Welcome back to the Plant Based News Podcast! Our guest today is Anjali Harikumar, widely known as Be Extra Vegant. Anjali is a self-taught vegan Indian chef and content creator. She's not only a passionate advocate for veganism but also a PhD candidate working on cutting-edge nanophotonics research in Grenoble, France. Anjali shares her love for veganized Indian recipes through her social media platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Follow Anjali here - https://www.instagram.com/beextravegant/?hl=en Host: Robbie Lockie Editor: Polly Foreman Audio Editor: Phil Marriott Social Media: Darrell Sawczuk Producer: Xisca Taylor 00:00:00 An introduction to Anjali Harikumar 00:03:42 Discovering the vegan & plant-based lifestyle 00:08:07 Okjar 00:10:13 Spiritualism: challenging the idea of including animals within compassion 00:17:51 The Land Of Ahimsa: Dolly Vyas-Ahuja’s documentary 00:21:58 Veganizing Indian recipes 00:27:06 Beextravegant: Anjali’s content on social media 00:33:12 How to be relatable and original on social media 00:37:40 Nanophotonics: the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. 00:40:20 Fighting misinformation and disinformation 00:43:00 What Happens When: A Plant Based News web series that debunks some of the common myths 00:46:00 Avoiding the feeling of being overwhelmed by the pressures of being a vegan content creator 00:59:38 Hosting a dream vegan dinner party 01:02:06 Stranded on a desert island