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 and public speaker!

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.