When is it right, or even necessary, to say "no"?

Refusing can be a powerful act—whether it’s standing up to authority, rejecting harmful norms, or pushing back against injustice. But when is saying “no” the right thing to do? And what are the stakes when we decide to refuse? Often our refusals are quotidian and inconsequential, but sometimes, and sometimes without our knowledge, they’re huge.

We often underestimate how often we issue refusals, both large and small, and we don’t consider carefully enough the moral and political dimensions of those acts. It’s not always easy to decide when it is appropriate to refuse, and even when we know it’s necessary, it’s not always easy. Our guest today, Dr. Devonya Havis University of Buffalo), has been thinking about the ethics and politics of refusal for some time, and how how refusing to go along with something can be an act of courage, rebellion, or survival.

We’re going to ask what happens when-- in the immortal words of Nancy Reagan-- you “just say no.”

Full episode notes available at this link:
episode-157-the-ethics-of-refusal-with-devonya-havis

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Should we eat meat?

Humans have been eating other animals for close to 2.5 million years--a fact that is evidenced by cut traces on fossil animal bones, surviving stone tools, and analyses of our ancestors' teeth. Does this evolutionary fact render meat-eating physiologically necessary and morally justifiable? Our ancestors did a lot of things to survive; is that sufficient reason to continue the practice? How they obtained this meaty source of protein was arguably very different from the industrial practices of animal agriculture that are justifiably criticized for their cruelty to non-human sentient creatures and their contribution to the global climate crisis.

Can we as a species continue to eat meat? Or in doing so are we literally eating ourselves out of house and home? What about lab-grown Franken-meat, which Governor Ron DeSantis recently made illegal in the state of Florida? Is lab-grown meat a solution, or does it just feed the problem?

How and why is the unassuming "Impossible Burger" now a subject of the culture wars?

Full episode notes available at this link:
https://hotelbarpodcast.com/podcast/episode-157-nature

-------------------
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotelbarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!