The avian flu threat has now given us an opportunity to rethink our existential and ethical relations with the other animals of our planet, and to recognize how closely our fates are bound together.
-- CounterPunch, March 2025
-- CounterPunch, March 2025
In this interview (below) with Rayane Laddi on The Vegan Report Podcast, we discuss cellular meat, meat culture, and why leftists don't like vegans--among other topics.
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In this interview with Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware of Population Balance, we discuss my book The Omnivore's Deception in a wide-ranging conversation about such topics as speciesism, capitalism, anti-feminist backlash, the ecological emergency, Effective Altruism, and more. [Scroll down on this page for more interviews.]
Two interviews with philosophers Robert C. Jones and philosopher and distinguished poet Troy Jollimore on their "Philosophers and Culture" radio show, about my book, The Omnivore's Deception:
1. Episode of Robert and Troy's great radio show, "Philosophers and Culture" (Aug. 2023) Click on graphic or here to listen.
(2) Follow-up interview (June 2025)--click HERE.
In addition, you can hear me, Robert C. Jones, and Nation columnist Sasha Abramsky discuss, "Left Strategy in the Wake of the Second Trump Election," HERE.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE INTERVIEWS BELOW . . .
1. Episode of Robert and Troy's great radio show, "Philosophers and Culture" (Aug. 2023) Click on graphic or here to listen.
(2) Follow-up interview (June 2025)--click HERE.
In addition, you can hear me, Robert C. Jones, and Nation columnist Sasha Abramsky discuss, "Left Strategy in the Wake of the Second Trump Election," HERE.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE INTERVIEWS BELOW . . .
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Why Cellular Meat Technology Won't Replace Animal Agriculture
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NEW: An Interview with John Sanbonmatsu by DineshWadiwel (2024)
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Interview with Jamie Woodhouse on his Sentientism podcast. Jamie has been doing great work interviewing a wide range of scholars working in animal studies and ethics. In our conversation, we discuss civilizational crisis, epistemology, empathy, poststructuralism, animal rights and the Left, socialism, Peter Singer, environmentalism--and a great deal more besides. An epic 90 minutes long. (Aired Sept. 29, 2023.)
In this interview with Emily Moran Barwick of Bite-Size Vegan, I discuss The Psychopathy of Eating Meat, summarizing arguments in my chapter, "Harry Lime Disease," in my book, The Omnivore's Deception. Topics include: the normalization of violence against other animals, the ethics of killing animals yourself (locavore movement), the healthy source of willful ignorance, cultural influences on selective empathy, how we perceive systemic violence vs aberrant sadistic individuals, an account of one farmer’s monumental shift in perspective, our capacity to change how we relate to animals by re-connecting with our empathy, and more. June 2023.
Radio Interviews
"The Campbell Conversations: Grant Reheer Interviews John Sanbonmatsu"
(WRVO-FM, NPR-affiliate in Syracuse, New York) June 28, 2025. Lively interview about animals, meat, and my book The Omnivore's Deception.
"Neoliberalism and the University" (KZFR, Chico, CA). Discussion with John Sanbonmatsu, Robert Jones, Peter Fosl, and Troy Jollimore. Starts 22 minutes into the show: http://www.kzfr.org/broadcasts/32100. (Aired on Dec. 16, 2022.)
"The Failure of the Left" (KZFR, Chico, CA). Interviewed by Robert C. Jones (along with Patrick Newman). https://chicofriendsonthestreet.org/sanbonmatsu-failure-left/. (Aired on Aug. 5, 2019.)
"Postmodernism and Poststructuralism" (Pacifica Radio/KPFA, Berkeley, CA). Two interviews by Sasha Lilley on her radio show "Against the Grain": https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20041227-Mon1200.mp3. (Aired on Dec. 27, 2004.)
https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=10773.mp3. (Aired on Aug. 2004.)
"Bad Faith and Speciesism" (CKCU, Ottawa, Canada). Interviewed by Carolyn Harris about my work on human dominance in context of Sartre's theory of "bad faith" as an existential structure of self-deception.
"Should the Animal Rights Movement Really Support 'Clean Meat'?" Interviewed by Laurent Levy on his Spotify program, "The Other Animals." Aired March 2021.
"Why Vegans Should Never Support Lab-Grown Meat" (CCKCU, Ottawa, Canada). Professor Vasile Stănescu and I were interviewed by Carolyn Harris about our skepticism toward cellular meat.
"The Campbell Conversations: Grant Reheer Interviews John Sanbonmatsu"
(WRVO-FM, NPR-affiliate in Syracuse, New York) June 28, 2025. Lively interview about animals, meat, and my book The Omnivore's Deception.
"Neoliberalism and the University" (KZFR, Chico, CA). Discussion with John Sanbonmatsu, Robert Jones, Peter Fosl, and Troy Jollimore. Starts 22 minutes into the show: http://www.kzfr.org/broadcasts/32100. (Aired on Dec. 16, 2022.)
