Interdisciplinary Arts

Nick Blanc ’26 left a fulfilling career in homeless services to pursue undergraduate education at CIIS rooted in ancestral wisdom, indigenous traditions, and community healing.

With rejection and intense commitment being such integral parts of any artist’s life, many struggle to stay with the creative process. Author and CIIS Faculty in the Interdisciplinary Arts program, Cindy Shearer has spent decades helping artists stay with their craft. In her book, Stay with Writing, Cindy encourages writers to understand themselves as artists, and for artists across all mediums to learn about themselves from writing. She offers practices for artists across mediums to help sustain and live a creative life.  

In this episode Cindy is joined by theater artist Emlyn Guiney. Together they dive into the nature of artistic practice, meaning-making, failure, and ways to reconnect with yourself, your art and your process.  

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on March 5th, 2026. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Addam Ledamyen ’26 and Dazié Grego-Sykes ’18 share how CIIS’ M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing creates space for artistic risk, collaboration, and work that refuses to play it safe.

Find your path to an expressive arts coaching career at CIIS.

Playwright and activist Alex Burger brings his global experience into the CIIS MFA classroom, teaching art as transformation, and crisis as creative fuel.

We’re excited to announce that CIIS faculty member Cindy Shearer, Chair of the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing, has published a new book.

Choctaw multimedia artist Tricia Rainwater’s wide-ranging work is rooted in themes of identity and grief. Her artistic practice offers a perspective through the lens of a Choctaw survivor. In her most recent series, Falama: to return, she shared a sustained desire to repair ties to ceremony and culture. To create Falama, she set out on the Trail of Tears, the route followed by five southeastern tribal nations—including her own ancestors—when they were forcibly displaced from their homes to areas west of the Mississippi designated as Indian Territory.

In this episode, Nunatsiavut Inuk multimedia artist and writer Chantal Jung joins Tricia for an engaging conversation about her ongoing explorations of return, reconnection, and repair with her Indigenous family, culture, and land—past and present.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on July 25th, 2024. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

When a film touches us, makes us laugh, and has that feel-good spirit, we want more of it. We want a sequel! In this episode, psychotherapist and CIIS Assistant Professor in the Integral Counseling Psychology program Emily Marinelli is joined by therapist and activist DDS Dobson-Smith for a conversation exploring the psychology of movie sequels from the 1980s and 1990s.

Sharing personal stories and insights from their latest book Comfort Sequels, Emily dives deep into the psychology behind what makes certain movie sequels memorable, safe, predictable, and comforting. These sequels are more of the universe we love—exploring something new while maintaining something familiar. Emily interprets characters, story arcs, and major themes while sharing fun and random behind-the-scenes facts about sequels including Grease 2, Gremlins 2, My Girl 2, Ghostbusters II, Batman Returns, and more.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on August 21st, 2024. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

The Ten Oxherding Pictures is an image series that visualizes the Buddhist training path to enlightenment. The image series has served as a spiritual teaching tool for centuries, guiding seekers through the steps of awakening. But how are these images relevant today?

In this episode, CIIS professors Dr. Debashish Banerji and Dr. Sara Granovetter have a conversation about posthumanism, the Oxherding series, the Jungian individuation process, and the disowned wild self. Together, they explore how the ox may represent a part of the psyche that is habitually pushed to the margins of consciousness. They also help us discover what the Oxherding Pictures teach us about relating to the wild other within ourselves and the work of befriending it for spiritual awakening.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on January 30th, 2025. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

We live in a turbulent time with storms everywhere, of every size and shape. And like every generation before us, we must learn the art of surviving them, so we can help each other endure. In his work, bestselling author and spiritual teacher Mark Nepo explores the art and practice of finding the strength to meet adversity by using the timeless teachings of the heart.

