“When we do polls on this, we've got all political parties high support for ending cosmetics animal testing, from Republicans, Independents, Democrats - age gaps between the boomers and the zoomers, everybody is in agreement. You know, it's one of those issues that you cannot get more unity on a single issue.” – Monica Engebretson Monica Engebretson is the North American head of public affairs for Cruelty Free International , the leading organization working to end animal testing worldwide. They...
Oct 04, 2023•28 min•Season 10Ep. 13
“ I understand that when you have been [going to] a restaurant for many years, for some customers, it's normal to think that somehow you own it a little bit, like, ‘Oh, this is my table, this is my restaurant.’ And, then when the restaurant changes completely, you feel really betrayed… I invited them. I invited a lot of people, a lot of my regular customers. I said, ‘don't worry, we have changed. But nothing has changed, you know, just come. I invite you and your family. You come and eat just li...
Sep 27, 2023•43 min•Season 10Ep. 12
“The truth is that in between all of those wonderful events was huge debt, maxing out 20 different credit cards and absolutely annihilating my credit, moving from that little half acre backyard into where we are now in Santa Clarita, refinancing the house five times, having people show up in the middle of the night to repo our cars, the bank trying to take the house, my parents doing literal intervention, saying, ‘Ellie, stop your nonsense.’” – Ellie Laks Ellie Laks is the founder of The Gentle ...
Sep 20, 2023•46 min•Season 10Ep. 11
“I think the thing revolves around the control of nature. You know, I mean, you get way back to that. Some people are really uncomfortable around nature existing as it should, and they feel that we need to fix things." - Dr. Chistopher Servheen Grizzly bears are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. But Republican lawmakers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are trying to change that. They are pressing the Biden administration to turn management of grizzly bears back over to the states,...
Sep 13, 2023•33 min
“…people say, okay, recycle, and then somebody sees you throwing out a little candy wrapper. Nobody's going to point at you say, ‘Huh, I saw you threw away a recyclable piece” Right? But if I say I'm vegan and then I eat a slice of halal and halal is made with eggs, somebody will say, ‘Oh, it has eggs, you're not really vegan.’ And so that's just kind of weird. – Galina Hale Galina is a professor of economics at UC Santa Cruz. She's also the co-founder and Chief Research Officer of FSI— Food Sys...
Sep 06, 2023•48 min•Season 10Ep. 9
”We’re already starting to see this happening, like there's a leather tannery in Vietnam called Isa TanTeck, where leather runs through the blood. That's what they specialize at. They came out with their own mycelium material. A leather tannery has come out with their own mycelium material. Are they in it? Are they in it for the passion of saving animals and the vegan kind of philosophies? No, they're in it because they're smart people and they've got good scientists and they've been able to cre...
Aug 30, 2023•27 min•Season 10Ep. 8
“And it's true that as much as online makes things much more accessible in so many ways, sometimes it's the feeling and seeing that actually really gets people over the line, because they're like, ‘Oh, wow, that feels really… that looks really good. Oh, look at it on me. Oh, you can style it like this as well. And oh, you can go over the shoulder like, yeah…’ the touch is really important for consumer goods” – Jessica Kruger Jessica Kruger is the founder of a vegan handbag company called Shaker ...
Aug 23, 2023•26 min•Season 10Ep. 7
“We're the first species that has enough mixture of intelligence and capabilities to actually screw it all up. That is our distinction. You know, there's a lot of species on the planet who are now looking to us to say, ‘Well, okay, you're the first to be there. Do you screw it up for everybody or do you figure out how to transcend this?’” David Meyer David Meyer is co-founder of Food System Innovations , and co-founder and CEO of Humane America Animal Foundation . He has worked in animal advocac...
Aug 16, 2023•40 min•Season 10Ep. 6
“Chickens have full color spectrum vision. That means they see the entire spectrum of colors from the infrared to the ultraviolet. The reason that roosters crow when for humans it is still dark outside is because they see the sunrise before we do, because they see infrared light. So, they're up and about in what for them is daylight, when for us it is dark out.” – Karen Davis Karen Davis is the president and founder of United Poultry Concerns . They’re an organization that promotes the compassio...
Aug 09, 2023•37 min•Season 10Ep. 5
“Somebody told me, when I was a young designer at Mercedes, they said, ‘well, it takes like... 20 cows to upholster this sedan.’ …Clearly people believe that cows, that the leather, is a byproduct of the food industry, but that's not necessarily true. When you part out the cow, the leather is actually the most valuable component of the cow. - Vicki von Holzhausen Vicki von Holzhausen is a former car designer who decided to make a vegan leather that could rival animal leather. After much research...
