Episode 76: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Welcome to the 76^th episode of Our Hen House, featuring vegan cookbook author Terry Hope Romero, and Mad City Vegan Fest co-organizer, Courtney Mayhew.

In today’s special expanded episode, we come to you from Madison, Wisconsin, where we are speaking at the Mad City Vegan Fest. We’ll give you our full report of all the vegan delectables Madison has to offer, as well as the other Mad City activities that kept us busy during this incredibly inspiring trip to the Midwest.

We’ll talk to Vegan Fest co-organizer Courtney Mayhew all about the nuts and bolts of what it takes to organize a successful, huge-scale event like this. Courtney will also let us in on the vegan scene in Madison, and will tell us about some of the advocacy she’s been spearheading during her day job as a nurse practitioner.

Also joining us today is Terry Hope Romero, another speaker at the Mad City Vegan Fest, and bestselling author of several vegan cookbooks. Terry will give us the skinny on everything from how vegan food – and animal activism – have changed since she started her auspicious career, to how to reach out to people in a friendly, non-judgmental way that will inspire them to stay in it for the long-run.

For our review, we’ll be giving you our take on the documentary, Queen of the Sun, which explores the dark underbelly of the global bee crisis.

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

This week’s news items include:

• “State of the Ocean: ‘Shocking’ Report Warns of Mass Extinction From Current Rate of Marine Distress” from The Huffington Post
• “Study: Honeybees Might Have Feelings, Too” from NPR
• “Meatless Mondays Catch On, Even With Carnivores” from The New York Times

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” -Leo Tolstoy

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