Sentientism

Katherine is chief of Science Advancement and Outreach (SAO) at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). SAO aims to change the paradigm of biomedical research by promoting the development & implementation of cutting-edge strategies in biomedical research & training & eliminating the use of animals in experimentation. Katherine earned her bachelor’s degrees in biology psychology from Syracuse University and her Ph.D. in experimental psychology and cognitive science from the University of California–San Diego. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, she went on to become a research fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health, where she stayed for eight years. Over the course of her research career, she studied the neural correlates of linguistic, spatial, & memory processes, working with children with early focal brain injury, adults & children with schizophrenia, and individuals with Williams syndrome and related genetic disorders. Katherine has more than 20 years of experience conducting brain and neuroimaging research with humans and is an expert at experimental design and data analysis. She has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has presented her findings at national and international industry conferences. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who 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 Katherine's Intro - from neuroscience and the NIH to PETA - "About half of biomedical research... involves very invasive procedures with animals" - "It became clear to me that that assumption... that the harms we were doing were justifiable... fell apart... the harms were much greater than I realised but also... there's a lot of species differences that make data from these labs difficult to translate into benefits for humans." - "Then the question becomes... well what are we doing?" - "Trying to make sure people realise how sentient these animals really are... they have their own needs & wants & desires" - Previous episodes with Ingrid Newkirk https://youtu.be/M7Ac2Ba2jbM & Aysha Akhtar https://youtu.be/EZ_gh0ldzpo 04:55 What's Real? - "Religious but not deeply religious" parents - Anglican, episcopalian Christians - "It never really took" - Not needing external reasons for "wanting to cause as little harm as possible and to live in harmony with the world around us" - Learning about animals through science "started to change the way I viewed them" 24:54 What & Who Matters? 46:49 How Can We Make a Better Future? ...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!

Ziya is a television presenter, producer, author and board member. She was the co-host of Discovery Channel’s long-running primetime science magazine, Daily Planet. In 2019 she wrote the book “The Reality Bubble“. Ziya serves on the boards of a range of NGOs and charities, including PEN Canada, We Animals Media and WWF International. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who 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 Ziya's Intro  - Science broadcasting  @discoverycanada   - Author of "The Reality Bubble" exposing human blind-spots - NGO board roles including  @WeAnimalsMedia  (animal photojournalism led by Jo-Anne McArthur) - Tweeting about earthlings: https://twitter.com/ziyatong 03:32: What's Real? - "Being a bi-racial person gives you a sort of split view... Chinese... Eastern European" - Communism & capitalism, eastern & western - "I never really... took one true dogmatic reality" - "I consistently shed layers of what I previously thought of as reality" - Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned" - A science journalist career "naturalistic in one sense" - "With science you can reveal a lot... the whole book [The Reality Bubble] is about that... but it always puts a lens between you and the subject" - Black holes & mites on our eyelashes - "The humanities are much more subjective" - Polymaths spanning humanities & the sciences "that blend is what's interesting to me" - "Indigenous perspectives... have so much to share with us about how we perceive reality" - Swimming sea wolves in British Columbia "new to science - but indigenous peoples had known about these wolves for their entire histories" - The Consilience Model: Science and indigenous perspectives "Two eyed seeing" - Plant medicines like #ayahuasca "which open up an entirely new door to reality" - "I don't believe reality stands on firm ground... I'm happy to run around the ice flow as it shifts... reality should never be solid" - Science & indigenous perspectives "are both based on observation" - "To a neutrino this mug wouldn't be here at all" - "We have to question our every-day common sense notions of reality" - Humilty & error-correction - Risks of dogma within science "we looked at animals as if they were machines" - Brought up Roman #catholic , dabbled with #buddhism  / #sufiism  - Rumi: "There's a hundred ways to kiss the ground" - #Vipassna #meditation  - a 10 day silent retreat "you are really guided by yourself" - Feeding ants & saving an ant "I promised not to kill anything" as part of the 10 Buddhist precepts ...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!