In his life’s work as well as in his latest book, Surviving Storms, Mark articulates the heart’s process of renewal and connection with insight and accuracy. In this episode, Mark is joined by CIIS Professor and Program Chair for the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing Cindy Shearer for an empowering conversation on learning to overcome the storms of life.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 30th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Between 2016 and 2018, essayist and humor writer Elissa Bassist saw over 20 medical professionals for a variety of mysterious ailments. Elissa had what millions of American women had: pain that didn’t make sense to doctors, a body that didn’t make sense to science, and a psyche that didn’t make sense to mankind. Then an acupuncturist suggested some of her physical pain could be caged fury finding expression, and that treating her voice would treat the problem. It did.

In her memoir Hysterical, Elissa shares how growing up, her family, boyfriends, school, work, and television all had the same expectation for a woman’s voice: less is more. Elissa shares her journey of a voice lost and found and discusses new ways to think about a woman’s voice—where it’s being squashed and where it needs amplification.

In this episode, Elissa is joined by novelist and MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing Professor Carolyn Cooke for an empowering conversation about how girls and women internalize and perpetuate directives about their voices and explore ways for them to unmute, listen to themselves, and use their voices again and again without regret.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 7th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she's always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.

Her latest book, Falling Back in Love with Being Human, is a transformative collection of intimate and lyrical love letters that offer a path toward compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance. Whether prayers or spells or poems—and whether there’s a difference—she writes to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin.

In this episode, Kai Cheng is joined by qwoc expressive arts therapist and CIIS Counseling Psychology programs professor Jenna Robinson in a conversation about love and what it means to truly embrace the beauty of being human.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 19th, 2023. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Dr. Lyla June is a renowned Indigenous musician, songwriter, poet, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, and community organizer. Her music and message center around intergenerational and inter-ethnic healing and are poetic articulations of Indigenous philosophies.

Through her vibrant art across mediums and extensive community organizing efforts, Lyla offers pathways forward for Indigenous liberation and creates solidarity for Indigenous communities and their allies.

This episode was recorded live in San Francisco on November 3rd, 2023. Lyla was joined on stage by Preston Vargas, CIIS Director of the Center for Black and Indigenous Praxis, for a powerful evening of song and conversation exploring her life, art, and community organizing. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Christopher Marmolejo is a Brown, queer, and trans writer, diviner, and educator who uses divination to promote a literacy of liberation. In their latest book, Red Tarot, each card’s interpretation is further bolstered by the teachings of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, José Esteban Muñoz, and others in an offering that integrates intersectional wisdom with the author’s divination practice—revealing tarot as an essential language for liberation.

In this episode, Christopher is joined by arts-based, psychedelic-assisted ancestral psychotherapist Camara Meri Rajabari for a conversation that moves beyond self-help and the Hellenistic frame of tarot to reclaim it for liberation, self-determination, and collective healing.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 23, 2024. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

One of the 10 most radical discoveries in human history is that of cosmogenesis, the narrative of how the expanding universe is evolving into stars, galaxies, life, and human consciousness. The challenge to this discovery is the thorny question of how human subjectivity relates to the evolution of the universe. Is there cosmic meaning in our ongoing efforts—like using memory and art—to record our experiences?

Cosmologist and CIIS professor emeritus Brian Thomas Swimme’s latest book, Cosmogenesis, tells the story of how the new cosmology demolished his modern industrial mind, then slowly assembled a new mind, one rooted in the creative energies of our developing universe.

In this episode, Brian is joined in a unique conversation with novelist and CIIS professor in Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing Carolyn Cooke as they explore the impact of time-developmental cosmology and its potential to impact—and possibly transform—human consciousness.

This episode was recorded during an in-person and live streamed event at California Institute of Integral Studies on November 17th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

The term Two-Spirit is translated from a Northern Algonquin word and is used by some Native peoples of North America to signify variations of gender and sexual orientation. The term gained popularity in the 1990s as a counterpoint to colonial terminology used by anthropologists and academics alike to signify practices of nonbinary gender and sexual orientation among the Native peoples of North America.

