Episode 89: Interview with sociologist Corey Lee Wrenn about vegan feminism, sexism in the animal movement, and the intersections of social justice issues

This week, I am pleased to present my third interview with Corey Lee Wrenn, PhD, Lecturer of Sociology and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements at the University of Kent. Corey is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (published in 2016), Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits (published in 2019), and Animals in Irish Society: Interspecies Oppression and Vegan Liberation in Britain’s First Colony (published in 2021). She is the founder of the Vegan Feminist Network and co-founder of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists.

In this interview, Corey speaks about how she started making connections between veganism and feminism in her work, and we discuss why it’s harmful and ineffective to use sexist tactics in animal advocacy campaigns. Corey also gives other examples of how sexism, racism, and ableism show up in the animal movement; she describes the history of the vegan feminist group, Feminists for Animal Rights; and she gives her reading recommendations for those who wish to learn more about vegan feminism and the interconnectedness of speciesism with other forms of oppression in society.

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/553/59205.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-january-24-2023.
   

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!

Gary Francione's Abolitionist Approach Commentary podcast #9, discussing what's wrong with using sexist tactics to promote animal rights

Here is an excellent podcast episode by Professor Gary Francione of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. Gary Francione recorded this podcast episode in 2009, but it is still entirely relevant today.

"Commentary #9: Using Sexism to Promote Animal Rights": https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/commentary-using-sexism-to-promote-animal-rights/

Painting by the vegan artist, Lynda Bell.

Episode 80: Interview with Ronnie Lee about the history of the animal liberation movement, the importance of vegan advocacy, and the concept of vegan "journeys"

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the vegan animal liberation activist Ronnie Lee. Ronnie Lee is best known for being one of the founders of the Animal Liberation Front, which began in the 1970s. Currently he works to educate the public about the importance of becoming vegan. His 50th veganniversary took place earlier this year.

In this interview, Ronnie reflects on how the animal liberation movement has evolved over the years, and he describes the impact that social media has had on the movement. He also explains why doing vegan advocacy is essential in order to achieve animal liberation, and he offers his views on consumerism and vegan “journeys”.

At the end of the episode, we'll listen to Laura Nyro's "Lite a Flame (The Animal Rights Song)", which was released in 1993.

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/553/56989.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-july-16-2022.
   

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 74: Interview with the vegan artist Maria Tiqwah, and some vegan songs

This week, I am pleased to present my interview with the vegan artist Maria Tiqwah, who lives in the Netherlands. Maria creates drawings, paintings, and murals depicting nonhuman animals living in freedom and peace. She is also the designer of the official coat of arms for the vegan flag.

In this interview, Maria tells me about her artwork, what inspires her, how she learned about vegan art supplies, and how becoming vegan has impacted her career decisions. We also discuss the importance of including positive images in the vegan community and vegan advocacy.

After that, we'll listen to some vegan songs, including "Choose a New Story" by Daniel Redwood, "Yes You Can" by Michael Prikryl, and "Benediction of Light" by Will Tuttle.

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/553/55338.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-february-23-2022.
   

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 53: Vegan sociologists Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole speak about speciesism in the media and popular culture

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with the vegan sociologists Dr. Kate Stewart, Principal Lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University, and Dr. Matthew Cole, Lecturer in Criminology at The Open University. Matthew and Kate are the authors of the 2014 book, Our Children and Other Animals: The Cultural Construction of Human-Animal Relations in Childhood, as well as a number of academic articles and book chapters about the sociology of veganism and human-nonhuman animal relations.

In this interview, Matthew and Kate speak about the following topics:

• how children are socialized into accepting and participating in animal exploitation in society
  
• how the mainstream media and popular culture normalize animal oppression and marginalize veganism
• why some people become very hostile in response to the mere mention of veganism or vegan food
  
• why, for many of us, being vegan is actually easier than being non-vegan
• whether a vegan world is possible
  
• what we can do to help normalize veganism in society.

We spoke about the Doctor Who television series (as it relates to veganism and animal ethics) later on in this episode. My guests also discussed their research into the speciesism of animal farming games that people play on their mobile phones, among other topics.

It's a very interesting interview, so I hope you'll listen in!

You can also find my first interview with Kate and Matthew on Episode 28 of the Always for Animal Rights.

Note about Doctor Who: At the end of this section of the 2005 Doctor Who episode "Boom Town", the Doctor orders "steak" and chips at the restaurant, and then in this section (still at the restaurant), he lectures Margaret (a murderous alien) about why she shouldn't kill innocent people. We discussed this scene in the interview.

