A Kynd Life

Liora booked a one way ticket to Bali in 2018 and ended up living in a dance based community that was predominantly vegan and sober. Prior to Bali, Liora had spent 10 years travelling and living overseas, having visited Portugal, Spain, Guatemala and Europe.

Liora grew up dancing, she participated in ballet and contemporary dance throughout her schooling  During her time in Bali, Liora enjoyed a slow lifestyle which involved yoga, meditation and ecstatic dance. She describes this time as a heart opening experience, where she was supported to fully express herself. Since returning, Liora regularly participates in Melbourne's thriving dance community.

Liora was raised vegetarian, as her mum never cooked meat. A chance encounter with a member of Melbourne Chicken Save, sparked Liora's curiosity about the egg industry. She then watched Dominion which helped make the connection and veganism slowly spread into all areas of Liora's life.

Liora has supported Til The Cows Come Home (TTCCH) for a number of years. Her workplace offered the opportunity for staff to undertake voluntary work, so Liora reached out to TTCCH. She recently took on a HR role supporting the foster, adoption and administration team.

Liora also started an instagram page called "Is it kind" after coming up with the concept during her last trip to Bali. She is using the platform to explore how we communicate veganism in an authentic way.

In this episode, Liora shares her passion for movement, living a sober lifestyle and the importance of reaching out to organisations you support and offering to help.

https://www.instagram.com/liorakiki/
https://www.instagram.com/isitkind.co/

Nicole runs Lazy Bones Cat Rescue which traps, rehabilitates and rehomes colonies of cats and kittens found in Goulburn, Sydney and Canberra.

Nicole hadn't had much to do with cats prior to getting one for her daughter. It all snowballed from there, as the family began to realise there was a need to help homeless cat populations in their area. Their cat family eventually outgrew the house, so they built a new house.

Nicole was approached by Tracey and Mick from Peanuts Wellbeing Sanctuary to work together and Lazy Bones Cat Rescue was formed. There are currently 39 cats in care at Lazy Bones, many of which are not able to be re-homed due to their health, age or unsocialable behaviour.

Nicole, her husband and daughter went vegan in 2012 after seeing content on facebook she had previously tried to avoid. Nicole is also involved in local vegan events, gatherings, protests and helps at local sanctuaries.

In this episode, Nicole shares her favourite rescue story, the challenges of running a cat rescue and being vegan in a regional New South Wales.

https://www.facebook.com/LazyBonesCatRescue

Taylor embraces a minimal waste lifestyle and created his own clean up campaign called No Trace Left. 

Taylor has always loved the outdoors, having grown up spending half the year camping in Byron Bay. He attended agricultural boarding school where learnt about industry practices. Eventually Taylor recognised what was happening to animals was not right and decided to go vegan. 

Around the same time as going vegan, Taylor made friends with a Sea Shepherd volunteer and went to the Ocean Defence Tour. Taylor signed up as a volunteer and has helped at many festivals, ship tours and beach clean ups, even living on the Steve Erwin for four months while it was docked in Docklands.  Being a Sea Shepherd volunteer led Taylor on many adventures and helped form many friendships.

Having grown up near the beach, Taylor started picking up rubbish when he was young. Sea Shepherd helped Taylor understand why cleaning up debris was important and as a result, he started his own campaign called No Trace Left. The campaign encourages people to clean up any place you are at, whether it be beach, bush or your own backyard. Taylor enjoys snorkelling, is learning to free dive and uses his time underwater as an opportunity to collect rubbish. 

Taylor is passionate about living a minimal waste lifestyle as he understands how detrimental single use items are to the environment. He enjoys growing his own food, utilising a suburban backyard to create his own food.

In 2020, Taylor quit his job and moved to Eden, New South Wales, where he set up a canvas wall tent next to the river and lived off grid.

In this episode, Taylor shares tips on living a minimal waste lifestyle, interesting things he has found during clean ups as well as meeting his partner Amber on Vegan Singles of Melbourne.

https://www.instagram.com/no_traceleft/     
https://www.instagram.com/tylrdphotography/
https://www.instagram.com/that4wdphotoguy/                                                                                       

Brinkley is a marine biologist, surfer, free diver and founder of Balu Blue Foundation.

Brinkley grew up in South Australia and began surfing when she was four. She would surf every day after school and was the only girl in school surfing competitions for many years. Brinkley was surrounded by animals throughout her childhood and learnt to care for them from a young age.

