Sentientism

Nick (@NickPende & theconversation) is a Sociologist who researches social movements, social change & Critical Animal Studies. He is a member of The Institute for Critical Animal Studies, the International Association of Vegan Sociologists & The Australian Sociological Association. Nick co-hosts the Freedom of Species podcast & radio show on Melbourne’s 3CR community radio station & also co-hosts the Progressive Podcast Australia podcast with his partner Katie. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:22 Nick's Intro - Animal advocacy & social justice activism - doing them & studying them sociologically - Hosting the Freedom of Species podcast & radio show 04:50 What's Real? - Growing up non-religious w/agnostic (or atheist?) parents - Joining a religious friend at Sunday School - Being very anti-religious at 5-6 years old (a mini Richard Dawkins?) "This doesn't make any sense at all" - "Religion or spirituality has zero impact on my ethics" - Softening somewhat... - "Myq Kaplan probably started off where I was before taking mushrooms... I've just never taken the mushrooms" - Non-supernatural analogues for spirituality/supernatural: Flow states, rituals, habits - The ethical problems of believing without evidence e.g. anti-vaxx - Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality fanfic - Being open minded but not wasting our time on every implausible claim - Religion as a brake on social progress (sexism, homophobia, speciesism...) - Religion's positive & negative functions in society - Reforming religions to conform w/secular ethics - Threatening children w/eternal torture 22:35 What Matters? - A Christian friend: "You seem like quite ethical people but you're not religious!" - Socially progressive, liberal parents, so ethics came naturally - Apathetic & apolitical as a kid. "I was more into ice hockey" - Punk rock as a gateway into ethics & politics. Bad Religion - Protesting the Iraq war - Anti-war, pro-env, human rights, then animal rights & veganism "It just made total sense" - Justice first, then compassion. More a rational than an emotional response - Challenging hierarchies. Human & non-human - "It didn't make sense that I was above my dog" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Howie (@askhowie & plantyourself.com) is a coach & author & podcast host. His coaching work with people & organisations focuses on leadership, values, productivity & health. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 02:01 Howie's Intro - Coaching & writing - "Not a big fan of capitalism" - Effective altruism through organisations - "Helping people respond to reality" - Not knowing "what's real?" or "what matters?" but let's try to work it out 04:54 What's Real? - Growing up in a conservative Jewish household in New Jersey - Culturally Jewish but "kind of atheist" - Mother's history of the holocaust & kindertransport - Father's "Jewish identity & socialism." Needling the Rabbi: "We have to rest on the Sabbath so now I have to walk up 30 flights of stairs?!" - Being given "The Truth About the Bible" book. Bible inconsistencies & immorality - "The Jews have learned to argue & doubt & question" - "The Jewish people must survive" as a core commitment - Einstein, Marx, Freud - A militant zionist phase - "It was safe." There was no danger to the ritual vs. sweatlodges - A "safe, conventional, suburban religion" - Attending an Ivy League college - "There are smart people who believe in ghosts" - Exploring parapsychology - "There were serious academics questioning my worldview which was completely materialistic" - Rejecting the exclusive tribalism & the simplistic narratives of religion but "There is a big effing mystery out there"  - Shamanic practices "oh honey, it's all bullshit" - Being sceptical of our own perceptions & reasoning. Be open - Predictive dreams - Contextualism... "How is this working for me?" - "Look for & assume positive intent... then act like it's true" - Talking to trees, brambles as defences, mycorrhizal fungi as comms networks - Narratives of dominion vs. "consciousness in everything" - Arbitrary vs. narratives grounded in reality - "Supposedly using evidence & reason we've destroyed the planet" - Checks: 1) consistency with the natural world & 2) compassion 32:50 What Matters? - Be nice to people - Mother's experience of Nazi occupation of Austria. "The teachers & her so called friends were wearing Nazi armbands" & "Punch a Nazi". ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Nandita is the ED of Population Balance which works to address the impacts of human overpopulation & overconsumption on the planet, people & animals. As faculty with the Institute for Humane Education, Nandita teaches a course “Pronatalism & Overpopulation” about the pervasive pressure on women to have children & the impacts on them, families, non-human animals & the planet. Previously, Nandita worked as a high school physics & math teacher & an administrator in both the public & independent school systems as well as an engineer at Bombardier Aerospace. She has a B.Eng. (Aerospace Engineering) from Ryerson University, a B.Ed. from University of Toronto & an M.Ed. (Humane Ed.) from Antioch University. