Since 2012, the University of Minnesota's Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing has hosted wellbeing thought-leaders to inspire and educate the community, organizations, and life-long learners through the Wellbeing Lecture Series.
Past speakers like Brené Brown, Atul Gawande, Dessa, Celeste Headlee, Rhonda Magee, and Jon Kabat-Zinn have explored a range of topics including purpose, vulnerability, food and wellbeing, gratitude, technology, and mindfulness, among others.
Explore wellbeing topics with us through the Wellbeing Series, an opportunity to engage, learn, grow, and enhance your wellbeing.
Register for our 2026 Wellbeing Series Lectures
For questions about the Wellbeing Series or to make disability-related accommodations, please contact the Bakken Center’s community relations and events office at [email protected] or 612-625-8164.
2026 Wellbeing Series
Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Insights for Wellbeing during Uncertain Times featuring Yuria Celidwen, PhD
February 12, Noon to 1:30 p.m. Central | Online via Zoom
Do you find it challenging to focus on community health and wellbeing in the current environment of divisiveness and dehumanization? Are you burned out from the personal and societal contexts of hostility and suffering? Have you noticed a tendency towards eco-anxiety stemming from a perceived helplessness in the face of an emphasis on individual self-improvement and in-group belonging, which can lead to competitiveness, isolation, and environmental exploitation?
Dr. Yuria Celidwen shares insights from her recent book, Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being, on how Indigenous sciences work together with Western perspectives to recalibrate current practices in the service of global wellbeing. She explores how Indigenous sciences challenge the widespread fear, dehumanization, and social divides to change our perspectives in favor of belonging as a sacred task in uncertain times.
Together, we’ll reflect on relating with each other as kin from a place of ecological belonging—rooted in a lived sense of collective wellbeing. By disseminating new cutting-edge Indigenous scientific insights and impactful clinical research findings, Dr. Celidwen welcomes us to an immersive experience of poetic expression and authentic truth-telling that invites us into a path that meets the world's complexity with reverence and joyous participation in the flourishing of all living beings.
About the Speaker
Yuria Celidwen, Ph.D., is a scholar and research scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-chair of the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit at the American Academy of Religion, whose life and work are deeply rooted in her Indigenous Nahua and Maya lineages from the cloudforests of Chiapas, Mexico. Raised by a family of mystics, healers, and poets, her childhood was shaped by the wilderness and the magical realism of Indigenous dreamlands, where her Elders' songs instilled a fertile ground of reverence, play, and wonder, leading her to identify as a Truth-bearer and culture-shifter. Her academic focus is on Indigenous forms of contemplation and the transcendent experience as it manifests in prosocial behaviors like ethics, compassion, and awe. Celidwen's overarching research statement, the “Ethics of Belonging,” encourages awareness, intentional action, and relationality for planetary flourishing, advocating for a path of meaning that is rooted in honoring Life.
Thriving Through the Years: Simple, Science‑Backed Steps to Healthy Aging featuring Mikhail Kogan, MD
March 26, Noon to 1:30 p.m. Central | Online via Zoom
In this accessible, engaging webinar, Dr. Kogan explores evidence-based strategies to support healthy aging at any stage of life. Drawing on integrative and geriatric medicine principles, he demystifies how lifestyle factors—like nutrition, movement, stress management, and social engagement—can nurture longevity, vitality, and wellbeing. Participants will learn practical, science-informed tools they can adopt right away to boost resilience, brain health, physical function, and emotional balance, while understanding what truly matters as we age.
About the Speaker
Dr. Mikhail Kogan is a leader in the rapidly growing field of Integrative Geriatrics and a prominent advocate for incorporating holistic approaches into mainstream healthcare. He is the chief editor of the definitive textbook “Integrative Geriatric Medicine”, published by Oxford University Press as part of the Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Library series. He also authored “Medical Marijuana: Dr. Kogan's Evidence-Based Guide to the Health Benefits of Cannabis” and has been involved on an international level advocating for effective and safe use of medical cannabis especially in geriatrics and palliative care.
Dr. Kogan currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the GWU Center for Integrative Medicine, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Care. Dr. Kogan’s leadership extends to numerous organizations. He is the current member of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) CAM PDQ Board, contributing to evidence-based guidelines for integrative oncology. He served on the boards of the American Board of Integrative Medicine, GW Center for Aging, Health, and Humanities, IM4US, AlzLife, and others. He is also the founder and former ED of AIM Health Institute, a nonprofit organization in the Washington, D.C. area that provides integrative medicine services to low-income and terminally ill patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
Science-based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times featuring Melinda Wenner Moyer, MA
October 20, Noon to 1:30 p.m. Central | Online via Zoom
In the blink of an eye, children today will be adults facing countless serious threats: climate change, gun violence, political polarization, and disinformation, to name but a few. What can parents, caregivers, and educators do to help kids develop the skills they will need to not just survive, but also thrive, in this complex world?
To find out, award-winning science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer interviewed hundreds of parenting experts and researchers across multiple fields—psychology, education, information literacy, technology, business, and even addiction. She shared her many discoveries in her new book Hello, Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. In this webinar, she will share key insights from her book. Ultimately, she will argue that while parents today are understandably anxious, there is much room for hope: Even in these uncertain times, we can still teach kids how to take care of themselves, fight for what they believe in, and bridge divides.
About the Speaker
Melinda Wenner Moyer is an award-winning contributing editor at Scientific American magazine and a regular contributor — and former columnist — at The New York Times. She is a former faculty member in NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and the author of two books: How To Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes and Hello Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. She writes the popular Substack parenting newsletter, Now What.