It’s All About Food

It’s All About Food - Julie Guthman, The Problem with Solutions

Julie Guthman, The Problem with SolutionsJulie Guthman is a geographer and professor of sociology and community studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she where she conducts research on the conditions of possibility for food system transformation in the US. Her 2019 book, Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry, was the recipient of the 2020 American Association of Geographers Meridian Award for outstanding scholarly work in geography. Her earlier publications include two other multi-award winning monographs, an edited collection, over sixty peer-reviewed journal articles and dozens of other book chapters, book reviews, commentaries, and public-facing pieces. Her research and writing has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the USDA, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, and Mesa Refuge. She has also received an Excellence in Research Award from the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society and the Martin M. Chemers Award for Outstanding Research from the Social Sciences Division at UC Santa Cruz. Her book, The Problem with Solutions, stems from her research with the UC-AFTeR Project, a multi-campus collaboration exploring Silicon Valley’s recent forays into food and agriculture.

It’s All About Food - Lowering Cholesterol, Reducing Plaque

Lowering Cholesterol, Reducing PlaqueCaryn shares her mission to lower her cholesterol and reduce plaque, incorporating daily exercise of at least one hour and a 100% SOS-free Nutritarian diet. She reviews some of the meals and recipes she has created, the kitchen tools she is using; and discusses the benefits and challenges of SOS-free (consuming no salt, oil, or sugar).

It’s All About Food - Christine Wong, The Vibrant Hong Kong Table

Christine Wong, The Vibrant Hong Kong TableChristine Wong, author, plant-based cook, and advocate for eco-friendly choices, blends cultural representation with culinary expertise. Her upcoming book, The Vibrant Hong Kong Table (Chronicle Books, available for pre-order), reimagines 88 iconic dishes, preserving the rich cultural tapestry of Hong Kong. Christine’s impactful works include Living Without Plastic (Artisan, 2020), co-authored with Plastic Oceans International, and The Plantiful Plate (Countryman Press, 2019), showcasing versatile, plant-forward recipes. Through collaborations with major brands and features in renowned publications, Christine shares recipes and tips, promoting health and sustainability. An active member of NYC’s Chinatown community, she celebrates Asian American culture on various platforms, embodying the belief that food is a vibrant blend of culture, nostalgia, and sustainable living. Links mentioned in this podcast:
PREORDER The Vibrant Hong Kong Table!
Upcoming events with Christine Wong

It’s All About Food - Dr. John McDougall and Steven M. Wise: Remembering two leaders who left us this year

REMEMBERING TWO LEADERS WHO LEFT US THIS YEAR
Dr. John McDougall, MDDr. John McDougall national recognition as a nutrition expert earned him a position in the Great Nutrition Debate 2000 presented by the USDA. He was a board-certified internist, author of 13 national best-selling books and co-founder of the McDougall Program who dedicated over 50 years of his life caring for people with diet and lifestyle medicine.      Steven M. WiseSteven M. Wise was President of the Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. He held a J.D. from Boston University Law School and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary. He practiced animal protection law for 30 years throughout the United States and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. Steve taught “Animal Rights Jurisprudence” at the Vermont, Lewis and Clark, University of Miami, and St. Thomas Law Schools, and taught “Animal Rights Law” at the Harvard Law School and John Marshall Law School. He is the author of four books:* Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals* Drawing the Line – Science and the Case for Animal Rights* Though the Heavens May Fall – The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery* An American Trilogy – Death, Slavery, and Dominion Along the Banks of the Cape Fear River
He has authored numerous law review, encyclopedia, and popular articles. His work for the legal rights of nonhuman animals was highlighted on Dateline NBC and was the subject of the documentary, A Legal Person. The documentary Unlocking the Cage follows Wise in parts of his struggle for chimpanzees.
Links mentioned in the podcast:UN Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Food from Somewhere, Building food security and resilience through territorial markets

