The Sentient Media Podcast: Recent Episodes

Sentient Media

Sentient Media is a nonprofit journalism organization that seeks to create transparency around the roles of animals in our daily lives—from food to companionship to laboratory test subjects.

Join us as we meet the people who are changing the way we think about and interact with animals and our world.

Here you can also listen to readings of our long-form articles to learn more about the lives of farmed animals.

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Since May 2020, the instance of orcas ramming boats, biting off bits of vessels, sinking yachts, has off the coast of Portugal and Spain in the Gibraltar Strait has gone from a handful of encounters to 100s. In this episode, Sarah DeWeerdt explains what might be happening and reflects on the tragic death of the captive orca known many as Lolita.

Sarah DeWeerdt is a freelance science journalist in Seattle covering biology, medicine and the environment. She is working on a book of essays about the family history of the southern resident orcas of the Salish Sea.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/E21BOxagB2k

The conversation:

  • Overview.
    • The number of orcas in the gibraltar strait in Portugal and Spain has gone from a handful of incidents to getting into the hundreds.
    • About 20% of these orca boat interactions have resulted in enough damage to the boats that they couldn't get back to port on their own.
    • A total of five boats have sunk as the results of these interactions, but there have been no human fatalities.
  • The media’s perception of orcas as rebels.
    • There has been an increase in interactions between orcas and boats over the years. The media attention is making people aware of the phenomenon.
    • The role that orcas play in society.
    • Scientists are calling orcas gladiators. The idea that orcas are doing this to punish and target the rich is often tongue in cheek.
    • The southern resident killer whale population of orcas in the waters around Seattle and British Columbia is the most talked about.
    • Scientists have identified three threats to the iberian orcas at the moment, lack of food, toxins and vessel noise.
    • Females are thought to be able to live for potentially as long as 100 years, while males tend to live shorter than 50 to 60 years.
  • How did the orcas react to the quieter ocean?
    • It is feasible that there are workers who remember when the ocean was quieter and there was less human activity.
    • In the north sea, there hasn't been a healthy calf in over a decade.
    • Is there any evidence to back up the idea that the COVID-19 lockdown was a good thing for the orcas?
    • There was an increase in boats around the southern residents during lockdown.
  • Are the orcas playing with the boats?
    • There is no evidence that their interactions could just be them playing with the boats, but scientists suspect that it might be play.
    • One of the orcas, gladys nigra, has been injured.
    • There has been a lot of whale news this summer and throughout the year. Here are a few examples of whale stories that have been in the media.
    • There has also been a sea otter in Santa Cruz who was labelled as a menace.
  • How do we frame the orca uprising?
    • The idea of an orca uprising is often couched in positive terms. It is a different culture, especially as a positive thing, is a really different narrative for western culture.
    • Orca scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the media framing of the narrative and the way that it has been presented.
    • The boat was recorded to have been shooting something at the orcas, which is evidence that they are sentient.
    • Orcas are highly social creatures. They are also very tactile, constantly in touch with members of their families, and they have very sensitive skin.
  • The story of the orca known as Lolita
    • Toki, the southern resident killer whale, passed away recently in her tank in Miami, after 53 years in captivity.
    • Toki was captured in 1970 in penn cove, seattle.
    • Toki was named after the nabokov novel. She performed with hugo for 10 years and never had a calf.
    • Toki is the oldest southern resident killer whale at the moment, 95 years old.
  • Retirement and release to a sea pen.
    • Toki was finally retired from doing shows in 2022, and then the Sea Aquarium announced an agreement with a nonprofit called friends of toki.
    • A strange phenomenon happened in the time leading up to her death.
    • These gatherings would have been more common in the past as the salmon populations chinook salmon population that the southern residents rely on has declined.
    • Very few of the southern resident killer whale population were alive at the time of the capture of her mother.
    • Sarah wants to hold open a space for the unexplainable. She wants to take her rage and grief and use it to end cetacean captivity and ensure the continued survival of the southern resident killer whale population.
    • Sarah shares her thoughts on the death of her mother.

Further Reading:

Sentient Media Coverage:

Inside the Fight to Release the Orca Some Called Lolita. By Grace Hussain.

Are Orcas Smart Enough to Plot Against Humans? Their Intelligence, Explained. By Björn Ólafsson

Are Orcas Endangered? Some Are, and the Species Appears to Be Fighting Back. By Björn Ólafsson

Discussed:

orcaiberica.org -- info about the Iberian orcas, their boat interaction behavior, and efforts to reduce human-orca conflict in this area.

Essays by Emily Gambone: https://www.nonhumanrights.org/blog/lolita-orca-part-1/

https://friendsoftoki.org/

https://www.orcanetwork.org/

https://sacredsea.org/

Snake River dams work: https://damsense.org/

Open letter to media: https://awionline.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/Open-Letter-Iberian-Orcas.pdf

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In this episode of the Sentient Media Podcast, host Ana Bradley interviews Dr. Jennifer Jacquet about the controversial topic of octopus farming. Dr. Jacquet discusses the reasons behind the resistance to octopus farming in the 21st century and the ethical implications of mass-producing a beloved animal species. They explore the current status of proposed octopus farms in different countries, including the world's first factory farm for octopuses in Gran Canaria. Dr. Jacquet shares insights into what an octopus factory farm might look like and the potential impact on the animals' well-being. They also discuss the reasons for choosing a land-based facility for octopus farming and the public's response to this issue. This episode provides valuable perspectives on the challenges and ethical considerations surrounding octopus farming.

