Emilia is co-author of the book Think Like A Vegan and host of the Think Like a Vegan podcast. She is involved in the Birchfield Highlands re-wilding project in Scotland, edits the quarterly magazine for The Heath & Hampstead Society in London and has developed life skills and ethics workshops for underserved youth. Professionally, she has been a corporate finance lawyer for over 20 years.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”

Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.
00:00 Clips!

01:25 Welcome

- Shared Sentientism guests with  @thinklikeavegan  :

- Troy Vettese episode

- Josh Milburn episode

- Aysha Akhtar episode

04:41 Emilia's Intro

- Corporate finance, vegan writing / podcasting, rewilding
in Scotland, magazine editing

05:45 What's Real?

- Growing up in Italy

- #catholic  school "which I hated... it never made sense to me that only some people... would go to heaven"

- Letting teachers know at 5-6 years old "this doesn't
make any sense"... "they kind of stopped asking me questions"

- Dad is an Indian philosophy professor

- Investigating eastern and western traditions and religions
"I said 'none of it matters'... it matters what I do here and now"

- "People have their traditions and I love that...but
for me ultimately I don't need to have any of that"

- "The fundamental of all of them is love... just practice it"

- "That love then turns in to a respect and a valuing... of sentient life... and everything that's around us"

- "Plants & funghi... even minerals and mountains... they may not feel anything but that doesn't matter... it's all
connected"

- "The fate of the least among us... is extremely important"

- "Bees and insects... how they go, we go"

- "I don't need an outside force to tell me to do the right thing"

- "A certain basic fairness... treat everyone the same unless there's a morally relevant reason to treat them differently"

- "I have personally witnessed things that I cannot explain... there's lots of things I don't know... so I've decided that's fine"

- "You have to leave space for changing your mind... we
learn everything!"

- JW: How broken epistemology can lead "good" people to do terrible things

- The ethical and epistemological errors that justify animal
agriculture

- Maneesha Deckha's "beingness" concept

- "We as advocates have to be better at our own rhetoric"

- "We live in a capitalist, non-vegan world... so there
will be inherent things that you are not going to be able to solve"

- "You don't need to be well versed in philosophy... we
can all get there"

- Examining what's driving our actions... fear (of others,
change, deistic reprisal, social norms, admitting we were wrong)

- JW: Uncommon common sense re: ethical and epistemic basics

- Humans building convenient hierarchies "as long as
you're at the top"

- "Animal agribusiness has never been nice... 10,000
years ago... 5,000 years ago... there's always objectification, exploitation and death... that doesn't change"

- "To the being - you only have one life"
26:20 What Matters?

53:13 Who Matters?

01:00:42 A Better World?

01:22:00 Follow Emilia

- EmiliaLeese.com

- Think Like a Vegan Podcast

- @emiisgoodeating

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. Come join us there!