UnchainedTV: Download the App for Animal Lovers!

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Welcome to the Unchained TV podcast.

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Animals are suffering by the billions in factory farms.

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What can we do to speak for these voiceless animals?

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There are people who go out there and get arrested.

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There are people who use virtual reality tools

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to go into factory farms

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to document what's happening to them.

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There are people who are writing books.

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We just interviewed two last week,

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trying to wake people up about the need

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to not support factory farms in their consumer purchases.

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Well, now we've got another breakthrough.

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It's called Connect for Animals.

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And those are the three leading team members

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behind this new initiative

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to speak up for factory farmed animals.

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Have you heard about the amazing new platform

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for animal rights events?

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Connect for Animals is a user-friendly platform

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where you can find and share animal rights events

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in all of North America.

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It's perfect for people who are trying

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to find activism opportunities or share their own.

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You can even find lectures, meditations,

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and conferences on their website.

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Empower the hundreds of thousands of people

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who care deeply about ending factory farming,

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but aren't sure where to start.

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We're building a community

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where anyone can learn about this movement,

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discover events and organizations,

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and find ways to get involved.

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Welcome.

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We are talking about Connect for Animals.

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We're so delighted to have the three lead organizers

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of this incredible breakthrough app

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that you can download on your phone

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and you can also get online at connectforanimals.com.

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So let's get right to it.

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The team is here and we are gonna talk to them.

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Stephen Rook, you are the founder.

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Why did you start this incredible app?

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What inspired you?

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Absolutely.

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Well, first of all, thank you so much for having us here.

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It's just a delight to be here.

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And I do wanna give a shout out to the rest of our team

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that couldn't be here today.

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We have lots of amazing folks working behind the scenes.

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So why Connect for Animals?

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Essentially, I've been doing animal advocacy

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for about a decade in various capacities

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and have talked to so many people during that time

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who care about animals, who are vegan or vegetarian,

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wanna help end factory farming.

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And this was my experience too,

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where it's hard to get involved.

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It's hard to find your place.

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It's hard to find out how to take action,

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what events there are, what organizations there are.

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And after a long time of seeing this gap,

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I wanted to do something about it essentially.

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And so that was the seed of the idea

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behind Connect for Animals and asking,

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how can we make sure that if people care about this issue,

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and there are a ton of people

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who care about this issue globally.

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If you care about this issue,

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how can we make it as easy as possible to get involved?

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And that's really the seed of the idea.

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And then we created the Connect for Animals platform

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as the answer to help people get involved

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in ending factory farming,

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which we think is one of the biggest ethical issues

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on the planet today.

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And there you are.

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It's just amazing.

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I did just sign up.

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So excited that this exists.

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I've been dreaming about something like this for a long time

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but it takes a lot.

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It takes marketing and it takes organizational skills.

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So I wanna go out to Jeannie.

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You are the person who is going to kind of

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try to organize all this amongst other people as well.

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How the heck do you do it?

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Because I know just trying to organize 10 people

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for a meetup could drive me out of my mind sometimes.

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So this is gonna take a lot of organization.

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Jeannie, take it away.

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Well, I think, you know,

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the biggest thing is that our group of volunteers

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is super motivated.

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I mean, we are all about meeting people where they're at.

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Whether you're veg curious, if you're vegan already,

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if you're a hardcore activist,

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we want everybody to be part of Connect for Animals,

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to join us on the platform

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and to help out wherever you feel like you fit in.

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We have a really solid volunteer team.

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We have folks that do social media.

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We just created a new blog.

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So we have like writers.

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I am in charge of events data management.

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And what that means is I'm pretty much going through

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and curating these events.

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But like Stephen was saying,

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our team is just rock solid

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and we're just all about new ideas,

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creating, you know,

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just creating an enthusiasm for ending factory farming.

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And that really helps grease the skids.

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It makes our life, you know, not easy

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because there is so much work.

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Like Stephen was saying behind the scenes,

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there is a lot of moving parts

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and we just do the best we can to plug people in

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where they need to be volunteers and, you know,

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members alike, you know, whoever we can get involved,

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that's what we're about.

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All right.

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And you can sign up at connectforanimals.com

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and you can also just do my favorite way.

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You go to the phone,

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just like you've signed up for Unchained TV,

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the world's only streaming TV network.

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You can sign up, have these apps on your phone.

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I signed up and you're gonna be like,

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oh, there's Jane again posting some more

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because I think this is fantastic.

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So let me ask you, Katita,

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how do you get the world to know that this app exists?

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Because that's our challenge.

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We've created the world's only vegan animal rights

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streaming television network and fast channel network,

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but we don't have a multimillion dollar advertising budget.

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We can't have billboards all over LA.

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We can't have TV commercials.

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And I would assume that the challenge is the same for you.

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How are you gonna counteract it?

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Maybe I could learn a thing or two.

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Totally, Jane.

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And that's where we are right now.

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I mean, so far, just Stephen's amazing work

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leading this platform and developing it

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into this app as well.

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It's come such a long way

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and there's been tremendous word of mouth,

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which has gotten us to the place we are at now

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up to almost 2000 users.

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But now we're ready to really take it to the next level,

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meet people where they're at.

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So we're looking at, as Jeannie mentioned,

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blog, new content creation for social media.

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We're also branching out with some paid advertisements

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that are really tested and targeted,

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as well as extending out to events of all sorts,

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local and potentially virtual as well.