Dr. Jennifer Jacquet is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University and a visiting professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Miami. She is the recipient of a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan research fellowship and a 2016 Pew fellowship in marine conservation. Along with Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith and Walter Sanchez-Suarez, she published an article on “The Case Against Octopus Farming” in 2019.

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In this conversation, @moby — musician, songwriter, producer and animal rights activist — and Sentient Media’s founder, Mikko Järvenpää discuss punk rock’s tie to veganism, animal agriculture’s impact on the world around us, American media’s coverage of animals (or lack thereof) and Moby’s new film.

Watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/1BNTBjjMKL8

Links:

Punk Rock Vegan Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9q1IidazY8

Moby’s website: https://moby.com/

Follow Moby on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moby/

Follow Moby on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelittleidiot

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George Monbiot and Sentient Media Executive Director, Ana Bradley, discuss in detail the link between the far-right and farming and why these conspiracy theories being spread by influencers like Brand are so damaging.  

Watch the video here: 

Monbiot’s work: 

Monbiot’s column in the Guardian

Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet

TED Talk: Can We Feed Ourselves Without Devouring the Planet

Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life

The Age of Consent; Heat: How to Stop the Planet Burning

Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis

TED Talk: "How Wolves Change Rivers" 

Follow Monbiot on Twitter

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Leah Garcés is CEO and President of Mercy for Animals and author of "Grilled: Turning Adversaries Into Allies To Change the Chicken Industry". She has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in the animal protection movement and has partnered with some of the world's largest food companies on her mission to build a better food system. She's overseen international campaigns in 14 countries at the World Society for the Protection of Animals and launched Compassion in World farming in the U.S. And her work has featured in national and international media outlets —she has been in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Vice, Chicago Tribune. 

In this conversation, Leah discusses how the media can help shift narratives around animal agriculture, how farmers suffer at the hands of corporations and why focusing on removing cages for laying hens is so important today.

Links: 

Mercy for Animals: https://mercyforanimals.org

Grilled, book: https://mercyforanimals.org/grilled/

True Cost of Your Cheap Chicken @New York Times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6xE7rieXU0

Deloitte study on plant-based consumer trends referenced:  https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/retail-distribution/future-of-fresh-food-sales/plant-based-meat-sales.html

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In this episode of the Sentient Media Podcast, we meet Nicholas Carter to tackle the myths around animal agriculture.

Watch the interview on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/jl8xG6TVhyc

Nicholas is an ecologist and co-founder of PlantBasedData.org, a library of peer-reviewed articles and summaries on the environmental, health, economic, and zoonotic disease evidence to shift to plant-based diets. He’s recently prepared a scientific report for World Animal Protection, including a contribution to carbon modeling with Navius Research, on the impacts and opportunities with agriculture in Canada.

Nicholas is also on the advisory board of the Eco Cooks Club, an educational program to empower youth to take climate action by connecting how our food choices impact the planet. He’s also helped launch and leads climate communications for a data center that’s part of the Canadian Centre for Climate Services. He was recently a Center for Biological Diversity panelist alongside Dr. Tara Garnett from Oxford University, and a speaker at the launch of the documentary Meat the Future along with the Jane Goodall Institute, the Good Food Institute, and BluNalu. His research during his master’s degree in environmental practice focused on the global greenhouse gas emissions that are attributed to animal agriculture. He's since written and been interviewed for The New Republic, Plant Based News, Plant Proof, Sentient Media, Forbes, The Globe and Mail, Macleans, and Planet Friendly News. Transitioning to plant-based farming systems has also been a focus where he’s written about regenerative plant farming practices with A-Well-Fed World.

Links:

  • Coverage of the Nexus report by Jessica Scott-Reid: https://sentientmedia.org/canadians-meat-dairy-climate-goals/
  • Dairy campaign advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_NII-LL9kw
  • Article by Jenny Splitter on Frank Mitloehner, money and miscommunication: https://sentientmedia.org/frank-mitloehner/
  • Coverage of Frank Mitloehner in Unearthed and New York Times: https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2022/10/31/frank-mitloehner-uc-davis-climate-funding/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/climate/frank-mitloehner-uc-davis.html
  • George Monbiot’s book, Regenisis: https://twitter.com/georgemonbiot/status/1522851257794318336
  • Achieving climate targets in Canada with a shift to plant-based: https://www.worldanimalprotection.ca/news/canadas-2030-climate-targets-are-achievable-if-canadians-move-more-plant-based-diet
  • We will not achieve the Paris 1.5 degrees C climate goal without addressing animal agriculture:
    • https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba7357?url_ver=Z39.88-2003𝔯_id=ori:rid:crossref.org𝔯_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed
    • https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/fulltext
    • https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0594-0
    • "If global trends in meat and dairy intake continue, global mean temperature rise will more than likely exceed 2° C, even with dramatic emissions reductions across non‐agricultural sectors." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286920313_The_Importance_of_Reducing_Animal_Product_Consumption_and_Wasted_Food_in_Mitigating_Catastrophic_Climate_Change
    • https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32474248/
  • Largest meta-analysis on our food system to date looking at over 38,000 farms in 119 countries representing 90% of all foods: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaq0216
    • 83% of all agricultural land is used for animal agriculture.
    • Shifting entirely away from animal agriculture would free up more than 3 billion hectares of land, equivalent to the continent of Africa.
    • As covered here as well: https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production
  • Cycling crops through animals at about a 10% conversion rate: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015/meta
  • Even the best type of grazing that can draw down some carbon relative to more intensive uses of land, doesn't offset the methane emissions or other tradeoff environmental concerns: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/reports/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf
  • More myths around Grazing: https://grazingfacts.com/
  • Nationwide shift to grass-fed beef requires larger cattle population, emits more methane, and would use far more land than is available: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37260135
  • Kiss the Ground analysis and podcast: https://plantbasednews.org/opinion/kiss-the-earth-last-ditch-effort-keep-meat-relevant/
  • Rewilding documentary and research from Dr. William Ripple https://www.rewildingamountain.com/
  • Stock-Free or Veganic Farming: https://sentientmedia.org/farming-for-the-planet/ and https://awellfedworld.org/issues/climate-issues/farming-for-climate/

