Sentientism Jamie Woodhouse

Emilia is co-author of the book Think Like A Vegan and host of the Think Like a Vegan podcast. She is involved in the Birchfield Highlands re-wilding project in Scotland, edits the quarterly magazine for The Heath & Hampstead Society in London and has developed life skills and ethics workshops for underserved youth. Professionally, she has been a corporate finance lawyer for over 20 years.

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.
00:00 Clips!

01:25 Welcome

- Shared Sentientism guests with  @thinklikeavegan  :

- Troy Vettese episode

- Josh Milburn episode

- Aysha Akhtar episode

04:41 Emilia's Intro

- Corporate finance, vegan writing / podcasting, rewilding
in Scotland, magazine editing

05:45 What's Real?

- Growing up in Italy

- #catholic  school "which I hated... it never made sense to me that only some people... would go to heaven"

- Letting teachers know at 5-6 years old "this doesn't
make any sense"... "they kind of stopped asking me questions"

- Dad is an Indian philosophy professor

- Investigating eastern and western traditions and religions
"I said 'none of it matters'... it matters what I do here and now"

- "People have their traditions and I love that...but
for me ultimately I don't need to have any of that"

- "The fundamental of all of them is love... just practice it"

- "That love then turns in to a respect and a valuing... of sentient life... and everything that's around us"

- "Plants & funghi... even minerals and mountains... they may not feel anything but that doesn't matter... it's all
connected"

- "The fate of the least among us... is extremely important"

- "Bees and insects... how they go, we go"

- "I don't need an outside force to tell me to do the right thing"

- "A certain basic fairness... treat everyone the same unless there's a morally relevant reason to treat them differently"

- "I have personally witnessed things that I cannot explain... there's lots of things I don't know... so I've decided that's fine"

- "You have to leave space for changing your mind... we
learn everything!"

- JW: How broken epistemology can lead "good" people to do terrible things

- The ethical and epistemological errors that justify animal
agriculture

- Maneesha Deckha's "beingness" concept

- "We as advocates have to be better at our own rhetoric"

- "We live in a capitalist, non-vegan world... so there
will be inherent things that you are not going to be able to solve"

- "You don't need to be well versed in philosophy... we
can all get there"

- Examining what's driving our actions... fear (of others,
change, deistic reprisal, social norms, admitting we were wrong)

- JW: Uncommon common sense re: ethical and epistemic basics

- Humans building convenient hierarchies "as long as
you're at the top"

- "Animal agribusiness has never been nice... 10,000
years ago... 5,000 years ago... there's always objectification, exploitation and death... that doesn't change"

- "To the being - you only have one life"
26:20 What Matters?

53:13 Who Matters?

01:00:42 A Better World?

01:22:00 Follow Emilia

- EmiliaLeese.com

- Think Like a Vegan Podcast

- @emiisgoodeating

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Keith Tucker is founder and Executive Director of Hip Hop is Green, a nonprofit organization on a mission to support holistic wellness and transform urban communities environmentally. He has been a visionary and social entrepreneur for over 30 years. He has worked with hundreds of businesses, youth groups and community organizations and many icons in the entertainment business as a creative promoter and an ambassador for the culture of hip hop.

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.

00:00 Clips!

01:19 Welcome

02:44 Keith's Intro

- Founder and ED of Hip Hop is Green 

- "I'm a father, a brother, a friend, a husband and currently I'm a human being living on earth"

03:19 What's Real?

- Growing up in Seattle, raised by mother, grandmother and grandfather

- Religious grandparents

- Going to #baptist church

- Attending strict #catholic school, taught by nuns "I remember sister Sheila - boy she was mean"

- Catholic high school in California

-  "Some rough times." Drugs (from 13 yrs old), street-life "in with the wrong crowd"

- Grandmother and mother "I'm so blessed and fortunate to have had them in my life... gave me a great foundation of morals and values and patience and determination"

- Lending a bike and having it stolen "I'm a very giving and nice person... I have to beware... trust has its limits"

- 31 years clean & sober now

- "My values who I am today were actually both shaped by good things that happened to me and bad things that happened to me"

- "Just really good people", not because of their religion...

