Thursday, March 26th
Terry Tempest Williams, one of our nation’s living literary treasures and a guiding light for many of us regardingethics and citizenship, will share how she emerged from a dream during the pandemic in 2020 with a renewed vow she had forgotten. In this time of political and climate chaos, as we seek beauty and cohesion wherever we can find its glimmer, Terry focused on “The Glorians,” the overlooked presences—animal, plant, memory, moment—that reveal our shared vulnerability and interconnectedness with the natural world and how they can inspire us to carry forward with grace. “The Glorians are reaching out to us,” she writes,” inviting us to dream a new world into being.”
March 26th | 11:48 am to 12:10 pm | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
In this intimate emergent conversation between two dear old friends, Terry Tempest Williams, one of the most sublime American writers to ever emerge from the deserts of the Southwest as well as a dedicated activist, conservationist, passionate lover of the natural world and one of our nation’s moral North Stars, will explore with Bioneers’ very own co-founder Nina Simons how to balance the personal and the political, the sacred and the mundane, the head and the heart, in this exceptionally challenging period in our history.
March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Freight & Salvage
Panelists
Each afternoon, members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery invite you to a community circle designed to help us grieve our individual and collective losses. By naming our losses and mourning together, we can open to grief’s potential for solace, regeneration and transformation. We will engage in breathing practices, journaling, sharing, and a simple ritual using a communal altar to which we are invited to bring offerings that honor our losses, including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. Facilitated by Erin Selover, Limei Kat Chen and Sheri Hostetler.
Note: The room will be open each day for an hour starting at 2pm, before the session begins at 3, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy.
March 26th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College
Panelists
Each afternoon, members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery invite you to a community circle designed to help us grieve our individual and collective losses. By naming our losses and mourning together, we can open to grief’s potential for solace, regeneration and transformation. We will engage in breathing practices, journaling, sharing, and a simple ritual using a communal altar to which we are invited to bring offerings that honor our losses, including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. Facilitated by Erin Selover, Limei Kat Chen and Sheri Hostetler.
Note: The room will be open each day for an hour starting at 2pm, before the session begins at 3, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy.
March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College
Panelists
4:45 pm: The Cutting Edges of Psychedelics Research: Potentials and Pitfalls
Co-Hosted by the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics
Psychedelic substances, long used by a number of Indigenous cultures, have been on a strange, jagged trip for nearly a century in the Western world, from experimentation by a few anthropologists and some elite and bohemian circles and early promising research, to an explosion of interest and experimentation in mass popular culture, to demonization, prohibition and the cessation of studies, to, most recently, renewed interest, nascent stabs at decriminalization, and the resumption of serious scientific exploration. We at Bioneers are honored to be able to host two of the most accomplished scientists at the leading edges of contemporary research in this field, both affiliated with the Center for the Science of Psychedelics, right here at UC Berkeley: Dr. Gül Dölen, a world-renowned neuroscientist leading the effort to understand the molecular mechanisms through which the brain engages with psychedelic substances; and Professor Michael Silver, an expert in visual perception and attention doing groundbreaking work on the effects of psychedelics on vision and brain function. They will discuss their research, their views on psychedelics’ potentials in mental health and furthering our understanding of consciousness, as well as what some of the potential pitfalls might be in seeking to work with these trickster molecules in our contentious culture. Moderated by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers senior producer.
March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Magnes Museum
Panelists
Friday, March 27th
3:00 pm: Evolution, Mind, Embodiment, and the Environment
A Dharma College and Bioneers Special Offering
Buddhism and modern science both tell us that our perceptions of the world can often be illusory. Among the most persistent and damaging of our illusions are that we are separate from one another and that the environment is something external to us. In reality, the connections between all living organisms and with the environment are deep and fundamental. Central among those connections is embodied cognition. In this session we will make use of that cognition to explore many of these fundamental connections through multiple lenses including Buddhism, evolution, and science of the mind. With: Carl Pilcher, Ph.D., former Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, whose interests include integrating ancient wisdom and non-dualist philosophies with a modern scientific world view.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Lotus Cafe, Dharma College
Panelists
Each afternoon, members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery invite you to a community circle designed to help us grieve our individual and collective losses. By naming our losses and mourning together, we can open to grief’s potential for solace, regeneration and transformation. We will engage in breathing practices, journaling, sharing, and a simple ritual using a communal altar to which we are invited to bring offerings that honor our losses, including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. Facilitated by Erin Selover, Limei Kat Chen and Sheri Hostetler.
Note: The room will be open each day for an hour starting at 2pm, before the session begins at 3, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College
Panelists
Each afternoon, members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery invite you to a community circle designed to help us grieve our individual and collective losses. By naming our losses and mourning together, we can open to grief’s potential for solace, regeneration and transformation. We will engage in breathing practices, journaling, sharing, and a simple ritual using a communal altar to which we are invited to bring offerings that honor our losses, including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. Facilitated by Erin Selover, Limei Kat Chen and Sheri Hostetler.
Note: The room will be open each day for an hour starting at 2pm, before the session begins at 3, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College
Panelists
Saturday, March 28th
March 28th | 9:22 am to 9:38 am | Zellerbach Hall
Michael Pollan, one of the nation’s most influential non-fiction writers and investigative journalists, is the author of nine previous bestselling books, including How to Change Your Mind; In Defense of Food; The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and The Botany of Desire. Today, hewill trace his six-year quest to solve the greatest mystery in nature: how, and why, are we conscious? That Odyssey, which he describes in his newest book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, is an enthralling tale that begins in a brain lab in Seattle, and ends, of all places, in a cave in the mountains of New Mexico, where he discovers that explaining consciousness may be less important than learning to practice it, fully, in our everyday lives.
March 28th | 11:39 am to 12:01 pm | Zellerbach Hall
Introduced by
Each afternoon, members of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery invite you to a community circle designed to help us grieve our individual and collective losses. By naming our losses and mourning together, we can open to grief’s potential for solace, regeneration and transformation. We will engage in breathing practices, journaling, sharing, and a simple ritual using a communal altar to which we are invited to bring offerings that honor our losses, including photos and/or responsibly foraged gifts from nature. Facilitated by Erin Selover, Limei Kat Chen and Sheri Hostetler.
Note: The room will be open each day for an hour starting at 2pm, before the session begins at 3, for those who want to come and sit quietly and/or write messages for the altar, but the room will be closed once each session begins to assure privacy.
March 28th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm | Insight Room, Dharma College
Panelists
There’s a good reason that philosophers, who have been struggling to understand consciousness for millennia, call it “the hard problem.” Michael Pollan, triggered by his experiences in meditation and with psychedelics, decided some seven years ago to dive into the topic. In this mind-expanding conversation with Dacher Keltner, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and author of Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life, Michael will discuss his deep dive into one of nature’s greatest mysteries: why are our mental operations accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a subjective sense of self? From the cutting edges of “plant neurobiology,” AI, and neuroscience to insights from philosophy, religion, psychedelic exploration, and literature, he will share with us what he found: a world far deeper and stranger than we can imagine.
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm | Freight & Salvage











