john a. powell: How to Build A World Where We All Belong
Release Date: 10/01/2025
Do Dogs Go to Heaven?
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
#LifeAfterDeath #Resurrection #Grief #Requiem Discover what Jesus really teaches about life after death through a deeply personal story about loss and hope. In this moving All Souls Day sermon from Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, Dean Malcolm Clemens Young shares the story of his beloved dog Poppy's peaceful death and explores Jesus' profound answer to the Sadducees' question about resurrection. What You'll Discover: ✅ The story of Poppy's last walk and what it teaches about grief and loss ✅ Why the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus with their question about marriage and resurrection ✅ What...
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Jenny Odell: How To Do Nothing
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. Odell is an artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on close observation of the everyday world. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention...
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Rebecca Lyman: Early Christian Traditions
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
Rebecca Lyman is the Samuel Garrett Professor of Church History emerita at The Church Divinity School of the Pacific, at the ecumenical and interfaith Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is also an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of California. Rev. Lyman is an historian of ancient Christianity, focused particularly on the use and abuse of the category of “heresy” in antiquity. In her book, Early Christian Traditions, she introduces us to the world of the early church. Beginning with the Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures in which the first...
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Mason Bates: 2025 Artist In Residence
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
Every year since 2012, we have offered a residency to artists to create work illuminating the cathedral’s vision and annual theme and reimagining church as they do so. Our 2025 Artist in Residence, for our Year of the Future, is composer, DJ, and curator Mason Bates. Mason Bates is imaginatively transforming the way classical music is created and experienced. He is the composer of the Grammy-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, which San Francisco Opera presented last year, and most recently The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which premiered at the...
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Laurel Mathewson: In Conversation with Tersa of Ávila
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
At age twenty-one, the pain of losing her mother to cancer sent Laurel Mathewson—with a naturally skeptical and questioning outlook—on a years-long existential journey. Laurel began to read The Interior Castle, Saint Teresa of Ávila’s book about the “dwellings” within our souls that we move through to develop an ever-deepening relationship with God through prayer. In a beautifully written and moving memoir, she illustrates an ancient reality still very much alive today: the love and closeness of a good God, as known through Jesus Christ, who seeks to move out into the...
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The Future of the Arts and the Regeneration of San Francisco
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
San Francisco is home to some of the nation’s most important and forward-thinking arts institutions. What is their role in shaping a city in the process of revitalization? How are they themselves being shaped by this fast-evolving landscape? Especially against a backdrop of shifting national values, with provocative questions being asked at the highest levels, which directly impact the role and autonomy of museums and culture. Join us for a candid dialogue between some of San Francisco’s pre-eminent arts and civic leaders, moderated by Cathedral Dean Malcolm Clemens Young. The panel...
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john a. powell: How to Build A World Where We All Belong
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
john powell Forum Grace Cathedral, San Francisco john a. powell (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify”) is an internationally respected expert in the areas of civil rights, racial identity, fair housing, poverty, and democracy. He is director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor's Chair in Equity and Inclusion, and is a professor of law, African American studies, and ethnic studies. He is the author of Racing to Justice,...
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Paula Nesbitt: A Way of Listening
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
The Rev. Dr. Paula Nesbitt was ordained a priest (1992) and then taught and directed an ethics institute at the University of Denver prior to serving as a visiting associate professor of sociology at U.C. Berkeley for 10 years. She also serves on the Steering Group of the Anglican Communion’s Anglican Peace and Justice Network as well as the International Anglican Women’s Network, and as a research consultant for varied Anglican and Episcopal projects. Her books include Indaba! A Way of Listening, Engaging, and Understanding across the Anglican Communion (Church Publishing,...
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Bonnie Tsui: On Muscle
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
Join Malcolm Clemens Young for a conversation with Bonnie Tsui about her latest book, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters. In On Muscle, Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have...
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Jack Clark: The Game They Play In Heaven
The Forum at Grace Cathedral
Jack Clark is the iconic varsity rugby coach at University of California. His team-building abilities are considered legendary within university circles and throughout the corporate sector. Since becoming head coach of the Golden Bears in 1984, Clark has led the rugby program to 30 national collegiate championships. Entering his 45th year overall and 43rd as head coach in 2025-26, he holds an all-time record of 732-106-5 (.870) in 15s and 230-23-0 (.909) in 7s. He has also produced 157 All-Americans, 60 players who have made 805 combined appearances on the United States National...
info_outlinejohn powell Forum
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco
john a. powell (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify”) is an internationally respected expert in the areas of civil rights, racial identity, fair housing, poverty, and democracy. He is director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor's Chair in Equity and Inclusion, and is a professor of law, African American studies, and ethnic studies. He is the author of Racing to Justice, coauthor of Belonging without Othering and The Power of Bridging, and cofounder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council.
Join Malcolm Clemens Young, Dean of Grace Cathedral, for a conversation with Professor powell about an actionable path through “bridging” that helps us communicate, coexist, and imagine a new story for our shared future where we all belong.
Recorded at Grace Cathedral on September 28, 2025.
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About the Guest
john a. powell is an internationally respected expert in the areas of civil rights, racial identity, fair housing, poverty, and democracy. He is director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor's Chair in Equity and Inclusion, and is a professor of law, African American studies, and ethnic studies. He is the author of Racing to Justice, coauthor of Belonging without Othering and The Power of Bridging, and cofounder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council. For more, visit johnapowell.org.
About the Moderator
The Very Rev. Dr. Malcolm Clemens Young is the dean of Grace Cathedral. He is the author of The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau and The Invisible Hand in Wilderness: Economics, Ecology, and God, and is a regular contributor on religion to the Huffington Post and San Francisco Examiner.
About The Forum
The Forum is a series of stimulating conversations about faith and ethics in relation to the important issues of our day. We invite inspiring and illustrious people to sit down for a real conversation with the Forum’s host and with you. Our guests range from artists, inventors and philosophers to pop culturists and elected officials, but the point of The Forum is singular: civil, sophisticated discourse that engages minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world. Learn more about The Forum here: gracecathedral.org/the-forum