When women join a male-dominated sport, it can be difficult to gain the respect of fans, officials, and fellow athletes. Those issues can be even more exacerbated when women challenge the sports world to consider new, more ethical ways of living.

 

But that didn’t stop Leilani Münter. 

 

Leilani is a Biology graduate from UC San Diego, a professional race car driver, and an environmental activist. 

 

She realized early in her career that her mission was to bridge the worlds between racing and environmental work. 

 

Despite early criticism, her race cars have carried messages about renewable energy, she has adopted an acre for every race she’s run since 2007, and she treated race fans to 30,000 Impossible Burgers at the Chicagoland Speedway. 

 

Today she joins Dotsie and Alexandra to chat about her advocacy for solar power, electric cars, plant-based diets, animal rights, and population control. 

 

You’ll hear her story of making the switch, how she brought renewable energy to the race track, and how she’s opening up the population dialogue in an upcoming film.

 

Watch out, because Leilani is as powerful in her arguments as she is on the track. Get ready to be convinced.  

 

What we discuss in this episode:

 

- How Leilani used her race career to bring her environmental message to millions and 30,000 Impossible Burgers to her fans

 

- The intense physical challenges that come with racing, how Leilani prepared for them, and how going vegan changed her performance

 

- How going down the rabbit hole of documentaries like The Cove encouraged Leilani to go vegan, plus how she’s changed the way she approaches friends and family about making the switch

 

- How a discussion about An Inconvenient Truth helped Leilani realize that her purpose was to bridge the world between racing and environmental activism

 

- Leilani’s work with Racing Extinction and why educating people about species threatened with extinction help them see the impact of their behavior

 

- Striking statistics about population growth, and why we need to start seeing environmental destruction as a symptom of our rate of procreation 

 

- The two words Leilani uses to ease into the conversation about population with strangers without sending them on the defensive 

 

- Are we losing the forest for the trees? Leilani shares why she was criticized for promoting the Impossible Whopper, why she stands by her decision, and the statement from Pat O. Brown that puts their animal testing in context

 

- How Leilani offset the fuel she was burning during races by adopting and protecting acres of the rainforest, plus how she got an entirely solar-powered pit station

 

- Follow Leilani on Twitter at @LeilaniMunter, on Instagram at @LeilaniMunter, on Facebook at @LeilaniMunter, and on er website at leilani.green. 

 

- To support our mission to educate, inspire, and embolden the world to lean into eating pants instead of baby cow growth food, donate today to spread the word.

 

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