Ana Bradley is Executive Director of Sentient Media. Sentient Media is a non-profit journalism outlet aimed at making transparent the suffering that goes on in our food systems and inspiring readers to think more about the implications of what we eat. Ana also hosts the Sentient Media podcast.

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

01:38 Ana's Intro

- Animals in the media (largely ignoring their perspectives)

06:17 What's Real?

- "I never had a conversation with my parents about god"

- Church of England school but "I never believed in... a man sitting in the clouds"

- Linking Christian & pagan festivals

- Celebrating equinox & solstice. Sunrise to sunset walks with dad

- Wikka, paganism, nature

- "Beliefs of respecting nature & respecting animals"

- Not practicing any religion but rituals of respecting the solstice & natural transitions

- Building an elements altar as a child

- "I don't believe in magic... but I do believe that nature & animals have incredible power & roles to play in the existence of our planet... it's weighted in science & reason & logic"

- David Attenborough's "Life of Plants"

15:15 What Matters?

- Looking to nature & our relationship with the planet

- The power and aura of natural cycles

- "The circle of life" (sorry for my singing) argument for animal product consumption

- The naturalistic fallacy

- JW: "Nature is awesome but it is not ethically good or bad"

- Wild animal suffering

22:07 Who Matters?

- At 6yrs old seeing a picture of a kitten being vivisected

- Family dog & fishes

- "I have this instinct to go to the underdog... the group or the being that is least respected or protected"

- Learning about exploitation of non-human & human animals around the world

- Children's natural empathy for non-humans... "we kind of beat it out of them"

- Making the connection between animals on the plate and animals suffering at 6 yrs old

- Asking about animal derived food "my parents told me the truth"... I said: "I don't want to eat animals"

- Supportive parents re: going vegetarian then vegan

- Social, psychological, practical, information impediments to veganism

- "One piece of the puzzle is knowing how to eat"

- "It took me a few years to realise what the dairy industry is"

- At 10yrs seeing a Viva poster of a dairy cow

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

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Thanks Graham.