Plant Yourself merch designed by my daughter, Yael Zivan.

Animal Welfare

Nature’s Brilliant Protocol and a Popcorn Fart in the Wind with Josh LaJaunie: PYP 174

Josh LaJaunie is, by his own admission, a simple Bayou coonass who discovered plants and running, and transformed his life. His backstory is well documented in a couple of Rich Roll Podcasts, which you should drop everything and listen to if you don’t know Josh yet (links below).

Read More

Marta Zaraska on Why We’re Meathooked and How to Unhook Ourselves: PYP 172

Marta Zaraska is the author of Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Years Obsession with Meat, which was just published this year (2016).

Marta writes about science and health for some of the most influential and prestigious publications, including Scientific American, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post. And now that she’s been published on the Plant Yourself Podcast, I suppose she’s reached the height of achievement 😉

Read More

Ashley Rhinehart on Promoting a Plant-based World from Top Down and Bottom Up: PYP 165

Ashley Rhinehart is Food and Nutrition Manager at the Humane Society of the United States. A military brat by upbringing and a pediatric nurse by training, Ashley is uniquely positioned to advocate for plant-based nutrition in high places.

Read More

Eric O’Grey on Being Rescued by an Obese, Middle-Aged Dog: PYP 161

Eric O’Grey co-stars in a 6-minute video that’s been viewed over 50 millions times. He’s been on NPR, Rachael Ray, Oprah.com, and Today.com. He runs multiple marathons a year, advocates for animal rescue and plant-based diets, and is in the process of inking a book deal.

All because of a scruffy, obese, middle-aged rescue dog.

Read More

Glen Merzer on Writing, Standup, and the Politics of Healthcare: PYP 159

Glen Merzer juggles multiple careers with a grace and impact that makes me a bit jealous. From standup comedy in 1980s San Francisco, to sitcom writing, to screenplays, to non-fiction collaborations with plant-based authors, to his very own novel (now I’m a lot jealous!), Glen is doing a lot of good in the world through his pen.

Read More

Keegan Kuhn on Not Hurting Anybody and Questioning Authority: PYP 157

Keegan Kuhn was raised with two rules: don’t hurt anybody, and question authority.

Judging by what’s he’s become and what he’s accomplished, I think those two rules may comprise a necessary and sufficient philosophy of child-rearing.

Keegan is an accomplished bio-intensive farm and garden developer, a social activist, and a documentary filmmaker whose latest project, What the Health?, promises to rip the cover off the pharmaceutical / medical / agricultural conspiracy to ruin our health.

Read More

PYP 147: Vlad Chituc on How (Not) to Change Hearts and Minds

Vlad Chituc is a behavioral economics researcher at Duke University. He works with Dan Ariely at the Center for Advanced Hindsight, and focuses on issues of ethics, morality, and decision-making.

When we chatted briefly a few weeks ago about his veganism and his commitment to reduce animal suffering, I was struck by his contrarian views and the really cool research behind them.

Read More

PYP 137: Paul Kerton on harmonizing strength and compassion

I goggled at my Facebook feed, early one December morning, when I read that Arnold Schwarzenegger, of all people, was advocating for a plant-based diet at the Paris climate talks. The “You hit like a vegetarian” actor, bodybuilder, and politician was the last person on earth I would have ever guessed to make such a statement.

paul-kertonRight after that, I turned on BBC World Service radio and started making my oatmeal. The interview in progress was with a soft-spoken, articulate, and passionate vegan bodybuilder from Norwich, UK named Paul Kerton. Kerton was responding to the Schwarzenegger story, and sharing his own, and was reaching roughly 300 million people with this message of life and hope.

Read More

PYP 122: Howard Jacobson on Proteinaholic

Today, something a little different. To mark the publication of Proteinaholic, which I worked on with Garth Davis, MD, I wanted to talk about, well, Proteinaholic.

So since it’s my show, I grabbed the microphone – and stared at my mixer for about 20 minutes. Then I asked my wife, Mia, to come into the studio and help me.

Read More

PYP 113: Sonia Faruqi on the Truth About Animal Agriculture

Sonia Faruqi had spent her entire life preparing for a career on Wall Street. She grew up fascinated by the acquisition and accumulation of nice possessions. She studied government and economics at Dartmouth College. And she landed a prize job out of college as a consultant at an investment bank.

She was living her dream.

Read More