Species Unite

We're creating a new system. When you look at it in that way, that's activism in itself. And that's actually fighting against a system that has billions of dollars, that has been spending billions of dollars, and not even asking people what they like to eat. They're not even considering the health. We're in the middle of a pandemic and who gets hit the hardest, black and brown communities with underlying conditions. Those underlying conditions stem from what they're eating. I get to go into these people's apartments, look in their fridge and then look at their medicine cabinet and see all of these drugs that they're taking because of ailments that they got from food. Meanwhile, if they were to change up how they eat, we were able to reintroduce that in a public sense, because with the fridge it's like we're telling people, listen you deserve to have access to this." -Power Malu Power Malu and Eloísa Trinidad are the team behind Overthrow Community Fridge, New York City's first plant-based community fridge that sits outside of Overthrow Boxing Club. A community fridge is a form of mutual aid to address food insecurity. They supply food to people who have limited access to fresh groceries, and since the pandemic began, people have even less access – especially to nutritious food. In addition to being a longtime community organizer and activist, Power is also the Director of Community Affairs & Special Events at the Overthrow Boxing Club. Eloísa is the executive director of Chillis on Wheels, a nonprofit that focus on making veganism accessible to communities in need. She's also the executive director of the Vegan Activist Alliance, a New York organization that fights to end animal exploitation.

1 Apr 202140min

"I was doing really well in cardiology. I loved my role. I loved the work I was doing. I'd say except for two or three people, everybody said, 'this is crazy, why are you giving up a career that is on an upward trajectory and that you're doing really well in?' The two or three people who heard me, they said, 'Uma don't look back. If you have even a fraction of the impact of what you're thinking of having, that'll be a million-fold more impactful than what you could do as a cardiologist for the next 30 years in practice.' Essentially, even if I had continued in practice for the next 30 years I would have probably saved about two or three thousand lives. But if the innovation that we're working on becomes mainstream or even a fraction of mainstream, we're literally talking about trillions of animal lives, but also billions of human lives…" - Uma Valeti Uma Valeti is a cardiologist, entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-founder of Memphis Meats, the world's leading clean meat company - meaning they produce meat directly from animal cells. There is no slaughter involved. Uma's mission is to feed the world's growing population with meat that is delicious, affordable and sustainable. Memphis Meats has already pioneered the world's first multi-species cell-based meat platform and made history by unveiling chicken, duck and beef grown directly from animal cells. I think it's the most exciting thing to happen on the planet in my lifetime. Uma is quite possibly going to go down in history as the man who changed the way the world eats forever. As soon as cell-based meat is regulated, scaled, and available in restaurants and grocery stores (which is coming sooner than you think), the demand to slaughter of billions of animals year after year will diminish and at some point, it will be gone forever.

4 Mar 202149min

"I sat down, did some number questing and said, okay, 85% is going to be given away during my lifetime and the rest of thereafter. I sleep much better at nights. I do live comfortably, but there's a limit. I'd rather that money go to save lives." - Jim Greenbaum Jim Greenbaum is the Founder and Managing Director of The Greenbaum Foundation. After college, Jim entered the workforce with one goal in mind - to make as much money as quickly as possible in order to use those funds to help make the world a better place. In 1985, Jim founded and became CEO of Access Long Distance. Less than a decade later he made the decision that he would leave the corporate world at the age of 40. Keeping true to the plan, he sold the company in 1999. Jim has committed to contributing in excess of 85% of his assets to charitable projects ending human and non-human suffering during his lifetime, and the remainder of his estate soon thereafter. The foundation's assets will also be spent down during his lifetime. The Greenbaum Foundation focuses funding on effective and efficient projects working to bring about the end of human and non-human suffering in areas of the highest need and where they the most impact. During the early years the foundation focused solely on human rights, but have since shifted their efforts toward non-humans, and toward moving the world to whole foods plant-based diets and ending factory farming. Their portfolio also includes projects aimed at increasing the awareness, protection and improvement of the lives of all animals. Jim is also an Executive Producer of several documentaries, including "The Game Changers," "What The Health," "Cowspiracy," and "Not My Life." "Being a bystander to suffering is not an option." – Jim Greenbaum

25 Feb 202122min

"I usually live day by day. I always live every day like it's going to be the last day. We learned that during the war. We don't know when we're going to die. So, you live every day like it's going to be the last day. That's what I do." – Helena Husseini Helena Husseini is the vice-president of BETA, Beirut Ethical Treatment for Animals. BETA is the first and largest shelter in Lebanon with 850 dogs, many cats, a few horses, and a couple of monkeys. Helena is also an architect. She has been with BETA since 2006, a few months before the Lebanon War started. As bombs dropped nearby, she drove around in her Jeep saving the injured and abandoned dogs throughout the city. Since then, she has been rescuing animals during the too many crises and catastrophes that have plagued Lebanon, including the 2019 financial collapse, the riots, COVID 19, and the blast that decimated Beirut. This conversation is really one that's about resilience, about grit, about what it means to show up every day, even when bombs are dropping, when there's no access to money, when people are starving, and no one knows what tomorrow will look like. It's a conversation about what it means to choose the meaningful life.