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So we really wanna just maximize

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how we can get the word out

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and do a lot of testing along the way to see what works.

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Well, I love this.

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I have to tell you that I feel it's very needed.

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I literally have been dreaming of something like this

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for a long time.

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And one of the reasons is that veganism,

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which obviously is connected to ending factory farming,

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if everybody went vegan, we wouldn't have factory farming.

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It's been under attack.

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And I'm just gonna put up a couple of the,

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I think, outrageous headlines

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that are the headlines of outrageous articles.

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Meat is back on plates and in politics

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after years in which plant-based was the mantra.

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Meat once again dominates the national conversation

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about dinner.

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That's the New York Times.

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The middle one is new research is bad news for vegans.

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Even if you eat plant-based protein,

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that's the New York Post.

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Yeah, to be expected, but still.

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This one, BBC Science,

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even protein-rich vegan diets may fall short

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on key nutrients.

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Studies suggest hogwash, or should I say,

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maybe I shouldn't use the word phrase hogwash.

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Could that be speciesist?

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Nonsense, okay?

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We have millions and millions of people

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who are vegan for decades.

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I know people who were born vegan.

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Their health stats are better than the general public.

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There's great documentaries like Game Changers

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and documentaries about blue zones, et cetera.

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We can't let this stand.

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I was a reporter for more than 30 years.

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If you start getting negative commentary

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about your reporting, it usually results in a trip

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to your immediate supervisor's office,

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which is not pleasant, and you have to justify yourself.

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So right now, these reporters, these journalists

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are operating in a no-consequence zone,

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and they feel like they can get away with saying anything

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because nobody's gonna respond.

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As soon as I saw your platform, I go, aha,

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because we've already started tweeting responses.

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In fact, today, we just did a donnymossoftheirturn.net

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on his ex account, did a response to a New York Times

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article bemoaning that laboratory animals might be killed

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due to budget cuts.

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It's like, hello, they were gonna be tortured

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and killed anyway.

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Can you at least mention that?

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It was just mind-boggling, but we got whatever,

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seven or eight retweets.

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Imagine if these articles got 1,000 retweets.

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Imagine if everybody who signed up to Connect for Animals

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went on X and retweeted with a comment.

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That would be a game changer,

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and I'd like to get your thoughts on that, Stephen.

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As somebody I know, you have a lot of background

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in the animal rights movement,

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having worked at Mercy for Animals,

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and so you know the territory.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And so, a lot of what you said really resonates with me

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and sort of why we started Connect for Animals

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in the first place, and that's because there are,

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first of all, there are so many great actions and campaigns

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that are happening all the time.

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There are a ton of amazing organizations

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that are trying to make progress on different parts

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of the system related to factory farming animals for food.

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There's also animal experimentation.

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There's all kinds of different facets

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at which you can look at animal ethics, right?

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And there's so many amazing organizations.

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And if you want to, for example,

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there are a lot of people out there

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who want to take action across all of these different areas

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or these different organizations,

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and if one of those people just wanted to ask the question

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of where could I go to look at the campaigns

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that are happening across all of the different organizations

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that I care about, I mean, currently,

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the best solution, I guess, before Connect for Animals

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is like you sign up for kind of every email newsletter

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on the planet and wait for those action alerts to come out.

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And I know that some people do this,

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and it's great that they do,

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but we want to reduce the friction however we can.

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So something that we started working on last year

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and something that we're going to keep working

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on going forward is pulling these campaign actions

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from all the different organizations,

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having them on Connect for Animals,

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so that if people say, like,

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what can I do to take action for animals right now?

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And they just want to help.

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They're not putting together the campaigns.

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They're relying on these great organizations

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to put together the campaigns,

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and then they want to take action on them.

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If we can have all of those actions together in one place,

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which we're making progress towards,

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then somebody can come to Connect for Animals

267
00:11:24,590 --> 00:11:27,550
and say, here's a great action from Mercy for Animals

268
00:11:27,550 --> 00:11:29,650
or from their turn or from PETA

269
00:11:29,650 --> 00:11:32,710
or across all of these different areas,

270
00:11:32,950 --> 00:11:35,330
and they can just go through and boom, boom, boom,

271
00:11:35,330 --> 00:11:38,450
action, action, action, just run down the list

272
00:11:38,450 --> 00:11:41,430
and make a difference across all of these things.

273
00:11:41,750 --> 00:11:44,630
And I guess talking a little bit about that point

274
00:11:44,630 --> 00:11:46,070
and something else you mentioned earlier

275
00:11:46,070 --> 00:11:50,590
about there being this backlash against veganism

276
00:11:50,590 --> 00:11:51,730
or against animal ethics,

277
00:11:52,330 --> 00:11:55,790
I think that if people start caring about this issue,

278
00:11:55,910 --> 00:11:56,950
but they're not fully committed,

279
00:11:57,150 --> 00:11:59,390
like the people here, the people in this room right now,

280
00:11:59,450 --> 00:12:00,610
like us doing this interview,

281
00:12:01,090 --> 00:12:02,270
if people hear about it,

282
00:12:02,290 --> 00:12:03,390
they start caring about the issue,

283
00:12:04,030 --> 00:12:05,490
but these things always go in cycles,

284
00:12:05,590 --> 00:12:07,210
and then suddenly there's this big media pushback.

