We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.
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Jackie is a former dairy & beef farmer turned full-time animal rights advocate. She is head of communications and a founding board member for the global non-profit, Vegan FTA (For The Animals). She also co-hosts their podcast and live shows. Jackie is also an author and public speaker.
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
– Jordi Casamitjana (https://youtu.be/vtCwoq1XnUg) as a “vegan godfather” 🙂
02:28 Jackie’s Intro
– From beef & dairy farming to animal advocacy & veganism
– Erin Wing (https://youtu.be/NAh1kLrp99Y)
04:20 What’s Real?
– Growing up in a UK village in the 1970’s
– Naturalist Gilbert White “England’s first ecologist?” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_White
– Christian community & school “If you’re good to go to heaven & if you’re bad Satan’s going to get you”… “Nobody ever questioned it”
– Fitting in & FOMO “everybody went to church on Sunday”
– Joining the church choir, but not being religious
– Losing son Luke at 2 days old
– “If god loves us all… how come there are all these bad things happening?”
– “Any shred of belief I ever had… just went straight out the window”
– Spirituality? Unexplained things… a clock starting without batteries… “things happening for a reason?”
– “Maybe there’s something greater out there… not god”
– Exploring Buddhism after going vegan “All you have to do is just be kind”
– Meditation & Yoga
– “There is such synergy between veganism & Buddhism”
30:38 What Matters?
– Good: “Not being mean… not killing” vs. god compliance
– “I don’t think there is a hell…” except for what we do to non-human animals
– Sons coming home from Xtian school saying “god’s going to strike me down!”
– Being most authentic & open at times when “I had nothing”
– Buddhism “has taught me not to judge other people… I get a lot of peace from it… being kind.”
– “Being compassionate towards yourself is the hardest thing to do”
– Dairy farming: “What they are doing is evil… but you can’t write them off as being inherently evil”
– “Everyone’s got a reason for being the way that they are”
41:50 Who Matters?
– Killing a spider, terrified, at 8 yrs old, then feeling “mortified that I had ended that life… that’s never left me”
– Husband Gareth carries a card to rescue bees with
– Reading an IWAF leaflet about seal culling
– Going vegetarian in 1987 after a Viva campaign on factory farming
– “I couldn’t believe that humans could be so cruel”
– Father going shooting, being attacked by animal activists
…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.
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Thanks Graham.
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