Michael is a law professor and scholar of U.S. constitutional law. He is the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. In addition to constitutional law, Michael has taught courses in civil procedure and federal courts. He has written/co-written/edited six books, including Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights (co-written with his wife, Sherry Colb), as well as scores of law review articles about American constitutional law. He is also a columnist for Verdict. Michael is a former law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Michael has appeared in American news media as a legal expert and has been interviewed by and/or quoted in, for example, The New York Times, CNN, National Public Radio and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (another suspected sentientist). In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 02:02 Michael's Intro - Studying physics, then the law - Clerking then legal scholarship - Blogging @ Dorf On Law - #vegan since 2006 - Animal work in partnership with Mike's wife, Sherry Kolb "we agreed on nearly everything, but not quite everything" 04:44 What's Real? - Growing up in New York, raised #jewish "but mostly culturally" - "My father never went to synagogue unless it was somebody's wedding... he was not at all religious but he was the most ethical person I knew" - "Religion is not necessary and certainly... not sufficient to make someone an ethical person" - "That personal aspect... overshadowed anything I was being taught" - Dad's library: "the answers that the religious folks were giving to deep philosophical questions... barely scratched the surface... whereas if I went into my dad's study... Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy"... Lao Tse..." - Teaching: "what I really value is engagement with hard questions" - "The sorts of answers that religion gives stop asking the questions just when they become interesting... god made the world... god thus commanded it... it leaves lots of further questions unasked" - "Nearly all of the spiritual or supernatural beliefs I've encountered, whether religious or otherwise, strike me as ridiculous" - "If that happens [god appearing] then I'll adjust my views... but that will be in response to evidence... that itself would be a kind of naturalism." ...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!

Neil is a professor of philosophy with research interests spanning philosophy of mind, psychology, free will, moral responsibility, epistemology & applied ethics. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics & professor of philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney. From 2010, he was head of neuroethics at the Florey Institutes of Neuroscience in Melbourne. He has written many papers & books, including “Bad Beliefs: Why They Happen to Good People“. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome - Is Neil a #Sentientist ? 02:05 Neil's Intro - Perpetual winters between Oxford & Sydney - Philsophy of applied ethics, free will, epistemology - Neil's episode on #DecodingTheGurus re: intellectual virtue signalling 03:55 What's Real? - Brought up #jewish "very much a cultural thing... synagogue twice a year" in #southafrica Africa - Jewish Saturday school - Moving to #Australia & attending religious school - At 11-12 "This doesn't make much sense to me - this god business. I've been a convinced #atheist ever since" - "Being religious can be perfectly reasonable" - Subjective rationality "how well are you processing your evidence given where you are?" - "People are much more rational than we think... even #QAnon supporters... they're completely wrong... but if they believe what they're saying... they're rational given where they start" - #Trolling & #bullshit - "We've got lots of evidence people don't believe what they're saying" - #Determinism & #freewill & "the epistemic condition on responsibility"... "nobody does have that kind of control over their beliefs... they've done the best they can with the evidence available to them" - "Criticism comes cheap... so does praise" - "Luck explains so much" constitutive & present luck - "It gives us more to do... of the sort of things philosophers aren't good at" - Teaching critical thinking, logic, fallacies "people get better... but they don't get better at using it outside the classroom" - "In the classroom I give you evidence... they stipulate it... you just accept it"... "But in the real world you're faced with the continual problem... should I trust the evidence?" - A key reason people don't update beliefs given new evidence is because "they just don't trust the evidence in the first place... and you can formally model why they shouldn't... given what they already believe" - The "capital punishment views" experiment - "If somebody shows me a prima facie plausible study showing that... all dogs have 5 legs... I'm going to think... that it's bullshit" - Bayesianism - Gullibility, dogmatism, #skepticism - #QAnon , #Antivaxx , #homeopathy ...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!

Crystal is a veterinary practitioner, a journalist and an activist. She is the co-founder of Our Honor, a charity aiming to create an organized network of veterinary professionals who are able to challenge unethical institutionalised systems and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalised. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome - "I'd love for these sorts of conversations to be had in #veterinary schools" - "Should all vets maybe adopt a #Sentientism philosophy?" 03:21 Crystal's Intro - "A veterinarian who kind of recently joined the animal rights movement" - "This movement has kind of taken over my whole life" - Full-time veterinary practice & founding Our Honor - Empowering vets to "speak their conscience & confront systems of violence" - Countering bullying & retaliation - Compassionate Bay working on Californian legislation - The California fur ban & global impact - "It's quite astonishing - the resistance in the veterinary community to animal rights" - The founding of veterinary practice in animal exploitation - "They actively keep out anybody with an animal rights agenda from entering the profession" 06:36 What's Real? - Growing up in an agnostic family on a farm - Celebrating Christmas - "What are you, Christian or Jewish?... like those were the only two options" - Asking what happens when chicks die... "their soul goes to heaven" - Young people's encounters with death "shocking & terrifying" "but I don't have that same sense of trauma from it... they're being released from this faulty body" - "I have a very scientific mindset" - Reading the Bible... being fascinated - Arguing about organ donation - Weddings: "the wife had to obey & submit... that didn't seem like something I could jump on board with" -  @ellendegeneres  #ellendegeneres coming out & being attacked by religious homophobes - Religion: maintaining hierarchy & power structures vs. people treating each other better - "What if agnostics & atheists organised themselves - would they end up trying to oppress others?" - "There are some big unanswered questions... why am I here... where does consciousness come from? Once you die, lights out... really?" - "...consciousness is a supernatural thing? I don't know" - Ontological & methodological / epistemological #naturalism  - "All models are wrong but some are useful" - Sentience vs. consciousness - Panpsychism & Luke Roelofs episode... ...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!

