Episode 62: Interview with Jeremy Hess about animal rights, the importance of sanctuaries, and unlearning speciesist language

Jeremy and Mr. T at
FRIEND Farm Animal Sanctuary

This week, I am very happy to present my recent interview with the animal rights advocate Jeremy Hess. Jeremy has been a vegan for more than 7 years and has been involved in various forms of animal rights advocacy, including volunteering at sanctuaries, giving speeches about veganism and animal rights, creating YouTube videos, doing street outreach, and more. 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 working to create a vegan microsanctuary to provide a home for rescued animals in the United States.

In this interview, Jeremy tells his story of becoming vegan and embracing a rights-based approach to animal advocacy. We also discuss how we can avoid using speciesist language in our advocacy and our everyday lives, and whether there is a difference between the words “exploitation” and “use”. Jeremy describes the importance of sanctuaries in the animal rights movement, how veganism is connected to animal rights, how we can respond to the “plants” objection to veganism, and what is the best thing about being vegan in his experience.

During the interview, I also mentioned an essay, "The Case for Animal Rights" by Tom Regan, which summarizes the key concepts in Regan's book of the same name. Although I haven't read any of Regan's books, I have read a number of Gary Francione's books, which have helped me to learn about animal rights theory.

This was a very thought-provoking discussion, and I hope you'll tune in!

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/553/53658.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-september-29-2021.
   

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 61: Interview with Sarina Farb about growing up vegan, industry influence over scientific research, and why vegans should not promote lab-grown "meat"

This week, I am pleased to present my interview with the vegan advocate Sarina Farb. Sarina lives in the Midwestern United States and has been a vegan for her entire life. She is the host of the YouTube channel Born Vegan and the host of the Science is Gray podcast. She previously served as the international liaison for the film-making organization Tribe of Heart, and she was a co-founder and co-host of the 2020 Climate Diet Summit. Sarina holds degrees in biochemistry and policy studies and formerly was a high school science teacher.

In this interview, Sarina speaks about her experiences growing up in a vegan family. She explains how these experiences have influenced the way she views the world, why she never wanted to stop being vegan, and why it isn’t fair to accuse vegan parents of "forcing" their children to be vegan. We also discuss why Sarina started her science podcast, how corporations influence scientific research, and why lab-grown meat is not the solution to the problem of animal exploitation.

It was a very interesting discussion. I hope you'll tune in!

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/553/53491.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-september-15-2021.
   

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 59: Interview with Inge and Thomas, abolitionist vegan advocates in the Netherlands

This week, I am delighted to share my interview with the abolitionist vegan advocates Inge and Thomas, who do street outreach to educate the public about veganism in the Netherlands. Thomas is also the author of a website about veganism and animal rights in the Dutch language, called WaaromVeganisme.nl.

In this interview, Thomas and Inge tell me about what led them to become vegans and start doing abolitionist vegan advocacy. They also speak about their approach to vegan education, the current state of veganism and vegan advocacy in the Netherlands, and how nonhuman animal issues are portrayed in the Dutch mainstream media. Then they share their advice for vegans who would like to get involved in animal rights advocacy, and they tell me how being vegan has changed their lives and what their plans are for the future.

It was really inspiring to speak with Inge and Thomas and learn about the work they are doing to spread the abolitionist vegan message.

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/553/53171.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-august-18-2021.
   

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 58: The Peppa Pig Paradox and speciesism in children's television with Lynda Korimboccus

This week, I am pleased to present my interview with Lynda Korimboccus, who lives in Scotland. Lynda will soon be starting her PhD in vegan Sociology, having completed a Master’s degree in Anthrozoology in 2019. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the upcoming Student Journal of Vegan Sociology, and she works as a social sciences lecturer in Scottish Further Education. Her PhD will focus on the experiences of vegan children living in a non-vegan world.

In this interview, we discuss how children are socialized into accepting and participating in animal exploitation in society, with a focus on Lynda’s research into how nonhuman animals are represented on children’s television shows in the UK. Lynda explains why she coined the term "the Peppa Pig Paradox", referring to the phenomenon in which people claim to love animals or animal characters (such as Peppa Pig) even while they eat real animals of the same species. She also tells me about her story of becoming vegan and her plans for her PhD research, and we discuss the importance of vegan education in order to achieve our goal of the abolition of animal exploitation.

