130: Consumers can drive compassionate change - Ethos CEO Jill Ettinger - Sentientism

Jill has been a leading voice in digital media for more than a decade. She’s been published in outlets including MTV, The Huffington Post, and the Village Voice. She served as Head of Content for a popular vegan media platform from 2017-2020, with a reach of more than 50 million per month. She has worked with a number of impact media platforms to help build their traffic and positioning, as well as with leading brands and celebrities working to make the world a more sustainable and ethical space. Jill is the co-founder, CEO and Head of Content for Ethos.

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:

00:00 Welcome

01:42 Jill's Intro

- Immersed in digital content

- Co-founding https://the-ethos.co/

- Vegan media & natural foods industries

- The #Conspirituality podcast & #DavidWolfe

03:42 What's Real?

- "The religion that governed my house was #bobdylan "

- Parents raised #Jewish, father became atheist, "7/11 jewish" mother

- Kicked out of hebrew school "one of my father's more proud moments"

- Living with dad after parents split

- Child of the 80's "you're on your own journey"

- Constantine Sandis https://youtu.be/iy0UdN7WTxc

- Becoming a mum

- Animals' different realities

- "We're the chosen people... an egregious statement... how can one group matter more?.. after so much suffering"

- #Israel & #palestine

- Fond memories of Jewish culture but "as a rule to live by... not at all"

- "this omnipresent god... directing every moment of my life... I wanted the autonomy"

- #Agnostic. Open to the idea of "some sort of god"

- #dogma

- The risks of the #wellness / #spirituality worlds. #antivaxx, #Qanon, #alternativemedicine

- Open-mindedness, evidence & gut-feel

- #DavidWolfe shows a #moonlanding #conspiracy video

- Distrust of authority

- Scepticism about vaccines didn't seem too serious "to each their own". Then #covid19 hits

- "I very much prefer to have science in my corner... but sometimes you can just tell"

- A denial, scepticism, gullibility spectrum?

- David Wolfe "leveraging science when it supported his narrative but slamming it when it didn't"

- Gossip as "a way to keep the tribal community safe"

- "Conspiracy theories... we use them unconsciously to defend ourselves"

32:10 What & Who Matters?

- "I don't think you need religion to know good from bad"

- @Sam Harris

- Raising a #vegan child "she asked what it was and I said that used to be a pig's stomach or back..."

- "She seems very much to understand that basic level of compassion"

...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

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Thanks Graham.