285
00:12:07,890 --> 00:12:09,990
If this person hasn't gotten connected

286
00:12:09,990 --> 00:12:12,830
to the rich animal advocacy ecosystem,

287
00:12:12,830 --> 00:12:15,670
if they do not have all the facts,

288
00:12:15,890 --> 00:12:17,970
if they do not have the social support,

289
00:12:18,430 --> 00:12:20,130
if they haven't taken the time to really learn,

290
00:12:20,550 --> 00:12:22,590
they're gonna be swayed back into the mainstream

291
00:12:22,590 --> 00:12:23,830
very, very easily,

292
00:12:23,890 --> 00:12:27,150
or back into whatever the sort of talking points

293
00:12:27,150 --> 00:12:27,950
of the day are, right?

294
00:12:27,970 --> 00:12:31,810
So a lot of media outlets don't even necessarily care.

295
00:12:31,810 --> 00:12:33,430
With the anti-vegan stuff, for example,

296
00:12:33,530 --> 00:12:35,350
it's just like, oh, we've been pro-vegan,

297
00:12:35,450 --> 00:12:36,450
pro-animal for a little while.

298
00:12:36,930 --> 00:12:38,090
Well, now people are bored of that,

299
00:12:38,150 --> 00:12:39,390
so the thing that's gonna be clickable

300
00:12:39,390 --> 00:12:41,530
is like, oh, let's be anti-vegan, anti-animal

301
00:12:41,530 --> 00:12:42,070
for a little bit.

302
00:12:42,130 --> 00:12:43,910
It's like, can we find something that elevates

303
00:12:43,910 --> 00:12:45,110
the problems of veganism,

304
00:12:45,170 --> 00:12:46,950
because maybe people will love to click on that

305
00:12:46,950 --> 00:12:48,770
if they've gotten bored of the,

306
00:12:48,950 --> 00:12:50,990
oh, plant-based actually seems like

307
00:12:50,990 --> 00:12:52,510
it's typically better for your health.

308
00:12:52,690 --> 00:12:54,790
It's like, oh, that's boring now.

309
00:12:54,850 --> 00:12:55,910
We need to get people to click on things.

310
00:12:56,230 --> 00:12:58,410
So if we with Connect for Animals

311
00:12:58,410 --> 00:13:00,510
can get people more socially connected,

312
00:13:00,510 --> 00:13:02,650
more engaged in the animal advocacy movement,

313
00:13:02,870 --> 00:13:05,170
then hopefully they can be more resilient

314
00:13:05,170 --> 00:13:08,670
to these kind of media cycles that we live in as well.

315
00:13:08,750 --> 00:13:11,250
And that's also a goal is just keeping people here longer

316
00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:12,670
in the animal advocacy space.

317
00:13:13,170 --> 00:13:15,830
I think you've made excellent points.

318
00:13:16,170 --> 00:13:19,510
I will say, having been a journalist for more than 30 years,

319
00:13:19,990 --> 00:13:22,170
journalists are pack animals, okay?

320
00:13:22,890 --> 00:13:23,950
Is that speciesist?

321
00:13:24,250 --> 00:13:25,090
No, I don't know.

322
00:13:25,310 --> 00:13:27,690
I don't know that every reference to animals is speciesist.

323
00:13:27,730 --> 00:13:29,450
It's only if it's a negative reference.

324
00:13:29,450 --> 00:13:30,530
A lot of them are.

325
00:13:30,610 --> 00:13:31,330
It's hard to tell, yeah.

326
00:13:31,510 --> 00:13:32,190
It's hard to tell.

327
00:13:32,750 --> 00:13:35,050
But the truth is that you're right.

328
00:13:35,130 --> 00:13:37,530
It happens in waves and there's the swing of the pendulum.

329
00:13:38,130 --> 00:13:40,450
So with the launch of Beyond Meat

330
00:13:40,450 --> 00:13:44,290
as a public stock in 2019, there was a swing.

331
00:13:44,550 --> 00:13:47,090
I even had people who used to dismiss me,

332
00:13:47,650 --> 00:13:50,250
call me and text me and say,

333
00:13:50,330 --> 00:13:51,770
wow, you were really ahead of your time.

334
00:13:52,030 --> 00:13:54,230
Well, now it's swinging back,

335
00:13:54,370 --> 00:13:57,810
but we can easily reverse that again

336
00:13:57,810 --> 00:13:59,630
and make it even bigger.

337
00:13:59,830 --> 00:14:03,470
I mean, if you look at social justice movements,

338
00:14:03,510 --> 00:14:05,610
it was never just a straight lineup.

339
00:14:05,730 --> 00:14:07,810
If you look at the LGBTQ movement,

340
00:14:07,890 --> 00:14:11,670
and I speak as a member, it was going up slowly.

341
00:14:11,710 --> 00:14:12,970
Then the AIDS crisis hit.

342
00:14:13,070 --> 00:14:13,930
There was a lot of hate.

343
00:14:14,510 --> 00:14:16,290
Then there was a resurgence.

344
00:14:17,150 --> 00:14:22,070
And now, I mean, it's not static.

345
00:14:23,070 --> 00:14:27,030
So I think what you're describing is absolutely correct,

346
00:14:27,030 --> 00:14:29,050
but the question is,

347
00:14:29,690 --> 00:14:32,730
how do we tell our side of the story

348
00:14:32,730 --> 00:14:38,210
in this social media and mainstream media landscape?

