Nandita is the ED of Population Balance which works to address the impacts of human overpopulation & overconsumption on the planet, people & animals. As faculty with the Institute for Humane Education, Nandita teaches a course “Pronatalism & Overpopulation” about the pervasive pressure on women to have children & the impacts on them, families, non-human animals & the planet. Previously, Nandita worked as a high school physics & math teacher & an administrator in both the public & independent school systems as well as an engineer at Bombardier Aerospace. She has a B.Eng. (Aerospace Engineering) from Ryerson University, a B.Ed. from University of Toronto & an M.Ed. (Humane Ed.) from Antioch University.
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
01:10 Nandita's Intro
- Engineering to teaching maths/physics to studying & teaching at the Institute of Humane Education (animals, humans, environment)
- Pronatalism: The pressure to have children
- Population stabilisation
04:26 What's Real?
- Growing up in a fairly liberal household in North-West India
- Moving every 3 years. "Wired to desire change"
- Following Hindu religious holidays & traditions
- Transactional religious compliance: fear-based & conditional
- Tribalism & superstition "It didn't make a lot of sense to me"
- Moving to Canada
- Becoming non-religious was fairly straight-forward
- Dabbling in self-discovery & studying psychology: Realising "These pieces of my identity were for the most part socially constructed"
- De-constructing values & beliefs "Who I was made to believe I was was very limited & finite & self-serving." Reputation, wealth, success, family
- "What motivates me deeply?" rather than "what do people expect of me?"
- Exploring eastern & western philosophy
- "There is this deep reverence that I hold - not for a god... but for the entire evolutionary process" "There seems to some kind of a kind of miraculousness to it"
- Interconnectedness, scale, deep time, human humility
- "There is something much bigger going on." Mystery - driven by science - but not limited to evidence, because there may be things we'll never have evidence of
- Evidence might be limited but that's not an excuse for "making stuff up"
- How supernatural beliefs can warp compassionate ethics
22:18 What & Who Matters?
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
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.
View all episodes
By Jamie Woodhouse
5
2424 ratings
Nandita is the ED of Population Balance which works to address the impacts of human overpopulation & overconsumption on the planet, people & animals. As faculty with the Institute for Humane Education, Nandita teaches a course “Pronatalism & Overpopulation” about the pervasive pressure on women to have children & the impacts on them, families, non-human animals & the planet. Previously, Nandita worked as a high school physics & math teacher & an administrator in both the public & independent school systems as well as an engineer at Bombardier Aerospace. She has a B.Eng. (Aerospace Engineering) from Ryerson University, a B.Ed. from University of Toronto & an M.Ed. (Humane Ed.) from Antioch University.
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
01:10 Nandita's Intro
- Engineering to teaching maths/physics to studying & teaching at the Institute of Humane Education (animals, humans, environment)
- Pronatalism: The pressure to have children
- Population stabilisation
04:26 What's Real?
- Growing up in a fairly liberal household in North-West India
- Moving every 3 years. "Wired to desire change"
- Following Hindu religious holidays & traditions
- Transactional religious compliance: fear-based & conditional
- Tribalism & superstition "It didn't make a lot of sense to me"
- Moving to Canada
- Becoming non-religious was fairly straight-forward
- Dabbling in self-discovery & studying psychology: Realising "These pieces of my identity were for the most part socially constructed"
- De-constructing values & beliefs "Who I was made to believe I was was very limited & finite & self-serving." Reputation, wealth, success, family
- "What motivates me deeply?" rather than "what do people expect of me?"
- Exploring eastern & western philosophy
- "There is this deep reverence that I hold - not for a god... but for the entire evolutionary process" "There seems to some kind of a kind of miraculousness to it"
- Interconnectedness, scale, deep time, human humility
- "There is something much bigger going on." Mystery - driven by science - but not limited to evidence, because there may be things we'll never have evidence of
- Evidence might be limited but that's not an excuse for "making stuff up"
- How supernatural beliefs can warp compassionate ethics
22:18 What & Who Matters?
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
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.
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