Sentientism

Jenny (@jennysplitter and jennysplitter.com) is an award-winning journalist & science writer covering food, agriculture, climate change, biodiversity, health & technology. Her work has been published across a wide range of media outlets including Vox, Forbes, Observer, The Washington Post, Popular Mechanics and New York Magazine. Jenny is a co-founder & contributing editor to the science communication project SciMoms. She is also a podcast host on the Animal Studies channel of the New Books Network & her newsletter, FutureFeed, chronicles change in the food system. 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 1:05 Jenny's Intro - journalism and SciMoms - The Science Moms film  2:09 What's Real? - Growing up in California as reform Jewish - Reform Judaism: "It's definitely not heavy handed with the God stuff" - Most of the parents were atheist and agnostic. It's mostly about the ritual and the tradition and the history - Jewish philosophy re: responsibility, community obligations & making the world better - It's less about the rules than the discussion - Moving from a naive view of a caring god to "at some point I just didn't really worry about it any more" 7:58 What Matters Morally? - Complexity in reform Judaism moral discussions at Hebrew school - "Closer vs. further away from God" - "Of course I'm angry - I've just been told by my friend I'm going to hell" - SkepChick & other atheist communities - "Do no harm", community, avoiding bad people, getting into the complex stuff - COVID & re-thinking communities - The evolution of morality, good & bad - Moral scope & consideration - Writing about the climate impacts of meat & going reducetarian, then just stopping eating meat - Enjoying substituting out animal products in cooking - Not wanting to do the big philosophical debate but changing behaviour anyway - Morality then behaviour or behaviour then morality? - Philosophical arguments vs. "real people" conversations - Emotion, stories & logic - Mollusc/invertebrate sentience? - Assessing the suffering of farmed animals & fish - Garrett Broad @ Fordham & why we care about some animals & not others - "My cat is a vicious murderer" - We don't have to understand non-human animal sentience perfectly to be confident they can suffer - Bio/ecocentrism, conservation and environmentalism. "We have to be thinking about ecosystems" - Ecosystem services - "Perilous bounty" by Tom Philpott - #JustTransition for industrialised & indigenous cultures ...and much more. Full notes on Sentientism.info and YouTube. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one is here on Facebook. Thanks Graham for the post-prod.

Cebuan (Cebby) Bliss (https://twitter.com/CebbyBliss) is a PhD candidate researching animal and biodiversity governance at Radboud University in the Netherlands (https://www.ru.nl/english/people/bliss-c/). 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 also on the Sentientism YouTube Channel. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:03 Cebuan's Intro - from the corporate world to academia - Environmental & animal welfare governance 4:17 What's Real? - Growing up in the UK in a Christian religious context, but not in a religious family - Having a naturalistic mindset from the start - Linking food to animals & going vegetarian at 6 yrs old (later vegan) - The commodification of life in animal agriculture - Seeing foxhunting, shooting & other traditional "countryside pursuits" - Atheism, agnosticism & developing an appreciation for eastern philosophy & spirituality through yoga 7:20 What Matters? - Compassion, sentience & avoiding harm - "May all beings be happy & free from suffering... may the thoughts, words and actions of my life contribute to the happiness and freedom for all." 11:55 Psychedelics, spiritualism & naturalism - Psychedelics & the perspectives they can open up - The precautionary principle. Acting in uncertainty - Bayesian thinking & probability 14:37 Supernaturalism, Religion & Morality - Using Holism "circle of life!" to justify harming/killing others - The centrality of compassion 18:16 Moral Scope & Considerability - Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism - Combining ecocentrism &  a compassionate animal welfare perspective. Compassionate conservation - Invasive species governance - How we categorise non-human animals (invasive, companion, farmed, vermin...)  - Sentience as a grounding - The instrumental or intrinsic value of ecosystems 25:00 The Future - breaking out of anthropocentrism - Naturalism & sentiocentrism vs. social norms and indoctrination - The damage caused by anthropocentrism - EU Lisbon Treaty (2009) recognition of animal sentience - Human cultures & customs & industry used as justification for harm & killing - Transformative governance: Integrated, inclusive, informed, adaptive. Tackling root causes - Changing entire systems. Social/economic... - "Humans can be thought of as an invasive species" - Invasive species can improve biodiversity 29:05 Sentientist Development Goals / Universal Declaration of Sentient Rights? ...and much more. Full show notes on YouTube and Sentientism.info.  Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Jacy (https://twitter.com/jacyanthis & https://jacyanthis.com/) is a social scientist & co-founder of the Sentience Institute (https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/). His acclaimed book, The End of Animal Farming  (https://jacyanthis.com/book), analyzes the development & popularisation of food technologies such as plant-based & cultivated meat. 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 1:26 Jacy's Intro Utilitarianism, Effective Altruism, Buddhism, neuroscience, community building, Animal Charity Evaluators, Sentience Institute, The End of Animal Farming, Sociology PhD & moral expansion. 3:22 What's Real? - Growing up around Baptist & Catholic churches near Houston but in an agnostic family - Attending church "lockins" - "I wasn't even told Santa was real growing up" - Interested in Buddhist views of suffering, but not the supernatural aspects - Naturalism has a connotation that there is nothing supernatural. "That's an empirical claim about which I remain uncertain" - Would multiverses, our universe being a simulation or pre-Big Bang history be seen as "supernatural"? - The varieties of religious identity: metaphysics, ethics, community 9:20 What Matters? - Moral heuristics & their conflicts - Adopting utilitarianism at 12 yrs old & looking for a "proof" - From moral realism to anti-realism (per Brian Tomasik) - It's up to us to decide which mental phenomenon to put in the "sentience" and "consciousness" categories - Objectivity, relativism, nihilism & arbitrariness - Even most religious people would act morally if there was no god - Rejecting "mind-independent" truth as the next step up from rejecting supernatural truths - Non-objective morality can still be compelling - Grounding morality in a concern for the experiences of others - The priority balance between reducing suffering vs. enhancing flourishing 18:20 Moral Scope & Expansion - Utilitarianism led to vegetarianism then veganism - Focusing initially on human issues, working at GiveWell - Cause prioritisation led back to non-human issues - Persuading sentiocentrists to be more effective & effective altruists to be sentiocentric - The bias against helping other species -  Non-human animal causes can seem sentimental until you engage w/the arguments - Far future/long-termism - Effective Altruists have the highest veg*n % of almost any human group - Ancient roots of sentiocentrism/veganism & naturalism - "Everything has been said before" ... And much more - see Sentientism.info for full show notes. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ here: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham for the post-prod https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.

Frans (fransdewaal.com) is a primatologist & ethologist. He is Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University, director of the Living Links Center at Emory & the author of many books including "Chimpanzee Politics", "Our Inner Ape" & "The Bonobo & the Atheist". He has featured in TV/radio productions & TED talks viewed by tens of millions of people. His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, & food-sharing. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences & the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts & Sciences. 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 1:19 Frans' Intro - Understanding animals - Ethology, primates, animal behaviour, intelligence & morality - Breaking out of behaviourism. "We have so much evidence for animal intelligence... these taboos are being broken" - The ripple effect. Finding remarkable capabilities in primates, then in many other species 4:05 What's Real? From Catholic to apathist - Growing up Catholic & dropping religion at 17 - "My parents were very unhappy but I was part of a generation where everyone was doing that" - Apathism... "I don't particularly care if god exists" - "In Catholicism & every religion there's a lot of hypocrisy... people who talk one way & act another" - Child abuse scandals & cover-ups - "Jesus was an inspiring figure... whether he's a real historical figure or not" - Half of people in the Netherlands call themselves atheists & we see that coming to the USA 8:48 What Matters Morally? - Religious & evolutionary & intuition as drivers of morality - Religions can provide narratives to support your moral intuitions (e.g. the good samaritan) - "You cannot go wrong with compassion, morally" - Studying empathy in non-human animals - You can't build a moral system without empathy - Reasoning & logic, without compassion, can lead to awful harm - "Empathy & compassion are not human inventions" - Very young human children & dogs both show compassion to a crying person (Carolyn Zahn-Waxler) - We find compassion in many non-human animals & that is the basis for human morality too - The ability to detect sentience in others & to feel affected by it. Roots in maternal care (hence empathy more developed in females)? Oxytocin - "If you have a co-operative animal society you need to worry about your fellows" ... 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 using this simple form. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Thanks @cgbessellieu for the post-production.