- "...spiritual as well... my grandmother used to call it motherwit... I still have that today... I just get a feeling... it's always 100% right every time... everybody has it to... some people listen to their motherwit more than others"

- "Back in the early '70s it was a different world... in school they could paddle you in class... in front of everyone... there was no such thing as non-bullying"

- Being taught the Bible "I never really questioned anything... absorbed it into who I am... although I wasn't following most of the Bible to be honest at that point... I was more interested in having fun and partying... not really focusing on why I'm here, who I am and what my purpose is"

- Last time used drugs. Motherwit voice spoke very loud "you may not live through this." Attending a treatment centre, guided by the motherwit voice "it's not luck"

- April 7 1992 "I need to change my life... I kept that commitment all the way through to today... the weight had been lifted off me."

- Finishing treatment, moving to the Texas countryside
- Starting to figure out "who is Keith Tucker... what is my purpose?... Baptism through fire."

- "I am not Christian or religious today.... but I am very spiritual and I believe in god."

- "I walk in my purpose and in god's purpose every single day... helping people and serving people is what my purpose is"

- "The people that were enslaved... were introduced to the Bible... as a system to keep their minds enslaved."

- "Using religion to chain people's minds"

29:30 What Matters?

47:30 Who Matters?

01:05:40 A Better World?

01:28:24 Follow Keith

- Hip Hop is Green

- @hiphopisgreen

- HHIG on Instagram

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Hakeem Jimo is co-founder and CEO of Veggie Victory, Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company. Hakeem and his partner, Bola Adeyanju, also founded Nigeria's first vegan restaurant, V Café, and now run the VChunks meat alternative product company - designed to help veganise Nigerian cuisine. Hakeem is also country director for ProVeg Nigeria.

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.

00:00 Clips!

00:36 Welcome

01:59 Hakeem's Intro

- Nigerian father, German mother, growing up in Germany, now in Nigeria

- 10 years of veganism and vegan entrepreneurship

- Establishing ProVeg Nigeria

03:45 What's Real?

- Not much supernatural thinking in small-town Germany "there were more cows than humans"

- Lutheran evangelical protestant society but "we went to church twice a year... it was not a very religious background"

- Nigeria: "A completely different ballgame... the spiritual, religious world plays a much bigger role in Africa... religion is everywhere here... and I like it... In Africa I started to pray... you don't have that sense of control."

- Christianity, Islam as well as natural / traditional religions from the pre-colonial era

08:33 What Matters?

- "Every day I see these two sides", Germany (enlightenment, studying philosophy) and Nigeria (travelling as a journalist in W.Africa: "a completely different way people see the world")

- Only recently exploring the Bible (via podcasts) "just to understand historically"

- Finding references to treatment of animals in the Old and New Testaments

- Nigeria: "Religion is much more taken... by the letter" vs. the German way "it's just a parable"

- "If you're coming from a western background you just
shape your belief system" vs. "people are handing over authority to another level"

- "How do we actually convince people... whether I'm in
Germany or Nigeria?"

- "I walk through the streets here... it's funny... even though everybody is black and in Germany everybody is white I see features... very similar behaviours"

- "I see really the universal parts... that's where things come together... trying to change the world and not just a few enlightened people"

13:16 Who Matters?

- Step-father in Germany was a farmer "neighbours got
together and bought a pig... the butcher coming to the farm"

- Hearing stories about factory farming "they were
using nicotine to disinfect the chickens... there's something wrong here"... overfishing... foot and mouth disease

- "Nobody in rural Germany was talking about sentientism or veganism "

- University in Hamburg "there was an alternative meal
in the canteen"... a vegetarian partner aware of history of US colonialist animal agriculture

- Travelling to West Africa and eating #streetfood
"when I'm on a #vegetarian diet I don't get sick!" vs. getting typhoid fever from a road-side meat barbecue

- "You start learning... what's the implications... I realised... this is good... let me become vegetarian"

24:35 A Better Future?

48:41 Follow Hakeem

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/hakeemjimo/
- https://veggievictory.com/ “We are winning with the veggies!”

- https://proveg.com/ng/...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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

This episode is a cross-post of my discussion with Richard Brown on his Consciousness Live YouTube podcast. Make sure you go and subscribe there too.

Richard is a professor of philosophy at City University of New York. His work is focused on the philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, and the foundations of cognitive science but he also works on the philosophy of language, metaethics, philosophy of physics, logic and the philosophy of logic, as well as the history of philosophy. As you can imagine, this made it an enjoyably brain-stretching conversation for me. Richard was also my guest on Sentientism way back on episode 57 if you want to see the tables turned the other way around.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did talking with Richard - feedback and suggestions are always welcome. As ever I'm only one Sentientist so others will disagree!

