34: “Maybe the point of being is to be loving” – Comedian Myq Kaplan – 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.

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Myq is a stand-up comedian (http://myqkaplan.com/ and https://twitter.com/myqkaplan). He has performed on the Tonight Show, Conan, the Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Seth Meyers, the Late Late Show with James Corden, in his own half-hour Comedy Central Presents special, and in his own one-hour special on Netflix and now Amazon, “Small, Dork, and Handsome.” He has been a finalist on Last Comic Standing and recently appeared on America’s Got Talent. His debut album “Vegan Mind Meld” was one of iTunes’ top 10 comedy albums of the year his latest, “AKA” debuted at #1. He hosts the Broccoli and Ice Cream (metaphorical) and The Faucet podcasts.

In these 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 the Sentientism YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/L2bb8zxy4Po 

We discuss:

– Myq’s comedy journey starting out in Boston, then on TV and at the Edinburgh fringe, now on Zoom

– Studying philosophy, psychology and linguistics

– Learning about Buddhism and Tibetan debate

– Was the Buddha an early scientist?

– Buddhism seems congruent with scientific understanding

– Perception, existence, non-existence and the “selfless”

– Impermanence, connectedness and the lack of intrinsic “selfness”

– “We are all one, but that’s my stereo!”

– Batman doesn’t exist but the concept of Batman does

– Growing up culturally Jewish with a conservative Jewish father

– “I wanted you to have something so there wasn’t a void that would get filled with a cult”

– Being Bar Mitzvah’d for the party and the presents

– Music was more central than religion

– Pacifism, non-violence and veganism

– Is Sentientism “the only moral discrimination”?

– The boundaries of sentience

– Resenting playing the violin (“wax on”) but picking up the guitar easily (“blocking”). See the Karate Kid

– Flow states. How comedy and music can help us connect communally

– Playing the game you’re given vs. choosing which game you want to play

– “I feel like the universe is telling me to do something”… “Isn’t that just your brain”… “And my brain is part of the universe.”

– “It’s all universe”

– “Jamie is not Myq but we’re both universe”

– Kicking back against religion and identifying as atheist: “If God is all powerful and kind then what is going on?”

– Metta loving kindness meditation

– Love and compassion, happiness and suffering

– Being terrified of death. Imagining not existing

– And much more!

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/.

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