June 26, 2025 • 24 mins
For more exclusive content and personal writing from me, check out my Substack here.
On my Substack, I share not only my own reflections and personal thoughts on veganism, but also my journey and struggles. You’ll get a deeper insight into the issues that matter most to me and, in doing so, I hope it helps you feel more connected to your own veganism as well. It’s a space where we can connect and explore the intersection of compassion, reason and rationality together. By joining my Substack you also support the work that I do!
Through my Substack you can also receive regular free 'Good News Roundups' - a collection of positive and inspiring stories from the world of veganism.
If you’d like to support my work separately to Substack, you can also make a one-off or monthly donation here or through my PayPal.
If you’re interested in reading my books, you can find them here:
📚 My latest book How to Argue With a Meat Eater (And Win Every Time) + if you’ve read the book, you can leave a review here!
📚 My first book This is Vegan Propaganda (& Other Lies the Meat Industry Tells You).
Additionally, if you enjoyed this episode, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a review or rating. Your feedback helps the podcast reach more people, and it truly means a lot to me. If you think this episode would resonate with someone you know, please share it with them too.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode and for all of your support. I look forward to speaking to you again in the next episode!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Welcome to the Disclosure Podcast.
If you enjoy this episode andthe work that I'm doing here,
then please consider checkingout my Substack where I post
regular articles.
You can also support my work bybecoming a paid member of my
Substack, through which you willalso gain access to weekly
articles or by making a donationthrough my website.
Links for everything can befound in this episode's show
(00:52):
notes.
For those of you who do supportmy work, thank you so much.
I am incredibly grateful andappreciate it very much.
Leaving a review for thispodcast is also really helpful
and encourages more people tolisten to it.
I hope you find this episodeinteresting and informative, and
thank you for listening.
(01:13):
So, hello everyone.
It's been a little while since Ilast uploaded a podcast episode,
which is a shame because I usedto really enjoy podcasting, and
it's why I'm so thrilled to bebringing it back.
And the episode title for thisepisode is A New Chapter.
Thank you for watching.
(01:45):
Hello, welcome back to theDisclosure Podcast.
I'm really looking forward torecording more solo episodes
like the one that you'relistening to right now, but also
more interviews with guests.
I used to really enjoyinterviewing people and that was
a personal highlight of thepodcast before.
I was going to talk to reallyinteresting people about a wide
(02:07):
range of different subjectsrelated to veganism and animal
exploitation and plant-baseddiets and such.
And so I'm going to be doingthat again, of course.
I've got some really fascinatingconversations lined up and I
can't wait for you guys to beable to listen to them, watch
them if you're watching onYouTube as well.
And one of the other reasons whyI'm calling this a new chapter
is because I'm introducing aSubstack.
(02:28):
Now, for those of you who don'tknow what Substack is, it's
essentially a platform where Ican post articles, where I can
write articles And I can postthat on this substack and you
can engage with the substack ina couple of ways.
The first way is that it will beemailed to you.
So when I upload a substack, itwill essentially be emailed to
you kind of like a mailing list.
(02:48):
So if you sign up to a mailinglist, maybe you've signed up to
my mailing list before andyou'll know that you'll get an
email to your email and you canread through it.
Well, the substack operates inthat way as well.
So when I post a substack, itwill go to your email and you
can engage with it like youwould a mailing list.
But you can also go onto mysubstack and it'll essentially
be kind of like a media page.
Like maybe you go on aparticular news site.
(03:10):
It'll kind of be like that.
You'll be able to see all thedifferent articles that I've
posted.
You'll be able to engage withthem, comment on them, that kind
of thing.
Now, maybe for those of youwho've signed up to my mailing
list previously, one of thereasons that you might have done
that is for something called theGood News Roundup.
And a Good News Roundup isessentially where I collate some
of the good, positive newsstories from the world of
veganism and animal rights.
And then I essentially emailthose to you so that you can see
(03:33):
all the positive things that arehappening and realize that Yes,
the world is quite doom andgloom right now.
And my goodness, isn't there 101reasons why we can feel worried
and disappointed and distraught?
But there is also the sense ofchange happening within that,
around that, despite that.
And the Good News Roundup isabout reinforcing that view and
(03:53):
filling ourselves with a senseof confidence and hope and
understanding that there ischange amongst the chaos.
So for those of you who signedup to my main list before, don't
worry, it will go basicallythrough Substack.
So essentially you'll still getthe Good News Roundup.
It's just not coming through thesame platform.
It'll be coming throughSubstack.
However, also on my Substack,you can become a paid member.
(04:15):
So as well as receiving the freecontent, like the Good News
Roundups and occasional freearticles, you'll have access to
all of the articles that I willbe writing.
And also you'll be supportingthe work that I do.
So if you're interested insupporting wider work and also
accessing all the differentarticles that I'll be posting
then by becoming a paid memberyou can do that and I just want
(04:37):
to say to any of you who do wantto become a paid member of my
sub stack well thank you so somuch I really do appreciate all
of the support that you've allgiven me throughout the years
writing has become a really bigpart of my life obviously
because of the books that I'vethat I've published so far I
mean, writing's always been abig part of my work because I
might write videos, writecaptions, write posts, but
(04:59):
writing books opened that quitebroadly.
And I found it really rewardingand enriching and really
enjoyable.
Again, the sub-stag, the ideabehind it is that like the
podcast, yes, I'll addresstopics.
