Episode 95: Interview with Roger Yates about the need to reclaim the radical vision of veganism and destroy cultural speciesism

This week, I am pleased to present my sixth interview with the vegan sociologist Roger Yates, PhD, who has been a vegan for more than four decades. Roger’s 2005 PhD dissertation focused on the social construction of speciesism. In the 1980's, he was a Press Officer for the Animal Liberation Front, and he is currently the organizing volunteer for the Vegan Information Project, a group which he co-founded in Ireland in 2013. He also has a blog, social media, and YouTube channel, where he advocates for veganism and animal rights from an abolitionist perspective. I previously interviewed Roger for Episode 19, Episode 21, Episode 29, Episode 50, Episode 79, and Episode 88 of my show.

In this interview, Roger and I discuss how we can use anti-speciesist language in our advocacy and everyday lives. Roger also speaks about the challenges confronting the modern-day vegan movement, including welfarism, reducetarianism, the cooptation of the movement by right-wing activists, and the de-radicalization of advocacy groups, and he provides a sociological perspective on why some people become “ex-vegans”. He speaks about the revolutionary potential of the vegan ethic, the incompatibility of capitalism and veganism, and the insights we might glean from the McLibel trial of the 1990’s. Finally, Roger gives his advice for people who are interested in getting involved in vegan animal rights activism, emphasizing the need to challenge cultural speciesism as we work towards a vegan world.

Thanks very much to Roger for being a guest on the show again!

Here are some additional links, based on what we discussed in this episode:

• Roger's Vegan Time Tunnel series
• Steve Best's "Total Liberation" speech
  
• Article by Joan Dunayer about anti-speciesist language
  
• Unlearning Speciesist Language Facebook Group
• Roger Yates's and Ronnie Lee's top ten activism ideas (video)
• David Nibert's books (Animal Rights/Human Rights, Animal Oppression and Human Violence, and Animal Oppression and Capitalism)
• The Vegan Society's blog post about the "vegan coronation quiche", which we critiqued in this episode

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/60723.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-may-28-2023.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you'd like to receive an e-mail every time there is a new post on the AFAR blog, feel free to enter your e-mail address into the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar of this site.

Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!

Episode 94: Discussion with Jeremy Hess about anti-speciesist language, speciesism in the mainstream media, and providing sanctuary for nonhuman refugees

This week, the vegan animal rights advocate Jeremy Hess returns to the show for a third interesting discussion! I previously interviewed Jeremy for Episodes 62 and 78 of my show.

Jeremy Hess has been a vegan since 2014 and has been involved in a variety of forms of animal rights advocacy over the years, including working at sanctuaries and doing street outreach to speak to the public about veganism. He was also a co-founder and co-panellist on The Animal Rights Show on YouTube. On his website, VeganInteractions.com, and his YouTube Channel, Jeremy the Ape, he provides resources to help advocates use accurate and non-speciesist language and learn about animal rights theory. He is currently in the process of co-creating a vegan microsanctuary called Respect Animal Sanctuary to provide a safe home for survivors of speciesism in Georgia in the United States.

In this interview, Jeremy and I discuss how we can challenge speciesism in our language use, and we examine a particular speciesist mainstream media article about animal rescuers. We also discuss how we can respond when people ask us about the "breeds" of our dog friends, why Effective Altruism is problematic from an abolitionist vegan perspective, how we can stay motivated to continue advocating for our fellow animals, and what Jeremy and his partner Nisha Taylor-Hess are planning for Respect Animal Sanctuary.

Here are a few more links, based on what we discussed in the interview:

• Andy Atkinson's new documentary, Animal Rights: We're Getting It Wrong
• The recently-published book, The Good it Promises, The Harm it Does, edited by Carol J. Adams, Alice Crary, and Lori Gruen
  
• Speciesist article from the Daily Mail (2019) (Archive.org link): "Animal Rebellion: They're the militant vegan wing of eco-warriors who shut down British cities and now plan to stop us eating meat, fish and dairy. As this undercover report reveals, HATRED is on the menu" (Correction: When speaking about this article in this episode, I said that there wasn't any mention of the victims of animal exploitation, but I was only referring to the title and summary. In fact, later on in the article, the authors did briefly mention that the activists were holding a moment of silence for a cow. However, the authors referred to the cow as a "beef cow", did not suggest that there was any need to show moral concern for the cow, and were mocking and villifying the activists throughout the article.)
  
• Speciesist article from Fox News (2023) (Archive.org link): "Animal 'rescuers' wreaking havoc by stealing farm animals: 'These are criminals, not activists'"
  

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can listen to this episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/60577.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-may-17-2023.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If you'd like to receive an e-mail every time there is a new post on the AFAR blog, feel free to enter your e-mail address into the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar of this site.

Go vegan, stay vegan, and let's remember to stand up and speak up for animal rights today and every day. Thanks for listening to the show!