Our Hen House: Vegan & Animal Rights Movement | Stories from the Frontlines of Animal Liberation Episode 557: State Your Grand Intention ft. Jane Velez-Mitchell
Jasmin has landed safely at her new home in the Catskills and is bubbling over about the hiking trails and her new neighbors, who include woodchucks and bunnies. While she’s waiting for her things to arrive, she has caught up in person with Mariann and, most important, with Rose. They have been putting in place the social distancing rules of their COVID Pod, and future events include the local drive-in movie and maybe even some in-person podcast recording.
In this week’s Vegan Businesses segment we’re shouting out Veggie Victory, Nigeria’s first vegan restaurant, Eco Lips, a vegan organic lip balm, and NuVegan, a family owned restaurant with three locations in the Washington, DC area.
For the interview, Jasmin is joined by Jane Velez-Mitchell, the founder of JaneUnChained, the popular social media news outlet that produces original video content on animal rights and the vegan lifestyle. Previously a news anchor at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, WCBS-TV in New York, and CNN’s HLN, she currently hosts New Day New Chef, a fun plant-based cooking show available on Amazon Prime. Jane has won four Genesis Awards from the Humane Society of the United States, and in 2015, she received the Nanci Alexander Animal Activist Award.
In this episode, Jane shares what she has focused on during the Covid-19 quarantine period, which include a mind-boggling number of projects rooted in fighting the devastation wrought by animal agriculture and supporting the joys of the vegan lifestyle. Of course, Jane Unchained continues to produce its groundbreaking daily vegan cooking show on Facebook. She also tells us about the Covid edition of her Amazon Prime cooking show, i.e., New Day New Chef Support and Feed Edition, which reports on those who are helping those in need during the current crisis. Jane also discusses the documentary she directed, Countdown to Year Zero, and explains why 2026 is the critical year in terms of triggering or preventing an environmental apocalypse, and how the key to a positive outcome is for everyone to stop eating animals.
“A great change comes with grand intentions – you have to state what you want, and what we want is a vegan world.”
– Jane Velez-Mitchell
This Week in Our Hen House:
- The importance of setting a grand intention for what you want to achieve
- Why networking is crucial
- Espousing a vegan lifestyle is not a zero-sum-game
- Why competition makes no sense in the animal activism community
- Jane’s ‘done beats perfect’ philosophy for her daily Facebook vegan cooking show
- The messaging behind New Day New Chef
- Why Jane feels that animal agriculture is a much bigger contributor to climate change than people think
- How vegan celebrities are helping to change the world
- How Jane got her show on Amazon and why she hopes it will inspire other vegan cooking shows
- The Plant-Based Neighbor app that Jane has in the pipeline
- The ‘vegonomy’ – what it is and how Jane sees it working
- The Boycott Meat roundtable and why Jane participates in the coalition
- How Jane connects with people who are veg-curious and how she mentors them
Resources Mentioned:
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcom Gladwell
- Dr. Sailesh Rao, PhD
- Rowdy Girl Sanctuary
- Impossible Foods
- Love Gianna
- Vegans for Black Lives Matter
- Love Always Sanctuary
- Elysabeth Alfano
- Vegan Nation
- Plant-Based Neighbors
Connect with Jane Velez-Mitchell:
Connect with Our Hen House:
This episode is brought to you in part through the generosity of A Well-Fed World. A Well-Fed World provides the means for change by empowering individuals, social justice organizations, and political decision makers to embrace the benefits of plant-based foods and farming. Learn more at awfw.org.
You can listen to our podcast directly on our website, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcatcher! Also, if you like what you hear, please rate it and leave us a comment on Apple Podcasts! Of course, we would be thrilled if you would also consider making a donation, or becoming a member of our flock (especially if you’re a regular listener). Any amount is hugely appreciated, and Our Hen House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so it’s tax-deductible! Thank you for helping us create quality content, and for helping us bring you a new podcast episode each week!
Don’t forget to tune into Our Hen House’s other two podcasts: The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and The Animal Law Podcast.
The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.