Yes, I'll be debunking somemisinformation.
Yes, I'll be addressing certainthings, but also it's about
(05:19):
expressing myself personally.
And I find that easier to do inthe written form because you can
think, you can mull things over,you can really ruminate and you
can express yourself.
And I really enjoy that.
And so what I'll be sharing onmy Substack will often be quite
personal about what I'm feeling,how I'm engaging with the world
(05:39):
around me, some of theexperiences that I've had, what
essentially this ongoing journeyis looking like for me.
So if that sounds like somethingyou'd be interested in, then
that's also what will be thereon my Substack.
And what I'm hoping is thatthrough expressing these
personal aspects, expressingmyself more emotionally, let's
say, what are my feelings andthoughts and concerns, but also
(06:04):
on the flip side, why I'mfeeling optimistic and positive
and what gives me inspiration.
Through doing that, I hope thatit will also validate the
experience of being vegan foryou and provide you with the
space where your experiences arebeing affirmed and where your
world around you starts tohopefully make a little bit more
sense through theinterpretations of the world
around me that i will beconveying one thing that i've
(06:25):
really reflected on i suppose inthe past two years let's say is
the importance of our communityand the importance of affirming
to ourselves why we live the waythat we do and finding
validation from one anotherpreviously a lot of my content
was really catered towards okayi want to get this content out
to get people to go vegan andi'm still going to be uploading
(06:46):
that content as well.
There's still debates that I'llbe uploading and other videos on
my YouTube channel that will beaddressing certain topics and
addressing certain issues.
But I think in the past year orso especially, the content
that's resonated most with meand from some of the feedback
I've had from you guys, thecontent that I think has
resonated most with you hasoften been that content which
(07:10):
addresses the experience ofliving vegan.
And I think that is so importantnow because of some of the
concerns that exist, some of thepushback that there is, and some
of the gaslighting that exists,some of the campaigns of
misinformation anddisinformation, the way that
social media and the algorithmon social media pushes a lot of
(07:33):
very dangerous and toxiccontent.
And that applies to vegancontent as well.
A lot of anti-vegan content, alot of unsubstantiated anecdotal
content, a lot of sort ofright-wing content which has the
edge of pushing meat and pushingred meat in particular and
carnivore diets and these sortof harmful alternative
(07:53):
meat-based diets.
And I think because of that, itcan feel sometimes for us as
vegans that we are beingbarraged with a lot of very
negative things.
And that can weigh heavy on us.
Of course, it can weigh heavy onus.
I also will just probablydiscuss why I don't think that's
(08:15):
fully representative of thewhole situation we find
ourselves in.
There's lots of things to bepositive about, but undeniably,
there is this kind ofcontradiction where these two
things can be true at once,where there are reasons to feel
positive and to feel hopeful,but undeniably, there's lots of
reasons why we might feelslightly pessimistic, why we
might feel like, like theprogress that we were making has
(08:36):
been somewhat stalled and that,pardon the pun, the appetite for
this conversation has beensomewhat diminished in recent
years.
And not just diminished in termsof people engaging with it, but
diminished in the sense that themeat industry and social media
commentators who are anti-veganhave managed to create forms of
conversation or narratives whichhave proved to be fairly
(08:59):
effective when it comes toattacking the validity of
plant-based alternatives,attacking the validity of maybe
even the sustainability messagesaround veganism.
And we see that with the rise ofregenerative, so-called
regenerative agriculture andgrass-fed beef and the push to
eat red meat because it storescarbon and attacking plant-based
diets for not being sustainablelike we've been told they were
(09:21):
because of almond farming orwhatever it may be These are not
necessarily new for us asvegans.
We were dealing with this five,six years ago.
But I do think that the way thatthey've been used and the way
that they've been weaponized andthe way that they've been
disseminated online has led to alot of confusion and doubt
around the merits of aplant-based diet and the merits,
(09:43):
let's say, of living vegan.
And that's incrediblyfrustrating for us for two
reasons.
First, because it's completelyuntrue.
It is so annoying, isn't it, tobe watching this this content,
are engaging with this contentand seeing it and just knowing
how it's been deliberatelymisrepresented or is
misrepresenting the evidence.
(10:04):
It has deliberately been twistedto push a narrative, an agenda,
a bias.
We see how these things areplaying out because we actually
know the the mechanisms behindthat.
And there was this reallyinteresting report that was
published recently, which waslooking at this campaign of
disinformation that wasconducted by this PR company
called Red Flag, which as aname, can we just say like, if
(10:27):
you're calling yourself Red Flagand then you're going out
spreading disinformationdeliberately, I mean, wow, okay.
Is that some deliberate thing?
I mean, surely not, but of allthe names to choose for your
company that spreadsdisinformation, disinformation
and misinformation on behalf ofthe meat industry, red flag,
wow.
You've got to smile about that,right?
(10:48):
But it was really fascinating toread that report because it
showed just how these campaignsof disinformation operate and
how these PR companies are beinghired by the animal agriculture
industry to basically spreaddoubt and to basically take over
a certain narrative and co-optit and then start to incorporate
their messaging in such a way asit diminishes and demeans the
(11:10):
actual evidence from scientists,let's say.
And in this particular expose,it was looking at a report
called the Eat Lancet Study,which was published back in
2019, I believe.
And it was met with such aferocious push that it was
actually kind of surprising.
Like, where did this come from?
