The Dirty Tricks of the Foster Farms Trial - Alicia Santurio and Jon Frohnmayer
Defendant Alicia Santurio and attorney Jonathan Frohnmayer on how we won another historic victory in the Foster Farms Trial.
Mar 21, 2023•2 hr 21 min
The Simple Heart w/ Wayne Hsiung
Who says you can't change the world? Meet the people who are. Wayne Hsiung, law professor-turned-grassroots animal rights activist and multi-state felony defendant, uncovers the people behind the political, the unexplored personal stories of social change. Intimate interviews with journalists, musicians, filmmakers, community leaders, and others. Change isn't easy. But it must start somewhere.
Blog: https://blog.simpleheart.org
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@waynehsiung_
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
Episodes
The End of a Podcast?
I’m pausing the podcast, to take on some big new projects. What I’ve learned from the last couple years, and what’s coming next.
Dec 15, 2022•38 min•Ep. 51
What Happens When Friends Disagree - Leighton Woodhouse
Leighton Woodhouse is a journalist documentary filmmaker, and an iconoclast. He’s a (former?) leftist who now critiques movements for police accountability, racial justice, and even climate change. I disagree with him — vehemently in some cases — on almost all of these issues (and even on some aspects of animal rights: the cause that originally brought us together). But he’s also a dear friend, and someone who has shown kindness to vulnerable beings in their times of need. I will always remember...
Dec 08, 2022•2 hr 46 min•Ep. 50
Effortless Climate Impact – Helena Merk
Helena Merk is the CEO and founder of Spirals Protocol, a green cryptocurrency startup that aims to use blockchain technology to create effortless and verifiable climate impact. NOTE: This podcast has a lot of technical jargon. If you’re new to crypto, check out this blog for a simple guide to some of the terms and concepts: https://simpleheart.substack.com/p/a-green-guide-to-cryptocurrency-podcast
Dec 01, 2022•2 hr 9 min
How to Transform Thanksgiving — and Maximize your Coffee (Priya Sawhney)
Priya and I talk about our experiences inside Whole Foods’ highest-rated turkey farm, our efforts to change our families’ traditions around Thanksgiving, and the best time to drink coffee. Priya Sawhney is co-founder of the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere. Jeff Bezos disruption: https://youtu.be/QKuNZdGsQ_I Bernie Sanders disruption: https://fb.watch/gXwN7jSIYM/
Nov 21, 2022•1 hr 59 min
The Link Between Fear and Evil – Hadar Aviram
Criminal law scholar Hadar Aviram, who testified on my behalf at the Smithfield trial, joins me in a conversation about power, corruption, and her theory that some of the greatest wrongs in life are caused by people acting in fear. Read Hadar's blog on the trial: https://www.hadaraviram.com/2022/10/08/smithfieldtrial-the-most-absurd-miscarriage-of-justice-youve-never-heard-of/
Nov 17, 2022•1 hr 33 min
Hangout: How Buddhism Can Help Everyone
A few simple tenets of Buddhist thinking have lifted millions of people globally from anxiety or despair, and empowered them to become their best selves. How can we apply these ancient traditions to modern life? Music by Dayzee Deva
Nov 14, 2022•44 min
Gene Baur - The First Open Rescue
In 1986, Gene Baur saw a sheep lying in the so-called “dead pile” at Lancaster Stockyards. But this sheep wasn’t dead. She lifted her head, and Gene rushed her to receive veterinary care. The story of Hilda is just one of many that Gene has to tell from his nearly four decades of animal rights activism. But it all comes back to the same foundational idea: when we are at our best, we are rescuers of animals, not their tormenters. Hilda’s story from Farm Sanctuary: https://www.farmsanctuary.org/ne...
Nov 10, 2022•1 hr 55 min
Hangout: How to Know What’s Right
Eric, Matthew, and I discuss “moral theories,” why they matter, and how they converge around animal rights Music by Dayzee Deva (cover of "Everybody Have Fun Tonight”)
Nov 07, 2022•45 min
Fighting for Democracy - Alex Chow and Anna Kwok
Alex Chow and Anna Kwok are activists with the Hong Kong Democracy Council, where they’ve challenged efforts by the Chinese government to restrict civil liberties and silence dissent. Music by Dayzee Deva (cover of "Everybody Have Fun Tonight”)
Nov 03, 2022•1 hr 39 min
Hangout: The Most Important Influencer is... You!
We’re trying something new: recordings of our short in-person conversations on Friday nights. These short conversations will be released on Mondays. Our usual podcast will be released on Thursdays. Let us know what you think! References: 2019 DxE Year End Video: https://youtu.be/VT61lSOP6sQ Photo of fireworks and fishnet relationships: https://i0.wp.com/www.austinweeklynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Michael-column-art.png?fit=1188%2C1248&ssl=1 Music by Dayzee Deva (cover of "Everybody H...