Kyle (https://twitter.com/KyleJohannsen2 and https://philpeople.org/profiles/kyle-johannsen) is Adjunct Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Queen's University. His research is in social & political philosophy, & in animal & env. ethics. He teaches normative ethics, metaethics, bioethics, business ethics, cyberethics, the philosophy of law & critical thinking. He is the author of "Wild Animal Ethics". 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 1:22 Kyle's Intro - Catia Faria's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catia_Faria) dissertation on wild animal suffering 2:25 What's Real? - Growing up Roman Catholic. Attending catholic schools. Believing in god. - "I didn't like being Catholic. I found it very restrictive... I didn't like having to pray - it felt fruitless" - Ethics was being thought about but "I didn't like the conservative values" e.g. abortion, contraception, sex - "It just struck me as false." - Catholicism did leave the impression that it's important to think about morality - Majoring in philosophy 8:25 What Matters? - "Morality is objective" - "Even relativists behave like morality is objective... why would you argue unless there were some right answer?" - Even under objective morality duties vary by context - Moral objectivism doesn't have to imply moral realism - Consistency, coherence, flourishing, co-op as potential groundings - Goods (welfare, resources, health, relationships), functions (distribution, efficiency, increases) & constraints (respect) values - "I don't know if pleasure always wins out" - Pluralism within Sentientism 21:15 Moral Scope? Sentience - Anthropocentrism, Sentiocentrism, Biocentrism, Ecocentrism - Sentientism as Sentiocentrism & Naturalism - Sentiocentrism itself implies naturalism. It conflicts with many supernatural/religious worldviews (e.g. soul as basis for moral value, use of science to assess sentience) - Hard cases of marginal sentience (brain injury, foetal development, simplest animals) 28:27 The Journey to Sentientism - Taking a PhD animal ethics course taught by Will Kymlicka based on Zoopolis - Concluding that "Sentience is the correct criterion for inclusion in the moral community" - Pluralism re: various goods. But sentience is a condition for the non-welfare elements to count as good (e.g. health only matters if the being cares about being healthy) - "Veganism is a moral requirement if sentiocentrism is right" - Going vegan during the PhD. Cutting out animal products over 8 month transition. Finding social support - And much more. See YouTube or Sentientism.info Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/ Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ Join me and Kyle in our biggest community group - open to all: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism

Lu (https://twitter.com/LuShegay) is an animal law attorney from Kazakhstan, now based in the USA. She is the co-founder and Managing Director of the Institute of Animal Law of Asia (https://www.ialasia.org/ and https://twitter.com/ianimallawasia). 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 1:15 Lu's Intro - Animal law from Kazakhstan to the USA 2:07 What's Real? - Kazakhstan as a secular country, with Islam and Christianity the main religions - Being brought to Christianity by Lu's mother - Learning about religion and realising "it's not real - god is not real" - Believing "there's somebody above us but they're not like us" - "I believe in the universe and I believe in science" -  Believing using facts and reason, but also believing there are some things that can't be explained 6:52 What Matters Morally? - Morality can come from the heart. Listening to ourselves re: what feels right or wrong - Having compassion & putting yourself in someone else's shoes - As a child: loving animals but still eating animals - Re-considering animal ethics while exploring animal law in Kazakhstan - "The legal system doesn't work well in Kazakhstan even for humans" so many aren't ready for the animal law field - Studying animal law in the USA and learning about animal suffering - Dr Raj Reddy's class "changed my world" https://law.lclark.edu/live/profiles/7148-rajesh-reddy - Going vegetarian - Learning about what happens to male chicks in the egg industry. Giving up eggs - Going vegan. "It came to me naturally that I was doing something wrong" - Eating meat is central to culture in Kazakhstan but there are meat and dairy alternatives - Family not understanding veganism. Questioning health and ethics - "I've only met one other vegan in Kazakhstan" - Biocentrism, ecocentrism and the interdependencies for sentients - Loving space, but not understanding why governments spend so much more on exploring other planets rather than caring for ours and exploring our oceans - Long-termism. Space colonisation 21:54 The Future - Being realistic about moral scope expansion - Raising awareness and educating people - Recognising that different countries have very different contexts. Where there are serious human crises it's harder to prioritise non-human issues - The non-human animal law agenda across Asia - Does law follow culture and politics or can it lead and innovate as well? - In many Asian countries politics & law don't respond to public opinion - Some countries have animal laws but there is no enforcement (e.g. Kazakhstan animal cruelty legislation) - Different animal law approaches (cruelty, personhood, farming/fishing) - The EU and UK recognising the salience of animal sentience - "I'm positive about our future... I experienced the rapid change in my own views". Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Henry (https://twitter.com/henrymance) is the chief features writer for the Financial Times newspaper. He is the author of "How to Love Animals in a Human Shaped World." (https://uk.bookshop.org/books/1606708923_how-to-love-animals-in-a-human-shaped-world/9781787332089). 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 on the Sentientism YouTube. We discuss: 0:00 Welcome 1:27 Henry's Intro - Studying environmental policy - Photography and the natural world - Working for a biodiversity think tank in Colombia - Journalism at the Financial Times - Writing "How to Love Animals..." - "It hasn't really been about changing my values... it's been about trying to align my behaviours." 3:25 What's Real? Anglican Christianity - Keith Thomas' "Man and the Natural World" - Different Christian perspectives on non-human animals - Is the Noah's Ark story one reason why we find zoos acceptable? - "Noah's Ark is not a particularly good model for conservation" - "We think we're Noah but in fact we're the flood" - Interviewing the Archbishop of Canterbury "Pets do go to heaven!" - Animal Interfaith Alliance - "Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom or compassion" - Talking to Mongolian Buddhists about eating meat "if you don't see the killing it's less of a sin" - How distance means we allow animal farming to continue - JW: "The Dalai Lama isn't vegan and he has no excuses" - How Anglicanism focuses on compassion & love rather than dogmatic rules - Obedience vs. compassion in religious ethics - The church has often been behind the curve in ethics - "Iris Murdoch's idea of love helped me more than any direct religious underpinning" 13:00 What Matters? - At first "I wanted animals to be OK because I liked looking at them." Polar bears and orangutans - The impact of humanity on wild animals - Shifting to take the animals' point of view - Being forced to think about animal farming in Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens - How viewing species of animals as "eaten" reduces our assessment of sentience - We spend money on our pets medical bills that could save human lives - "If it happens like this it must be tolerable" - "Sentience is a pretty good starting point" - Are bivalves & insects sentient? - The richness of bee behaviour & the risks of insect farming - "Surely people can see for themselves - that is a conscious animal" - Edge cases vs. the core issue of animal farming - "There is something really special about consciousness" vs biocentrism & ecocentrism - Whether you care about sentience or ecosystems what you have in common is "Factory farming is a complete disaster" - And much more (see Sentientism.info or YouTube for full show notes). Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Richard (https://twitter.com/onemorebrown & https://onemorebrown.com/)  is a philosopher at CUNY. His work is focused on the philosophy of mind, consciousness studies & the foundations of cognitive science. He also has interests & projects in the philosophy of language, metaethics, philosophy of physics, logic, the philosophy of logic and the history of philosophy. 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 Richard's Intro: A carbon-based philosopher. 2:08 What's real? - Attending Christian and other religious venues. Mother converting to being a Jehovah's Witness - "I found it incredible - in the sense of not possible to believe" - "Worship me or die" - Theodicy & the problem of evil - Refusing baptism at the age of 14. "If you live in my house you're going to do this." - Running away, stealing a motorcycle, being arrested & spending 4 years at juvenile hall - Scholarship & philosophy - Atheistic re: formal religions: "I find the stuff in all the holy texts to be obviously man made", but agnostic re: theism - What counts as evidence? Fine tuning, arguments from design? - Simulation hypothesis. Maybe our creator is a teenager in the next universe up or hyper-dimensional mice - God as a genocidal maniac - Religious homophobia - Naturalistic ethics based on reason (vs. authority/fear/obedience) - "It's better to do the naturalistic thing because you have to ultimately do it anyway" - Islam means "peace through submission" - "It's undignified to demand worship" 18:29 What matters morally? - "I always thought it was obvious that there are things that matter morally" - Being raised vegetarian, then going vegan - The optimistic futurism of the 1950's - JW pamphlets depicting a transhumanist utopia where we've engineered the predators to eat Impossible Burgers - "I was raised to see animals as companions & friends & family members" - Kant, universalism, freedom & autonomy - Theirs is valuable because mine is valuable - "There's something rational about morality" - "I couldn't make sense of sociopaths" - Hume's is/ought - A flaw in traditional Kantian ethics is that "only 'rational creatures' get into the club". Christine Korsgaard corrects - Ethical pluralism & moral considerability 32:42 Sentience, consciousness and p-zombies - Panpsychism as a popular alternative to the impasse between physicalism & dualism - Can electrons experience/suffer? Are they pieces of consciousness? If so, surely they're bored? - Epiphenomenalism - We often respond before we are conscious - "The mind is the brain" - Is panpsychism any more outlandish than the concept of fields in physics? ... And much more. See YouTube and Sentientism.info. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/.  Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Heather (https://twitter.com/zoophilosophy & https://www.heatherbrowning.net/) is a scientist, philosopher & a former zookeeper & welfare officer. She is now a researcher at the London School of Economics specialising in animal sentience, welfare, & ethics.  