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/553/51787.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-april-28-2021.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram. 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 50: Interview with the sociologist Dr. Roger Yates on the animal rights movement, the definition of veganism, impacts of the pandemic on animals, and vegan education

This week, I am pleased to present my third interview with the sociologist, long-term vegan, and animal rights advocate Dr. Roger Yates. In this interview, Roger speaks to me about the following topics:

• the history of the Vegan Society's definition of veganism
•  how the animal advocacy movement has changed since Roger became a vegan in 1979
• the focus and scope of the vegan social movement, and what Roger means when he says that vegan advocacy is new
• the opportunities and obstacles that arise from using different forms of media to promote veganism
• the role that cultural speciesism plays in perpetuating animal exploitation in society
• the impact that the vegan education group Go Vegan World has had in Ireland (you can listen to my previous interviews with Sandra Higgins of Go Vegan World on Episode 17, Episode 20, and Episode 5)
  
• whether the COVID-19 pandemic will affect humans' relationships with nonhuman animals in the long run
• the importance of reading to educate ourselves about animal rights theory
  

It's a very interesting discussion. Thanks to Roger for being a guest on the show again!

You can find my previous interviews with Roger Yates on three past episodes of the show: Episode 29, Episode 19, and Episode 21.

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/553/51241.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-march-17-2021.
   

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram. 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 41: Interview with Gad Hakimi about veganism and animal advocacy in Israel and the recent sightings of the International Vegan Flag

A light show depicting the vegan flag on a fountain in Zagreb, Croatia.

Happy World Vegan Month, everyone!

This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with Gad Hakimi. Gad Hakimi, who lives in Israel, is a vegan activist and the designer of the International Vegan Flag. You might remember that I previously interviewed Gad on Episode 2 of this show, back in 2019.

In this week's interview, Gad describes the progress of animal advocacy and veganism in Israel, and he tells me about some of the places that the vegan flag has been used recently. He also tells me about his family's adopted dog, Sophie. It's a great interview, and I hope you'll listen in!

Please note that this interview was recorded on October 31st, which is one day before World Vegan Day (World Vegan Day is on November 1st).

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/553/49654.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-november-4-2020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram. 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!

Vegan flags in Zagreb, Croatia.

 

Episode 20: Interview with Sandra Higgins of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary (Part Two)

Sophie the lamb with Sandra

This week's show features Part Two of my interview with Sandra Higgins, founder and director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary in Ireland and Go Vegan World. (If you haven't heard Part One yet, you can find it here.)

This interview focuses on Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary in Ireland. Eden is a vegan sanctuary that provides a home for nonhuman animals who were previously exploited by humans. Eden's residents can live out the rest of their lives in peace, free from exploitation.

In Part Two, we discuss the following topics:

• how Eden, as a vegan sanctuary, differs from non-vegan sanctuaries
• what Sandra has learned from the individuals who live at Eden
• the importance of  sanctuaries in the animal rights movement
• how Eden's residents inspired the Go Vegan World campaign
• ... and more!

After the interview is the song "The Core" by the vegan singer-songwriter Queen V.

Here are some more photos of Eden's residents, courtesy of Agatha Kisiel Photography...

Angel in a Go Vegan World advertisement

Fairy

Fairy in one of Go Vegan World's advertisements

Jenny

Maria with Genevieve behind her

Yoshoda

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways you can hear this episode.

1. Listen to the podcast on CKCU FM's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/47484.html. Currently, the radio show hosts at CKCU 93.1 FM are not physically going to the station because of the coronavirus, so I was not able to broadcast this episode on the radio this week, but I did upload it to the website as a podcast.
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afarmarch252020.

You can also find Always for Animal Rights on Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time!

Episode 7: Interview with Angel Flinn, Communications Manager of Be Fair Be Vegan (Part Two); and the animal rights music of Stephanie Valentin

This week's episode of Always for Animal Rights features Part Two of my interview with Angel Flinn, Communications Manager of Be Fair Be Vegan. As previously mentioned, Be Fair Be Vegan is an animal justice campaign that uses outdoor advertising to promote an uncompromising vegan message. Currently Be Fair Be Vegan is running two Canadian campaigns: one in Toronto and one in Montreal.

In Part One of the interview, Angel had told me why Be Fair Be Vegan's advertisements are designed the way they are, how people have reacted to the campaign, and how she explains to people who are not yet vegan why they should go vegan.

In Part Two, Angel tells me the fascinating story of how she became a vegan and an activist, how vegan activists can get involved with the campaign, and why Be Fair Be Vegan takes an uncompromising approach to their vegan message.

For more information about Be Fair Be Vegan, please visit BeFairBeVegan.com.

Today's episode also includes two of the vegan animal rights songs of French artist and musician Stephanie Valentin.

One of these songs, "Chair Amie", is told from the perspective of a non-human animal who is imprisoned in an animal exploitation industry. On Youtube you can also find the music video for this song, which includes Stephanie's remarkable artwork and the English translations of the lyrics. The video tells the tragic story of a calf who was taken away from his mother and is facing imminent death.

(As I mentioned on the show, in the dairy industry, male calves are routinely torn from their mothers so that humans can drink the mother cow’s milk. Meanwhile, the male calves are killed and their remains are sold as so-called “veal”.)

