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.
SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcast | Website | Spotify | RSS
Chaitanya is Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in the Centre for Regulatory Policy and Governance. He has a PhD in Economics. Chaitanya’s research interests include economic development strategies in the global south, structural change, economic development and regulatory policy, urban economics, and non-anthropocentric strategies/alternatives to anthropocentric value systems in progress and conservation including food systems research (and maybe Sentientist Economics?)
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
01:42 Chaitanya’s Intro
– Economics as a way to improve the world
03:45 What’s Real?
– Growing up in a #sindhi family in India
– #pakistan , #india & partition
– Having a #hindu temple at home
– An #atheist father “he didn’t believe in all those things” who turned to religion after a difficult time
– “I don’t believe in god”
– “Religion has always been a tool to marginalise different sections of the society”
– Rejecting faith
– Degree, masters, PhD… “questioning things… critical thinking”
– Before then, unthinkingly accepting what had been told
– “The way you think has real impact on society”
– “There are several ways of living life and one has agency”
– Evidence & reason, ethical & systemic critiques of religion
– “It’s a very hard task to grasp reality”
– “I would rather… analyse things around me as they are”
– #pluralism m
– Naturalistic views of relatedness & interconnectedness
– Finding a balance between defeatist humility & arrogant hubris
22:54 What Matters?
– Being sensitive, as a child, to humans & non-humans
– Growing up in a patriarchal society
– “Not cheating, working hard… stopping at red lights”
26:49 Who Matters?
– Sindhis typically eat meat, but father said “I always felt it was not the right thing to do”
– Buying meat from a public slaughterhouse “I did not feel comfortable but I used to love it [eating meat]”
– Family gatherings centred around #meat “everyone around me was relishing… & my father was telling me this is not the right thing to do”
– Fighting about eating meat at 4-5 years old
– Visiting the #slaughterhouse “this is where it comes from”
– #sentience & the dangers of human-defined moral scope…
…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.
Adrian is a multi-award winning fantasy and science fiction author. He is known best for his series Shadows of the Apt and for his novel Children of Time. Children of Time was awarded the 30th Arthur C. Clarke Award in …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 11 September 2022
Tom Cledwyn describes himself as the “chief emailer” at Drop Dead Generous (he’s actually the co-founder). Inspired by Chris Anderson’s (of TED) book, “Infectious Generosity”, Tom and his co-founder John Sweeney set up DDG as an experiment in sparking creative, …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 21 September 2025
Jack Waverley is a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Manchester. He uses marketing and consumer research to protect and promote the interests of all animals, including humans. Jack teaches on a range of BSc and MSc courses …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 6 September 2025
