Vegan Posse

An adventurer in both body and spirit, Steven Shalowitz has been to over 70 countries - and counting! Steven was considering giving up eating meat while living in Singapore, but an interview with now-deceased celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain convinced him that if he did, he'd be missing out on key cultural experiences. (Heard that one before, anyone?) Nevertheless, over the years, Steven found...

What started out as an attempt to heal her severe acne became a lifelong passion for health and wellness for Oregon-based foodie/recipe creator/activist Amanda Sick, author of recipe e-book Simply Sweet . Now a vegan for over five years, Amanda uses her background in advertising, communications, and graphic design to encourage others to make changes toward a healthier lifestyle. Her recipe e-book...

These days, humans can generally be found glued to their screens - and longtime animal advocate John Oberg is taking advantage of our virtually-focused reality by shifting his vegan activism exclusively to the massive public square that is social media. Through his strategic use of social media platforms, content posted to pages he has managed has been seen over 1 billion times. Originally from De...

Ever wonder where the concept of the glycemic index came from? This guy! Dr. David Jenkins is a professor in both the Departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto, a staff physician in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the Director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center, St. Michael’s Hospital. Dr. Jenkins has served on commit...

Where are all the vegetarians in our history books - especially the vegetarian women? Part of the problem in tracing our plant-based past is that the word "vegetarian" wasn't even used in the United States until around 1850. And no one was writing about women , like vegetarian pioneer Ellen G. White! But in early 2020, journalist Avery Yale Kamila, long-running author of the Vegan Ki...

When I heard that FIt Vegan Coaching founder Maxime Sigouin helped his 58-year-old mom get - and maintain - six-pack abs, I had to hear more! In this deeply personal interview, Maxime talks not only about his unique approach to body transformation but also about growing up on a family farm raising (and killing) chickens, geese, pigs, rabbits, horses, and bulls, his herculean efforts to raise money...

"I believe animals are our saviors." Brooklyn-born Angela Fischetti is no stranger to tough times - but some steadfast animal companions saw her through some of the worst moments. She began teaching seniors while in her 30s, when she herself was just embarking upon her own healing journey. Now, three decades later, Angela has emerged victorious from hard-won battles for her physical and...

"This whole idea of using medicine to take away people's rights, it's not new. Health has been used as the method for tyranny for a long, long time." While completing her medical training in 1998, Dr. Pam Popper wrote her dissertation on one Anthony Fauci. When Fauci again reared his double-talking head in 2020, longtime health freedom advocate Dr. Popper knew that we were in for...

"For the individual soul, it is very freeing to be vegan." Perhaps it was her gentle, soft-spoken way of conveying some of the awful realities faced by cows, dogs, and other non-human animals, but journalist Karen Asp holds the distinction of being the first Vegan Posse guest to make me tear up on air. In this Vegan Posse episode, Karen talks about her multifaceted writing career, her ti...

Vegan design has come a long way, from hippie home decorating. Struck vegan after watching a PETA video about dog leather, luxury interior designer Deborah DiMare instantly made the vegan leap for both herself and her design business. Without even realizing it, her design company soon became the #1 "vegan design" search result on Google. Deborah went on to become a published author, TV p...

Are we really still doing this in the 21st century? Horseracing is a "sport" built on the backs of animals who are kept in isolation and confinement for 23 hours of every day, die by the thousands every year on the track, are illegally drugged and doped, and whose reward after retiring from a successful "career" is to be slaughtered and sold for their flesh for human (yes, huma...

What hasn't this self-described "lifetime mystic" done? In addition to founding company Rawsome Creations to help people streamline wholesome food prep, Brenda Hinton has worked as an animal communicator, bio resonance therapist, international tour guide, and travel agent. She's also a two-time breast cancer survivor and thriver - and she's doing everything she can to help ot...

"I always wanted to be a doctor." From an early age, parroting terms from her dermatologist father's medical journals, Dr. Debra Shapiro was clear on her vocational calling. But her mother's death from a brain tumor when she was just 14 threw her into an emotional tailspin, and she left high school, later obtaining her GED. She went on to college at age 16 but "didn't la...