349
00:14:38,910 --> 00:14:42,950
And so I think that what you're doing is very important

350
00:14:42,950 --> 00:14:48,150
and I will definitely, definitely use your app

351
00:14:48,150 --> 00:14:52,250
to try to motivate people to respond

352
00:14:52,250 --> 00:14:54,150
by just clicking on X.

353
00:14:54,530 --> 00:14:55,990
Because one thing I've learned,

354
00:14:55,990 --> 00:14:57,250
do you ask people to write a letter?

355
00:14:57,410 --> 00:14:57,670
No.

356
00:14:58,350 --> 00:15:00,690
And what PETA and other organizations,

357
00:15:01,130 --> 00:15:03,030
including PCRM and Mercy for Animals

358
00:15:03,030 --> 00:15:05,490
and these other big groups, they've automated it.

359
00:15:05,930 --> 00:15:08,230
Now, I have to go back to you again.

360
00:15:08,590 --> 00:15:11,430
I did look at your bio, which is very impressive.

361
00:15:11,430 --> 00:15:13,650
And I noticed that you are a mathematician.

362
00:15:13,670 --> 00:15:17,270
You graduated summa cum laude with a degree in mathematics.

363
00:15:17,830 --> 00:15:19,930
And that's just the start.

364
00:15:20,030 --> 00:15:20,830
You've done a lot.

365
00:15:21,210 --> 00:15:23,270
How are you gonna use your math skills

366
00:15:23,790 --> 00:15:30,490
to work with the algorithms to get,

367
00:15:30,970 --> 00:15:32,150
that I think is the key.

368
00:15:32,510 --> 00:15:36,270
I mean, I have a calculator, that's my math skill,

369
00:15:36,630 --> 00:15:38,430
but you have some real math skills.

370
00:15:38,510 --> 00:15:39,870
How are we gonna use those math skills

371
00:15:40,430 --> 00:15:42,350
to hit the algorithms?

372
00:15:43,490 --> 00:15:45,590
Yeah, I mean, I'll say a couple of things

373
00:15:45,590 --> 00:15:47,730
and then actually I might wanna popcorn it over to Geetika

374
00:15:47,730 --> 00:15:50,150
to see if she has any marketing insights here.

375
00:15:50,190 --> 00:15:52,690
Because I very much math brain, right?

376
00:15:52,690 --> 00:15:53,930
That's kind of my background,

377
00:15:54,150 --> 00:15:55,650
math, data science, data engineering.

378
00:15:56,370 --> 00:15:57,970
Like I was on the math team in high school

379
00:15:57,970 --> 00:16:00,690
for all four years, competed at state level competitions,

380
00:16:00,850 --> 00:16:01,750
like big nerd, right?

381
00:16:01,830 --> 00:16:02,350
Big, big nerd.

382
00:16:02,770 --> 00:16:04,690
Not really good at the social media thing.

383
00:16:04,730 --> 00:16:05,930
That's never really been my space.

384
00:16:06,070 --> 00:16:07,610
And so like social media, media,

385
00:16:07,890 --> 00:16:09,450
I'm actually, I have kind of a hard time at that.

386
00:16:10,150 --> 00:16:12,110
But I mean, when it comes to math,

387
00:16:12,170 --> 00:16:15,550
when it comes to data, when it comes to AI, for example,

388
00:16:16,630 --> 00:16:19,850
technology in general, that's a big part of NEC for Animals.

389
00:16:20,490 --> 00:16:22,430
What we do is trying to make these things

390
00:16:22,430 --> 00:16:25,010
happen at scale and get people connected

391
00:16:25,570 --> 00:16:28,210
to the resources and the organizations and the events

392
00:16:28,210 --> 00:16:30,290
that are gonna be a good fit for them.

393
00:16:30,950 --> 00:16:34,730
And so, Jeannie and Geetika definitely have a view

394
00:16:35,310 --> 00:16:39,050
under the hood here, but there is a lot of data involved.

395
00:16:39,350 --> 00:16:40,530
There's a lot of technology.

396
00:16:41,050 --> 00:16:42,910
I mean, with Unchained TV, I'm sure that you know as well,

397
00:16:43,290 --> 00:16:45,510
the technology gets complicated really quickly.

398
00:16:45,530 --> 00:16:48,170
And especially when you're dealing with a lot of data,

399
00:16:48,350 --> 00:16:51,350
a lot of resources, opportunities, groups,

400
00:16:52,190 --> 00:16:56,410
and users, and you're trying to connect one to the other,

401
00:16:56,490 --> 00:16:58,710
you're trying to do this matchmaking process essentially

402
00:16:58,710 --> 00:17:00,830
in general of like, okay, somebody comes in the door.

403
00:17:02,010 --> 00:17:04,050
They're gonna be interested in certain things.

404
00:17:04,190 --> 00:17:06,430
They're gonna have certain skills.

405
00:17:07,150 --> 00:17:10,250
And how can we get them pointed to the spot

406
00:17:10,250 --> 00:17:13,430
in the animal advocacy space that's going to be

407
00:17:13,430 --> 00:17:16,230
a really good fit for them, right?

408
00:17:16,329 --> 00:17:18,950
And so we actually try to be, you know,

409
00:17:18,950 --> 00:17:23,130
even a little less like biased about where people end up,

410
00:17:23,210 --> 00:17:25,170
like what organization maybe they end up supporting

411
00:17:25,170 --> 00:17:26,270
or what campaigns they work on.

