Sentientism

LoriKim (she/her/we/our) describes herself as an educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist & healer. Originally from Jamaica & now living in the Bronx, USA, LoriKim has dedicated her life to working for social & environmental justice specifically organizing around LGBTQIA+, Black, Brown & Indigenous communities.  LoriKim’s work in anthropology & her training as a biologist has helped her work against environmental racism, in providing environmental education for People of Color & in working towards decolonialism & liberation through veganism for over 25 years. LoriKim works as a founder, facilitator and organiser with organisations including BlackVegFest https://blackvegfest.org/ & The Cypher. 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 01:26 LoriKim's Intro - Educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist, healer - "Black liberation practice" with "a queer & vegan lens" 02:38 What's Real? - Growing up in Kingston, Jamaica - "Being a Black country... what that means is that we had to really hold tight to our traditions, our histories that were muddled, were removed... because of slavery" - "Highly colonised", stringent laws, highly carceral - "Missionaries saw opportunity to come in and bring their various and sundry versions of the truth" - Synchronising traditions into Christianity as the only way they could survive - Growing up Catholic "A very white and blond Jesus... this is not someone I can relate to." - "I never believed in Santa Claus" - "Religion... as the framework I had to live under in order to go about my daily life" - Communion, saying rosary, prayer - "What I saw in the natural world did not reflect this idea that god created all of these things... I watched creation happen." - Moving to the US at 13 - "This religion doesn't make any sense to me" & "bruk out" from church - Coming out & stopping eating meat at 14 - "I could not equate this idea of loving all beings... and also eating them" - "Yes - I'm an atheist... I don't believe any of this" - "However, spirit moves you." - Talking with ancestors "I thought that was me talking to myself, but..." - "I would ask for things in my head & it would happen" - "I never really strayed away from thinking about the world beyond" - A multitude of universes & studying science - "A hybrid of really being rooted in science... & there's so much more that's unknown that I know that I feel" - "I'm an Aquarius & we don't follow anybody else's rules" - Practising things that come from a lot of African ancestral traditions, "but not strictly" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Nicolas is a research associate at INRAE (L’institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement) and the Toulouse School of Economics. His work focuses on risk and decision theory, environmental economics, benefit-cost analysis and, more recently, on animal welfare. He has published scientific papers on subjects including the precautionary principle, the value of statistical life, and climate policy. He has organized several international conferences and written numerous articles for the general public, as well as reports on risk policy 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: 00:00 Welcome 01:31 Nicolas' Intro - Economics, risk, environment, psychology, now non-human animals - "Trying to include animal issues into mainstream economics" - From anthropocentrism to sentientism in every field? 04:40 What's Real? - Growing up in SW France - Catholic parents, but "religion was not very important" - Attending church - Not anti-religion but not a positive view either - "Religions have contributed to a strong divide between humans and animals... dominion... stewardship" - Surrounded by animals... dogs, cows in grandfather's farm, horses - "I liked to view myself as an animal lover" - "I like to see myself as a scientifically-minded person"  - Religious & naturalistic routes to anthropocentrism 12:08 What & Who Matters? - "We are raised to eat meat... and we don't really question it" - "My vegetarian epiphany" 10 years ago on a date - "I was completely ignorant about what is going on in that industry [dairy, eggs, meat]" - "I didn't see that when it's quite obvious - and I have wrong beliefs - what happened in my brain, my mind & in society?" - Cognitive dissonance, meat paradox, psychology: "Every time I had new sources of information it was bad news" - A colleague, expert in the meat industry, asked "what's the problem with animal welfare in the meat industry?" - "People don't want to see, don't want to know... even the experts" - "There is a demand for cognitive dissonance, but also a supply" - The evolution of morality, but why do we care about animals - some more than others? Extension of our compassion for humans, reciprocity? - Emotional / intellectual routes into moral consideration - Bio/ecocentrism/holism - "In economics, all research is anthropocentric" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Marina is a journalist, currently focusing on factory farming and the criminalization of activists who fight it. Marina has written for Vox, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Intercept and many other publications. She used to be an editor for Harvard Magazine. Before that, she wrote and edited for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Toledo Blade and The Harvard Crimson. 