"It was drilled into me that it was bad for me to eat plants - by doctors!" says Michelle Cen of the eating disorder treatment she underwent for severe anorexia at age 17. "I learned what it was like not to have rights. And it essentially taught me what not to eat." One of the Big Five Personality traits is openness to new experiences, and Michelle possibly broke that test! A S...

"It's always an empty boat. There's nothing personal, ever." Of course we all want world peace - so how the heck did we end up with a food system that's premised on violence against non-human animals? Dr. Will Tuttle explores these and related issues in his epic book The World Peace Diet , which I consider my personal vegan bible. In this revelatory interview, this former Zen monk gives us his ins...

She's young, she's motivated, and she's been asking questions her whole life, leading her to being vegetarian from her earliest childhood days to taking the vegan leap at the tender age of eight! Now 12-year-old Emma Brozik of Nashville, Tennessee, talks about how she successfully went and stayed vegan, her tips for carrying the vegan message without making people cry, and her dreams of creat...

When in her forties, Kelly of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, went vegan for health reasons - and after she did, her heart woke up! Suddenly she was living vegan not for herself but for the animals. Along the way, she embarked on a whole new career, going from driving a forklift for a living to becoming a web developer and IT professional. And she also learned to cook - on the cheap! Now, at 55, Kelly is...

While many these days seem to have lost their way, to Tami Hay of Alberta, Canada, the vegan journey is all about remembering the love that is our essence. Does this LOVE approach work in the real world? It did for Tami! She healed herself of life-threatening Crohn's disease and colitis by adopting a raw food vegan diet - and by cleansing her spirit and soul. She went on to obtain her master's deg...

Vegan for six years and counting, DJ, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, is a veteran of more water fasting than you probably want to think about. He's also learned to curry vegan favor - and FLAVOR - by showing up at family events with dishes irresistible even to his flesh-loving traditional southern family and friends! You won't want to miss hearing about DJ's never-ending journey to better...

For over a decade, Nashville artist Lauren Markham struggled with a seemingly intractable eating disorder marked by periods of anorexia and binge eating and an overall feeling of disgust with her body. In 2019, sick of the cycle, Lauren decided to take her relationship with food into her own hands by eating three vegan meals a day, regardless of how full, fat, or disgusting she felt – and it worke...

Evolutionary psychology coach and political scientist Dr. Jen Howk is known for her incisive political commentary and sometimes brutal tell-it-like-it-is "cavewoman" approach to human relationships. In this episode, though, we get to hear about Jen, the vegan, the woman, the PERSON. Find out the inner mental and emotional workings of one of the most significant voices of our time - whom we're pump...

"I came to it on my own. I had no support. I didn't know what I was doing." And yet, somehow, a year and eight months into her vegan journey, 30-year-old Wisconsin native Jenna Carlson - now of Nashville, Tennessee - is somehow not only making it work, but making it FUN. Even longtime herbivores will pick up some life lessons from this surprisingly savvy young vegan - and you won't want to miss th...

A true vegan celebrity, Victoria Moran has hobnobbed with real-world celebrities like Oprah and filmmaker Michael Moore. She is the author of 13 books (and counting), founder of Main Street Vegan Academy, a sought-after speaker, host of the Victoria Moran Podcast: Meetings with Remarkable Women - and she was named PETA's Sexiest Vegan Over 50. In this intimate interview, she shares about overcomin...

Tired of all the vegan marketing toward young people? Patti Breitman is an author, former literary agent, and founder of Dharma Voices for the Animals. Patti's books, including "Never Too Late to Go Vegan - The Vegan Guide to Going Vegan After Fifty," teach people that there are advantages to going vegan at ANY age. Find out more here! Resources mentioned: Dharma Voices for the Animals: https://ww...

What was it like growing up vegetarian and then teaching himself to "enjoy" meat in order to fit in in the U.S.? And what exactly IS "evidence-based" medicine? Dr. Nehal Parikh talks about all this and lots more, including how he rediscovered his spirituality, became a neonatal specialist, and incorporates evidence-based science into his practice to best serve his patients and their families: "My...