Well, this expose was showingthat this pushback was a highly
and heavily orchestratedcampaign of disinformation
(11:32):
spearheaded by a PR companycalled Red Flag, funded by the
animal agriculture industry.
Right.
So there's a lot of reason whyyou might feel quite frustrated.
And so I won the podcast and mywork, maybe more generally, to
be tapping into this experienceof being vegan.
Because I need that as well.
I need that.
(11:53):
I need this feeling ofcommunity, this feeling of
validation, this feeling that,yes, the world isn't where we
want it to be, but we have oneanother.
And the way that we feel isvalid and the experiences and
emotions that we have within usor that we experience around us,
they're valid and they'rereasonable.
(12:16):
We might need to find ways ofdealing with them and coping
with this contradiction, thisjuxtaposition of living in a
world where all these things areso obviously bad, but happening
and condoned by the masses, evenif ignorantly condoned.
We have to find ways to dealwith that.
But part of that is acceptance.
And part of acceptance isvalidation.
(12:37):
It's feeling the way that wefeel and rationalizing that, not
shaming ourselves or pushingthose emotions and feelings
down.
It's understanding them.
experiencing them, validatingthem for ourselves and one
another, and then finding waysto move on and deal with this
experience that we have.
And of course, I'm very, very,very cautious not to try and
(12:59):
portray this situation in such away as to say that we vegans are
the ones who, out of the veganthing, are the ones suffering.
it's the animals who aresuffering the most, but that
doesn't mean that we can't feelvalid with the emotions that we
feel and the experiences that wehave.
Yes, we may not be the truevictims of this particular
movement, this particular issue,but that doesn't mean that we
(13:20):
shouldn't validate one anotherand experience the things that
we feel without judgment,without shame.
And I've realized that, and I'vestrongly felt that within
myself, and I want to be able toexperience that with my
audience, you guys, the peoplewho engage with my content, the
people who supported me throughall of these years.
Because I think now we are insuch a turbulent time where we
(13:44):
hear about ex-vegans and we hearabout people turning their back
and we hear stories about how,oh, the number of people going
vegan isn't what it was or thepeople who are interested in it.
And we hear all of this and it'shard to decipher what's true and
what's sensationalist and whatthe evidence shows.
And I don't think it's quite assimple as maybe some of these
narratives say that it is.
But I think it's reallyimportant that for those of us
(14:05):
who are so passionate aboutthis, and we all are so
passionate about this, ofcourse, it's so important that
we have the support of oneanother.
And I want this podcast and Iwant the platforms that I have
to be a space where, yes, we canbring people in and hopefully
get them to go vegan and we can,you know, the debates or
whatever I'm doing, hopefully isencouraging people to be vegan.
(14:27):
But through that, I want tocreate a positive emotion for
us, for us vegans.
because feeling positive,feeling hopeful, feeling
validated, even validated in thesense where something is not
pleasant, where something isuncomfortable, something is
upsetting, but we can experiencethat, we can talk about that, we
can rationalize that, we can getto the bottom of that together
and then feel that together andthen exist together as a
(14:48):
community.
That is so important.
I so strongly believe that.
So I've uploaded a couple ofvideos in the past 12 months or
so, which have talked about someof these issues, living vegan in
a non-vegan world, what it'slike, to have a vegan experience
at Christmas, these kinds ofthings.
And we'll touch on thosesubjects and we'll touch on much
more as well.
(15:08):
Of course, it's not just aboutthat.
We're gonna talk aboutmisinformation and
disinformation.
We're gonna talk about a widerange of different things, but I
think all under this sort ofumbrella, this idea, of
affirming this to ourselves, offinding community with one
another, finding a space wherewe can be vegan and we can
express ourselves and we canfeel validated and we can feel
comfortable and we can feel likewe are not the ones who are
(15:33):
living in this paradoxical statewhere actually it is the world
around us that lives in thisparadoxical state where good,
compassionate, kind people areengaging these horrible, violent
atrocities every single day.
And it's not because they arebad or even conscious of that,
but because we live in a worldwhere there is advertising and
media and these propagandacampaigns which are normalizing
this system of violence and harmand that is a heavy burden heavy
(15:57):
weight that we have on ourshoulders to live in that world
of contradiction thisparadoxical society this
confusing immoral society evenif not necessarily immoral
because the people engaging init are consciously doing
something immoral they're justthey're ignorant and that
ignorance isn't necessarily anyfault of their own.
(16:18):
It's more like a prescribedignorance where there's this
system of animal exploitationthat exists in such a way and is
normalized in such a way as itsort of prescribes ignorance.
Because you have to seek out theinformation, you have to seek
out the videos, the studies, youhave to kind of go a little bit
beyond just the surface level ofexisting in the world to start
(16:41):
to maybe understand just howubiquitous and normal and torrid
and cruel and horrible thesystem of animal exploitation
is.
Anyway, that maybe goes into alittle bit of detail about some
of the things I've been thinkingabout recently and the podcast.
What are some of the issues Iwant to talk about?
Why I want to carve out thisspace?
There are a lot of veryfascinating subjects right now
(17:03):
that are worthy of addressing.
And I say fascinating, notbecause they're wonderful, but
the opposite.
I mean, they're kind ofterrible, really, aren't they?
But fascinating in the sense of,from an analytical perspective,
from a from a discussion pointperspective, there is a lot in
there that is worth unpackingand worth sort of going into
(17:24):
more detail about.
And part of that will be aroundsort of the wellness pseudo
spiritual place.