Eva is the operations lead for the startup non-profit Pax Fauna. Pax Fauna exists to design a more effective social movement for animal freedom in the U.S. Eva has been organizing in the animal freedom movement since 2015 when she started working with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) in Chicago, where she focused on building community, writing protest music, and compiling the movements’ songs into an online songbook used by advocates around the world. She started working full time as DxE’s legal coordinator in 2018, managing the organization’s many legal cases, organizing trainings, and orchestrating large artistic demonstrations. Building on a background in Kingian nonviolence, Eva is a dedicated student of #nonviolentcommunication and is committed to bringing NVC’s repertoire of creative problem-solving tools to the work of building a better culture in the animal movement. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:39 Eva's Intro 02:48 What's Real? - "Growing up I definitely loved the supernatural... ghosts... god... mystical things" - Raised #episcopalian, baptised, church "I remember really enjoying that" - Considering confirmation but "starting to feel a little bit sceptical" - 5th grade: Debating people online about religion - "A sudden realisation... I don't actually believe all of this" - Looking for purpose - Identifying as an #atheist & focusing on the harms of religion (unaccepting, destructive, family rejections) - "I still don't believe in anything that can't be falsified" - "I'm really connected to the needs that can be met by religion..." working in an end of life hospice - "My own spirituality... characterised by #nonviolence" a Kingian perspective, nonviolent communication - Meeting the needs (community, morality)... without the supernatural - Valuing acceptance & care for others led to hostility vs. some religious ethics - #yoga & #meditation then finding "a more secular form of meditation" - Using supernaturalism as a metaphor - Naturalistic "spirituality"... "a felt sense of purpose" 13:20 What Matters? - Non-violence: Getting away from black & white "right and wrong" thinking to "thinking about needs" - Finding creative alternatives to meeting needs without violence - Needs & strategies to meet them - More fundamental needs: safety, sustenance, freedom from suffering - #maslow 's hierarchy, Scott Barry Kaufman's sailboat @ThePsychologyPodcast   - Protective use of force. Justifiable force. "Nonviolence is definitely not #pacifism " - Mourning unmet needs ...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!

Between 1999 and 2014, Bel was Style Editor for Metro. The fall of Rana Plaza in 2013 forced a re-assessment; today, she is a writer, speaker and activist with a focus on animal rights, the climate emergency and the toxic fashion system. Bel has taken part in and moderated numerous panels for brands and organisations and has been interviewed about her work in activism, alternative systems in fashion and culture change. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 01:48 Bel's Intro - Journalism, fashion editor, social & animal justice activism - "The world of fashion sucks you in" - Co-founding The Islington Climate Centre & running The Empathy Project 04:19 What's Real? - (I mis-spoke & asked "what matters?" - sorry!) - Growing up in #hongkong ... rich, vibrant, urban - "Really loving animals" first companion animal at 3 "they were these beautiful things" - Stray animals & wet markets "but no one talked about it" - Food "a very big deal in that culture"... valuing the exotic e.g. suckling pig / turtle soup - "At least they were honest... there was no pretense at compassion" - "I tucked in because everyone else tucked in" - "I held this love of animals whilst eating them for a very long time" - Growing up "broadly agnostic" with a Jewish father & a mother who moved through various religions - Saying the Lord's Prayer every morning at school - "I just couldn't correlate why there were so many sad things happening & god didn't seem to be very active in sorting it out" - Coming to #spirituality through "the extent of the suffering... abuse... cruelty"... "I could not rationalise it" - "I'm going to drive my love to them through thought & visualisation & #meditation " - "My god is the natural world" - "Animals are the sentient representations of nature" - "I do like to get my hands in the soil" 19:34 What Matters? - "Religions are man made constructions... constructed in times long gone... by powerful men... You cannot not question them." - Suffering as central to understanding good & bad 23:46 Who Matters? - "Even as we talk most people will think we're talking just about humans" - Moral philosophy's focus on humans - The rationalisations that support animal exploitation "I had an innocent idea of what authority does" - "I would volunteer in animal shelters then go home and have a meat dinner" - A journalist trip where they helped a sheep get free from barbed wire then "had lamb for dinner" - "My awakening... was my encounter with the #Yulin dog meat festival... I started to question the nature of humanity" ...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!

