Think Like a Vegan

In this powerful season finale, I bring our exploration of nature, politics, and animal liberation to a profound conclusion by looking to the forest as a model for a just society. Gregory Tague, a scholar with over two decades of work in environmental and animal ethics, introduces a radical idea: the forest is a sovereign state. It operates not with a single dominant power, but through a complex w...

Join me for a provocative conversation with brothers Vasile and James Stănescu as we deconstruct the common yet charged concept of "invasive species." Moving beyond a simplified view of nature, we explore how the rhetoric of "invasion ecology" creates a violent foundation justifying perpetual war against certain animals. Drawing from their contributions to the critical book, Th...

When disaster strikes – a flood, wildfire, massive quake – most of the headlines understandably focus on the human toll. But what happens to the animals? They are the silent, often invisible victims, and their suffering is deeply intertwined with our own. The bonds between people and their animals and the wildlife sharing our ecosystems mean that when animals suffer, human communities suffer too....

Ever been told an animal is a "problem"? From the deer in our backyards and the pigeons in our cities to the elephants on their ancestral lands, we constantly label other species as pests, nuisances, and issues to be solved. But what if the real problem isn't the animal themselves, but the way we choose to see them? In this episode, Claudia Hirtenfelder, host of the acclaimed podcast The Animal Tu...

Join me for a conversation with scholar-activist Amanda Williams as we dismantle the idea of "adult supremacy" and connect it to the broader fight for total liberation. Amanda shows us how our first lessons in power often start with controlling children, and how to turn that awareness into tangible action for a more compassionate world. Website/Socials & Books Amanda Williams Linktree: https:/...

What happens when a folklorist goes inside vegan and animal rights communities, not as an outsider looking in, but as someone documenting their lived beliefs? Dr. Ceallaigh MacCath-Moran joins me to discuss her research in St. John’s and Toronto, where she explores veganism as a counter-hegemonic tradition and activism as performative resistance. We delve into how media and academia often misrepre...

Roger Yates, a longtime animal rights firebrand, sociologist, and movement historian, cracks open veganism’s radical past. This isn’t just about diet or ethics. It’s about a revolutionary philosophy of total liberation challenging everything. Yates doesn’t just talk theory, he connects the dots to today’s movement in a way that’ll make you reconsider what “vegan” even means. Spoiler: It’s bigger t...

Vance Lehmkhul is a vegan renaissance man: writer, journalist, cartoonist, and now, a vegan history detective. His book Revolutionary Peace cracks open the wild, untold story of how Philadelphia became the unlikely birthplace of America’s vegetarian and vegan revolt. This isn’t just a history lesson. It's a street-level view of radical thinkers who saw food as revolution. We’re talking 18th-ce...

Researcher Rimona Afana unflinchingly exposes the hidden victims of Israel's war on Gaza: the natural world and nonhuman animals. She reveals how advanced weaponry creates a psychological distance enabling destruction on a colossal scale, making ecocide a feature, not a byproduct, of modern conflict. Website/Socials Rimona Afana https://www.linkedin.com/in/rimonaafana Ecocide/Speciesism: Legislati...

There are those who study nature, and then there are those who listen to it. Alan Watson Featherstone is such a listener, a quiet revolutionary who has spent his life translating Earth's silent longing into action. In this episode, we walk with Alan through: The act of rewilding — not just restoring land, but restoring relationship Why healing broken ecosystems is the most radical hope we have...

Capitalism didn't just commodify animals - it turned suffering into an industry. Meet John Sanbonmatsu, the revolutionary philosopher tearing apart the meat-industrial complex in his incendiary new work The Omnivore's Deception. This book is an indictment of the entire capitalist food regime   Sanbonmatsu doesn't debate reform. He demands total dismantling of the oppressive structures that treat l...

This episode goes back to basics. We hear about animal rights, welfare, compassion and kindness. It all sounds like good things and stuff we should have. So I want to share with you why when I talk about animal ethics, I centre my words around rights instead of welfare or compassion and kindness Website/Socials Emi Leese https://emilialeese.substack.com     http://thinklikeavegan.com     http://em...

