S3, Ep20: Anti-Poaching & Female Empowerment, with Damien Mander, the Vegan Ranger

Everything was going so well... It was Spring of 2021 and life was returning to a semblance of normality. We were leaving our lockdown caves for work, spending more time outdoors than in deep inner turmoil, and a new ChickPeeps episode dropped every Wednesday, sometimes even on time. We were having complex conversations about vegan capitalism, food equity and greenwashing, and things were getting a whole lot more interesting when, suddenly, season 3 came to an abrupt halt. The ChickPeeps promised to return in Autumn 2021 with a brand new season. But when the vegan world needed them most, they vanished... Hello, sweet 'peeps! It's been a hot minute and we appreciate we left a ChickPeep shaped hole in many of your lives, promptly plucking the podcast from the orbit just as it was reaching its peak. Call it an Irish Goodbye, or a French Escape, call it just plain rude and disorganized, whatever it was, this unprecedented hiatus and echoey silence from Team ChickPeep left many of you citing the constant refrain: 'What Happened To The ChickPeeps?', 'Anyone still read these emails?' And, most piteously, 'Are you guys ever coming back? :,( ? We're still here, and we hear you, so we've come together for a special episode to answer all these questions and more. In this episode...   ChickPeeps Catchup - a lot can change in two years! Robbie models a surprisingly wholesome t-shirt and spiritual growth, Momo discusses her ADHD diagnosis and leaving social media, Tylor is a magical cookbook author and Evy comes out as not-an-activist. MoJo; we ship it. ChickPeeps Rewind - listen and cringe-a-long as we listen back to our younger setting intentions for the podcast and evaluate their success. The future of ChickPeeps - Is the podcast ending? - Because it wouldn't be a ChickPeeps episode without a ridiculous scenarios game, we make some educated guesses on where each host will end up in the next 10 years in: 'Who's Most Likely To...? First Official ChickPeeps Meetup Announcement: will Momo and Tylor finally get to meet in person at Robbie's sanctuary or outside Tylor's prison cell? An uninvited past guest makes an uncomfortable reappearance. Snip snap, snip snap - one of us shares their personal reasoning for choosing to undergo sterilization. Is a ChickPeep hole shaped like a Chicken or a Chickpea? (jk, we don't get round to this) The hosts share some resources that have brought insight, support and joy to their vegan lives - Robbie: Visit a Sanctuary to connect with rescued animals! Check out this link for a comprehensive list. Tylor: PETA, The PETA Podcast, The Animal People, The Cranky Vegan and Tylor's podcast Radicals and Revolutionaries. Momo: Subscribe to a printed vegan magazine such as  Vegan Food and Living or VegNews Evy: listen to Evy's other podcast, Just Beings, cohosted with Dr Melanie Joy. Also, a vegan brownie subscription. Keep up with Momo, Evy, Tylor and Robbie on their personal pages.

