Welcome to 2025! For our first podcast of the year, we dive into spiritual veganism with Hope and her husband Cogen Bohanec. They start with their genesis stories of their spiritual journeys and how they have evolved in their 25-year marriage. Then they introduce a new project, the Ahimsa Living Circle, an ongoing monthly virtual gathering to support the community of veg-curious, pre-vegans, and vegans focused on the Dharma traditions and in particular Jain Dharma, in a circle of encouragement and compassion. The Ahimsa Living Circle is a collaborative event co-hosted by Arihanta Institute and Compassionate Living. 

Hope and Cogen also talk about the importance of changing our culture and evolving our fundamental nature of who we are, and not just changing what we do. They also explore veganism beyond the boycott and talk about philosophical and spiritual veganism. 

Ahimsa Living Circle

Second Saturday of the Month

First Circle Starts on Saturday, January 11, 2025

10:00 – 11:30am PT / 1 – 2:30pm ET

Register here for this free virtual event


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Isabella La Rocca González is an award-winning artist, author, and activist. Her work is part of a long tradition in art and photography: to bring to light and find beauty in the hidden, unconscious, or disregarded. As the daughter of emigrants from Mexico and Italy, she strives to reconcile values from her Indigenous roots with her European heritage. 

Her photographs have been exhibited internationally including a solo show at the Center for Photography in Woodstock, NY. Awards for her work include the Ferguson Grant from the Friends of Photography in San Francisco, CA for excellence and commitment to the field of photography. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and her MFA in Photography from Indiana University. 

Isabella’s new book, Censored Landscapes: The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals, is a photographic exploration that tells a story in which the central characters are innocent of any crime and yet are condemned to imprisonment, torture, and death. It’s a true story of ecological destruction, of worker exploitation—mostly people of color—and of secretive corporations protected by laws and enriched by government subsidies and lobbies. It is also a story that offers insight and healing. 

Isabella discusses how the photographs she took after a rescue of thousands of hens in Turlock, California became the inspiration for this project. She and Hope discuss how farming animals is a colonial import, the myth of grass-fed and other humane hoax labels, and the importance of photography to tell a story in a vivid and authentic way. 

Resources:

Buy the Book-
Censored Landscapes: The Hidden Reality of Farming Animals 

Support this podcast:

Compassionate Living

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 Do you love Halloween? Do you like to dig deep into philosophical discussions of life and death? This episode might just be for you. Today’s show is a Halloween special with something a little different. In the first half, Hope explores the theme of cannibalism in zombie, vampire, and other fantasy and horror movies and shows how these stories actually underscore our speciesist tendencies. Then, in the second half of the show, Hope and her husband Cogen, have a conversation about why people love horror movies and ask the question, could it be that our society likes to eat meat because it’s a socially sanctioned murder? Or can horror movies help us to empathize with farmed animals that are experiencing the same horrors as the victims in the movies? 

In this episode, we will delve into the discord between human rights and animal rights. This friction has been featured in various spheres: academic studies, the media, food and culture literature, food security issues, and the law which is where we will focus on today.

Maneesha Deckha is Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria in British Columbia where she directs the Animals & Society Research Initiative. Her research expertise includes critical animal law, vegan ecofeminist theory, and postcolonial theory. She is the author of Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders and has directed an open access documentary series designed for high school and undergraduate students called A Deeper Kindness: Youth Activism in Animal Law.

Maneesha gives real world examples of legal cases to show that there are cultural, racial, and indigenous rights concerns for extending legal rights to nonhuman animals and how we can mitigate these tensions. One example is the case brought on behalf of Happy the Elephant at the Bronx Zoo by the Nonhuman Animal Rights Project. She unpacks some of the history of these apprehensions and offers a framework for solidarity to move us forward for everyone’s benefit. 

