25: “Imagining a better future through our everyday decisions” – Podcaster and academic Claudia Hirtenfelder – Sentientist Conversation

Claudia Hirtenfelder is a PhD Candidate in Geography at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. She is host of The Animal Turn Podcast (Subscribe!)

In these Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is “evidence, commitment & compassion for all sentient beings.”

The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.

Full show notes are here: https://sentientism.info/imagining-a-better-future-through-our-everyday-decisions-podcaster-and-academic-claudia-hirtenfelder-new-sentientist-conversation

We discuss:

• Doing The Animal Turn podcast as a way of learning about animal studies
• Growing up non-religious but in a Christian context in South Africa (school, society)
• Loving confirmation camp & the church community
• Enjoying the easy answers of star signs
• Asking questions of the church and challenging religion. “Why do bad things happen?”… “Mysterious ways!”
• Eventually identifying as an atheist
• Gravitating towards being more anti-theist “If there is a god, why is he so shitty?”, while still respecting people who are religious
• Rejecting religion because of ethics & evidence/reason
• Hesitating about whether reason is “everything” (vs. significance of emotion)
• Emotions can cause problems, but so can being too calculating…
• Social realities
• How is the idea of rational thought operationalised. It’s not perfect or free of context
• Supposedly “rational” thinking has been used to cause terrible harms
• The need for humility and scepticism, even of our own rationality
• Different types of evidence, including personal lived experience
• Subjective experiences as part of one objective reality
• Awe, wonder & connectedness even within a naturalistic world view
• Luna the puppy (no longer really a puppy) comments on our discussion
• And much more here

You can find Claudia at @ClaudiaFTowne & The Animal Turn here.

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/. Join our “wall”
using this simple “I’m a Sentientist” form.

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our main one is here on FaceBook.

Thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-prod work. Give him a follow!