Naomi is the CEO of Best for Britain, the UK’s leading non-partisan advocacy group upholding internationalist values. Before her campaigning and political career she worked in the corporate world and chaired a number of voluntary groups. She describes herself as an internationalist, xenophile, humanist, vegan. She co-hosts the Oh God What Now? (formerly Remainiacs) and The Bunker podcasts.

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

The audio from this conversation will also be on our Sentientism Podcast – subscribe so you don’t miss it – on Apple & most other platforms.

We discuss how Naomi’s personal philosophy has evolved, including her experience of religious sectarianism in Northern Ireland, being excluded from a religious education class and feeling a deep affinity for non-human animals from an early age.

We also discuss:

• Internationalism, international co-operation, peace, politics and nativism
• Political apathy vs. activism
• Standing for the UK Parliament as a Liberal Democrat
• How ethics intersect with politics
• Growing up in multi-cultural, multi-cultural London and going to Anglican Sunday School
• Getting Christened for the dress and the jewellery 🙂
• Religious sectarianism in Northern Ireland
• Being removed from Religious Education class for calling out the teacher’s explicit homophobia
• Being threatened with eternal hell by a born-again teacher
• Being an atheist but preferring Humanism because it adds ethics, experience, evidence
• “Humans aren’t as bright as we seem to think we are”. We’re always looking for a simple answer and can’t bear “not knowing”
• Good ethics are good for us (e.g. zoonotic diseases caused by animal farming)
• Being an animal lover because of spending so much time with them
• Compassion for those that can’t speak out or resist
• How it took time to apply that through vegetarianism and then veganism
• How quickly veganism is getting easier, particularly in big cosmopolitan cities like London
• Personally debunking the health myths re: veganism + the challenge of “veganising” everything to show it can be easy
• Humanism’s natural (but too slow) extension to take non-human moral consideration more seriously. The challenge of making Humanism anti-speciesist too
• The twin kryptonites of religion and animal ethics to otherwise careful thinkers
• Environmentalists that still participate in animal farming, leaving farmed animals and non-charismatic wildlife excluded from their moral “doughnut”
• Veganism as a win-win-win for humans (regardless of worldview), non-human animals and the environment
• A Sentientist Politics?
• How future generations will look back on our era as barbaric
• How groups that have suffered oppression are sometimes quicker to empathise with those subject to other forms of oppression
• How extending our compassion for non-human animals will enhance our compassion for human animals
• The physical (e.g. COVID, injuries) and mental health impact of harming and killing animals on slaughter-house workers
• “Killing animals hurts humans too”
• How change for environmental, health and availability reasons might free people to improve their ethics
• The role of evidence, reason and fact in politics vs. narrative, story, lies and slogans “We’ve had enough of experts”
• How 2020 might prove a corrective. Reminding ourselves of the value of evidence and reason. Reality as a harsh teacher
• Getting Sir David Attenborough to brandish a vegan sausage roll
• Hoping that we’re slowly moving towards a more Sentientist future.

You can follow Naomi on Twitter here @pimlicat.

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Many thanks to Graham Bessellieu for his post-production work on this video. Go follow him (& maybe work with him!) at @cgbessellieu.