"The Failure of the Left" (KZFR, Chico, CA). Interviewed by Robert C. Jones (along with Patrick Newman). https://chicofriendsonthestreet.org/sanbonmatsu-failure-left/. (Aired on Aug. 5, 2019.)
"Postmodernism and Poststructuralism" (Pacifica Radio/KPFA, Berkeley, CA). Two interviews by Sasha Lilley on her radio show "Against the Grain": https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20041227-Mon1200.mp3. (Aired on Dec. 27, 2004.)
https://kpfa.org/player/?audio=10773.mp3. (Aired on Aug. 2004.)
"Bad Faith and Speciesism" (CKCU, Ottawa, Canada). Interviewed by Carolyn Harris about my work on human dominance in context of Sartre's theory of "bad faith" as an existential structure of self-deception.
"Should the Animal Rights Movement Really Support 'Clean Meat'?" Interviewed by Laurent Levy on his Spotify program, "The Other Animals." Aired March 2021.
"Why Vegans Should Never Support Lab-Grown Meat" (CCKCU, Ottawa, Canada). Professor Vasile Stănescu and I were interviewed by Carolyn Harris about our skepticism toward cellular meat.
"Animal Liberation, Critical Theory, and the Left--PART ONE." This is perhaps my best interview--with Lauren Corman of Animal Voices (CIUT 89.5 FM, Toronto, Ontario). Recorded shortly before the release of my edited anthology, Critical Theory and Animal Liberation. "Despite a recent proliferation of scholarship, Peter Singer and Tom Regan are still often understood as the first and last words on contemporary animal ethics and philosophy. John Sanbonmatsu offers a clear alternative perspective, through his viable challenge to the Academy, the Left, and the animal movements."
"Animal Liberation, Critical Theory, and the Left--PART TWO."
Aired May 2007.
"Animal Liberation, Critical Theory, and the Left--PART TWO."
Aired May 2007.
"Animal Liberation and Critical Theory: Interview with John Sanbonmatsu." Interviewed by Marco Maurizi for Asinus Novus (2013). https://asinusnovus.net/2013/01/13/animal-liberation-and-critical-theory-interview-with-john-sanbonmatsu/
Revised print version of my radio interviewed by Sasha Lilley on "Against the Grain" on KPFA. Note: This was the first--and, no doubt, last--time my writing was to appear alongside such eminent thinkers and political economists on the Left as David Harvey, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Mike Davis, Leo Panitch, Tariq Ali, and Noam Chomsky. (No link to the print interview available here. See radio interview link above.)
Op-Eds
"Why 'Fake' Meat Isn't," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Jan. 13, 2020).
For nearly 1000 years of English usgae, the word "meat" referred not only to the flesh of animals, but to any foodstuff, including vegetable matter. Only the rise and consolidation of the meat industry has led us to forget the importance of plant-based meats. Reprinted here on the United Poultry Concerns website.
"Why 'Fake' Meat Isn't," St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Jan. 13, 2020).
For nearly 1000 years of English usgae, the word "meat" referred not only to the flesh of animals, but to any foodstuff, including vegetable matter. Only the rise and consolidation of the meat industry has led us to forget the importance of plant-based meats. Reprinted here on the United Poultry Concerns website.
"The Drone Invasion"-- a critique of the Amazon corporation's plans to deliver products using drones.
"For 60 million years, birds enjoyed total freedom of the skies. Today, birds have to contend with glass windows, aircraft, wind turbines, shotguns, and other lethal human threats. Companies like Amazon would now also force them to compete for airspace with thousands, perhaps millions, of robotic machines...." Published
"For 60 million years, birds enjoyed total freedom of the skies. Today, birds have to contend with glass windows, aircraft, wind turbines, shotguns, and other lethal human threats. Companies like Amazon would now also force them to compete for airspace with thousands, perhaps millions, of robotic machines...." Published
"Death Eaters in the White House"-- One year into the Trump presidency, and fascism is already wafting in the air....(Huffington Post blog, Feb. 2018).
"The Establishment vs. Bernie Sanders" -- How elites within the Democratic Party decided to bring down Bernie--and why. (Huffington Post blog, Feb. 2018).
"After the Isla Vista Massacre: Savings Boys--To Save Women" -- Co-authored with Jessie Klein, author of The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America's Schools. Appeared in The Christian Science Monitor (June 2014).
"The details of Elliot Rodger’s May rampage near Santa Barbara, Calif., are now familiar to most. After stabbing his three roommates, the 22-year-old loaded his guns and drove toward University of California, Santa Barbara, intent on killing women. He fatally shot two, plus one man, and injured 13 other people before turning the gun on himself. What deserves greater attention, however, is how Rodger’s story recalls past cases in which young men targeted women with mass violence. Such massacres are disturbing not only in themselves, but for what they reveal about the depth of misogyny in our culture, and about the soul-destroying social expectations that boys and young men experience around their masculinity."