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your first order at vivolife.com. Yes, dearest ChickPeeps, here we are... The final episode of season 3. This has undoubtedly been our best and most spangly season to date and we’re so grateful that you’ve shared it with us! In this episode all four ChickHosts sit down for one last chat in which we recap our favourite moments from the season, answer our own quickfire questions and play a final, epic game of Vegan Troll in the Dungeon! Also in this episode… We reflect on the moments and guests of season 3 who changed and challenged our veganism. We set intentions for our dream season 4 guests! “If you could give one animal species the power of speech, who would it be?” A seemingly innocuous question that elicits some ridiculous answers and heated debate! Evy introduces us to Orpheus, a talking cat with a plan to overthrow human supremacy, who poses a conundrum to the gang. Tylor teaches us about a ‘freegan’ diet! Listener, Maurice, issues a public apology to his mother! Momo finally does her much anticipated Essex accent and folks, it is worth the wait! Evy’s veganism gets put on trial and Robbie enjoys it faaaar too much. Links: An amazing video about blue whales! A few other vegan pods to tide you over until season 4: The Vegan Life Podcast Main Street Vegan Our Hen House The Exam Room Podcast Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your first order at vivolife.com. This week we have a very special crossover episode with Wizarding World podcasting masters; the hosts of MuggleCast! Created in 2005, to talk about all things Harry Potter, MuggleCast has produced over 500 episodes is still going strong. This week, Tylor and Evy are joined by Andrew, Eric, Laura and Micah to get their take on animal rights in the wizarding world, and to discuss how to make the wizarding world more animal-friendly. We also play a very lively round of ‘Vegan Troll in the Dungeon’ with a twist... Evy shares which one of the MuggleCasters is also an integral part of The ChickPeeps team and - to be totally honest with you, peeps - we couldn’t do the show without him…. Which MuggleCaster is it? Listen to find out! The MuggleCasters reveal their respective Hogwarts houses and Andrew explains why he chose to renounce Gryffindor! BREAKING NEWS: Our host, Tylor, has a huge announcement to share from his organisation The Protego Foundation about a victory achieved for animals in the muggle wizarding world, in association with Warner Bros. Our guests muse on what species of magical creature they’d most like to meet in the muggle world. The gang discuss the news that HBO are planning a Wizarding World TV series and what changes we’d like to see from a vegan perspective. Is it cruel to liberate house-elves, and how would we personally handle a house-elf we ‘inherited’. Plant-based Hogwarts feasts: an oxymoron or a creative culinary challenge? We devise more secure, ethical methods of letter delivery than owls, and talk about their role in wizarding society. Oh great, the ‘Voldemort is Vegan’ theory is back… Tylor tries to convince the Mugglecasters. A ghostly presence graces the pod with a non-corporeal conundrum... Links: Protego Foundation MuggleCast website MuggleCast Instagram and Twitter Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your first order at vivolife.com. In this episode Evy and Robbie interview Geraldine Starke, founder of Refarm’d. Refarm’d is an organisation devoted to helping farmers transition their businesses from the production of cow’s milk to producing plant-based milks and convert their farmland to animal sanctuaries. Having already piloted their scheme with a number of ex-dairy farmers, including Katja & Jay Wilde, whose story was covered in the 2018 documentary 73 Cows, Geraldine joins us to talk about how Refarm’d is disrupting the dairy industry and what is next for the organisation. Also in this episode… Geraldine speculates on the limitations within the current model of animal sanctuaries and explains why dairy farms are perfectly equipped to become animal sanctuaries. “There is really a war between farmers and vegans” - Geraldine talks about wanting to heal the animosity between the farming and animal rights’ communities and how she intends to help farmers and animals with one organisation. “Finally, we’re helping the farmers. The future is with them, not against them” - Geraldine describes the reaction of vegans to the work of Refarm’d. Geraldine tells us all about the Refarm’d model for helping farmers transition from dairy production to plant milk production - and why they only work with farmers who commit to keeping all of their animals. How profitable is producing oat milk vs dairy milk. How you can patronise and support the farmers new oat milk businesses! “We want to create a whole network around Refarm’d where we can connect farmers with other experts.” - Geraldine shares her vision for the future of Refarm’d, a system that is local, sustainable