It’s All About Food - Sailesh Rao, Climate Healers

Dr. Sailesh Rao has over three decades of professional experience and is the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Healers, a non-profit dedicated towards healing the Earth’s climate.
A systems specialist with a Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Dr. Rao worked on the internet communications infrastructure for twenty years after graduation. During this period, he blazed the trail for high speed signal processing chips and technologies for High Definition Television, real-time video communications and the transformation of early analog internet connections to more robust digital connections, while accelerating their speeds ten-fold. Today, over a billion internet connections deploy the communications protocol that he designed.
He received five Exceptional Contribution Awards from AT&T Bell Laboratories between 1985 and 1991, a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff award in 1990, the Intel Principal Engineer Award in 2003, and the IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013 for his technical contributions. He is the author of 22 peer-reviewed technical papers, 50 standards contributions, 10 US patents and 3 Canadian patents. He was the co-founder of Silicon Design Experts in 1991 which was acquired by Level One Communications in 1996 and which was later acquired by Intel Corporation in 1999 for $2.2 billion.
In 2006, he switched careers and became deeply immersed, full time, in solving the environmental crises affecting humanity. Dr. Rao is the author of four books, Carbon Dharma: The Occupation of Butterflies, Carbon Yoga: The Vegan Metamorphosis, Animal Agriculture is Immoral and The Pinky Promise, and an Executive Producer of several documentaries, The Human Experiment (2013), Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014), What The Health (2017), A Prayer for Compassion (2019), They’re Trying to Kill Us (2021), The End of Medicine (2022), The Land of Ahimsa (2022), Animals – A Parallel History (est. 2024), Milked (2022), Christspiracy (2024) and I Could Never Go Vegan (2024). His work is featured in the award winning film, Countdown to Year Zero produced by Jane Velez-Mitchell and Unchained TV.
Dr. Rao is a Human, Earth and Animal Liberation (HEAL) activist, husband, dad and since 2010, a star-struck grandfather. He has promised his granddaughter, Kimaya Rainy Rao, that the world will be largely Vegan before she turns 16 in 2026, so that people will stop eating her relatives, the animals. He has faith that humanity will transform to keep his pinky promise to Kimaya, not just for ethical reasons, but also out of sheer ecological necessity. Along with Kimaya, Dr. Rao was the co-recipient of the inaugural Homo Ahimsa award from the Interfaith Vegan Coalition in 2021. He has formally taken the Ubuntu pledge to become Homo Ahimsa.
Dr. Rao was honored with the Karmaveer Puraskaar Global Indian award by the Indian Confederation of NGOs (ICONGO) in 2008, the Shining World Award for Earth Protection from the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association in 2020 and the Winsome Constance Kindness Medal by the Winsome Constance Kindness Trust in 2022. He was designated a Climate Hero by The Guardian Newspaper in 2023, which recognized him as “a foremost voice on green transition and on the true scale of societal change required to save the planet.” He serves on the Universal Meals Advisory Council of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and he served on the Board of Directors of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies in 2023.

It’s All About Food - Tracey Winter Glover, Chickens are Animals Too!

Tracey Winter Glover, JD, is an animal caretaker, activist, author, and filmmaker. She earned a BA in history and political philosophy from the University of Michigan, followed by a law degree (JD) in which she focused primarily on constitutional and international refugee law. In 2014, Tracey co-founded a non-profit intersectional pro-vegan animal rights group, Awakening Respect and Compassion for all Sentient Beings (“ARC”), of which she remains the Executive Director. In January 2019, she adopted eight chickens who had been rescued from a bankrupt chicken farm in Colorado that had turned off the heat and stopped feeding the 40,000 birds in its houses. This was the beginning of Sweet Peeps Microsanctuary, which occupies most of her time these days. She is the author of the book Lotus of the Heart: Living Yoga for Personal Wellness and Global Survival, published by Lantern Publishing & Media. She also released a short award-winning documentary entitled Until All Are Free, and her first children’s book, inspired by the chickens at Sweet Peeps, Chickens Are Animals Too! Fannie Goes to Washington, is scheduled to be published June 30th, 2024.

