The Vegan Option including Vegetarianism: The Story So Far

Ian McDonald
The Vegan Option including Vegetarianism: The Story So Far

In 2016-7, Ian McDonald tells one epic tale - the backstory to today's vegetarian and vegan movements. From the Ganges plain to the hills of New England, from the iron age to the present day, voices challenge the idea that other animals exist soley for humans. Discover philosopher kings, rebel poets, and forgotten heroes in this radio history of vegetarianism. Stories from vegan perspectives. Great radio that just happens to be vegan. This is The Vegan Option.

  1. 04/29/2020

    Spillover Diseases: Covid-19 & Zoonoses, with Jonna Mazet and Aysha Akhtar

    How does animal exploitation increase the emergence of new diseases? With the world fighting a vicious new pandemic, Ian asks a front-line physician, an epidemiologist, a public health expert and activists about how new diseases spill over from other animals, and how factory farming and the wildlife trade raise our vulnerability. Play or download (42MB MP3 30min) (via iTunes) Contributors: Dr Aysha Akhtar (@DrAyshaAkhtar) Dr Laura-Jane Smith (King’s College Hospital) (@DrLauraJane) Prof Jonna Mazet (University of California Davis)(@JonnaMazet) Peter Kemple Hardy (World Animal Protection) Zoonoses and Vegan Activism You’ve probably heard animal activists linking the Covid-19 pandemic to human treatment of animals well before you listened to my show – part of the reason for doing this show was to give people the information to talk about the link without drifting into hyperbole. For example, “Earthling” Ed Winters famously got a roasting in the UK’s tabloid press for a viral Facebook post in which he blamed half a dozen new diseases on meat-eating. From what I’ve learnt doing the show, it was his categorical certainty that’s wrong rather than his general point (and, arguably, tone). I thought his later video on the subject was more nuanced. Has it Been Three Years?… more The post Spillover Diseases: Covid-19 & Zoonoses, with Jonna Mazet and Aysha Akhtar first appeared on The Vegan Option.

  2. 05/16/2017

    VegHist Ep 13: The Vegetarians. Abolitionism, colonialism, and Victorian reformers; with Julia Twigg and Bhaskar Chakraborty. In London

    In the late nineteenth century, the new vegetarian movement is intertwined with other struggles – including Victorian reformers, the Indian reaction to British colonialism, and most importantly, slavery. Episode 13: The Vegetarians After their foundation in 1847 and 1850, the vegetarian societies in Britain and America rose swiftly faced new challenges. Dr Adam Shprintzen, author of the history of US vegetarianism “Vegetarian Crusade, tells Ian how the American Vegetarian Society poured its energies into an anti-slavery vegetarian settlement in the Wild West. And how its founder, Englishman Henry Clubb, ultimately took a bullet for the union in the Civil War. Under British rule, Hindu vegetarianism faced a mix of threat and opportunity. In India, Ian meets historians DN Jha, Burton Cleetus, and Bhaskar Chakraborty, who explain how, faced with rule by distant Christians, vegetarianism became more important as a marker of caste and identity. Ian also sets off on a cycle tour of vegetarian Victorian London, and talks to the first modern academic to study vegetarian history – Dr Julia Twigg. Play or download (58MB MP3 41min) (via iTunes) or read transcript Contributors: Readings *I couldn’t track down issues of the Truth Tester published that late, so I do wonder… more The post VegHist Ep 13: The Vegetarians. Abolitionism, colonialism, and Victorian reformers; with Julia Twigg and Bhaskar Chakraborty. In London first appeared on The Vegan Option.

