Mariann (@marisul) is Co-host with previous guest Jasmin Singer of the Our Hen House podcast and host of the Animal Law Podcast. She is a lawyer, lecturer, teacher and animal rights activist.
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 the Sentientism YouTube.
We discuss:
0:00 Welcome

1:40 Mariann's Intro. An Animal life
- Working as a lawyer in New York
- Adopting a dog on impulse then waking up to animal issue
- "He'd stopped eating meat because of the way animals were treated - and t was just like 'boom!'"
- Most people know there's a problem - they just avoid thinking about it
- Joining (later chairing) the Animal Law Committee of the NY bar
- Connecting animal advocacy organisations 
- Meeting Jasmin Singer & starting Our Hen House

6:02 What's Real?
- Growing up Catholic
- "I had faith but it was never a burden for me"
- Not really being religious any more... "but those voices never really go away"
- As a teenager "It just started to seem unlikely"
- Getting comfortable with "I don't know"
- Ethics & evidence as reasons for abandoning supernatural worldviews
- The tumult of Catholic college in 1968. From dressing for dinner & attending church to "men with beards living in the dorms"
- "Boom - the entire world changed - everyone was questioning everything"
- Leaning towards atheism but not being certain
- "We're connected to each other in ways we don't understand"
- Non-sentient living things
- Woo! vs. naturalistic views of sentience & consciousness
- Finding awe in a naturalistic worldview

18:01 What Matters?
- "It's all about suffering"... and about pleasure too
- Suffering matters... "It's so obvious"
- "What kind of god -  would create this planet - where animals eat each other"
- Morality as compliance vs. concern for suffering/flourishing
- Reading Peter Singer. He wrote down what many were already feeling
- "Why did I get there and everybody doesn't get there?"
- "I don't think it's a philosophical problem... it's a psychological problem"
- "How can you not sound self-righteous when you're right?"
- "I don't understand why this is this big moral journey"
- The "all we have to do is tell everybody" stage of activism
- The family & social challenges of going vegan
- The risks of motivated reasoning even within a naturalistic worldview

28:48 The Future
- Balancing despair & hope with the help of Our Hen House
- Things have shifted. "It's almost as if we have won the moral argument already."
... and much more. Full notes on YouTube or Sentientism.info.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall using this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on Facebook.
Thanks Graham for the post-production.