A Kynd Life: Recent Episodes

Elisha Atchison

Hear from amazing guests who choose to live a kynd life and be inspired by their journey to veganism. Your host Elisha Atchison is passionate about being a voice for the animals and empowering people to live a fulfilling vegan lifestyle.

Mike recently retired after 40 years of service with Ambulance Victoria.

Mike's father died of sudden cardiac arrest when he was 19 years old. It was a huge loss for his family, however Mike found his purpose in life when he decided to become a paramedic. Initially Mike trained as a paramedic before he started working on the road as a clinician and more recently a local supervisor, managing a team of 45 staff.

Mike's vegan journey began when he attended a horse riding accident. While caring for the patient, he noticed her horse was bleeding, suffering and in severe distress. The patient's mother advised she had a called a vet, however the events that unravelled still haunt Mike to this day. Mike then started asking questions about how animals were treated. He initially went vegan in 2014 for health reasons, but quickly felt deceived by animal agriculture.

After making enquiries about local animal rights groups, Mike learnt about the Animal Justice Party and felt at home with like minded people. Mike ran as a lower house candidate in the last state election and enjoyed being on the campaign trail. Seeing kangaroos in his local area and hearing about the Victorian kangaroo harvest program, Mike puts his efforts into advocating for kangaroos through letter writing, blogging and advertising campaigns.

In this episode, Mike shares the highs and lows of his emergency services career, life after retirement as well as his fourth successful attempt at the 100km Great Ocean Walk.

https://www.facebook.com/mike.fuery
https://www.instagram.com/furious_mike01/

Louise reflects on pivotal moments in her life and there are a few common threads - reading Peter Singer's books and the birth of her first child, all of which had a profound impact and led her to where she is today.

During Louise's university studies, she read Peter Singer's book "Practical Ethics" which covered a range of ethical issues, including animal rights. This book absolutely changed how Louise felt about animals, because it brought their suffering to the forefront and as a result, she went vegetarian.

Soon after the birth of Sebastian, Louise saw a television story on bobby calves in the dairy industry. She had experienced the strong bond between mother and child and knew she couldn't contribute to such a cruel industry, so she went vegan.

Across her financial services career, Louise has worked in a variety of roles including retail banking, institutional funds management, stockbroking and financial advisory. In 2011, Louise read Peter Singer's "The Life You Can Save" and knew she needed to do more to help end human suffering. Louise and her family pledged to give a percentage of their household income to help those experiencing extreme poverty across the world. In a beautiful twist of fate, Louise joined The Live You Can Save team as Director of Philanthropy eighteen months ago.

Louise recognises the importance of politics in bringing about change for animals, so she joined the Animal Justice Party over five years ago. Not long after joining, Louise was asked to stand as a candidate and has since been a candidate four times. In addition, Louise has held several leadership positions including SA State Convenor and was recently elected as President of the AJP Board of Directors.

In this episode, Louise shares how she helped secure political reform for animals during the 2022 SA state and federal election, as well as donating with confidence and how she enjoys spending her free time.

https://www.instagram.com/veganmamaboss/
https://au.linkedin.com/in/louise-pfeiffer
https://twitter.com/LVPC

Phoebe co-founded Companion Cows after falling in love with cows and years of experience rescuing and fostering them. Companion Cows is on a mission to create a kinder world for dairy cows and their babies.

Starting as a volunteer with Til the Cows Come Home who were working with The Owl and the Pussycat, Phoebe quickly learnt how to care for rescue calves. Although it was a steep learning curve, it was hugely rewarding.

Phoebe put her hand up to be their first foster station in NSW and during that time, she was involved in the rescue of over 100 calves and thousands of battery hens. Phoebe soon took on the full time role of Animal Rescue and Foster Care Coordinator for Til the Cows Come Home.

Phoebe crossed paths with a Tasmanian foster carer Krystal who decided to start her own organisation Companion Cows. Phoebe fell in love with the idea of a charity dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming dairy cows, so she joined Krystal in setting up the charity.

Companion Cows has a strong focus on sharing the stories of cows who come into their care, as they believe it is critical to help the public connect with dairy cows and raise awareness about their plight. Advocacy is another important pillar of their work, with the organisation supporting people to ditch dairy.

Last Christmas, Phoebe received a call from a farmer who had twin calves needing a home. Phoebe rushed to pick up Missy and Bart and they instantly found a place in her heart. Phoebe could not part with Missy and Bart and they are one month off celebrating their first birthday in her care.

In this episode, Phoebe shares her years of experience rescuing animals, as well as Missy and Bart's heart warming rescue story and some of the challenges involved in caring for cows.

https://www.instagram.com/wanderingphebes/
https://www.instagram.com/companion_cows
https://www.companioncows.org/

After ten years trialling beauty products, Marisa founded Wild & Cruelty Free - an online boutique featuring a carefully curated collection of tried and tested vegan beauty products. Marisa's always loved beauty, having started blogging over a decade ago and gaining a qualification in makeup artistry.

Everything changed for Marisa during Christmas 2018, when she saw an Edgar's Mission billboard on the highway, featuring a picture of a pig and the statement "My name is Penelope Sue, not dinner". This image hit Marisa's heart, feeling a lot of sadness and guilt, so she told her husband Jason she didn't want to eat animals anymore.

It didn't take long for Marisa to make the connection between beauty products and animal testing, vowing to no longer use products tested on animals. Thanks to some thoughtful conversations with a vegan on social media, seeds were planted about products not truly being cruelty free unless they are vegan. This extended Marisa's circle of compassion and she decided to go vegan at the start of this year.

Wild & Cruelty Free was born out of Marisa's love for beauty and cruelty free content creation. Marisa values giving back to animal charities, providing a monthly donation to an animal organisation based on the sales from her business.

In this episode, Marisa shares how she researched beauty products for their vegan and cruelty free merits, as well as customer advocacy for brands to go vegan and future plans for Wild & Cruelty Free

For the month of November, Wild & Cruelty Free will kindly be donating money from every sale to Victorian Lamb Rescue.

https://www.instagram.com/wildandcrueltyfree_
http://www.wildandcrueltyfree.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/marisarobinsonbeauty
http://www.marisarobinsonbeauty.com

This week we talk to Bronwyn Currie, Animal Justice Party's State Convenor in Victoria, as she shares everything you need to know about the upcoming AJP National Conference.

The conference is being held on 11th & 12th November 2023 at the Fitzroy Town Hall, with the option to attend online as well. The theme of this year's conference is "It's Politics" and will host an impressive list of speakers (also previous podcast guests) such as Georgie Purcell, Emma Hurst, Matt Stellino, Paul Bevan and Emma Hakansson.

Be sure to tune in to the episode for all of the essential details such as what's included in the ticket fee, the conference dinner social event, volunteering opportunities and raffle prizes up for grabs.

GET YOUR TICKET-
https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/2023_ajp_national_conference

Bronywn Currie for Mulgrave - https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/bronwyn_currie_for_mulgrave

In 2012, after a 33 year career with Victoria Police, mostly in the mounted branch, Jan went vegan and faced what she describes as an “existential crisis”. What she did next changed the trajectory of her entire life!

Jan's vegan journey started after she saw the Four Corners expose on Live Export, "A Bloody Business". She signed up to the Animals Australia newsletter and soon after learned the truth about bobby calves, which at the time, seemed almost unbelievable.

Jan always loved horses and had begun her working career in the industry after leaving school. Once she went vegan and saw the use of animals by humans differently, she was at a loss as to how to provide for herself going forward.

As she struggled to find her purpose, her natural affinity for travellers and travelling resulted in her “accidentally” creating a fully fledged vegan business - The Beet Retreat.

The Beet Retreat, now Australia’s longest running all-vegan B&B, started on Jan's original 20 acre property in the Yarra Valley, VIC. In 2019 she moved it to 3 tranquil acres in Noosa, QLD.

Specialising in private, personalised 3 and 7 day retreats, Jan also offers cooking classes, simple bed and breakfast stays, meals, guided hikes, healing and active time in nature.

At age 45, Jan started adventure racing and then at 51, ultra-running. She was drawn to the mental and physical challenges associated with endurance sports and the types of people attracted to these adventures in wild, beautiful and remote locations.

Jan, now 61, is making a return to ultra-marathon running next month with a gruelling 160km race on the Grampians Peak Trail in Victoria. She is hoping to raise $1160 for Happily Heifer After.

In this episode, Jan shares her sustainability plans for The Beet Retreat and the secrets behind her unique blend of vegan vitality and gentle advocacy.

https://www.instagram.com/thebeetretreat_veganbnb/
https://www.facebook.com/thebeetretreat
https://thebeetretreat.com.au/

Tully is an entertainer, entrepreneur and educator. Be prepared, this episode will have your mouth watering as Tully shares his passion for creating easy and authentic vegan curries.

Growing up in Amritsar, the food capital of Punjab, Tully developed his passion for food while enjoying local cuisine and learning to cook with his mother. At age five, they moved to an army base where his mother was assigned a teaching role and Tully became more curious about different foods and cultures.

Tully realised Indian recipes were the easiest to remove the meat and dairy and still retain amazing flavours. He took to social media five years ago, showcasing fun, easy and delicious vegan food, gaining over half a million followers in a short time. Wanting to help others, Tully has created curry sauces inspired by his mother's recipes, that make meal time super convenient.

In this episode, Tully shares his childhood experiences, favourite recipes and upcoming launch of new products.

Tully has kindly offered a discount to A Kynd Life listeners - Save 15% off your order when using code "KYND15" https://www.tullyzkitchen.com/

https://www.instagram.com/tullyzkitchen/
https://www.tiktok.com/@tullyzkitchen
https://www.instagram.com/tullyzcurries/
https://www.facebook.com/tullyzcurries/
https://www.youtube.com/c/TullyzKitchen
https://www.tullyzkitchen.com/

Alicia recently opened her own real estate agency Saint & Wood after being involved in real estate for over two decades. The agency is well on the way to being an entirely vegan agency, with 3 staff already vegan and one vegetarian.

Alicia went vegan overnight after reconnecting with a friend over Facebook who happened to be vegan. She studied all of the animal rights content on her friend's page and was shocked at what she learnt. Alicia has 3 children, all of whom are vegan, including one from birth.

Over the years Alicia has been heavily involved in activism including attending rallies, marches and protests as well as joining the Animal Justice Party (AJP) soon after going vegan. Alicia stood as a lower house candidate for AJP three times and worked for the political party during the last state election, as a coordinator of three electorates.

Alicia's passion for real estate is what has kept her in the industry since she was 18. Starting in reception and administration, Alicia then moved into property management, sales and onto co-owning a successful agency with her dad. Alicia's prime motivation behind Saint & Wood is to give back to the community, with a portion of the funds going to charities that align with the company values.

In this episode, Alicia also shares her vegan love story, returning to her real estate career and being the best example of a vegan she can.

https://www.instagram.com/saint_and_wood/
https://www.instagram.com/alii_kate/
https://www.facebook.com/saintandwood
https://saintandwood.com.au/

Jess was inspired to sign up as a volunteer at Liberation Sanctuary after going vegan. Less than a year later, Jess started working at the sanctuary, managing social media and coordinating volunteers.

As a child, Jess wanted to help animals by becoming a vet. She always thought she would go vegetarian when she grew up and started her journey by refusing to eat pig products when she was young after watching Babe. Seeing a video of Milly the cow enjoying cuddles at Happily Heifer After helped Jess to make the decision to go vegan. It wasn't long before she started researching the dairy industry and was horrified by what she learnt.

Jess went vegan in February 2021 and applied a few months later to become a volunteer at Liberation Sanctuary. Jess enjoys the variety in her role and values spending time with the animals, capturing and sharing their stories for social media.

In this episode, Jess shares insights into her role at Liberation Sanctuary, volunteer opportunities and speaking at Vegan Easy's World Vegan Day event in 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/liberationsanctuary/
https://www.facebook.com/liberationsanctuaryvic
https://www.instagram.com/animallib/
https://www.instagram.com/veganeasy/
https://www.instagram.com/jess_m_wright/
https://www.liberation.org.au

Chloe and Jacques are the organisers of Vegan Kids Gold Coast, while raising two vegan children and embarking on a year long trip around Australia in 2024.

Chloe was seven when she made the connection between eating meat and the animals she loved so dearly. She had been vegetarian for years when she met Jacques. Not long after they began dating, Jacques decided to go meat free for a month and ended up also going vegetarian.

In a chance encounter with activists in Brisbane, the couple were prompted to question if being vegetarian was enough. After going away and doing research, Chloe went vegan, followed by Jacques declaring he would also go vegan on their wedding night.

Noah, their six year old son, started feeling isolated and asked if they were the only vegans in the world. This led Chloe to ask in a Gold Coast vegans facebook group if there were other vegan families. They were inundated with responses and decided to create a facebook group for vegan children on the Gold Coast. They hosted the first event at their family home and the group has grown to become a strong community that holds monthly events.

Noah and Chloe are also creating a children's book together about Noah's experience being a child who feels like he found his place in the vegan community.

In this episode, Chloe and Jacques share their alternative way of living, travel plans for next year and how raising their vegan children has inspired their family.

https://www.instagram.com/the.alternative.root/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vegankidsgoldcoast

Amanda and her husband Matt created Herbidoor to supply ready made vegan meals to their local community. Five years on and the company has a wide range of meals delivered across Australia.

The inspiration behind Herbidoor was Matt's passion for re-creating childhood classics such as lasagne. The alternative meat products created for the meals were so popular, the couple created Plant Providore, a branch of Herbidoor which sells vegan steak, lamb, chicken, pepperoni, roast and brisket.

After being vegetarian for years, Amanda realised the dairy and egg industry wasn't as cruelty free as she first thought, so she became an ethical vegan. Growing up Amanda was a competitive swimmer and got involved in life saving. In her adult life, Amanda has competed as a vegan bodybuilder in Australia and the US and more recently took on a new challenge of completing a triathlon.

In this episode, Amanda discusses why we should reconsider using the term "fake meat" and shares the challenges of running a small business in the current climate, as well as advice for people transitioning to veganism and raising vegan children.

https://www.instagram.com/amandaroseofficial/
https://www.tiktok.com/@amandaroseofficial
https://www.instagram.com/herbidoor/
https://www.tiktok.com/@herbidoor
https://herbidoor.com/

It's been a year since I first interviewed John Thomas and what better time to have him back on the show, than while he is in the middle of a bodybuilding competition prep!

John is aiming to compete in an amateur division bodybuilding class later this year. He is working with a coach who has no prior experience with a vegan competitor, which John sees as an opportunity to change the sport from the inside out.

Alot of changes have occurred in John's life since we last spoke; he recently moved to Tampa to surround himself with the top athletes in his sport, dyed his mohawk green to stand out and spark conversation about veganism, got tattoos, found a tumor on his chest and sadly his father passed away.

In this episode, John provides heartfelt reflections on the year that's been, how competition preparation is going and his plans for the future.

https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingvegan/

Being a qualified Clinical Nutritionist and vegan for twelve years, Lisa helps clients optimise their plant based lifestyle.

Going vegan sparked Lisa's curiosity to learn more about nutrition, so she studied a Bachelor of Nutritional & Dietetic Medicine, as well as a Bachelor of Complementary Medicine. Having worked in the health and wellness space for over a decade, Lisa recently opened her own private practice which has been warmly welcomed by the community.

Lisa is passionate about making evidence based nutrition advice more accessible; not only are her consultations available in person and online, she also recently released the first of many free downloadable mini guides and is working on a course for later in the year.

In this episode, Lisa shares the difference between a Nutritionist and a Clinical Nutritionist, as well as common diet deficiencies, nutrition hacks and her favourite meal - Rainbow Nasi Goreng.

https://www.instagram.com/lisavioletnutrition/
https://lisavioletnutrition.com/

Does anyone else love to celebrate their Veganniversary? Today marks my 6th year of veganism and it's already the best year so far!

Last year a good friend asked me "If you only had a year to live, what would you do?". I gave it some thought and knew that I would want to spend all my time helping the animals.

So I quit my job, sold my house and moved closer to the Victorian Lamb Rescue (VLR) sanctuary. I have been a volunteer at VLR for over five years and it has become my second home and my happy place.

In this episode, I share how I took the leap of faith and why I'd encourage you to follow your dreams.

https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.instagram.com/viclambrescue/

Lynne started Galahad's Animal Sanctuary to provide care and a forever home to as many rescued animals as possible.

Galahad's Sanctuary rescues and rehabilitates farm animals from various circumstances within the food system, as well as camels, horses, donkeys and dogs. These animal ambassadors spread the message that they deserve our compassion and respect.

The sanctuary residents have inspired Lynne's quest to seek a harmonious and sustainable way to tread lightly on our planet and ecosystem using a plant based diet. The sanctuary is now home to over 50 residents and aims to spread a message of hope and compassion.

Lynne recognises the importance of providing opportunities for people to relax and engage with animals as they are their own ambassadors, so she holds tours and events, as well as offering stays in the B&B.

Living in London in the late 80s, Lynne went vegetarian because she wanted to see the end of animal suffering. Animals had always been her best friends and when she realised how cruel the dairy industry was, Lynne went vegan. Lynne has always been involved in activism, taking part in protests, marches, petitions and online advocacy.

In this episode, Lynne also provides an insight into Australia's horrific camel culling program, opportunities to help raise the sanctuary profile and the challenges of running a sanctuary.

https://www.galahads-sanctuary.com/
https://www.instagram.com/galahads_sanctuary/ https://www.facebook.com/GalahadPetTherapy/
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary?

Vegie Tribe Fundraising Event - 7th October 2023
https://www.facebook.com/events/2304466303090043?active_tab=about

Sanctuary videos
Visitors at the sanctuary, meeting all the animals -
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7266725035224714498?is_from_webapp=1
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7266008060726889729?is_from_webapp=1

Camel videos
Catapult crying while being stroked -
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7089251610785893634?is_from_webapp=1

Milkshake and Catapult jumping for joy for dinner -
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7088272237974834433?is_from_webapp=1

Phoenix doing zoomies being introduced to other camels for the first time -https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7243360137530887426?is_from_webapp=1

The conditions the rescue animals were living in next to the petrol station -
https://www.tiktok.com/@galahadsanimalsanctuary/video/7192207517798255873?is_from_webapp=1

Amber has been a musician all her life and wants to use her musicianship as a platform to spread the animal rights message.

As a child, Amber's parents enrolled her in piano, violin and guitar classes, as well as choir. Playing the piano has always been a big part of Amber's identity. In college, she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance and is now a piano teacher for children.

During COVID, Amber and her partner began curating music where he would DJ and she would play the piano. The couple were asked to go on tour with The Backstreet Boys to support their European tour and ended up playing at six shows! More recently, Amber travelled to Australia to perform at the Dominion Anniversary Animal Rights March. Being surrounded by passionate activists fighting for animals was such a special experience for Amber, she hopes to do it again soon.

Amber went vegan on a whim at age 18 because she cared about animals and the environment. Once she started educating herself on how animals in the agricultural system were treated, she knew she could never go back. Amber has an almost two year old son and believes it's important to cultivate his love for animals at an early age.

In this episode, Amber shares her experience with performance anxiety, the release of new songs later this year and her vegan pregnancy.

https://www.instagram.com/1pcok/
https://www.facebook.com/AmberPCok
https://www.youtube.com/veggilicious

Alyssa founded Victorian Kangaroo Alliance after recognising the need for a state-wide coordinated approach to targeting the persecution and exploitation of kangaroos, the victims of the world’s largest land-based wildlife trade.

