Nick (@NickPende & theconversation) is a Sociologist who researches social movements, social change & Critical Animal Studies. He is a member of The Institute for Critical Animal Studies, the International Association of Vegan Sociologists & The Australian Sociological Association. Nick co-hosts the Freedom of Species podcast & radio show on Melbourne’s 3CR community radio station & also co-hosts the Progressive Podcast Australia podcast with his partner Katie.

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

01:22 Nick's Intro

- Animal advocacy & social justice activism - doing them & studying them sociologically

- Hosting the Freedom of Species podcast & radio show

04:50 What's Real?

- Growing up non-religious w/agnostic (or atheist?) parents

- Joining a religious friend at Sunday School

- Being very anti-religious at 5-6 years old (a mini Richard Dawkins?) "This doesn't make any sense at all"

- "Religion or spirituality has zero impact on my ethics"

- Softening somewhat...

- "Myq Kaplan probably started off where I was before taking mushrooms... I've just never taken the mushrooms"

- Non-supernatural analogues for spirituality/supernatural: Flow states, rituals, habits

- The ethical problems of believing without evidence e.g. anti-vaxx

- Harry Potter & the Methods of Rationality fanfic

- Being open minded but not wasting our time on every implausible claim

- Religion as a brake on social progress (sexism, homophobia, speciesism...)

- Religion's positive & negative functions in society

- Reforming religions to conform w/secular ethics

- Threatening children w/eternal torture

22:35 What Matters?

- A Christian friend: "You seem like quite ethical people but you're not religious!"

- Socially progressive, liberal parents, so ethics came naturally

- Apathetic & apolitical as a kid. "I was more into ice hockey"

- Punk rock as a gateway into ethics & politics. Bad Religion

- Protesting the Iraq war

- Anti-war, pro-env, human rights, then animal rights & veganism "It just made total sense"

- Justice first, then compassion. More a rational than an emotional response

- Challenging hierarchies. Human & non-human

- "It didn't make sense that I was above my dog"

...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.

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Thanks Graham.