RESOURCES:

Books:

Trickster Trilogy by Eden Robbinson

Aphro-ism: Essays on Pop Culture, Feminism, and Black Veganism from Two Sisters by Aph Ko & Syl Ko

Sista Vegan edited by A. Breeze Harper

Brotha Vegan edited by Omowale Adewale

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The humane hoax is alive and well all over the globe and today we are leaning how it is used in the UK. Rose Patterson is the Co-Director and Actions Coordinator for Animal Rising. After getting a masters in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics, and Law and working for World Animal Protection she joined Animal Rising in 2020. She has worked on the strategy for multiple campaigns, designed and coordinated dozens of actions and led large complex projects mobilizing hundreds of people, including the disruption of the Grand National horse race which garnered a great deal of press and most recently the largest investigation into animal farming in UK history targeting RSPCA Assured farms.

Rose shares Animal Rising’s work exposing humanewashing by the RSPCA and how as Rose says, the RSPCA is failing farmed animals. She also tells the story of Animal Rising’s infamous disruption of the Grand National Horse Race in Great Britain that got huge media coverage. Hope and Rose also talk about strategy and the importance of the grassroots in animal advocacy. 

Resources: 

Animal Rising

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Tracey Winter Glover is an animal caretaker, activist, author, and filmmaker. She is the co-founded and Executive Director of a non-profit intersectional pro-vegan animal rights group, Awakening Respect and Compassion for all Sentient Beings. She also startedSweet Peeps Microsanctuary, which is now home to over 50 unique and personable individuals. Tracey created and released a short award-winning documentary entitled “Until All Are Free,” is the author of Lotus of the Heart: Living Yoga for Personal Wellness and Global Survival. Her first children’s book, inspired by the chickens at Sweet Peeps, is called Chickens Are Animals Too! Fannie Goes to Washington. 

Tracey shares the stories of Fannie and other chickens that are in her new children’s book and how they helped her to shatter her misconceptions about chickens that most of us share. Tracey tells some of the rescue stories of the chickens at the sanctuary and shares how she wanted to offer an accurate and authentic voice to the characters in her book. She and Hope also talk about Eastern religious philosophies and how her other book, Lotus of the Heart, has helped her to awaken a deep reverence and respect for all life on the planet and how these ancient teachings can help us heal our world. 

Resources:

Sweet Peeps Microsanctuary

Books by Tracey Winter Glover:

Chickens are Animals Too, Fannie Goes to Washington 

Lotus of the Heart: Living Yoga for Personal Wellness and Global Survival  

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Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast

Tomas Machowicz is a photographer and filmmaker focusing on animal rescue efforts and social issues. He started documenting animal rescue in 2018 after a visit to Seebu Sanctuary in Costa Rica. Along with Molly Condit, Thomas co-founded Sanctuary Doc, a non-profit multimedia project that illuminates the major issues facing our world today by focusing on animals and the people who rescue them. Thomas considers himself a conduit for stories meant to raise the consciousness of humanity and uses photography, film, lectures, and workshops as tools to explore and share the human experience. Thomas' work has been published by BBC News, The Associated Press, Reuters, Vox, and he is a regular contributor to We Animals Media. 

Thomas shares his experiences at a wild animal sanctuary in Costa Rica and how that experience started his journey to being a photojournalist telling non-human animal’s stories. He then tells us about a popular short film produced by Sanctuary Doc called Transfarming that documents animal farming transitions to plant farms and animal sanctuaries in Switzerland. He also talks about another Sanctuary Doc project focused on houseless people and their companion animals. Thomas shared that he feels it’s important to create, “a sanctuary in your mind” and discusses mindfulness and the connection to living a fulfilled life. 

Resources:

Sanctuary Doc

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When Kimbery Carroll was first becoming an animal activist, she asked herself “Who is caring for the caretakers?” She has since dedicated herself to helping build resilient, mentally and emotionally healthy advocates. 

Kimberly is a coach for changemakers, campaigns strategist with Animal Justice, director of Animal Justice Academy, and a director with the Toronto Vegetarian Food Bank. With over 14 years as a coach and almost 20 years as an activist, Kimberly works with mission-driven leaders, social entrepreneurs, and other activists on high-performance habits and strategies to make them unstoppable. She’s helped empower thousands of activists and counseled those in high-stress positions like undercover investigators. She’s also passionate about environmental activism, democratic reform, and amplifying Indigenous and Black voices.
 