It will be around sort ofright-wing populism.
It will be around not just theright-wing populism, but maybe
even the failings of left-wingadvocates, left-wing populism to
address this particular issue,this incredibly vital and
(17:45):
important issue, which has beenoverlooked across the political
spectrum.
And what does this gap withinleft-wing conversations and
within left-wing ideology meanfor veganism and what impact
will that have?
There's such a broad spectrum ofconversation to be had.
And for those of you who haveread my second book, How to
Argue with a And when every timeyou'll already know that I'm
really interested in discussingsort of the political spectrum
(18:07):
and the different arguments usedacross the political spectrum
against veganism.
In fact, if you're interested inmisinformation and in
disinformation, then my secondbook, How to Argue with a Meat
Eater, goes into a lot of detailabout those subjects and points
to different case studies anddifferent examples and breaks
them down to provide clarity andcontext around veganism.
how these campaigns work, howthis messaging interrupts the
(18:31):
information landscape anddistorts the narrative in the
minds of the consumer, in theminds of the public.
If those are topics that are ofinterest to you, then in my
second book, I do discuss thosein quite a bit of detail because
it's something that I'm reallypassionate about.
And actually, I think we have tounderstand how these things work
to be able to properly addressthem and deal with them.
(18:53):
And I think that applies topeople on an individual level.
I think sometimes as advocatesor as activists, we can have
this sort of barrier where wethink that any attempt to try
and understand someone'sbehavior or to kind of get to
the bottom of why someonebelieves the things that they do
or how they've come to thisworldview, we sometimes, I
think, worry that that is in away a form of condoning that
(19:15):
viewpoint because but it isn't.
And if we can understand why andhow someone has got to the
position that they're in, itmeans that we can become better
at convincing them of why it isthat they're wrong.
And so one of the reasons I'mpassionate about going through
the misinformation anddisinformation is not just
because it's important toaddress it and we need to debunk
it.
And my second book is all aboutdebunking these arguments, these
(19:38):
fallacious arguments and thismisinformation and
disinformation.
It's important for us to debunkit because it's validating for
us to go, i knew this was wrongthis is all the reasons why it's
wrong gosh like this is crazy ami crazy no i'm not look this is
how it works this is how thesecampaigns operate this is how
this misinformation is spreadthis is why people believe these
(19:59):
terrible things because of howthese things operate and how
this system condones such thingsand then enables other people to
participate in these industrieswithout consciously reflecting
on them and you know, criticallyreflecting on the morality or
immorality of them, that spaceis validating for us because it
allows us to exist morecomfortably in this world
because we can understand it alittle bit better.
(20:20):
Not agree with it, butunderstand it.
That's so important, I think.
And it also means that we canbecome, hopefully, better
advocates, stronger influencers.
I don't mean influencers interms of social media
influencers, but influencersinfluences in terms of our own
personal lives, our friends, ourfamily, the people that we
engage with.
If we can understand theirbehavior, it can make coexisting
(20:42):
with them easier.
Not easy, but easier.
And it can also make gettingthrough to them easier.
Not easy, but potentiallyeasier.
And I suppose in essence, that'swhat I wanted this episode to
kind of be about.
Just sort of addressing some ofthe things I've been thinking
about, what I've been mullingover.
quite consistently recently.
And also what direction I movemy content in.
(21:04):
It's not a radical departurefrom what it is that I have been
doing, but it will be moreconsistent and it will allow me
to engage with you more and itwill be more personal.
And I think that that's so keyfor us to validate one another.
Like I've said many times,validate one another and foster
this community that we havetogether in a time where it is
turbulent and the winds of chaosare blowing extremely strongly
(21:27):
That's how it feels, beingbattered constantly by this
barrage of strong, chaoticdisturbance around us.
And it's important that weremain resolute, anchored in
rationality, anchored incompassion in a world where such
a thing seems to havedisappeared or maybe has never
existed, at least not existed inthe way that we, of course, want
(21:49):
it to.
So it's important that we remainanchored in rationality and in
compassion and in togetherness,in community.
Anyway.
Thank you so much for listening.
I really appreciate it.
Do let me know down below in thecomments if you're watching this
on YouTube, if there are anyissues you'd like me to talk
about, any particularconversations that you'd like me
to address, any experiences thatyou've had that you think would
(22:10):
be worthy of kind of going intodetail around, not necessarily
the experiences individually,but sort of the wider context
around them, the arguments, whypeople say these things, what is
the psychology behind why peopleact...
the way that they do.
If there are any particularsubjects that you think would be
of particular value for us todiscuss on this podcast, then do
let me know.
And I'm really looking forwardto uploading some of these
(22:32):
interviews that I've got withsome really fascinating people.
So stay tuned for those as well,because I just always feel so
humbled and so privileged to bein the company of people who are
so clever, who are so committed,who are so dedicated to their
work and who produce suchexcellent quality of work as
well.
And I just love talking withpeople who are like that because
they inspire me and I trulybelieve that they will inspire
(22:54):
all of you when you get tolisten to them as well.
Anyway, thank you so much forlistening.
I really do appreciate it.
For those of you who areinterested in checking out the
sub stack, I'll leave links downbelow for you to do that.
And I really appreciate all ofyou who sign up.
And of course, all of you whosign up to become paid members
as well.
Thank you so, so much.
I really do appreciate it.
All right, guys, thank you somuch for watching or for
(23:14):
listening.