Alyssa has been involved in wildlife advocacy for eight years, beginning with the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, followed by co-founding the Australian Native Parrot Protection Association and more recently as the Founder and President of Victorian Kangaroo Alliance.

Kangaroo advocacy found it's way to Alyssa when she was asked to set up a social media campaign for "Save the Kinley Kangas". The campaign transformed into the Victorian Kangaroo Alliance when a proposal for a kangaroo processing facility in northern Victoria reared it's head. Victorian Kangaroo Alliance experienced rapid growth; becoming incorporated and endorsing a full committee, as well as having great support from community groups across the state.

In addition to wildlife advocacy, Alyssa is passionate about death education and advocacy. Alyssa and her sister started a green burial business, Heaven and Earth Eco Burial Products, providing people an environmentally friendly end of life option that gives back to nature and creates protected habitat to benefit native animals and plants.

In this episode, Alyssa discusses the difference between commercial and non-commercial killing of kangaroos, the impact of pressuring big sporting brands to ditch kangaroo leather and her experience balancing the transition to veganism whilst maintaining her recovery from an eating disorder.

https://www.instagram.com/victorian_kangaroo_alliance/
https://www.facebook.com/VictorianKangarooAlliance
https://vickangas.org/how-to-help
https://heburials.com.au/

Holly is an Ecologist working with a national conservation NGO to save threatened species. She is extremely passionate about identifying the early warning signs of decline in common species, so we can act before it's too late.

Growing up in England, Holly was influenced by her father's love of bird life, enjoying family field trips admiring the wildlife. After studying Ecology in Scotland, Holly moved to Australia and started her career at the Broome Bird Observatory. She became interested in justice for First Nations People and worked in community development programs in Alice Springs.

Holly returned to Ecology, deciding to further her study with a PhD and later became a Research Fellow at Melbourne University, focussing on wildfire ecology.

During her school years, Holly remembers being disgusted by the idea of eating animal flesh, so she went vegetarian. After going vegan in 2017, Holly embarked on her own research mission, reading many books, watching documentaries and googling animal rights organisations.

Holly quickly joined her local Animal Justice Party group and welcomed a strong sense community. Holly, now the Ballarat Sub-Regional Group Leader, ran as the AJP candidate for Ripon in the last state election and is excited for the next opportunity to represent animals in an election.

In this episode, Holly discusses scientists and their role in advocacy, vegan book recommendations and her experience presenting at the recent Victorian Inquiry into Victoria's recreational native bird hunting arrangements.

https://www.instagram.com/hollysitters/
https://www.facebook.com/carrie.thunderwood.7

Krystal's purpose in life changed after rescuing two bobby calves, Frankie and Fletcher. She founded Companion Cows, a registered charity on a mission to create a kinder world for dairy cows and their babies.

Krystal, her husband and two children moved to Tasmania four years ago. They very quickly saw the realities of the dairy industry when they came across a bobby calf on a dairy farm. It didn't take long for Krystal to step into action, she became a foster carer for a charity rescuing and rehoming calves.

In July 2022, Krystal started her own charity, Companion Cows and now operates the charity with her friend Phoebe. Companion Cows has grown, with foster stations in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, rehoming all the calves rescued into safe and loving homes.

Through her rescue journey, Krystal gained a much deeper understanding of the broken system alot of farmer's find themselves in and wanted to help on a much bigger scale. Krystal launched Farm Transitions Australia, a charity helping farmers transition out of animal agriculture into plant based agriculture or a new career. The charity provides services to farmers free of charge and involves a collaborative approach with an advisory panel and third partner providers.

In this episode, Krystal shares her first hand experiences saving dairy cows, being a guardian of bovines and her long term solution to the bandaid fix of rescue.

https://www.instagram.com/companion_cows/
https://www.instagram.com/farm_transitions_australia/
https://www.companioncows.org/
https://www.farmtransitionsaustralia.org/

Working as an educator in an animal sanctuary, Emma saw the impact sharing animal's stories had on people. She had the opportunity to curate their stories through film and found it so fulfilling, that Emma and her partner John decided to become full time filmmakers, co-founding Veganography.

Emma has been a classical musician from a very young age and went on to study Cello Pedagogy at University. She went vegan during her university studies and realised that being a Cello teacher wasn't impacting those she cared most about - animals and the environment.

Emma left music entirely to become the director of education and development at an animal sanctuary. She learnt invaluable skills in communicating and educating people about animals and their sentience. Emma and John witnessed the impact their videos of sanctuary residents had on creating lifestyle change in members of the public.

In creating Veganography, Emma and John hope to empower people to make more plant based choices through inspiring and informational storytelling. Their films have been accepted at 12 international film festivals and won awards at 7 so far. The couple are also writing a book on how to be the most effective vegan advocate, to help amplify an individual's impact.

In this episode, Emma shares lessons learnt in delivering the vegan message and her favourite rescue story of Lucky the cow.

https://www.instagram.com/veganography.films/
https://www.facebook.com/veganography.films/
https://veganography.org/

Jess quit her eight year career as a Midwife and founded Project Bali Dog to protect and restore the welfare of dogs in Bali, Indonesia.

Jess has sponsored Robbie, a rescued street dog in Bali for eight years. On her last visit, Jess walked out of the shelter where Robbie lives a safe and comfortable life and saw street dogs needing help on the other side of the gate.

Having always loved animals and being vegan since 2014, Jess knew she needed a change. She made the decision to quit her job and go to Bali in February this year, to find out what she could do on the ground to help Bali's dogs. Before leaving, Jess set herself a volunteer challenge to help at 30 animal organisations in a 30 day period.

Under the Project Bali Dog initiative, Jess has started Bowls for Bali, where she makes and provides 5L dog bowls, distributing them to local businesses to provide a fresh water supply to dogs in the area.

Jess recognises the importance of a sterilisation program for Bali dogs and has launched a fundraiser to help Bali Pet Crusaders perform mobile sterilisation of 217 cats and dogs. Jess needs to raise $5000 to fund the project and when the target is achieved, she will shave her long blonde hair.

In this episode, Jess teaches us about Bali dogs, the issues they are facing, as well as Sunny's rescue story and insights into her 30 day volunteer challenge.

Fundraiser - https://www.mycause.com.au/p/316465/unleash-the-power-of-the-clippers-shave-to-sterilise-balis-dogs

https://www.instagram.com/projectbalidog/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088277264909

Liz went vegan in the 80s and dived straight into activism. She got involved in chicken rescues from the broiler farm and egg industries and in 2013, Melbourne Chicken Rescue was born.

Liz grew up in England and moved to Adelaide when she was three. She went vegetarian in 1984, signed up to Animal Liberation SA a year later and went vegan in 1986. Liz became heavily involved in the South Australian Anti-Vivisection Union, protesting at universities, as well as raising money to replace animals with machine models and purchase vivisection books for university libraries.

Following her passion for music, Liz moved to Melbourne in 1996. She became involved in the Animal Save Movement and other activism opportunities which led Liz to rescuing day old broiler farm chicks. Her next rescue was of three battery hens Kath, Kim and Chrissie, who became Liz's first adopted chickens.

Melbourne Chicken Rescue focuses on rescue, rehabilitation, rehoming and education and has helped thousands of chickens over the last ten years. Liz shares life with her partner of 41 years, rescue chickens, a rescue dog and cat.

In this episode, Liz shares an insight into animal rights activism in the 80s, caring for chickens and some of her rescue chickens stories.

https://www.instagram.com/melbourne_chicken_rescue/
https://www.facebook.com/Melbournechickenrescue

Geelong Duck Rescue actively worked to protect native waterbirds at Lake Connewarre and Lake Modewarre for the 2023 duck shooting season.

Opening day of the season was met with the presence of a Parliamentary Inquiry Committee and barrage of media, a lack of regulatory authorities and shooters breaking the rules.

Three weeks into the season, Lake Connewarre was closed due to the presence of the Orange Bellied Parrot, a threatened native bird species. The team then moved to Lake Modewarre, adapting to the different geography, waterbird species and shooting strategies.

In this episode, the Geelong Duck Rescue team share their first hand experience of what they witnessed at the wetlands as well as confrontation with shooters, sea lice encounters and the next stages of the Inquiry.

https://www.instagram.com/geelongduckrescue/
https://www.facebook.com/geelongduckrescue

Alix identified there was a gap in the advocacy of Australian wildlife and created a coalition initiative called Defend The Wild.

Defend The Wild focuses campaigning efforts where agriculture and wildlife intersects such as lethal dingo control, crocodile farming, emu farming and kangaroo culling. Last year the initiative launched a campaign highlighting the decimation of dingoes through the Victorian Government's lethal dingo control program.

Alix's animal advocacy work started in the investigative space, working to uncover animal cruelty that is standard practice within Australia's farming system. She went on to co-found Kindness Project and soon realised that her concept of animal liberation had shifted towards protecting the integrity of wild animals.

Growing up in a farming family, Alix witnessed things that made her question our relationship with animals. At age 16, Alix took an Animals Australia pledge and went vegetarian. At 21 she made the decision to stop her use of any animal products.

In this episode, Alix chats about collaboration with stakeholder groups, her passion for dingoes and growing a community of people dedicated to protecting Australia's wildlife and their natural habitat.

https://www.instagram.com/defendthewild/
https://www.defendthewild.org/

Defend the Dingo Event - 1st July 2023
https://events.humanitix.com/defend-the-dingo

Ingrid, her husband and two children went vegan during lockdown.

A friend suggested she watched Seaspiracy and Ingrid was blown away, it was the catalyst that changed everything. Ingrid first went vegetarian and then went vegan after seeing male chicks being ground alive in Dominion.

Last year Ingrid became involved in activism, starting with Animal Rights Activism Sydney cubes, protests and outreach events. She has found a love of visiting and volunteering at animal sanctuaries, as it is not only rewarding to help the animals, but has also helped Ingrid connect with other vegans.

Being a primary school teacher for 13 years, Ingrid identified that the current curriculum is not a true representation of the animal agriculture industry and nutritional needs. Ingrid hopes to change this, allowing future generations to make more informed choices.

Stepping outside her comfort zone, Ingrid recently stood as an Animal Justice Party candidate in the NSW state election, which was a rewarding experience.

In this episode, Ingrid chats about raising a vegan family, finding community and her drive to help teach children kindness to all beings.

https://www.instagram.com/ingrid.living.vegan/

Kate's maritime journey began when she moved to Australia almost ten years ago and started volunteering for Sea Shepherd and Coast Guard.

By chance, Kate and her friends attended a Sea Shepherd screening of Cowspiracy. It turned out to be a life changing experience, as Kate changed her diet immediately and signed up to be a Sea Shepherd volunteer. Her time as an onshore volunteer has seen Kate be involved in ship tours, events, merchandise sales, beach cleans and outreach events.

It wasn't long until Kate signed up to the offshore crew and experienced her first campaign as a deckhand on the Steve Irwin for Operation Nemesis in Antarctica. She has been involved in Operation Milagro, a campaign to save the most endangered marine mammal in the world – the vaquita marina porpoise, as well as a clean up of illegal fishing equipment from the Cocos Islands.

Kate co-founded Daughters of the Deep, an organisation that supports women in the marine industry by addressing and exposing gender inequality. The organisation raises funds and advocates for women to pursue careers in marine industries and has projects running in Nicaragua, Thailand, Madagascar, Melanesia and Indonesia.

In this episode, Kate highlights the importance of veganism for ocean conservation, building maritime skills with Coast Guard and suggests documentaries to learn more about the ocean.

https://www.instagram.com/ladyparker1984/
https://www.instagram.com/daughtersofthedeepofficial/
https://daughtersofthedeep.org/

Recommended documentaries
Racing extinction - https://www.opsociety.org/our-work/films/racing-extinction/
Sea of Shadows (about Operation Milagro) - https://films.nationalgeographic.com/sea-of-shadows
Bag it (about plastics) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1612246/
How sentient can a fish be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QevWGsd96xQ
Feral (book) by George Monboit -
https://www.booktopia.com.au/feral-george-monbiot/book/9780141975580.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpPKiBhDvARIsACn-gzATp9f-CYKWNsB6BxyBH3CkfEQMbq6NKy0xoWS8Grk8zr0d0yavT28aAgBlEALw_wcB

Astrella created Cause & Events to support small vegan businesses, encourage people to implement a vegan lifestyle and showcase organisations fighting animal cruelty.

Born and raised in Bombay, Astrella's childhood was influenced by western culture. At ten years old, she had an epiphany and went vegetarian after realising meat came from an animal who didn't want to die. Seven years ago, Astrella went vegan overnight when she learnt about the dairy industry in Cowspiracy.

Astrella's vast career experience across many corporate roles led her to venture out on her own and create Cause & Events. Since it's inception last year, Cause & Events has hosted high tea fundraisers, wine and cheese tasting, networking, dating and workshops and raised over $5000 for charities.

In this episode, Astrella shares her hopes for the future of her organisation, upcoming events and lessons learnt.

https://www.instagram.com/cause.events/
https://www.facebook.com/vegancauses
https://www.cause.events/whatson

Em has been meat free for 18 years and counting!

Em has always been passionate about animals and their wellbeing. She recalls witnessing animals being poorly treated while growing up, which led her to no longer consume them at age 12. As a teenager, Em would go between vegetarian and vegan, until six years ago when she researched the dairy and egg industry and went vegan.

Like many of us, Em enjoys good vegan food and has started creating vegan versions of traditional Maltese dishes to share with her family. She also loves showcasing delicious vegan food that is easy to prepare while camping.

In this episode, Em chats about her boyfriend going meat free after their visit to Edgar's Mission, supporting vegan events and sanctuaries and attending her first protest.

https://www.instagram.com/melbvegangal/

Located 20 minutes north of Byron Bay, The Owl & The PussyCat Farm Animal Sanctuary is home to 70 rescued animals. The sanctuary's mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome animals from the farming industry, as well as provide opportunities for people to spend time with, and learn about, farmed animals.

Starting over five years ago, the sanctuary grew quickly as animals in need found their way to a safe haven. Even though the sanctuary is family-run and supported by a very small volunteer base, they continue to rescue animals, provide emergency and long term accommodation, and help rehome unwanted individuals.

The Owl & The PussyCat invites everyone to enjoy time with the rescue residents, holding regular tours and events. For something a little more intimate, you are welcome to stay onsite in the sanctuary accommodation or hold a private event at the 130-acre paradise.

The sanctuary was hard hit during last year's floods, experiencing five flooding events in a six month period. Thankfully all of the animals were safe, however the property sustained significant damage.

Learn more about how the sanctuary started, plans for wellness events and ways to support their work in this episode.

https://www.instagram.com/owlandpuscatfarmsanctuary/
https://www.facebook.com/OwlandPusCatFarm
https://www.owlandpussycatfarm.com.au/

I want to be like Ruth when I grow up.. here's why!

Ever since going vegan at age 62, Ruth has given the animals her all. An absolute all-star at Edgar's Mission, Ruth retired and began mucking out barns twice a week. It wasn't long before she moved closer to Edgar's and was trusted to transport surrendered animals to the sanctuary and veterinary appointments. Ruth extends her support to other sanctuaries and rescue organisations in Victoria.

If that's not enough, Ruth is equally as passionate about activism. Having found activism through Facebook, Ruth joined the Save Movement to participate in rallies and vigils. Recognising the benefit in disrupting activities that exploit animals, Ruth has been involved in disruptions at slaughterhouses, factory farms and a rodeo with Direct Action Everywhere, Meat The Victims, Dominion and most recently Vegan Rising.

In this episode, Ruth also chats about abolition vs welfarism, the concept of animal "ownership" and the importance of activists not taking on too much.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002844522819

Tammy is a Melbourne based tattoo artist with over 20 years experience. Her creativity extends into illustrating and painting, using her talents to raise much needed funds for animal charities.

After years of being vegetarian, Tammy's world changed when she went on a Sea Shepherd ship tour. Tammy connected with the volunteers, friendships were formed and while spending time with the group, she became immersed in veganism. Tammy then decided to do her own research on the dairy industry and went vegan overnight.

It wasn't long before Tammy began advertising as a vegan tattoo artist and organised fundraiser flash days for Sea Shepherd, Dominion and animals affected by the bushfires. Tammy participated in a 24 hour tattoo fundraiser, where 3 tattoo artists tattooed 3 people and raised money for 3 charities.

After years of illustrating, Tammy found her love of painting. Last month Tammy held her first solo exhibition and can't wait to do it again.

In this episode, Tammy chats about tattoos being a vegan conversation starter, as well as her dreams of holding an animal art exhibition and the importance of staying positive in a world filled with injustice.

https://www.instagram.com/tammyleightattoos/

Zac Bird is a global dance icon, vegan chef and cookbook author, even Jacinta Ardern loves our dear Zac, calling his first published cookbook a "real winner".

Describing himself as a little vegetarian activist growing up, Zac turned to cooking out of necessity after going vegan in his early 20s. He initially started an Instagram account to create a vegan network, but it didn't take long for people to start following his food journey.

In his early days, Zac took lots of vegan cooking jobs to build his skills and credibility within the industry. After writing his first e-book, Zach found an opportunity to create his first full length cookbook “Vegan Junk Food" and nailed it in just six weeks. PETA awarded his second cookbook “The Vegan Butcher” Best Vegan Cookbook in 2021. What's next you ask? Zac's third cookbook "The Vegan Baker" scheduled for release later this year.

In this episode, Zac shares his favourite Melbourne vegan eats, the secret to a good vegan pavlova and negotiating vegan dating.

https://www.instagram.com/zaccharybird/
https://www.facebook.com/zaccharybird/
https://www.tiktok.com/@zaccharybird
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-5Xlxfr3rmXO0Ik8uDqJ8Q
https://www.zaccharybird.com/

The Ultimate Vegan Pavlova
https://www.veganeasy.org/discover/christmas/ultimate-vegan-pavlova/

Sophie always wanted to bring together her love of music and passion for helping animals. Her dream came true two years ago, when she was asked to perform at the Sydney Animal Rights March.

Sophie and Kai have performed at both marches and recently started busking on the street. While the duo busk, passers-by stop, watch slaughterhouse footage on a laptop and are encouraged to learn more about the animal holocaust.

Starting her activism journey seven years ago, Sophie took a deep dive into all forms of activism; beginning with Cube of Truth, chalking, stickering, vigils and protests. Her long term plan was to get involved in direct action, rescues and investigation work.

Wanting to make her investigation work more personal and relatable, Sophie recently made the brave decision to start showing her face during actions. This has helped people connect with what they are seeing and her most recent video at a piggery has been seen by 180,000 people so far.

In this episode, Sophie discusses using your skills to help animals, inspirational women in her life and managing burnout.

https://www.instagram.com/thesophiemouse/

Alison Waters is Animal Justice Party's lead candidate for the Upper House in the upcoming New South Wales state election. With over 20 years experience as a social worker, Alison wants to bring about legislative change for animals and people this election.

Ally's passion for social justice stemmed from her early placement in programs supporting women in the domestic and family violence space. Having lived and worked in Lismore since 2001, Ally felt compelled by the recent catastrophic flooding her community experienced and wanted to take action as a candidate.

In this episode, Ally shares the changes she would work on when elected, her vow to live in a cage for a week to highlight the plight of battery hens and raising vegan children.

https://www.instagram.com/alisonwaters.ajp/
https://www.facebook.com/AJP.Waters
https://nsw.animaljusticeparty.org/alison_waters

Lasagne For Breakfast was born during COVID, when Italian couple Sarah and Gianluca wanted to create and share beautiful vegan food. Spreading their wings, the team began catering for weddings and organising fundraising events for their favourite animal charities.