Oct 31, 2022•45 min
Filling the Gaps - Justin Marceau (legal scholar)
In my last conversation with Prof. Justin Marceau, we talked about his personal journey – from an aspiring pilot in the Air Force Academy, to Harvard-educated lawyer defending inmates on death row. What we did not get a chance to discuss, however, was Justin’s importance to the historic trial that ended with not guilty verdicts, for both me and my co-defendant Paul Darwin Picklesimer, in southern Utah. And, as I tell Justin in this podcast, he played a key role. This is not just because of his t...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr 58 min
The Greatest Trial in St. George History - Jeremy Beckham
There were so many cliffhangers in the recent open rescue trial in Utah. The mistrial that was nearly declared on the first day, due to the court’s failure to provide us information about jurors. The decision to close our case, despite not calling all of our witnesses, because of a strategic error I had made in failing to prep one of our witnesses. And the gamble to move forward with submitting the trial to a jury, even when the court agreed that there was a fundamental miscarraige of justice – ...
Oct 18, 2022•2 hr 10 min
Taking on Smithfield in Court… and Winning — Paul Darwin Picklesimer, Almira Tanner, and Curtis Vollmar
It’s still a little hard to believe. But on October 8, just a few days ago, a jury in southern Utah found me not guilty on all charges. The next few podcasts will discuss the trial, and its aftermath. But this first episode will focus on what came before: the incredible mobilization of people across the nation and world to fight with us against Smithfield, and for the right to rescue. Almira Tanner is lead organizer of the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). She was ...
Oct 11, 2022•2 hr 22 min
The Multiverse Bends towards Compassion - Priya Sawhney
Priya Sawhney is an organizer, poet, and co-founder of both The Sanctuary Initiative and Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). She is also one of my best friends on earth, and the person I’ve entrusted with the two beings I love more than any other – my dog Oliver and my cat Joan – as I face off with Smithfield in the trial that may change my life. For that reason, she will not be joining me in Utah. Oliver’s trauma has left him trusting of very few human beings. He needs her more than I do. Joan, who...
Oct 04, 2022•2 hr 2 min
One Week Before the Fight of Our Lives — Paul Darwin Picklesimer and Jon Frohnmayer
Paul Picklesimer and Jon Frohnmayer joined me in an investigation of the largest pig farm in the nation, Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms. Now they’re joining me as we fight for our freedom – and for the the right to rescue animals from abuse – in a trial that will unfold in the next week. At risk is 11 years in prison. And we are facing unprecedented obstacles, including a local sheriff who has told animal rights activists, “You will be killed. And I am not going to be there to stop. It.” But, as...
Sep 27, 2022•2 hr 18 min
Amy Meyer and Jeremy Beckham - Fighting Ag Gag
Amy Meyer was volunteering at an animal sanctuary near Salt Lake City, Utah when she decided, on the spur of a moment, to take a literal turn off her usual path. She had driven by a massive slaughterhouse on the way to the sanctuary many times. It always made her sad to think of the animals sent to their deaths, just a few hundred feet from the road. But one day in February 2013, she decided she would not just drive by. She would stop – and try to do something about it. And by merely stopping an...
Sep 20, 2022•2 hr 10 min
Finding Inspiration Amidst Horror - Almira Tanner
Almira Tanner is lead organizer of the grassroots animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere, which I co-founded in 2013. In that role, she’s been carefully watching the rise and fall of not just the animal rights movement, but movements across a whole range of social justice issues, from climate change to workers’ rights. And something has gone wrong; people seem to be losing hope. She’s seen this in her own work trying to challenge factory farms in California – including an underhanded cor...
Sep 13, 2022•2 hr 15 min
Dr. Michael Martin - Fighting Nuclear War… and Red Meat
Dr. Michael Martin is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco. He is also President of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the United States affiliate of an organization of medical doctors that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, and the founder of Physicians Against Red Meat. And he has an important lesson for us: we have the power to make change. Whether it’s educating ourselves about the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons, or p...
Sep 06, 2022•2 hr 16 min
The End of the Beginning
We started The Green Pill Podcast in September 2020 to create a space to talk about change. Now we’re going through a major change ourselves: in about one month, I head to trial to face criminal charges that could transform the rest of my life. And it’s for that reason we’re transforming the podcast, too. There’s the obvious reason: I may not be here much longer to serve as host. Priya, Ronnie, Dean, and Chloe will step up in various ways to ensure the show continues. But there’s a more fundamen...
Aug 30, 2022•2 hr 31 min
It’s a Just World, After All (Or is it?) - Legal Scholar Hadar Aviram
Hadar is the Thomas Miller Professor at UC Hastings College of the Law and an expert on criminal law. And the things she has discovered in the course of her research – for example, “pay to stay” schemes whereby prison inmates are forced to pay for their own incarceration, after they are released – have changed the way many view our system of criminal justice. But while Hadar has exposed all manner of corruption and injustice, to me, she has been a source of hope. This is true of her personal lif...
