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
Ziya is a television presenter, producer, author and board member. She was the co-host of Discovery Channel’s long-running primetime science magazine, Daily Planet. In 2019 she wrote the book “The Reality Bubble“. Ziya serves on the boards of a range of NGOs and charities, including PEN Canada, We Animals Media and WWF International.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:46 Ziya’s Intro
– Science broadcasting @discoverycanada
– Author of “The Reality Bubble” exposing human blind-spots
– NGO board roles including @WeAnimalsMedia (animal photojournalism led by Jo-Anne McArthur)
– Tweeting about earthlings: https://twitter.com/ziyatong
03:32: What’s Real?
– “Being a bi-racial person gives you a sort of split view… Chinese… Eastern European”
– Communism & capitalism, eastern & western
– “I never really… took one true dogmatic reality”
– “I consistently shed layers of what I previously thought of as reality”
– Yoda: “You must unlearn what you have learned”
– A science journalist career “naturalistic in one sense”
– “With science you can reveal a lot… the whole book [The Reality Bubble] is about that… but it always puts a lens between you and the subject”
– Black holes & mites on our eyelashes
– “The humanities are much more subjective”
– Polymaths spanning humanities & the sciences “that blend is what’s interesting to me”
– “Indigenous perspectives… have so much to share with us about how we perceive reality”
– Swimming sea wolves in British Columbia “new to science – but indigenous peoples had known about these wolves for their entire histories”
– The Consilience Model: Science and indigenous perspectives “Two eyed seeing”
– Plant medicines like #ayahuasca “which open up an entirely new door to reality”
– “I don’t believe reality stands on firm ground… I’m happy to run around the ice flow as it shifts… reality should never be solid”
– Science & indigenous perspectives “are both based on observation”
– “To a neutrino this mug wouldn’t be here at all”
– “We have to question our every-day common sense notions of reality”
– Humilty & error-correction
– Risks of dogma within science “we looked at animals as if they were machines”
– Brought up Roman #catholic , dabbled with #buddhism / #sufiism
– Rumi: “There’s a hundred ways to kiss the ground”
– #Vipassna #meditation – a 10 day silent retreat “you are really guided by yourself”
– Feeding ants & saving an ant “I promised not to kill anything” as part of the 10 Buddhist precepts
…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!
Michael is a law professor and scholar of U.S. constitutional law. He is the Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. In addition to constitutional law, Michael has taught courses in civil procedure and federal courts. He …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 21 February 2023
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
