Hello and Welcome to the Vegan for Life podcast!This first episode is about my story and personal experiences of going vegan as a teenager. I went vegetarian and, later, vegan at age 13 after a trip to a goat farm. It's a bit short, but I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think about it (but go easy on me, I'm new to this whole podcasting thing :)Click here to listen to or download the podcast (right click and click "Save Target As" to download it to your computer)Also, for more information about going vegan as a teenager, watch my friend Sam's youtube video:Hopefully I will be making more podcast episodes really soon, as there's a lot of stuff I would like to talk about! Stay tuned ;)

Vegan For Life

Going Vegan as a Teenager

In this episode I try to answer the common objection that humans were made to eat meat, as well as some common variations of this argument such as "Humans evolved to eat meat", "Early humans ate meat, so why should we stop now?", "We need to eat meat to stay healthy", "God put animals on Earth for us to eat" and "Other animals kill each other for food so why shouldn't we?". Later, I also talk about, "Is eating other animal products such as dairy, eggs and honey natural?"Click here to download the podcastWhen I started recording, I found out my webcam had a handy "suppress background noise" feature that just hadn't been turned on properly, even though it was checked. So hopefully now there isn't too much background noise!Here are the links to the podcasts/blogs I mention in this episode:NZ Vegan PodcastFood for ThoughtCoexisting with Nonhuman AnimalsMy Face is on FireAbolitionist ApproachVeganaciousThanks for being awesome, guys! ;)

Why to go Vegan and Abolitionist Veganism

"Humans were made to eat meat"

In this episode I talk about how a restaurant in Arizona had been serving lion burgers as a tribute to the world cup, the outrage it caused when it was leaked into the media, and how there is no moral difference between eating a lion and eating a cow, pig or chicken. I also talk about how the slaughterhouse next to where I live had a "Family Open day" recently, and a news story on TV3's 60 Minutes about the new craze of dog breeds, "oodles", and where they come from.Click here to download the podcast.Links: Lion Burgers story Video: Inside NZs Puppy FarmsThanks for listening!

Lion Burgers, Family day at a slaughterhouse and Puppy farms

In this episode I answer the argument that many Vegans have been faced with at least once: "What about plants? They feel pain too!" and "Why are you against cruelty to animals but not cruelty to plants?" I think that it's unlikely that plants feel pain, because they don't have a brain and don't have a nervous system, and they don't have any evolutionary advantage to feeling pain either. Plants simply aren't sentient, and because of that they don't have rights.Click here to download the podcast.Thanks for Listening!

Can plants feel pain?

In this episode I am joined by fellow NZ Vegans Elizabeth Collins, Jordan Wyatt, Sam Tucker and William Paul to talk about SAFE, a large animal welfare organization in New Zealand, and their lovepigs campaign. Click here to listen.Links:Pig welfare debate (video)SAFE lovepigs campaignThanks for Listening!

Group chat about SAFE

In this episode I answer a few questions and arguments made by a person who recently contacted me through youtube. The arguments I answer are: "If I look after a chicken and give it the best life I can, what is evil in allowing the chicken to return the favour?", "What is the difference in loving a pet dog, and one day having to euthanise 'it', compared to raising or hunting animals?", "Not all kept animals are treated inhumane", "How can you compare human slavery to eating meat?", "Would you prejudice a lion for eating another animal?" and "Eating meat is reportedly the reason our ancestors evolved into the most intelligent creatures to move upon the face of this Earth."Listen HERE Thanks for Listening!

"I love animals and plants too much to prejudice either of them"

This is just a quick episode made for World Vegan Day, Nov 1st 2010. I read out a story my Mum wrote, with a bit of help from me, a short story from the perspective of a calf.Listen HERESorry about the birds in the background, they were being a bit noisy :-)HAPPY WORLD VEGAN DAY!!