15: “Let’s end humanity’s war on the rest of the planet” – Better Meat CEO & Hall of Famer Paul Shapiro – Sentientist Conversations

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

Paul Shapiro https://twitter.com/PaulHShapiro is the author of the national bestseller “Clean Meat”: https://cleanmeat.com/. He’s also the CEO of The Better Meat Co. https://www.bettermeat.co/, a four-time TEDx speaker, host of the Business for Good Podcast https://www.businessforgoodpodcast.com/ & inductee in the Animal Rights Hall of Fame. 

In these Sentientist Conversations, we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”. Sentientism is “evidence, commitment and compassion for all sentient beings.” https://sentientism.info/

Our conversation is also on our YouTube channel – subscribe there too! https://youtu.be/8oupdUTrS18

We discuss:

– Being fellow “sents” (thanks AJ Jacobs!)

– Advocating Sentientism before hearing the term

– Vegetarian then vegan at 13 in 1993 (despite thinking it would lead to death…)

– Carl Lewis as an inspirational vegan

– Volunteering in animal protection as a teenager

– “Trying to end humanity’s war on the rest of the planet”

– Founding Compassion over Killing at high-school & taking it national

– https://www.humanesociety.org/

– Paul’s “Clean Meat” book – how food tech might do the most good

– Easier to act our way into a new way of thinking than to think our way into a new way of acting. Making unethical practices obselete

– Ending slavery as a lesson in social change

– Founding The Better Meat Co

– Jewish upbringing & identity

– “Even if you question the supernatural they don’t kick you out”

– An animal conscious family. Rescue dogs as family members (now Eddie https://www.instagram.com/eddiethepittie.)

– Switching to take the perspective of non-humans + standing up to “frog baseball”

– Compassion as a moral foundation

– Being kicked out of Hebrew class for asking why god would ask for sacrifices

– The rich tradition of animal compassion/veg*nism within Judaism

– Israel as the #2 most vegan country

– Utilitarianism & Peter Singer – “anti suffering & pro happiness”

– Loving kindness meditation

– Aspiring to The Paradoxical Commandments

– Evolution isn’t perfectly driven towards truth or rationality

– Groups can socially reward individual faith in fictions. Some delusions can be useful

– Humility at the heart of naturalism & science. Being OK not knowing

– The confidence that can come with ignorance

– Leaving the world a better place

– Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good

– The ethical inertia of social norms & traditions

– The Honour Code http://appiah.net/books/the-honor-code/

– Animal farming will be condemned by future generations

– Consistent US voting against poor farming practices. Need that codified into law & corporate policy

– Cost reduction pressure worsens farm conditions

– Tech can render exploitative practices obselete (like cars re: horses, kerosene re: whales, pens vs. quills)

– Fast, cheap, easy alternatives likely to reduce more suffering than ethics

– It’s hard to condemn a system you’re still part of

– The moral argument has already been won re: ending animal farming

– People buy food mainly because of price, taste, convenience (not ethics or env.)

– Business for Good vs. ending capitalism? Purpose and/or profit?