It’s All About Food - Ellie Laks, Cow Hug Therapy

Ellie Laks is the founder of the Gentle Barn Foundation, a national organization that rescues and rehabilitates unwanted animals and heals people with histories of trauma. She is an animal communicator, energy healer, TEDx speaker, educator, and the author of My Gentle Barn: Creating a Sanctuary Where Animals Heal and Children Learn to Hope. Ellie founded the Gentle Barn in 1999 and has since hosted hundreds of thousands of people who have come there seeking hope. She is the creator of Cow Hug Therapy as well as her Gentle Healing method, which allows old, sick, injured, and terrified animals to recover using a mixture of Western medicine, holistic healing modalities, holding therapy, and lots of love. Ellie lives at the Gentle Barn’s California location with her partner, Jay Weiner, who runs the organization with her. They have three children, hundreds of animals, and much to be grateful for. Ellie wants to spend the rest of her life improving the lives of animals and opening the hearts of humanity toward them in any way she can.More at GentleBarn.org and EllieLaks.com.

It’s All About Food - Bill Crain, Animal Stories

Bill Crain, Animal StoriesWilliam “Bill” Crain is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at The City College of New York. In 2008, he and his wife Ellen founded Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary in Poughquag, NY. The sanctuary provides a lifelong home to farmed animals rescued from slaughter and abandonment. Bill is the author of a major textbook in developmental psychology and other books and articles. In 2018, he received a PETA Hero to Animals Award for his efforts to protect black bears.

It’s All About Food - Robert Grillo, End USDA’s Bird Flu Bailouts

“If you can’t solve the problem, eliminate the problem!” was a favorite expression by Harold Hartglass, Caryn Hartglass’ father. H5N1, known as Bird Flu is a problem, that is only getting worse, spreading to at least 42 cattle herds in nine states, and infecting over 200 mammals. The government answer is to bailout industrial chicken farmers allowing them to kill their infected chickens, start over with a new batch, and pay them for their losses. The government is also paying cattle farmers to test their herds. This is a waste of taxpayer money and will not solve the problem. Bird flu is a symptom. Industrial animal agriculture is the problem, and this problem must be eliminated. Industrial animal agriculture is bad for many reasons, but to prevent the spread and mutation of this virus, which can be lethal to humans, this industry must be eliminated.
Robert Grillo, End USDA’s Bird Flu BailoutsAs an activist for all species (including the human ones), Robert Grillo has played the role of thought leader as well as front line activist, leading campaigns, large-scale protests and other creative actions since 2012. He has learned as much from academia as he has from the streets, from first-hand experience in grassroots activism. Most figures involved in social change are either academics on the theory side or activists on the practice side. Rarely do you find those who engage equally in both the theory and application, providing a unique perspective that bridges that gap between the two important sides of every movement.
Grillo is also the founder and director of Free from Harm, a non profit dedicated to advancing a plant-based food system and challenging the dominance of animal agriculture since 2009. He founded Slaughter Free Network in 2018 with the intent of building a powerful grassroots base and carrying out dramatic and innovative actions to capture the attention of media, public and food industry powerholders.  
American Journal of Lifestyle Magazine, Primary Pandemic Prevention, by Dr. Michael Greger
Michael Greger, Vegan MD
WHO, How does H5N1 influenza spread to people?
CDC, Current H5N1 Bird Flu Situation in Dairy Cows
Q&A on H5N1 Bird Flu
Take Action on the Farm Bill Workshop – REGISTER

It’s All About Food - Hartglass & De Mattei, What’s The Question?

Hartglass & De Mattei, What’s The Question?Caryn Hartglass and Gary De Mattei are back to ask the question to which there are so many wrong answers! Topics covered in the podcast: the recent ban on cell meat in Florida; morning routines and habits; featured NYC restaurants and bakeries; REAL’s Banana Date Walnut Oat Bread.
Links mentioned in the podcast:
A Little Night Music performances in Brooklyn.
Meat, Freedom and Ron DeSantisHow Far Should We Carry the Logic of the Animal-Rights Movement?
 
Mini Banana Date Walnut Oat Bread Loaves, Wheat-Free
Luanne’s Wild Ginger restaurant
Mia’s Brooklyn Bakery
Insomnia Cookies