412
00:17:26,349 --> 00:17:30,250
We just kind of want people to get involved, to get engaged.

413
00:17:30,430 --> 00:17:32,230
And so on the mathy data side,

414
00:17:32,650 --> 00:17:34,550
there's a lot of really interesting stuff.

415
00:17:34,670 --> 00:17:35,770
Like I said, I'm a big old nerd,

416
00:17:35,890 --> 00:17:37,270
data science and machine learning,

417
00:17:37,350 --> 00:17:38,710
trying to do this matching,

418
00:17:38,830 --> 00:17:40,610
this like recommendation algorithm, right?

419
00:17:40,730 --> 00:17:45,190
Like of who would be interested in what.

420
00:17:45,330 --> 00:17:47,110
We have a lot of really cool work

421
00:17:47,110 --> 00:17:48,510
that we can do on that going forward.

422
00:17:48,510 --> 00:17:50,150
And there's already a lot of interesting stuff

423
00:17:51,030 --> 00:17:52,530
behind the scenes and under the hood.

424
00:17:52,750 --> 00:17:54,830
But Geetika, I mean, from a marketing

425
00:17:54,830 --> 00:17:55,850
and social media perspective,

426
00:17:55,910 --> 00:17:58,350
feel free to chime in if you have anything else.

427
00:17:59,250 --> 00:17:59,690
Absolutely.

428
00:17:59,970 --> 00:18:00,390
Thanks, Steven.

429
00:18:00,630 --> 00:18:03,510
I would just tack onto that.

430
00:18:04,330 --> 00:18:06,030
The beauty of having a platform

431
00:18:06,030 --> 00:18:07,890
is that everything is so centralized.

432
00:18:08,630 --> 00:18:10,250
So, you know, when I first,

433
00:18:10,450 --> 00:18:12,730
my first big vegan event that I attended

434
00:18:12,730 --> 00:18:13,950
was in Portland, Oregon.

435
00:18:14,310 --> 00:18:16,090
And it's a vegan hub

436
00:18:16,090 --> 00:18:17,610
and there's a lot of access to things.

437
00:18:17,610 --> 00:18:20,290
But something like Connect for Animals

438
00:18:20,290 --> 00:18:22,570
would really allow someone

439
00:18:22,570 --> 00:18:24,170
who doesn't have that access

440
00:18:24,590 --> 00:18:26,890
to get involved on a much bigger scale

441
00:18:26,890 --> 00:18:27,970
than they could otherwise.

442
00:18:28,570 --> 00:18:30,170
And once we have all of that

443
00:18:30,170 --> 00:18:33,950
sort of centralized data in a platform,

444
00:18:34,190 --> 00:18:35,610
then we can start to understand

445
00:18:35,610 --> 00:18:38,470
like what really supports people out there

446
00:18:38,470 --> 00:18:40,190
to be advocates

447
00:18:40,190 --> 00:18:42,010
and how can we better support them?

448
00:18:42,150 --> 00:18:44,490
And also partner with bigger organizations

449
00:18:44,490 --> 00:18:46,630
that are doing this work to say,

450
00:18:46,630 --> 00:18:48,330
hey, like we have these learnings,

451
00:18:48,410 --> 00:18:51,390
now you can use that for your advocacy campaigns.

452
00:18:51,610 --> 00:18:54,670
And really just by that cohesion

453
00:18:54,670 --> 00:18:55,750
and centralization,

454
00:18:55,750 --> 00:18:57,490
I think it can be so much more powerful.

455
00:18:58,670 --> 00:19:01,350
So where Connect for Animals

456
00:19:01,350 --> 00:19:04,250
is allowing us to speak with one voice,

457
00:19:04,490 --> 00:19:07,530
which I personally think is so important.

458
00:19:08,090 --> 00:19:11,530
I have zero tolerance for infighting.

459
00:19:11,790 --> 00:19:14,230
And unfortunately it does occur in our movement

460
00:19:14,630 --> 00:19:17,650
and people try to drag Unshade TV or me into it.

461
00:19:17,730 --> 00:19:18,910
I'm like, leave us alone.

462
00:19:19,550 --> 00:19:22,770
We're just wanna speak for voiceless animals.

463
00:19:23,250 --> 00:19:24,410
Keep us out of your infighting.

464
00:19:24,710 --> 00:19:26,730
Anytime we're fighting amongst ourselves,

465
00:19:26,770 --> 00:19:28,270
the other side is applauding

466
00:19:28,270 --> 00:19:29,690
and saying, yeah, keep fighting.

467
00:19:30,170 --> 00:19:31,750
So I tell people, for example,

468
00:19:32,210 --> 00:19:33,490
you wanna be a raw vegan,

469
00:19:33,770 --> 00:19:34,610
go right ahead,

470
00:19:34,730 --> 00:19:37,530
but don't post and not meet alternatives.

471
00:19:39,350 --> 00:19:40,870
Fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains

472
00:19:40,870 --> 00:19:41,550
have always been there.

473
00:19:41,550 --> 00:19:44,590
If we, everybody's always had the option to choose those.

474
00:19:44,670 --> 00:19:45,690
Those products were created

475
00:19:45,690 --> 00:19:46,930
because people weren't choosing those.