  • Biodiversity:

    • "The livestock sector is currently the single major driver of habitat loss and degradation, which is in its turn a leading cause of species decline and extinction worldwide."
      • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2530064420300614#bib0085 Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation
    • The “past and present processes by which human carnivory threatens the world's biodiversity makes it arguably the most detrimental aspect of our ecology, from a conservation point-of-view."
      • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969715303697 Science of the Total Environment
    • Grazing & Biodiversity - Possibly some more birds and insects vs. an intensive feedcrop, but far less than rewilding: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ele.13527 & https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011013108
    • Highly paid beef industry academics: https://sentientmedia.org/frank-mitloehner/ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/climate/frank-mitloehner-uc-davis.html
    • This study showed doubling the proportion of veg meals offered increases veg sales by between 41%-79%: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1907207116
    • Nudge and increase accessibility to plant-based foods: https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/43/2/392/5637580?login=false#.Xeom9b_uTbw.twitter

Find @NicholasDCarter on social:

https://twitter.com/NicholasDCarter

https://www.instagram.com/nicholasdcarter/

Website:

https://www.plantbaseddata.org/

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Brian Kateman coined the term “reducetarian” to describe a person who is deliberately reducing their consumption of meat. In 2015, Kateman founded the Reducetarian Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to reducing societal consumption of animal products.

He is the author of The Reducetarian Solution, The Reducetarian Cookbook, and Meat Me Halfway and is the lead producer of the documentary version of Meat Me Halfway released and streamed on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, and more. He is a regular contributor to Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, and his writings have appeared in The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, among others. Kateman lives in New Jersey with his wife Isabel and rescue dogs Tobey and Cooper."

Watch the interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/33ID5ecPOLo

Find Brian's work:

https://www.reducetarian.org/

https://www.meatmehalfway.org/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/briankateman/2022/09/06/optimistic-longtermism-is-terrible-for-animals/

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Jasmin Singer is co-host of the Our Hen House Podcast, editor at large for VegNews, Vice President of Brand Editorial at Kinder Beauty, author of ‘The VegNews Guide to Being a Fabulous Vegan, TEDx Speaker, mentor at Sentient Media, and all round social justice powerhouse. 

Watch to the podcast on YouTube here: 

Read more here: https://sentientmedia.org

Find Jasmin: 

https://www.instagram.com/OurHenHouse/

https://www.ourhenhouse.org/animallaw/

https://www.ourhenhouse.org

https://jasminsinger.substack.com

https://www.instagram.com/jasminsingerauthor/

https://jasminsinger.com

Jasmin’s TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ1Q2wRoYzQ  

https://kinderbeauty.com

https://vegnews.com

Farmer John’s article: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-06-11/farmer-john-plant-to-close

Ringling Brothers article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/05/18/ringling-bros-circus-returns-without-animals-five-years-after-closing/

C Lou Hamilton https://www.ourhenhouse.org/episode-524-c-lou-hamilton-on-veganism-sex-and-politics/

Jasmin’s piece in Yahoo Life: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/spent-82000-making-my-new-home-eco-friendly-131755566.html

Encompass Essays series: https://sentientmedia.org/category/encompass-essays/

Apex advocacy: https://www.apexadvocacy.org

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Monique Koch is the host of the award-winning Brown Vegan Podcast which she started to help everyday people learn about the benefits of vegan life with tips, recipes, and encouragement. Monique has built a powerful community and platform which effortlessly highlights all kinds of vegan voices in a celebratory and non-judgemental way. This conversation offers a snapshot of her life, bringing up kids, starting a podcast, and why veganism intersects so many of Monique’s values, from human rights to the future of life on earth.  