and ethical. Stay tuned for some listener emails and an important season 3 announcement! Links: Refarm’d Website Refarm’d Instagram Documentary 73 Cows on Vimeo Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. This week on the show we’re talking to the founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, Damien Mander. Damien is a former Special Operations sniper who traveled to Africa in 2009, after leaving the military, in search of a new adventure. Instead he discovered “a purpose amongst chaos” when he saw the body of an enormous bull elephant that had been brutally killed for his tusks. In that moment, Damien’s life changed forever and our movement gained a powerful, passionate and highly skilled animal advocate. In this interview Damien talks to Robbie and Evy about his vegan journey, founding the IAPF and about Akashinga, Africa’s first armed, plant-based, all-women anti-poaching unit. We conducted this interview while Damien was at one of the IAPF reserves in Kenya. The sounds you can hear in the background of our conversation are the authentic noises of the Kenyan wildlife at night! Also in this episode… Damien identifies going vegan as the single most important thing he’s done with his life. In pursuit of adventure, Damien talks about his initial motivation to visit Africa, having heard about the anti-poaching world years earlier. “These guys are defending the heart and lungs of the planet.” - Damien talks about seeing the work of rangers for the first time, and how it made him see past his ego to reevaluate his life and the kind of person he wanted to be. “Having hunted [animals] before Iraq, I never hunted after Iraq because I knew what it was like to be hunted” - Damien talks about how his perspective on animals was radically shifted by his experiences serving twelve tours in Iraq. How the world of anti-poaching gave Damien a purpose that had previously eluded him. Damien shares how he repurposed his skills as a sniper in the army to set up the International Anti-Poaching Foundation. We learn about Akashinga, Africa’s first plant-based all-female anti-poaching unit and Damien shares why he believes women are innately predisposed to be able to protect wildlife and de-escalate conflict. “The women are survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, AIDs orphans, single mothers, abandoned wives and when we set this up we thought, ‘lets give an opportunity to some of the most marginalized women, in the toughest positions’ - what we didn’t realise is we were getting the hardest women there were” - on the all female Akashinga rangers. “There’s two types of conservationists. Vegans… and those that don’t like to take their work home” - Damien pulls no punches when talking about his stance on veganism as a conservationist. Damien has a fresh definition of the alpha male. Links: International Anti-Poaching Foundation Damien’s Modern Warrior TEDtalk Phillip Wollen: Animals Should Be Off the Menu Akashinga: The Brave Ones The Game Changers Chef Cola’s Instagram Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. Our guest this week is the founder and president of Food Empowerment Project, lauren Ornelas. An animal rights activist of over 30 years, we talk to lauren about F.E.P.'s mission to create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one’s food choices. In addition, lauren takes us through her beginnings as an activist, why she founded F.E.P. and why her activism doesn’t stop at veganism. Also in this episode… lauren talks about the culinary trials and tribulations of going vegan in the 1980s. Seriously folks, we don’t realise how good we’ve got it! “I find college [activism] organisations to be some of the most impactful organisations that are out there” - lauren tells us about her earliest experiences as an activist in high school and college. lauren shares her experiences as an undercover activist working with the animal rights charity Viva! USA. lauren talks about her frustration with the animal rights movement not working diligently enough on human rights issues that led her to founding Food Empowerment Project. “We need to make sure we’re not acting self-righteous when our food might be coming from unjust systems as well.” lauren discusses the brutal working conditions in the cacao industry and why, in her opinion, many vegan chocolate companies are not truly vegan. lauren explains F.E.P.’s thorough process for ensuring vegan chocolate companies are not using slave labour. Is veganism a privilege or a moral obligation? “Veganism has given me every purpose I’ve ever had in my life” Tylor is shocked to learn about a company that is enforcing a food apartheid in a community he knows very well. lauren gives us an example of a vegan phrase that should be retired and tells us why. Links: F.E.P.’s all-important Chocolate List. lauren’s Tedx talk, The Power of Food our Food Choices. Food Empowerment Project website. Food Empowerment Project Instagram and Twitter and Youtube. F.E.P. ‘Eating on a Budget’. Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. This episode is also brought to you in partnership with the amazing plant based milk making machine, Almond Cow. Check out their website to find out more about making your own delicious, homemade plant milks and use code ‘chickpeeps15’ to get $15 off your Almond Cow at https://almondcow.co/. This week, Evanna and Tylor speak to award-winning photojournalist, author and founder of We Animals Media, Jo-Anne MacArthur. Jo-Anne's striking images of animals in captivity are known to all within the animal rights movement, and have moved thousands of people to deeply consider humanity’s relationship with animals. In this episode Jo-Anne shares her journey into veganism and animal rights, what she has learned in twenty years of photographing animals exploited by humans and whether or not she still remains optimistic about humanity.  Also in this episode… Jo-Anne describes how one chance encounter with a macaque monkey, while backpacking in Ecuador, inspired her to share the stories of animals. Jo-Anne tells us about her latest book Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene. Jo-Anne explains why she refers to the animals used by humans as ‘hidden animals’ and why she has devoted her life to telling their stories. ‘We have to create artistic, beautiful images, even of things that are absolutely terrible’. Jo-Anne stresses the importance of producing visually stimulating pictures of animals and likens it to war photography. Tylor shares that, in his time at PETA, they often used Jo-Anne’s work in their campaigns. Jo-Anne talks about her organisation We Animals Media; a group of writers, filmmakers and artists, whose focus is to amplify the stories of animals. ‘Anyone doing this front-line animal work needs to have a big focus on resilience’. Jo-Anne discusses the importance of safeguarding her mental health and shares that she has previously suffered from PTSD. ‘I don’t think I have become desensitized. I think it is important to keep my heart wide open and just let it break, over and over’. Jo-Anne explains how emotional engagement with her subjects and remaining highly sensitised to the plight of animals is key to her being able to produce such striking images. Jo-Anne tells Evy and Tylor about the creation of her Animal Photojournalism Masterclass and very generously offers us 4 free passes to giveaway to you, our dearest ChickPeeps. Listen to the episode to find out how you can win one of the passes! Links: Make sure you check out Jo-Anne’s beautiful website  We Animals Media website We Animals Media Photo Galleries. Follow We Animals Instagram  Buy Jo-Anne’s new book Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. This week, Tylor and Evy interview iconic punk rock star and long-time vegan Davey Havok. Davey is the lead singer of AFI, Blaqk Audio, XTRMST and Dreamcar. He is also an author and co-host on SiriusXM’s Volume West. In this episode, Tylor finally gets to interview and personally thank the person who inspired his veganism in the first place! We also talk about the common philosophy underlying vegan and straight edge lifestyles, veganism on the punk rock scene and Davey’s early days of being vegan while on tour. While you’re listening, please take a moment to check out the links to our sponsors. Not only are Vivo Life a great, vegan company, but their support also allows us to continue to produce The ChickPeeps for you! We love them and their products and we think you will too. This episode is also sponsored by the lovely people at Forager Project. Only for podcast listeners, Forager is offering a limited offer coupon for a free cup of plant-based yoghurt! Claim it here! Also in this episode… Did you know that Davey Havok is actually Tylor’s vegan fairy godfather! Tylor shares how Davey’s example inspired him to consider veganism and started his journey as an animal rights activist. Davey shares his initial bias against veganism when it was regarded as ‘trendy’ and how his contrarian mindset caused him to reject veganism for a long time. Some fairly outrageous claims are made about the nation’s beloved cereal mascots… ‘There’s pus in cow’s milk! I’m out!’ Davey talks about his journey from begrudging vegan to happily eschewing animal products.  ‘Meat flesh tastes dead’. Davey talks about the way animal products stop tasting like food once you step away from them. Davey’s reasons for following a straight-edge lifestyle and his thoughts on the shared foundation of respect between veganism and straight-edge. Davey shares how his art and his ethics naturally complement each other. We talk about Davey’s ‘I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ poster and he explains why he was happy to do it! Tylor asks Davey about touring as a vegan and if it’s getting easier or harder. Davey shares some exclusive AFI info and reveals details about the new record, which will be released in 2021!  