Current Affairs

E447 - Michael Pollan Is Lying to You About "Ethical" Meat

Published: January 1, 2026

Duration: 40:24

John Sanbonmatsu is a professor of philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the author of The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves.

The book is a response to Michael Pollan’s 2006 bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and as the title suggests, Sanbonmatsu thinks writers like Pollan are dead wrong about the ethics of food. He maintains that killing and eating animals is entirely indefensible, no matter how “humane” the process supposedly is.

0:00-7:19 The Horror of Meat

7:19-13:02 Comparisons to Slavery

13:02-17:50 The Omnivore's Deception

17:50...

Michael Pollan Is Lying to You About "Ethical" Meat - Current Affairs