476
00:19:48,470 --> 00:19:50,250
So that's number one.

477
00:19:50,350 --> 00:19:51,310
And number two,

478
00:19:51,710 --> 00:19:54,350
to speak with a unified voice

479
00:19:54,350 --> 00:19:57,250
because there's strength in numbers.

480
00:19:57,530 --> 00:20:00,510
And a lot of these meat industry organizations,

481
00:20:00,790 --> 00:20:02,470
they have all sorts of associations.

482
00:20:02,690 --> 00:20:03,910
You know, the Cattlemen's Association

483
00:20:03,910 --> 00:20:05,870
and this association and that association.

484
00:20:06,430 --> 00:20:09,950
I don't think we have the kind of grassroots association

485
00:20:10,370 --> 00:20:12,110
where people can speak with one voice

486
00:20:12,110 --> 00:20:14,170
when something happens that,

487
00:20:14,710 --> 00:20:16,030
and being in the media,

488
00:20:16,210 --> 00:20:18,030
I'm particularly attuned to the media,

489
00:20:18,110 --> 00:20:19,970
which sets the tone for society.

490
00:20:20,170 --> 00:20:21,070
Let's face it.

491
00:20:21,250 --> 00:20:24,250
The New York Times is the most important newspaper

492
00:20:24,250 --> 00:20:24,790
in the world.

493
00:20:24,890 --> 00:20:26,030
When it says meat is back,

494
00:20:26,250 --> 00:20:27,650
that telegraphs to everybody

495
00:20:27,650 --> 00:20:29,010
and the intelligentsia,

496
00:20:29,150 --> 00:20:30,310
the big money, blah, blah, blah.

497
00:20:30,410 --> 00:20:31,030
Oh, meat's back.

498
00:20:31,090 --> 00:20:32,190
We don't have to worry about that anymore.

499
00:20:32,750 --> 00:20:35,150
So those are very dangerous articles

500
00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:37,410
that have to be counteracted.

501
00:20:37,410 --> 00:20:39,730
And I'll also say as a journalist,

502
00:20:40,010 --> 00:20:42,290
if you see that another journalist

503
00:20:42,290 --> 00:20:44,750
has gotten blowback for its reporting,

504
00:20:44,790 --> 00:20:45,990
it sends a message to you,

505
00:20:46,130 --> 00:20:50,010
maybe I should think twice about doing a very slanted,

506
00:20:50,190 --> 00:20:53,030
badly researched piece about veganism

507
00:20:53,030 --> 00:20:55,150
where I don't contact the other side.

508
00:20:55,570 --> 00:20:57,550
I mean, the New York Times article,

509
00:20:57,730 --> 00:20:58,850
why didn't they talk to PETA?

510
00:20:58,970 --> 00:21:00,210
Why didn't they talk to PCRM?

511
00:21:00,250 --> 00:21:01,310
Why didn't they talk to MercyFran?

512
00:21:01,390 --> 00:21:02,970
Why didn't they talk to all these organizations?

513
00:21:03,450 --> 00:21:05,610
They talked to one organization with one quote

514
00:21:05,610 --> 00:21:06,610
that I could see.

515
00:21:07,750 --> 00:21:09,490
That's not a balanced article.

516
00:21:10,290 --> 00:21:15,490
And so I feel that this is super exciting

517
00:21:16,050 --> 00:21:20,250
because it would allow if we had an action alert

518
00:21:20,690 --> 00:21:23,670
and we use mathematics to make it simple,

519
00:21:23,930 --> 00:21:25,790
not sit there and write a letter to your...

520
00:21:25,790 --> 00:21:27,450
The other day I was at an event and they said,

521
00:21:27,850 --> 00:21:30,070
everybody has to write to their city council person.

522
00:21:30,170 --> 00:21:31,690
I'm like, good luck with that.

523
00:21:31,850 --> 00:21:33,390
We don't live in that kind of era.

524
00:21:33,390 --> 00:21:36,850
It's gotta be something where they boom and it goes out.

525
00:21:37,110 --> 00:21:38,470
That's what PETA is so good at.

526
00:21:38,890 --> 00:21:42,050
I mean, almost every day I get something from PETA

527
00:21:42,050 --> 00:21:45,950
that says do Y or do X or do something

528
00:21:45,950 --> 00:21:46,930
and it sends out letters.

529
00:21:47,090 --> 00:21:48,670
And there's other organizations as well

530
00:21:48,670 --> 00:21:50,150
that do that very effectively.

531
00:21:50,790 --> 00:21:51,750
A small number.

532
00:21:52,170 --> 00:21:54,250
The vast majority do not have the technology

533
00:21:54,250 --> 00:21:56,930
or perhaps the funding and or the technology to do that.

534
00:21:57,270 --> 00:21:58,630
But my question to you is,

535
00:21:58,770 --> 00:22:00,530
are you gonna fill that space?

536
00:22:00,530 --> 00:22:03,930
Because I think that would be,

537
00:22:04,150 --> 00:22:05,930
first of all, incredibly effective.

538
00:22:06,470 --> 00:22:08,330
And I also think it would put you on the map

539
00:22:08,330 --> 00:22:11,430
and allow you to collaborate with other organizations

540
00:22:11,430 --> 00:22:13,150
to be like that mouthpiece.

541
00:22:13,330 --> 00:22:15,030
Because we've actually been looking for that.

