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This week, I am pleased to present my interview with Sumaya Braceras, a vegan activist who lives in the Canary Islands of Spain. In addition to advocating for veganism online and in her everyday life, Sumaya does street outreach with Anonymous for the Voiceless to educate the public about the importance of going vegan. Sumaya recently participated, along with Clif Grant, Michael Prikryl, and I, in an online panel discussion about why vaccines aren’t vegan. In this interview, Sumaya tells her story of what inspired her to become vegan, and she describes the current state of the vegan movement in the Canary Islands. We discuss how we can respond to some of the questions or excuses that we hear when we are having vegan advocacy conversations. Sumaya also tells me about how she advocates for veganism in her everyday interactions and how being vegan has changed her life. It's a great interview!

Happy World Vegan Month, everyone! This week, I am pleased to present my second interview with Gad Hakimi. Gad Hakimi, who lives in Israel, is a vegan activist and the designer of the International Vegan Flag. You might remember that I previously interviewed Gad on Episode 2 of this show, back in 2019. In this week's interview, Gad describes the progress of animal advocacy and veganism in Israel, and he tells me about some of the places that the vegan flag has been used recently. He also tells me about his family's adopted dog, Sophie. It's a great interview, and I hope you'll listen in! Please note that this interview was recorded on October 31st, which is one day before World Vegan Day (World Vegan Day is on November 1st). More episodes of Always for Animal Rights can be found at https://alwaysforanimalrights.blogspot.com.

Welcome to Episode 26 of Always for Animal Rights! This week’s show features my recent interview with Dr. Natalie Khazaal. Natalie is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, and she is an American Council of Learned Societies fellow for her work on Arab atheists. Her work in the field of Critical Animal Studies includes academic articles on speciesism in the media and the EU’s vivisection policies; she is also the co-editor of the book “Like an Animal”: Critical Animal Studies Perspectives on Borders, Displacement, and Othering, which will be published later this year. In this interview, Natalie explains how the mainstream media reinforces speciesist ideology in news stories regarding nonhuman animals. She also tells me how journalists can reject speciesism, and instead report on nonhuman animals’ stories more responsibly and ethically. The article we discuss in this interview is the 2016 academic journal article, ““An Angry Cow Is Not A Good Eating Experience”: How US and Spanish media are shifting from crude to camouflaged speciesism in concealing nonhuman perspectives”, which Natalie co-authored with Núria Almiron. After speaking about speciesism in the media, Natalie tells me about her upcoming co-edited book about human and nonhuman refugees and migrants. The Always for Animal Rights blog can be found at https://alwaysforanimalrights.blogspot.com.

Welcome to Episode 22 of Always for Animal Rights! On today's show is my interview with the vegan educator Elizabeth Collins. Elizabeth, who lives in New Zealand, has been running street stalls to educate the public about veganism since 2009, and she is also the host of the NZ Vegan Podcast. (You can find her main website at nzvegan.com). Her activism is based on the principles of Gary Francione's Abolitionist Approach to animal rights. In this interview, Elizabeth tells me about the Abolitionist Approach, and we discuss some of the problems with single-issue campaigning. She also offers her advice to anyone who wants to start their own abolitionist vegan street stall or other advocacy initiative. As well, she tells me about what is happening with the animal advocacy movement and vegan movement in New Zealand. To listen to more episodes of Always for Animal Rights, please visit https://alwaysforanimalrights.blogspot.com.