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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Kathryn Gillespie PhD (kathrynagillespie.com) is a writer, multispecies ethnographer, & feminist geographer. She is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Geography & the Applied Environmental & Sustainability Studies Program. Her research & teaching interests focus on: ethnography & qualitative methods; feminist & multi-species theory & methods; food & agriculture; political economy; critical animal studies; human-environment relations. She is the author of The Cow with Ear Tag #1389. She has also published in numerous scholarly journals & has co-edited three books: Vulnerable Witness: The Politics of Grief in the Field; Critical Animal Geographies: Politics, Intersections and Hierarchies in a Multispecies World; and Economies of Death: Economic Logics of Killable Life & Grievable Death. Kathryn has volunteered with Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, Food Empowerment Project and Pigs Peace Sanctuary.
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
01:15 Kathryn’s Intro
– Understanding the harms animals experience under capitalist & settler colonial regimes, particularly in food systems
– “Bringing individual animals into the frame”
– Field work in farms & auction yards “spaces of exploitation”
– Sanctuaries: Seeing the lasting harms of exploitation but also “places to imagine flourishing” & rehabilitation
– Multi-species auto-ethnography. Everyday violence & care
– Living w/chickens “turned us vegan” & lab-rescued beagles
– Academia & activism
07:52 What’s Real?
– Raised somewhat in the Episcopal church
– “That just did not resonate with me”
– Visiting Baptist churches “that was incredible… a joyful explosion of faith”
– A Buddhist grandmother & “Living Buddha, Living Christ” by Thich Nhat Hanh
– Practising Tibetan Buddhism as a teenager
– Buddhist compassion & Episcopalian blessing of animals on St. Francis’ day
– Supernatural vs. naturalistic Buddhism “The supernatural stuff never appealed to me”
– Envying the pure, comforting faith of a fundamentalist Christian best friend
– Compassion for the other or because god tells you?
– Pagan & Wiccan practics
– People re-connecting with nature during COVID
– The etymology of “real” in Latin/Sanksrit from “wealth”… the capitalisation/commodification of life
– Emotional, embodied, lived experiences re: meaning, connection & knowledge making. Another form of evidence
32:10 What Matters?
…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.
Dr. Mark Solomon is an author, neuropsychologist, musician and radio show/podcast host whose work touches on a wide range of topics. Mark produces a national Street Epistemology radio show/podcast called “Being Reasonable” (beingreasonableshow.com, @B_Reasonable_, @Being Reasonable) In Sentientist Conversations we talk …continue
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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
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