  3. 04/28/2017

    VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

    In the 1800s, overlapping circles of utopians, mystics, and romantics in both Europe and America develop arguments against meat until “vegetarianism” finally becomes a real movement. Episode 12: Radicals & Romantics In the aftermath of the American and French revolutions, the sects and philosophies that embrace a “vegetable diet” multiply – from ecstatic cult to puritan crusades, to utopian community to public-spirited congregation. No longer are they isolated groups – they connect with each other in books, magazines, and letters. Until a single word catches on – “vegetarianism”. In the United States of America, Ian discovers the the vegetarian sword and shoes of a 1790s “free love” vegetarian sect in a local Massachusetts museum, and visits the failed vegan commune where Louisa May “Little Women” Alcott lived as a child. And in Salford, NW England, he walks in the footsteps of a nineteenth century vegetarian church, with local historian Derek Antrobus and the vegetarian history specialist Dr Samantha Calvert. It’s a story that also takes in the French bohemian “cult of the bearded men”, the man who invented the modern idea of Robin Hood, the woman who invented Frankenstein and his creature, Sylvester Graham, and, finally, the creation of modern… more The post VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists first appeared on The Vegan Option.

  4. 12/08/2016

    VegHist Ep 9: Renaissance. Descartes, Montaigne, Gassendi, and the “sparing diet”

    Ancient philosophers inspire Renaissance thinkers to challenge the old hierarchy of man over beast. Episode 9: Renaissance Old medieval certainties are cracking under the combined assault of new sciences and rediscovered classics. It’s an age when “natural philosophers” combine scientific discovery with philosophical treatises, and when their Republic of Letters transcends political boundaries in the name of free thought. It’s the age of Descartes, whose mechanical philosophy dismisses animals as “automatons”. But rivals like Gassendi suggest that animals have more in common with humans than he thinks. Ian traces the trail from Paris to the Mughal Court and back to the medical schools of the Enlightenment. He discovers the forgotten story of how Christian mythology, early anatomy, classical thinkers, and Indian medicine came together in respected medical schools that taught students to prescribe a vegetable diet. Play or download (61MB MP3 44min) (via iTunes) or read transcript. Contributors: Justin Begley, University of Oxford (academia.edu) Jean-Charles Darmon (Université de Versailles) (on Wikipedia) Deepak Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru University) Tristram Stuart (tristramstuart.co.uk) (on Wikipedia) This slideshow requires JavaScript. Readings Lucretius, “On the Nature of Things”, 56 BCE (see translations by Hugh Munro 1910 & Cyril Bailey 1900) Montaige, “Apology [in the old sense… more The post VegHist Ep 9: Renaissance. Descartes, Montaigne, Gassendi, and the “sparing diet” first appeared on The Vegan Option.

  5. 10/06/2016

    VegHist Ep 8: Contacts. Indian Sufism, Bhakti, Akbar, Portuguese Christianity, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism

    When conquerors who profess Islam or Christianity rule over Indian vegetarians, the conversations about food ethics go both ways. Episode 8: Contacts Ian discovers the ecstatic dancing and singing shared by Sufis and Hindus – including westerners singing Hare Krishna in London’s main shopping street. In Delhi, he finds out about the inquisition that started with European antisemitism and ended with Indians being forced to eat beef. And in the royal city of Agra, he visits a shrine built to commemorate a conversation about religion and vegetarianism between a Jain saint and the Mughal emperor Akbar. He uncovers the fascinating story of this heretic emperor who advocated vegetarianism. At the halfway point of this 15-part history of vegetarianism, the traditions of East and West come together. From hereon, it’s all one story. Play or download (52MB MP3 37min) (via iTunes) or read transcript. Contributors: Pius Malekandathil (Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi) Sushil Jain and Ashoka Jain, Agra Sanjukta Gupta (University of Oxford) Dr Peter Flügel, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) ISKON (“Hare Krishnas”): Devotees of Radha Krishna Temple, Soho, London Prasad distributed by Food For All Ter Kadamba das (askamonk.org) Readings Andrea Corsali, Letter to Giuliano… more The post VegHist Ep 8: Contacts. Indian Sufism, Bhakti, Akbar, Portuguese Christianity, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism first appeared on The Vegan Option.

4.7
out of 5
34 Ratings

About

In 2016-7, Ian McDonald tells one epic tale - the backstory to today's vegetarian and vegan movements. From the Ganges plain to the hills of New England, from the iron age to the present day, voices challenge the idea that other animals exist soley for humans. Discover philosopher kings, rebel poets, and forgotten heroes in this radio history of vegetarianism. Stories from vegan perspectives. Great radio that just happens to be vegan. This is The Vegan Option.

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