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
Cat (@CatBeschVN) founded and leads Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue. She is also a writer & activist addressing many non-human animal issues.
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:
0:00 Welcome
1:10 Cat’s Intro
– Founding Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue
– Growing up in Virginia, USA
– Studying International Relations in Washington DC
– A political/military family
3:10 What’s Real?
– Growing up as a liberal Lutheran with very religious parents
– The church as social fabric
– Figuring out that “I just don’t really believe in any of that crap”
– High school & Baptist society in Alabama
– The church seeing all sex as shameful… “holding virginity in such high esteem”
– Feminism & Islam. “Headscarves & Hymens” by Mona Eltahawy.
– “The way the institutions look at sex & sexuality just makes you want to put your fist through a wall”
– “A whole bunch of girls that think they’re going to hell”
– That was the turning point. Everything started to crumble
– Not picking at the church too hard as it was the social fabric. “Life is hard enough at 16.” I left it silently on my own
– The hypocrisy of religious compassion & judgementalism
– Atheists & agnostics are not immoral people
– “I attended church… I took communion… my sins are flushed… now I can go back to being a dickhead”
– Religious compassion is often conditional & constrained
– The immorality of even “moderate” religious worldviews (e.g. hell, sexism, homophobia)
– “Women are not emotionally stable enough to be leaders in the Catholic church”!
– “I found it oppressive.” Leaving the church was a moment of liberation
– Travelling & living in many religious cultures
– Starting the “Let’s not be an asshole” religion
– Being wrong. “I used to hate vegans”, now I’m “on the side of all sentient beings”
– Everybody has a chance to change
– “I just don’t know” as a strong naturalistic stance
25:09 What (& Who) Matters?
– An early empathy for animals “they were my best friends”, but living in an environment where killing sentient beings was normal
– I never met a vegan in the horse riding world
– “I love what you do for me” isn’t love
– Being angry at our previous selves for not seeing
– Thinking all vegans must be “dirty hippies”
– Meeting first vegans hosting couch-surfers in Mongolia
– Being challenged “You love animals but who are you eating?”
…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
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.
Thanks for the post-prod Graham.
Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell & petertatchell.net) has been an activist for human rights, democracy, LGBT+ freedom and global justice since 1967. Watch the Netflix documentary about his life, “Hating Peter Tatchell”. He directs the Peter Tatchell foundation (petertatchellfoundation.org). In Sentientist Conversations …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 23 September 2021
Raffael Fasel is University Assistant Professor in Public Law at the Cambridge Law Faculty and Fellow of Jesus College. He specialises in public law, with a particular interest in constitutional theory, human rights law, and animal rights law. Raffael is …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 11 December 2025
Isabella La Rocca Gonzalez is an artist, writer, photographer, teacher and activist. She describes her work as “part of a long tradition in art and photography: to bring to light and find beauty in the hidden, unconscious, or disregarded. As …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 24 November 2025