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:10 Nandita's Intro - Engineering to teaching maths/physics to studying & teaching at the Institute of Humane Education (animals, humans, environment) - Pronatalism: The pressure to have children - Population stabilisation 04:26 What's Real? - Growing up in a fairly liberal household in North-West India - Moving every 3 years. "Wired to desire change" - Following Hindu religious holidays & traditions - Transactional religious compliance: fear-based & conditional - Tribalism & superstition "It didn't make a lot of sense to me" - Moving to Canada - Becoming non-religious was fairly straight-forward - Dabbling in self-discovery & studying psychology: Realising "These pieces of my identity were for the most part socially constructed" - De-constructing values & beliefs "Who I was made to believe I was was very limited & finite & self-serving." Reputation, wealth, success, family - "What motivates me deeply?" rather than "what do people expect of me?" - Exploring eastern & western philosophy - "There is this deep reverence that I hold - not for a god... but for the entire evolutionary process" "There seems to some kind of a kind of miraculousness to it" - Interconnectedness, scale, deep time, human humility - "There is something much bigger going on." Mystery - driven by science - but not limited to evidence, because there may be things we'll never have evidence of - Evidence might be limited but that's not an excuse for "making stuff up" - How supernatural beliefs can warp compassionate ethics 22:18 What & Who Matters? ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Michael Huemer (@FakeNousBlog) is a professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is the author of more than seventy academic articles in epistemology, ethics, metaethics, metaphysics, & political philosophy, as well as eight amazing books that YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BUY including Skepticism & the Veil of Perception, Ethical Intuitionism, The Problem of Political Authority, Approaching Infinity, Paradox Lost, & Dialogues on Ethical Vegetarianism. He blogs at fakenous.net. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:31 Mike's Intro 02:20 What's Real? - Reading bible stories at 5 yrs old & declaring "This is stupid!... I don't believe in god" - "all the major religions are false... incredibly implausible" - Bible & other religious texts: "just so obviously the sort of things a primitive human would write"... obsessed w/sex, different human tribes - "If I'd created a universe containing 100 bn galaxies... I don't think I'd be obsessed with this particular tribe of humans" - "God in traditional religions doesn't even seem like a decent person, let alone the greatest... If he was a human we'd have to lock him in jail"  - Mike's "Scary Bible Quotes" page - Jesus contradicting the Old Testament - Atheism to agnosticism. "There could still be a creator". Fine tuning - Intelligent design, multiverse, anthropic responses - Methodological naturalism & metaphysical naturalism - "I don't even really know what supernatural means" - "There can be natural things that are beyond our understanding" - "I think I'm conscious & I don't think my consciousness is physical"... many naturalists say that's not naturalism - Direct realism: "You should assume that things are they way they seem unless you have specific reasons for thinking otherwise". Most people who object don't know what it is. "The main problem is people refuse to listen." 23:52 What Matters? - "It was always bizarre that people thought you needed religion in order to have ethics" - Divine Command Theory: "The boss is going to mess you up". That's not ethics - What does "where does ethics come from?" even mean? Where did numbers come from? - "We thought about it - then it was obvious" - "If you've felt pain you're going to notice that it's bad" - The is/ought gap "is supposed to be between such & such is painful & such & such is bad" - "If you have experienced suffering you're aware of its badness" - "In a way I'm following what I thought when I was a small child" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Dr. Brian Earp (@briandavidearp) is Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics & Health Policy & a Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford. His work is cross-disciplinary, following training in philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, history & sociology of science and medicine, & ethics. He has written extensively on resisting traditional & religious justifications for causing harm – particularly to children through genital mutilation / circumcision. He wrote the book "Love Drugs" w/Julian Savulescu. Brian is also a professional singer & actor. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 02:00 Brian's Intro - Academically trying to understand the world & lay out how it should be. 03:04 What's Real? - Growing up in Seattle in a Free Methodist Evangelical Christian society - Mum: Christianity & god. Dad: A more naturalist perspective - "Evolution was something that might tempt us away from the path of righteousness" - Unthinkingly accepting Christianity at first - Asking questions of the pastor at 12/13 yrs. Is it fair to send people to hell who have never even heard of Jesus? - The problem of evil... while being emotionally sensitive to the pain of others - Taking "a very serious concern with morality" from mum's Christian worldview even as a kid - Divine command theory: things are right/wrong because god says so - Agnostic re: metaphysics: "What do you mean by god?" - The burden of proof is on the claimant... "Wow - how are you confident about that?" - Bible college vs. secular Yale - Studying philosophy at college - The fundamental fact claims fell apart - Ethical concerns: religious homophobia etc. The tension between strict religious rules & personal compassionate intuitions "something has to go here!" - "Unless I have an independent reason to believe one view over another..." 