Find Monique: 

https://www.brownvegan.com

Monique on Good Morning Washington https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnnd05TGuv4&t=25s

Monique in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/dining/black-vegan-cooking.html

The Brown Vegan Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brown-vegan/id718175915

Monique on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brownvegan

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrownVegan

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI86qvo4zcnq4KIXREP6-3w

Resources: 

Reducetarian: https://www.reducetarian.org

Sistah Vegan: http://sistahvegan.com  

Skinny Bitch: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/556b2542e4b02fd687fb4fa7/t/565b8a37e4b0f60cdbbab6e4/1448839735462/skinny+bitch.pdf

Nama Juicer: https://namawell.com/products/nama-j2-cold-press-juicer

Destiny: https://www.eatyodestiny.com https://www.instagram.com/lezgo_tiny/

Destiny on The Brown Vegan Podcast: https://www.brownvegan.com/podcast/tiny-house-living-lez-go-tiny

Todd Anderson AKA Turnip Vegan: https://www.instagram.com/turnipvegan/?hl=en

Plant-Based Tamika: https://www.instagram.com/plantbasedtamika/?hl=en

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Pete Paxton is an active undercover investigator who has been involved in animal cruelty investigations since 2001. He has worked all over the world including the US in Canada and Mexico, Brazil, India, and the Philippines where his investigations have led to changes in legislation, convictions, and the rescue of countless victims of animal cruelty. He has also been awarded a coin of excellence from the US Attorney's Office in Arkansas for his role in shutting down an operation selling dogs and cats to research labs. 

Watch the conversation on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/3TLwOHmApD8 

You can read more here: https://sentientmedia.org  

Sign up for our Writers’ Collective to take Pete’s Course: https://sentientmedia.org/writers-collective/

Rescue Dogs by Pete Paxton and Gene Stone:  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599676/rescue-dogs-by-pete-paxton-with-gene-stone/

Dealing Dogs: @HBO documentary via Alliance for Animals and the Environment: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11oB85ncFuo

Where Pete works at time of filming: 

https://www.seedundercoverinvestigations.com

https://www.caps-web.org

https://www.humanesociety.org

Interviews with Pete: 

Sentient Media events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS10Uz136Vo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWoe7nwEySY&list=PL4GpfPIoHqcV8hI4bhHPWP4bE1KRvRN_j&index=6&t=2748s

Interview with Lex Rigby: https://sentientmedia.org/exposing-the-secretive-world-of-animal-exploitation-with-pete-paxton/

Articles/points referred to: 

Gentle Barn: https://www.gentlebarn.org/california/

Butterball case: 

https://mercyforanimals.org/blog/making-history-butterball-conviction-marks-first-ever-felony-conviction-for-cruelty-to-factory-farme/

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Watch the conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41sUr1CAxhw

Read more on https://sentientmedia.org

Find Kenny:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect-future-of-meat

https://www.vox.com/authors/kenny-torrella

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenny-torrella-66a0774a/

https://twitter.com/KennyTorrella

Articles/points referred to:

Henry Mance article: https://www.ft.com/content/8f50f2da-2862-4ec1-977f-2eda85890402

Temple Grandlin quote: https://blog.humanesociety.org/2013/07/ag-gag-bills-bite-the-dust.html

Month in a Minute with Sentient Media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ytqJfelHLY

Pete Paxton: https://sentientmedia.org/exposing-the-secretive-world-of-animal-exploitation-with-pete-paxton/

Future Perfect: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect

Kenny’s piece on the Mayor of New York: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22927412/eric-adams-fish-vegan-plant-based-new-york

Kenny’s piece on the future of food: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23065941/vegan-vegetarian-plant-based-food-tech-bad-products

Bryant Terry: https://www.bryant-terry.com/allbooks

The Korean Vegan: https://thekoreanvegan.com

The Meat Paradox article: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/2/24/22947967/why-we-love-animals-and-love-to-eat-them-meat-paradox

Gene editing article: https://www.vox.com/22994946/gene-editing-farm-animals-livestock-crispr-genetic-engineering

The Outlaw Ocean: https://www.theoutlawocean.com

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Watch our conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/c1A2YTDfYK8

Find Jessica on Twitter and Instagram:

https://twitter.com/JessLReid

https://www.instagram.com/jesslsr/

Jessica’s author page at Sentient Media:

https://sentientmedia.org/author/jessicascottreid/

Jessica’s articles about horses:

https://sentientmedia.org/taking-on-canadas-horse-meat-industry/

https://sentientmedia.org/black-lives-matter-protests-police-horses-oppression/

Jessica’s articles about Greenwashing:

https://sentientmedia.org/how-grass-fed-beef-is-duping-consumers-again/

https://sentientmedia.org/there-is-no-such-thing-as-sustainable-beef/

Jessica’s articles about ag-gag laws:

https://sentientmedia.org/ag-gag-laws-keep-animal-farming-in-the-dark-and-diminish-public-trust/

More on the horse Carriage issue in New York:

https://sentientmedia.org/ban-new-york-horse-carriages/

https://w42st.com/post/could-contentious-video-signal-the-end-of-horse-carriages-in-central-park/

More on the horse hormone issue:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/16/iceland-urged-to-ban-blood-farms-that-extract-hormone-from-pregnant-horses

References:

‘The beef with fake meat: Dairy and meat lobbies take aim at plant-based products’ By Jessica Scott-Reid https://www.corporateknights.com/food-beverage/meat-companies-undermine-plant-based-products/

‘Are sustainable poultry claims all they’re cracked up to be?’ By Jessica Scott-Reid https://www.corporateknights.com/food-beverage/sustainable-poultry-claims/

‘One Study, Five Headlines’ By Caroline Christen https://sentientmedia.org/one-study-five-headlines-how-to-deal-with-conflicting-diet-news/

‘Critics explode over Niagara Falls nightly fireworks plan’ By Jessica Scott-Reid https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/05/16/critics-explode-over-niagara-falls-nightly-fireworks-plan.html

Nicholas Carter & co. at plant-based data for climate science: https://www.plantbaseddata.org

Faunalytics study into effective advocacy: https://faunalytics.org/relative-effectiveness/

‘How a Vegan Diet Takes the Joy out of Life’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/doctors-diary/vegan-diet-takes-joy-life/ by James Le Fanu

Tenderly Magazine: https://tenderly.medium.com

Documentary ‘Meat Me Halfway’ https://www.meatmehalfway.org

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Award-winning journalist Jenny Splitter shares her experiences with us. Her work covers food, agriculture, science, climate and health for outlets including Vox, The Observer, The Guardian, Everyday Health, The Washington Post and New York Magazine.