The second song, "Animal", expresses many of the feelings that we vegan activists have on a regular basis. Here is the English translation of the lyrics of the song's chorus:

Animal, I am like you
From my soul rises the same voice
Marginal, that's how they see me
But the evil will not pass by me anymore

You can see the videos for "Chair Amie" and "Animal" on Stephanie's YouTube channel (I apologize if you encounter any advertisements on YouTube).

Thanks so much to Stephanie for granting me permission to include your amazing songs in my podcast!

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/44933.html.

2. Download the mP3 file from Archive.org (in the "Download Options" sidebar, do a right-mouse click on "VBR MP3" and click "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...") at https://archive.org/details/afarseptember252019.

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will air on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, October 9th, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 6: Interview with Angel Flinn, Communications Manager of Be Fair Be Vegan (Part One)

This week on Always For Animal Rights, I aired Part One of my interview with Angel Flinn, Communications Manager of Be Fair Be Vegan. Be Fair Be Vegan is an animal justice campaign that uses outdoor advertising to promote an uncompromising vegan message. In Part One of the interview, Angel spoke to me about why Be Fair Be Vegan's advertisements are designed the way they are, how people have reacted to the campaign, and how she explains to people who are not yet vegan why they should go vegan.

Recently Be Fair Be Vegan has launched two new Canadian campaigns: one in Toronto and one in Montreal. Here is some information from Be Fair Be Vegan's press releases about these campaigns, along with some images from each.

In Toronto, “The media takeover will run from September 2nd through October 27th and focus on three transit stops: St. George Station, and the interiors of the Yonge Eglinton Centre and the Yonge Sheppard Centre. 

“The BeFairBeVegan message will be broadcast across a broad range of media, including Flexity streetcar wraps, 20 bus murals and 10 transit center posters. Digital and online media images will also play a significant role in the campaign.” 

Stairs at St. George Station, Toronto

Flexity Streetcar in Toronto

Three of Be Fair Be Vegan's messages

Meanwhile, the Montreal campaign “is an advertising takeover of Montreal's Berri-UQAM station along with 99 digital screens located in other key stations and hubs around the city, and will run until September 29th.

“In addition to the official outdoor ads, BeFairBeVegan materials will be on display at a public vigil held by local activists on September 14th at Jardins Gamelin. The event begins at 2:00.” 

Here are three examples of Be Fair Be Vegan's French-language advertisements for the Montreal campaign:

Part Two of the interview will be aired on the next episode of this show, on September 25, 2019.

For more information about Be Fair Be Vegan, please visit BeFairBeVegan.com.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/44729.html. This version also includes the song "Wake Up Now" by Claudia Robbens. Please also read the notices in the description on the episode's page before listening. Thank you.

2. Download the mP3 file from Archive.org (in the "Download Options" sidebar, do a right-mouse click on "VBR MP3" and click "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...") at https://archive.org/details/afarseptember112019.

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will air on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, September 25, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.

Episode 5: Interview with Sandra Higgins of the Go Vegan World campaign; announcement about the Liberation Pledge; and Queen V's song "Just Like Us"

This week's show features an interview with Sandra Higgins, the founder and director of Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary and the Go Vegan World campaign.

Go Vegan World is an animal rights advocacy organization that educates the public about animal rights and promotes veganism. The advertisements have appeared on billboards and other places in Ireland, the UK, and Toronto. As stated on Go Vegan World's website, the campaign "is animal focused in nature and seeks complete cessation of animal use by humans." It is a truly excellent campaign.

Sandra spoke to me about the experience that led her to decide to go vegan, the animals who inspired the Go Vegan World campaign, the impact the campaign has had so far, and importance of remembering that veganism is about animal rights. Please visit GoVeganWorld.com to learn more about veganism, and EdenFarmedAnimalSanctuary.com to read the stories of the animals who live at the sanctuary.

Here are some photographs of Go Vegan World's advertisements:

As usual, the animal rights news is at the beginning of the show.

After the interview, I also announced my decision to take the Liberation Pledge. To learn more about the Liberation Pledge, you can visit https://www.liberationpledge.com/.

At the end of the show is Queen V's song "Just Like Us", which was inspired by the chants that are sung in animal rights marches.

How to listen to this episode

There are two ways to listen to the episode.

1. Listen to the episode on CKCU's website at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/553/44526.html. In this version, the song "Just Like Us" was faded out about half-way through the song.

2. Download the mP3 file from Archive.org (in the "Download Options" sidebar, do a right-mouse click on "VBR MP3" and click "Save Link As..." or "Save Target As...") at https://archive.org/details/afaraugust282019. This podcast version contains the song "Just Like Us" in its entirety.

The next episode of Always for Animal Rights will air on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa on Wednesday, September 11, 2019-- and, of course, it will be available to listen to afterwards, as well.