Links: The VegNews Guide to Being a Fabulous Vegan. Diet for A New America - The book that opened Davey’s eyes to veganism. Follow Davey on Instagram and Twitter. AFI website. Davey’s ‘I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur’ campaign for PETA. Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. Hello from Evy, Momo, Tylor and Robbie, back together again for our monthly ‘Ask the ChickPeeps’ episode! This is the episode where we, the hosts of the show, get together to answer your questions and queries as we come to the end of Veganuary 2021 and look ahead to a bright new year full of vegan possibilities! Also in this episode: Thirteen year old Maurice asks us how to handle accidentally eating animal products and how to get parents to take veganism seriously. Nessa, a SoCal living Hufflepuff listener, asks for recommendations on the best vegan chocolates; Evy and Momo are only too happy to oblige. Listener Dan emails us in regards to a question we fielded on last month’s #AskChickPeeps episode concerning how teachers can introduce their pupils to veganism and animal rights in a non-threatening, non-political way. He has a wonderful recommendation - check it out below! Ella-Louise seeks advice on how to go beyond veganism and get active in the animal rights scene, so we share some ideas for various different ways that you can start out on your activism journey. Evy admits that she sometimes thinks of you, dear listener, as one of her ‘vegan children’ and she elaborately fantasises about all of the hosts somehow coming together to raise a ‘mega-vegan’. It is weird, but perhaps an interesting reflection on our individual influence on those around us. We all look forward to 2021 and talk about ways we’d like to see the vegan movement grow and evolve.  We reveal the final clue in The ChickPeeps Treasure Giveaway! Entries with the winning answer must be submitted via email or DM by 7th February 2021 at 11.59 PST. Good luck, peeps! Links:  The Educated Choices Program - as suggested by our listener, Dan. Social Media Twitter: @ChickPeepsPod Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast Momoko Hill: @oh_momoko Robbie Jarvis: @robbjarvis Tylor Starr: @tylorstarr Evanna Lynch: @msevylynch

This season of The ChickPeeps is brought to you by our friends at Vivo Life! Use our code 'chickpeeps10' to get 10% off your order at vivolife.com. This week, Momo and Evy have an in-depth discussion about redistributing privilege in the vegan community with the wonderful Mikaela Loach. Mikaela is a climate justice and anti-racism activist, a writer, medical student and host of The Yikes Podcast. In this episode, Mikaela shares her journey to veganism, her early days of animal rights activism and why the word ‘vegan’ is no longer front and centre in her activism. Mikaela also shares her ideas on keeping ego out of activism and how the movement will thrive when we listen to marginalised people and focus on the community as a whole rather than glorifying individuals within the vegan community.  While you’re listening, please take a moment to check out the links to our sponsors. Not only are Vivo Life a great, vegan company, but their support also allows us to continue to produce The ChickPeeps for you! We love them and their products and we think you will too. This episode is also sponsored by the lovely people at Forager Project. Only for podcast listeners, Forager is offering a limited offer coupon for a free cup of plant-based yoghurt! Claim it here! Also in this episode… Mikaela talks about going vegan overnight at the age of 16 after having her eyes opened to the logical fallacies inherent in eating animals. She shares her admiration for the young activists finding their voice in our movement and notes the importance of social media as a tool for organising and advocating for causes. We talk about the intersection of vegan and anti-racism work and Mikaela reminds us that “being aware of how other beings are oppressed will only ever strengthen our movements, it can’t weaken them”.  Mikaela explains the importance of keeping our ego in check, especially when we’re advocating for change on behalf of non-human animals.  “If we want to disrupt the system it’s going to be uncomfortable”. Mikaela emphasises the need to accept discomfort as part of the process in creating systemic change. How do we reach and change the minds of those who see the world so differently to us? Mikaela gives her perspective on ‘cancelling’ people and why she believes we need to lower the bar in terms of bringing people into movements. Mikaela talks about the upcoming season of The Yikes Podcast and explains why she likes podcasting as a medium. Links: Follow Mikaela on Instagram and Twitter. The Yikes Podcast on Spotify and Apple. Mikaela’s writing on Eco-Age. 50 Years of Imagining Radical Feminist Futures; A Conversation with Angela Davis and Adrienne Maree Brown. Get In Touch: Bonus Content: ChickPeeps Patreon Instagram: @ChickPeepsPod Facebook: @ChickPeepsPodcast