![Sentientism artwork](https://is4-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts124/v4/d4/2c/4f/d42c4f02-ab38-2aac-8e27-b5f9050fff67/mza_9177382917596725629.jpg/100x100bb.jpg)
86: "There's not a huge difference between how we treat farmed animals & how we treat people - as resources" Nandita Bajaj of Population Balance - Sentientist Conversation
Sentientism
English - November 30, 2021 10:52 - 1 hour - 69.9 MB - ★★★★★ - 19 ratingsPhilosophy Society & Culture Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Nandita is the ED of Population Balance which works to address the impacts of human overpopulation & overconsumption on the planet, people & animals. As faculty with the Institute for Humane Education, Nandita teaches a course “Pronatalism & Overpopulation” about the pervasive pressure on women to have children & the impacts on them, families, non-human animals & the planet. Previously, Nandita worked as a high school physics & math teacher & an administrator in both the public & independent school systems as well as an engineer at Bombardier Aerospace. She has a B.Eng. (Aerospace Engineering) from Ryerson University, a B.Ed. from University of Toronto & an M.Ed. (Humane Ed.) from Antioch University.
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 video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:10 Nandita's Intro
- Engineering to teaching maths/physics to studying & teaching at the Institute of Humane Education (animals, humans, environment)
- Pronatalism: The pressure to have children
- Population stabilisation
04:26 What's Real?
- Growing up in a fairly liberal household in North-West India
- Moving every 3 years. "Wired to desire change"
- Following Hindu religious holidays & traditions
- Transactional religious compliance: fear-based & conditional
- Tribalism & superstition "It didn't make a lot of sense to me"
- Moving to Canada
- Becoming non-religious was fairly straight-forward
- Dabbling in self-discovery & studying psychology: Realising "These pieces of my identity were for the most part socially constructed"
- De-constructing values & beliefs "Who I was made to believe I was was very limited & finite & self-serving." Reputation, wealth, success, family
- "What motivates me deeply?" rather than "what do people expect of me?"
- Exploring eastern & western philosophy
- "There is this deep reverence that I hold - not for a god... but for the entire evolutionary process" "There seems to some kind of a kind of miraculousness to it"
- Interconnectedness, scale, deep time, human humility
- "There is something much bigger going on." Mystery - driven by science - but not limited to evidence, because there may be things we'll never have evidence of
- Evidence might be limited but that's not an excuse for "making stuff up"
- How supernatural beliefs can warp compassionate ethics
22:18 What & Who Matters?
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info and on YouTube.
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!
Thanks Graham.
---
Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sentientism/message