A Kynd Life

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 photography began in year 9. It wasn't long before she became known for always taking her camera to family and social events.  As part of her study, Catriona made a short documentary exploring animal rights activism  in Melbourne. She interviewed activists across a range of events including street activism, vigils and chalking. 

Catriona began activism earlier this year following the production of her documentary.  Catriona is also extremely passionate about climate change and regularly attends protests to hold people accountable.

In this episode, Catriona talks about being vegan during her adolescence, finding herself and becoming unapologetically outspoken for animals. 

https://www.instagram.com/compassionatecatriona/

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 see the screening of Dominion and has been vegan ever since. 

Meg explored the world in her late teens and early 20s, going on a solo trip after high school which became a journey of self discovery.  Meg became addicted to travel until COVID hit last year, which curbed her travel plans, so she decided to take on "van life". 

Meg recognised her passion for animal protection and rescue and incorporates it into all aspects of her life.  Meg was a Sanctuary Manager during her time at Pete's Mission in north Thailand, as well as a volunteer for her local wildlife rescue shelter. Meg is extremely active in Animal Justice Party, taking on several roles in her regional group as well as in State committees. 

In this episode, Meg shares her passion for a minimalist and eco friendly lifestyle and her motivation for nominating as a Candidate in the upcoming Federal Election. 

https://instagram.com/megggwatkins
https://instagram.com/youngajpvic
https://instagram.com/ajpvicwesternvictoria

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 she met someone who had gone plant based for a month and realised it was possible. 

Zoe has been vegan for seven years and now recognises it as a big part of her life.  Zoe moved from her hometown Alabama to Brazil and felt isolated being both vegan and American in a foreign country.  She desperately wanted to connect with other vegans and found her vegan community online. Zoe now helps women transition to a vegan lifestyle and has created her own vegan community.

Zoe has experienced immense personal growth during her vegan journey. She once hid her vegan lifestyle for fear of judgement, but those experiences now help her coach other women through transitioning to veganism while navigating relationships and other barriers.

Zoe has a podcast called The Consider Kindness Podcast where she shares all things plant based, sustainable and kind. Zoe is also passionate about sustainability and calls herself a wanna be zero waster.

In this episode, Zoe shares tips for a sustainable vegan lifestyle and her upcoming course on how to navigate the holiday season while being vegan.

https://www.instagram.com/zoecordeiro_/
https://www.zkwellness.com/
https://link.chtbl.com/lPuYnkbJ

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.

Naomi went to Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary a few months after going vegan and formed bonds with the sanctuary residents. Naomi's experience at the sanctuary confirmed veganism was the right path for her. Naomi uses her social media platform to share photos of the animals at Brook Farm Animal Sanctuary and their stories, in the hope of breaking barriers and creating connections between her audience and farm animals.

Naomi is passionate about mental health as a result of her career and her own battle with mental health. She hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health and provide support to people experiencing difficulties. Naomi created a facebook group to support people through last year's lockdowns, with the group now growing to over 1500 active members. Naomi also provides support to Rebel Justice, a campaign focusing on women's mental health in the prison system. Naomi has had 2 columns published about mental health initiatives.

In this episode, Naomi shares her aspirations of running a sanctuary in the future, the importance of mental wellbeing and being the change you want to see in the world.

https://www.instagram.com/naomiharlowmodel/

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 Yoga studio and knew she had found her community after hearing the teachers speak about yoga and veganism. Meg later trained as a Jivamukti Yoga teacher and has taught at Yogo Dojo for the last four years.

Meg began her blog "A Thoughtful Vegan" in 2016 and uses it as a platform to share her thoughts on the health, environmental, ethical and spiritual aspects of veganism. More recently, Meg focuses alot of her energy on her instagram account @athoughtfulvegan and provides educational resources, food shares and yogic wisdom. After developing a passion for waste reduction, in 2018 Meg co-founded educational group Towards Zero Waste Geelong.