Despite over five centuries of ongoing colonial terminology and ideology, Two-Spirit people have survived. Now, they are coming together and returning to values and traditions that existed prior to the invasion of the land we now call North America. But what does Two-Spirit and the transition from surviving to thriving mean to Two-Spirit peoples?

In this episode, Chickasaw Two-Spirit activist, drag queen, and community organizer Landa Lakes is joined by Poarch Creek Two-Spirit artist, activist, and educator Roger Kuhn for an inspiring conversation on Native American ideas on gender, cultural expression, and art as a platform for—and a pathway to—activism.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 10th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Some adults struggle to communicate with students who have autism and try to “fix them.” But what if we found a way to help these students use their natural gifts to convey their thoughts and feelings?

Chris Martin, an award-winning poet and celebrated educator, works with non speaking autistic children and adults, teaching them to write poetry. In his latest book, May Tomorrow Be Awake, Chris introduces the techniques he uses in the classroom and celebrates an inspiring group of young neurodiverse thinkers and their electric verse.

In this episode, queer, transgender, autistic author and educator Nick Walker has a conversation with Chris about the mind, language, human potential, and the lessons we can learn from one another.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 18th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Spotlighting four titles from the past year that speak to the wide range of wisdom and expertise our graduates bring to the world

In this episode, author Jabari Asim is in conversation with former CIIS Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Denise Boston about his book, We Can't Breathe.

The book is about a different side of American history - one that doesn't depend on a narrative steeped in oppression, but rather reveals African American voices telling their own stories.

This episode was recorded during an event on November 1, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina and curator Dorothy R. Santos explore the long, winding road from innocuous cat memes to the central practice for civic engagement that memes have become today.

This episode was recorded during an event on January 19, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, comedian, activist, and author Franchesca Ramsey is joined in conversation by author and comedian Sarah Cooper about the many ways we communicate with each other.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 2, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, Boots Riley, the writer and director of Sorry To Bother You, and lead singer of The Coup discusses creativity and activism with local writer Chinaka Hodge.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 7, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, award-winning young author JM Holmes is joined in conversation by Stephanie Anne Johnson to discuss the inspiration for his debut collection of short stories.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 23, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, poet and scholar Cameron Awkward-Rich discusses his work, which broke new ground in Trans, Queer, Black, and American poetry. He was joined in conversation by writer and curator James Fleming.

This episode was recorded during an event on May 31, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City, and on years of reporting around the world, author and journalist Suketu Mehta tackles this issue head-on.

In this conversation with multicultural counseling expert Jyoti Rao, Suketu talks about his latest book This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto and his belief that immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 8, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

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. It was recorded during an event in 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Astrologer and psychic medium Jessica Lanyadoo is joined in conversation by M.A. in Somatic Counseling Psychology student and local actor Madeline H.D. Brown to discuss 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 below.

Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. Examining the complexities of disability issues with wisdom, humor, and honesty, author and disability advocate Rebekah Taussig seeks to normalize the lived experience of disabled persons while also advocating for improvements and a paradigm shift—something that we all play a necessary part in.

In this episode, self-proclaimed queer, Black, biracial Glamputee Alex Locust joins writer, teacher, and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty, Rebekah Taussig for a conversation about her book, also titled Sitting Pretty, as well as her life and her work.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on July 22nd, 2021. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

In this episode, author and hip hop journalist Jeff Chang is joined in conversation with novelist and poet Adam Mansbach on the cultural history - and future - of race in America.

Jeff Chang is the author of Who We Be, a cultural history of race in post-civil rights America and Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, the history of the hip-hop generation. He's also the executive director of The Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.

This episode was recorded during an event on February 11, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. A transcript is available below.

Journalist Celeste Headlee is joined by CIIS professor Zara Zimbardo to discuss 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 below.

Author Cheryl Strayed talks to author and Interdisciplinary Arts & Writing MFA Professor Carolyn Cooke about her writing style, her work as Dear Sugar, and her best-selling book, Wild.