Sarah and G moved to Australia ten years ago and met when they crossed paths at a restaurant. Being Italian, food is in their DNA so after going vegan, Sarah and G started experimenting to create cruelty free versions of their favourite dishes.

The couple enjoy eco friendly travel, documenting and sharing their adventures on their "Vegan Travel Diaries" account. Sarah and G recently held their first (of many) five day vegan culinary retreat in the Hunter Valley, featuring cooking classes, wine tasting, yoga, meditation and environmentally friendly activities.

In this episode, Sarah and Gianluca share their tips on making great vegan food and their top five holiday destinations around the globe.

https://www.instagram.com/lasagne_for_breakfast/
https://www.instagram.com/vegan.traveldiaries/
https://www.facebook.com/LasagneForBreakfast
https://www.facebook.com/VeganTravelDiaries
https://www.youtube.com/@VeganTravelDiaries

Recently elected as an Upper House Member for Northern Victoria, Georgie freely admits she never thought she'd run for Parliament, yet here she is.

Georgie's inaugural speech received a standing ovation, as she shared her journey becoming the second youngest woman to ever be elected to the Upper House in Victoria. She used the opportunity to highlight the injustices animal experience and her commitment to create a kinder world for animals over the next four years.

Hitting the ground running, Georgie and her team are calling on the government to put an end to duck shooting, greyhound racing, jumps racing and cruel farming practices such as gas chambers for pigs and maceration of day old chicks.

In this episode, Georgie chats about levers within Parliament to bring about change, dealing with online haters and creating a safer space for women in politics.

https://www.instagram.com/georgie.purcell.ajp/
https://www.facebook.com/georgie.purcell.ajp/
https://twitter.com/georgievpurcell

Eva turned her baking hobby into a business and prides herself on creating good vibes for customers and staff.

After going vegan six years ago, Eva began baking because she found limited food choices. What began as a hobby for friends and family, quickly turned into a business which has grown to now employ four staff supplying cafes and special events.

Eva initially tried a 2 week raw vegan challenge as a health reset. She felt a huge shift in her health and went vegan from there. It didn't take Eva long to research veganism, when she stumbled across documentaries that showed factory farming practices. This helped Eva to realise we all play a part in ending animal suffering.

In this episode, Eva chats about building a community, trying new things and creating a positive work environment.

https://www.instagram.com/evagreenbaking/
https://www.evagreen.com.au/

Paul is the Founder and CEO of Magic Valley, a company pioneering the cultivated meat market here in Australia. Being vegan, Paul's mission is to remove animals from the supply chain by creating meat products without animal slaughter.

Paul went vegan nine years ago, following almost 20 years of being vegetarian. He was encouraged by a well known activist to take action, which led him to take on a leadership role with Animal Justice Party QLD Branch as well as stand as Lead Senate candidate in the 2016 election.

Paul became frustrated with the effectiveness of activism and took a year off. During this time, he researched what he could do to have a bigger impact for animals and that's when Paul came across cultivated meat technology.

Magic Valley is one of only two companies cultivating meat products in Australia. In this episode, Paul shares the process behind cultivated meat, environmental outcomes and the ethical differences between Magic Valley and other producers.

https://magicvalley.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/magicvalley2020/

Bella is a vegan foodie, content creator and animal rights activist.

Bella and her partner Kais went vegan eight years ago. Following Kais' cancer treatment, they were on a journey for years to find a healthy lifestyle and stumbled across a plant based diet and decided to change overnight. It wasn't long before Bella came across Earthlings which shook her to her core, she went vegan, as she had never realised what she was supporting.

Bella dived straight into activism, protesting a circus held in Adelaide as well joining a group conducting outreach events. Spending time with animals is crucial for Bella, so she visits sanctuaries and loves spending time with her vegan dog Sally.

If you don't follow Bella on Instagram, you are missing out on her brilliant wit! Bella is passionate about creating content that shares the animal rights message and uses humour to get people thinking.

In this episode, Bella shares the importance of finding your community and the impact of activism.

https://www.instagram.com/bellas_vegan_adventures/
https://www.tiktok.com/@bellas_vegan_adventures
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCidvqgEaKMI_xnwuUjsuY6g

As the Director of Campaigns for Sea Shepherd Global, Peter has dedicated the last 20 years of his life to ending whaling and illegal fishing across the globe.

Two life changing events occurred for Peter at age fourteen - he saw a picture of a Minke whale being pulled up the slipway of a whaling ship in the Southern Ocean and met a girl at school who taught him about the plight of animals farmed for food.

Having a deep connection to whales, Peter submitted an application to join Sea Shepherd as soon as he was old enough. He began his career as an engineering assistant, playing his part in getting a ship ready for time at sea. He progressed to working on the deck, bridge and then with alot of time at sea and school, he was given command of the MY Bob Barker nine years ago.

Peter spent more than ten years chasing Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. As whaling in the Antarctic drew to a close, he was able to focus on a different poaching issue - poaching of the Patagonian toothfish. This mission led to the world's longest sea chase, spending 110 days following "Thunder" a poaching vessel wanted by Interpol on several international blacklists.

Over recent years, Peter has been working on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)fishing across Africa. The success of IUU is highlighted by 83 vessels being brought to justice across eight countries to date.

In this episode, Peter shares his experiences at sea, tips for sustainable activism and how you can help Sea Shepherd defend, conserve and protect our oceans.

https://www.seashepherd.org.au/
https://seashepherd.org/
https://www.instagram.com/seashepherdaustralia/
https://www.instagram.com/seashepherd/

TEDx Talk - Is Saving a Life Enough to Save the Ocean?
https://youtu.be/QA-NdWiREOo

At the beginning of 2022, Mon set herself a challenge of living as though she only had "A Year to Live".

By chance, Mon crossed paths with a woman Kerri who shared the tragic loss of her teenage daughter Lauren. Kerri shared that Lauren left a bucketlist for her family and friends and at the top of the list was a trip to Africa to see elephants in the wild. Mon knew she was going to make this dream a reality, so she worked her magic and in August this year, Mon and Kerri set out on a trip to Kenya.

During the trip, Mon visited the Masai Mara and met a local woman and trailblazer Hellen. Hellen founded an eco camp, nursery school and widow's village in her community.

Hellen started a movement "Don't trade girls for cows, give them an education" where she aims to bring about generational change by rescuing girls, giving them an education and brighter future. Now at capacity for the number of children Hellen can help, she has a dream to build 4 more classrooms and a cafeteria.

Hearing Hellen's story and the story of girls in Hellen's community, shook Mon to her core, she knew had to do something to help. Mon has launched "$30k in 30 days" a crowdfunding project to raise enough money for the first classroom to be built. This is phase one of the project, eventually Mon aims to raise the total project cost of $120,000 to complete the school.

Learn more about Hellen and the Tepesua Nursery School - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0VsHYIjwL8

DONATE to help build a classroom and educate children in Kenya https://gofund.me/e4b47c6c

Follow the project https://www.instagram.com/alwaysawayproject/

Follow Mon https://www.instagram.com/moniquemedved/

Nicole has been a freelance vegan, cruelty free hair and makeup artist for over 30 years, showcasing that no animal needs to suffer for human vanity.

At eight years old, Nicole decided she would be a hairdresser when she grew up. She worked part time in salons from age 14 and began her apprenticeship in year 11. Her passion for cruelty free beauty products was sparked when working in one of the first salons to use Aveda products which are cruelty free.

Nicole wanted to raise awareness about cruelty free product choices, so she started volunteering with Choose Cruelty Free (CCF) in a PR and marketing role. In 2019, Nicole became the President and then in 2021 when CCF and Cruelty Free International merged, Nicole was employed as the Australian Programmes Manager. She has witnessed a great shift towards cruelty free beauty products in the last ten years.

Having an interest in organic and natural living, Nicole also founded LivingSafe.com.au - a vegan health and safety blog. To keep busy during the pandemic, Nicole began sewing face masks and donating $5 from each sale to Animals Australia. She also co-created vegan gift packs for 800 COVID nurses at the Alfred Hospital. In the little spare time Nicole has, she enjoys fostering and caring for small animals.

In this episode, Nicole highlights the difference between vegan and cruelty free, animal testing protocols and some of the celebrities she has worked with.

https://www.instagram.com/nicolegroch_hairmakeup/
http://www.nicolegroch.com.au
http://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org

Mo has worked with organisations to enter many slaughterhouses and "lock on" causing disruption to their operation.

She began advocating for animals soon after going vegan twelve years ago. Mo knew she needed to drive change, so started by holding a sign on the side of the Bridge to Brisbane event.

In 2016, Mo's friend invited her to be part of Eggs Exposed, a "lock on" inside an egg hatchery and slaughterhouse for male chicks. Mo and the other activists chained themselves to the conveyor belt and managed to rescue 150 chicks.

Mo has since been involved in Ditch Dairy, Luvaduck and Dominion Anniversary (Carey brothers abattoir) actions. As a result of her involvement, Mo has received death threats and been raided by police.

In this episode, Mo shares her experience inside slaughterhouses and the importance of drawing public attention to the abhorrent cruelty inside these facilities.

https://www.facebook.com/MooMoo.orr

Eggs Exposed
Footage https://www.farmtransparency.org/campaigns.php?article=eggs-exposed
Lockon https://vimeo.com/176329555?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=14443181

Ditch Dairy
https://vimeo.com/animallibqld/ditchdairy

Carey Bros Slaughterhouse - Dominion National Day of Action
https://www.farmtransparency.org/campaigns/carey-bros-abattoir

Dean Maher is the first vegan in the world to summit the south face of Mt Everest with all vegan gear, clothing and food. After travelling South East Asia and never finding a favourite place, he wanted to experience the infamous Nepal for himself.

Dean first tackled Annapurna circuit and basecamp, the tenth highest mountain in the world and became hooked. After completing a gruelling eight month training plan, he set off on the challenge of a lifetime. Dean shares the mental and physical barriers he needed to overcome to stand on top of Mt Everest holding the vegan flag!

During a trip to Vietnam eight years ago, Dean saw dogs in a cage on the back of a motorbike and was horrified about their fate. Within five minutes, he saw another bike, with chickens in a cage. He recognised their suffering and knew they'd have the same fate. This experience got him thinking about his food choices.

In this episode, Dean shares upcoming challenges including a 100 mile race and ultra running from north to south Wales over six days. He also explains his passion for using fitness to fundraise as well as cleaning up the environment.

https://www.instagram.com/dean_maher/
https://icouldnevergovegan.co.uk/

Did I plan to stand as a candidate for the Animal Justice Party? No
Would I do it again? Hell yes!

In this episode, I share my experience running in the 2022 Victorian State Election - how it happened, what was involved, what I learnt and why I would recommend you do it too!

https://www.animaljusticeparty.org/
https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/

Are you disillusioned with politics? Not sure what difference voting makes?

Hear Andy Meddick share his insights into being the first Animal Justice Party (AJP) Member of Parliament in Victoria.

Over the four year term, Andy and his team have bought about big change for animals, people and the planet but it's not over yet! This is our chance to help Andy get re-elected as well as more AJP representatives in Parliament.

Andy unapologetically shares how he feels about his time as an MP, unfinished business and what he wishes he knew before being elected.

He also chats about hot topics such as duck shooting, Veticare - a universal healthcare system for animals and the difference between AJP and the Greens.

Want to help AJP this election?
https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/elections

Show Andy support
https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/andy_meddick_for_western_victoria_region

Cass is a personal trainer whose priority is to promote strong vegans. Cass is also a qualified vegan nutritionist and volunteer for Death Row Unchained (DRU) sanctuary.

Cass started training in the gym and within a few weeks, her trainer suggested she compete. Cass was initially hesitant but said yes to the challenge. She trained for 5 months and went on to win the Australian Title of IFBB Novice Figure Champion. This led Cass to gain her PT and nutrition certification.

Cass went vegetarian in her 20s after clicking on animal activism links on Pink's website. She went vegan not long after, however during her competition prep, Cass re-introduced eggs and then meat products. She openly discusses the loss of her ethical mind, until four years ago when she removed all animal products and went vegan for the animals.

Cass found DRU online and knew that she wanted to visit once they moved to Brisbane. Cass and her partner joined a sanctuary tour and fell in love with the animals. She then applied for a volunteer position and was asked to join the team who cares for the resident pigs. Cass recently launched vegan fitness merchandise with $5 from each item donated to DRU.

In this episode, Cass shares the importance of being transparent and finding a vegan community online.

https://www.instagram.com/veganlovebycass/
https://cassandrahaddadfitness.com/

Bailey is a young animal rights activist, known for disrupting a dolphin show at Dolphin Marine Conservation Park when he was 14 years old.

Bailey went vegan after watching YouTube videos which connected him to how meat, dairy and eggs are created. He was shocked and appalled that these companies were meant to be RSPCA approved and he instantly knew he no longer wanted to support them.

Bailey's love for marine life, and dolphins in particular was forged after watching the documentary "Black Fish". Bailey regularly protests dolphins being kept in captivity and is calling on the government to support retirement plans for dolphins currently kept in captivity.

Bailey works with a number of organisations that align with his values including PETA, World Animal Protection and Animal Justice Party. Recent PETA demonstrations include human meat trays in Pitt Street Mall, forced mouse swim tests in Bondi Pool and a greyhound protest at Wentworth Park.

Bailey is also involved in wildlife advocacy campaigns such a koala extinction, Drop Croc and the Nike Kangaroo Massacre. He is a Youth Ambassador for The Plant Based Treaty calling on politicians and councils to recognise the link between animal agriculture and climate change.

In this episode, Bailey shares the importance of political parties in bringing about change for animals, transitioning captive dolphins to sea sanctuaries and connecting with nature.

https://www.instagram.com/warriorforanimals/

Lisa started Love Eat Cake by Lisa eight years ago and it fast became the home of the decorated biscuit. Lisa transitioned the business to a vegan one after going vegan herself.

Lisa always loved cooking, she has fond memories of baking cakes from a Women's Weekly cookbook at seven years old. She later decided to quit her corporate job and dive into creating her own handmade speciality biscuit business.

Lisa went vegetarian 15 years ago. Lisa and her partner decided to go vegan after learning more about the animal agricultural industry. Her business was non vegan at the time, so Lisa set about transitioning the customers to vegan biscuits over a few years. Lisa experimented with many variations of her recipes and even created her own vegan butter to get the best vegan biscuit.

The business experienced great growth over the last three years, allowing Lisa to rent a commercial space. It is not uncommon for Lisa to be baking 8 trays of cookies at a time, pushing out orders of 500 cookies for her corporate clients. Lisa finds alot of joy in what she creates, with each biscuit a canvas for her creativity.

In this episode, Lisa shares her insights into scaling and supporting small business, as well as cooking for friends.

https://www.instagram.com/love.eat.cake.by_lisa/
https://www.facebook.com/LoveEatCakebylisa/
http://www.loveeatcakebylisa.com

Craig and his wife Sam started Five Vegans after recognising a great opportunity to source and sell vegan products online and at local vegan events.

The business name is inspired by them being a vegan family of five. One of Five Vegans core values is giving back, so they designed a mystery box where $10 per box is donated to a different animal charity each month. So far, they have donated over $2000 to charities.

Craig went vegetarian at age 30 after seeing an article in the newspaper and footage of sheep in the Middle East. Almost 10 years later, Craig watched a number of videos including What The Health and James Aspey's speech and he went vegan. Although Craig was motivated by the ethical side of veganism, he was also interested in the health benefits, as he suffered from an auto immune arthritis called Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Not long after going vegan, Craig met the Perth Anonymous for the Voiceless organiser and began participating in Cube of Truth events. He is regularly involved in animal rights activism events such as outreach and marches.

In this episode, Craig also shares their hopes to expand the business, as well as advice for vegan parents and businesses.

http://www.fivevegans.com.au
https://instagram.com/fivevegans
https://fb.com/fivevegans
https://www.tiktok.com/@fivevegans
https://pinterest.com.au/Fivevegans/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXtCQfFVpc1RgThDgj5kpWg

Liora booked a one way ticket to Bali in 2018 and ended up living in a dance based community that was predominantly vegan and sober. Prior to Bali, Liora had spent 10 years travelling and living overseas, having visited Portugal, Spain, Guatemala and Europe.

Liora grew up dancing, she participated in ballet and contemporary dance throughout her schooling During her time in Bali, Liora enjoyed a slow lifestyle which involved yoga, meditation and ecstatic dance. She describes this time as a heart opening experience, where she was supported to fully express herself. Since returning, Liora regularly participates in Melbourne's thriving dance community.

Liora was raised vegetarian, as her mum never cooked meat. A chance encounter with a member of Melbourne Chicken Save, sparked Liora's curiosity about the egg industry. She then watched Dominion which helped make the connection and veganism slowly spread into all areas of Liora's life.

Liora has supported Til The Cows Come Home (TTCCH) for a number of years. Her workplace offered the opportunity for staff to undertake voluntary work, so Liora reached out to TTCCH. She recently took on a HR role supporting the foster, adoption and administration team.

Liora also started an instagram page called "Is it kind" after coming up with the concept during her last trip to Bali. She is using the platform to explore how we communicate veganism in an authentic way.

In this episode, Liora shares her passion for movement, living a sober lifestyle and the importance of reaching out to organisations you support and offering to help.

https://www.instagram.com/liorakiki/
https://www.instagram.com/isitkind.co/

Nicole runs Lazy Bones Cat Rescue which traps, rehabilitates and rehomes colonies of cats and kittens found in Goulburn, Sydney and Canberra.

Nicole hadn't had much to do with cats prior to getting one for her daughter. It all snowballed from there, as the family began to realise there was a need to help homeless cat populations in their area. Their cat family eventually outgrew the house, so they built a new house.

Nicole was approached by Tracey and Mick from Peanuts Wellbeing Sanctuary to work together and Lazy Bones Cat Rescue was formed. There are currently 39 cats in care at Lazy Bones, many of which are not able to be re-homed due to their health, age or unsocialable behaviour.

Nicole, her husband and daughter went vegan in 2012 after seeing content on facebook she had previously tried to avoid. Nicole is also involved in local vegan events, gatherings, protests and helps at local sanctuaries.

In this episode, Nicole shares her favourite rescue story, the challenges of running a cat rescue and being vegan in a regional New South Wales.

https://www.facebook.com/LazyBonesCatRescue

Taylor embraces a minimal waste lifestyle and created his own clean up campaign called No Trace Left.

Taylor has always loved the outdoors, having grown up spending half the year camping in Byron Bay. He attended agricultural boarding school where learnt about industry practices. Eventually Taylor recognised what was happening to animals was not right and decided to go vegan.

Around the same time as going vegan, Taylor made friends with a Sea Shepherd volunteer and went to the Ocean Defence Tour. Taylor signed up as a volunteer and has helped at many festivals, ship tours and beach clean ups, even living on the Steve Erwin for four months while it was docked in Docklands. Being a Sea Shepherd volunteer led Taylor on many adventures and helped form many friendships.

Having grown up near the beach, Taylor started picking up rubbish when he was young. Sea Shepherd helped Taylor understand why cleaning up debris was important and as a result, he started his own campaign called No Trace Left. The campaign encourages people to clean up any place you are at, whether it be beach, bush or your own backyard. Taylor enjoys snorkelling, is learning to free dive and uses his time underwater as an opportunity to collect rubbish.

Taylor is passionate about living a minimal waste lifestyle as he understands how detrimental single use items are to the environment. He enjoys growing his own food, utilising a suburban backyard to create his own food.

In 2020, Taylor quit his job and moved to Eden, New South Wales, where he set up a canvas wall tent next to the river and lived off grid.

