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Melanie Joy

Find our Sentientist Conversation on the Sentientism YouTube here and on the Sentientism Podcast here.

Melanie Joy, PhD, is a Harvard-educated psychologist specializing in relationships, communication, and social transformation. She is the award-winning author of six books, including the new How to End Injustice Everywhere and the bestselling Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows and Getting Relationships Right: How to Build Resilience and Thrive in Life, Love, and Work. Melanie is also an internationally recognized speaker and trainer who’s presented her work in fifty countries across six continents.

Melanie is best known for her groundbreaking theories on the psychology of violence and nonviolence and building healthy relationships. Her analyses have helped explain why people engage in “nonrelational” behaviors—behaviors that harm other people, animals, the planet, and themselves—as well as how to change this pattern. Her work has been featured by media outlets around the world, including the New York Times, BBC, NPR, and ABC Australia. She is the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award—previously given to the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela—for her work on global nonviolence; and she also received both the Peter Singer Prize and the Empty Cages Prize for her work developing strategies to reduce the suffering of non-human animals. Melanie is the founding president of the international organization, Beyond Carnism.

Melanie is non-religious and has a naturalistic worldview. She is vegan and has a sentiocentric moral scope.

Melanie on Wikipedia
How to End Injustice Everywhere
Beyond Carnism
Infighting.org
MelanieJoy.org
@DrMelanieJoy

Latest work

Headshot of Michelle St John and Heather Marshall both smiling towards the camera.

Teaching Compassion

Michelle St. John is founder and director of VinE (Veganism in Education). Heather Marshall is a Senior Lecturer and Religious Education PGCE Course Leader at Edge Hill University. A Sentientism conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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Teaching Compassion

Michelle St. John is founder and director of VinE (Veganism in Education). Heather Marshall is a Senior Lecturer and Religious Education PGCE Course Leader at Edge Hill University. A Sentientism conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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Sentientism Meet-Up 25 Oct 2025 (and some other updates)

An invitation to the second ever Sentientism meetup and some updates about our education work and a potential book!
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Giving $500 to 1000 people to do something ‪Drop Dead Generous‬

Tom Cledwyn is co-founder of Drop Dead Generous. A Sentientism Conversation about what's real, who matters and how to make a better world.
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