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 01:25 Marina's Intro - Zeroing in on animal-focused journalism 03:20 What's Real? - Raised by a single mum - Jewish but not v.religious (like many Soviet jews) - Emigrating from Belarus to the USA at 3yrs old - Growing up in St. Louis - Orthodox Jewish school to 8th grade but "feeling like an outsider" - "I was sceptical of the religious stuff from a pretty young age" - Updating "my religion" on FaceBook as "The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" in middle school - Gender segregated classes - Hearing anti-Arab racist statements in class - "A profound sense of justice" - Going vegetarian at 11 yrs old "if we don't have to kill animals... then it's wrong to do that" - School-mates "did not understand vegetarianism... god gave us dominion over animals... they're happy to be killed & give us sustenance." - Secular, progressive high-school, but "I wouldn't say that people's attitudes... were particularly different... different reasons... protein, animals not intelligent..." - Moving to veganism - "I see everything through an animal liberation lens" - Secular/scientific/naturalistic worldviews don't guarantee good ethics either - "I feel a profound connection to alll of life on earth, particularly animals & sentient life... it's something I can't express in material terms" - Animal ways of understanding can transcend what humans are capable of. Birds navigation, dog smell capability... - "Respect for non-human life & epistemological humility should underpin our efforts to understand the world - rather than the assumption that humans have the right to manage & dominate" - "I still identify as Jewish... an important part of who I am" - Atheists/agnostics within religious communities - "The way I feel about life & animals can definitely be described as spriritual" - Human dominionism "is totally at odds with my worldview" - The harms that can come from religious or naturalistic worldviews - "Science is responsible for a lot of evil stuff too" 24:00 What Matters? - Justice - "I reject any form of violence... & that's what animal agriculture is" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Susana is an assistant professor based at the Department of Logic, History, and Philosophy of Science of UNED, working on animal ethics and the philosophy of animal minds. She holds a BA in Philosophy from Complutense University of Madrid, an MA in Global Ethics and Human Values from King’s College London and a PhD in Philosophy from UNED, Spain. She has been a post-doc fellow at the University of Graz and at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna. Susana describes her research interest as focusing on “what animals are capable of feeling, thinking, and doing, and what this means for the sort of treatment that we owe them.” Susana led the project “Animals and the Concept of Death” which culminated in her book, “La Zarigüeya De Schrödinger” or “Schrödinger’s Possum”. 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 01:46 Susana's Intro - Vienna & Madrid cultures re: animals & veganism 03:57 What's Real? - Growing up in a 100% atheist household. Unusual for 1980's Spain - "I used to think of god as a woman" but "I never had it as a belief" - No religious education... "It's a little bit sad" - "It's always been very natural to not have god as part of the explanation" - Some sense of shame about not being religious as a kid but "I quickly grew proud of my beliefs" - Attending an international private school with rich kids "I knew I was different"... incorporated being an atheist into that difference - Superstitions "Just in case" :) 12:51 What Matters? - "I want to believe in moral realism - I don't want to be a relativist" - "Sentience is definitely something that provides a good grounding for ethics & moral status" - "I feel like something is left out if we focus excessively on sentience" - Agency as a potential moral grounding? "Something that ought to be respected about agency" - Wilcox: "agency & sentience are co-extensive" - "Harms beyond sentience?... ways of wronging animals that don't correlate with subjective feelings": dignity, preventing from relations / developing capacity - Drawn to objectiveless accounts of wellbeing more than hedonist accounts - "Pleasure is something important... but a life that contains only pleasure... might be a good enough life, but it's somehow impoverished" - Nihilism - "It feels like experiences aren't everything"... "Experiences are subject to manipulation, habituation..." ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Mark is a psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, best known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience. He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital and is the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association. He is also Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association. Mark has received numerous awards, notably Honorary Membership of the New York Psychoanalytic Society, the American College of Psychoanalysts and the American College of Psychiatrists. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters, and 6 books. His second book, The Neuropsychology of Dreams, was a landmark contribution to the field. His 2002 book (with Oliver Turnbull), The Brain and the Inner World was a best-seller and has been translated into 13 languages. His latest book, on the hard problem of consciousness, is The Hidden Spring. 