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
New York Times bestselling (4 times!) author and journalist AJ Jacobs experiments on himself to help us all learn.
In this Sentientist Conversation he talks with Jamie about what he believes, what matters morally, and how his writing projects link to Sentientism’s tenets of evidence, reason and universal compassion.
The video of our conversation is here – why not subscribe on YouTube too?
AJ: “I love the idea of Sentientism”
We discuss:
– Sentientist themes in AJ’s personal experimentation writing projects: Living biblically, connecting everyone, thanking everyone, never lying, learning everything!
– The “belonging, belief and behaviour” of religion – including secular Judaism and hanging out at the Scientology centre.
– Effective altruism and longtermism.
– Moral realism, relativism and why the Taliban’s ethics just aren’t good.
– Preferring shallow beliefs to deeply held beliefs.
– The ethics of human and non-human animal, robot and far future ethics.
– Expanding our moral circle through recognising our connectedness and/or through seeing climate change as a common enemy.
– Presenting positive opportunities to do good vs. using guilt.
– What a Sentientist utopia might look like and whether we should even specify one.
– Can Sentientism help address today’s dogmatic polarisation?
AJ is on our Sentientist “wall”: – why not join him there using this simple form?
AJ’s web site is ajjacobs.com.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings.” You can find out more about it at https://sentientism.info/
Everyone interested, whether Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our global community. Our main group is here on Facebook.
Many thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-production work on this video. Go follow him (and maybe work with him!) at @cgbessellieu.
What’s it like to have Prince throw a creationist tantrum when you take him on his first trip to a natural history museum? Carole Raphaelle Davis tells us what it’s like to be a radical feminist, atheist, vegan (and Sentientist) …continue
Proudly brought to you by: 24 November 2020
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
