Episode 164: “I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me!”

Welcome to the 164^th episode of Our Hen House, featuring Silja Kallsen-MacKenzie and Liz Dee.

In today’s episode, we talk about the vegans at the Oscars, and the difficulty of celebrity worship. We’ll talk about last week’s eye-opening and popular New York Times Magazine article, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, and ruminate on how broken our food system is. (Now if only the media would start connecting the dots more when it comes to animal products!) We’ll tell you all about our time talking at the Main Street Vegan Academy, and we’ll give you an update about a resource that those traveling with a darling pit bull might want to have on hand (aside from plenty of peanut butter and carrots, that is).

Today we are joined by two special guests: First, all the way from Berlin, we’ll be chatting with Silja Kallsen-MacKenzie, from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. Silja will let us in on one of the biggest factory farm protests in history, right there in Berlin, and she’ll tell you about her many efforts to change the world for animals, as well as give us a glimpse into the vegan scene in Germany. Then, we’ll be joined by the charming Liz Dee, who has what is perhaps the most fascinating going vegan story we’ve ever heard – and we just had to have her share it with you. (Liz, by the way, has recently joined Our Hen House as the publications coordinator! Lucky us!)

For our review, we’ll tell you about 3 new popcorn products that vegans (and non-vegans, for that matter), absolutely need to know about. They come from the folks over at Earth Balance (note that the three items that we’re reviewing today are palm oil-free). These might just change your snack life for good.

All that, vegan banter, and of course, current events from the world of animal rights.

For a list of the news items we discuss in today episode, and then some, take a look at the breaking news ticker at the top of ourhenhouse.org, and also check out our list of archived news items.

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“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me.” -Simone de Beauvoir