542
00:22:15,130 --> 00:22:17,530
We've been looking for the project

543
00:22:17,530 --> 00:22:20,010
that Their Turn and Unchained TV works on

544
00:22:20,010 --> 00:22:21,210
to challenge these reporters

545
00:22:21,210 --> 00:22:23,670
who are writing these misinformed articles

546
00:22:23,670 --> 00:22:25,470
in mainstream media is like,

547
00:22:25,850 --> 00:22:28,930
okay, we've done an X response and we put it on X,

548
00:22:28,930 --> 00:22:30,410
we put it on Facebook, we put it on LinkedIn.

549
00:22:31,330 --> 00:22:33,330
Now how do we get other people to retweet it?

550
00:22:33,510 --> 00:22:35,430
How do we get other people to say,

551
00:22:36,210 --> 00:22:38,090
yeah, and blah, blah, blah.

552
00:22:38,770 --> 00:22:40,590
And people are saying, agree with you.

553
00:22:40,710 --> 00:22:41,470
So thank you.

554
00:22:42,690 --> 00:22:44,630
Not always, but this time they're agreeing.

555
00:22:44,850 --> 00:22:44,990
Okay.

556
00:22:45,370 --> 00:22:45,770
What do you say?

557
00:22:45,790 --> 00:22:46,410
No, no, no, of course.

558
00:22:46,590 --> 00:22:47,170
I think, yeah.

559
00:22:47,690 --> 00:22:48,610
Not always agree.

560
00:22:48,710 --> 00:22:49,390
You know, it's good to have

561
00:22:49,390 --> 00:22:52,350
a little vigorous debate every now and then.

562
00:22:52,410 --> 00:22:53,630
I hear you on the infighting though.

563
00:22:53,770 --> 00:22:56,590
And just to go back to one thing there really quickly.

564
00:22:56,590 --> 00:23:00,030
I do think that healthy disagreement can be good.

565
00:23:00,130 --> 00:23:02,070
I think that, yeah, the problem absolutely exists

566
00:23:02,070 --> 00:23:03,750
when it descends into people

567
00:23:03,750 --> 00:23:05,250
just tearing each other apart for no reason.

568
00:23:05,450 --> 00:23:06,450
And as Connect for Animals,

569
00:23:06,650 --> 00:23:11,930
since our entire goal is to help people find groups

570
00:23:11,930 --> 00:23:13,290
and organizations and events and things,

571
00:23:13,630 --> 00:23:17,270
we really do in general have to be kind of pro

572
00:23:17,270 --> 00:23:19,310
the whole movement, support the whole movement.

573
00:23:19,450 --> 00:23:24,370
I mean, that's our role here is to show people

574
00:23:24,370 --> 00:23:26,090
all of the options that are available.

575
00:23:26,850 --> 00:23:28,850
And unless we have a very good reason not to,

576
00:23:28,970 --> 00:23:30,750
we're generally gonna try to show people

577
00:23:30,750 --> 00:23:32,350
everything that's out there, right?

578
00:23:32,370 --> 00:23:35,470
Which is a diversity of approaches, of strategies,

579
00:23:37,230 --> 00:23:38,930
of theories of change.

580
00:23:39,370 --> 00:23:41,150
And so I think that's a very healthy thing.

581
00:23:41,230 --> 00:23:42,490
But when it comes to your question

582
00:23:42,490 --> 00:23:45,830
about options and centralizing that,

583
00:23:46,010 --> 00:23:47,930
absolutely, I do think, you know,

584
00:23:48,050 --> 00:23:50,990
there's, first of all, like get people to care, right?

585
00:23:51,070 --> 00:23:53,670
And then even if you have all these people who care,

586
00:23:53,670 --> 00:23:55,670
how do you get them to take action?

587
00:23:55,770 --> 00:23:57,310
Like you said, like getting people to sit down

588
00:23:57,310 --> 00:23:59,410
and write a long letter to their city council people.

589
00:24:00,310 --> 00:24:02,790
Some people will do that, absolutely.

590
00:24:03,030 --> 00:24:06,630
Some people will invest however much time

591
00:24:06,630 --> 00:24:09,210
and energy it takes, however difficult the task is.

592
00:24:09,890 --> 00:24:11,850
But those people are few and far between.

593
00:24:12,010 --> 00:24:13,730
Lots of us, I mean, myself included,

594
00:24:13,850 --> 00:24:15,690
like I'm inclined to do certain things

595
00:24:15,690 --> 00:24:16,850
and not inclined to do others.

596
00:24:17,250 --> 00:24:19,630
If you make it really, really, really easy for me,

597
00:24:19,670 --> 00:24:21,290
then I'm probably more likely to do it.

598
00:24:21,310 --> 00:24:22,690
And I think that that is true

599
00:24:22,690 --> 00:24:25,090
of pretty much everybody out there.

600
00:24:25,270 --> 00:24:26,390
And so I think that, you know,

601
00:24:26,410 --> 00:24:27,790
the question for us at Connect for Animals

602
00:24:27,790 --> 00:24:29,450
is something that we have started working on,

603
00:24:30,030 --> 00:24:31,550
is, you know, like I said,

604
00:24:31,630 --> 00:24:33,270
pulling together these action alerts,

605
00:24:33,730 --> 00:24:36,470
these campaigns from different organizations.