Brinkley became involved in wildlife caring after university, meeting fantastic people and learning from the wildlife rescue community. She soon raised her first rescue joey Bunji, who left a big imprint on Brinkley's heart. During this time, Brinkley also volunteered for a number of ocean conservation organisations and decided to create her own organisation that represents everything she is passionate about in conservation.

Brinkley founded Balu Blue Foundation five years ago, bringing together her passion for protection of both land-based and marine environments, as well as wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. The foundation started with beach and ocean clean ups, education and fundraising events. The priority project in progress is the development of a wildlife first response app, due for release at the end of this year.

Brinkley has also launched her own ethical and sustainable jewellery brand Bandicoot Jewellery which donates 10% of the profit to Balu Blue Foundation.

With years of marine tourism and free diving experience, Brinkley decided to create her own wildlife expeditions, allowing people to experience close encounters with marine and land based animals.

In this episode, Brinkley shares her animal rights journey, the upcoming release of her book about Bunji and being nominated two years in a row for Australian of the Year.

https://www.instagram.com/brinkleydavies/
https://www.instagram.com/balubluefoundation/
https://www.instagram.com/bandicoot_bybrinkley/
https://balubluefoundation.org/
https://bandicootaustralia.com/

To celebrate my five year vegan anniversary, I have decided to shave my head!

WHY you ask? It's for a good cause!

During the month of September I am calling on you to donate! I have a goal of raising $3000 to fund a ranger on the ground in Africa.

International Anti Poaching Foundation (IAPF) rangers are the first line of defence for Africa's wildlife.

IAPF was founded by former Australian Royal Navy Clearance Diver and Special Operations military sniper Damien Mander in 2009. The organisation has now grown to have 500 staff protecting 8 million acres, resulting in an 80% decrease in wildlife poaching and 399% increase in wildlife populations. IAPF's goal is to have 1000 staff protecting 20 million acres by 2026.

In this episode, I share the importance of knowing my purpose to help overcome my fears, as well as finding a way to help organisations from afar.

DONATE - http://www.akyndlife.com
https://www.iapf.org/

John Thomas successfully competed in two bodybuilding shows and is working towards being the first vegan IFBB Pro in men's open bodybuilding.

John remembers going fishing with his father when he was four years old and realising you had to suffocate the fish, by pulling them out of the water, in order to eat them. He had a similar experience with burgers at age 10 which resulted in him going vegetarian. John went vegan 17 years ago after reading a PETA magazine unveiling the truth about factory farming.

John was involved in sports growing up, having wrestled during his freshman year of high school. He started lifting weights as part of his training and never went back to wrestling. John enjoys the physical and mindset challenge, but more than that, he loves the community he has created.

People in the gym approached John asking him to provide coaching services. He started an online coaching business three years ago and has trained over 100 clients. John is an entrepreneur, having started a fitness equipment company W8Train and athletic apparel company Athlicity.

John wanted to support his friend Brent's business One To Save Many (OTSM), which produces vegan apparel and provides 100% of the profits to animal charities. John found wearing OTSM tees in the gym was a great conversation starter about veganism and bodybuilding. 

In this episode, John shares the mindset and preparation required for bodybuilding, as well as the importance of community and donating to animal initiatives.

https://www.instagram.com/thebodybuildingvegan/
https://thebodybuildingvegan.com/

In April 2019, over 200 activists converged on Excelsior Hog Farm in British Columbia, Canada as part of a Meat The Victims action. 

Excelsior Hog Farm is known as one of the leaders in the industry, however nothing but cruelty and abuse was witnessed by over 50 activists inside the facility. Pigs were being kept in horrific conditions and were suffering from wounds, tumours, gashes and hernias. 

Amy, Nick and Roy were 3 of the activists inside Excelsior Hog Farm during the action, with Amy holding the role of negotiator.  Activists presence was peaceful, with the aim of gaining access for mainstream media to enter the facility. Their wish was granted and after a number of hours, the media were invited into the facility. 

Amy was arrested and taken into custody. Nick and Roy were arrested and immediately released along with the other activists from inside the facility. Geoff, who protested from the street that day, was arrested months later.

The Excelsior 4 were charged with 21 combined  indictable offences. By the time it went to trial, seven of the charges were dropped, including all of Geoff's charges. Roy was acquitted, however Amy and Nick were found guilty and are facing jail time. Nick and Amy are set for a sentencing hearing on 26th August 2022.