When you hear the term zoonotic disease, what does it mean to you? What do you think of and who is responsible for them? Maybe you think about Covid 19. How about HIV-AIDS? Is your impression that zoonotic illnesses are something relatively new? Or uncommon? In this episode, I'll explore just how far back in time zoonotic illnesses go and think about how our entanglement with other animals affects...

Ida B. Wells and the relevance of her work to the animal justice movement Zane McNeill and Nathan Poirier discuss Ida B. Wells' historical and contemporary legacy and relevance to critical animal studies  For more than 40 years from the late 1800s, Ida B. Wells fought for justice for Black Americans. Wells was a journalist, newspaper owner, feminist, suffragist and organiser. In particular, she ca...

What should we say to vegans? Benny Malone returns to the podcast to discuss with me what people should say to vegans instead of the usual excuses. Benny joined me in Season One in the episode entitled "Discussing Veganism with Others" where Benny talks about his top five fallacies vegans encounter when talking with others and I talk about my top three tips when engaging with others about veganism...

Pre-order the paperback edition of our book, Think Like a Vegan! This highly anticipated release will be available January 2025 in the UK and worldwide and April 2025 in North America. It will contain a new afterword so you can dive into updates and new material you won't find in the hardcover. We've added insightful reflections and fresh content to keep you inspired and informed. Pre-order on ⁠Am...

Pre-order the paperback edition of our book, Think Like a Vegan! This highly anticipated release will be available from January 2025 in the UK/worldwide and April 2025 in North America. It will contain a new afterword so you can dive into updates and new material you won't find in the hardcover. We've added insightful reflections and fresh content to keep you inspired and informed. Pre-order on ⁠A...

Pre-order the paperback edition of our book, Think Like a Vegan! This highly anticipated release will be available from January 2025 in the UK/worldwide and April 2025 in North America. It will contain a new afterword so you can dive into updates and new material you won't find in the hardcover. We've added insightful reflections and fresh content to keep you inspired and informed. Pre-order on ⁠A...

Pre-order the paperback edition of our book, Think Like a Vegan! This highly anticipated release will be available from January 2025 in the UK/worldwide and April 2025 in North America. It will contain a new afterword so you can dive into updates and new material you won't find in the hardcover. We've added insightful reflections and fresh content to keep you inspired and informed. Pre-order on Am...

In this series, the big theme has been systems with special attention to economics and capitalism. Selling as many different products is one of the principal manifestations of capitalism. And in the context of vegan products - What’s it mean to have more vegan products available to buy? Do more vegan products mean fewer animals are being exploited for their bodies and secretions? Is veganism about...

Sara van Goozen and Josh Milburn are the first to include considering harm to animals in just war theory. Broadly speaking, just war theory looks at whether a war is justified and if so, how that war should be conducted. They authored "Counting Animals in War: First Steps towards an Inclusive Just-War Theory” published in the journal Social Theory and Practice. Sara is a lecturer at the University...

For his Master Thesis, Tim Reysoo developed the concept of human privilege by extending the notion of social privilege to make sense of the enormous power differential between humans and animals in society. He develops the concept and social category of “species privilege” and “human innocence”. Tim studied Philosophy and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He conduct...

Doctor Josh Milburn's book, Just Fodder: The ethics of feeding animals (McGill-Queen's University Press), explores a variety of questions from “Who are we obliged to feed? Who are we permitted to feed? What are we allowed to feed animals? To What is the role of the state in feeding animals? And How might obligations concerning the feeding of animals differ from obligations concerning the feeding o...

Joshua Katcher and Tracey Katof are researching the fashion industry as a compelling case-study for the macroeconomic phenomenon of circumfauna, a term Joshua coined. They analyse the social, historical, and environmental influences on the large-scale shift towards intentionally reframing supply chains without animals. Joshua Katcher is a fashion designer, author and educator who has taught at Par...

Infighting. It’s something people in the veganverse complain about. So what do we mean by infighting? Is it something unique to the vegan and animal rights space? Should we be concerned about it? Does it benefit one group over another? How should we engage with it if at all? And what might be some of its consequences, if any? If this is something you think about or have encountered, you’re not alo...