Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Hero worship and blind faith are dangerous things for any movement. Veganism should not accept leadership that might save animals but includes sexism, racism, or any other form of hate.

In This Episode

Nichole and Callie talk about the dangers of having blind faith in vegan leaders and thereby excusing their behavior or harmful views. They talk about Gary Yourofsky as an example of a leader that spreads messages of veganism through racist and rape-promoting speech. The girls also talk about vegan celebrities, ex-vegans and veganism as religion, exploring the idea that vegans need to become secure in their veganism so they are not so reliant on high-profile vegans to provide guidance and visibility to the movement.

Links and Info

News

• McDonalds Closing Hundreds of Restaurants in 2015
• 5 Million Chickens to be Killed as Bird Flu Outbreak Puzzles Industry
• Judge Recognizes Two Chimpanzees as Legal Persons

Vegan Warrior Princess of the Week
For the ruling listed in the news link above, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe is our honorary Vegan Warrior Princess of the week! We know a lot of people worked on this case and of course they deserve recognition as well, but we wanted to highlight Judge Jaffe because it takes a lot of guts for a judge to make the first ruling on something and set a new precedent. We hope the hearing on May 27 goes well and these two chimps, Hercules and Leo, are granted legal personhood. Because the team who set this in motion and did all the work is so important, please check out the Nonhuman Rights Project. They are the ones who brought this case, and many others, to court and are working tirelessly to win rights for animals everywhere.