In this episode, Taylor shares tips on living a minimal waste lifestyle, interesting things he has found during clean ups as well as meeting his partner Amber on Vegan Singles of Melbourne.

https://www.instagram.com/no_traceleft/
https://www.instagram.com/tylrdphotography/
https://www.instagram.com/that4wdphotoguy/

Brinkley is a marine biologist, surfer, free diver and founder of Balu Blue Foundation.

Brinkley grew up in South Australia and began surfing when she was four. She would surf every day after school and was the only girl in school surfing competitions for many years. Brinkley was surrounded by animals throughout her childhood and learnt to care for them from a young age.

Brinkley became involved in wildlife caring after university, meeting fantastic people and learning from the wildlife rescue community. She soon raised her first rescue joey Bunji, who left a big imprint on Brinkley's heart. During this time, Brinkley also volunteered for a number of ocean conservation organisations and decided to create her own organisation that represents everything she is passionate about in conservation.

Brinkley founded Balu Blue Foundation five years ago, bringing together her passion for protection of both land-based and marine environments, as well as wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. The foundation started with beach and ocean clean ups, education and fundraising events. The priority project in progress is the development of a wildlife first response app, due for release at the end of this year.

Brinkley has also launched her own ethical and sustainable jewellery brand Bandicoot Jewellery which donates 10% of the profit to Balu Blue Foundation.

With years of marine tourism and free diving experience, Brinkley decided to create her own wildlife expeditions, allowing people to experience close encounters with marine and land based animals.

In this episode, Brinkley shares her animal rights journey, the upcoming release of her book about Bunji and being nominated two years in a row for Australian of the Year.

https://www.instagram.com/brinkleydavies/
https://www.instagram.com/balubluefoundation/
https://www.instagram.com/bandicoot_bybrinkley/
https://balubluefoundation.org/
https://bandicootaustralia.com/

To celebrate my five year vegan anniversary, I have decided to shave my head!

WHY you ask? It's for a good cause!

During the month of September I am calling on you to donate! I have a goal of raising $3000 to fund a ranger on the ground in Africa.

International Anti Poaching Foundation (IAPF) rangers are the first line of defence for Africa's wildlife.

IAPF was founded by former Australian Royal Navy Clearance Diver and Special Operations military sniper Damien Mander in 2009. The organisation has now grown to have 500 staff protecting 8 million acres, resulting in an 80% decrease in wildlife poaching and 399% increase in wildlife populations. IAPF's goal is to have 1000 staff protecting 20 million acres by 2026.

In this episode, I share the importance of knowing my purpose to help overcome my fears, as well as finding a way to help organisations from afar.

DONATE - http://www.akyndlife.com
https://www.iapf.org/

John Thomas, also known as The Bodybuilding Vegan, successfully competed in two bodybuilding shows and is working towards being the first vegan IFBB Pro in men's open bodybuilding.

John remembers going fishing with his father when he was four years old and realising you had to suffocate the fish, by pulling them out of the water, in order to eat them. He had a similar experience with burgers at age 10 which resulted in him going vegetarian. John went vegan 17 years ago after reading a PETA magazine unveiling the truth about factory farming.

John was involved in sports growing up, having wrestled during his freshman year of high school. He started lifting weights as part of his training and never went back to wrestling. John enjoys the physical and mindset challenge, but more than that, he loves the community he has created.

People in the gym approached John asking him to provide coaching services. He started an online coaching business three years ago and has trained over 100 clients. John is an entrepreneur, having started a fitness equipment company W8Train and athletic apparel company Athlicity.

John wanted to support his friend Brent's business One To Save Many (OTSM), which produces vegan apparel and provides 100% of the profits to animal charities. John found wearing OTSM tees in the gym was a great conversation starter about veganism and bodybuilding.

In this episode, John shares the mindset and preparation required for bodybuilding, as well as the importance of community and donating to animal initiatives.

https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingvegan/
https://thebodybuildingvegan.com/

In April 2019, over 200 activists converged on Excelsior Hog Farm in British Columbia, Canada as part of a Meat The Victims action.

Excelsior Hog Farm is known as one of the leaders in the industry, however nothing but cruelty and abuse was witnessed by over 50 activists inside the facility. Pigs were being kept in horrific conditions and were suffering from wounds, tumours, gashes and hernias.

Amy, Nick and Roy were 3 of the activists inside Excelsior Hog Farm during the action, with Amy holding the role of negotiator. Activists presence was peaceful, with the aim of gaining access for mainstream media to enter the facility. Their wish was granted and after a number of hours, the media were invited into the facility.

Amy was arrested and taken into custody. Nick and Roy were arrested and immediately released along with the other activists from inside the facility. Geoff, who protested from the street that day, was arrested months later.

The Excelsior 4 were charged with 21 combined indictable offences. By the time it went to trial, seven of the charges were dropped, including all of Geoff's charges. Roy was acquitted, however Amy and Nick were found guilty and are facing jail time. Nick and Amy are set for a sentencing hearing on 26th August 2022.

In this episode, the Excelsior 3 share the next steps of their case, insights from inside a pig farm and how we can support the Excelsior campaign.

https://www.instagram.com/amysoranno/
https://www.instagram.com/nick.s.schafer/
https://www.instagram.com/roysasano/
www.excelsior4.org
https://twitter.com/theexcelsior4?lang=en

Kelly works full time at Edgar's Mission, where she found the love of her life Kyle and gave herself the title of "sheep cuddler".

Kelly went vegan 13 years ago after giving birth to her daughter Isabelle. She wanted to raise Isabelle to love animals and knew she couldn't do that if she was eating them. At the time, Kelly was breastfeeding her daughter and couldn't imagine what mother cows experience in the dairy industry, so she set about cutting out animal products from her life.

Kelly's family also went vegan. Both Kelly and her mum started Freedom Hills, a sanctuary for farmed animals in Adelaide.

Kelly decided it was time for a change and applied for a position at Edgars Mission five years ago. Kelly's role at Edgar's Mission includes social media, merchandise management and tours. Not only did she find her perfect career, Kelly also met the love of her life Kyle at Edgars. The couple got married earlier this year and wanted to incorporate special places, so of course Edgars was on the list!

Kelly's passion for photography was sparked when the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses did a callout for photographers to document what occurs at racetracks, so she eagerly volunteered. She now takes incredible photos at Edgar's Mission to help people connect with the residents and change the way they view farmed animals.

In this episode, Kelly shares her special friendship with The Doctor (at Edgar's Mission) and the importance of being kind to ourselves.

https://www.instagram.com/kellydinhamphoto/
https://www.instagram.com/edgarsmission/
https://www.tiktok.com/@kellydinham

Rhiannon's entire life changed course after going vegan. Rhiannon studied Speech Communication, created an animal rights club at University, became involved in a mentor program at The Gentle Barn and more recently founded Higher Consciousness Events.

Rhiannon was raised on a heavy dairy based Slovak diet. She remembers always feeling scared of meat because she recognised it as an animal. Rhiannon went vegan after seeing a social media post exposing the hidden truths of the dairy and egg industries.

Rhiannon decided she could no longer study health sciences as it involved dissection and products tested on animals. She chose to study Speech communication so she could learn to be a better voice for animals. During her time at university, Rhiannon was encouraged to start an on-campus vegan club known as Students for Ethical Evolution. Through this process, Rhiannon learnt how to establish and manage a non profit organisation.

Rhiannon recently founded Higher Consciousness Events, which aims to raise consciousness one event at a time. Rhiannon organises events, bringing together vegans and non vegans to watch a documentary, enjoy vegan food and discuss animal rights, environmental issues and social injustice. She hopes to expand these events into schools and colleges.

Rhiannon began attending LA Animal Save events not long after going vegan. She was able to connect with animals, like minded people and met the Founder of The Gentle Barn, Ellie. Rhiannon began volunteering at the sanctuary, enrolled in one of their courses then continued being mentored by The Gentle Barn. Rhiannon is working towards having her own sanctuary in the future.

In this episode, Rhiannon also shares her self care rituals and the importance of continuous learning.

https://www.instagram.com/rhiannons_avatar/
https://www.instagram.com/higherconsciousnessevents/
https://higherconsciousnessevents.org/

Brent is an inventor and self confessed fitness junkie, consistently working on his #vegainz. He is based in Michigan and spends most of his time working or working out.

Brent has always had a passion for creating things, coming up with ideas and making something out of nothing. Brent started his career repairing appliances, installing antenna towers and satellite dishes, which eventually evolved into commercial low voltage installation work.

He started a business selling hard-to-find tools for special trades over 20 years ago and even has a few tool patents of his own. Brent prides himself on helping others in the industry and has become a mentor to other small business owners over the years.

Brent went vegetarian 13 years ago thanks to his business partner Deepak who educated Brent on being vegetarian. Brent hit a low point in his life about four years ago, he was miserable and tired all the time. He decided to ditch dairy and focus on becoming the best version of himself, including breaking the vegan stereotype in the gym.

Brent recently started One To Save Many, where he creates vegan merchandise and contributes 100% of the profits to animal sanctuaries.

https://www.instagram.com/burnitbrent/
https://www.instagram.com/onetosavemany/
https://onetosavemany.com/

Tayla, also known as Vegan Mama of Two, is a mother of two vegan warriors Riley and Lyla. Tayla sadly lost her late fiancé to a battle with leukaemia and used grief to fuel her fire to fight for animals.

Tayla always felt connected to animals, she loved them deeply. Tayla started avoiding meat when she was pregnant with Lyla and eagerly watched her friend and her friend's husband and children go vegan. Tayla watched several documentaries resulting in her transitioning to an entirely vegan lifestyle. Tayla has always been honest with her children about why they are vegan and as a result, Riley and Lyla are also amazing animal advocates.

Just after Lyla was born, Tayla’s fiancé Taylor was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a type of blood cancer. His cancer relapsed three times and he was given a 10% chance of survival following a bone marrow transplant. Sadly, Taylor passed away at age 30. Tayla felt a deep sense of loss and grief as she tried to recover from what her family had endured. Tayla found a sense of purpose in fighting for the animals when she herself was broken and suffering.

Tayla longed for a sense of companionship, so she joined an online dating platform. She was very upfront about being a vegan widow with 2 children. Tayla received a heartfelt message from Dan and he entered their lives, bringing a sense of love, loyalty and trust. On their first date, Tayla introduced Dan to Cowspiracy and Seaspiracy and it wasn’t long before he was cooking vegan meals for the family.

Tayla uses her social media platform to educate followers on the realities of the animal agriculture industry. She has been involved in Cube of Truth and attended her first lingerie protest recently, as well as chalking and volunteering for Animal Justice Party at election time. More often than not, Dan and the kids are involved in animal rights activism with Tayla.

In this episode, Tayla shares her recommendation of documentaries, encourages parents to have honest conversations with their children about food and speaks openly about the IVF journey they are currently undergoing.

https://www.instagram.com/veganmamaoftwo/

Austin Cram started a micro sanctuary called Tonie's Raynebow, following the sudden passing of his partner Tonie. The sanctuary is located in South Gippsland, Victoria and is home to 29 rescue animals.

Austin grew up in suburban Melbourne with cats as companion animals. Being raised with companion animals taught Austin many lessons about caring for animals as well as managing the health struggles of aging animals.

During year 12, Austin learnt of town planning and was intrigued by the integration of architecture, design and social sciences. Upon graduating high school, Austin enrolled to study town planning. He also met his partner Tonie at high school and began dating when they were in year 12. The couple made plans for their future, which included starting a sanctuary.

In 2018, Tonie unexpectedly passed away from an undiagnosed heart condition. Feeling lost, Austin drew on the strength of the couple's companion rats and a passion for rescuing animals. Austin purchased a 12 acre property in Gippsland and gained employment as a town planner locally.

Tonie's Raynebow is currently home to 17 roosters, 3 geese, 3 sheep, 3 cows, 2 goldfish and a dog Bella. The property is also home to Giant Gippsland Earthworm colonies, which are listed as a vulnerable species. Austin recently received funding to fence and revegetate the creek.

Austin always had an interest in politics, however he was unsure if his views would be accepted by the broader community. Soon he discovered the Animal Justice Party (AJP) aligned with his personal values and was encouraged to consider running as a candidate.

Austin has been endorsed as the AJP Lead Upper House Candidate for Eastern Victoria in the upcoming State Election. He also understands the importance of having young people represented in politics and has been elected Co-Chair of the Victorian Young Animal Justice Party branch.

Austin is an absolute powerhouse! If running his own micro sanctuary and being a candidate isn't enough, Austin still manages to find time to help other organisations such pig and dog rescue organisations.

In this episode, Austin shares the unique stories of sanctuary residents, as well as going vegan after completing Veganuary.

https://www.instagram.com/toniesraynebow/
https://www.instagram.com/austin.cram.ajp/

Kara has worked with children for over 9 years, having started in childcare when she left high school and is now involved in child protection.

In 2019, Kara saw the Dominion anniversary action on TV and was intrigued why they were protesting, so she watched Dominion. She could only get through the first ten minutes of the documentary, finding out about how animals are legally treated in Australia and knew she had been lied to.

Following Dominion, Kara continued to look into how her food was produced and decided to go vegan. Around a week later after making the switch to go vegan, Kara’s partner Bowen also decided to go vegan overnight after watching The Game Changers and realising we have no need to consume animals.

Kara wanted to visit animal sanctuaries so she booked an overnight stay at Peanuts Wellbeing Sanctuary. She instantly fell in love with the animals as well as the founders Tracey and Mick and their ethos. Soon after their stay, Kara and Bowen started volunteering, helping to build enclosures and fences, as well as cleaning and animal care.

Kara knew she had to do everything she could for the animals so she reached out to a member of Animal Rights Activism Sydney (ARAS) and organised to go to her first Cube of truth. Kara quickly grew in confidence and began speaking to members of the public about the systematic use of animals. She started attending protests such as Ban Live Export, horse racing, Nike’s kangaroo slaughter and Drop Croc, as well as advocating for animals online.

In this episode, Kara also shares her experience planning their upcoming vegan wedding at Owl and Pussycat sanctuary, Byron Bay.

https://www.instagram.com/karaaa_______/
https://www.facebook.com/kjeanann

Livai lives and breathes basketball, having played since he was ten years old. His parents encouraged him to play a number of sports growing up, but basketball always stuck.

Livai has played for a number of teams over the years and currently is a member of Melbourne Tigers (NBL1). Livai is equally passionate about sharing his skills and investing in youth participation, so he started a basketball coaching business with a friend in late 2019.

A new path developed for Livai during COVID19, when he was approached to model for an editorial and subsequently signed to a modeling agency in March 2020. He has been involved in a number of campaigns including Bonds, New Balance, Superdry and Birkenstock.

Livai took part in his first acting job when Bonds asked him to feature in an ad. As a result, Livai has found a love for acting and enrolled in Acting School earlier this year.

Livai felt inspired by his vegetarian and vegan friends to concentrate on improving his diet and lifestyle. He wanted to achieve optimal health and peak performance for his basketball career, so Livai started reading, watching and listening to vegan sportspeople and nutritionists. Livai met Shantael, his partner, who is vegan and decided this was the final piece to the puzzle, so he went vegan two years ago.

Livai and Shantael recently welcomed a baby boy Ryland, their rainbow child into the world, after losing their first baby Bobbi during pregnancy in 2020. The couple feel compelled to share this difficult and personal part of their journey in the hope that it shines a light on pregnancy and infant loss. Livai always wanted to be a father and is smitten to be able to watch Ryland grow.

In this episode, Livai also shares his plan to create a community of like minded people, by bringing them together with delicious vegan food and music.

https://www.instagram.com/vaivaivaivai/
https://www.facebook.com/livaijsmith
https://www.tiktok.com/@livaibes

Pam's admiration for animals developed at an early age when she helped rescue, rehabilitate and rehome cats and dogs.

Pam always dreamt of having a horse. She started by joining a local pony club, then soon got a horse and became a successful equestrian competing around Australia. Pam's relationship with horses led her to have a greater understanding of large animal behaviour.

Pam hung up her boots to champion the cause of animals. She became involved in campaigns calling for an end to animal testing, vivisection and fur. Pam went vegan over thirty years ago, after reading Peter Singer's book Animal Liberation.

Pam volunteered with Animals Australia on the Save Babe Campaign and needed a pig for a photoshoot. She organised a deal with a local pig farmer and drove home one day with Edgar Alan Pig on the front seat. Pam watched Edgar's life transform with kindness and founded Edgar's Mission.

Edgar's Mission provides sanctuary to over 450 farm animals and has grown into an advocacy organisation, with animals being their own ambassadors.

In this episode, Pam talks about the power of kindness and shares beautiful stories of the animals who find sanctuary at Edgar's Mission.

https://www.instagram.com/edgarsmission/
https://www.facebook.com/edgarsmission
https://www.tiktok.com/@edgarsmission
https://www.edgarsmission.org.au/

Leif, Founder of The Orangutan Project, has been working with orangutans for over 30 years.

Leif started his career in zoo keeping when the industry had less rules around interacting with animals. He recalls being able to sit and enjoy his lunch with orangutans, as well as playing with the baby orangutans while sitting with their mothers. Leif has been a key player in the development of conservation plans for orangutans, including the first ever successful reintroduction of Tamara, a zoo-born orangutan.

Leif saw a gap in orangutan conservation and created The Orangutan Project, alongside the International Elephant Project and the International Tiger Project. He is now affiliated with seven charities across the world and is a Technical Advisor to a number of foundations and companies affecting change on the ground.

Leif is the author of 3 books, sharing his journey with orangutans and his own personal journey. He runs eco tours with Orangutan Odysseys, allowing guests the opportunity to experience the rainforest and orangutans first hand.

Leif was raised a meat eater, but went vegetarian and subsequently vegan almost 20 years ago, after recognising the connection between all living beings.

In this episode, Leif gives listeners an insight into orangutan behaviour, why orangutans can only survive and thrive in the wild and what we can do to help conserve animals and the environment.

https://www.instagram.com/theorangutanproject/
https://www.facebook.com/theorangutanproject
https://www.orangutan.org.au/

Lauryn, also known as Vegan Yoga Momma, is married with 2 sons and transitioned her whole family to a vegan lifestyle two years ago. Lauryn is a Clinical Therapist, providing mental health therapy and counselling, as well as leads a grief and loss support group.

In 2019, Lauryn went vegetarian after watching The Game Changers and What The Health. A few things culminated in Lauryn's life, she went to Yoga teaching training and read Yoga and Veganism by Sharon Gannon. Lauryn started making the connection and in 2020, she watched Earthlings and Dominion and went vegan overnight.

Lauryn became certified in Plant Based Nutrition to ensure her children transitioned to veganism safely. She has given a few talks about plant based nutrition for mental health and wellness through her workplace. Lauryn enjoys recipe creation and has a food blog showing people how accessible and delicious vegan food is.

After going vegan, Lauryn went to a local pig rescue event to spend time with animals, which she found extremely healing. On the second visit, Lauryn met a woman who was starting a sanctuary locally and began visiting the sanctuary called TLC Inc. Lauryn and her family regularly visit, as well as help with group tours. She hopes to get involved in street activism and vigils in the future.

Lauryn is also passionate about yoga, having had emergency spinal surgery and suffered back pain for years, Lauryn was able to find relief in yoga. Yoga also helps Lauryn feels a sense of community and recognises it as an outlet for processing things in life.