"The details of Elliot Rodger’s May rampage near Santa Barbara, Calif., are now familiar to most. After stabbing his three roommates, the 22-year-old loaded his guns and drove toward University of California, Santa Barbara, intent on killing women. He fatally shot two, plus one man, and injured 13 other people before turning the gun on himself. What deserves greater attention, however, is how Rodger’s story recalls past cases in which young men targeted women with mass violence. Such massacres are disturbing not only in themselves, but for what they reveal about the depth of misogyny in our culture, and about the soul-destroying social expectations that boys and young men experience around their masculinity."
The 2011 arrest in New York City of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of having raped Nafissatou Diallo, a maid, at the Sofitel Hotel, was shocking only in holding accountable one of the most economically and politically powerful men in the world. New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance eventually dropped the charges (no doubt under international pressure), and DSK settled out of court with Diallo the following year. Published in Christian Science Monitor in May 2011.
The Paris Talks Were a Lie
"As a performing magician, I naturally take a keen interest in deception. So it was also with a professional, not merely personal, interest that I watched the spectacular fraud perpetrated on the world's public in Paris last month, as political leaders from nearly 200 nations signed the first universal treaty to limit the carbon gases causing global warming. Politicians described the agreement in triumphal terms, as a "turning point" in history....In reality, the happy talk by elites in Paris resembled a skilled magician's use of patter to misdirect his audience, only on a global scale. In Paris, the world's political elites made the global warming crisis itself disappear -- by creating the illusion of decisive action, where in fact there was nothing." Published in HuffPo, January 2016.
"As a performing magician, I naturally take a keen interest in deception. So it was also with a professional, not merely personal, interest that I watched the spectacular fraud perpetrated on the world's public in Paris last month, as political leaders from nearly 200 nations signed the first universal treaty to limit the carbon gases causing global warming. Politicians described the agreement in triumphal terms, as a "turning point" in history....In reality, the happy talk by elites in Paris resembled a skilled magician's use of patter to misdirect his audience, only on a global scale. In Paris, the world's political elites made the global warming crisis itself disappear -- by creating the illusion of decisive action, where in fact there was nothing." Published in HuffPo, January 2016.
In March 2017, Animal Justice Advocates, a student group at the University of Virginia, invited me and Karen Davis (of United Poultry Concerns) to discuss Wayne Pacelle's new book, The Humane Economy: How Innovators and Enlightened Consumers are Transforming the Future of Animals, with the author. In the debate that ensued, I took sharp issue with Pacelle's thesis that the problem of human exploitation of other animals would be "solved" through capitalist innovation. A few months later, I published this blog post in Huffington Post, attacking Pacelle's book. Published June 2017.
On Technology and Alienation
"At the playground, a toddler struggles to get her father's attention, eager to share a small personal triumph with him. But the man is too busy checking e-mail to notice. She finally turns away, crestfallen. Crossing the street on a well-marked crosswalk in broad daylight, I am nearly run over by a police cruiser. The officer glances up from her on-board computer just in time to see me. At a memorial service for a friend's mother, a Holocaust survivor who lived a quiet life of service to others, the rabbi is suddenly interrupted by the loud, jaunty tune of a cellphone. We all wait while the woman struggles to silence the ringer.
"Welcome to life in the Distracted Society. Even as our world burns – as species wink out of existence at an accelerating rate, the climate heats up, and billions struggle without medical care, running water, or even a toilet – people seem strangely disconnected from the real world, and strangely obsessed with their gadgets."
Published in The Christian Science Monitor, June 2011.
"At the playground, a toddler struggles to get her father's attention, eager to share a small personal triumph with him. But the man is too busy checking e-mail to notice. She finally turns away, crestfallen. Crossing the street on a well-marked crosswalk in broad daylight, I am nearly run over by a police cruiser. The officer glances up from her on-board computer just in time to see me. At a memorial service for a friend's mother, a Holocaust survivor who lived a quiet life of service to others, the rabbi is suddenly interrupted by the loud, jaunty tune of a cellphone. We all wait while the woman struggles to silence the ringer.
"Welcome to life in the Distracted Society. Even as our world burns – as species wink out of existence at an accelerating rate, the climate heats up, and billions struggle without medical care, running water, or even a toilet – people seem strangely disconnected from the real world, and strangely obsessed with their gadgets."
Published in The Christian Science Monitor, June 2011.
During the presidential campaign in 2016, I wrote several blog essays in HuffPo about the Democratic Party establishment's strategy to undermine the insurgent campaign of Bernie Sanders. Published June 2016.