Resources:

Vegan Studies Initiative at Arihanta Institute: https://www.arihantainstitute.org/vegan

Monthly Speaker Series: New Ethical Issues in Contemporary Veganism with Dr. Cheryl Abbate, July 15: Register for free

4-week Course- Debunking the Myth of Sustainable and Humane Animal Agriculture with Dr. Vasile Stanescu: Enroll with COUPON CODE for 25% off tuition fee: DEBUNK25! 

Kimberly Carroll

WEBSITES
Coach for Changemakers: www.kimberlycarroll.com

Sign-up for Animal Justice Academy (FREE): www.animaljusticeacademy.com
Animal Justice: www.animaljustice.ca
Toronto Vegetarian Food Bank: www.vegfoodbank.com

SOCIALS
Facebook: facebook.com/KimberlyCarrollPage
Instagram: @coachkimberlycarroll
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@kimberlycarrolltv

SIGN-UP (free) FOR THE CHANGEMAKER SESSIONS: https://kimberlycarroll.com/changemakersessions
- every second Wednesday at 7pm ET

Kimberly's FREE VIDEO MINI-COURSE - Power Tools for Changemakers: https://kimberlycarroll.com/power-tools-changemakers

KIMBERLY'S FREE MEDITATIONS:
www.kimberlycarroll.com/meditations

Happy PRIDE! Joining us on this special Pride episode is Honey LaBronx, The Vegan Drag Queen. Honey stared in her own YouTube vegan cooking series and traveled the world with her one-woman drag show, raising funds for local LGBTQ and animal organizations along the way. She is committed to bringing discussions about animal rights, racism, and social justice to new audiences. In 2011, she was one of eight activists arrested for blocking New York City traffic while demonstrating for marriage equality alongside her drag mother, Bob The Drag Queen (winner of Season 8 of RuPaul’s Drag Race). Out of drag, Ben Strothmann is an actor, singer, playwright, and theatrical photographer, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hope and Honey cover an assortment of fascinating topics-- how her sobriety journey led her to veganism, why she chose her drag name, how fat is beautiful, and embracing radical compassion. They also talk about the challenges within the gay and drag community with emboldened conservatives supporting legislation, violence, and oppression against the LGBT community. Hope and Honey laugh, lament, theorize, and bring a little joy to us all.

Resources:

@HoneyLaBronx

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HoneyLaBronx

Video: Rachel Wiley, The Fat Joke

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Today on the podcast we have Joanne Kong and Chirstoph Wagner, and they are the Vegan Virtuosiz. Joanne and Christoph weave together live music, reflections, and the arts in inspiring events that illuminate how embracing the connections we have to the natural world and all beings can bring about transformative spiritual growth, positive change, and planetary healing. They will be featured in the upcoming documentary, Taking Note, about vegan musicians and the history of animal rights as seen through music. 

Pianist Joanne Kong’s performances have been praised for “great finesse and flexibility” (The Washington Post), and “superb artistry” (San Antonio Express-News) in works “sensitively played” (New York Times).  She is currently director of chamber music ensembles at the University of Richmond. Dr. Kong speaks around the world as an animal, environmental and vegan advocate. Her TEDx talk, The Power of Plant-Based Eating,has over 1 million views, she is editor of Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers, and appears in the major documentary, Eating Our Way to Extinction. 

Christoph Wagner, a native of Germany, is a sought-after cellist who has played on four continents. Mr. Wagner holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University, and his current research focuses on the role of nutrition in musical peak performance. He is a Certified Nutrition Coach and Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and holds a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University through the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. Currently Dr. Wagner is Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of New Mexico.

Resources:

Joanne Kong: www.JoanneKongMusic.com

Vegan Virtuosiz Tour Information:

Vancouver, Washington, May 17, 2024

Salem, Oregon, May 19, 2024

(Book) Vegan Voices: Essays By Inspiring Changemakers by Joanne Kong, PhD

Please support this podcast:

Compassionate Living

Hope for the Animals Podcast