And I will speak to you all inthe next podcast episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you've enjoyed this episode,make sure to subscribe to the
Disclosure Podcast on whicheverplatform you listen to it as
doing so means that you canalways stay up to date with new
(23:36):
episodes.
Leaving a review and sharing thepodcast is also really helpful.
And if you'd like to support thepodcast and my work more
generally, you can either make adonation through the link in the
show notes or sign up to my substack where I post weekly and
share my thoughts and feelingsabout the experience of living
vegan.
In the show notes, you can alsofind links to purchase my books.
(23:57):
Thank you again for listening.
you
SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Welcome to the Disclosure Podcast.
If you enjoy this episode andthe work that I'm doing here,
then please consider checkingout my Substack where I post
regular articles.
You can also support my work bybecoming a paid member of my
Substack, through which you willalso gain access to weekly
articles or by making a donationthrough my website.
Links for everything can befound in this episode's show
(00:52):
notes.
For those of you who do supportmy work, thank you so much.
I am incredibly grateful andappreciate it very much.
Leaving a review for thispodcast is also really helpful
and encourages more people tolisten to it.
I hope you find this episodeinteresting and informative, and
thank you for listening.
(01:13):
So, hello everyone.
It's been a little while since Ilast uploaded a podcast episode,
which is a shame because I usedto really enjoy podcasting, and
it's why I'm so thrilled to bebringing it back.
And the episode title for thisepisode is A New Chapter.
Thank you for watching.
(01:45):
Hello, welcome back to theDisclosure Podcast.
I'm really looking forward torecording more solo episodes
like the one that you'relistening to right now, but also
more interviews with guests.
I used to really enjoyinterviewing people and that was
a personal highlight of thepodcast before.
I was going to talk to reallyinteresting people about a wide
(02:07):
range of different subjectsrelated to veganism and animal
exploitation and plant-baseddiets and such.
And so I'm going to be doingthat again, of course.
I've got some really fascinatingconversations lined up and I
can't wait for you guys to beable to listen to them, watch
them if you're watching onYouTube as well.
And one of the other reasons whyI'm calling this a new chapter
is because I'm introducing aSubstack.
(02:28):
Now, for those of you who don'tknow what Substack is, it's
essentially a platform where Ican post articles, where I can
write articles And I can postthat on this substack and you
can engage with the substack ina couple of ways.
The first way is that it will beemailed to you.
So when I upload a substack, itwill essentially be emailed to
you kind of like a mailing list.
(02:48):
So if you sign up to a mailinglist, maybe you've signed up to
my mailing list before andyou'll know that you'll get an
email to your email and you canread through it.
Well, the substack operates inthat way as well.
So when I post a substack, itwill go to your email and you
can engage with it like youwould a mailing list.
But you can also go onto mysubstack and it'll essentially
be kind of like a media page.
Like maybe you go on aparticular news site.
(03:10):
It'll kind of be like that.
You'll be able to see all thedifferent articles that I've
posted.
You'll be able to engage withthem, comment on them, that kind
of thing.
Now, maybe for those of youwho've signed up to my mailing
list previously, one of thereasons that you might have done
that is for something called theGood News Roundup.
And a Good News Roundup isessentially where I collate some
of the good, positive newsstories from the world of
veganism and animal rights.
And then I essentially emailthose to you so that you can see
(03:33):
all the positive things that arehappening and realize that Yes,
the world is quite doom andgloom right now.
And my goodness, isn't there 101reasons why we can feel worried
and disappointed and distraught?
But there is also the sense ofchange happening within that,
around that, despite that.
And the Good News Roundup isabout reinforcing that view and
(03:53):
filling ourselves with a senseof confidence and hope and
understanding that there ischange amongst the chaos.
So for those of you who signedup to my main list before, don't
worry, it will go basicallythrough Substack.
So essentially you'll still getthe Good News Roundup.
It's just not coming through thesame platform.
It'll be coming throughSubstack.
However, also on my Substack,you can become a paid member.
(04:15):
So as well as receiving the freecontent, like the Good News
Roundups and occasional freearticles, you'll have access to
all of the articles that I willbe writing.
And also you'll be supportingthe work that I do.
So if you're interested insupporting wider work and also
accessing all the differentarticles that I'll be posting
then by becoming a paid memberyou can do that and I just want
(04:37):
to say to any of you who do wantto become a paid member of my
sub stack well thank you so somuch I really do appreciate all
of the support that you've allgiven me throughout the years
writing has become a really bigpart of my life obviously
because of the books that I'vethat I've published so far I
mean, writing's always been abig part of my work because I
might write videos, writecaptions, write posts, but
(04:59):
writing books opened that quitebroadly.
And I found it really rewardingand enriching and really
enjoyable.
Again, the sub-stag, the ideabehind it is that like the
podcast, yes, I'll addresstopics.
Yes, I'll be debunking somemisinformation.
Yes, I'll be addressing certainthings, but also it's about
(05:19):
expressing myself personally.
And I find that easier to do inthe written form because you can
think, you can mull things over,you can really ruminate and you
can express yourself.
And I really enjoy that.
And so what I'll be sharing onmy Substack will often be quite
personal about what I'm feeling,how I'm engaging with the world
(05:39):
around me, some of theexperiences that I've had, what
essentially this ongoing journeyis looking like for me.
So if that sounds like somethingyou'd be interested in, then
that's also what will be thereon my Substack.
