Magazine
This magazine features some of the work happening at Commonweal in 2025, including work in the Commonweal Archives, our Healing Circles program, the Collaborative for Health and Environment, The New School, and the Humane Prison Hospice Program.