No-Bullsh!t Vegan

"The cartoonist makes people see things." Cartoonist, educator, and comics researcher Julian Lawrence has been proving that for decades. We met during a virtual coffee chat, and I knew right away he had to come on the show. Julian has been vegan since 2000 and is a senior lecturer in comics and graphic novels at Teesside University in the UK. He created the Green Kid educational comic series and D...

After 230+ episodes, I have a new winner for the most interesting vegan origin story I've heard on this show. Dominick Thompson grew up on the west side of Chicago. He broke up dog fights as a kid, refused chicken wings at age eight because they looked like "little bitty arms," and then spent years dealing drugs to get his family out of poverty. That lifestyle landed him in federal prison, and in...

Dotsie Bausch went from hospitalization due to an eating disorder to standing on the Olympic podium as a fully vegan athlete. She was the oldest in her discipline to ever take the Olympic podium, and she gained ten pounds of muscle for the switch from road to track cycling (all powered by plants, of course). We trace that arc, then get into how an anti-dairy ad that the dairy industry got pulled f...

Zineb "Zizi" Hattab set out to open a restaurant, not make history. A month before signing the lease, the trained chef had a change of heart and decided her new venture, KLE, would be fully plant-based. Today KLE holds both a green and a red Michelin star, making it the first vegan restaurant in Switzerland to do so. Zizi has since opened two more concepts on the same Zurich street: DAR, inspired...

Kaylin Foisy has been part of the K.I. team for five years — podcast production, social media, and now stepping into a bigger coaching role. In this Coaches' Corner chat, we get into Coach Kaylin's 20-year vegan journey (which started with ethics at age twelve, long before she'd heard the word "vegan"), what it's actually like coaching clients online versus in person, and how a chronic illness dia...

Growing up in a farming community in Southwestern Uganda eventually led Nabaasa Innocent to animal welfare work, and to organizing the country's first vegan festival. Founder of Uganda Vegan Society (now transitioning into Humane Shift Alliance Africa) and senior co-manager of Thrive Africa at Thrive Philanthropy, Nabaasa joins me to talk about why veganism gets dismissed as "a Western concept" in...

Dr. Phil Narini spent decades hunting, fishing, and eating meat-centric Italian home cooking before a single lecture on fish and mercury changed his and his wife's eating habits overnight — no cravings, no willpower. Fifteen years later, he's a reconstructive plastic surgeon who insists he's not a nutrition expert (and thinks you should be suspicious of anyone who claims to be), co-founder of a wh...

Gym culture likes to pretend it's apolitical: just protein, PRs, and personal responsibility. My guest this week isn't buying it. andrea bennett is a senior editor at The Tyee and the author of several books, including Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, which won a Taste Canada Gold Award. andrea also happens to be my open water swim buddy of several years,...

Co-founder of Clean Food Dirty Girl and certified life coach, Molly Patrick, joins me to talk about why knowing *what* to eat is only half the battle. We dig into the mindset work behind lasting behaviour change, why abundance — not restriction — is the real engine of sustainable eating, and how dismantling shame-based diet culture is just as important as knowing what to put on your plate. Molly a...

I'm turning 40 in a few days, so (obviously) I'm hosting an online taco party Hope to see you there!   Cook along with me, or just watch and hang out. We'll do a book giveaway, Q&A, and share vegan intel with likeminded folks. Join me on Wednesday, June 17 at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. It's free, it's going to be a super-fun community event, and I'd love to celebrate with you.   Grab your spot at...

Five years after her first appearance on the show, Nana-Serwa Mancell returns to share her journey from running a vegan African food business in Dubai to building a sustainability-focused retreat and community space in Ghana. We discuss West African vegan food traditions, overlooked plant protein sources, ethical tourism, sustainable fashion, environmental challenges in Ghana, and why she believes...

I'm announcing the brand-new Patreon for the No-Bullsh!t Vegan podcast and giving you a peek at what's inside. Check it out at patreon.com/noBSvegan! If the podcast has helped you feel stronger, more informed, more connected, or more confident in your vegan life, this is one way to help keep it growing, while getting some fun (and possibly unhinged) bonus content and behind-the-scenes access along...

