Joanne Kong joins us on the Hope for the Animals Podcast to talk about her new book Vegan Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Plant-Based Living. This episode explores the how-to of living vegan. Joanne talks about why she felt it was important to start the book with the vegan connection to social justice. She and Hope also talk about the difference between vegan and plantbased, sticky situations that vegans encounter and how to deal with them, how to avoid animal products beyond food, and some responses to frequently asked carnist questions.

Dr. Joanne Kong’s new book Vegan Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Plant-Based Living provides practical tips and know-how for those on their plant-based journey. It covers a wide range of topics including ways to make the transition, stocking your vegan kitchen, meal-planning, shopping, understanding food labels, plus advice on navigating social challenges, travel, and eating out. Beyond diet, other lifestyle aspects of vegan living are explored as well.

Vegan advocate Dr. Joanne Kong has spoken throughout the United States, including talks at numerous vegfests, conferences, high schools, and universities. Her highly-praised TEDx talk, The Power of Plant-Based Eating, at over 1 million views on YouTube, is placed on numerous websites internationally. Dr. Kong is the editor of Vegan Voices: Essays by Inspiring Changemakers, released in 2021 by Lantern Publishing & Media. She also appears in the major documentary, Eating Our Way to Extinction. As a critically-acclaimed concert pianist, Joanne incorporates the arts into her animal advocacy with benefit concerts for animal sanctuaries, as well as unique Strands of Compassion events presented by VEGAN VIRTUOSI, a duo with cellist Dr. Christoph Wagner. Her new book, Vegan Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Plant-Based Living, is out now.

Resources:

Joanne’s website: www.vegansmakeadifference.com

Joanne’s Book: Vegan Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Plant-Based Living

Eugene VeganFest, May 3, 2026

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On this episode we are tackling the cultural and political shift back to meat, saturated fat, high-protein diets and the connection to hyper-masculinity. The US is seeing a resurgence of meat-eating as a symbol of masculinity, masculinism, meat connected to identity politics and the “culture wars”. Our guest, Jan Liband, will explore the social factors driving this backlash and explore how social media, economic uncertainly, and fear are motivating this trend.

Jan and Hope talk about how toxic masculinity, a toxic subsidized meat economy, and a response to progressive advancements are components propelling the meat-heavy movement. They also talk about the pervasive myths around meat, protein, and muscle building, and how these affect men in particular. There are strong phycological factors at play that are embedded in our culture and are resurfacing in our current political climate.

Jan Liband is a fact-based environmentalist, public speaker, and former Silicon Valley veteran who has been vegan since the 1980s. He has an academic background in psychology plus decades in marketing and has studied our shifting attitudes towards food and the growing environmental and health impacts of our global food system for decades. Jan volunteers for several vegan and environmental organizations and serves as Chief Researcher and Speaker for Plant-Based Advocates, a Bay Area based non-profit and is a board member of Compassionate Living. In addition to advocacy, Jan is an accomplished athlete, martial artist, and professional musician who holds a degree in Psychology from U.C. Santa Cruz.

Resources:

FILM: The Game Changers

BOOK: The Sexual Politics of Meat

Atlantic Article: America is Done Pretending About Meat: Plant Based Eating Has Lost Its Appeal

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Hope for the Animals Podcast

Compassionate Living

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Hope is hosting Compassionate Living’s Humane Hoax Online Conference on March 17, 2026 and to entice you to register, we are replaying a fantastic conversation from Episode 81 on humanewashing in journalism. Lisa Barca is one of the 18 contributing authors to Hope’s anthology The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy and Ethical Eggs and they had an insightful conversation that we wanted to share again. The theme of this year's Humane Hoax Online Conference is language and narrative, so this conversation reflects our focus for the conference and we hope that you will register! The link is below.

Lisa has fascinating insights into the portrayal of farmers, farmed animals, and our relationship to animals in her chapter and discusses them with Hope in this conversation. She explains the “absent referent,” or the erasing or hiding of animal’s identities and how it relates to the humane hoax. She also talks about how the new “humane” do-it-yourself slaughter normalizes violence toward animals and she offers advice to journalists, and to us all, on language that helps the animals to be seen and heard in media stories about them.

Lisa Barca is a lecturer in the Honors College at Arizona State University, where she teaches humanities, writing courses, and seminars on the ethics of humans’ relationships with other animals. Her current research centers on critical animal studies, media ethics, rhetoric and ideology, and the intersections of feminism and animal rights. She holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures and is a contributing author to the volume Meatsplaining: The Meat Industry and the Rhetoric of Denial and also to The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs.

Resources:

Humane Hoax Online Conference Information

Conference Registration

Order Hope Bohanec’s Book: The Humane Hoax: Essays Exposing the Myth of Happy Meat, Humane Dairy, and Ethical Eggs