On World Vegan Day (November 1st 2015), when grassroots Irish vegans were blow away by the numbers of people who attended the inaugural Dublin VegFest, Teagan Kuruna recorded her first "Teagan Goes Vegan" podcast.
In quick succession, great podcasts followed, with Aph Ko, the anti-racist feminist vegan writer and activist, (episode 2), and lauren Ornelas of the Food Empowerment Project (episode 3), both of which I highly recommend, especially lauren's one.
By episode 6 and 7, the podcast, sadly, had hit the buffers in my view.
Episode 6 features two men known as the "Vegan Bros" despite that neither seems clear about what veganism is, and episode 7 features Tobias Leenaert, a vegetarian activist [possibly] who opposes veganism as a pro-justice philosophy.
So, I wrote a comment on the website under episode 7.
Within 24 hours, the comment was deleted and, as far as I can see, no-one can comment on any of the episodes now.
Of course, we could think that Teagan Kuruna is merely in the business of interviewing movers and shakers in the contemporary vegan movement in order to let listeners decide for themselves. This could be true, but there are no challenging questions in this podcast, and Ms. Kuruna does say she's a "fan" of Leenaert, which seems to mitigate against that possibility.
This is the comment I made.
In quick succession, great podcasts followed, with Aph Ko, the anti-racist feminist vegan writer and activist, (episode 2), and lauren Ornelas of the Food Empowerment Project (episode 3), both of which I highly recommend, especially lauren's one.
By episode 6 and 7, the podcast, sadly, had hit the buffers in my view.
Episode 6 features two men known as the "Vegan Bros" despite that neither seems clear about what veganism is, and episode 7 features Tobias Leenaert, a vegetarian activist [possibly] who opposes veganism as a pro-justice philosophy.
So, I wrote a comment on the website under episode 7.
Within 24 hours, the comment was deleted and, as far as I can see, no-one can comment on any of the episodes now.
Of course, we could think that Teagan Kuruna is merely in the business of interviewing movers and shakers in the contemporary vegan movement in order to let listeners decide for themselves. This could be true, but there are no challenging questions in this podcast, and Ms. Kuruna does say she's a "fan" of Leenaert, which seems to mitigate against that possibility.
This is the comment I made.
Dear Teagan,
What happened? I really enjoyed your early podcasts (way back in November 2015) - number three especially. Listeners can hear your shock but then utter determination upon learning about child slavery in the production of chocolate. You are clearly open to intersectionality, even with a guest confused about PeTA and their juvenile antics.
You clearly understand the importance of language in terms of challenging oppressive systems. There is a distressing amount of ableist language in your podcasts I'm sorry to say, especially the last but one.
Boy, though, have you decided to drop the bar? Bury it even? Those early principled intersectional guests and now the "Vegan Bros" and Mr. Leenaert, proud flesh consumer. Why, oh, why?
Lauren Ornelas said "we're not going to compromise on our ethics," talking about a refused meal, to which you reply, "right, right." You seem to agree with the idea of boycotting some unethical chocolate brands and see the links between human rights and the rights of other animals.
All this Leenaert spits on. He would have taken the dish filled with animal products and eaten with relish.
Defending his (present-day) consumption of non-vegan wines, Leenaert scoffed at the idea of just checking the internet app first to make sure one was not conniving with the violation of fishes' rights. So, don't tell him about your chocolate boycott.
Perhaps you can say how and why you have bought into the stereotypes about consistent veganism?
You seemed all in favour of consistency in podcasts two and three. For example, who do you have in mind when you say some vegans are mostly interested in "being right" - and saying to people that they are "wrong" and "bad." I have been doing street stalls, talking directly to the public, since the 1980s and I have never heard a vegan educators say this. You going from FB and the admittedly low level of discourse that seems to encourage? On World Vegan Day, the day of your first podcast, there was the first ever Dublin VegFest with some 3,000 visitors on the day. I dare say that no-one - not one - attending was told by any vegan there that they are "wrong" and "bad."
What is a "very aggressive vegan activist"? From what place do these stereotypes arise?
RSS Feed