Watch the interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4GpfPIoHqcU-4TgyBtX2zLy0YZOBZrsw

Additional Links:

FutureFeed Newsletter: https://futurefeed.substack.com/?r=426r3

https://www.jennysplitter.com

https://twitter.com/jennysplitter

https://www.instagram.com/jennysplitter/

Articles we discussed:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/20/manure-natural-gas-pipeline-factory-farms-greenwashing

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22609382/plant-based-meatless-future-transition-farmers-meatpacking-workers

https://observer.com/2020/09/how-these-bugs-could-save-the-worlds-food-supply-from-overpopulation/

Jeff Sebo’s piece in Aeon: https://aeon.co/essays/on-the-torment-of-insect-minds-and-our-moral-duty-not-to-farm-them

Breakthrough Institute Report on Alternative Protein: https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food/case-for-public-investment-in-alt-proteins

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sent...

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudaVg7_tLsKzdg0fWko2bg

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Kathy Stevens co-founded Catskill Animal Sanctuary in 2001 where she brings together her love of animals and her belief in the transformative power of education. She's also the author of ‘Where the Blind Horse Sings’ and ‘Animal Camp’. Catskill Animal Sanctuary is a 150-acre refuge in New York’s Hudson Valley for 11 species of farmed animals rescued from cruelty, neglect, and abandonment. Over the years, thousands have come to this place of profound peace.

In the first episode of 2022, Kathy and Ana discuss febudairy, the transformative power of rescue sanctuaries, and how non-human animals grieve.

Watch the interview on our YouTube channel:

Kathy's work:

https://casanctuary.org

https://www.facebook.com/catskillanimalsanctuary

https://twitter.com/CASanctuary/

https://www.youtube.com/user/CASanctuary

https://www.instagram.com/catskill_animal_sanctuary/

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In this episode of the Sentient Media Podcast, we meet Dr. Aysha Akhtar and hear about her work building a world where animal testing is no longer the default. Join our conversation and find out the facts about animal testing and what the future looks like without it.

Aysha's work:

https://ayshaakhtar.com

https://contemporarysciences.org

Aysha's articles on Sentient Media:

https://sentientmedia.org/this-new-bill-could-phase-out-animal-testing-for-good/

https://sentientmedia.org/to-avoid-the-next-pandemic-we-need-to-stop-factory-farming/

https://sentientmedia.org/to-love-and-mourn-an-animal/

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In this episode of the Sentient Media Podcast, we meet Christopher "Soul" Eubanks and hear about his work in animal advocacy, the intersections between human, environmental, and animal rights, and his new nonprofit: Apex Advocacy.

Read Christopher's essay:

'As a Black Man, I Felt Uncomfortable Becoming an Animal Activist' https://sentientmedia.org/as-a-black-man-i-felt-uncomfortable-becoming-an-animal-activist/

Apex Advocacy: https://www.apexadvocacy.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySbtj5v8K2AOyBMuJBW2xg

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Website: https://www.souleubanks.com

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Cheryl Leahy, Executive Director of Animal Outlook, has been shedding light on the exploitation of animals in our food system since 2006. In this deep dive interview, Sentient Media’s Executive Director Ana Bradley explores the role of investigations and the law in building a better future for all and uncovers hidden suffering in the pet food industry as the pair discuss the role of animals in society, from "crush videos" to food.

Find Cheryl and Animal Outlook here:

https://animaloutlook.org

https://www.instagram.com/animal.outlook/

https://www.facebook.com/AnimalOutlook/

https://www.youtube.com/c/animaloutlook

https://twitter.com/animaloutlook/

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Welcome to another episode of the Sentient Media Podcast where we meet the people who are changing the way we think about and interact with animals and our world. In this episode, we meet the incredible Chef AJ: host of Chef AJ Live on YouTube and Healthy Living with Chef AJ on Foody TV, author of best-selling books like Unprocessed and The Secrets to Ultimate Weight-loss.
Previously, Chef AJ was the executive pastry chef at Santé Restaurant in Los Angeles where she was famous for her sugar-, oil-, salt- and gluten-free desserts.

In this episode, we talk about the future of food, if cultivated meat provides a real alternative to traditional meats, and of course get some tips about how we can optimise a healthy plant-based diet without compromising on taste.

Watch the interview on YouTube

Find Chef AJ here:

https://www.chefaj.com

https://www.youtube.com/user/therealchefaj

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Cattle can live for many years. But like other animals used in agriculture, their lifespans are most often cut drastically short by the meat and dairy industries.

Cattle are commonly referred to collectively as “cows,” but this actually refers only to female cattle. Males are called “bulls” or “steers.” In this article, we will answer the question of how long do cows live and address how this might differ from those that are not used for human consumption.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article by Jennifer Mishler here:

https://sentientmedia.org/how-long-do-cows-live/

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Jo is a social psychologist with a decade of research experience, with scientific journals and publications covering a huge range of topics from retention in the reserve force to how much consumers will pay for ‘clean meat’.