15:37 What Matters? - Supernatural worldview risks to universal compassion - Can compassion go too far? Undermining justice/fairness? - Agnostic about the grounding of ethics / meta-ethics - Instead a Quinian web of beliefs & intuitions I'm pretty darn sure about: "Needless suffering of an innocent person"... "Treating people differently without reason"... "concern for the disadvantaged / those without power or representation" then reasoning about cases - "We should believe what we have best reason to believe" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Jamila (thesoulfulveganista.com & @Jamila_Anahata) is an activist, blogger & holistic lifestyle coach. She is aso Marketing Director of the Afro-Vegan Society. Sign up for their NAVCON2021 summit on Nov 13th - open to all!. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 01:12 Jamila’s Intro - Soulful Veganista & the AfroVegan Society - Community, creativity, connection to resist oppression and help others - "All the isms & justices". Veganism, racial justice / food justice / climate justice... - AVS: Veganism through a black lens 02:45 What’s Real? - Growing up in Maryland in the Southern US - Raised Southern Baptist Christian. Bible study, daily church, Sunday service - "I used to down religion... that industry" - The church as a powerful community for black southern people... "throwing our pain at the altar" - Experiencing deep racism... beyond bias - A hunger for something beyond the suffering of "this realm" - "I was always a gothy kid... a punk kid" - "3 seconds after I went vegan I decided I wasn't going to be Christian any more" - "If I can open my mind about veganism... I can do anything... it was so liberating" - Leaving religion because of evidence, ethics or rebellion - "My dad is a natural activist... he reminds me of Malcolm X" - Learing the painful history of Christianity - Not wanting to support the religion or animal product industries - Empathy as a moral compass. I didn't need religion for that - Keeping the compassion & community - Looking within for ethics - Spirituality. Connection & oneness - "There's more to life than my own suffering or flourishing" - Languages, class, religions, castes, hierarchies, status & how they separate us - "I swiped away all the titles" - Eckhart Tolle - "I am not what they think I am... I am divinely guided" - "If we wiped away all the oppressive things from Christianity that's what we'd be left with" - "I feel like I receive intuitive messages from my spiritual team" - Scepticism & believing in science... but that can't be all there is - Other planes or dimensions - "I was that faith based person where science was the enemy" - "This pandemic helped me... I learned that medicine is OK..." - Believing in 'what is' doesn't make me a less of a spiritual person - Naturalism on this plane, spiritualism for the others? ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Dr. Sailesh Rao (climatehealers.org) is Founder & Exec Dir of Climate Healers, a non-profit working to heal the climate. After a glittering career in tech he switched to focus on solving our environmental crises. Dr. Rao is the author of two books, Carbon Dharma & Carbon Yoga, & is an Exec Producer of several documentaries including, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019) & They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021). In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 01:14 Dr. Rao's Intro - from India to the US, from tech to saving the world! - Growing up in a Hindu family in Chennai, India - "God is in charge & you are just an instrument" vs. the materialism of engineering training - Being inspired by the moon landing - Landing his dream job at Bell Labs - Starting a consulting firm creating the high-speed internet - "I had achieved, but I wasn't happy" - Frustrations with commercialisation & cut-throat competition - Seeing Al Gore talk about climate change... "If half of what he's saying is true I'm wasting my time" - Jumping to work on climate change "the biggest systems change around" - Being trained by Al Gore to take the message out - Asking Al Gore "If we take all the land we're currently using for raising animals & turn it back to forest can we not reverse climate change?" but he didn't want to talk about it - Starting Climate Healers 07:23 What's Real? - Becoming disillusioned with religion "This is poor work if God's in charge" - "We're the only species that's a mistake on this planet" - Visiting a sanctuary forest "I felt this sense of perfection"... "We did nothing... we gave it back to the animals... make sure no human being comes inside" - "My granddaughter was born... I felt as if I was holding humanity in my arms"... "I belong exactly as I am... you are a fool!" - Writing "Carbon Dharma" & "Carbon Yoga" - "Any 5 year old can tell you... be kind to all life" - Transforming from caterpillar to butterfly - "We are the climate regulating species" - Fire, weapons, partnerships with animals... then fossil fuels - Be a caretaker species, not a predator species - "If you