And what I'm hoping is thatthrough expressing these
personal aspects, expressingmyself more emotionally, let's
say, what are my feelings andthoughts and concerns, but also
(06:04):
on the flip side, why I'mfeeling optimistic and positive
and what gives me inspiration.
Through doing that, I hope thatit will also validate the
experience of being vegan foryou and provide you with the
space where your experiences arebeing affirmed and where your
world around you starts tohopefully make a little bit more
sense through theinterpretations of the world
around me that i will beconveying one thing that i've
(06:25):
really reflected on i suppose inthe past two years let's say is
the importance of our communityand the importance of affirming
to ourselves why we live the waythat we do and finding
validation from one anotherpreviously a lot of my content
was really catered towards okayi want to get this content out
to get people to go vegan andi'm still going to be uploading
(06:46):
that content as well.
There's still debates that I'llbe uploading and other videos on
my YouTube channel that will beaddressing certain topics and
addressing certain issues.
But I think in the past year orso especially, the content
that's resonated most with meand from some of the feedback
I've had from you guys, thecontent that I think has
resonated most with you hasoften been that content which
(07:10):
addresses the experience ofliving vegan.
And I think that is so importantnow because of some of the
concerns that exist, some of thepushback that there is, and some
of the gaslighting that exists,some of the campaigns of
misinformation anddisinformation, the way that
social media and the algorithmon social media pushes a lot of
(07:33):
very dangerous and toxiccontent.
And that applies to vegancontent as well.
A lot of anti-vegan content, alot of unsubstantiated anecdotal
content, a lot of sort ofright-wing content which has the
edge of pushing meat and pushingred meat in particular and
carnivore diets and these sortof harmful alternative
(07:53):
meat-based diets.
And I think because of that, itcan feel sometimes for us as
vegans that we are beingbarraged with a lot of very
negative things.
And that can weigh heavy on us.
Of course, it can weigh heavy onus.
I also will just probablydiscuss why I don't think that's
(08:15):
fully representative of thewhole situation we find
ourselves in.
There's lots of things to bepositive about, but undeniably,
there is this kind ofcontradiction where these two
things can be true at once,where there are reasons to feel
positive and to feel hopeful,but undeniably, there's lots of
reasons why we might feelslightly pessimistic, why we
might feel like, like theprogress that we were making has
(08:36):
been somewhat stalled and that,pardon the pun, the appetite for
this conversation has beensomewhat diminished in recent
years.
And not just diminished in termsof people engaging with it, but
diminished in the sense that themeat industry and social media
commentators who are anti-veganhave managed to create forms of
conversation or narratives whichhave proved to be fairly
(08:59):
effective when it comes toattacking the validity of
plant-based alternatives,attacking the validity of maybe
even the sustainability messagesaround veganism.
And we see that with the rise ofregenerative, so-called
regenerative agriculture andgrass-fed beef and the push to
eat red meat because it storescarbon and attacking plant-based
diets for not being sustainablelike we've been told they were
(09:21):
because of almond farming orwhatever it may be These are not
necessarily new for us asvegans.
We were dealing with this five,six years ago.
But I do think that the way thatthey've been used and the way
that they've been weaponized andthe way that they've been
disseminated online has led to alot of confusion and doubt
around the merits of aplant-based diet and the merits,
(09:43):
let's say, of living vegan.
And that's incrediblyfrustrating for us for two
reasons.
First, because it's completelyuntrue.
It is so annoying, isn't it, tobe watching this this content,
are engaging with this contentand seeing it and just knowing
how it's been deliberatelymisrepresented or is
misrepresenting the evidence.
(10:04):
It has deliberately been twistedto push a narrative, an agenda,
a bias.
We see how these things areplaying out because we actually
know the the mechanisms behindthat.
And there was this reallyinteresting report that was
published recently, which waslooking at this campaign of
disinformation that wasconducted by this PR company
called Red Flag, which as aname, can we just say like, if
(10:27):
you're calling yourself Red Flagand then you're going out
spreading disinformationdeliberately, I mean, wow, okay.
Is that some deliberate thing?
I mean, surely not, but of allthe names to choose for your
company that spreadsdisinformation, disinformation
and misinformation on behalf ofthe meat industry, red flag,
wow.
You've got to smile about that,right?
(10:48):
But it was really fascinating toread that report because it
showed just how these campaignsof disinformation operate and
how these PR companies are beinghired by the animal agriculture
industry to basically spreaddoubt and to basically take over
a certain narrative and co-optit and then start to incorporate
their messaging in such a way asit diminishes and demeans the
(11:10):
actual evidence from scientists,let's say.
And in this particular expose,it was looking at a report
called the Eat Lancet Study,which was published back in
2019, I believe.
And it was met with such aferocious push that it was
actually kind of surprising.
Like, where did this come from?
Well, this expose was showingthat this pushback was a highly
and heavily orchestratedcampaign of disinformation
(11:32):
spearheaded by a PR companycalled Red Flag, funded by the
animal agriculture industry.
Right.
So there's a lot of reason whyyou might feel quite frustrated.
And so I won the podcast and mywork, maybe more generally, to
be tapping into this experienceof being vegan.
Because I need that as well.
I need that.
(11:53):
I need this feeling ofcommunity, this feeling of
validation, this feeling that,yes, the world isn't where we
want it to be, but we have oneanother.
And the way that we feel isvalid and the experiences and
emotions that we have within usor that we experience around us,
they're valid and they'rereasonable.
