31: "Every individual matters" - Marc Bekoff and Compassionate Conservation - Sentientist Conversation

Marc is profesor emeritus of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published  31 books, won many awards for his research on animal behavior, animal emotions, compassionate conservation, & animal protection, has worked closely with Jane Goodall, & is a former Guggenheim Fellow. Marc's latest books are "Canine Confidential: Why Dogs Do What They Do" & "Unleashing Your Dog: A Field Guide to Giving Your Canine Companion the Best Life Possible" (with Jessica Pierce) & he also publishes regularly for Psychology Today. Marc & Jessica have recently written "A Dog's World" about what the world will be like for dogs as & when humans disappear (Princeton University Press, 2021). In 1986 Marc won the Master's age-graded Tour de France. His homepage is https://marcbekoff.com/.

In these Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”

Sentientism is "evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings."

The video of our conversation is here on YouTube, along with full show notes.

We discuss:

- Growing up in Brooklyn & not being a strong student in high-school

- Talking to a companion goldfish & the neighbourhood animals

- Imagining perpectives of non-human animals: "Minding animals"

- Seeming bizarre to question the sentience of non-human animals

- Selling records, undergrad degree, then a career using animal play behaviour as a window into the animal perspective

- Michael Fox's work with canids & becoming his grad student

- Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?"

- Donald Griffin's "The question of animal awareness" & "Animal Minds"

- Animal protection as a lifelong focus

- Getting academics out of the clouds and into helping

- Growing up in a culturally Jewish home with Russian Jewish immigrant grandparents, but being an atheist from day one

- "I never doubted that non-human animals had feelings" (Luna barks in agreement)

... and much more!

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "wall" https://sentientism.info/wall/ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist.

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Thanks to Graham for his post-prod work. Follow him: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu