Food For Thought: The Joys And Benefits Of Living Vegan

In this episode, I share my experience sleeping in my 20th county in California (Napa), booking an Air B&B for the first time, eating vegan in Napa Country (particularly in the towns of Napa and Helena), and I answer such questions as "How do you respond to folks who say 'it must be hard to be vegan' as you stand there with a plate of carrots at a fancy wedding dinner?" and "How can I find vegan antibacterial soap" and "How do I humanely discourage roaches from taking up residence in my home?" Check out all this - and more - in today's episode...sponsored by FakeMeats.com - vegan meats galore!

In today's episode, I share my recommendations for some kitchen design elements that might be helpful to you whether you're remodeling or not, and I answer several of your questions, including how to respond to people who say "it must be hard to be vegan," "I had a great weekend hunting," and "why don't animal advocates spend their time taking care of human issues instead of animal issues?" The last one hits a particularly raw nerve for me, and I spend a chunk of the episode demonstrating how animal issues touch every other social justice issue and how the problem isn't that there are people trying to make the world a more compassionate place; the problem is that there are so many people doing nothing at all. Please enjoy, share, and comment! Thanks to all of the listener sponsors, as well as 22DaysNutrition.com and VegieFresh.com, for making this episode possible.

Join me for today's episode as I tell the story of intervening when I found a sick raccoon while traveling and as I answer questions related to my favorite teas, to changing the barometer by which we measure all things vegan, and to coming to terms with the fact that we can't please everyone when trying to do good. An emailer in the "What Would Colleen Do?" segment asked how to handle the "vegan police" who criticize her for organizing dinner meet-ups at non-vegan restaurants. Today's Tweetables: "One life matters - especially to the one whose life it is." ~Colleen Patrick-Goudreau #foodforthought "Effective leaders do their best to make reasonable, mindful decisions, but they also know they can’t please everyone." ~Colleen Patrick-Goudreau #foodforthought

Eight years. Eight years of food for thought! In celebration of the eight-year anniversary of the podcast, I feature the letters of listeners who have been transformed by “Food for Thought.” The stories are as diverse as the listeners and reflect varied ages and backgrounds, but they all share common threads of hope, transformation, and compassion. I hope you are as moved by the letters as I am humbled by them. If you ever once thought that “people don’t change,” then you’re in for quite a treat. I warn you: there are 2 hours and 15 minutes of the love.

In today's episode, I relate my interaction with a non-vegan neighbor about whether it's ever possible to keep and kill animals "humanely," and I talk to a couple listeners about how best to represent veganism with non-vegan, animal-loving co-workers and colleagues. The center of this episode, however, is my response to a woman who wrote to me to ask how I can help her reconcile her embarrassment about being vegan and overweight. Not surprisingly, I have an opinion. If you'd like to hear it, take a listen. If you like what you hear, please share it.

Join me today as I talk about the importance of knowing where we end and another person begins, which is also today's tweetable! This theme runs through my week's re-cap, as well as in this episode's emails and phone calls. In our segment, Verbal Vivisection, I dissect some positive animal idioms, such as "bee's knees" and "busy as a bee" and relatedly recite the first 14 lines of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Middle English!

Join me today as I talk about my goal of sleeping in every county in California, about writing my next cookbook, and about my experience demystifying “vegan food” with a bed-and-breakfast proprietor. This episode is also the first in which I incorporate your phone calls, which include a question about living with a non-vegan husband, a question about communicating with family about vegan pregnancy, and one about talking about veganism in the most effective, compassionate way. I wrap up the episode with The Compassionate Life segment in which I establish that the foundation of veganism is compassion - from Pythagoras all the way to today. Today’s Tweetable: “When you speak to the highest in people, they respond with the highest that’s in them.”

In today's episode, I share my experience - and a fun audio clip - from my recent visit to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, the Albany (NY) VegFest, and Red Robin Song Animal Sanctuary (and vegan guest house). I also answer your questions about whether or not it's "vegan" to visit natural history museums (that feature stuffed dead animals), about what I feed my cats, and about what my favorite teas are. I wrap up today's episode with The Compassionate Life segment in which I share my story about going from a compassionate child to a desensitized adult and back again. Today's Tweetable: "Being vegan is not about trying to be perfect. It’s about doing the best we can do avoid causing harm to someone else."

Food for Thought has been running for almost 8 years, which is fantastic and incredible – and possible because of the support of my amazing listeners. However, it's time for a change, and change is here! Check out today's brief episode in which I announce the new format for the podcast, including Through a Compassionate Lens (my weekly observations and experiences), Animalia (reviews of animals in arts and culture), Verbal Vivisection (how our language contributes to violence against animals), The Compassionist (my weekly essay), a call-in segment called WWCPGD?, and MORE! The possibilities for the new format are incredibly exciting, and I appeal to you for your support, feedback, and enthusiasm!

Today’s episode focuses on the third stage of "what happens when you stop eating animals"): Coming Out. Join me as I talk about what it means to “come out.” What does it mean to be in the closet? When is the best time to come out? How do you come out? To whom do you come out? And how do you respond to the reactions to your coming out? My intention in this episode is to empower you to come out in such a way that reflects your enthusiasm, demonstrates compassion for family and friends who may not understand (or who may not share your enthusiasm), and to reflect your autonomy.

After providing an overview of The 10 Stages We Go Through When We Stop Eating Animals (check out the previous episode called From Consumption to Compassion, as well as Stage One: Validation), today’s episode focuses on the second stage: Guilt & Remorse. This is the stage where we reflect upon the animals we once ate and feel bad for having done so. Stage 2 is the stage when we say: "How could I have been part of the suffering of animals?" "How do I not get weighed down by the guilt I feel for having contributed to violence against them?" And "I feel bad for eating an animal product by mistake." In this episode, I talk about the difference between guilt and remorse, how to move through remorse through forgiveness, how there is no such thing as a perfect vegan, and I share some symbolic ways we can "make amends" to the animals.

In this episode, I'm thrilled to share with you a very special person named Michele de Montaigne, who lived from 1533 to 1592. He was a writer, philosopher, and inventor of the essay as a proper literary genre. In his aptly titled "Essays," he shares his thoughts - while referencing historical figures, philosophical thinkers, and poets - in order to work out his thoughts about the way to world worked and our place in it. Significantly for our purposes, he was one of the early post-Classical thinkers who challenged some fundamental aspects of Western thought, particularly the idea that we’re superior to other animals. Take a listen and join the Montaigne fan club.

After providing an overview of The 10 Stages You Go Through When You Stop Eating Animals (check out the previous episode called From Consumption to Compassion), today's episode focuses on the first stage: Validation and the Voracious Consumption of Information. This is the stage when you seek to get your hands on every book, every video, every bit of information you can to confirm with evidence what you already know in your heart. Join me today for the first episode of this series, and find out how I almost became a nun!

Without a doubt, this podcast has saved and changed thousands of lives, and it's imperative it stay on the air. Listen to this short episode about how to make this possible, how to get a free copy of On Being Vegan, and how we can reach thousands more people - all with your help.

Today, I read a very special story called "¡Adiós, Cordera!", written in 1892 by Leopoldo Alas (also known as Clarín). “¡Adiós, Cordera!" is a touching story of two children, named Rosa and Pinín, who love their family's cow, Cordera, like a mother. The family is very poor, and the father realizes that he must sell the beloved cow in order to pay rent. The children are heartbroken, and so is he. I'll let the story speak for itself.

I love language, and I advocate being thoughtful about the words we use – not in a way that is derisively called “politically correct” but in a way that reflects the truth and doesn’t hide it. I advocate using language that celebrates animals rather than denigrates them. I urge people to use language that says what we mean. Join me today as I talk about doublespeak, euphemisms, jargon, antonyms, oxymoron, semantics, lexical blindfolds, and other elements of language that conceal the truth in order to make us feel better about the horrific things we do to animals. I believe that as long as our violent treatment of animals stays hidden linguistically, our attitudes towards animals are unlikely to change, and they will continue to suffer. But if we choose words that promote compassion and speak truth, we can literally change the way we think about and thus treat animals. It just takes a little practice and awareness.    

I believe that the process of becoming vegan is the process of reclaiming our true compassion and becoming reawakened to it, and I think understanding the journey of going from innately compassionate child to desensitized adult to one whose compassion is re-awakened is key to inspiring it in others and to remaining awake ourselves. Once we become awake, however, another journey begins, and in today's episode, I introduce listeners to the 10 Stages we all go through once we become vegan. I believe that knowing that these stages are very real is crucial to feeling normal, crucial to understanding why people react the way they do when you tell them you’re vegan, and crucial to living in this world as a proud, joyful vegan who can effectively advocate for the animals and on behalf of a compassionate ethic.

Finding a compatible romantic partner is an age-old desire and one that comes with challenges, hopes, fears, and heartbreak - regardless of who you are, where you live, or how you eat. For vegans who want to date only vegans (i.e. like-minded folks who share similar values - something we all went!), the dilemma is the fact that because vegans represent a small segment of the general population (for now!), it narrows our choices somewhat. By the time you weed out potential partners based on age, location, gender, compatibility, etc., you're swimming alone in a pretty small pool. The obvious solution is to broaden our options by dating non-vegans, which comes with its own set of issues. Join me as I share my own experience dating an animal-eater and why it was his character - not his behavior - that drew me to him (and that eventually compelled him to become vegan). I also offer some resources on meeting like-minded folks and on how to best use non-vegan dating websites.

Afraid of being considered controlling, extreme, insulting, rude, or ungracious, some people are afraid to ask friends and family to not bring animal products into their home. Things get more complicated when you live with non-vegans who don't share your desire to draw that line. Join me today as I share some stories about how we can set reasonable boundaries unapologetically and with grace.

In celebration of the seven-year anniversary of the podcast, I feature the letters of listeners who have been transformed by "Food for Thought." The stories are as diverse as the listeners and reflect varied ages and backgrounds, but they all share common threads of hope and compassion. I hope you are as moved by the letters as I am humbled by them. If you ever once thought that "people don't change," then you're in for quite a treat.