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 01:29 Mark's Intro - The brain as the organ of the mind - Breaking from behaviourism - Studying psychoanalysis (first person) alongside neuroscience (studying from the outside) - The value of interdisciplinary studies of consciousness - Artificial intelligence perspectives 06:08 What's Real? - Sunday school, Christian mother - At 5-6 yrs old, father said "Your mum believes in all that stuff, I don't." - Brother's horrific accident & brain damage: "He came back from the hospital... a changed person." "Who is this guy and where is Lee?" - "I was forced at an early age to confront this question of the relationship mind & body... the person & the organism" - "My sentient being must somehow be bound up with the functions of this bodily organ" - "I think we underestimate little kids... they really do think about these things" - "Clearly he is his brain" - Finding it terrifying... intimations of our own mortality - Lying in bed in panic: "I am going to cease to exist" - Depression: "what's the point?" - Becoming atheist, now agnostic. Appreciating the limits of human comprehension (through working with patients) - "We're only able to comprehend as much as the instrument we use... is capable of... it's not a perfect instrument" - Taking a comfort in ignorance & the limits of our capability - "Do the best we can to understand" but "science has limits" - Un-testable/falsifiable beliefs. Delusions as a response to frightening uncertainties ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Steve is a philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at California State University, East Bay who specializes in animal ethics, environmental ethics and meta-ethics. He was co-founder in 1985 of the journal Between the Species: A Journal of Ethics and served as its initial co-editor. Steve was a member of the board of the American Philosophical Quarterly (1991–1994). In 1983, Steve founded, with his wife Jeanne, the Hayward Friends of Animals Humane Society. They now operate Second Chance, Helping the Pets of People in Need, in California. Steve wrote Morals, Reason, and Animals, in 1987, Subjective Morals, in 2011, and edited Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat; published in 2004. 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  01:34 Steve's Intro - Getting out of the ivory tower "Put the values you espouse into effect & help the animals" - A seminal early voice in animal ethics 6:05 What's Real? - Growing up in Salt Lake City - Immigrant parents from war-torn Europe "focused on making sure they could make a living" - Greek Orthodox & Methodist Christian parents - Sunday School - Order of the Cross cult (vegetarian because of reincarnation) - "I was never interested in religion" "The story of Noah was really nuts" - "The story in the 1950's was you couldn't survive without meat... but my mother proved that wrong" - "We liked animals... didn't see the need to kill them for something totally unnecessary" - James vs. Bertrand Russell "It's immoral to believe something just because it makes you feel good" 17:03 What Matters? - Literature as a way into philosophy - Philosophy at Rice University (classical, medieval, existential) 22:52 Who Matters? - Singer's Animal Liberation - Animals "were my friends" - "The most basic principle of morality is not to cause suffering for no good reason" - "I was very much a Kantian" - Writing "Are Animals Moral Beings" - "Utilitarianism can tend to subordinate the indvidual... it tried to do a science of ethics" - "Kantianism has problems too" - Pluralism & pragmatism: Care ethics, Singer & utility, Regan & rights, Korsgaard & Kant... - "We need to build on history" - Anthropocentric & bio/ecocentric challenges - “A lot of environmental ethics… is nonsense” ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Kathryn Gillespie, a writer, ethnographer, and geographer, discusses the harms experienced by animals in the food system. She focuses on individual animals and their stories, as well as the exploitative nature of farms and auction yards. The intersection of violence and care in sanctuary animals is explored, along with the concept of reality and the challenges of transitioning to veganism. The importance of expanding moral consideration beyond humans and exploring non-human animal ethics is discussed. The podcast also touches on grief in orcas, empathy for non-human animals, transitioning away from animal agriculture, and the significance of key questions.

Dr. Mark Solomon is an author, neuropsychologist, musician and radio show/podcast host whose work touches on a wide range of topics. Mark produces a national Street Epistemology radio show/podcast called "Being Reasonable" (beingreasonableshow.com, @B_Reasonable_, @Being Reasonable) 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 01:25 Mark's Intro -  @Street Epistemology . Conversations about "what you know and how you know it"  @Anthony Magnabosco , Reid Nicewonder  @Cordial Curiosity   02:44 What's Real? - Flat Earth - Backfire effect - Talking less about the belief & more about the reasons for the belief - Improving our epistemology, not just "correcting" beliefs - "I grew up in a Jewish household that didn't discuss god" - Living with two separate epistemologies: naturalism / humanism but culturally Jewish - "I couldn't even tell you that my rabbi believed in the supernatural" - SE as a tool anyone can use - Evidence & reason - Objectivity & subjectivity - Reality, truth, belief & opinion - Starting conversations with understanding how people think of truth 27:44 What Matters? - "I don't know" - "I try to be a selfless person but sometimes I act selfishly" - "I just act - I don't know if I have a choice" - Uncertainty, psychology & moral foundations - Suffering vs. flourishing (causing bad feelings in others is bad) - Moral origins in evolution & psychology - Determinism & free will - Pre & non-human morality - Compassion & co-operation as evolutionarily