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 the Sentientism YouTube. We discuss: 1:33 Heather Intro - biology to zookeeping to philosophy - Volunteering, later working at zoos. Getting to know animals - Studying zoology/biology - Studying philosophy, shifting to PhD focus on measuring animal welfare - "Cheetahs don't really like to run" - How do "natural behaviours" relate to animal welfare - Trying to take the animal's point of view - The Foundations of Animal Sentience programme at LSE - The power of interdisciplinary work 10:55 What's real? - Growing up in a fairly naturalistic household. Occasional church visits - Being encouraged to question & explore - Joining a church group for the community - Balking at religious rules/restrictions - Asking questions & not getting answers - "Science just seemed like the best way of investigating the world" - Scientists are flawed humans too - There are many things we don't know & some we may never understand - We're evolved creatures that have developed heuristics that have been useful to us for survival/procreation - The dangers of a need for/expectation of perfection - Dangers of over-confidence/dogma/motivated reasoning in science 21:54 What matters morally? - Naturalism does involve giving up meaning, but we can create our own meaning - Hedonist nihilism. What matters to me? - Sitting between naturalising or eliminating morality, vs. moral realism - Evolutionary basis of human consciousness, including empathy, fairness, co-operation (and not just in humans) - "What matters is the subjective pleasure and pains we have in our lives" - "Our wellbeing is an objective fact about the world" - Empathy is caring about the wellbeing of others 31:42 Which entities matter? Moral scope - "I've always loved animals" - At 5 yrs "When I grow up I want to be a zookeeper" - Finding it difficult to eat meat. Feeling disgust  - Saying "I'm vegetarian" to get out of cooking meat in a class, then realising "I could just do that" and going vegetarian at 12 yrs - Supportive parents: "Now you need to learn to cook!" & being joined by a sister - A friend was told "You can't go vegetarian" - And much more... See Sentientism.info or YouTube for full notes. Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join Heather on our "I'm a Sentientist" wall https://sentientism.info/wall/ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham for the post-prod https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.

Marcus (https://twitter.com/MarcusDaniell) is a professional tennis player from New Zealand. He is a philanthropist and an advocate for effective altruism through his work as the founder of High Impact Athletes (https://highimpactathletes.org/) and as a member of Giving What We Can.  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 1:45 Marcus intro - pro tennis and High Impact Athletes charity 3:02 What's real? - Growing up on a farm in New Zealand - A "spiritual" father and a "hippie" mother - Pragmatism, a love for nature and animals, but a comfort with death. Hunting as a child - Attending Christian schools - Enjoying Religious Education but never buying in. Being agnostic/atheist from a young age - Moving alone to Slovakia for tennis - Discovering "spirituality" and eastern philosophies - Studying philosophy at university - Discovering animal ethics but thinking "I'm an athlete, I need meat" - A turning point when a friend ordered whale in a sushi restaurant in Tokyo - Going veg*an a week later - Finding awe and wonder in a naturalistic/scientific worldview - "Put me next to the ocean or in a forest or a jungle and it's like experiencing magic for me" - Naturalistic karma? Putting positive energy into the world and getting positive things back 14:06 What matters? Humans and non-humans - Meeting a vegan tennis pro - "I now feel like I'm living in my space in the world - in the right way" - A sense of solidity... "That's really helped me" - Our lack of understanding of non-human sentients - Intelligence vs. sentience as a moral qualifier - "I would consider myself a sentientist now" - I try to give respect to all sentient beings. If they can suffer, try not to cause them suffering - Artificial sentients? Does suffering matter regardless of species or substrate? - Sentience as an evolved class of information processing that could also be programmed in - Luna the puppy makes an audio appearance - Existential, catastrophic and suffering risks (S-risks) - Peter Singer's Animal Liberation. Trying not to cause suffering - It's so easy not to think. "I wonder how we can create more of these culturally shocking moments to make more people understand" - The morals were somewhere there, just hidden under layers of culture and tradition 28:05 The Future - Talking to others about animal products and hearing "We agree on all the reasons but I'm not going to make the change" - "I would love for the world to be plant-based" - Is regenerative animal farming an option? - Can slaughter ever be humane? - The broad common ground re: rejecting factory farming - And more... (see YouTube or Sentientism.info). Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our "wall" https://sentientism.info/wall/ w/this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist. Marcus is on our "celebs" page: https://sentientism.info/sentientist-pledge/marcus-daniell. Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. Main one: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism. Thanks Graham for the post-prod https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.