(12:16):
We might need to find ways ofdealing with them and coping
with this contradiction, thisjuxtaposition of living in a
world where all these things areso obviously bad, but happening
and condoned by the masses, evenif ignorantly condoned.
We have to find ways to dealwith that.
But part of that is acceptance.
And part of acceptance isvalidation.
(12:37):
It's feeling the way that wefeel and rationalizing that, not
shaming ourselves or pushingthose emotions and feelings
down.
It's understanding them.
experiencing them, validatingthem for ourselves and one
another, and then finding waysto move on and deal with this
experience that we have.
And of course, I'm very, very,very cautious not to try and
(12:59):
portray this situation in such away as to say that we vegans are
the ones who, out of the veganthing, are the ones suffering.
it's the animals who aresuffering the most, but that
doesn't mean that we can't feelvalid with the emotions that we
feel and the experiences that wehave.
Yes, we may not be the truevictims of this particular
movement, this particular issue,but that doesn't mean that we
(13:20):
shouldn't validate one anotherand experience the things that
we feel without judgment,without shame.
And I've realized that, and I'vestrongly felt that within
myself, and I want to be able toexperience that with my
audience, you guys, the peoplewho engage with my content, the
people who supported me throughall of these years.
Because I think now we are insuch a turbulent time where we
(13:44):
hear about ex-vegans and we hearabout people turning their back
and we hear stories about how,oh, the number of people going
vegan isn't what it was or thepeople who are interested in it.
And we hear all of this and it'shard to decipher what's true and
what's sensationalist and whatthe evidence shows.
And I don't think it's quite assimple as maybe some of these
narratives say that it is.
But I think it's reallyimportant that for those of us
(14:05):
who are so passionate aboutthis, and we all are so
passionate about this, ofcourse, it's so important that
we have the support of oneanother.
And I want this podcast and Iwant the platforms that I have
to be a space where, yes, we canbring people in and hopefully
get them to go vegan and we can,you know, the debates or
whatever I'm doing, hopefully isencouraging people to be vegan.
(14:27):
But through that, I want tocreate a positive emotion for
us, for us vegans.
because feeling positive,feeling hopeful, feeling
validated, even validated in thesense where something is not
pleasant, where something isuncomfortable, something is
upsetting, but we can experiencethat, we can talk about that, we
can rationalize that, we can getto the bottom of that together
and then feel that together andthen exist together as a
(14:48):
community.
That is so important.
I so strongly believe that.
So I've uploaded a couple ofvideos in the past 12 months or
so, which have talked about someof these issues, living vegan in
a non-vegan world, what it'slike, to have a vegan experience
at Christmas, these kinds ofthings.
And we'll touch on thosesubjects and we'll touch on much
more as well.
(15:08):
Of course, it's not just aboutthat.
We're gonna talk aboutmisinformation and
disinformation.
We're gonna talk about a widerange of different things, but I
think all under this sort ofumbrella, this idea, of
affirming this to ourselves, offinding community with one
another, finding a space wherewe can be vegan and we can
express ourselves and we canfeel validated and we can feel
comfortable and we can feel likewe are not the ones who are
(15:33):
living in this paradoxical statewhere actually it is the world
around us that lives in thisparadoxical state where good,
compassionate, kind people areengaging these horrible, violent
atrocities every single day.
And it's not because they arebad or even conscious of that,
but because we live in a worldwhere there is advertising and
media and these propagandacampaigns which are normalizing
this system of violence and harmand that is a heavy burden heavy
(15:57):
weight that we have on ourshoulders to live in that world
of contradiction thisparadoxical society this
confusing immoral society evenif not necessarily immoral
because the people engaging init are consciously doing
something immoral they're justthey're ignorant and that
ignorance isn't necessarily anyfault of their own.
(16:18):
It's more like a prescribedignorance where there's this
system of animal exploitationthat exists in such a way and is
normalized in such a way as itsort of prescribes ignorance.
Because you have to seek out theinformation, you have to seek
out the videos, the studies, youhave to kind of go a little bit
beyond just the surface level ofexisting in the world to start
(16:41):
to maybe understand just howubiquitous and normal and torrid
and cruel and horrible thesystem of animal exploitation
is.
Anyway, that maybe goes into alittle bit of detail about some
of the things I've been thinkingabout recently and the podcast.
What are some of the issues Iwant to talk about?
Why I want to carve out thisspace?
There are a lot of veryfascinating subjects right now
(17:03):
that are worthy of addressing.
And I say fascinating, notbecause they're wonderful, but
the opposite.
I mean, they're kind ofterrible, really, aren't they?
But fascinating in the sense of,from an analytical perspective,
from a from a discussion pointperspective, there is a lot in
there that is worth unpackingand worth sort of going into
(17:24):
more detail about.
And part of that will be aroundsort of the wellness pseudo
spiritual place.
It will be around sort ofright-wing populism.
It will be around not just theright-wing populism, but maybe
even the failings of left-wingadvocates, left-wing populism to
address this particular issue,this incredibly vital and
(17:45):
important issue, which has beenoverlooked across the political
spectrum.
And what does this gap withinleft-wing conversations and
within left-wing ideology meanfor veganism and what impact
will that have?
There's such a broad spectrum ofconversation to be had.
And for those of you who haveread my second book, How to
Argue with a And when every timeyou'll already know that I'm
really interested in discussingsort of the political spectrum
(18:07):
and the different arguments usedacross the political spectrum
against veganism.