She’s been with Faunalytics since 2017, a little over 4 years, and today we’re going to chat about her work and newest report: “Going Vegan or Vegetarian: Many Paths to One Goal”

Watch the interview on YouTube

The study Jo mentioned, Reduce or Eliminate by Sparkman, Macdonald, Caldwell, Kateman, & Boese (2021): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421000451 https://faunalytics.org/meeting-meat-eaters-halfway/

The AfroVegan Society: https://www.afrovegansociety.org

Find Jo's work here:

Going Vega*n: many paths to one goal study

https://faunalytics.org

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Factory farming is arguably one of the cruelest methods humans have devised to maximize their profits and ensure their businesses’ success. But what is factory farming?

On a factory farm, the bottom line matters more than anything else. Factory farmers raise animals for food, but also to produce medications and many other consumer products. The lives of these sentient creatures are granted no value beyond the profit they can bring. In most cases, the death of the animal is also required to make these goods — a death that usually follows a life spent in deplorable conditions with no access to necessities.

Once you peek inside the lives that these animals lead in barns, warehouses, and cages, you’ll think twice about how you live, eat, and consume.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article here:

https://sentientmedia.org/factory-farming/

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Unclear on what being a vegan means? You’ll find out here. Or do you want to be a vegan but aren’t sure where to start? That’s a common problem. If you’ve considered “going vegan,” you might need more facts to help you make an informed decision. Changing the way you eat is a significant endeavor, so you shouldn’t take it lightly.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about what vegan people eat and how they consume and use other products. We’re going to debunk those myths today.

We also want to show you the benefits of going vegan, the differences between veganism and vegetarianism, and the types of vegans.

Let’s dig in!

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article by Grant Lingel here:

https://sentientmedia.org/what-is-a-vegan/

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Cattle ranching, animal agriculture, and logging are the leading causes of deforestation in our forests. The forest is cut to provide timber to build houses and create specialty wood products, or burned to make room for cattle grazing and feed crop production. This constant destruction of our forests threatens biodiversity, decreases carbon absorption, magnifies natural disaster damage, and disrupts water cycles.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article by Taylor Meek here:

https://sentientmedia.org/how-does-agriculture-cause-deforestation/

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Animal testing is a kind of scientific experimentation that uses animals to see what intended effects and side effects a wide variety of chemicals and products might have on humans.

That’s the beginning of the definition of animal testing from a human perspective. What about the animal perspective? Imagine spending your life stuck in a room no bigger than a shower. You can’t move around too much. You can barely stretch your legs. And every day, they inject you with chemicals that make your skin burn and your eyes itch. That is the reality for many animals in laboratories around the world.

And the ones that only have burning skin and itchy eyes — they are getting off easy.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article by Grant Lingel here:

https://sentientmedia.org/animal-testing/

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Veganism is one of the most effective ways in which you can support animal rights, protect the planet, improve your health, and live without moral compromises. More and more people are going vegan every day, and if you do commit to this lifestyle, you probably won’t find it as difficult to follow as you think.

While some people believe that veganism is unhealthy, unnatural, or impossible, these ideas are simply false. In fact, going vegan can actually make you healthier and improve your relationship with the natural world and your body’s needs. Plus, if you think it’s impossible, maybe you should give yourself more credit.

Today I’m sharing 20 powerful reasons why people choose veganism over any other diet. I’ll explain why going vegan is important, and how to make the switch.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article by Grant Lingel here:

https://sentientmedia.org/veganism/

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“When you have cattle grazing on these grassland landscapes, it really encourages plant and soil biodiversity,” says cattle rancher Ross Macdonald, as he wanders through a bucolic landscape in central Canada. “See that soil is alive,” he adds as dirt falls through his fingers.

“The cattle and the ecosystem coexist,” echoes fellow rancher Lieschen Beretta, standing in a lush field in Ontario, “and they actually need each other.”

No, this is not a conversation from a webinar on regenerative agriculture or from a conference on climate change. It’s from a new advertising campaign by Canadian fast-food company A&W for their new grass-fed beef burgers. The ad, one of five, runs frequently on national TV, compelling consumers to believe that the once-vilified cow is now needed for the health of the planet and that their consumption of grass-fed beef is somehow part of the fight against climate change.

Jessica Scott-Reid is a Canadian freelance journalist focused on animal rights & welfare and plant-based foods. She also co-hosts the animal law podcast, Paw & Order.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article here:

https://sentientmedia.org/how-grass-fed-beef-is-duping-consumers-again/

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Even though zoos are non-profits, they still focus on the bottom line. The ethical implications of wildlife conservation efforts have gone unexamined.

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AWA) has accredited 233 zoos and aquariums. Including the 233, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given licenses to about 2,400 “animal exhibitors.” Animal exhibitors use their licenses to operate roadside zoos and petting zoos, which are both notorious for animal abuse.

Zoe Rosenberger holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Legal Theory from Hampshire College, and is an incoming M.A. student in philosophy at Columbia University.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article here:

https://sentientmedia.org/zoos-cause-animals-far-more-harm-than-good/

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In the first installment of Sentient Media’s new web series, ANIMAL/HUMANS, host Mikko Jarvenpaa speaks with touring rock musicians Tanya O’Callaghan and Derrick Green about their new TV show Highway to Health. The show follows Tanya and Derrick as they travel around the world, sharing plant-based meals with iconic figures including Moby and Kat Von D, and exploring issues ranging from social to environmental justice.

