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Listen and download the Main Street Vegan Podcast on Unity Online Radio, or listen and subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts.
Animal Liberation, Singer’s 1975 classic, introduced the term “animal rights,” and this Australian moral philosopher has continued to influence contemporary thought about animals and effective altruism.
Best known for his work in bioethics and his role as one of the intellectual founders of the modern animal rights movement. He’s been called the “most influential living philosopher.”
He gained recognition in the 1970’s with his groundbreaking book Animal Liberation.
His newest book, The Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing ideas about Living Ethically.
Website: http://www.petersinger.info
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Peter-Singer-364558240410075/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeterSinger
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peter__singer/?hl=en
From the show:
Dr. Singer’s picks as the Top 3 Problems the world is facing — 1. Climate change. 2. Global poverty. 3. Animals in the food system and otherwise abused.
And his suggestions on ways to give effectively: 1. If you have only modest amount, give to one organization instead of splitting it, so the administrative costs will all come from one organization; 2. Small organizations are often best; 3. Check out the efficiency of the group you want to help at www.animalcharityevaluators.org (for animal giving), and (for poverty) www.thelifeyoucansave.org or www.givewell.org.
Blast from the past! ~ Professor Singer was the primary motivator for Charles Camosy, PhD, Fordham professor, to go vegan. Here’s a link to my interview with him.
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Just listened. Thank you for your thoughts about Thanksgiving. I am a vegan and my husband is an omnivore. We host the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at our home because we have a number of relatives who would have no where else to go. I am not involved in cooking the turkey, and do not eat the meal or sit at the table, but it is still a hard day for me. I try to remember the important part is caring for the people, and accepting them where they are. My husband eats many, many vegetarian meals each week, but i haven’t been able to change the Thanksgiving tradition…yet. (:
Hi, Maryann – Thanks for this thoughtful comment. We all find ways to navigate being vegan in a non-vegan world. You are so right that love in the heart is really important. I have to remind myself that I used to eat turkeys and other animals too. In fact, the last meat I ever cooked was Thanksgiving 1968: six Rock Cornish game hens. I’d gone pescatarian while studying in the UK that year, but back in the States for Thanksgiving, it just seemed like there was supposed to be poultry. I looked at those six little corpses and hated myself. That was it for meat, and I was able to get off the fish within a few months (although I did have two fishy relapse periods later). I wish I could say that mine was a straight and steady path. It wasn’t. But it’s long and strong, and now I devote my life to making vegans and saving animals. Bless you for all you do.