This episode was recorded during an event on April 13, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. A transcript is available below.

 Finding Text with Poet Sarah Heady

An Interview with Poet Sarah Heady

In their early twenties, author and artist Mimi Zhu was a survivor of intimate-partner abuse, which left them broken and in search of healing paths to re-learn love. Mimi began writing a collection of powerful, interconnected essays and affirmations that followed their journey toward embodying and re-learning love after their violent romantic relationship. The result is a stunning and provocative book, Be Not Afraid of Love, which like all of Mimi’s work, is a testament to the strength and adaptability humans possess and a tribute to love.

In this episode, Mimi is joined by author and multidisciplinary artist Fariha Róisín for an empowering conversation on life, art, and what it means to not be afraid of love.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 12th, 2022. A transcript is available below.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

A Retrospective with Arts at CIIS Curator Deirdre Visser

The first of a two-part interview series celebrating the boundary-defying work of Chris Dorosz

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. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Whether you consider yourself an artist or not, viewing art is a creative act that can be a catalyst for inquiries into our world.

In this episode, writer, artist, and curator Cindy Shearer explains how viewing artworks from the vantage point of its makers allows us to experience art-making from the inside out—drawing from what undergirds art in all forms as information and inspiration.

This episode was recorded live in person in the Desai | Matta Gallery at CIIS on November 15, 2018.

“Quit being a drop. Make yourself an ocean.” Rumi’s inspiring and deceptively simple poems have been called ecstatic, mystical, and devotional. For writer and activist Melody Moezzi, they became her lifeline.

Melody’s latest book, The Rumi Prescription, follows her path of discovery as she translates Rumi’s works for herself, gaining wisdom and insight in the face of a creative and spiritual roadblock.

In this episode, Professor and Co-Chair of CIIS’ Expressive Arts Therapy program Shoshana Simons talks with Melody about her life and how the wisdom she found exploring Rumi can help us make sense of our modern lives.

This episode contains explicit language. It was recorded during a live online event on May 20, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Activist and writer Kevin Powell has emerged as one of the most acclaimed voices in America today, tackling some of the biggest issues of our time through his writing and speaking.

In this conversation with Kathy Littles, Kevin shares his thoughts shortly after the publication of his most recent book, My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 15, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, digital artist Rhonda Holberton and curator Ceci Moss explore the intersection of art and technology and the ways that art in the digital age can provide new pathways for understanding our world and ourselves.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on April 10, 2020. You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

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.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 5, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

An interview with Master of Fine Arts alum Maia Scott on how her experience as a student helped shape her work now as a teacher and labyrinth designer

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.

This episode was recorded during an event on January 30, 2020 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

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.

When Sasha herself became a mother, she began her own hunt for the natural phenomena behind our most treasured occasions—from births to deaths, holidays to weddings, anniversaries, and more—growing these roots into a new set of rituals for her young daughter that honor the joy and significance of each experience without relying on religious frameworks.

In this episode, Sasha is joined by author and CIIS Interdisciplinary Arts & Writing MFA Professor Carolyn Cooke for a conversation about her first book, For Small Creatures Such as We.

For Small Creatures Such As We, is part memoir, part guidebook, and part social history—a luminous exploration of Earth’s marvels that require no faith in order to be believed.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 10th, 2019.

In this episode, Marina Gorbis, Executive Director of the Institute for the Future, talks with internet pioneer and renowned filmmaker Tiffany Shlain about her strategy for living in our 24/7 world: turning off all screens for 24 hours each week.

She and her family call it “Technology Shabbat” or “Living 24/6”. Over the past decade, this weekly practice has completely changed their lives—giving them more time, productivity, connection, and presence.

This episode was recorded during an event on December 5, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Mari Andrew is an author and illustrator who shares her work daily on Instagram with over 1 million devoted fans around the world. Her first book, Am I There Yet? debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list.

