Episode #116: Melanie Joy Communicating Beyond Beliefs

Dr Melanie Joy is a Harvard-educated psychologist, celebrated speaker, and author of the award-winning book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows, which has been published in 12 languages. Dr Joy is the eighth recipient of the Institute of Jainology's Ahimsa Award, which was previously awarded to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. Her work has been featured by numerous national and international media outlets, including the BBC, ABC Australia, NPR, and the New York Times. Dr Joy has given her acclaimed carnism presentation on six continents, and the video of her recent TEDx talk on carnism is in the top 1% of the most-viewed TEDx talks of all time. She is also the founder and president of the charitable organization Beyond Carnism and author of the books Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication for Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters and Strategic Action for Animals. 1. Veganism At that time, I had decided to become a vegan for health reasons. Reading this book, coupled with watching Earthlings, made me realise that the decision to not eat animal products had much broader implications with regards to animal suffering and the environment. 2. Carnism I loved Melanie’s views on Carnism and quickly saw the parallels to Alcoholism. Almost everything you learn on TTAA and Strive about Alcoholism being an invisible, violent, and dominant belief system comes from Melanie’s work. In this episode, Melanie and talk about the difficulties surrounding drinker v non-drinker communication, how to become allies, the damage of chronic conflicts, the importance of resilience, energy transference, and much more. Her new book Beyond Beliefs is brilliant. It’s one of the best communication books I have read, and the best in the business when it comes to navigating through this thorny issue of drinker v non-drinker communications (although Melanie focuses on vegan v non-vegan dynamics). Links Beyond Beliefs - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1944903305?ie=UTF8 Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1573245054?ie=UTF8 Beyond Carnism- https://www.carnism.org/ Melanie Joy TEDx Talk- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VrZPBskpg