Rationally speaking is a presentation of New York City skeptics dedicated to promoting critical thinking, skeptical inquiry, and science education.

For more information, please visit us at NYCCEPTICs.org.

Welcome to rationally speaking, the podcast where we explore the borderlands between reason and

nonsense. I am your host, Massimo Piliucci, and with me as always is my co-host, Julia Galev.

Julia, what are we going to talk about today?

Well, Massimo, today I am delighted to announce that our guest is Professor Peter Singer.

Peter Singer is the professor of bioethics at Princeton University,

as well as a laureate professor at the Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne.

His work focuses on applications of utilitarian ethics,

and in particular he's famous for his contributions to the animal rights, animal welfare movement,

and most recently to the effective altruist movement. Pete Singer, welcome.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you, Beth. So, Peter, I have to tell you a story

before we get started. So years ago, I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, as a part of the faculty, the University of Tennessee,

there in biology, actually, before I turned full-time to philosophy. And I was running a book club

discussion every month. And one of those days we discussed one of your books, Our We Do Live.

And at the end of the discussion, I was driving back home with my wife, and we were thinking

about one of your basic points, which was, you know, you don't have to radically alter your

life in order to be more ethical. You can do it little by little, you know, as much as you

can manage. Otherwise, if you start with the big things, you might get paralyzed.

I think that that's pretty much what I remember from, one of the things that I remember

from that book.

So during the length of the drive back, which was about 25 minutes, we had decided to

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