In this episode, Lauryn shares the importance of speaking your truth, being a voice for animals and the planet, as well as creating healthy and aesthetically pleasing food for family.

https://www.instagram.com/veganyogamomma/
https://www.tiktok.com/@veganyogamomma
https://veganyogamomma.com/

Sarah is a chemical engineer by trade and worked in the corporate world for a few years, before deciding to work on something more morally and ethically aligned - Compassion Creamery.

Sarah founded Compassion Creamery after having many people ask her for a good vegan cheese recommendation and hearing people rave about their morning oat milk latte. Sarah has created the world's first oat creme cheese, made from 100% Australian grown oats. The ethos of the brand is compassion for animals, the world we share with all beings and self compassion.

Sarah has always loved that food brings people together and continues to challenge herself to be creative in the kitchen, finding more ways to use creme cheese, such as cheesecake, pastas, pizza and bagels.

Sarah went vegan seven years ago after suffering acid reflux. She researched causes of the condition and began to realise how inflammatory dairy is. Over a period of a few months, Sarah cut out animal products, becoming plant based. Sarah continued to immerse herself and watched Earthlings, at which point, she knew a vegan lifestyle was the right choice.

The brand is stocked by cafes, restaurants and catering companies in Sydney, as well as corporate entities such as Canva. Sarah's next mission is to scale up to the retail market. At the end of 2021, Compassion Creamery was recognised by Instagram as one of 25 upcoming entrepreneurs in Australia.

In this episode, Sarah shares her start up journey and advice for anyone looking to create a vegan business.

https://www.instagram.com/compassion.creamery/
https://compassioncreamery.com.au/

Chris, also known as The Vegan Sheepdog, grew up hunting and fishing and drank a gallon of milk a day throughout high school.

Chris' wife fell in love with a cow called Dudley, who she was following online. She began to feel like a hypocrite as she loved Dudley, but would feed other cows to their family at the dinner table, so she decided to give up meat. Chris was supportive of his wife's choice to go vegetarian, however he told her not to expect him to do the same.

Chris planned a surprise visit for his wife to meet Dudley, however he did not realise the impact their meeting would have. Chris felt such a strong connection with Dudley, he developed an emotional attachment and realised Dudley was much like a dog. Chris decided to also go vegetarian, as he couldn't bring himself to eat these beautiful sentient beings.

After going vegetarian, Chris and his wife became aware of the cruelty involved in meat, dairy and eggs as they watched documentaries and consumed social media content. They have been vegan for five years and during their journey, have taken their blended family of seven children to a local sanctuary to help them make the same connection.

Chris started his social media account The Vegan Sheepdog in the hope that other people would relate to his experiences of being a hunter and family man. Chris creates content to help people learn about veganism and animal rights in a way he would have loved to have seen when he was going vegan. He has just launched a podcast called How It All Vegan to share guests vegan journeys. Chris also enjoys participating in street outreach with Anonymous for the Voiceless and connecting rescue animals to local animal sanctuaries in his area.

In this episode, Chris shares the importance of teaching kids to be kind and compassionate and the power of sharing your vegan journey to inspire others.

https://www.instagram.com/thevegansheepdog/
https://www.facebook.com/thevegansheepdog
https://www.youtube.com/c/thevegansheepdog
How It All Vegan Podcast - https://howitallvegan.buzzsprout.com/

Olivia is PETA Asia's Senior Activist Liaison and Co-Founder of Dolphin Freedom Fighters.

Olivia went vegetarian at age thirteen but was closed off to learning about veganism until she knew she couldn't hold off any longer. Olivia knew she always wanted to be an animal activist, so after going vegan six years ago, she became involved in local activism opportunities.

Olivia went to an Animal Liberation Victoria workshop and learnt how to photograph and video animals. She heard an Investigator speak at the event and was inspired by their work. After working in the fashion industry for 10 years, Olivia realised it did not align with her values, so she left.

Olivia set her sights on a career in animal advocacy and started an Internship with PETA Asia. She spent a few months in the Philippines conducting investigation work, animal care, research and outreach. Olivia now manages campaigns that highlight animal exploitation in the entertainment, experimentation, food and clothing industries.

Olivia co-founded Dolphin Freedom Fighters a grass roots organisation calling on Sea World to end their breeding program immediately. The group conducts monthly protests in collaboration with other animal rights organisations and also aims to educate the public about the cruelty behind captivity.

In this episode, Olivia shares her inspiration for starting Dolphin Freedom Fighters, tips for cruelty free travel and planning activism events that gain media attention.

https://www.instagram.com/petaasia/
https://www.facebook.com/PETAAsiaPacific
https://www.instagram.com/dolphinfreedomfighters/
https://www.facebook.com/dolphinfreedomfighters/
https://www.instagram.com/oliviaamycharlton/
https://www.facebook.com/olivia.charlton.3954
Sea World Kills disruption - https://www.instagram.com/p/CaUFwTIpnSM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Lara is the Co-Founder of VEats and is extremely passionate about her life, the business she is building, raising children and self development.

Five years ago, Lara was busy running multiple businesses and wasn’t taking care of her health. She decided to watch the documentary “What the Health” and it changed her life. The documentary challenged Lara’s food habits in a way she could no longer ignore and at the end of watching the film, she went plantbased on the spot!

Lara was not only dedicated to learning a new way to cook and eat, but she also chose to educate herself about why she was doing it. Lara wanted to show people how easy making and finding vegan food could be in the hopes it would encourage them to try it.

Lara’s passion project developed over a few years and VEats was launched in January 2022. VEats is Australia's first exclusively plant-based food destination platform which helps users find restaurants with vegan meal options in their local area. Lara and her business partner strive to make plantbased food more accessible.

VEats has gone from strength to strength and now employs ten staff who share a passion for creating a more sustainable world. The team are creating an app which will launch later this year and will expand to other cities across Australia, followed by international destinations.

In this episode, Lara shares her insights on taking an idea and growing it into a business, finding balance in life and using food as a tool to generate interest in veganism.

https://www.veats.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/veats_australia/
https://www.facebook.com/VEatsAustralia

Dan was born in North Shore, Sydney and was very sick for the first year of his life. He grew up in a fractured household and moved around a lot as a child, teaching Dan to be extremely self reliant. Dan had kids early in life, however he and his wife separated a few years ago.

Dan met his now fiancé Tayla a little over a year ago after matching with her on a dating app. They went on their first date and Tayla suggested watching movies; she chose Seaspiracy and Cowspiracy! Dan found the footage disturbing and for the first time, he got an understanding of where his food came from.

On their next date, Tayla asked Dan how he would feel about going vegan and Dan’s response was yeah sure! For a few months after going vegan, Dan didn’t really connect or understand his why, however this has changed over the last six months.

Dan has grown in confidence when speaking about the injustice experienced by animals and has recently started animal rights activism. Over the Easter long weekend, Dan, Tayla and their two children participated in a Fish Save event at Sydney Fish Markets, leafleting and a lingerie protest. Dan is excited to try all forms of activism to determine where he can make the most impact.

In this episode, Dan talks about the stigma of veganism and masculinity, creating meaningful friendships and challenging conversations with colleagues and family members.

https://www.instagram.com/that_vegan_cowboy/

In this episode, I share my animal rights activism journey in the hopes it inspires you to get active for the animals.

After going vegan I joined a facebook group called Vegans of Geelong. It's a good resource for finding local vegan restaurants and foods, but more importantly upcoming events. I first came across Victorian Lamb Rescue on this platform when they were selling vegan pies as a fundraiser.

Not long after going to the sanctuary, I saw the middle east live export expose and was called to find a way to help. I contacted Victorian Lamb Rescue and asked if they needed any volunteers and lucky for me, they said yes! For four years now, I have been a regular volunteer at the sanctuary, as well as helping with animal transport and fundraising initiatives.

I came across an Anonymous for the Voiceless Cube of Truth event advertised in the facebook group and decided to go along and see what it was about. I attended their next event, holding a screen showing slaughterhouse footage and felt a strong sense of pride and solidarity. I quickly took to outreach, loving interactions with the public and within six months became an Organiser of the Geelong Chapter.

I then decided to join the Animal Justice Party (AJP) to financially support the amazing work Andy Meddick was doing after being elected. During COVID19, I had a little more time on my hands and decided to join an online meeting for my regional group. They had a number of positions vacant, so I put my hand up to help with social media. After doing social media for the region for just under a year, I was nominated to be the Regional Group Leader for Western Victoria which is quite an honour.

In this episode, I call on vegans to get active for the animals as well as discuss the diversity of organisations and ways to get involved. I also answer commonly asked questions about Cube of Truth events and the importance of having elected representatives in Parliament to bring about change for animals.

https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.facebook.com/elisha.atchison
https://www.instagram.com/viclambrescue/
https://www.instagram.com/anonymousforthevoiceless/
https://www.instagram.com/animaljusticepartyvic/
https://www.instagram.com/ajpvicwesternvictoria/

Bronwyn moved around alot as a child as her father was an army officer, so they lived across Australia and overseas. Moving often gave Bron the opportunity to become resilient and self reliant, with animals being her constant companions. Having seen some of the horrible things that go on in the world, Bron became aware from a young age that there are animals and people in the world who need our help.

Bron witnessed her father and brother hunting and as a result, she was vegetarian for most of her life. Five years ago, one of Bron's children went vegan and encouraged the whole family to follow their footsteps. The family agreed to research veganism themselves and at that point Bron began cooking deconstructed dinners, so family members could take what they wanted for their meal. It didn't take long before they realised no-one was eating meat, so everyone decided to go vegan.

A year later, Bron went to a Melbourne Cow Save event to bear witness to cows being transported to their slaughter. She still gets emotional to this day, recalling the helplessness she felt as truck after truck went by and she couldn't save the individuals on board. Bron quickly got involved in all of the Save events such as rallies and vigils and became an organiser for Melbourne Goat Save and Melbourne Fish Save.

Bron saw an information session advertised for her local Animal Justice Party (AJP) group, so she went along and walked out of the meeting a candidate in the next election! Bron has always been interested in politics, seeing the regulatory system as a way to bring about change for animals. Bron is currently running as a Lead Senate candidate in the upcoming 2022 Federal election.

Bron has always been heavily involved in her local community, both in her children's school associations as well as currently being the President of her local community centre. Always a feminist, Bron felt called to be involved in the Women's March for Justice organisation, having organised both Melbourne events the last two years. Bron was also recently awarded Kingston Woman of the Year, acknowledging her service in the local community, as well as animal advocacy and women's rights.

In this episode, Bron discusses the changes she wants to see when elected to Federal Government, challenging the patriarchal system and taking action when you see injustice in the world.

https://www.instagram.com/bronwyncurrie1/
https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/bronwyn_currie_for_senate
Volunteer for AJP at the Federal Election - https://vic.animaljusticeparty.org/election_vollie
How voting works https://youtu.be/y_9hArsJrAg

Tony is the Co-Founder of vegan clothing and footwear brand Noskin, podcast host of "Producing with Purpose" as well as a coach working with purpose driven businesses.

Tony went vegetarian at twelve years old because he loved animals. Six years later, when he made the cognitive association between animal products such as eggs and dairy and animal suffering, he went vegan. During this period, he also played in a punk band which had close ties to social and vegan movements.

Tony became involved in animal rights activism during the first few years of being vegan and gained employment at PETA, which started his marketing journey.

He had also developed a passion for fashion and started working on his own fashion brand. Tony quickly met two people with a similar aspiration and they co-founded Noskin in 2020. The fashion label is focussed on ethically sourced and sustainably made items.

Tony set himself a goal of speaking to one person a week who had established an ethical business. He decided to make it into a podcast to share the value of the conversations with others, as well as creating great networking opportunities. Alongside Producing with Purpose, Tony also creates a video series called "Coffee with a Creative" to showcase local musicians, artists and creative entrepreneurs.

In this episode, Tony shares his advice on what it takes to start a vegan business, finding work-life balance and the importance of building culture and community.

https://www.instagram.com/noskin.co/
https://www.instagram.com/producingwithpurpose/
http://www.noskin.co
http://www.producingwithpurpose.com.au

Richard Oglesby, known as Trikky Oges to his friends, spent most of his life working in industries that exploited animals, until he started a job at Edgar's Mission, which changed his whole life.

Trikky began his career in shearing sheds across outback Australia when he was 20 years old. He was a zoo keeper at Adelaide Zoo for seven years and recalls the boredom animals in captivity experienced. Trikky then became a groom at a top cattle stud in Victoria and later a contractor at equestrian centres.

Trikky met Pam Ahern, Founder of Edgar's Mission, at a local farmers Markets and was invited to join the Edgar's team in May 2015. Trikky recalls arriving at Edgar's Mission and feeling an overwhelming sense of joy when he was met by Saturday, a special needs Suffolk sheep in a cart. He met all the beautiful residents and recognised their strong will to live. He began to reflect on his food choices and as a result, Trikky went vegetarian at age 68.

Trikky's 2018 new years resolution was to go vegan, which he accomplished with the encouragement and support of the Edgar's crew, who supplied him with recipes and meals. Trikky is a testament to it being "never too late to change".

Trikky attended a Save Movement rally where Pam was the guest speaker. He then came across an Anonymous for the Voiceless Cube of Truth in Southbank and realised being active for the animals was the next necessary step in his journey. He attended the next Cube event and has been a regular member ever since.

In this episode, Trikky shares the importance of learning from each other, going outside your comfort zone for the animals and being a proud example of diversity within the vegan movement.

https://www.instagram.com/trikkyoges/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100031136912915

Liz Douglas grew up in regional Victoria, but now enjoys the Melbourne vegan lifestyle with her husband Steve and cat Sooki.

Liz describes herself as a vegan foodie, having created "Vegan Diaries" on social media after going vegan three years ago. Liz created her platform to connect with like minded people and prove that she could be vegan and still enjoy amazing food.

Liz describes herself as a confident cook who loves cooking easy, humble, hearty and nutritious meals. Not only does Liz create the recipes, she also provides practical, step by step instructions on how to create each dish.

Liz began her podcast also titled "Vegan Diaries" during Covid, having found inspiration from years of listening to podcasts. She wanted to create a platform to showcase people's stories and diversity within the vegan community.

Last November, Liz was asked to be a Vegan Easy Ambassador which she thoroughly enjoyed. Liz is involved in a number of collaborative projects with nutritionists and chefs.

In this episode, Liz shares her experience of going vegan, feelings of imposter syndrome, favourite dish and plans for her podcast in the future.

https://www.instagram.com/vegandiaries___/
Tofu Katsu Curry Recipe - https://cupfulofkale.com/vegan-tofu-katsu-curry/

Luke is married to Aimee and they have a two year old son Wolfgang. He is the Founder of The Vegan Alliance, straightedge and an advocate for men's mental health.

Luke went vegan over 25 years ago, when he was only 17. He has always loved punk and hardcore bands which introduced him to straightedge culture. After listening to Earth Crisis who sing about animal liberation, Luke started learning veganism and adopted a straightedge lifestyle.

Luke created The Vegan Alliance six years ago, as he wanted to share more 'in your face' animal rights content. Soon after, he launched a merch brand, with the income being donated to animal sanctuaries. The money raised was then later used to fund their own rescue cows Kevin and Derek.

Luke and Aimee rescued Kevin after meeting a hobby farmer who didn't want to send his Brahman steer Kevin to slaughter. Not long after that, they found Kevin's now best mate Derek, a bobby calf who they also saved from slaughter.

Luke has always had a passion for music and played in a bunch of punk rock bands since high school, even becoming a Tour Manager of a friend's band Parkway Drive.

Luke is very open about struggles with his mental health and as a result, is a strong advocate for men's mental health.

In this episode, Luke also chats about breaking down the masculine and vegan stereotypes, his tattoos and visiting vegan restaurants across the world.

https://www.instagram.com/weberxvx/

Edel Sanders grew up in America, but later moved to Prague while completing her doctoral degree. She is the Dean of Psychology, at the University of New York and has enjoyed the history, culture, people and food in Prague for over ten years.

Edel had a number of health problems during her teenage years and when she moved to New York, she saw a nutritionist. On his advice, Edel gave up dairy and then removed all animal products shortly afterward. After becoming vegan, her health improved dramatically. She has remained vegan, while maintaining excellent health for over 25 years.

Edel became a psychologist to relieve suffering and focuses on researching multiple species' cognitive abilities and emotional lives. She shares her findings with university colleagues, which often results in a shift towards a plant-based lifestyle as they find it hard to dispute the cognitive ability and evident consciousness of non-human animals.

Edel recently conducted a TedxTalk titled "Does size really matter? When it comes to brains" in which she speaks about evolution and challenges the idea of the superiority of beings based on brain size.

Edel was a co-founder of a farm sanctuary called Farma Naděje "Farm of Hope" in Czechia. She surrounds herself with an amazing activist community and is involved in social media advocacy while being an organiser for Anonymous for the Voiceless.

In this episode, Edel shares her knowledge about animals' cognitive ability, making a difference in your daily life and taking care of yourself to get the best outcome for animals

https://www.instagram.com/edelsanders/
TedX Talk "Does size really matter? When it comes to brains" - https://youtu.be/1j26dVyj5Bs

Alex Sarandis grew up in a tightknit Greek family, in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

Alex ate a relatively omnivorous diet throughout her teenage years, however she remembers disliking the taste and texture of meat from a young age. In her mid twenties, Alex questioned why she was forcing herself to eat meat and from that point, she started removing animal products from her diet. Shortly after, Alex and her brother Jonathan watched Gary Yourofsky videos and made the decision to go vegan.

Alex has worked in the hospitality industry since she was 16, working in cafes after school and during her university study. She studied a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Professional Writing and Literature and then conducted post graduate study in Early Childhood Teaching. After finishing her studies, Alex worked as a Kindergarten teacher for a few years.

Alex was not satisfied with her chosen career path and after quitting her job, she fell back into hospitality. Having realised she was truly happy in the industry, Alex proposed the idea of opening their own vegan cafe to her partner Matt and brother Jonathan. The idea for Sable was spoken into existence over the following months, sharing ideas, concepts and research.

Sable, a New York inspired vegan cafe opened in March 2020 and has gone from strength to strength, despite opening within a few weeks of a global pandemic. Sable is spreading it's wings, with a larger, second location opening in Thornbury in April 2022. Alex, Jonathan and Matt hope to be able to build the business enough to give back to animals and their vegan community.

In this episode, Alex shares advice for starting your very own vegan business, ignoring the negative self talk and pivoting during COVID19.

https://www.instagram.com/alexandrasarandis/
https://www.instagram.com/sable_org/
https://sable.org.au/

Yasmine is a vegan chiropractor, living in Adelaide with her partner and 5 fur babies.

From a young age, Yasmine remembers her family being treated by a chiropractor and being impressed by their ability to help everyone. She was adamant that she would study to be a Chiropractor when she grew up. After studying for 5 years in Melbourne and graduating as a Doctor (Chiropractic), Yasmine not only treats her clients ailments, but she also provides information about the benefits of a vegan/plant based lifestyle for their health and longevity.

Growing up, Yasmine recognised that loving animals means you don't eat them, however it wasn't until final year of university study, that she began cutting out animal products. Once Yasmine learnt more about the ethical issues associated with animal agriculture, she committed to going vegan and has been vegan now for over five years.

Yasmine openly shares her struggles with chronic health disease, having been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Endometriosis last year. At times Yasmine feels as though she is at the mercy of her underlying health conditions, however she finds strength in educating herself and sharing knowledge with others.

Yasmine got involved in pageants, having competed in Miss World Australia, making it to the National Finals at age 19. More recently, Yasmine competed in Miss Earth Australia and used the opportunity to discuss veganism on stage.