Aug 02, 2023•28 min•Season 10Ep. 4
Catalina Lopez is the director of the Aquatic Animal Alliance at the Aquatic Life Institute . They're a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of aquatic animals, specifically in the food system. I wanted to talk to Catalina about octopuses. This year, we're set to see the world's first octopus factory farm open in the Canary Islands. Just when it seemed humans could not get worse, we decide to farm octopuses? This is a terrible idea for so many reasons, from animal welfare to environmental co...
Jul 26, 2023•34 min•Season 10Ep. 3
“Despite all the information that we see promoting dairy [in school], you cannot promote plant-based milk unless you also promote dairy even more. It just goes to show that there's something more to it.” – Marielle Williamson Mariel Williamson recently graduated from high in Los Angeles. This past spring, while still a student, she was told by her school that she couldn't share information about plant-based milk or be critical of the dairy industry unless she provided pro dairy content as well. ...
Jul 19, 2023•19 min•Season 10Ep. 2
Rose Patterson is part of Animal Rising , the animal activist movement that's disrupting animal exploitation all over the UK. Animal Rising used to be called Animal Rebellion, that is until April. And since April, which is only a few months ago, they’ve exploded - they are everywhere. They have disrupted horse races and greyhound races, they've broken into labs, they've stolen beagles, they've stolen King Charles's lambs. And they've received a huge amount of press because of their actions. Much...
Jul 12, 2023•30 min•Season 10Ep. 1
“Right from the beginning I think I was infected with this disease. It's a very, very contagious disease of not knowing how to say no to an animal in distress. So, alongside of the bears, we were rescuing everything else: crocodiles, snakes, birds, deer, foxes, jackals, you know, I mean, you name it.” - Kartick Satyanarayan Kartik Satyanarayan is the co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS , an organization that was founded in 1995 with the mission to make lasting changes to protect and conserve Indi...
Jun 21, 2023•59 min•Season 9Ep. 22
“I think we are at the point where so many of these methods have shown in studies to be more predictive for humans that it really is an issue of human health. We need to do better for patients. We know we can and that these methods exist, so we need to use them.” -Elizabeth Baker This past season, we’ve focused quite a bit on animal research and experimentation, and a lot of our focus has been really on just how bad it is, how bad it is for the animals, how bad it is for science, and how bad it ...
Jun 14, 2023•27 min•Season 9Ep. 21
“We don't know one case where a lion which was hand fed or bottle fed was released successfully in the wild. Of course, if they see humans and they understand that humans is the connection to food, it will be always a danger to put those lions back in the wild. And many of those companies use that as an excuse why this conservation project is important, but we don't think so and we don't believe that of course. It's in my opinion, nonsense.” – Daniel Kaul Daniel Kaul is the founder of Natucate ,...
Jun 07, 2023•29 min•Season 9Ep. 20
“I think to some extent it shows that we don't want to have knowledge that will make us uncomfortable or make us feel that we're doing something wrong. And I get that from people quite often, you know, that don't really know me very well, but they ask me what I'm doing and I mention something about I've written about animals and the way animals raised for food are treated. And then they’ll say, ‘Oh, don't tell me, you'll spoil my dinner.’” – Peter Singer In 1975, Peter Singer changed the way we ...
May 31, 2023•36 min•Season 9Ep. 19
“It’s like comparing hells - it's a different type of hell, right? It's just like one hideous place where you're neglected and you have all manner of suffering to another place where it's a different set of conditions of suffering and misery.” – Dr. Alka Chandna This conversation took place a couple of weeks ago as a live event. It's with me and Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA's Vice President of Laboratory Investigations. At the time I called it, The Realities of Animal Testing , which is a pretty horri...
May 24, 2023•52 min•Season 9Ep. 18
“We'd never worked in this industry. We'd not got any prior experience in fashion ourselves. But we thought, how hard could it be? Famous last words. How hard could it be to design a handbag? Turns out very hard, very hard.” – Natalie Deana Natalie Deanna is the co-founder of Frida Rome , a conscious luxury brand that makes stunning vegan handbags, handbags inspired by and designed for, “bad girls who do good things.” “’Bad Girls Who Do Good Things,’ was a tagline we came up with even before the...
May 17, 2023•30 min•Season 9Ep. 17
“It's very disappointing when I see these menus that are from starter to main courses, all animal proteins… How can you not have like 30% of the menu be plant based? For what reason? Do you need to have animal proteins in every single dish? There's no need for it… People don't need that. The planet doesn’t need that.” - Verde Camilla Parmigiani Verde Camilla Parmigiani is the founder of Vegan Set . She helps hotels create successful plant-based experiences. She founded Vegan Set in 2016 with the...