The interview touches on some of the adventures the musical duo experienced while filming, including their time aboard a Sea Shepherd ship during an anti-poaching mission. Tanya and Derrick also talk about their motivation in creating a plant-based travel show.

“Being plant-based changed my life radically,” says Derrick, who is a vocalist for the bands Sepultura and Maximum Hedrum. “You’re doing everything in this lifestyle not only for yourself but other beings on this planet. It’s important to realize we’re not the only animals on this planet, and we have to take care of each other.”

“We’ve been [plant-based] since long before people knew what being vegan meant,” says Tanya, a life-long vegan and freelance bassist.

Stay tuned to @HighwayToHealthOfficial for official release dates and more updates.

About Sentient MediaAll proceeds from this event go directly into funding Sentient Media.

Sentient Media is a nonprofit media organization that produces independent reporting on farmed animal lives and our broken food system.

Our mission is to increase public awareness of key issues that matter to all of us: the treatment and well-being of all sentient beings and the health of our planet.

We believe exposure is the first step toward behavioral change. That’s why we bring together journalists, digital marketing, and tech expertise to reach a diverse audience.

In 2020, our animal-related content reached over 1 million readers, with over 25 million first page impressions on Google, 250 articles published on Sentient Media and 72 articles placed in outside media including The Guardian, USA Today, WIRED, NY Daily News, Citizen Truth, The Times, and more.

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The agriculture industry’s economic landscape is changing—and fast. Jim Mellon’s new book, Moo’s Law, helps readers understand the quickly evolving investment landscape in cultivated and plant-based proteins. Recently, he sat down with Sentient Media Founder Mikko Jarvenpaa to unpack the alternative protein market, what investors should be doing, what they shouldn’t be doing, and what they have to look forward to.

“When consumers are confronted with the choice of meat or seafood that has no hormones, no antibiotics, no toxins, nothing that’s bad for you and possibly stuff that’s good for you,” says Mellon, “and a very positive environmental and animal impact, why wouldn’t they do it, especially if it’s cheaper than the conventional stuff?”

Mellon is betting that cultivated meat and seafood won’t just be popular. He thinks they’ll change the industry entirely. “I was skeptical when I first started writing the book that was going to happen,” says Mellon. “But I’m convinced it’s going to happen now. I think [the agriculture industry] is going to be an industry that is taken over much faster than any other industry in recent history.”

About Sentient MediaAll proceeds from this event go directly into funding Sentient Media.

Sentient Media is a nonprofit media organization that produces independent reporting on farmed animal lives and our broken food system.

Our mission is to increase public awareness of key issues that matter to all of us: the treatment and well-being of all sentient beings and the health of our planet.

We believe exposure is the first step toward behavioral change. That’s why we bring together journalists, digital marketing, and tech expertise to reach a diverse audience.

In 2020, our animal-related content reached over 1 million readers, with over 25 million first page impressions on Google, 250 articles published on Sentient Media and 72 articles placed in outside media including The Guardian, USA Today, WIRED, NY Daily News, Citizen Truth, The Times, and more.

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Animal Recovery Mission’s (ARM) investigation at Natural Prairie Dairy stands as the first-ever cruelty investigation into an organic dairy farm in the United States, and the third installment of the largest dairy investigation of all time into Fairlife and Select Milk Producers, Inc. The first two investigations released by ARM were Operation Fair Oaks Farms and Operation Fairlife.

Natural Prairie Dairy is located in Channing, TX, and houses over 25,000 cows between its four locations. Over four months, an ARM investigator documented cows stabbed with screwdrivers, kicked and dragged when unable to stand due to illness and fatigue. Cows were repeatedly and violently inseminated and mother cows were witnessed being chased while giving birth, and the babies immediately ripped away from their mothers.

Hear the whole story read by Devatha Nair.

Read the article here:

https://sentientmedia.org/cruelty-investigation-organic-dairy-farm/

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This episode was recorded as part of our monthly, live Sentient Sessions series. Watch the recording on our YouTube.

Meet the Speakers:

Ian Urbina, Investigative Reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Director of The Outlaw Ocean ProjectThe Outlaw Ocean Project is a non-profit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on reporting about environmental and human rights crimes at sea.

Ian is also author of The Outlaw Ocean series was originally published in The New York Times, where Ian Urbina (See: Wikipedia) has been an investigative reporter for over two decades. Several of his stories have been adapted into major feature films, including The Outlaw Ocean which was purchased by Netflix and Leonardo DiCaprio.

During his career, Ian has won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, a George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting, and his work has been nominated for an Emmy Award. He has degrees in history and cultural anthropology from Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. Before joining The Times, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Cuba and he also wrote about the Middle East and Africa for various outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s and Vanity Fair. He lives in Washington D.C. with his family.

The Outlaw Ocean reporting, almost all done offshore, took Ian across 5 seas and 14 countries in Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean, South America, and the Middle East. It resulted in 8 front-page stories in The New York Times and a book published by Knopf Doubleday. While reporting for the book, Ian was joined by an award-winning photographer from Brazil named Fábio Nascimento.

