Dr. Sailesh Rao (climatehealers.org) is Founder & Exec Dir of Climate Healers, a non-profit working to heal the climate. After a glittering career in tech he switched to focus on solving our environmental crises. Dr. Rao is the author of two books, Carbon Dharma & Carbon Yoga, & is an Exec Producer of several documentaries including, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019) & They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021).
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:
0:00 Welcome

01:14 Dr. Rao's Intro - from India to the US, from tech to saving the world!
- Growing up in a Hindu family in Chennai, India
- "God is in charge & you are just an instrument" vs. the materialism of engineering training
- Being inspired by the moon landing
- Landing his dream job at Bell Labs
- Starting a consulting firm creating the high-speed internet
- "I had achieved, but I wasn't happy"
- Frustrations with commercialisation & cut-throat competition
- Seeing Al Gore talk about climate change... "If half of what he's saying is true I'm wasting my time"
- Jumping to work on climate change "the biggest systems change around"
- Being trained by Al Gore to take the message out
- Asking Al Gore "If we take all the land we're currently using for raising animals & turn it back to forest can we not reverse climate change?" but he didn't want to talk about it
- Starting Climate Healers

07:23 What's Real?
- Becoming disillusioned with religion "This is poor work if God's in charge"
- "We're the only species that's a mistake on this planet"
- Visiting a sanctuary forest "I felt this sense of perfection"... "We did nothing... we gave it back to the animals... make sure no human being comes inside"
- "My granddaughter was born... I felt as if I was holding humanity in my arms"... "I belong exactly as I am... you are a fool!"
- Writing "Carbon Dharma" & "Carbon Yoga"
- "Any 5 year old can tell you... be kind to all life"
- Transforming from caterpillar to butterfly
- "We are the climate regulating species"
- Fire, weapons, partnerships with animals... then fossil fuels
- Be a caretaker species, not a predator species
- "If you insist on being a narcissistic predator species you're going to die"
- "My granddaughter brought me back to faith"
- "We're here to serve the animals not to eat them"
- "The evidence... is that the Bhavadgita is actually correct"

...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.