In this episode, Yasmine provides advice for people interested in going vegan, her learnings about endometriosis and the development of a fitness and nutrition plan to help clients reduce inflammation and injury.

https://www.instagram.com/earthyyasmine/

In this episode, I speak to Michelle the Co-Founder of Happily Heifer After, a sanctuary on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Michelle is Canadian and moved to Australia at age 19. She was a scuba diver instructor for seven years, having a passion for ocean life and the environment. Michelle then studied to be a vet nurse, but it wasn't long after working at a vet clinic, she realised it wasn't for her.

Michelle found her passion when she started Happily Heifer After sanctuary in 2019 and admits its been a wild ride ever since. She started building relationships with the local dairies and rescued 2-3 bobby calves at a time, rearing them for 12 weeks and then finding them loving homes. The sanctuary quickly grew when they were featured on channel 9 and ABC news, as they were contacted by local dairy goat farms and egg producers.

The sanctuary has rescued over 500 animals to date and is home to 70 animal residents. Last year, they started an animal assisted therapy program by working with NDIS to support people with mental health conditions and physical and intellectual disabilities. Michelle and the team take great pride in sharing the stories of their animal residents with volunteers and visitors to the sanctuary, as a result some go vegan.

In this episode, Michelle shares her strategies for compassion fatigue, advice for adopting farm animals and the average day in sanctuary life.

https://www.instagram.com/happilyheiferafter/
https://www.facebook.com/happilyheiferafter/
https://www.happilyheiferafter.org/

Alix grew up with a family connection to the animal agricultural industry. At a young age, she witnessed the abuse of animals within these industries and knew it didn't sit well with her.

At age 16, Alix took an Animals Australia pledge and went vegetarian initially for 30 days, but then continued on. It wasn't until a few years later, that Alix went vegan after a friend suggested if she wanted to be vegan, she would go vegan. Yes, it was that simple!

Alix became involved in activism shortly after going vegan, attending vigils and protests. Alix and her friend Sarah, founded Melbourne Fish Save and organised demonstrations for the Save movement.

Alix learnt about Farm Transparency Project (FTP) making Dominion and wanted to help. She took up volunteering with FTP and conducting investigation work in factory farms and slaughterhouses. After a few years, Alix was lucky enough to begin a paid activism career, when she became the FTP Campaign Director.

Last year, Alix co-founded Kindness Project which aims to dismantle the animal industrial complex by advocating for all those affected by it including humans, animals and the planet. Alix is the Campaign Director, with her first campaign Drop Croc sparking a worldwide movement of people protesting outside Hermes stores, speaking up about the exploitation of crocodiles for their luxury handbags.

Alix is running as an Animal Justice Party (AJP) candidate in the upcoming federal election for the seat of Isaacs. She is excited to represent the animals while supporting the growth of AJP. Alix will be campaigning for alternative food systems, addressing the climate crisis and banning live export.

In this episode, Alix shares lessons learnt in the development of animal rights campaigns, advice for activists and managing relationships with non vegan family members.

https://www.instagram.com/kindnessprojectorg/
https://www.facebook.com/kindnessprojectorg
https://www.kindnessproject.org.au/

Damien grew up on the east coast of Australia, spending most of his life between Melbourne and Sydney. Some would say he lived in the ocean, enjoying free diving and scuba diving. Damien had the opportunity of turning his passion into a career with the Australian Navy, when he became a Naval Clearance Diver. He later served with the Special Operations unit of the Australian Army, an elite brotherhood that thrived on having a mission and purpose.

After nine years in the military, Damien knew it was time to move on after experiencing burnout. He travelled along the coast of South America for 11 months feeling lost and hit rock bottom, which was a turning point. Having heard about the conservation effort in Africa, Damien decided to go on a six month African adventure through the southern part of the continent.

Damien went to Africa looking for a fight, but he never expected to witness the struggles and challenges rangers faced on the ground. It made him reflect on the reasons for being in Africa and inspired him to do something different with his life.

Damien founded the International Anti Poaching Foundation in 2009. At the time, the conversation effort in Africa had become highly militarised, which Damien recognised was not a sustainable strategy within the local indigenous community. Damien utilised one of his greatest strengths, his ability to evolve and created Akashinga, an all female, plant based, anti poaching unit.

Akashinga began with just 16 women protecting 90,000 acres of reserves in Zimbabwe. The program has been such a success for conservation and community development, that it has now been scaled to over 300 staff protecting 8 reserves and 1.3 million acres across three countries. National Geographic recently produced a short documentary called "Akashinga: The Brave Ones" which celebrates the impact the program is having for communities, wildlife and the environment.

Damien not only raises awareness about his organisation and the plight of African wildlife, but also the link between veganism and conservation. He is a Director of Conservation Guardians and Speaker for National Geographic Live Bureau.

In this episode, Damien also shares an insight into the dynamic role of rangers, his path to veganism and advice for people trying to make a difference for animals.

https://www.iapf.org/
https://www.instagram.com/int.anti.poaching.foundation/
https://www.facebook.com/iapf.org/

Akashinga: The Braves Ones (Documentary)
https://www.iapf.org/the-film

TEDx Talks
Modern Warrior - https://youtu.be/9FCsyK4aRXQ
From Sniper to Rhino Conservationist - https://youtu.be/PXBjQ7bc6PY

Sixty Minutes
Damien's War - https://youtu.be/e74kwO8HRRQ
The Brave Ones - https://youtu.be/xl7EXoU2xgo

Alex Buck is an ironman athlete, lead singer in a punk rock band, addiction recovery coach and a passionate animal rights activist.

Alex grew up in California, just outside of Los Angeles. Much of Alex's childhood was filled with auditions and photoshoots, kickstarted by his first acting job at 10 months old.

Music became a focal point during his late teenage years, exposing Alex to the straightedge and vegan lifestyle. Alex developed negative lifestyle habits as a result of his involvement in music and by aged 20, Alex's drinking was out of control.

Everything started to change when Bodhi, Alex's dog, came into his life. Alex saw a movie called Okja and instantly related to the connection shown in the movie between the girl and pig. Alex decided to go vegetarian that night and worked his way towards veganism.

Following a three day bender on his 27th birthday, Alex realised he needed to change and embarked on a journey to sobriety. Alex focussed on a wholefood plant based diet and fitness regime to detox and refuel his body. He began to hold himself accountable and decided to consistently make choices based on kindness. Two years ago, Alex began mentoring at local addiction recovery facilities to help others fight their drug and alcohol dependencies.

Alex has fallen in love with endurance sports, having recently completed an ironman and Spartan event. He regularly attends vigils. protests, outreach events and disruptions and has a strong desire to not only live in alignment with his morals but also to serve.

In this episode, Alex shares the importance of seeking adventure by saying yes to opportunities as they present themselves, practicing gratitude and consistently showing up for yourself even during the difficult times.

https://www.instagram.com/alexanderbvck/

Tui is a CrossFit athlete, online fitness coach and vegan of six years. She never felt at home in Finland and dreamt of living in a tropical paradise, so five years ago she moved to Bali.

During her university study, Tui found herself scrolling through Facebook and came across a video of slaughterhouse footage. She was shocked and knew she needed to learn more, so she began watching documentaries. Tui knew that her actions were not aligning with her values and she no longer wanted to support the animal agricultural system, so she went vegan.

Tui was heavily involved in fitness and was worried about her losing her 'gains' after going vegan. It didn't take long for Tui to notice positive changes in her performance, energy levels and physique. Tui competed in her first CrossFit competition almost three years ago.

Tui used to hide her vegan lifestyle, but has more recently recognised the importance of raising awareness about animal abuse. Tui sponsors two pigs at Sehati Animal Sanctuary and has been involved in local campaigns to fundraise for the sanctuary. She recently launched her very own merchandise range, with 25% of the profits supporting animal charities.

In the episode, Tui shares the importance of finding solutions and balance in the vegan lifestyle, as well as her hopes of opening Bali's first animal sanctuary in the future.

https://www.instagram.com/thevegancrossfitgirl/
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheVeganCrossfitGirl
https://www.thevegancrossfitgirl.com/

Izzy is the Founder of Animals First on the Second, as well as a personal trainer, nutritional coach and animal activist.

Izzy's vegan journey began almost eight years ago when he was bed ridden following a range of injuries and minor surgeries, leaving him with a physical disability. Izzy wanted to rehabilitate himself and find a way out of his poor health, so he started conducting his own research. He came across a range of documentaries and ended up spending a whole weekend watching documentaries such as Vegucated, What The Health and Earthlings. Izzy watched Gary Yourofsky's speech three times and went vegan overnight.

Izzy wanted to help people improve their health through adopting the vegan lifestyle, so he gained qualifications in personal training and nutrition. Izzy was the Nutrition Counsellor at a vegan medical clinic in Brooklyn and has since opened his own small private training studio and online coaching business.

Not long after going vegan, Izzy and 2 others founded Vegans of New York with the aim of uniting the vegan and activist community in their local area. Izzy then went on to create Animals First on the Second (AFOTS), a global campaign where activists fast on the second of every month to raise awareness about how animals are treated in the agricultural industry.

In this episode, Izzy's shares his hopes for the future of AFOTS, his passion for vegan education, as well as creating and producing rap music with an animal rights message.

https://www.instagram.com/fastagainstslaughter/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/138314033456715/
https://www.fastagainstslaughter.org/
https://www.instagram.com/izzyjacobus/
https://youtu.be/eYxOtBa5rHc

Ayanthi De Silva is a psychologist and animal rights activist based in New South Wales.

Ayanthi believes there were many seeds planted over the years that eventually resulted in her going vegan. She remembers doing a school assignment in year nine about animal cruelty and going vegetarian after viewing a report on Australian cattle being exported to Egypt.

During her psychology degree, Ayanthi wrote an essay on animal liberation and then started attending Animal Liberation NSW meetings. In 2018, Ayanthi attended a Dominion screening in Sydney and committed to a 30 day vegan mentor program. Ayanthi committed to being an animal rights activist very quickly after going vegan, as she recognised the importance of doing more than just eating vegan food.

Ayanthi has been involved in all forms of activism over the last three years including protests, street outreach, stickering, chalking and social media content creation. She recently delivered a webinar for Young Animal Justice Party NSW on mental health for activists.

In this episode, Ayanthi shares how she steps outside her comfort zone when conducting street outreach, the importance of mental health awareness for activists and vystopia.

https://www.instagram.com/ayanthiii/

Jess Bailey is the founder of the Vegan Grocery Store (previously known as the Cruelty Free Shop). Jess created the business over 20 years ago, not long after going vegan, because she realised she couldn't find the types of foods she wanted to eat.

The store started as more of a hobby, with Jess storing products in a cupboard at home. After seven years, the business had taken over her house, so she opened her first shop in Glebe (Sydney). The business has a strong focus on educating people about veganism, creating a community and helping animal charities.

Jess has a strong connection to Animal Liberation NSW, having gone vegan after reading flyers handed out by the group at a festival. Jess has volunteered for the group for nearly 30 years, having organised protests and liberation events. Jess also organised the "Cruelty Free Festival" in Sydney over a 15 year period and many Vegan Day Out events over the years.

In this episode, Jess reflects on the growth of veganism over the last 20 years and provides advice to anyone wanting to start a vegan business.

https://www.instagram.com/vegangrocerystoreau/
https://www.instagram.com/crueltyfreejess/
https://www.instagram.com/coralescristina/
http://www.vegangrocerystore.com.au

Catriona Marshall is studying film and photography at university and is an animal rights activist.

At fifteen years old, Catriona watched Earthlings and was upset that she hadn't been aware of what happens to animals before watching. After this, she began reading articles and watching videos to learn more about the animal agricultural industry and became vegan.

Catriona's interest in photography began in year 9. It wasn't long before she became known for always taking her camera to family and social events. As part of her study, Catriona made a short documentary exploring animal rights activism in Melbourne. She interviewed activists across a range of events including street activism, vigils and chalking.

Catriona began activism earlier this year following the production of her documentary. Catriona is also extremely passionate about climate change and regularly attends protests to hold people accountable.

In this episode, Catriona talks about being vegan during her adolescence, finding herself and becoming unapologetically outspoken for animals.

https://www.instagram.com/compassionatecatriona/

Meg Watkins has lived in Geelong and the Surf Coast her entire life. Meg has a hospitality background, deep passion for travel and enjoys yoga, surfing and cooking.

Meg wanted to go vegetarian as a child when she learnt that food contained animals, however her parents wouldn't allow her at such a young age. Meg managed to convince her parents to go vegetarian at age 14. In 2018, Meg went to see the screening of Dominion and has been vegan ever since.

Meg explored the world in her late teens and early 20s, going on a solo trip after high school which became a journey of self discovery. Meg became addicted to travel until COVID hit last year, which curbed her travel plans, so she decided to take on "van life".

Meg recognised her passion for animal protection and rescue and incorporates it into all aspects of her life. Meg was a Sanctuary Manager during her time at Pete's Mission in north Thailand, as well as a volunteer for her local wildlife rescue shelter. Meg is extremely active in Animal Justice Party, taking on several roles in her regional group as well as in State committees.

In this episode, Meg shares her passion for a minimalist and eco friendly lifestyle and her motivation for nominating as a Candidate in the upcoming Federal Election.

https://instagram.com/megggwatkins
https://instagram.com/youngajpvic
https://instagram.com/ajpvicwesternvictoria

Zoe Cordeiro's favourite movie growing up was Charlotte's Web, she fell in love with Wilbur and would watch in hope that he wouldn't be sent to the slaughterhouse. Zoe would then sit down to a meal containing animals, just like those in her childhood favourite movie. Being a teenager, Zoe had been concerned about being different so she didn't act on her love for animals, until she met someone who had gone plant based for a month and realised it was possible.

Zoe has been vegan for seven years and now recognises it as a big part of her life. Zoe moved from her hometown Alabama to Brazil and felt isolated being both vegan and American in a foreign country. She desperately wanted to connect with other vegans and found her vegan community online. Zoe now helps women transition to a vegan lifestyle and has created her own vegan community.

Zoe has experienced immense personal growth during her vegan journey. She once hid her vegan lifestyle for fear of judgement, but those experiences now help her coach other women through transitioning to veganism while navigating relationships and other barriers.

Zoe has a podcast called The Consider Kindness Podcast where she shares all things plant based, sustainable and kind. Zoe is also passionate about sustainability and calls herself a wanna be zero waster.

In this episode, Zoe shares tips for a sustainable vegan lifestyle and her upcoming course on how to navigate the holiday season while being vegan.

https://www.instagram.com/zoecordeiro_/
https://www.zkwellness.com/
https://link.chtbl.com/lPuYnkbJ

Naomi Harlow works in child protection, as well as being a model, mental health advocate and animal activist.

Naomi went vegan six months ago after recognising she had been avoiding watching Cowspiracy, because she was trying to ignore the truth. Naomi quickly realised if she couldn't watch what happens to animals in the agricultural industry, then she needed to live in alignment and go vegan.

Naomi went to Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary a few months after going vegan and formed bonds with the sanctuary residents. Naomi's experience at the sanctuary confirmed veganism was the right path for her. Naomi uses her social media platform to share photos of the animals at Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary and their stories, in the hope of breaking barriers and creating connections between her audience and farm animals.

Naomi is passionate about mental health as a result of her career and her own battle with mental health. She hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health and provide support to people experiencing difficulties. Naomi created a facebook group to support people through last year's lockdowns, with the group now growing to over 1500 active members. Naomi also provides support to Rebel Justice, a campaign focusing on women's mental health in the prison system. Naomi has had 2 columns published about mental health initiatives.

In this episode, Naomi shares her aspirations of running a sanctuary in the future, the importance of mental wellbeing and being the change you want to see in the world.

https://www.instagram.com/naomiharlowmodel/

Meg Odgers is a Clinical Psychologist, Jivamukti Yoga teacher and vegan activist.

Meg, a self proclaimed health nut, went vegan overnight when her vegan friend lent her a Forks Over Knives DVD eight years ago. Meg learned how to be a critical thinker at university, so she found The China Study research too compelling to ignore.

Six months after becoming vegan, Meg walked into a local Jivamukti Yoga studio and knew she had found her community after hearing the teachers speak about yoga and veganism. Meg later trained as a Jivamukti Yoga teacher and has taught at Yogo Dojo for the last four years.

Meg began her blog "A Thoughtful Vegan" in 2016 and uses it as a platform to share her thoughts on the health, environmental, ethical and spiritual aspects of veganism. More recently, Meg focuses alot of her energy on her instagram account @athoughtfulvegan and provides educational resources, food shares and yogic wisdom. After developing a passion for waste reduction, in 2018 Meg co-founded educational group Towards Zero Waste Geelong.

In this episode, Meg shares her tips for a waste wise lifestyle, her method for choosing charities to support and sustainable vegan activism.

https://www.instagram.com/athoughtfulvegan/
https://thoughtfulveganblog.wordpress.com/

Nadia Fragnito has always had a strong connection to Italian food and culture, with her father being born in southern Italy. Nadia reminisces of the times her mother and Nonna created hearty homecooked Italian meals and holds dear food memories with her family.

This deep connection has influenced Nadia's love for southern Italian cooking, with her passion projects including cooking, recipe creation and cookbook development. Nadia enjoys the creativity and experimentation of 'veganising' classic Italian meals, with her ravioli and Tiramisu being a crowd favourite!

Nadia went vegetarian after leaving home, but just before her 21st birthday, she came across information on factory farming and realised being vegetarian was not enough. Nadia went vegan in 2001 and set her family the challenge of having a vegan 21st birthday party.

Nadia holds cooking classes, demonstrations, retreats, has featured on a SBS cooking show and is a regular guest cook on Channel 10's Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey. Later this year, Nadia will be releasing her second cookbook titled "A vegan summer in southern Italy".

In this episode, Nadia discusses the importance of finding your vegan tribe, bringing your passion projects to life and vegan travel.

https://www.instagram.com/theveganitaliankitchen/
https://www.facebook.com/theveganitaliankitchen.com.au
https://www.theveganitaliankitchen.com

Zak is a passionate fourteen year old activist from southeast England.

Zak went vegetarian when he was twelve years old. He started questioning veganism and began researching it on Youtube. He came across Joey Carbstrong where he learnt about the dairy industry and saw slaughterhouse footage. Zak found this extremely confronting and decided to go vegan.

Zak was eager to become an activist, asking his parents if he could join a Cube of Truth as soon as he went vegan. Having gone to his first activism event, this opened up more opportunities for involvement and Zak now attends vigils, disruptions and outreach events. Zak is also a vocal climate activist as he understands his generation will be directly impacted by climate change.

Zak has a strong social media presence, having approached other activists and sought advice on content creation. Zak regularly updates his social media platforms with campaigns, as well as his website which has resources for both vegans and non vegans,

In this episode, Zak discusses how he started creating animal rights content, effective activism and advice for young animal rights activists.

https://www.instagram.com/zaktivist/
https://www.youtube.com/c/Zaktivist
https://www.zaktivist.com/

Hannah Pledger-Firth is a full time university student and Chairperson of the newly established Young Animal Justice Party Victoria Branch.

Hannah was raised vegetarian and hadn't given eggs and dairy much consideration until she saw a short video on the dairy industry. Hannah did her own research, realised the animal cruelty involved and decided to go vegan at age 14.

Much of Hannah's family is now vegan including her mother, step father and sister. Hannah regularly attended activism events with her family including rallies, protests and street outreach.

Hannah's interest in politics began in her childhood, as she recollects many debates with her father about politicians and their influence. Hannah is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Philosophy, Politics and International Studies.