In this episode, Mari is joined by fellow author and illustrator Nicole J. Georges for a conversation about finding personal healing by creating work that shines a light on feelings we all have, but don’t always reveal.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 31, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

This episode features Bay Area performers and writers including a BART train operator, a recent Pride Parade Grand Marshall, and more. Presented in collaboration with San Francisco’s Porchlight storytelling series and The Contemporary Jewish Museum, each storyteller explores their understanding of self and the fluidity of identity.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 22, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this episode, therapist Ivy Tiegel talks with cartoonist Rachel Lindsay about Rx, her graphic memoir, and her experiences working as an artist with bipolar disorder.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 20, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

In this conversation with psychologist Jyoti Rao, poet Jessica Semaan discusses her latest work, Child of the Moon, and how creating poetry has helped her heal from her traumatic childhood during the Lebanese Civil War.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 12, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California. 

Baratunde Thurston of The Onion and The Daily Show is joined in conversation by actor and director Rotimi Agbabiaka to discuss comedy, race, technology, politics, and everything in between.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 24, 2017 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Krista Tippett, author and creator of the On Being podcast, is joined in conversation by author Laurel Braitman to explore the art and mystery of living.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 28, 2019 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, book critic David Ulin and author Matthew Zapruder discuss how reading can function as an act of engaged citizenship and resistance.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 2, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

The story of Jezebel Delilah X—a self professed "quirky, queer, black girl from South Central LA” and how literature and theatre saved her life.

This episode includes explicit language. It was recorded during an event on November 4, 2015 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, author Adrienne Mayor is joined by Interdisciplinary Arts Professor Carolyn Cooke to explore how some of today's most advanced innovations in robotics and artificial intelligence were foreshadowed in ancient myth.

This episode was recorded during an event on November 14, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of nine books, including the blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love, is in conversation with author and illustrator Lisa Congdon, about creativity, magic, fear, and grief.

This episode was recorded during an event on December 1, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, author Steven Johnson and Interdisciplinary Arts professor Carolyn Cooke consider how to make decisions - drawing lessons from cognitive science, social psychology, military strategy, and great works of literature.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 12, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, writer and commentator Lindy West is joined in conversation by body positivity activist Jes Baker for a conversation on feminism, politics, and activism.

This episode was recorded during an event on October 4, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, CIIS professor Craig Chalquist explores how myths jump out of myth books and into our lives, inhabiting current events, our language, politics, and more.

This episode was recorded during an event on March 30, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

This conversation, about the intersection of artificial intelligence and art, was part of our Technology and Consciousness Series.

Jerry Kaplan, a computer scientist and AI expert talks with Kal Spelletich, an artist who works with robotics about how humans might leverage this emerging technology creatively.

This episode was recorded during an event on April 7, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

In this episode, Carolyn Cooke, author and Interdisciplinary Arts & Writing MFA Professor, discusses reading and writing as important acts of consciousness. Her talk explores how reading is related to deep thinking and how in a challenging world, reading itself can be a direct route to becoming a kinder, nicer, more interesting person. This talk is part of our Big Ideas at CIIS series.

This episode was recorded during an event on April 13, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Peabody Award-winning author Richard Rodriguez is joined in conversation by Interdisciplinary Arts and Writing professor Carolyn Cook for a discussion on writing and the writer's life.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 10, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

One of the early organizers of Burning Man, Stuart Mangrum, discusses the psychogeography of the festival. His talk examines qualities of place and experience that make Black Rock City such fertile grounds for so many year after year.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 6, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Author and activist Sil Lai Abrams reads from her new memoir, Black Lotus, and is joined in conversation by CIIS’ Laura Reddick.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 18, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Frank Warren, the creator of the wildly popular website, PostSecret, talks about how he holds the one million plus secrets he has received in the decade since starting his site.

This episode was recorded during an event on August 20, 2016 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Chicano performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña is joined by author and performer Larry Bogad for this performative conversation, GGGPS: The Guillermo Gómez-Peña Positioning System. 