May 10, 2023•26 min•Season 9Ep. 16
“So, if you listen to the experts, we're to be raising dramatically more animals for food in the future. The only way around that, I think, is through technologies that will render the exploitation of these animals obsolete. I mean, technologies have changed so much about how we live here on Earth today. Instead of whipping horses, we now use bikes and cars. Instead of harpooning whales, we now use electricity. You know, instead of live plucking geese for their quills, we now tap on glass screen...
May 04, 2023•36 min•Season 9Ep. 15
“What I did not expect to see from farmed monkeys being bought and transported into the US, were monkeys who were coming in with things like Ebola like viruses, malaria, tuberculosis, simian retrovirus, herpes viruses, salmonella, Yersinia, Campylobacter, unnamed deadly diarrheal diseases. They were coming in with Tier 1 Select agents. I mean, we're talking pathogens so deadly that the government has identified them as potential bioterrorism threats.” – Lisa Jones-Engel In 2022, 1000 long-tailed...
Apr 26, 2023•54 min•Season 9Ep. 14
“I also heard the sounds of killer whales. They were calling to each other loud and clear. these melodious whistles and calls which went right into my ear pieces. I realized that even if I couldn't see them, they were there somewhere beneath me in the ocean. They were communicating with each other. They were staying in contact. It was like a big family.” - Hanne Strager Hanne Strager is a biologist, whale researcher, and author. She is the co-founder of the Andenes Whale Centre in Norway and she...
Apr 19, 2023•49 min•Season 9Ep. 13
“Our cultures are built around stories, right? We connect through stories, we learn through stories and stories are often stronger when they have characters, characters we can connect with. And I think that that been a struggle for many, many animals, all kinds of animals, that they don’t have a face or a character that people can connect with.” – Mark Elbroch Before I met Mark Elbroch and read his book, The Cougar Conundrum: Sharing the World with a Successful Predator , I thought I knew at lea...
Apr 12, 2023•35 min•Season 9Ep. 12
“Our bodies have co-evolved over millennia with the help of all these other beautiful animal species, with the millions of species of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live on our bodies and inside our bodies.” – Parneet Pal This episode is a little bit different than what we usually do at Species Unite. We are still talking about an animal, but this time it’s the human animal. Parneet Pal is an educator, science communicator and wellbeing expert working at the intersection of business, lifestyl...
Apr 05, 2023•42 min•Season 9Ep. 11
“And then instead of heroes, we started being referred to as terrorists. But that made no difference to us. I mean, we kind of carried on regardless, and we started trying to do as much damage as we could to inflict economic loss on these companies.” – Ronnie Lee Ronnie Lee founded the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) in 1974. The Animal Liberation Front is a global movement dedicated to the liberation of animals from human oppression. They engage in and promote non-violent direct action in protest...
Mar 29, 2023•44 min•Season 9Ep. 10
There's a fundamental mismatch between how we make plant-based meat and the facilities that are making it. When you're using the wrong tool, when you're trying to use a spoon to cut a piece of vegetable, it just doesn't work. It's the same kind of thing for making plant-based meat.” – Christie Lagally Christie Lagally is the founder and CEO at Rebellyous Foods , a food manufacturing technology and production company. They make delicious plant-based chicken, but they also make production equipmen...
Mar 22, 2023•28 min•Season 9Ep. 9
“But what the tour guide told us, was that eventually, as they grew, they now have their own octopus catchers. They called them the octopus whisperers, and they said that these people know exactly where the octopuses are going to be and when, so they know how to go get them and bring them back to the facility.” – Laura Lee Cascada In October of last year, Laura Lee Cascada published an investigation into the Kanaloa Octopus Farm on the Big Island in Hawaii. The Kanaloa Octopus Farm was capturing...
Mar 16, 2023•27 min•Season 9Ep. 8
“It's almost like the Animal Welfare Act is like a safety, a security blanket, because it's like, ‘Oh, we have the Animal Welfare Act to protect the animals, they're okay.’ And they don't realize that it's actually not very strong and that it's not being very aggressively enforced.” – Rachel Fobar In February, Eric Kleinman from the Animal Welfare Institute was on the podcast. He came on to talk about the Envigo Dogs - the 4000 beagles that were rescued last summer from a breeding facility for l...
Mar 08, 2023•27 min•Season 9Ep. 7
“There was a law on the books [in New York], even back in 1917, that required that every publicly funded elementary school needs to provide instruction in the humane treatment and protection of animals.” - Meena Alagappan Meena Alagappan runs an organization called, Humane Education Advocates Reaching Teachers, otherwise known as HEART. Heart is a full service, humane education provider in New York City, Chicago and Indianapolis. I met Meena because we, Species Unite are doing a wolf education p...
Mar 01, 2023•20 min•Season 9Ep. 6