This episode is a bonus cross post of my conversation about Sentientism with Nathan and Todd on their Beyond Atheism podcast. Beyond Atheism moves beyond questions of gods' existence to ask "what's next in a godless world?" If that question interests you make sure you go and subscribe. Many thanks to Todd and Nathan for inviting me. I think they're on their way to Sentientism… In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what (and who) matters?” Sentientism answers those questions with a commitment to "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." Find out 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!

Paige is Communications Director for the streaming platform UnchainedTV. After initially going vegan “for the environment” Jane became an ethical vegan after attending her first vigil with LA Animal Save. Paige later became a Contributor for JaneUnchained News where she reported on vigils, PETA protests, VegFests, book launches, Cubes of Truth & vegan conferences. Paige then became Booker for LunchBreakLIVE, a daily cooking show & Senior Booker for JaneUnChained News. Now, as UnchainedTV Comms Director & co-producer/co-host of the Plant Based In the ‘Burbs show, Paige brings inspiration, humor & humbleness to the kitchen, showing simple swap outs & easy recipes to inspire people to bring more plants on their plates. She also works with Gwenna Hunter who launched the first vegan food bank in Southern California. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome 02:00 Paige's Intro 05:09 What's Real? - Paradigm shifts & language - Cultural differences re: dog & horse meat & values - Living on a cattle ranch w/grandparents "hard work & love" - California to Tennessee & back - "I'm more #spiritual than religious" - Agreed meanings of "humane" "so that humans can feel comfortable eating these animals" - "A lot of systems are breaking down" some in a good way, some not so good - #COP27 #greenwashing  - The Farm Bill, animal agriculture subsidies, lobbying - How bad ethics & bad epistemology feed each other - A sunday school teacher aunt - Corporal punishment "for me there was a Bible & a ruler" - "Pretty much buying into the American way... & #christianity " - A spiritual workshop - #thesecret & Michael Beckwith & the Agape International Spiritual Centre "A Baptist/Buddhist experience... this really fits my heart... commonality & peace" - #transcendence & interconnectedness in both naturalistic & spiritual ways of thinking - JW: Risks in spiritual movements that focus on "#manifesting your own future... so if bad things happen to you it's your fault" & high control & dangerous leaders & coercion - "If we take personal responsibility we can socially change... stop blaming others" - "Everything that has ever happened to me I take full responsibility for... even child abuse." - "A brother who took his life at 19"... "losing both parents to brain injury" - "I'd rather be empowered" - Risks of victim-blaming, even when the victim is ourselves - "There are situations where there are victims, perpetrators... (JW) & systemic influences we have very little control over" - Children working in US slaughterhouses - "Work towards justice for others" ...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!

Lori is Executive Director of The Kimmela Center and Founder & President of The Whale Sanctuary Project. She is a neuroscientist and expert in animal behavior and intelligence, formerly on the faculty of Emory University where she was also a faculty member at the Emory Center for Ethics. She is internationally known for her work on the evolution of the brain and intelligence in dolphins and whales and marine mammal welfare in captivity, as well as cognition in farmed animals through The Someone Project. In 2001 Lori co-authored a ground-breaking study with Diana Reiss offering the first conclusive evidence for mirror self-recognition in bottlenose dolphins, after which she decided against conducting further research with animals held captive in zoos and aquariums. Lori has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers, book chapters, and magazine articles on marine mammal biology and cognition, comparative brain anatomy, self-awareness in nonhuman animals, human-nonhuman animal relationships, and the evolution of intelligence. Lori has appeared in several films and television programs, including Blackfish; Unlocking the Cage; Long Gone Wild and the upcoming documentary about Corky, the orca held captive by SeaWorld since 1969. In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?” Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube. We discuss: 00:00 Welcome - Guest links e.g. Kathy Hessler https://youtu.be/R5eZebUAsQg 01:52 Lori's Intro - A central question: "What is it like to be another animal?" - "I ran into ethical issues that shaped how I conducted my career" - Science then science-based advocacy "it's all based on facts" 04:12 What's Real? - Raised Roman #Catholic as an Italian American in Brooklyn NY "Church on Sunday" - "I started to question the whole proposition... that there's some sort of a god" - Heaven, hell, sin "It's not light hearted... it's dark" - Becoming a recovering Catholic - "If there is a god, it's on vacation" & the #problemofevil  - Becoming #atheist "that's what I am today... I don't see any reason to propose that there's anything supernatural out there" - #agnostic "what does that even mean?... I'm atheist in the same way that I don't think that there are purple dinosaurs walking around in my room & talking to me... I'm not agnostic about that." - "I didn't ever draw my ethics from religion" - Catholic "#ethics but from a very weird point of view" - The psychological needs motivating religious belief - Teenage dabbling in #pseudoscience 20:45 What and Who Matters? A Better Future! ...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!