insist on being a narcissistic predator species you're going to die" - "My granddaughter brought me back to faith" - "We're here to serve the animals not to eat them" - "The evidence... is that the Bhavadgita is actually correct" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Pablo (@PabloPCastello & on LinkedIn) is a Research Assistant at the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law & a Junior Fellow of the Animals & Biodiversity programme of the Global Research Network (GRN) think tank. He is a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway (UoL). His research in Philosophy focuses on understanding the importance of human language in producing human dominion over animals. He also investigates the role animal language can play in relation to the participation of animals in political decision-making processes & the construction of zoodemocratic systems. His interests include ecofeminism, postcolonialism, critical race theory, critical disability studies, animal law, conservation, continental philosophy & critical animal studies. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:30 Pablo's Intro - interdisciplinary, intersectional research re: human & non-human animals, their languages & potential zoodemocracy. 3:51 What's Real? - Born into an atheist family - Wittgenstein's "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" & the mystical sense of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky - "Becoming sensitive to a dimension of reality that I thought had been hidden to me" via Wittgenstein's early work - Are poetry, music, arts & feeling beyond science even while they are aspects of reality (not the mystical)? - Being grounded in our embodied existence (ecofeminism) - "Ethical value flows from reality"... "Sentience matters because it is real... there are beings that actually suffer" - Interests, preferences & relationships are grounded in who those beings are - Derrida's "The Animal That Therefore I Am." What is it like for a cat to see me naked?! - Alterity. Appreciating the "other" in their own terms. Levinas - Science & naturalism & personal experience - Feminist thought & context - Language, categories, relations, community & power - "Western" binaries. Those w/without reason. Barbarians & the civilised. - Are relations & communities & cultures reducible to patterns of info proc in the minds of sentients? - Is the bond between cow & calf intrinsically valuable, or are the relationships reducible to the individual cow & calf? - Science & scientism - Claire Jean Kim's "Dangerous Crossings". Understanding different actors' positionality - including our own. Ethic of mutual avowal ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there! Thanks Graham.

Healthy Planet is hosted by Bob DiBenedetto. His WUSB radio show aims to help people learn about the powerful effect our everyday choices can have in creating a healthy and compassionate world. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook.

Cat (@CatBeschVN) founded and leads Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue. She is also a writer & activist addressing many non-human animal issues. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:10 Cat's Intro - Founding Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue - Growing up in Virginia, USA - Studying International Relations in Washington DC - A political/military family 3:10 What's Real? - Growing up as a liberal Lutheran with very religious parents - The church as social fabric - Figuring out that "I just don't really believe in any of that crap" - High school & Baptist society in Alabama - The church seeing all sex as shameful... "holding virginity in such high esteem" - Feminism & Islam. "Headscarves & Hymens" by Mona Eltahawy.  - "The way the institutions look at sex & sexuality just makes you want to put your fist through a wall" - "A whole bunch of girls that think they're going to hell" - That was the turning point. Everything started to crumble - Not picking at the church too hard as it was the social fabric. "Life is hard enough at 16." I left it silently on my own - The hypocrisy of religious compassion & judgementalism - Atheists & agnostics are not immoral people - "I attended church... I took communion... my sins are flushed... now I can go back to being a dickhead" - Religious compassion is often conditional & constrained - The immorality of even "moderate" religious worldviews (e.g. hell, sexism, homophobia) - "Women are not emotionally stable enough to be leaders in the Catholic church"! - "I found it oppressive." Leaving the church was a moment of liberation - Travelling & living in many religious cultures - Starting the "Let's not be an asshole" religion - Being wrong. "I used to hate vegans", now I'm "on the side of all sentient beings" - Everybody has a chance to change - "I just don't know" as a strong naturalistic stance 25:09 What (& Who) Matters? - An early empathy for animals "they were my best friends", but living in an environment where killing sentient beings was normal - I never met a vegan in the horse riding world - "I love what you do for me" isn't love - Being angry at our previous selves for not seeing - Thinking all vegans must be "dirty hippies" - Meeting first vegans hosting couch-surfers in Mongolia - Being challenged "You love animals but who are you eating?" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Thanks for the post-prod Graham.