Hannah first learnt about the Animal Justice Party (AJP) in 2018 and was excited to find a political party that aligned with her values. Hannah began creating blog posts for the South Australian AJP website and was approached by the Party to get involved with Young AJP, a semi autonomous branch for under 30 year olds.

In this episode, Hannah shares her passion for cultivating a strong youth presence in politics, how people can get involved and advice on transitioning to veganism during teenage years.

Contact Hannah by email - hannah.pledgerfirth.ajp@gmail.com
https://www.instagram.com/youngajpvic/
https://www.facebook.com/youngajpvic

Rebecca Veale was born and raised in a small farming village in the United Kingdom. Rebecca and her sister went vegetarian in their teenage years.

Rebecca moved to Australia in 2005 and a then few years ago, she had a chance encounter with an Anonymous for the Voiceless Cube of Truth in Southbank. She went vegan on the spot after seeing footage of male chicks in the egg industry.

Rebecca has always loved cooking, being an avid baker as a child. She regularly develops and shares vegan recipes on Instagram @theplantbasedpom and has recently provided recipes for a cookbook.

Last year, Rebecca began working on her passion project - creating a vegan baking mix brand Humble Jumble Foods. She wanted the brand to align with her values and the values of many vegans, ensuring the products are environmentally friendly, Australian made and support vegan charities by donating 10% of the profits.

In this episode, Rebecca speaks about the challenges of starting a small business, aligning with your values and giving back to the vegan community.

https://www.instagram.com/theplantbasedpom/
https://www.instagram.com/humblejumblefoods/
https://www.humblejumblefoods.com/

Peanuts Wellbeing Sanctuary began when Tracey decided she could do more to help animals and people suffering abuse. Tracey quit her job, rented a property with acreage and began taking in animals that needed help. She quickly realised the dire need for more space to be able to help more animals, so she set about buying a property near Goulburn, south of Sydney.

It was during the establishment of her new property, that Tracey met her partner Mick. Mick, a builder by trade, helped set up the required infrastructure at the sanctuary, but it wasn't long before he knew this was a journey he wanted to be part of and they joined forces.

Having both witnessed people and animals suffering in their early years, the couple started fostering children and developed programs to help children experiencing abuse.

The sanctuary's mission is to "Break the cycle of abuse" by showing children and young adults that there is an alternative, by acting with empathy and compassion. Peanuts regularly holds programs for school groups, the justice system and community groups with hopes to expand their programs to more victims of domestic violence in the near future.

In this episode, Tracey and Mick share their upbringing and vegan journeys, as well as the impact the sanctuary has, success stories and upcoming projects.

https://www.instagram.com/peanuts_wellbeing_sanctuary/
https://www.facebook.com/PeanutsWellbeingSanctuary
https://peanutswellbeingsanctuary.org.au/

Johanna Lostao is a university student studying intercultural communications and media studies in Germany. Born in Argentina, her family immigrated to Germany at age seven. Johanna speaks six languages and lived in Italy last year to immerse herself in the language and culture as part of her studies.

Johanna went vegetarian at twelve years old after seeing a tv commercial about chicken and making the connection with what was on her plate. Just before she turned eighteen, Johanna went vegan and has not looked back.

Johanna became an animal rights activist after moving to Halle and developing friendships with like minded vegans. Her friends showed Johanna that she could do more than eat vegan foods, she could also speak for animals. Johanna participated in meet ups with groups of people interested in vegan and facilitated discussions about veganism. She also became involved in Anonymous for the Voiceless last year while in Sicily.

Last year during lockdown, Johanna rekindled her passion for art and combined it with her love of veganism. Johanna began painting animals, created an Instagram page and started selling her artwork, while donating 25% of each sale to animal sanctuaries in Germany. Johanna's artwork highlights the beauty of having animals in our lives.

In this episode, Johanna shares the importance of vegan relationships, learning from others and vegan art supplies.

https://www.instagram.com/veganartshare/
https://www.instagram.com/joannibanani/
https://www.instagram.com/le_4zampe_/
https://www.facebook.com/veganartshare-109347138050018/?ref=page_internal
https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/VeganArtShare?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1071690657

Aline Dürr was pregnant with her first child, when she started to move away from eating meat. After Aline's daughter was born, she came across a short video about the dairy industry and she connected with it so deeply. Aline received an invitation to the premiere screening of Dominion and she felt the need to attend. This bought about big change, as Aline came home and told her partner she was going vegan and wanted to raise their daughter vegan.

Aline is an interior designer and after going vegan, she wanted to combine her two passions, so she pursued a career in vegan interior design. Aline is the Founder and Director of Vegan Interior Design, a social enterprise providing design services, as well as an educational platform for people and companies to create healthy, sustainable and cruelty free services.

Aline published her first book "Vegan Interior Design" last year, which won the PETA Vegan Homeware Awards 2021. She is also organising the first ever Vegan Interior Design Week, a virtual event being held in November.

Outside of work and family life, Aline volunteers for a number of animal rescue organisations, including NSW Hen Rescue and finds fostering ex battery hens extremely rewarding.

In this episode, Aline shares her experiences as a foster carer, raising a vegan family and provides advice on how to make informed decisions when designing your living space and purchasing products for your home.

https://www.instagram.com/vegan.interior.design/
https://www.facebook.com/veganinteriordesign/
https://www.veganinteriordesign.com
https://www.veganinteriordesignweek.com

Hudson Tarlow was raised vegetarian and during his freshman year, he was scrolling through YouTube and came across content from a vegan activist. Hudson binged watched hours of animal rights content, learning the truth about the animal agriculture industry and realised he had been living a lie as a vegetarian.

Hudson went vegan in June 2017, at age 15 and he knew at that point, he wanted to be an activist. Less than six months later, he convinced his parents to drive him to a Cube of Truth event in LA and has never looked back. Hudson valued feeling part of a community when he became involved in activism and recognises it helped him grow confidence in becoming a strong voice for animals.

Hudson tried many forms of activism when he first started, however he found outreach best suited him and was the most effective. Hudson wanted to use online platforms to speak for animals, so he immersed himself in learning how to create and edit content for social media and YouTube. His work was soon recognised by Anonymous for the Voiceless and he was asked to create content and manage their social media.

In this episode, Hudson shares highlights and lessons learnt throughout his activism journey, his newly found passion for producing music and finding alignment with the vegan straight edge lifestyle.

https://www.instagram.com/hudsontarlow/
https://www.facebook.com/HudsonTarlowVegan/
https://www.youtube.com/c/HudsonTarlowOfficial/
https://twitter.com/hudsontarlow/
https://www.tiktok.com/@hudsontarlow?

Emma Hakansson always thought of herself as an animal lover, but her actions didn't always align. Emma was on exchange in Sweden when she made the connection with the animals on her plate. A year later at age 16, Emma went completely vegan and started attending demonstrations and volunteering with animal rights organisations.

At the same time, Emma began modelling through an agency as she enjoyed the aesthetics and creativity involved. She quickly became conscious of her values and felt a sense of duty, care and love for everyone on earth - human and non- human animals, and the planet.

All these issues came together and Emma decided to work towards creating ethical fashion by founding a non profit organisation called Collective Fashion Justice (CFJ). CFJ's objective is to create a total ethics fashion system that values and protects the lives and wellbeing of human and non-human animals, as well as the planet.

CFJ recently released a mini documentary called "Willow and Claude" which follows the lives of two lambs, highlights injustices in the wool industry, ethical knitwear and alternatives fabrics. CFJ also works in collaboration with other organisations such as Animal Justice Party fighting for a ban on the sale of fur in Melbourne and Victoria.

In this episode, Emma shares her experiences in the modelling industry, fostering lambs, working collaboratively to achieve common objectives and how to source total ethical fashion items as a consumer.

https://emmahakansson.com.au/
https://www.collectivefashionjustice.org/
https://www.willowandclaude.com/
https://goodonyou.eco/
https://www.instagram.com/hakamme/
https://www.instagram.com/collectivefashionjustice/

Bre Wigley is a professional vegan bodybuilder and new mumma. She has always had a passion for fitness and decided in 2015 that she wanted to compete vegan. She had been vegetarian before that, but after watching a few documentaries, Bre recognised that she knew better, so she had to do better.

Bre was raised in Tennessee (USA), so she went entirely against the grain when she stopped consuming animal products. Despite people and other athletes saying it would be impossible for her to gain muscle on a vegan diet, Bre became a professional bodybuilder within 3 months. Bre now uses her fitness journey to inspire other athletes to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

Bre loves to cook and is passionate about recipe development and meal planning. Her friends and family gained interest in the vegan lifestyle after enjoying Bre's delicious home cooked meals.

Bre recently gave birth to a gorgeous baby girl Camille and is excited to empower other mums to raise vegan children and families.

https://www.officialbrewigley.com/
https://www.instagram.com/vegan.bre/
https://www.instagram.com/bre.faith.fit/

Katrina grew up in a compassionate household, with her sister and father going vegetarian in the early 1970s because they could not cause animals to suffer. She followed in their footsteps, becoming vegetarian at age 17, and soon started her animal rights activism journey, volunteering with Animal Liberation Victoria during her university studies.

Katrina had been holding onto the label of vegetarianism until she stopped making excuses for herself seven years ago and finally went vegan. She has over 30 years of animal activism experience with a number of organisations and campaigns including direct rescue, the Animal Justice Party, Humane Research Australia, the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, Vegan Rising, Lamb Care Australia, Victorian Lamb Rescue, and Trivia for the Animals.

Katrina has 20 years teaching experience and spent 17 of those years living and working in Japan teaching interpreting skills and English. While residing in Japan she was involved in the formation of Animal Walk Tokyo and Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support (JEARS), following the Great Tōhoku Earthquake in 2011.

In this episode, Katrina shares her morning gratitude practice, the changes she has witnessed in the animal activism space over the last 30 years, challenges vegans face and the burden we carry in a non vegan world.

https://www.facebook.com/KatrinaKSJ/
https://www.instagram.com/chuchotage0707/
https://twitter.com/BMJ0707
The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong - https://youtu.be/bfAzi6D5FpM

Ashkr was raised vegetarian until age seven, when he began eating seafood. He had quite a nomadic upbringing, travelling around Australia while being home schooled, until his family decided to call Melbourne home at age 10.

Ashkr always loved cooking and undertook a chef apprenticeship during year 11 and 12 VCAL. During this time, he organised a food stall at a local school and raised money for Sea Shepherd. He became so passionate about Sea Shepherd's work, that he joined their Onshore Crew and assisted every weekend during year 12.

After completing high school, Ashkr applied to become a Deck Hand and very quickly learnt about Sea Shepherd's operation. Ashkr was invited to go on his first campaign "Operation Ice Fish" aimed at disrupting illegal fishing operations in the Antarctic. Ashkr was part of a team who removed 72km of gill nets over three weeks and was later involved in the rescue of over 40 crew members from an illegal fishing vessel Thunder.

Ashkr has been involved in more than five Sea Shepherd campaigns, starting as an Onshore Crew member, moving to a Deck Hand, Cook, Quartermaster, Third Officer and Second Officer. He later went on to complete commercial qualifications, which allows him to gain employment in the maritime industry.

In this episode, Ashkr shares his passion for marine conservation, his experiences on Sea Shepherd expeditions, his personal development journey and developing support networks for young men.

Ashkr's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ashkraudet/
Ashkr's Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ashkr.audet
Sea Shepherd https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/
Sam Simon Retrieves Illegal Gill Net Abandoned by Poachers https://youtu.be/_ZWp1exeKdo
Thunder: A Poaching Vessel Goes Down https://youtu.be/M3dRSE4j8zQ
Ocean Warriors - Chasing The Thunder Trailer https://www.vulcanproductions.com/our-work/ocean-warriors
Ocean Warrior - Chasing The Thunder Download https://www.waterbear.com/
Operation Nemesis https://youtu.be/3MQdqoQcMpc

Dim Kailaris was raised in a Greek family, with strong ties to culture and traditions including eating meat, dairy and eggs in every meal. He could never understand people being vegan, until seven years ago when he watched Earthlings. Dim saw what happens inside slaughterhouses and went vegetarian. Two months later, he learnt about the egg and dairy industry and went vegan from an ethical standpoint.

Being vegan was not enough, Dim needed to speak up about what was happening to animals, so he became active. Initially, Dim started posting on his social media and attended organised events such as protests, vigils and street outreach.

Dim recognised the importance of slaughterhouse footage in his own vegan journey and got involved in investigation work inside slaughterhouses and factory farms. He knew how powerful the footage was, so entered facilities in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Being a teacher, Dim tried educating students about the realities of where their food comes from, however he quickly received backlash from schools and parents. Dim recently moved into full time animal rights work, which allowed him to focus on creating dontwatch.org

dontwatch.org includes a 6 minute video showing the realities of the animal agriculture industry. During the first 48 hours of it's launch, dontwatch.org had over 100,000 views and now averages 2000 views per day. The website contains recipes, links to Challenge 22, activism materials and the ability for people to contact the organisation for support.

In this episode, Dim also shares his experiences in conducting investigation work, disruptive action and activists working together to achieve total animal liberation.

https://dontwatch.org/
https://www.instagram.com/dim.stagram/
https://www.instagram.com/dontwatchofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/kailaris

Kim is a working mother of three, who studied law and moved into the public service to contribute to her local community. She was born in Vietnam and at age four, Kim and her family set sail on a small fishing boat to Hong Kong in search of a better life. At age 11, Kim and her family were accepted into Australia as refugees and Kim quickly learnt English as a second language.

Kim was raised eating a traditional Asian diet, with meat in every meal, because it was seen as a luxury. It wasn't until her father in law was diagnosed with prostate cancer, that she began researching the causes and found links between animal products and cancer. Kim was shocked at what she found and continued her research by watching What the Health and Forks Over Knives.

In 2018, Kim watched Earthlings and went vegan overnight, throwing the entire contents of her fridge because she no longer saw animals as food. She then converted her family by educating her children, ages 5, 7 and 10 and they became healthier in the process.

Kim and her children attend Cube of Truth demonstrations and marches, as Kim believes it is a great opportunity to get them involved and do something about a cause they are passionate about. Kim's children are also strong advocates for animal rights, sharing the vegan message in school projects and debates as much as possible.

In this episode, Kim recollects her childhood experiences, moving to a more meaningful career and overcoming the opinions of family and friends.

https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.phu
https://www.instagram.com/keekstery/

Matt Stellino watched in horror, as he saw a 4 Corners exposé on cattle in the live export industry. He looked online for footage that disproved what he had seen, only to find all of it was as horrible as what he had seen the night before and as a result Matt went vegetarian.

In 2015, Matt and his partner went to Vegan Day out to learn more about the vegan lifestyle. After reading all of the information, it became obvious to Matt that he had still been contributing to the suffering of chickens and cows and committed to going vegan.

Matt attended his first activism event in 2016, a University Cupcake Challenge, and has never looked back. In 2017, Matt got involved in starting the first Cube of Truth in Sydney and helped build the Sydney chapter to hold five Cubes per week over 4 locations.

Matt started Animal Rights Activism Sydney in 2019, which is a collaborative approach to activism, bringing together activists and animal rights organisations under one umbrella. Matt and the team organise Cube demonstrations, vigils, disruptions, fundraising events and working bees at sanctuaries.

Matt also became involved in the Animal Justice Party when he recognised the importance of regulatory change to bring about mass population change. He ran as a candidate in the 2019 state and federal elections and is currently standing as a candidate for his local Council.

In this episode, Matt shares advice on his outreach approach, working collaboratively and holding events to generate new volunteer interest and raise funds.

https://www.instagram.com/the33degreevegan/
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.runswithscissors
https://youtube.com/c/The33DegreeVegan
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n9V7gEQYY_K-IndRv4-TOIa-S27_R0DD/view?usp=sharing
https://m.facebook.com/1408289349210070

Cam Sherry is a 40 year old husband and father of two energetic boys. Cam works in the liquor industry and was a national track and field representative in his younger years.

Cam describes his journey to veganism as a slower one, because little seeds were planted along the way. Cam's wife Hannah is a veterinarian and after she spent time with piglets, Hannah declared to Cam that they were no longer eating pigs.

Cam and Hannah volunteered at Free the Bears Sanctuary in Cambodia for their honeymoon and later Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. Elephant Nature Park was a vegan sanctuary and the couple found themselves enjoying all of the food during their stay.

After returning home, they decided to become vegetarian and six months later, Cam conducted his own research to determine the difference between vegetarians and vegans. Cam felt compelled to go vegan after learning about the dairy and egg industries, even though it went against everything he knew about nutrition.

Cam has been vegan for six years and has been involved in a range of animal rights initiatives such as vigils, street outreach and silent protests. Cam now focuses on using his social media platform to share vegan food, children's recipes and nutrition, which sparks interest and plants seeds in the minds of non vegans.

In this episode, Cam also talks about the importance of patience when trying to educate non vegans, vegan alcohol and holidaying with a difference.

https://www.instagram.com/cssherry/

Asal grew up in Iran and moved to Australia as a student. The catalyst for Asal becoming vegan was when she saw fur farm footage on PETA's social media. Asal recalls feeling so upset, angry and helpless, she continued her research and decided going vegan was the only way forward.

Asal became active soon after she went vegan, getting involved in local campaigns, however she didn't feel like she was being effective. Asal met her partner Paul in 2015 and in 2016, they started Anonymous for the Voiceless (AV) in Melbourne.

Soon after they started AV, Asal and Paul moved to Thailand having saved enough money to dedicate their time solely to the development of Anonymous for the Voiceless for 2 years. This became their full time job, refining the concept, setting up chapters, events and the organisation itself. After only seven months, AV went global, with over 20 chapters across the world. Now five years on, there are over 500 chapters in 70 countries.

In this episode, Asal speaks about her personal activism journey, using your passion to get active, the challenges AV has faced and the impacts of COVID on activism.

https://www.instagram.com/asal__av/
https://www.anonymousforthevoiceless.org/

Georgie went vegetarian when she was four years old after witnessing a truck full of innocent pigs being taken to a slaughterhouse. Later in life, during her first year of university, Georgie watched "A Bloody Business" and "Earthlings" and recognised she needed to do more for animals, so she went vegan.

Studying Law and Communications at university, Georgie knew she wanted to help protect animals and began work on three major animal campaigns at the time - Victorian puppy farms, jumps racing and duck shooting. Georgie has held several positions with Oscar's Law, including her current role as President. Georgie was involved in the successful banning of puppy farms in Victoria and is now working with other states to bring about the same change.

Her passion for animal protection and politics, led her to become the youngest Chief of Staff in the Victorian Parliament at age 26. Georgie very bravely wrote an opinion editorial in The Guardian about her fears of being shamed in her political career, because of previous employment during her university studies.

In this episode, Georgie reflects on her struggle with anger and sense of responsibility after going vegan, hopes for her future and the future of young people in Parliament.

https://www.instagram.com/georgiepurcell/
https://www.instagram.com/kinglouislamb/

Avalon Todaro is a well regarded vegan tattoo artist in Melbourne. Almost a decade ago, Avalon became aware of the horrors of meat, dairy and eggs from her older sister and became vegan after realising she couldn't support these industries.

After following Edgar's Mission for a little while, Avalon saw they needed homes for a large number of rescued battery hens. She was drawn to the opportunity of providing a loving home and put in her application. Avalon and her partner Josh adopted their first five hens and instantly fell in love. Five years on, they cannot imagine their lives without the beautiful girls.

Avalon has always had a creative flair, she enjoys painting and drawing which developed into her love of being a tattoo artist. Avalon wanted to integrate her love of animals and veganism into tattooing and began creating her own animal rights tattoo designs. Avalon also kindly donates her time, design skills and profits to raise funds for animal organisations by creating prints and merchandise.