18 Feb 202141min

"…I just remember walking around this room in total shock and then backing into a cage and feeling something touch my shoulder and realizing, 'Oh my gosh, you know, I've come too close,' and thinking I was going to be hurt. Then, as I turned around [I saw] what had touched me was the bears paw through the bars of the cage. She just had her paw there and was holding it out. And I did something ridiculously stupid. I took her paw, because it was there, reaching out and she just squeezed my fingers. That's all she did. She just rhythmically squeezed my fingers. And I just looked into her eyes and I just knew it was one of those amazing moments that you can hardly describe. Because you just know at that point, everything in your life is going to change. Well, indeed, that's exactly what happened." - Jill Robinson Jill Robinson has spent nearly 30 years of her life fighting to end bear bile farming, one of the world's darkest industries that most people have never heard of. She is widely recognized as the world's leading authority on bear bile farming and is the founder and CEO of Animals Asia, an organization that has been rescuing bears since 1994 and is devoted to ending the entire bear bile industry. They are one of the few organizations in the world that is close to reaching the goal that they originally set out to achieve.

11 Feb 202140min

"…people were treating us like two crazy guys from Spain that were trying to change something in a country that loves meat... And now we see in these supermarkets, our product there… it's crazy. I get very emotional when I think about that day that with Marc. We were working in a library for free because we did not have money to pay for an office. We just had this idea. We had these first prototypes for a product… let's try to sell it in few shops and let's see the feedback. And now we are in more than 3000 points of sale, more than 10 countries. And, what's coming is big. It's huge." – Bernat Añaños Bernat Añaños is the co-founder of the Spanish plant-based startup, Heura by Foods for Tomorrow. Bernat and Marc Coloma founded Heura in 2017 with the goal of disrupting the unsustainable food system by bringing a solution that will accelerate the shift to a world where the animals are out of the meat production equation. Since they launched, Heura has become the fastest growing European startup in the plant-based industry, with 450% growth this year despite the pandemic. 4 years ago, Bernat and Marc could not get their products into supermarkets. That's because people were unwilling to believe that meat loving Spain would ever embrace plant-based products. But, like in every other country where it was assumed that the public would be resistant to plant-based foods, especially in chain restaurants and grocery stores, the assumptions were wrong. Heura's products are now sold at over 3000 locations (grocery stores, restaurants, and online) and they've expanded into ten other countries with many more coming. "I'm seeing a huge change. And the good thing is that it's not just in Barcelona and Madrid. It's also happening in villages and small cities. …my grandma, for example, she does not even eat meat anymore and she is using Facebook to introduce Heura to her 80 year old friends… and the response of these 80 year old friends of my grandma, it's crazy… I think we are on the right path… We were and we still are a meat lover's country, but maybe… it's a plant-based meat lover's country in very few years. " - Bernat Añaños

4 Feb 202137min

"… it was quite a big change… when I was growing up, I even used to like hunt and fish, to be honest. I mean, that was part of our family tradition through generations, I made friends through those sorts of activities. My father and I used to do those things and my grandfather [too]. So, growing up around animal cruelty… it was very natural for me. …saying, "no, I'm not going to continue to participate in those sorts of things," was actually quite a big transition and a scarry one. I didn't know what that meant for my relationship with my family." - Frohman Anderson "You know, he's a very wise young man and he knew exactly how to get us, which was through education… for Christmas, he actually said, "I don't want any gifts. I don't want any presents. I just want you to watch these movies and give me the time to talk about them." …my husband and I watched Forks over Knives and Cowspiracy. And if you told me that morning that I would have been vegetarian, I probably would have said no. And then the next morning it was, it was just so obvious." - Kim Anderson Kim and Frohman Anderson are partners in Everhope Capitol, a fund that invests in entrepreneurs and businesses that replace animals in the supply chain. Kim is also the creator and co-founder of Plant City, the world's first and largest vegan food hall. It's located in Providence, Rhode Island. Kim is Frohman's mother. Frohman went vegan in college and his family soon followed suit. Soon after, the family business became a plant-based investment fund, and Kim founded Plant City with Matthew Kenney, one of the top plant-based chefs in the world. In their first year they served 450 thousand guests. This is the story of the power of one family, and how that one family is changing the future around how and what we eat.

28 Jan 202130min

"We're not even talking about the barriers of having a plant-based company. There are still so many countries that they don't even support plant-based innovation, for every Israel and Singapore that's making leaps and bounds, there's a France that's trying to push a meat diet. So, to be in an industry that is here to disrupt the mainstream and is here to disrupt a lot of what people hold dear, that's a lonely journey. We need to make the effort to drive the conversation in the direction that we want it to go, because if we're not actually making the effort to build this path in this direction, it's going to default to the status quo and we know what the status quo is. So, we need to push against that." – Jennifer Stojkavic Jennifer Stojkovic is the founder of Vegan Women's Summit (VWS). Jennifer built her career as a community relations leader for the world's largest tech companies in San Francisco. During her career in tech, Jennifer became increasingly interested in blending her passion for change in the food system with her experience and network in Silicon Valley. In early 2018, Jennifer launched a "Future of Food" series of partnerships bringing together CEOs and founders from leading tech brands, including WeWork and Airbnb, with emerging CEOs from the burgeoning food tech industry to establish food as the "Tech 2.0". Quickly, Jennifer became aware of the inequities facing female founders in the food tech industry — and the unfortunate parallels drawn from the same experiences she has combatted in her career as a woman at the intersection of tech and politics in the Valley. Drawing on these experiences, Jennifer launched VWS in early 2020 with a sold-out global conference, the Vegan Women Summit. Focused on building equitable and diverse representation of women leaders from around the world and partnering with major tech brands, VWS is the world's first events and media organization dedicated to empowering, educating, and inspiring women to bring compassion to their careers. With a thriving, fast-growing community of energetic female leaders around the world, VWS features programming with the world's leading vegan CEOs, celebrities, investors, Olympians, and more. In December, VWS launched VWS Pathfinder, the world's first female founder summit and pitch competition dedicated exclusively to plant-based innovation.

21 Jan 202140min