adaptive - Virtue, deontology, utility, feminist care, relational ethics - "If there were no sentient beings there would be no morality" - Internal (warm fuzzy feelings, reciprocity...) & external reasons to be good - True altruism & demandingness. "At least don't needlessly cause suffering & death" - Emotional & intellectual routes to compassion - Alleviating suffering vs. enhancing flourishing - Universal Declaration of Human Rights 48:15 Who Matters? - Nagel's "What is it like to be a bat?" - Getting backyard chickens for eggs & as pets - "It's become painfully obvious to us that they are really smart creatures with their own social order... they definitely feel suffering." - "There are some really stark commonalities between humans & chickens" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Lucas studied and practiced architecture in the U.S., Canada, and India before leaving it all behind in an effort to rethink what it is to live a meaningful life. Since then he's traveled the world, started a philanthropic enterprise, Haven Hearts, and written a beautiful, compassionate book. Along the way he enjoys playing frisbee, making things with his hands, and befriending every dog who crosses his path. He is the author of The Weight of Empathy, a travel memoir. Lucas describes it as an exploration of both our relationship with animals and his own personal process of learning how to be a compassionate person in an often violent and uncaring world. 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 01:15 Lucas' Intro - author & social enterprise entrepreneur - Architecture, travelling, volunteering, writing "The Weight of Empathy", benefitting the world 03:28 What's Real? - Non-religious parents, "recovering Catholic" mother, father from a Jewish family - Raised as a child on a "hippy" commune - "From the moment I knew the word I probably identified as an atheist", but not anti-theist - Some "woo-woo" spirituality. Tarot cards, divination, magic - Open minded, rational, scientific way of thinking - Experimenting w/levitation & telekinesis "It was not very successful" - Religious inspiration in art/culture. Community & separation - Where people turn to for explanations of the unexplainable - Alan Watts & Daoism - Hallucinogenics & mushrooms - A "hybrid rationalist spiritual view" - Carl Sagan - "There's an inherent quality in matter... that is self-organising" - From interstellar dust to stars to elements to life to sentience - "Sentient beings are a way for the universe to observe itself" - "Maybe if you took mushrooms you'd describe the same things in a different way" - Teleology, fine tuning argument & the anthropic principle - Multiple worlds 29:34 What & Who Matters? - Sensitive, pacifistic tendencies - Communism (Russian family history), justice, equality - An affinity with non-human animals (dogs, cats & wild animal) - Loving the family chickens, but eating them. "These were chickens I knew" - Inventing a justifying narrative as a child that humans need to eat the meat of animals because "we're made of meat" ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.

Adam is a Lecturer in Env. Sci. at Deakin Uni. He works on questions related to ecology, conservation & society. He is most interested in: i) how concern for Animals informs environmental values & practice, ii) the env. potential of transitioning to plant-based agri & iii) more critical approaches to how the sciences consider Animals. Adam wants to leverage research to help create a better future for Animals, the environment & humans. 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 01:57 Adam's Intro - "An animal person". Vegan activist, lecturer & scientist - The idea that animals matter "took over" 03:16 What's Real? - Catholic grandma, mother traumatised by Catholicism, non-religious father - High-school: enthusiastic atheism & "an affinity with science" - Uni: learning about the social history & context of religions - "I'm a proper atheist... I just don't think there's anything there" - "How I think about reality is grounded in natural science" - Humility re: complex systems (e.g. social, envir) - Scientism. Science might not have all of the answers - Reading fantasy & sci-fi: "Religion is just another fantasy book" - Religious friends. Talking about bible inconsistencies & faith & submission - "Letting your thinking be done by others - I'm not into that" - Scepticism "show me the evidence" - The positives of religious community & connection - Environment: "Why can't we love it for what it is rather than investing some sort of supernaturalness into it" - Faith vs. evidence & reason - Pseudoscience & "pretend naturalism" - Conspiracy theories, woo & Goop - "Pseudoscience tries to use the language of science to trick people" - QAnon: "That stuff is batshit" - Teaching science communication - Flat Earth, Cults & "True Believers" - The "Oh No Ross & Carrie" podcast https://ohnopodcast.com/ - "Religion is an accepted mass delusion" - Heaven & hell: "It's a good way to control people" 33:40 What Matters? - Social cohesion & relationships - "Being good to the person next to you... not harming" - Pluralism: virtues, deontology, utilitarianism, consequentialism - Evolution of morality: from having young that need care - "Survival of the most caring?" - "I don't want to just propogate my genes any more - that's why I'm not down the sperm bank every day" - "Ethicists & philosophers often talk shit" - The frequent disregard of conservationists for sentients (e.g. culling) ...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info. 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.