A Kynd Life

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...

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 tre...

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&a...

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 brotherh...

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 strai...

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...

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 r...

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 wro...

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,...

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 pho...

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...

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...

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...

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 Yog...

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 cr...

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...

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 f...

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 alway...

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...

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...

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 wa...

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...

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 enj...

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 ani...

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 vegetar...