After going vegan in 1981, Dr. Michael Klaper has spent decades helping patients use food to reverse chronic disease. He's now focused on a new mission: changing medical education from the inside out.  We talk about his transition to veganism in the early 1980s, the moment he realized food was at the root of many chronic diseases, and why most doctors still receive shockingly little nutrition educ...

What does it mean to treat veganism not just as an identity, but as a practice? I'm joined by Paul Erlandson, co-founder of Rivendell Sanctuary, for a conversation about animal sanctuaries, ethical veganism, mindfulness, and the relationships we build with farmed animals when we actually get to know them as individuals. Paul shares the story of how he and his wife started their sanctuary from scra...

Strength training in later life might be one of the most important things you can do for your health. Jane Thurnell-Read—vegan, author, activist, and 78-year-old strength athlete—joins me to share how she went from thinking she was "too old for the gym" to deadlifting 160 pounds and getting stronger every year. We get into what actually changes when you start lifting later in life, why it's never...

Gail Eisnitz, chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association and author of Out of Sight, shares what it's really like to spend decades documenting animal cruelty inside slaughterhouses and factory farms, and why she chose to tell her story as a memoir. We talk about how her work led her to become vegan, what she's witnessed behind the scenes in the meat industry, and the frustrating reality...

Leanna Carriere and Dr. Timm Döbert are preparing to cycle 30,000 km from Alaska to Chile as part of their Wings of Survival project, following migratory birds and raising awareness about biodiversity and climate. We talk about how they fuel extreme endurance—like cycling 150 km a day and eating up to 10,000 calories—entirely on a vegan diet. We also dig into the environmental side: land use, why...

Javant joins me to talk about his journey to veganism, which began with a major health scare and evolved over many years into a fully vegan lifestyle. We discuss how he moved from trying different diets to embracing whole-food plant-based eating, and how that shift eventually expanded beyond health to include empathy for animals and compassion for people who aren't vegan. Javant also shares detail...

Coach Zoe and I are back for a Coaches' Corner episode, answering the questions we didn't get to during our recent live No-B.S. Reset panel event. We dig into some of the most common (and most frustrating) myths we see in the fitness and nutrition space, especially around strength training, supplements, and social-media "advice."  If you're new to lifting, feeling overwhelmed by conflicting inform...

What happens when a doctor, a registered dietitian, an agrologist, and a fitness coach sit down to answer real audience questions? Find out in this episode. In this follow-up to our live No-B.S. Reset panel event, we tackle the questions we didn't have time to answer on Zoom, covering everything from vegan nutrition myths to food system misconceptions. You'll hear evidence-based, practical answers...

What if getting healthier didn't require more willpower, more tracking, or more "optimizing"… but less? Kwame Terra and I dig into what the world's longest-living communities actually do differently — and spoiler: it's not VO2 max tests, cold plunges, or biohacking spreadsheets. It's walking, connection, and movement that's baked into daily life. Kwame shares how he's building community-based fitn...

5-time Juno Award winner and founding member of Blue Rodeo Bob Wiseman joins me for a wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation about music, aging, and what it actually looks like to live vegan for decades—long before it was mainstream or convenient. Bob and I talk about his early days with macrobiotics and touring as a long-term vegan, why grocery stores matter more than restaurants on the road, and...

Mike Howard is back on the podcast! We start with a proper catch-up: his retreats, my TEDx prep, and the reality of juggling health goals alongside real life. From there, we dive into what's been taking over the wellness section of the internet lately: longevity, biohacking, and the obsession with tracking everything. We talk about why the basics are still the basics (sleep, strength training, pro...

Vystopia is the profound anguish many ethical vegans experience when living in a non-vegan world. Clare Mann explains why this response is normal rather than pathological, how the burden of knowing affects mental health, and why vegans are often misunderstood by families, professionals, and society at large. We explore compassion fatigue, burnout, and practical ways to stay grounded, resilient, an...

At 72, Pat Farrell is turning heads in the powerlifting world. Pat is a Dominican sister, a longtime advocate for social justice, and a dedicated vegan who has recently taken the strength community by storm. She joins me to share her journey into competitive powerlifting, her rapid progress in training, and what it feels like to become known as the vegan powerlifting nun in mainstream news. Pat is...