In this episode, Meg shares her tips for a waste wise lifestyle, her method for choosing charities to support and sustainable vegan activism.

https://www.instagram.com/athoughtfulvegan/
https://thoughtfulveganblog.wordpress.com/

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 creation and cookbook development. Nadia enjoys the creativity and experimentation of 'veganising' classic Italian meals, with her ravioli and Tiramisu being a crowd favourite!

Nadia went vegetarian after leaving home, but just before her 21st birthday, she came across information on factory farming and realised being vegetarian was not enough. Nadia went vegan in 2001 and set her family the challenge of having a vegan 21st birthday party.

Nadia holds cooking classes, demonstrations, retreats, has featured on a SBS cooking show and is a regular guest cook on Channel 10's Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey. Later this year, Nadia will be releasing her second cookbook titled "A vegan summer in southern Italy".

In this episode, Nadia discusses the importance of finding your vegan tribe, bringing your passion projects to life and vegan travel.

https://www.instagram.com/theveganitaliankitchen/
https://www.facebook.com/theveganitaliankitchen.com.au
https://www.theveganitaliankitchen.com

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 his parents if he could join a Cube of Truth as soon as he went vegan. Having gone to his first activism event, this opened up more opportunities for involvement and Zak now attends vigils, disruptions and outreach events. Zak is also a vocal climate activist as he understands his generation will be directly impacted by climate change.

Zak has a strong social media presence, having approached other activists and sought advice on content creation. Zak regularly updates his social media platforms with campaigns, as well as his website which has resources for both vegans and non vegans,

In this episode, Zak discusses how he started creating animal rights content, effective activism and advice for young animal rights activists.

https://www.instagram.com/zaktivist/
https://www.youtube.com/c/Zaktivist
https://www.zaktivist.com/

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 family is now vegan including her mother, step father and sister.  Hannah regularly attended activism events with her family including rallies, protests and street outreach.

Hannah's interest in politics began in her childhood, as she recollects many debates with her father about politicians and their influence.  Hannah is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Philosophy, Politics and International Studies.

Hannah first learnt about the Animal Justice Party (AJP) in 2018 and was excited to find a political party that aligned with her values. Hannah began creating blog posts for the South Australian AJP website and was approached by the Party to get involved with Young AJP, a semi autonomous branch for under 30 year olds.

In this episode, Hannah shares her passion for cultivating a strong youth presence in politics, how people can get involved and advice on transitioning to veganism during teenage years.

Contact Hannah by email - [email protected]
https://www.instagram.com/youngajpvic/
https://www.facebook.com/youngajpvic

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 always loved cooking, being an avid baker as a child. She regularly develops and shares vegan recipes on Instagram @theplantbasedpom and has recently provided recipes for a cookbook.

Last year, Rebecca began working on her passion project - creating a vegan baking mix brand Humble Jumble Foods. She wanted the brand to align with her values and the values of many vegans, ensuring the products are environmentally friendly, Australian made and support vegan charities by donating 10% of the profits.

In this episode, Rebecca speaks about the challenges of starting a small business, aligning with your values and giving back to the vegan community.

https://www.instagram.com/theplantbasedpom/
https://www.instagram.com/humblejumblefoods/
https://www.humblejumblefoods.com/

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 her new property, that Tracey met her partner Mick. Mick, a builder by trade, helped set up the required infrastructure at the sanctuary, but it wasn't long before he knew this was a journey he wanted to be part of and they joined forces.

Having both witnessed people and animals suffering in their early years, the couple started fostering children and developed programs to help children experiencing abuse.

The sanctuary's mission is to "Break the cycle of abuse" by showing children and young adults that there is an alternative, by acting with empathy and compassion. Peanuts regularly holds programs for school groups, the justice system and community groups with hopes to expand their programs to more victims of domestic violence in the near future.

In this episode, Tracey and Mick share their upbringing and vegan journeys, as well as the impact the sanctuary has, success stories and upcoming projects.

https://www.instagram.com/peanuts_wellbeing_sanctuary/
https://www.facebook.com/PeanutsWellbeingSanctuary
https://peanutswellbeingsanctuary.org.au/