This event was part of the Dancing with the So Called Dead Festival, a collaboration with the MFA Program in Theatre-Performance Making and The Arts @ CIIS.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 26, 20216.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Kathy Littles, former Dean of the School of Consciousness and Transformation at CIIS, explores how western museums have historically held power and authority in matters of race.

This episode was recorded during an event on June 21, 2018 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Curators from The Contemporary Jewish Museum Lily Siegel and Pierre-François talk about From Generation to Generation - Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art. They were joined by Arts at CIIS curator Deirdre Visser for a conversation. This program was created in collaboration with The Contemporary Jewish Museum.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on December 14, 2016.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Comedian, writer, and actress Zahra Noorbakhsh is joined by CIIS faculty member Zara Zimbardo for a conversation that explores being Muslim in America today, and how to counter discrimination with comedy.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 25, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Co-founders of the performance company Curious, Leslie Hill and Helen Paris, are joined in conversation by CIIS Visiting Faculty Member Ryan Tacata to talk about their work. 

This event was part of the Dancing with the So Called Dead Festival, a collaboration with the MFA Program in Theatre-Performance Making and The Arts @ CIIS.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 15, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Science journalist Amina Khan is joined in conversation by curator Arianne Gelardin to discuss what nature can teach us about sustainable technology and innovation.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 24, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

This episode features Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, and Wikimedia Foundation Creative Director Heather Walls in conversation about the Internet and how its systems exhibit impermanence as well as permanence over time.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on September 21, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokno is joined by artist and activist Jadelynn Stahl for a conversation about how to triumph in the new political and social landscape.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on October 5, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Indie game developer turned social activist Zoë Quinn is joined by CIIS faculty Zara Zimbardo for a rare public conversation about her experience at the center of the Gamergate controversy and her journey to overcome it by working to make the internet a better, safer place for everyone.

This episode was recorded during an event on September 27, 2017 in front of a live audience in San Francisco, California.

Join San Francisco poet Brynn Saito for a conversation with Layli Long Soldier about her journey creating her latest collection of poetry WHEREAS, which she wrote as a response to the congressional resolution “Apology to Native Peoples.”

This episode was recorded during a live online event on November 30, 2017.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Alexis Okeowo, a writer for The New Yorker, is joined in conversation by Mimi Lok from Voice of Witness to discuss the stories of ordinary people fighting extremism in Africa.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on January 18, 2018.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

In this episode, author and coder Ellen Ullman is joined in conversation by CIIS writing professor, Carolyn Cooke, to explore the transformation of society through the rise of the internet.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on February 7, 2018.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Author Ayelet Waldman is joined in conversation by CIIS writing professor Carolyn Cooke to discuss her personal experiment with the therapeutic value of psychedelics.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on March 29, 2018.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

In this episode, Doug Vakoch, CIIS professor and President of Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (METI), examines the social and cultural aspects of extraterrestrial contact.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on August 22, 2018.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Chelsea Manning is joined by CIIS professor Carolyn Cooke to explore the ethical questions presented by artificial intelligence, and to discuss transgender identity and activism.

This episode was recorded during a live online event on May 9, 2018.

You can watch a recording of this episode and many more episodes on the CIIS Public Programs YouTube Channel.

Lessons learned visiting the Zapatistas

Celebrating the newest edition of the MFA journal

How a New Yorker Article Lit a Path to an MFA

Members of the Council of Sages share CIIS’ worldview and values. (And some of them are very famous.)

Choreographer and MFA Professor Anne Bluethenthal Named One of San Francisco's "12 Inspiring Women"

Stage Ai's Summer Blossom festival brought CIIS values to life in China through arts, healing, and cross-cultural connection.

Zoe Bender, alumna of the Bachelor’s Completion and Master of Fine Arts programs at CIIS, was chosen as a 2014 Newman Civic Fellow by Campus Compact.