In fact, if you're interested inmisinformation and in
disinformation, then my secondbook, How to Argue with a Meat
Eater, goes into a lot of detailabout those subjects and points
to different case studies anddifferent examples and breaks
them down to provide clarity andcontext around veganism.
how these campaigns work, howthis messaging interrupts the
(18:31):
information landscape anddistorts the narrative in the
minds of the consumer, in theminds of the public.
If those are topics that are ofinterest to you, then in my
second book, I do discuss thosein quite a bit of detail because
it's something that I'm reallypassionate about.
And actually, I think we have tounderstand how these things work
to be able to properly addressthem and deal with them.
(18:53):
And I think that applies topeople on an individual level.
I think sometimes as advocatesor as activists, we can have
this sort of barrier where wethink that any attempt to try
and understand someone'sbehavior or to kind of get to
the bottom of why someonebelieves the things that they do
or how they've come to thisworldview, we sometimes, I
think, worry that that is in away a form of condoning that
(19:15):
viewpoint because but it isn't.
And if we can understand why andhow someone has got to the
position that they're in, itmeans that we can become better
at convincing them of why it isthat they're wrong.
And so one of the reasons I'mpassionate about going through
the misinformation anddisinformation is not just
because it's important toaddress it and we need to debunk
it.
And my second book is all aboutdebunking these arguments, these
(19:38):
fallacious arguments and thismisinformation and
disinformation.
It's important for us to debunkit because it's validating for
us to go, i knew this was wrongthis is all the reasons why it's
wrong gosh like this is crazy ami crazy no i'm not look this is
how it works this is how thesecampaigns operate this is how
this misinformation is spreadthis is why people believe these
(19:59):
terrible things because of howthese things operate and how
this system condones such thingsand then enables other people to
participate in these industrieswithout consciously reflecting
on them and you know, criticallyreflecting on the morality or
immorality of them, that spaceis validating for us because it
allows us to exist morecomfortably in this world
because we can understand it alittle bit better.
(20:20):
Not agree with it, butunderstand it.
That's so important, I think.
And it also means that we canbecome, hopefully, better
advocates, stronger influencers.
I don't mean influencers interms of social media
influencers, but influencersinfluences in terms of our own
personal lives, our friends, ourfamily, the people that we
engage with.
If we can understand theirbehavior, it can make coexisting
(20:42):
with them easier.
Not easy, but easier.
And it can also make gettingthrough to them easier.
Not easy, but potentiallyeasier.
And I suppose in essence, that'swhat I wanted this episode to
kind of be about.
Just sort of addressing some ofthe things I've been thinking
about, what I've been mullingover.
quite consistently recently.
And also what direction I movemy content in.
(21:04):
It's not a radical departurefrom what it is that I have been
doing, but it will be moreconsistent and it will allow me
to engage with you more and itwill be more personal.
And I think that that's so keyfor us to validate one another.
Like I've said many times,validate one another and foster
this community that we havetogether in a time where it is
turbulent and the winds of chaosare blowing extremely strongly
(21:27):
That's how it feels, beingbattered constantly by this
barrage of strong, chaoticdisturbance around us.
And it's important that weremain resolute, anchored in
rationality, anchored incompassion in a world where such
a thing seems to havedisappeared or maybe has never
existed, at least not existed inthe way that we, of course, want
(21:49):
it to.
So it's important that we remainanchored in rationality and in
compassion and in togetherness,in community.
Anyway.
Thank you so much for listening.
I really appreciate it.
Do let me know down below in thecomments if you're watching this
on YouTube, if there are anyissues you'd like me to talk
about, any particularconversations that you'd like me
to address, any experiences thatyou've had that you think would
(22:10):
be worthy of kind of going intodetail around, not necessarily
the experiences individually,but sort of the wider context
around them, the arguments, whypeople say these things, what is
the psychology behind why peopleact...
the way that they do.
If there are any particularsubjects that you think would be
of particular value for us todiscuss on this podcast, then do
let me know.
And I'm really looking forwardto uploading some of these
(22:32):
interviews that I've got withsome really fascinating people.
So stay tuned for those as well,because I just always feel so
humbled and so privileged to bein the company of people who are
so clever, who are so committed,who are so dedicated to their
work and who produce suchexcellent quality of work as
well.
And I just love talking withpeople who are like that because
they inspire me and I trulybelieve that they will inspire
(22:54):
all of you when you get tolisten to them as well.
Anyway, thank you so much forlistening.
I really do appreciate it.
For those of you who areinterested in checking out the
sub stack, I'll leave links downbelow for you to do that.
And I really appreciate all ofyou who sign up.
And of course, all of you whosign up to become paid members
as well.
Thank you so, so much.
I really do appreciate it.
All right, guys, thank you somuch for watching or for
(23:14):
listening.
And I will speak to you all inthe next podcast episode.
Thank you so much for listening.
If you've enjoyed this episode,make sure to subscribe to the
Disclosure Podcast on whicheverplatform you listen to it as
doing so means that you canalways stay up to date with new
(23:36):
episodes.
Leaving a review and sharing thepodcast is also really helpful.
And if you'd like to support thepodcast and my work more
generally, you can either make adonation through the link in the
show notes or sign up to my substack where I post weekly and
share my thoughts and feelingsabout the experience of living
vegan.
In the show notes, you can alsofind links to purchase my books.
(23:57):
Thank you again for listening.
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