No-Bullsh!t Vegan

Gym culture likes to pretend it's apolitical: just protein, PRs, and personal responsibility. My guest this week isn't buying it. andrea bennett is a senior editor at The Tyee and the author of several books, including Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence, which won a Taste Canada Gold Award. andrea also happens to be my open water swim buddy of several years, and the author of a recent Tyee piece on how MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) is trying to co-opt fitness culture, and why progressives shouldn't let it.
We get into the difference between training for aesthetics and training for your actual life, and why so much of commercial gym culture is coded white, male, and able-bodied by default. andrea also walks me through their 10-month journey to a first unassisted pull-up (I may have had a hand in the programming), and why representation of bigger bodies in fitness matters. We also talk protein hype, the class and access issues underneath population-level "under-muscled" stats, and why choosing a goal that feels borderline impossible is worth doing at any age.

Co-founder of Clean Food Dirty Girl and certified life coach, Molly Patrick, joins me to talk about why knowing *what* to eat is only half the battle. We dig into the mindset work behind lasting behaviour change, why abundance — not restriction — is the real engine of sustainable eating, and how dismantling shame-based diet culture is just as important as knowing what to put on your plate. Molly also gets candid about her decade of sobriety, and why the best thing you can do for the non-vegans in your life is to stop lecturing them.

I'm turning 40 in a few days, so (obviously) I'm hosting an online taco party
Hope to see you there!

 
Cook along with me, or just watch and hang out. We'll do a book giveaway, Q&A, and share vegan intel with likeminded folks.

Join me on Wednesday, June 17 at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern. It's free, it's going to be a super-fun community event, and I'd love to celebrate with you.
 

Grab your spot at www.karinainkster.com/40!

Five years after her first appearance on the show, Nana-Serwa Mancell returns to share her journey from running a vegan African food business in Dubai to building a sustainability-focused retreat and community space in Ghana. We discuss West African vegan food traditions, overlooked plant protein sources, ethical tourism, sustainable fashion, environmental challenges in Ghana, and why she believes Africa's future is full of innovation, creativity, and hope.

I'm announcing the brand-new Patreon for the No-Bullsh!t Vegan podcast and giving you a peek at what's inside. Check it out at patreon.com/noBSvegan!
If the podcast has helped you feel stronger, more informed, more connected, or more confident in your vegan life, this is one way to help keep it growing, while getting some fun (and possibly unhinged) bonus content and behind-the-scenes access along the way.
Thank you for being part of my little corner of the internet. Whether you support on Patreon, listen every week, or just send me memes occasionally, I appreciate you!