Vegan Posse Chrissy Benson

Tennesseeans are known for their grit, and Bobbi Jo Hemmen is a living example of true vegan grit! Bobbi is a Nashville native who lives in Whites Creek, in the house my dad grew up in. After losing her job during the COVID years, she statted her own CBD baked goods business, Hempcetera. She went vegan in 2022, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She refused chemotherapy and instead changed her lifestyle, and she's now as healthy as she's ever been -not to mention, cancer-free! At the age of 48, she is living her best life with her three dogs and her amazing boyfriend. 

Resources:

Follow Hempcetera on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hempcetera/

Follow Hempcetera on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hempceteraofficial/

Chris Wark of Chris Beat Cancer: https://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/

The BeHive vegan deli (East Nashville, TN): https://thebehive.com/

Register for Vegan Summerfest in Johnstown, PA, July 10-14, 2024: https://summerfest.navs-online.org/

Marrying Myself, the VEGAN anti-romance romance: https://www.amazon.com/Marrying-Myself-Christine-Melanie-Benson/dp/1685130763/

Welcome to the fourth and final week of the Vegan Posse Tennessee Series! How many doctors do you know who take it upon themselves to organize plant-based potluck dinners to help weave veganism into the fabric of community life? I know of exactly one, and his name is Dr. Scott Stoll.

Dr. Scott Stoll is board-certified physician specializing in sports and regenerative musculoskeletal medicine and is a recognized as an international leader in lifestyle medicine and whole food plant-based nutrition. He is the co-founder of the Plantrician Project, the International Plant Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and the Regenerative Health Institute, a unique collaborative project with the Rodale Institute that integrates a regenerative vision of human health, agriculture, and the environment. He was a member of the 1994 Olympic Bobsled team and served as a team physician for the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Team and Lehigh University. Dr. Stoll served as a member of the Whole Foods scientific and medical advisory board and consults with healthcare organizations and leaders globally to integrate lifestyle medicine solutions. 

Every year Dr. Stoll hosts the very popular one-week total health immersions in Florida and helps attendees recover lost health, overcome addictions, and restore emotional balance. In addition to authoring numerous books, scientific articles and speaking internationally, Dr. Stoll has appeared on a wide variety of national TV shows including The Dr. Oz show, hosting a 2018 PBS special, “Food As Medicine,” and numerous documentaries including The Game Changers, Eating You Alive, Disease Reversal Hope, Plantwise, and an upcoming TV series based on his health immersions.

Resources:

Contact Dr. Scott Stoll: https://maxwellclinic.com/team/scott-stoll-md/

Community plant-based potluck at the Green Room in Franklin, TN – search for “plant based meetup potluck style” on Hobnob app: https://hbnb.io/home 

The Plantrician Project:: https://plantricianproject.org/

Sustainable (vegan!) shop Green Room: ⁠https://www.thegreenroomfranklin.com/⁠

Vegan Summerfest – July 10-14, 2024 in Johnstown,
PA: https://summerfest.navs-online.org/

Chrissy Benson author website: https://christinemelaniebenson.com/

Email the Vegan Posse! veganposse.email@gmail.com

Marrying Myself, the vegan anti-romance romance: https://www.amazon.com/Marrying-Myself-Christine-Melanie-Benson/dp/1685130763/

Welcome to Week 3 of the Vegan Posse Tennessee Series!

If  you don’t tend to think of Nashville, Tennessee, as a hotbed of vegan awareness, you might want to think again. This week you’ll get to meet Lou Comfort, a yoga
and meditation teacher who unfortunately discovered the healing power of a plant-based diet too late to save her cancer-stricken husband. But Lou went on to found the School Marathon Foundation and has partnered with Dr. Scott Stoll in hosting a monthly vegan potluck supper in Nashville. She also happens to have two grown sons who are both vegan and RIPPED.!

Resources:

Subscribe to Vegan Posse on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbE4ebnF6EyoQePCo4_XOIg

Lou Comfort Instagram: @comfortyogini 

Join us for the monthly Vegan Potluck at the Green Room in Frankin, Tennessee! Search for "Plant Based Meetup Potluck Style" on Hobnob: https://hbnb.io/e/YzYq/Wt

Kane Comfort (Lou's ripped vegan son!) music: https://www.kanecomfort.com/

Forks Over Knives website: https://www.forksoverknives.com/

Earthlings documentary: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358456/

Dr. Michael Greger's Nutrition Facts website: https://nutritionfacts.org/

It's Week 2 of the Vegan Posse Tennessee Series! Native Tennesseean and longtime vegan Kara Carden is a homeschooling mother and community organizer. Daughter of chart-topping country music star Ronnie McDowell, Kara grew up touring the country and occasionally selling merch for her dad. She went on to become a freelance journalist and travel writer and, later, a homeschooling mom. In 2010, she founded Nashville Waldorf Homeschoolers, a non-profit nature- and art-based enrichment program.

Kara has served as a volunteer peer counselor and certified Attached at the Heart Educator for Attachment Parenting International for more than 15 years. She recently accepted a job as Communications Director for WeKnow, LLC., a peace-provoking company disrupting industry norms in divorce, real estate, and finance. In her freet time, Kara enjoys gardening, hiking, floating rivers, hammocking with her husband, pondering metaphysics, and sharing helpful information.

