Cat (@CatBeschVN) founded and leads Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue. She is also a writer & activist addressing many non-human animal issues.
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
1:10 Cat's Intro
- Founding Vietnam Animal Aid & Rescue
- Growing up in Virginia, USA
- Studying International Relations in Washington DC
- A political/military family
3:10 What's Real?
- Growing up as a liberal Lutheran with very religious parents
- The church as social fabric
- Figuring out that "I just don't really believe in any of that crap"
- High school & Baptist society in Alabama
- The church seeing all sex as shameful... "holding virginity in such high esteem"
- Feminism & Islam. "Headscarves & Hymens" by Mona Eltahawy.
- "The way the institutions look at sex & sexuality just makes you want to put your fist through a wall"
- "A whole bunch of girls that think they're going to hell"
- That was the turning point. Everything started to crumble
- Not picking at the church too hard as it was the social fabric. "Life is hard enough at 16." I left it silently on my own
- The hypocrisy of religious compassion & judgementalism
- Atheists & agnostics are not immoral people
- "I attended church... I took communion... my sins are flushed... now I can go back to being a dickhead"
- Religious compassion is often conditional & constrained
- The immorality of even "moderate" religious worldviews (e.g. hell, sexism, homophobia)
- "Women are not emotionally stable enough to be leaders in the Catholic church"!
- "I found it oppressive." Leaving the church was a moment of liberation
- Travelling & living in many religious cultures
- Starting the "Let's not be an asshole" religion
- Being wrong. "I used to hate vegans", now I'm "on the side of all sentient beings"
- Everybody has a chance to change
- "I just don't know" as a strong naturalistic stance
25:09 What (& Who) Matters?
- An early empathy for animals "they were my best friends", but living in an environment where killing sentient beings was normal
- I never met a vegan in the horse riding world
- "I love what you do for me" isn't love
- Being angry at our previous selves for not seeing
- Thinking all vegans must be "dirty hippies"
- Meeting first vegans hosting couch-surfers in Mongolia
- Being challenged "You love animals but who are you eating?"
...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.
Thanks for the post-prod Graham.
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/messageCheese Challenge & Pescetarian Paradox - Maja Cullen, Devon Docherty, Carol Jasper - Sentientism 200
"Reductionism is well-named. It reduces what you can do." - Michael Levin - Sentientism 199
"We need to imagine a different world" - Emilia Leese - author and host of Think Like a Vegan - Sentientism 198
Hip Hop is Going Green - Keith Tucker of Hip Hop is Green - Sentientism 197
Nigerian Food Revolution - Hakeem Jimo of Veggie Victory and ProVeg Nigeria - Sentientism 196
Consciousness Live! - with skateboarding philosopher Richard Brown - Sentientism 195
A Truly Humane Education - Laura Chepner - The Vegan Society's Education Officer - Sentientism 194
Imagining Ethical Schools - Sentientism 193
Is Veganic the Future of Farming? "We grow plants using plants" - Jimmy Videle - Sentientism 192
Half-Earth Socialism - Troy Vettese - Sentientism 191
"Your Neighbour Kills Puppies" - Tom Harris - Activist, Artist & Author - Sentientism 190
"A new world of animal justice" - Sabine Brels of World Animal Justice - Sentientism 189
Talking to Humanists about Sentientism - Cross-post bonus from Podcast for Inquiry - Sentientism 188
"What if we saw ourselves as species diplomats?" - David Peña-Guzmán of Overthink and SFSU - Sentientism 187
Could animal farming be good for the animals? The Logic of the Larder - with Nick Pendergrast - Cross-post bonus episode from 3CR's Freedom of Species radio show and podcast - Sentientism 186
"If you combine rationality and compassion you have the essence" - Jonathan Leighton of OPIS - Sentientism 185
Is veganism a moral obligation? Ghostless Machine cross-post bonus - Sentientism 184
Don't underestimate your influence! - Chris Bryant of Bryant Research - Sentientism 183
160: "Mother Cow, Mother India" - Yamini Narayanan - International Development A/Prof - Sentientism
Waking Cosmos - a cross-post bonus episode - Sentientism 182
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