130: Consumers can drive compassionate change – Ethos CEO Jill Ettinger – Sentientism

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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Jill has been a leading voice in digital media for more than a decade. She’s been published in outlets including MTV, The Huffington Post, and the Village Voice. She served as Head of Content for a popular vegan media platform from 2017-2020, with a reach of more than 50 million per month. She has worked with a number of impact media platforms to help build their traffic and positioning, as well as with leading brands and celebrities working to make the world a more sustainable and ethical space. Jill is the co-founder, CEO and Head of Content for Ethos.

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 Jill’s Intro

– Immersed in digital content

– Co-founding https://the-ethos.co/

– Vegan media & natural foods industries

– The #Conspirituality podcast & #DavidWolfe 

03:42 What’s Real?

– “The religion that governed my house was #bobdylan “

– Parents raised #Jewish, father became atheist, “7/11 jewish” mother

– Kicked out of hebrew school “one of my father’s more proud moments”

– Living with dad after parents split

– Child of the 80’s “you’re on your own journey”

– Constantine Sandis https://youtu.be/iy0UdN7WTxc

– Becoming a mum

– Animals’ different realities

– “We’re the chosen people… an egregious statement… how can one group matter more?.. after so much suffering”

– #Israel & #palestine 

– Fond memories of Jewish culture but “as a rule to live by… not at all”

– “this omnipresent god… directing every moment of my life… I wanted the autonomy”

– #Agnostic. Open to the idea of “some sort of god”

– #dogma 

– The risks of the #wellness / #spirituality worlds. #antivaxx, #Qanon, #alternativemedicine 

– Open-mindedness, evidence & gut-feel

– #DavidWolfe shows a #moonlanding #conspiracy video

– Distrust of authority

– Scepticism about vaccines didn’t seem too serious “to each their own”. Then #covid19 hits

– “I very much prefer to have science in my corner… but sometimes you can just tell”

– A denial, scepticism, gullibility spectrum?

– David Wolfe “leveraging science when it supported his narrative but slamming it when it didn’t”

– Gossip as “a way to keep the tribal community safe”

– “Conspiracy theories… we use them unconsciously to defend ourselves”

32:10 What & Who Matters?

– “I don’t think you need religion to know good from bad”

–  @Sam Harris  

– Raising a #vegan child “she asked what it was and I said that used to be a pig’s stomach or back…”

– “She seems very much to understand that basic level of compassion”

…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.