We can align our ego with our advocacy goals. But wanting to be a good person might be your most dangerous motivation.

What really drives people to devote their lives to a cause? And when does that motivation quietly start working against us? In this essay, I argue that animal activism is almost always ego-driven, and that this isn’t a moral failure but a psychological fact. Drawing on personal stories from my years in the movement, I explore how our deepest needs (for meaning, belonging, ambition, and moral self-regard) shape the way we show up as activists. The danger isn’t having an ego; it’s pretending we don’t. When we understand our “inner elephant” and learn how to align our personal motivations with the movement’s real needs, ego stops being a liability and becomes a source of endurance, initiative, and power. This episode is about ambition without apology, leadership without purity tests, and why lasting change for animals will come not from a few heroic saviors, but from thousands of people pulling in different directions.

This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack.

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