Find our Sentientist Conversation here on the Sentientism YouTube and here on the Sentientism Podcast.
Pearl describes herself as “poly-vocational”. She is a foreign relations & management consultant with an MA in International Relations & an MBA in International Business. She is a vegan whole foods advocate via her “Le Twisted Spoon” club. Pearl is also a community organiser, public speaker & sometimes a political candidate!
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 audio is also on our Podcast here on Apple & here everywhere else.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:17 Pearl’s Intro
- Foreign relations consulting & #vegan activism
02:55 What’s Real?
- Growing up in #kansas USA
- A traditional African-American household
- “There’s a connection between people clinging to religion & #poverty”
- “This disparity between what was taught on Sunday and what people practiced throughout the week”
- “Unsavoury” behaviour by church leaders
- Poverty, moving frequently, homeless shelters
- Church charity (food, paying bills)
- “As an adult I feel much more #spiritual & less religious”
- “If it didn’t make sense to me I had a problem with it”… Santa Claus etc.
- Open-minded mum
- Church corruption & money “You have to pay to pray”
- Disparities in the #bible
- Churches teaching Jesus but not following his example
- “Everything was taken away from the people who came over [slavery] and it was replaced with this [Christianity]”
- “I still believe there’s something higher than myself”
- Christianity’s role in colonialism
- #religion ‘s allure for those suffering (“your suffering in this life doesn’t matter because heaven!”). “A lot of really bad things have been allowed to happen because of that principle…”
- Compassion vs. status, in-out groups, hierarchy
- Three experiences “I have zero explanation for that”
- “Is there someone bigger than myself that clearly loves me – I know that for sure”
- The problems of suffering & unanswered prayers “It doesn’t add up rationally”
- “The kind of god I want to worship & love wouldn’t behave in that way”
- Jesus’ teachings vs. Jesus as a god
- Husband became #christian by listening to Christian radio in Paris
- Church food banks & real help
- “I don’t think that maybe ‘Christian’ is the right term to describe myself these days”
- Even #jesus threatened non-believers with hell
- Child abuse in religious groups. Risks of authority/power/groupishness
46:03 What and Who Matters?
- Growing up – “family matters”
- “If you have something you should share it”
- “Unless you piss me off” 🙂
- US Marine Corps scholarship & a sense of nationality
- Justice & equality
- Food systems, reading about veganism
- “We’re cutting down trees just so people can have a steak”
- “You can’t just say facts because their brain is not prepared for the atrocities… so they can have what they have on their plate.”
- “I’m a huge believer in the dollar vote”
- “They don’t teach you this in school… how can I be so ignorant?… I thought I was an educted woman.”
- Kicking a dog will get you in trouble “but you can torture livestock?”
- Antibiotics & superbugs, worker exploitation
- “People have literally died because of these farming practices”
- “If you know better you have to do better”… but you need to know how
56:26 A Better Future?
- Personal, political, institutional change
- “Different tools for different jobs”
- Animal rights arguments “can fall on deaf ears”
- Shifting government subsidies towards #justtransition
- From moral righteousness to effectiveness
- “As vegans we forget our compassion too”
- Health, #environmental & ethical reasons for #veganism
- #AgGag laws
- “You’re a liar if you say that you support the environment & you don’t have conversations about the food industry”
- “When you are vegan because of your ethics… you will never have another bite of animal products ever again”
- #sentience
- Backyard chicken eggs & “free-range” farming… “there just isn’t any ethical way to consume eggs… or dairy”
- @Our Hen House
- “Jesus coming down & like ‘you did what?!'”
- “Living my life in a way where I try to do no harm to anyone – it just feels good – it feels easy.”
- Cats, mice & insects “How far do you apply human concepts?”
- Life-long learning
- “People have to learn how to make healthy vegan meals”
- Alternatives vs. plants
- Standing for office “you ran a very unique campaign!”
- Veganism, #socialjustice & #sustainability
- Cooking vegan for people… “People can’t not eat free food!”
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info.
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Thanks Graham for the post-production.