
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Jonathan Balcombe is an ethologist and author. He lectures internationally on animal behavior and the human-animal relationship. Jonathan’s books include: The Use of Animals in Higher Education; Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good; Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals; What A Fish Knows and SuperFly.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips
01:00 Welcome
- Links to previous episodes: Jo-Anne McArthur, Marc Bekoff, Claudia Hirtenfelder, Jordi Casamitjana "people who are really thinking about sentience and its importance in the world"
03:06 Jonathan's Intro
- "I'm Canadian but I'm also American and British"
- Biology, ethology, animal behaviour, then non-profit animal protection
- "I was always very interested but also concerned about the wellbeing of animals... non-human animals because of course we're animals as well"
- "Then I discovered I was pretty good at writing books!"
- "Sentience... what animals are thinking, what are they feeling..."
- "It's a very exciting time to be an ethologist... scientists are asking questions that were considered taboo... the inner livesof animals... The taboo is gone."
- "There's a lot going on between the ears of a hedgehog or an elephant or a fish... not just vertebrates... there's a lot going on in the insides of animals without a backbone... insects, arthropods, crustaceans... octopuses and squids and nautiluses... the darlings of invertebrate sentience"
- "Somebody thinking about thinking in non-humans"
- JW: "Science has had to catch up with common sense"
07:35 What's Real?
- Non-religious parents but mum joined the Quakers when pregnant with Jonathan
- "As my body was forming inside my mum's womb, religion was coming into her life"
- "I go to a Catholic church, not because I'm Catholic but because I sing... it's good for me, it's good for my health and my spirit"
- "It's a bit ironic that this atheist, me, goes to a Catholic church every Sunday..."
- "My partner is Catholic... when I met her she was a Catholic omnivore and now she's just a Catholic"
- "I'm not working on her to try to convert her and she's not trying to convert me... by and large our worldviews are verycompatible"
- Quaker principles "Two of them I really like... non-violent and peaceful... open freedom of expression..."
- "In the worship... anyone can get up and speak at anytime... "
22:32 What (and Who) Matters?
41:35 A Better World?
01:12:00 Follow Jonathan:
- "Super Fly"
- "What a Fish Knows"
- "Jake and Ava"
- Jonathan on Wikipedia
- jonathanbalcombe.com (sign up for his newsletter!)
And more... full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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!
5
2424 ratings
Jonathan Balcombe is an ethologist and author. He lectures internationally on animal behavior and the human-animal relationship. Jonathan’s books include: The Use of Animals in Higher Education; Pleasurable Kingdom: Animals and the Nature of Feeling Good; Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals; What A Fish Knows and SuperFly.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the most important questions: “what’s real?”, “who matters?” and "how can we make a better world?"
Sentientism answers those questions with "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
00:00 Clips
01:00 Welcome
- Links to previous episodes: Jo-Anne McArthur, Marc Bekoff, Claudia Hirtenfelder, Jordi Casamitjana "people who are really thinking about sentience and its importance in the world"
03:06 Jonathan's Intro
- "I'm Canadian but I'm also American and British"
- Biology, ethology, animal behaviour, then non-profit animal protection
- "I was always very interested but also concerned about the wellbeing of animals... non-human animals because of course we're animals as well"
- "Then I discovered I was pretty good at writing books!"
- "Sentience... what animals are thinking, what are they feeling..."
- "It's a very exciting time to be an ethologist... scientists are asking questions that were considered taboo... the inner livesof animals... The taboo is gone."
- "There's a lot going on between the ears of a hedgehog or an elephant or a fish... not just vertebrates... there's a lot going on in the insides of animals without a backbone... insects, arthropods, crustaceans... octopuses and squids and nautiluses... the darlings of invertebrate sentience"
- "Somebody thinking about thinking in non-humans"
- JW: "Science has had to catch up with common sense"
07:35 What's Real?
- Non-religious parents but mum joined the Quakers when pregnant with Jonathan
- "As my body was forming inside my mum's womb, religion was coming into her life"
- "I go to a Catholic church, not because I'm Catholic but because I sing... it's good for me, it's good for my health and my spirit"
- "It's a bit ironic that this atheist, me, goes to a Catholic church every Sunday..."
- "My partner is Catholic... when I met her she was a Catholic omnivore and now she's just a Catholic"
- "I'm not working on her to try to convert her and she's not trying to convert me... by and large our worldviews are verycompatible"
- Quaker principles "Two of them I really like... non-violent and peaceful... open freedom of expression..."
- "In the worship... anyone can get up and speak at anytime... "
22:32 What (and Who) Matters?
41:35 A Better World?
01:12:00 Follow Jonathan:
- "Super Fly"
- "What a Fish Knows"
- "Jake and Ava"
- Jonathan on Wikipedia
- jonathanbalcombe.com (sign up for his newsletter!)
And more... full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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!
5,686 Listeners
1,531 Listeners
2,837 Listeners
15,063 Listeners
26,462 Listeners
33 Listeners
345 Listeners
477 Listeners
4,136 Listeners
1,970 Listeners
944 Listeners
128 Listeners
15,220 Listeners
10,508 Listeners
393 Listeners