Vegan Menu Tantrums and Deadly Dairy ‘Career Changes’ | Rising Anxieties

In this week’s episode of Rising Anxieties, Mariann Sullivan unpacks the absurdity of a Brazilian chef throwing a culinary hissy fit over preparing an all-vegan menu for Prince William’s sustainability event (comparing it to Iron Maiden playing jazz, which honestly sounds amazing). She also dives into the poultry industry’s shocking revelation that factory farming might gasp breed disease, explores Iowa officials’ late-Friday-afternoon sneaky settlement with a water-polluting meatpacker, and highlights Burger King Austria’s brief flirtation with dairy alternatives before caving to the “but my coffee!” crowd. Plus, discover the Orwellian euphemism of the week: dairy cows don’t get slaughtered—they “change careers”!

This episode explores:

• How a sustainability-focused event finally hired an actual vegan chef after another chef dramatically quit rather than cook vegetables (despite 14% of Brazilians identifying as vegetarian or vegan)
• The poultry industry’s desperate plea to researchers to solve their disease problems while maintaining the conditions that create those diseases
• Iowa officials’ behind-closed-doors $50,000 “sweetheart deal” with a meat company responsible for 60 water pollution violations
• YouTube’s temporary removal of an award-winning documentary exposing India’s dairy industry
• The linguistic gymnastics of the dairy industry, which now refers to slaughter as cows “changing careers”

We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read this episode's interview.

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The Veganic Summit is a free online event from November 7th-9th, 2025. You’ll learn how plant foods can be grown using techniques that are both vegan and organic, without any chemical fertilizers or any animal byproducts like manure or bonemeal. If you’d like to start your own veganic garden or learn about sustainable plant-based farming, sign up for the Veganic Summit today at https://veganicsummit.com/

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