A warm welcome to everyone who has recently joined one of our ⁠⁠online Sentientism communities⁠⁠. More people join us there every day - whether they think of themselves as Sentientists or not. The groups are open to everyone.
Just search for the word "Sentientism" on your favourite platforms (⁠⁠FaceBook is our biggest group⁠⁠) and you'll find us there.

Also check out the new ⁠⁠"In action" section⁠⁠ of Sentientism.info. We're building pages there about Sentientist Education, Politics, Rights, Economics, Justice, Agriculture, Environmentalism and more - come and help us work out what a more Sentientist world might look like. 

A final thank you to Denise and Tarabella who found our ⁠⁠Sentientism Patreon⁠⁠ and are kindly contributing to our production costs - helping us steadily nudge the world towards "evidence, reason and compassion".

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/message

Laura is Education Officer at The Vegan Society and Chair of The Vegan Society's Education Network. She is a qualified primary school teacher and well known for introducing the phrase ‘vegan-inclusive education’ to the education sector. Laura worked for several years as the UK’s only vegan inclusion education specialist under the pseudonym ‘Primary Veducation’ and continues to offer training to school staff on what it means to be vegan and how to appropriately teach and treat vegan learners in their care. Laura also empowers vegan learners and parents/guardians by facilitating the creation of peer-developed and reviewed resources and offering supportive interventions.

Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

00:00 Clips!

01:14 Welcome

03:20 Laura's Intro

- Supporting vegan learners & their families in
education (vs. discrimination, being misunderstood)

- Former primary school teacher "my first love"

- Supporting the educators. Building the world's first and
only CPD (continuous professional development) training course helping educators in being "vegan inclusive"

- Leaving teaching after becoming vegan "I felt that
the curriculum clashed with my ethics too much"

- Vegan daughter starts school "They told me that they
weren't going to provide a lunch for her... I was crying around the supermarket getting a packed lunch... my daughter is the most compassionate, kind & loving girl... I think she's being discriminated against."

- Working with friends to create the UK's first vegan menu
in her school

- Starting "Primary Veducation" as a free consultancy

- "Theorising vegan-inclusive education"

- "To live through that [discrimination] was mind-boggling... I felt like I was by myself... on my own... all of these things were just completely flipped... I had to find this voice... I believed I was the only vegan the village... who would even care?"

- Finding a vegan community. A wave of vegan parents wanting help "I realised it's not just me... shouting in this echo chamber"

- "Everything I'd been taught... by people who I respected... my parents, my teachers, religious leaders... told me that one thing was correct... it wasn't"

- "Everything felt undone... it did feel utterly heartbreaking... something good has come out of it"

11:44 What's Real?
- Jewish family. Russian-Latvian-Irish-British

- Grandmother born Christian, converted to #judaism

- Attending Jewish school, Synagogue and Sunday School

- Mother "wanted my brother and I to be the most Jewish
we could possibly be so we could fit in... Bar and Bat Mitvah's"

- "Religion... become something... neither of us... are
particularly driven by anymore"

- Brother & family atheist

- Valuing Jewish community, tradition, culture, food...
"it's familiar"

- "A lot of the just have blind faith and don't question... god did this, god created that, we live the way the 10 commandments tell us to - anything other than that is just outrageous"

25:30 What & Who Matters?

44:57 Making a Better World?

01:17:12 Follow Laura

- Laura at The Vegan Society

- @laura_diamondo

- Veducated:An Educator’s Guide for Vegan Inclusive Teaching

...and much more. Full show notes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

This episode is a bonus cross-post of my discussion with fellow Sentientist Amy Halpern-Laff and Jon Moscow on their Ethical Schools podcast. Make sure you go and subscribe there too!

A warm welcome to everyone who has recently joined one of our ⁠online Sentientism communities⁠. More people join us there every day - whether they think of themselves as Sentientists or not. The groups are open to everyone.
Just search for the word "Sentientism" on your favourite platforms (⁠FaceBook is our biggest group⁠) and you'll find us there.

Also check out the new ⁠"In action" section⁠ of Sentientism.info. We're building pages there about Sentientist Education, Politics, Rights, Economics, Justice, Agriculture, Environmentalism and more - come and help us work out what a more Sentientist world might look like. 

A final thank you to Denise and Tarabella who found our ⁠Sentientism Patreon⁠ and are kindly contributing to our production costs - helping us steadily nudge the world towards "evidence, reason and compassion".

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sentientism.info⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our ⁠⁠⁠⁠"I'm a Sentientist" wall⁠⁠⁠⁠ via ⁠⁠⁠⁠this simple form⁠⁠⁠⁠.


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Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/message