In this episode, Avalon shares her delightful experiences of being a chicken mum, her passion for creating unique tattoos that spread the vegan message and her next big project - a children's book written and illustrated by Avalon.

http://www.instagram.com/avalontattoo
https://hensarefriends.bigcartel.com/

Jack Rock, also known as That Vegan Dad, is a husband and father of two young boys. Jack and his wife decided to go vegan after trying many ways to clear their youngest son's eczema. The family adopted a vegan diet and found great health benefits, but also understand the ethical and environmental aspects of living a vegan lifestyle.

Jack is an avid cook, mastering quick and easy vegan meals for his family in under 30 minutes. His social media and website showcases simple vegan recipes, grocery hauls and tips for individuals and families.

In this episode, Jack also shares his plans for reaching more people to help them enjoy a vegan lifestyle.

https://www.instagram.com/that_vegan_dad/
https://www.facebook.com/that_vegan_dad-112191633857740
https://www.tiktok.com/@that_vegandad?lang=en
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBf-I-AYAGgLYSB3rHAt-JQ
https://www.thatvegandad.net/

Geelong Duck Rescue (GDR) formally began in 2016 and consists of a dedicated group of volunteers who actively have a presence at the Lake Connewarre wetland system in Geelong each duck shooting season.

GDR's mission is to protect native waterbird species who call this ecosystem home. Volunteers attend the wetlands from dawn to dusk to rescue wounded birds and collect evidence of shooters breaching regulations. The number of shooters attending the wetlands has declined since GDR's involvement.

In this episode I speak to the Coordinators of GDR Nat and Mish who provide an insight into what is involved in duck rescue, their experiences and their vegan journey. They provide great suggestions for people to get involved both on the wetland and from their home.

https://www.facebook.com/geelongduckrescue
https://www.instagram.com/geelongduckrescue/

TAKE ACTION!
https://animaljusticepartyvictoria.good.do/banduckshooting/email/
https://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/duck-shooting-is-not-a-sport/

OTHER VIC DUCK RESCUE GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/CADSDuckRescue/
https://www.facebook.com/Regionalvictorians

Nanda grew up in Argentina and once finished at school, he began travelling to experience the world. Nanda was always looking for more from life and began to delve deeper into spirituality.

Nanda found meaning in the teachings of Hare Krishna and within a few months of joining his local Temple, Nanda became a Monk at age 21. Around the same time, he watched a video by Gary Yourofsky and recognised he could no longer be part of another being's suffering, so he went vegan overnight.

Nanda now manages the kitchen at the Hare Krishna Temple in Albert Park, Victoria and serves up delicious vegan meals for their visitors.

In this episode, Nanda speaks about leading by example in his community and providing opportunities for people to connect with spirituality and veganism.

https://www.instagram.com/nandadas.bdds/

Andy began his career in the construction industry and trade unions, always being a strong voice when it came to safety concerns and marginalised workers. During his construction career, Andy worked on a jobsite next to a pig slaughterhouse and could not bear to hear the pigs screaming in the facility. He recognised the injustice animals face and decided to follow in his wife April's footsteps and go vegan.

Andy has always had a love for politics, teaching himself about Australian, American and English politics over the last 30 years. Andy became involved with the Animal Justice Party Victoria in its infancy and played a pivotal role in getting the party registered and building the membership base.

In this episode, Andy shares insights into his political journey and favourite accomplishments as an MP to date. Andy strongly encourages people to get involved in the party to help animals have a voice and become the change you want to see in politics. Andy speaks openly about the challenges and how he manages the demands of being a politician.

https://andymeddick.com.au/
https://www.instagram.com/andymeddickmp/
https://www.facebook.com/AndyMeddickMP

Angela’s vegan journey is a little bit different to most, she became an activist before she became vegan. After watching “The Cove” Angela attended her first dolphin protest in August 2013 and signed up to her first Sea Shepherd campaign in Taiji as a Cove Guardian. In doing her research for the Taiji campaign, Angela read a book by Captain Paul Watson’ (founder of Sea Shepherd) and decided to go vegan in preparation for her time with Sea Shepherd.

In 2014 Angela witnessed the horrific capture and slaughter of dolphins on her first trip to Taiji. This experience haunted her and when she returned home, Angela went into fight mode and became an activist.

Angela started attending and organising protests for various issues concerning the planet, ocean and animals (land and sea). She moved to Coffs Harbour in 2017 to protest the local dolphinarium, Dolphin Marine Conservation Park every weekend (mostly on her own). Angela has since co-founded Dolphin Freedom Fighters with regular protests and demos organised at Sea World and Dolphin Marine Conservation Park.

Angela returned to Taiji in 2015 and then attempted to re-enter Japan in 2018, however, she was stopped at immigration, interrogated, detained in a cell and deported back to Australia. She then joined the Sea Shepherd Vessel, the M/V Sharpie in Mexico for 3 months as the chef for Operation Treasured Islands.

In this episode, Angela shares her experiences across a wide range of activism activities including Sea Shepherd campaigns, disruptions and peaceful protests. She also provides insight into running effective events involving the collaboration of groups.

https://www.instagram.com/jovigirl81/
https://www.facebook.com/angela.banovic.5
https://www.instagram.com/dolphinfreedomfighters/
https://www.facebook.com/dolphinfreedomfighters/

In this episode, I welcome back Sam Vas who shared his story in an earlier episode of A Kynd Life.

Sam returns to share his knowledge and insights into meditation, having practiced meditation from the early age of five. Meditation has always been part of Sam's daily routine as he believes it's the key to life - we cannot experience life fully without a mind, body and soul connection.

In this episode, Sam discusses his favourite types of meditation, the benefits and myths of mediation and some tips for beginners.

Sam conducts an 8 minute guided mediation at the end of the podcast - you won't want to miss this!

https://www.instagram.com/superveganofficial/
https://www.superveganfitness.com/

In celebration of the 20th episode of A Kynd Life, I am sharing my story.

I grew up loving animals and at age 15 I went vegetarian after seeing a snippet of chicken slaughterhouse footage. Fourteen years later, I had an amazing opportunity to speak to Damien Mander, Founder of International Anti Poaching Foundation, and I made the life changing decision to go vegan.

I knew it wasn't enough to just be vegan, I had to help animals, so I started volunteering at Victorian Lamb Rescue. I am also an Organiser of Anonymous for the Voiceless Geelong Chapter and more recently have become active in my local Animal Justice Party regional group.

In this episode, I discuss being a strong voice for the animals, how I manage relationships with non vegans, valuing the vegan community and adopting lambs from Victorian Lamb Rescue.

https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.facebook.com/elisha.atchison

Catherine Kelaher recollects trying to save spiders and adoring bottle feeding lambs as a young girl. Catherine wishes she made the connection to animal exploitation earlier, having been a vegetarian that ditched dairy for a number of years.

In 2008 Catherine finally aligned her actions with how she felt about animals and went vegan. She was active in animal rights organisations and in 2010, Catherine became aware of a local hen farm during an Animal Liberation meeting. After seeing rescue footage in the documentary Peaceable Kingdom, Catherine and her friend contacted the local hen farm and organised to take six hens from the farmer. This was the start of Catherine's journey into animal rescue, and shortly after their first visit, Catherine had rescued 350 hens from this farm.

Catherine founded NSW Hen Rescue in 2010 and has since saved thousands of hens and farm animals. NSW Hen Rescue recently moved to their new premises, now fondly known as Hen Haven.

Catherine is also the author of two books, "Amanda The Teen Activist" a fictional tale about a young girl saving animals for 8-12 year olds, and her most recent book "Saving Animals: A Future Activists Guide" which launches on 4th May 2021.

In this episode, Catherine also speaks about taking part in disruptions and lockdowns, her brushes with law enforcement and implementing self care practices for sustainable activism.

http://instagram.com/nswhenrescue
http://instagram.com/veganhen
http://facebook.com/nswhenrescue
http://henrescue.org

James McLauchlan watched Cowspiracy after it was mentioned by a friend during university study. When James watched the documentary, he recognised what was happening to animals at the hands of humans, did not sit well with him. He proceeded to educate himself and within a few days, James went vegan.

James recently graduated from Monash with a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and plans to commence his Clinical Psychology PhD next year. James volunteers with the Anxiety Hotline and conducts Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy. He is also an organiser for Anonymous for the Voiceless Melbourne Chapter, which keeps him extremely busy running weekly events in Bourke Street Mall.

In this episode, James discusses feeling aligned to his values by being vegan and encourages vegans to become active to develop a network of like minded people for friendship and support.

https://www.instagram.com/jamesrmclauchlan/
https://www.facebook.com/james.rbmclauchlan

Jonathan Sarandis admits that at a younger age, he found veganism difficult to understand and was quite sceptical. After educating himself on how animal products were produced and recognising farm animals weren't dissimilar from his beloved dog, he went vegan overnight.

When Jonathan decided to go vegan, he reassessed much of his life, goals and values to make sure he was living in alignment with his own values and not society's expectations.

It was not long after this, that Jonathan recognised his passion for fashion and animal welfare and decided to move away from his 9-5 job and start Sable. His initial plan was for Sable to be a vegan apparel company, however life had other plans and five years down the track, Sable has been Jonathan, Alex and Matt’s passion project for the last year.

Sable is a vegan cafe in Cremorne (Richmond, Victoria) specialising in bagels, cookies and coffee. Sable has gone from strength to strength, despite opening one week before COVID-19 began.

In this episode Jonathan talks about combining his passions to create a business and career, introducing customers to veganism and plant based food and his hope to inspire others to quit their 9-5 job and pursue their dreams.

https://www.instagram.com/jonathansarandis/
https://www.instagram.com/sable_org/
https://sable.org.au/

Adam Cardilini is a Lecturer of Environmental Science at Deakin University. Adam's PhD involved studying the evolutionary ecology of a bird species, the non native Common Starling. He began to connect with the birds and struggled to kill the individuals in the name of science. Adam spent time at dairy farms as part of his PhD research and became vegan after witnessing the horrific conditions dairy cows were kept in and the blatant disregard for their welfare. Adam talks about how these images still haunt him to this day.

Adam's research now focuses on compassionate conservation and the use of new technology to educate people and allow them to connect with animals . He is extremely motivated and passionate about creating a kinder world for animals.

https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/adam-cardilini

Helen Seta went vegan after overhearing a work colleague talking about bobby calves in the dairy industry. Helen knew being vegan wasn't enough, so she quickly became involved in animal rights activism.

Helen is the Oceania Liaison for the Animal Save Movement as well as organiser for Melbourne Chicken Save. Being a graphic designer by trade, Helen recognises the need for the development of effective messaging and brings together creative people to provide free resources for animal organisations in her group Activist Design Hub.

In this episode Helen discusses different ways for vegans to become active for the animals, the importance of managing your mental health and stresses associated with activism, comradery within the vegan community and volunteering at Kiwi's New Life Bird Rescue.

The Animal Save Movement
http://AnimalSaveMovement.com
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalSaveAustralia
https://www.instagram.com/animalsaveaustralia/
https://www.instagram.com/melbournechickensave/

Activist Design Hub
https://www.facebook.com/TheADHub

Petition to Transition the Queen Victoria Market into a world-leading, innovative, plant based mecca http://chng.it/5yyQSHCvNG

Monique Medved and I walked 62km along the Surf Coast to raise money for a Nepalese man Sancha, his family and community who have been hard hit with no income from tourism as a result of COVID19.

In this episode, Mon and I reflect on our thoughts and experiences during this massive physical and mental challenge. We chat about saying yes to experiences outside your comfort zone, not having expectations about how the experience was going to go, maintaining a positive mindset when physical barriers present themselves, the ridiculous idea of Mon carrying 30kg in her pack and returning home solo.

You can contribute to Project Unite - https://gofund.me/d211c5eb

In this episode, I welcome back Deanna Carbone (Kangas), my first guest on A Kynd Life.

Deanna, a passionate animal rights activist, returns to share her wisdom on how vegans can get involved in animal rights activism and simple steps on how to conduct effective activism.

Deanna provides great insight on how to find activism best suited to you, tips for attending your first event, managing confrontation from the public and how to stay motivated to be a strong voice for the animals.

https://www.instagram.com/deannacarbonee/
https://www.facebook.com/deanna.kangas.9

Monique Medved made a commitment to herself to start a YouTube channel and post one video a week for a year, that's 52 videos to plan, script, edit and publish. The aim of the channel was to show up and do the thing she said she was going to do, it wasn't to gain followers or fame, but to follow through on a commitment to herself.

One year on and what an adventure! Mon has been on a journey of self discovery like no other. Mon shares her insights about creating routines that become habits which shape your future, being accountable for your own actions and living your life the way you want.

Mon recently documented "30 days of discomfort" where she challenged herself and others to do things they usually fear such as sky diving and learning to fly a plane. Feeling the fear and doing the damn thing anyway, builds resilience and confidence in your ability to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Mon has been vegan for 7 years and believes leading by example encourages others to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

https://www.instagram.com/moniquemedved/
https://www.instagram.com/finallyfoundcards/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp7zZOZcANBqKYigPz6c7zw

Emma was born and raised in Sydney and recalls a moment in her childhood when she held a hen and realised the hen was no different to her cat. At that moment, she knew she could no longer eat animals. This was just the beginning of Emma's passion for animal protection and she has been campaigning for animals ever since, working with organisations such as Animal Liberation and PETA.

Emma is the first female Animal Justice Party representative to be elected to the NSW Parliament. She works tirelessly to bring forward animal issues in Parliament and seeks legislative change to bring about a kinder world for animals.

In this episode, Emma shares her motivation for being such a strong voice for the animals, some highlights of her time as a politician and provides advice for anyone interested in getting involved in animal rights and politics.

http://www.emmahurstmp.com
http://www.instagram.com/emma.hurst/
www.facebook.com/EmmaHurstMP
twitter.com/MlcHurst

Mon Tudor's vegan journey began three years ago after a visit to Edgar's Mission. On arrival at the sanctuary, Mon and her husband saw the quote “If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others, why wouldn't we?” and something clicked. Mon and her husband made the decision to go vegan that evening!

Mon's strong connection with Edgar's Mission continues today, as she participates at sanctuary volunteer days and conducts outreach at events on behalf of the sanctuary.

Mon enjoys keeping fit and healthy, with power lifting being one of her passions. She strives to be a good vegan role model within the fitness community.

On her Instagram page, Mon regularly reviews food, beauty, clothing and lifestyle products to educate people on how easy it is to be vegan.

https://www.instagram.com/losing_my_vegan_virginity/

Brodie was challenged by a mate to try a plant based diet for one month. Brodie loves a challenge and doesn't do anything in halves, so he took on the challenge and started researching how he was going to maintain his physical pursuits while eating plant based. Brodie then looked into the environmental and ethical issues associated with animal agriculture and decided he was going to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

Brodie is a professional photographer and videographer for the Australian Army and enjoys showing his colleagues just what vegans are made of during mandatory fitness training 5 days a week.

Outside of the army, Brodie puts his photography and videography skills to good use by kindly donating his time to provide high quality footage of animal rights events and sanctuaries for their marketing and social media.

In this episode, Brodie shares his experiences about being vegan in the defence force, his motivation for staying active and tips on how to increase engagement with your social media content.

https://www.instagram.com/brodiecross.v/

Tash Peterson went vegan overnight after watching a documentary "Food Choices" on Netflix four years ago. It was a light bulb moment for Tash and she knew she would be vegan for life.

Tash wanted to share the vegan message and became involved with animal rights organisations such as Anonymous for the Voiceless, the Save Movement and Direct Action Everywhere.

Following involvement with Direct Action Everywhere, Tash decided to conduct her own actions. Her first action was at a local supermarket with a friend, she wore a cow onesie, held a "watch Dominion" sign and mourned animal flesh in the supermarket. The protest was recorded and posted, gaining millions of views and international media attention.

Tash recognised the impact of her protests and started holding regular actions on her own. Tash also founded "Tell them the truth" which is a movement inspiring people to conduct their own actions to bring about change.

In this episode, Tash provides an insight into what helps her stay motivated, how she handles confrontation and online harassment and advice for anyone interested in animal activism.

https://www.instagram.com/vganbooty/
https://www.vganbooty.com/

Mackenzie Severns' deep connection with animals began at a young age, when at age 9 she decided to become vegetarian as she wanted to protect animals. After watching a video about the dairy industry at age 15, she transitioned to veganism overnight and began cooking her own meals.

Mackenzie crossed paths with the Animal Justice Party and took on the role of Regional Coordinator for the Townsville area. Following a quick introduction to the world of politics, she then ran as the first AJP candidate for Townsville in the Federal election in 2019 as well as the Local Government election in early 2020.

Mackenzie volunteers at a local animal sanctuary Maridan's Menagerie and loves seeing the 80 animal residents live out their best life. She is also a brand ambassador for vegan apparel company Vegan Scout

https://www.instagram.com/kindlivingkenz/

Sam Vas was born in India and raised vegetarian. He moved to Australia in search of a better life and after working a 9-5 job in marketing, he was determined to follow his dream and become a personal trainer.

Having never eaten meat, he transitioned to a vegan lifestyle initially for the health benefits which resulted in him losing over 20kg, but quickly learnt about the animal suffering associated with the dairy industry. Sam recognises the importance of nutrition and fitness, but also places a strong emphasis on the mind and spirit.

https://www.instagram.com/superveganofficial/
https://www.superveganfitness.com/

Sarah Crowley went vegan after seeing a billboard about the dairy industry on her way to get ice cream three years ago. She is an architect and graphic designer by trade and her passion is providing branding and marketing resources for animal welfare organisations and sanctuaries.

https://www.florencedesignstudio.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_florencedesign/

Joel Kirkilis no longer wanted to contribute to the suffering of animals and went vegan in his early 20’s at a time when veganism was not widely understood. He invested a lot of time researching how he could achieve his fitness goals while not contributing to animal cruelty and went on to study nutrition at university.

Joel was determined to prove he could be a successful vegan bodybuilder and is proud to have competed in 13 body building competitions, becoming the Victorian bodybuilding champion in 2009. Outside of his fitness career, Joel attends a local slaughterhouse to provide comfort to animals in their final moments.

https://www.instagram.com/jkirkilis/

Lauren Trani is a new mum raising her gorgeous six month old daughter Mia with her husband Adam. The couple form Defining Vegan and aim to inspire others to live a compassionate lifestyle. Lauren found a gap within the existing baby footwear market and is currently launching her very own vegan baby footwear and accessory range.

https://www.instagram.com/_laurentrani/
https://www.instagram.com/defining.vegan/
https://www.instagram.com/tinymoon.b/
https://tinymoonboutique.com.au

Ritchie Taylor (Torrie to his friends) is known as the "Hardcore Herbivore" when on stage as a professional wrestler. Ritchie uses his wrestling appearances as a platform to spread the vegan message and smash stereotypes of vegans being weak. He is vegan for the animals does everything he can to help animals, including street activism. Ritchie is also well known for delicious recipes featured on his social media.

https://www.instagram.com/ritchievegginout/
https://www.facebook.com/ritchietaylorwrestling/

Deanna Kangas is an animal rights activist, who uses her professional marketing and public speaking skills to spread the vegan message.

Deanna is on the South Australia State Committee for the Animal Justice Party, with whom she ran in the 2019 Federal Election and helps coordinate their marketing and media. She also conducts street activism with Anonymous for the Voiceless and enjoys providing workshops for vegans to improve their outreach skills.

https://www.instagram.com/deannakangas/