Vegan and the Living Is Easy

Everyone thought the raw vegan diet was a fad soon to pass, but in 2014, it's alive and well. The raw food movement has been around for decades, but recently, it has morphed into a diet that’s more accessible, affordable and sophisticated – and no longer only for the crunchy, hippie types (not that there’s anything wrong with that :-)The raw food concept, at a basic level, believes that cooking removes the nutrients in food. Gena Hamshaw, CCN, a former book editor turned clinical nutritionist and author of “Choosing Raw: Making Raw Foods Part of the Way You Eat,” has been at the forefront of this shift. She believes that we should know where our food comes from, what it does to our body and how we can think about it as fuel, rather than just something to alleviate a hunger pang. Her blog abounds with innovative dishes that are as yummy as they are sustainable. Gena is ready to introduce you and open the window into the pleasures of raw food. And, if you are new to the raw food movement or don’t want to be 100% raw, no worries.  Gena believes that a healthy vegan diet includes raw and cooked foods—the perfect combination!

In response to animal welfare and taking a stand against animal cruelty, compassionate people everywhere are adopting a vegan diet. Adair Moran, a New York State Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator and co-founder of Urban Utopia Wildlife, joins us for an intimate discussion on the plight of animals, veganism and working with wildlife.When many people hear of “going vegan,” they may assume that one is doing it for the health benefits – after all, it’s one of the healthiest ways to eat as you consume so many phytochemicals and nutrients from living food. But, there’s another side to veganism: it’s good for our planet, because it uses fewer resources and doesn’t support industrial livestock farms, which face criticism for their treatment of animals. Adrian will talk to us about the animals she’s worked with and how we can coexist lovingly with them.Adair is also the co-author of the book Main Street Vegan, with her mother, author Victoria Moran (who has been on ‘Vegan and the Living is Easy’ several times). She’ll dish to us about how she has managed to eat vegan while traveling all over the world!As another special treat, she’ll even share with us how being a lifelong vegan has impacted her “other job” of being a stunt performer and aerialist who can frequently be seen performing stuns in films and television shows!

It's hard to argue with a plant-based diet when it benefits our waistline, wallet, and the well-being of our planet. Bestselling vegan cookbook author, Nava Atlas, joins us to share her most popular recipes, plant-based kitchen tips and the ultimate time-savers for vegans from her new book, “Plant Power.” As the founder of VegKitchen.com, the leading web resource for vegans and vegetarians alike, she busts the myth that cooking vegan meals is more complicated and less flavorful. The relationship between health and food is not a new idea. As Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said in 460 BC, "Let food be thy medicine." Armed with the belief that a plant-based diet is essential to our well-being, Nava shares fun, flavorful recipes like Asian favorites and tortilla specialties.While you don’t have to know how to whip up a 5-course meal from scratch at a moment’s notice, Nava will share her solution to the dinner dilemma meal planning.  (You’ll probably also learn that cooking can be pretty joyful, too!) No longer only for those with unlimited free time, Nava gives us easy make-ahead tips to help you eat well even on your busiest days.Aside from the scrumptious recipes Nava will share, what is ultimately important is the overall message: it is time to begin to be more mindful of what, why and how you are eating for your health and well-being.

In our fast-paced, stressful lives, our physical and mental well-being often take a backseat to juggling work and family responsibilities. Like yoga, the art of tai chi provides a refuge from our hectic schedules and brings mind and body into harmony, making both stronger.   We will talk with tai chi master and Taoist monk, Arthur Rosenfeld, about the fundamentals of this martial art.  He will explain how this ancient practice is still relevant and useful in our modern lives and how veganism comes naturally from the kind of compassion that any Taoist practice develops.Master Arthur Rosenfeld is the author of Tai Chi – The Perfect Exercise: Finding Health, Happiness, Balance and Strength.  In addition to toning muscle, tai chi also lowers blood pressure, helps with sleep, heightens immune system response, improves focus, increases sexual vitality, and helps ease the symptoms of many diseases such as asthma, insomnia, arthritis, chronic fatigue, Parkinson’s, and hypertension. Please join us as we explore tai chi and veganism as a path to a calmer, fitter, healthier life.

Having personally abolished animal use from her life by becoming vegan, Sarah K. Woodcock, Founder and Executive Director (volunteer) of The Abolitionist Vegan Society (TAVS) assumed she had addressed the speciesism that empowered her human privilege in the non-vegan world, but she discovered that that was an incorrect assumption.  She learned there was a piece of speciesism left she could best describe as, “I honor your right not to suffer, but I do not honor your right to justice.”  Once she examined this position closely, she chose to fully allow animals into her heart and dedicate her life to their right to justice.  She learned the war is not with the animal use industries -- the war is with the insidious speciesism in our hearts and minds which empowers animal use and new welfarism.Sarah recognized that animal use industries do not, under any circumstance, want us to unite behind the banner of veganism and call for an end to animal use altogether.  “They want us to agree to wrestle them so they can tire us and delude us into thinking they are making positive changes for animals.”Tonight we will talk about the idea that if you want animal rights, it is time to battle speciesism by uniting behind the banner of veganism which effectively addresses all uses, species, products, forms of treatment, companies, and countries at the same time.  As Sarah shares, “The only thing that will create lasting change and animal rights is transmuting the speciesism, and the fastest way to do this is by unequivocally advocating for veganism.”Please join us, ask questions and learn more about the vegan abolitionist movement: what it means for us, for the animals and for the world.