What animal festivals can tell us about being human. "Forget the Camel" author and lawyer Elizabeth MeLampy joins me for episode 232 on the Sentientism YouTube and Podcast. Find our full conversation here and on the podcast: https://youtu.be/GjmolvsBZ9g

Clip of Steven Rouk on Sentientism ep:233. Hope you enjoy our full conversation on YT or podcast as ever. Please share it if you like it!

There are so many bleak meme slippery slopes where you start with something that sounds reasonable & slip down to somewhere dark and nasty.

The Sentientism worldview is different. You get drawn in by something intriguing & important and end up somewhere awesome & good.

If we continue to frame this risk in such brutally anthropocentric terms, I don't hold out much hope for "humanity" in any case.
"... we will create AI systems whose goals are misaligned with human values and that the result will be a catastrophe for humanity..."
Here, there is serious moral concern for humans and for an emulated, digital "human". Yet there's little concern for the quintillions of actually existing, biological non-human sentients.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/phib.12380

Great to see The Humanist magazine featuring non-human sentient ethics and challenging human centricity.
https://thehumanist.com/commentary/the-humancentric-hypocrisy-of-the-denmark-zoo-controversy

"Is your suffering an illusion?" - Philosopher Keith Frankish joins me on Sentientism episode 234 on YouTube and Podcast. Find our full conversation there and here's a clip to tease you into watching, listening and sharing.

Such a pleasure to talk to Jordi Casamitjana about the Sentientism worldview as part of his new Vegan FTA series, "Walking with Vegans to Get Tea" https://youtu.be/2v8TPsO1E6g

Loved my last conversation with Sapna Ramnani about Sentientism https://youtu.be/KGuDrwk7edA

Looking forward to recording another today 🎤

Can capitalism ever be compassionate?
Marketing and consumer behaviour expert Jack Waverley from the University of Manchester joins me on #Sentientism episode 235 on YouTube and Podcast.
https://youtu.be/VKGNxYoUTYs
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/were-reaching-a-critical-mass-consumer-behaviour/id1540408008?i=1000725182697

Such a pleasure to speak at Vegan Camp Out about the Sentientism worldview last weekend. Much love to Sasha Jolliffe Yasawi 🤩 who gave up some of his valuable stage time and invited me to join him as a guest (yes, I felt like a bit of an interloper). Here's roughly what I talked about in my 5ish minutes:

Worldviews are the foundation for how we understand the world & what it means to lead a good life.
Some have religious worldviews. Others have non-religious worldviews like Humanism. Some are spiritual.
Everyone has a worldview whether we think about it or not.
They're important because they underpin everything we believe & every decision we make.
Instead of just accepting the worldviews we're given we should question them, explore others, decide on our own.
#Vegans are good at this - we challenge powerful social norms then do what's right.

The Sentientism Worldview, like other worldviews, answers the deepest questions - what's real & who matters.
#Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings".Five year olds understand it - I know because I run worldviews workshops with themthem.it
It’s simple, but deeply radical - would up-end most of modern society.
It’s a modern worldview based on ancient, even pre-human ideas.
It’s the reason why I'm vegan. It might be the reason why you're vegan too.

Challenges and opportunities for vegans:
- All sentient beings matter, not just those exploited by humans
- Use evidence & reason even when it's uncomfortable. The risks of disinformation, wellness grifters, conspiracism, cults, dogmatic beliefs
- It's not just about agriculture: Politics, economics, law, language, culture...
- Insist on vegan non-maleficence baseline in every moral system (care, rights, util, relations, virtue)
- Work with people of all worldviews to help them (and ourselves) be more rational & compassionate.

Love to see Sentientism mugs out in the wild 😍

"Our results stress the importance of developing sentientist economic frameworks for more informed and ethical policymaking."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10888-025-09701-9
Fairness judgments about animals - by Romain Espinosa and Nicolas Treich (guest on Sentientism episode 115)
#SentientistEconomics

Giving $500 to 1000 people to do something Drop Dead Generous (for any sentient being!)
Co-founder Tom Cledwyn joins me on Sentientism episode 236. Find our full conversation on the #Sentientism podcast and YouTube. Here's a clip to nudge you to watch or listen.

Such a pleasure to talk to Lawrence Anton about how the Sentientism worldview and #antinatalism might intersect. https://youtu.be/MpLAVGCR3wE

Join our next #Sentientism meetup! Plus some other updates: https://sentientism.info/sentientism-meet-up-25-oct-2025-and-some-other-updates

Once our epistemology is broken in one area, there’s a risk it infects other areas.

If we can believe the Earth 🌎 is flat, we can probably believe almost anything.

We might start somewhere fairly harmless, and end up somewhere truly dark.

"Teaching Compassion" - Heather Marshall from Edge Hill University and Michelle St John from VinE (Veganism in Education) join me on Sentientism episode 237. Find our conversation on the Sentientism YouTube or the #Sentientism Podcast. #SentientistEducation

It was such a pleasure to workshop the Sentientism worldview with the new class of trainee Religious Education teachers at University College London last week. Glad these young teachers will be helping thousands of kids to understand the worldviews of others and to shape their own 🤩

75,000 downloads and streams for the Sentientism podcast!
(No, not per episode, in total. But still...)
Thank you for every rating, review, subscription, follow, listen and friend share. Every one helps nudge the world towards "evidence, reason, and compassion for all sentient beings" - in both thought and action 🤩 And thanks to my wonderful guests too!
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sentientism/id1540408008

"MurderBot, Non-violent Protest & Microbial Minds"
#Scifi author & microbiology Professor Joan Slonczewski 🤩 from Kenyon College joins me on #Sentientism worldview episode 238 on YouTube & Podcast. Find our full conversation there. Here's a clip! Please do share both around.

It’s good to reject all baseless discriminations & moral exclusions & oppressions.

But it’s also good to have a robust, positive reason for rejecting them.

Anthropocentrism (“we’re all human”) is not a robust reason.

Sentiocentrism (“we’re all sentient beings”) is.