Resources:

Subscribe to Vegan Posse on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@veganposse

Fit for Life by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond: https://www.amazon.com/Fit-Life-Harvey-Diamond/dp/0446553646

Documentary Earthlings: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358456/

Mindset by Carol Dweck: https://www.amazon.com/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322

Attachment Parenting International: https://www.attachmentparenting.org/

The World Peace Diet by Dr. Will Tuttle: https://www.worldpeacediet.com/

Marrying Myself playlist, featuring Boston-based band Session Americana and singer-songwriter Tom McBride: https://christinemelaniebenson.com/?page_id=497

Who better to kick off our Tennessee series than Tennessee-born-and-raised Robby Cox and his business partner AND life partner, Ananya, founders of vegan meal prep company SUNstenance?

Ananya has been practicing and working in the field of holistic wellness since her teenage years. In East Harlem, Ananya worked for Soluna Holistic Spa teaching yoga classes and developing the juice bar and vegan eatery. She has completed over 800+ hours of Yoga Teacher Trainings in Hatha, Vinyasa, Kundalini, Kriya and taken additional courses in Ayurveda, pranayama and prenatal. She began studying Ayurveda in 2012 in Laughing Lotus Yoga School, and around the same time dove into Macrobiotics and Eastern Medicine. She began using food to help treat various ailments relating to both physical and mental health. Ananya moved to India where she worked with the sustainable Ayurvedic organizations Gotirthashram & Panchgavya Healthcare India doing research and development, marketing, and product creation. In the Himalayas, she deepened her spiritual practice, and after six years, returned to Tennessee, starting Ananya Wellness offering holistic education, yoga/ meditation classes and creating gourmet holistic food and herbal treats. She began working as the holistic chef for Mobile Macro Meals, a macrobiotic vegan company. She and Robby met and started SUNstenance, LLC and are now offering vegan, holistic meal prep, catering, events and retreats and educational classes.

Robby began learning the truth about health and wellness in 2009 while facing a life-threatening situation in which western medicine failed him entirely. After malpractice by a trusted family dentist left him with epileptic seizures and continuous pain, he came across the documentary The Beautiful Truth, which sent him down the path to undoing the damage caused by not only this procedure but the lifetime of assault on the physical, mental and emotional body that is our modern life. Around this time, a family friend gifted him a tiny book called The Pocket Tibetan Buddhism Reader. Upon reading a single page regarding the practice of ethical vegetarianism, he adopted a vegetarian diet on the spot. Robby’s philosophy on health and nutrition has evolved continuously over the years, but his passion for ethical veganism has only intensified. His research now focuses on the common “pillars of health” that are shared in many ancient traditions prioritizing adequate sleep, hydration, sunshine, fresh air, movement, optimized plant-only nutrition, and the careful application of fasting and cleansing modalities to achieve health and wellness. 

Resources:

SUNstenance website: https://www.sunstenance.org/https://www.sunstenance.org/

SUNstenance Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/sunstenance/⁠

Documentary Earthlings: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358456/

Dr. John McDougall: https://www.drmcdougall.com/

Documentary, The Beautiful Truth: https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/beautiful-truth/

The Pocket Tibetan Buddhism Reader: https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Tibetan-Buddhism-Shambhala-Classics/dp/1570628513

How does a person go from Burger King to vegan in two hours? A pre-screening of the classic animal rights film Earthlings did it for Carlos Garcia over two decades ago!

Carlos has been playing drums since he was a kid in New York City. He grew up in a large, music-loving family listening to salsa and Latin music every day. Carlos is constantly recording and creating music with many diverse artists around the world. When Carlos isn’t playing music, he’s busy growing his own food and being an activist for peace, animal rights, human rights, GLBT rights and holistic, vegan living.

Carlos lived in Los Angeles most of his life and went vegan over two decades ago after seeing an early test screening of Shaun Monson’s film Earthlings and realizing he was paying to do horrific things to these beautiful, innocent creatures and left the theater vegan. He literally went from Burger King to vegan in two hours.

Carlos is now 66 years old, and no one ever guesses his age correctly. He considers himself living proof that keeping your spirit and body clean of torture and poison, does a body (and spirit) good. 

Carlos was living on Maui, Hawaii for 16 years doing animal activism and being percussionist for Mick Fleetwood’s side project, Mick Fleetwood’s Island Rumours Band. He has spent the last year in different parts of California, Portland and New York soul-searching after the loss of his mother and the recent devastating fires on Maui. He's in NYC right now to help raise funds for an upcoming vegan feature film with Victoria Moran called Miss Liberty. Simultaneously, he's promoting his music video "It’s OK To Love Me" and putting together the live band. 

Resources: 

Monkeys with Drums: https://monkeyswithdrums.com/

Support the making of Miss Liberty, the movie: https://misslibertythemovie.com/

The World Peace Diet by Dr. Will Tuttle: https://www.worldpeacediet.com/

Earthlings, the movie: https://vimeo.com/237062854