Lex Rigby, Head of Investigations at Viva!After more than a decade campaigning to defend, conserve and protect marine wildlife, Lex joined the vegan campaigning charity Viva! in 2018.

As Head of Investigations, Lex is responsible for coordinating, conducting, and delivering key investigations to support Viva!'s ground-breaking campaigns.

Her investigations have been covered in the press many times:

Three illegal fishing trawlers arrested following night raid

Captain deliberately sank illegal fishing vessel

Imagine living in a cage filled with millions of tiny parasitic sea lice

With Sea Shepherd she participated in three whale defence campaigns in Antarctica and four anti-poaching campaigns from the Southern Ocean to the North Sea, including Operation Icefish (which Ian Urbina wrote about in the New York Times).

Pete Paxton, Undercover InvestigatorPete Paxton has been doing animal cruelty investigations since 2001, uncovering abuse at puppy mills, factory farms, slaughterhouses, commercial fishing boats, and pet stores. He has worked in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, and Philippines, finding and training investigators in several countries.

His work has been covered in the HBO documentaries Dealing Dogs and Death on a Factory Farm, and the Nat Geo documentary Animal Undercover. He is the author of Rescue Dogs, and has been awarded a Coin of Excellence from the US Attorney’s Office of Arkansas for his role as an undercover investigator to help shut down a seller of dogs and cats to research labs.

Much of Pete’s work has involved working undercover for weeks or months as facilities, enabling Pete to understand the plight of undocumented immigrants exploited in agriculture, and the factors amongst all commercial animal operations that lead to predictable criminal behavior.

About Sentient MediaAll proceeds from this event go directly into funding Sentient Media.

Sentient Media is a nonprofit media organization that produces independent reporting on farmed animal lives and our broken food system.

Our mission is to increase public awareness of key issues that matter to all of us: the treatment and well-being of all sentient beings and the health of our planet.

We believe exposure is the first step toward behavioral change. That’s why we bring together journalists, digital marketing, and tech expertise to reach a diverse audience.

In 2020, our animal-related content reached over 1 million readers, with over 25 million first page impressions on Google, 250 articles published on Sentient Media and 72 articles placed in outside media including The Guardian, USA Today, WIRED, NY Daily News, Citizen Truth, The Times, and more.

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Earlier this month, officials in Australia announced plans to shoot and kill thousands of camels. What did the camels do to deserve this punishment? They were looking for water to drink, and this search brought them into human communities.

Last year, U.S. federal and state governments spent tens of millions of dollars on plans to “eradicate” bands of feral pigs. What did the pigs do to deserve this punishment? They were looking for food to eat, and this search, once again, brought them into human communities.

This year, Denver is poised to kill more of its Canada goose population, after slaughtering 1,600 geese last year. What are the geese doing to deserve this punishment? They are merely trying to live—Colorado is part of their historic range—and are seen as a nuisance.

These stories are the tip of the iceberg. While the details vary, the general theme is always the same. When human and nonhuman interests appear to conflict, we use violence, often in the form of organized extermination campaigns, to resolve these apparent conflicts in our favor.

Read the article here:

https://sentientmedia.org/stop-treating-animals-as-invaders-for-simply-trying-to-exist/

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Every 60 seconds, an animal is abused. It’s unconscionable, especially in our supposedly advanced culture, but animal cruelty continues to occur all over the world.

Animal cruelty can take many different forms, as you’ll discover below, but the impact is always the same. A sentient animal capable of love and social relationships experiences pain, fear, and desperation. It needs to stop.

We live in a world that not only turns a blind eye to animal cruelty but condones it — through both moral indifference and legislation. It’s legal to raise chickens in deplorable conditions for the sole purpose of slaughtering them later. If that isn’t animal cruelty, then what is?

The problem is that there aren’t enough people fighting for animal rights. If everyone started to look at animals — and not just dogs and cats — as fellow creatures who share our planet, we would see far fewer cases of cruelty toward animals.

First, though, we have to spread awareness. What is animal cruelty? What does it look like? And how can we stop contributing to it?

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https://sentientmedia.org/animal-cruelty/

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Jian Yi is the founder of The Good Food Fund, a Chinese NGO that takes a holistic approach to protecting the environment by examining food systems and climate change. In this interview, Sentient Media’s Executive Director, Ana Bradley, explores the history of food in China, the need for a global solution for our broken food systems, and Jian Yi’s thoughts on the future of food.

Watch the interview on YouTube:

Find Jian Yi's work here:

http://www.goodfoodchina.net

https://www.ft.com/content/afc52d70-1bab-4375-984e-7814a1d0aa7d

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Sentient Media caught up with Damien Mander, founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, to talk about his work in Africa and how reliance on the meat industry is destroying our ability to protect wilderness. Damien Mander, aka The Vegan Snipper, founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, has been changing the way we protect our wildlife since 2009. In this interview, Sentient Media’s Executive Director, Ana Bradley, explores how women are leading change for Africa’s wildlife, the need for conservationists to champion plant-based living, and a typical day in the life of the Vegan Sniper.

Watch the interview on YouTube:

Follow Damien and his team here:

https://www.iapf.org​

https://www.facebook.com/iapf.org​

https://www.facebook.com/akashinga​

https://twitter.com/IAPF​

https://www.instagram.com/int.anti.po...​

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaca...​

https://www.linkedin.com/company/inte...​

https://www.instagram.com/damien_mander/​

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