In this episode, the Excelsior 3 share the next steps of their case, insights from inside a pig farm and how we can support the Excelsior campaign.

https://www.instagram.com/amysoranno/
https://www.instagram.com/nick.s.schafer/
https://www.instagram.com/roysasano/
www.excelsior4.org
https://twitter.com/theexcelsior4?lang=en

Kelly works full time at Edgar's Mission, where she found the love of her life Kyle and gave herself the title of "sheep cuddler".

Kelly went vegan 13 years ago after giving birth to her daughter Isabelle. She wanted to raise Isabelle to love animals and knew she couldn't do that if she was eating them. At the time, Kelly was breastfeeding her daughter and couldn't imagine what mother cows experience in the dairy industry, so she set about cutting out animal products from her life. 

Kelly's family also went vegan. Both Kelly and her mum started Freedom Hills, a sanctuary for farmed animals in Adelaide.

Kelly decided it was time for a change and applied for a position at Edgars Mission five years ago. Kelly's role at Edgar's Mission includes social media, merchandise management and tours. Not only did she find her perfect career, Kelly also met the love of her life Kyle at Edgars. The couple got married earlier this year and wanted to incorporate special places, so of course Edgars was on the list!

Kelly's passion for photography was sparked when the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses did a callout for photographers to document what occurs at racetracks, so she eagerly volunteered. She now takes incredible photos at Edgar's Mission to help people connect with the residents and change the way they view farmed animals. 

In this episode, Kelly shares her special friendship with The Doctor (at Edgar's Mission) and the importance of being kind to ourselves. 

https://www.instagram.com/kellydinhamphoto/
https://www.instagram.com/edgarsmission/
https://www.tiktok.com/@kellydinham

Rhiannon's entire life changed course after going vegan. Rhiannon studied Speech Communication, created an animal rights club at University, became involved in a mentor program at The Gentle Barn and more recently founded Higher Consciousness Events.

Rhiannon was raised on a heavy dairy based Slovak diet. She remembers always feeling scared of meat because she recognised it as an animal. Rhiannon went vegan after seeing a social media post exposing the hidden truths of the dairy and egg industries.

Rhiannon decided she could no longer study health sciences as it involved dissection and products tested on animals. She chose to study Speech communication so she could learn to be a better voice for animals. During her time at university, Rhiannon was encouraged to start an on-campus vegan club known as Students for Ethical Evolution. Through this process, Rhiannon learnt how to establish and manage a non profit organisation.

Rhiannon recently founded Higher Consciousness Events, which aims to raise consciousness one event at a time. Rhiannon organises events, bringing together vegans and non vegans to watch a documentary, enjoy vegan food and discuss animal rights, environmental issues and social injustice. She hopes to expand these events into schools and colleges.

Rhiannon began attending LA Animal Save events not long after going vegan. She was able to connect with animals, like minded people and met the Founder of The Gentle Barn, Ellie. Rhiannon began volunteering at the sanctuary, enrolled in one of their courses then continued being mentored by The Gentle Barn. Rhiannon is working towards having her own sanctuary in the future.

In this episode, Rhiannon also shares her self care rituals and the importance of continuous learning.

https://www.instagram.com/rhiannons_avatar/
https://www.instagram.com/higherconsciousnessevents/
https://higherconsciousnessevents.org/

Brent is an inventor and self confessed fitness junkie, consistently working on his #vegainz. He is based in Michigan and spends most of his time working or working out.

Brent has always had a passion for creating things, coming up with ideas and making something out of nothing. Brent started his career repairing appliances, installing antenna towers and satellite dishes, which eventually evolved into commercial low voltage installation work.

He started a business selling hard-to-find tools for special trades over 20 years ago and even has a few tool patents of his own. Brent prides himself on helping others in the industry and has become a mentor to other small business owners over the years. 

Brent went vegetarian 13 years ago thanks to his business partner Deepak who educated Brent on being vegetarian. Brent hit a low point in his life about four years ago, he was miserable and tired all the time. He decided to ditch dairy and focus on becoming the best version of himself, including breaking the vegan stereotype in the gym.

Brent recently started One To Save Many, where he creates vegan merchandise and contributes 100% of the profits to animal sanctuaries.

https://www.instagram.com/burnitbrent/
https://www.instagram.com/onetosavemany/
https://onetosavemany.com/