Aug 16, 2022•2 hr 14 min
From Cop to Criminal - Carter Dillard
Carter Dillard was a bright law student looking to make a difference in the world. And he did what most ambitious young lawyers do: he took a job with the most prestige, the so-called “honors” program at the Department of Justice. But when 9/11 happened, everything changed. He switched to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security and started working on “terrorism busts.” But something was wrong: the government wasn’t just using its power against actual terrorists. And, spurred by a chanc...
Aug 02, 2022•2 hr 44 min
30 Years of Freeing Animals - Ingrid Newkirk
In less than 2 months, I go to trial, where I face more than 10 years in prison, for freeing animals from nightmarish abuse. It’s for that reason I thought it was particularly important to have this conversation now. Ingrid Newkirk, among animal advocates, is a household name, one of two people (along with Animal Liberation author Peter Singer) most known for the founding of the animal rights movement in the 1970s. And she has learned some lessons in that nearly half century of work that would s...
Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Not that Bunny - Jeremy Beckham
Jeremy Beckham is a long-time animal rights activist who I’ve wanted to have on the show for a while. For one, Jeremy has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal rights history – and the lessons from that history for anyone who cares about social change. For another, Jeremy has an important perspective on modern progressive politics, and how our desire for safety has insulated us from the very people we need to change. But probably the most important reason I wanted to have Jeremy on is that he’s li...
Jul 05, 2022•3 hr 1 min
Animal Sanctuaries: A Model for Human Politics - Sherstin & Zoe Rosenberg
Zoe Rosenberg and Sherstin Rosenberg are two of the most inspiring people I know. Shocked by the horrors of factory farming about 10 years ago, they decided to start a sanctuary for animals that had a unique focus: giving each individual animal world-class care. Zoe, as a teenager who ultimately would choose to be home-schooled, and Sherstin, a veterinarian trained at the best schools in the nation, were in the unique position to deliver on this vision. But they also created something else: A mo...
Jun 21, 2022•2 hr 35 min
From Baywatch to Open Rescue - Alexandra Paul
Alexandra Paul was on Baywatch, the most watched television show on the planet in the 1990s. But instead of following in the footsteps of other Hollywood stars, she did something different: she turned her life toward activism. When I asked Alexandra, who is one of the happiest and most centered people I know, why she took that route, she shared something I’ve heard before: that her privileges in life gave her the willingness to take on big risks. But as I listened to her speak, I wondered if the...
Jun 07, 2022•2 hr 14 min
A Tale of Three Cover-Ups - Paul Picklesimer & Jon Frohnmayer
On May 20, the Court of Appeals in Utah ruled against us in our effort to reverse a trial court order forbidding us from introducing evidence of animal cruelty in a criminal trial involving an open rescue at the largest pig farm in the nation. The decision, though not unexpected, was still a tough one. There is no factual dispute as to what happened; our defense rests on not what we did, but what was on our minds. The most important evidence as to our motive and intent will not be heard in court...
May 24, 2022•2 hr 22 min
The Two Emotions that Drive Social Change - Doug McAdam Ph.D.
In 1968, Doug McAdam was an aspiring basketball player and occasional anti-war activist when he heard the devastating news: Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated. He pulled over to the side of the road and started bawling. But things only got worse that year. Within months, Bobby Kennedy, who many believed would be the next President of the United States, was also murdered. And when the Democratic National Convention ignored the wishes of primary voters and selected a pro-war candidate, ...
May 17, 2022•2 hr 32 min
Does Social Change Depend on Religious Faith? - Katie Cleary
Katie Cleary is a model, actor, entrepreneur, and documentary maker. She has not only hung out with some of the biggest names in Hollywood – but also headed out to the frontlines of animal abuse, to protect endangered wildlife from poachers who are armed to the teeth. But she’s also something else: a Christian. And while I sought Katie out for this conversation because of her work protecting endangered animals, we ended up talking about another vanishing species: progressives with deep religious...
May 10, 2022•2 hr 3 min
Media Trust, Addiction, Owning Mistakes - Jane Velez-Mitchell
Jane Velez-Mitchell is a former news anchor who created one of the biggest grassroots platforms for information on animal rights. She’s also a recovering alcoholic, who speaks openly about some of her most embarrassing experiences as an addict. And the mistakes Jane has made have, in many ways, given her the wisdom and strength to succeed. What’s true for Jane, however, is true of so many other institutions in society today. The media. Politics. And even mainstream dietary practices. Jane argues...
Apr 19, 2022•2 hr 17 min
Hosted on Spotify for Creators (Anchor)
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android