If you'd like to watch some of the Peppa Pig episodes that I studied prior to speaking with Lynda, you can find them on YouTube. Each episode is about 5 minutes long.

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/553/53100.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-august-11-2021.
   

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 57: Interview with Marieke Griffioen about abolitionist veganism in the Netherlands

This week, I am pleased to present my interview with the abolitionist vegan advocate Marieke Griffioen. Marieke is the founder of VEGNL, a vegan education group based in the Netherlands.

In this interview, Marieke tells me about what led her to become vegan and learn about the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. She describes the current state of veganism and animal advocacy in the Netherlands, and she tells me about her abolitionist vegan advocacy, how we can educate others about veganism in a nonviolent way, and what would happen if all vegans abandoned single-issue campaigning and welfare reforms and instead started promoting an unequivocal vegan message. We also discuss what Marieke found when she came across a dairy farm while on a walk.

At the end of the show we'll hear the song "How Do I Go Vegan" by the abolitionist vegan singer-songwriter Gülce Özen Gürkan.

It's always inspiring to have discussions with grassroots abolitionist educators from around the world, and this interview was no exception. Thanks to Marieke for being a guest on the show!

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/553/52830.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-july-21-2021.
   

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 56: Why animal rights advocates should promote veganism instead of animal welfare reforms

This week, I am pleased to present my third interview with Elizabeth Collins. Elizabeth, who lives in New Zealand, has been conducting street stalls to educate the public about veganism since 2009, and she is the host of the New Zealand Vegan Podcast. Her advocacy is based on the principles of Gary Francione's Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights.

In this interview, Elizabeth and I discuss why animal welfare reforms are counterproductive to our goal of ending animal exploitation. Specifically, we speak about the problems with the following campaigns: so-called “bans” on live export in New Zealand and the shredding of male chicks in Germany (you can find the Guardian article I mentioned here, and a more recent Wall Street Journal article here); a Canadian company’s decision to stop using fur (but continue using feathers); and a campaign that aims to convince a world-famous leader to eat fewer animal products in order to help the environment.

We also discuss the use of environmental and health arguments in vegan advocacy, and then Elizabeth explains the importance of engaging in abolitionist vegan education in our everyday lives.

At the end of the show, we will listen to the song "My Vegan Friend" by the vegan singer-songwriter Gülce Özen Gürkan.

As we discussed in this episode and on past episodes, eating/using eggs or other animal products will never be ethical, no matter how many animal welfare measures are put into place. I recommend the following essay by Gary Francione and Anna Charlton: Why Welfare Reform Campaigns and Single-Issue Campaigns Necessarily Promote Animal Exploitation.

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/553/52574.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-june-30-2021.
   

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 55: Interview with Professor Gary Steiner about the history of animal ethics in the West, whether Christianity can lead to veganism, and why postmodernism cannot protect animal rights

This week, I am pleased to present my interview with Dr. Gary Steiner, professor of philosophy at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Much of Gary Steiner’s work has focused on the moral status of animals in Western philosophy. He is the author of many academic papers and four published books, including Anthropocentrism and its Discontents, Animals and the Moral Community, and Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism. His fifth book, which will be published later this year, will be titled Felt Kinship: The Historical Pretensions of Reason and the Moral Status of Nonhuman Animals.

In this interview, Gary speaks about the history of the moral status of animals in the Western world, and we discuss whether Christianity can lead to animal rights and veganism. After that, Gary tells me about his book Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism, explaining why the philosophy of postmodernism fails to establish the clear moral principles that are necessary in order to achieve justice for nonhuman animals. Then he outlines a philosophy of animal ethics that we could embrace instead. Finally, we discuss whether there is hope that we could achieve a vegan world.

During the interview, I read an excerpt from Volume 1 of The Keys to Freedom by Leo Tolstoy, translated into English by Walter Richmond. Gary told me about Pope Francis's 2015 papal encyclical, Laudato Si', which can be read here. The Christian scholar I mentioned in the show was Rynn Berry, who said on an episode of Go Vegan Radio with Bob Linden that the word "fish" was a mistranslation of what could more accurately be described as "relish".

It was a fascinating discussion. I hope you can tune in!

At the end of the show is the song "Sixth Commandment" by Dr. Aryan Tavakkoli.

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/553/52321.html.
   
2. Listen to or download the podcast from Archive.org at https://archive.org/details/afar-june-9-2021.
   

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!