606
00:24:36,910 --> 00:24:39,330
One problem that we run into pretty quickly,

607
00:24:39,830 --> 00:24:42,350
and so this is gonna be a challenge for us going forward

608
00:24:42,350 --> 00:24:44,790
and something that we're thinking through,

609
00:24:44,830 --> 00:24:46,890
but if anyone in your audience has ideas also,

610
00:24:47,010 --> 00:24:47,990
then we'd love to hear,

611
00:24:48,170 --> 00:24:51,770
is the volume of possible actions

612
00:24:51,770 --> 00:24:54,130
can get pretty big pretty quickly.

613
00:24:55,110 --> 00:24:57,570
So for example, large organizations

614
00:24:57,570 --> 00:24:58,870
will have specific campaigns,

615
00:24:58,970 --> 00:25:00,270
maybe against specific companies,

616
00:25:00,510 --> 00:25:02,350
and there maybe won't be a ton of those.

617
00:25:02,830 --> 00:25:05,690
But if you go down to the individual activist level,

618
00:25:06,350 --> 00:25:08,310
every single social media post

619
00:25:08,310 --> 00:25:10,810
that every animal activist is putting out there,

620
00:25:11,310 --> 00:25:15,970
if we count each one of those as a distinct action

621
00:25:15,970 --> 00:25:17,730
of like amplifying a certain message,

622
00:25:18,250 --> 00:25:20,410
then kind of the space of possible actions

623
00:25:20,410 --> 00:25:21,710
can blow up very quickly.

624
00:25:21,910 --> 00:25:23,310
And that's not a bad thing.

625
00:25:23,430 --> 00:25:24,830
I mean, that's actually a very good thing

626
00:25:24,830 --> 00:25:26,970
if we have so much work that's happening.

627
00:25:27,430 --> 00:25:28,570
But then the question becomes,

628
00:25:29,270 --> 00:25:31,410
and this is a challenge for us at Connect for Animals,

629
00:25:32,010 --> 00:25:34,510
is how do we show the right thing to the right person?

630
00:25:34,590 --> 00:25:36,910
And how do we present all of this information to people

631
00:25:36,910 --> 00:25:38,450
without them getting overwhelmed?

632
00:25:38,950 --> 00:25:41,810
And that's sort of related to the getting people

633
00:25:41,810 --> 00:25:44,910
to sit down and write their city council members, right?

634
00:25:44,930 --> 00:25:47,870
Is the question of not getting people to care

635
00:25:47,870 --> 00:25:50,530
and not about the information itself,

636
00:25:50,790 --> 00:25:52,630
but the presentation of the information,

637
00:25:52,810 --> 00:25:55,670
the presentation of this stuff, nudging users,

638
00:25:55,950 --> 00:25:57,470
getting people to be able to feel like,

639
00:25:57,550 --> 00:25:58,310
oh, hey, this is easy.

640
00:25:58,430 --> 00:25:59,410
Oh, like, I can do this.

641
00:25:59,450 --> 00:26:00,290
This is not overwhelming.

642
00:26:00,770 --> 00:26:02,110
I'm not in over my head.

643
00:26:02,690 --> 00:26:05,050
And so it's a big challenge.

644
00:26:05,190 --> 00:26:07,430
You know, it's much easier

645
00:26:07,430 --> 00:26:08,650
to put a bunch of things on a website

646
00:26:09,070 --> 00:26:12,230
than it is to get people to use those things

647
00:26:12,230 --> 00:26:13,710
in the way that you might want.

648
00:26:13,770 --> 00:26:14,690
And I think that a lot of people

649
00:26:15,170 --> 00:26:18,210
who set out to build something like this,

650
00:26:18,250 --> 00:26:19,830
and there have been other efforts,

651
00:26:20,030 --> 00:26:22,070
you know, it's like the building of the thing is challenging

652
00:26:22,070 --> 00:26:25,690
but then having people use it in a way that's easy

653
00:26:25,690 --> 00:26:27,090
and it's effective and impactful

654
00:26:27,090 --> 00:26:28,870
is a whole separate problem.

655
00:26:29,050 --> 00:26:30,110
It's very difficult.

656
00:26:30,350 --> 00:26:32,230
Yeah, I mean, but it's also very interesting,

657
00:26:32,410 --> 00:26:34,470
which I think is good for us at Connect for Animals

658
00:26:34,470 --> 00:26:35,810
because we get to work on it for a while.

659
00:26:36,330 --> 00:26:37,650
Oh my gosh, yes.

660
00:26:37,710 --> 00:26:40,550
I can imagine that you would be up all day and night

661
00:26:40,550 --> 00:26:44,350
adding events because the irony is people think

662
00:26:44,350 --> 00:26:45,530
that let's say going vegan

663
00:26:45,530 --> 00:26:46,950
and getting involved in the animal rights movement

664
00:26:46,950 --> 00:26:47,750
is some sacrifice.

665
00:26:48,150 --> 00:26:50,090
It's literally a party every night.

666
00:26:50,270 --> 00:26:53,490
Honestly, I could go to a party or an event

667
00:26:53,490 --> 00:26:56,330
every single night if I wanted to.

668
00:26:56,870 --> 00:26:59,650
But I can't afford the dog sitters to be honest with you

669
00:26:59,650 --> 00:27:01,310
because not all are dog friendly.

670
00:27:03,290 --> 00:27:05,470
But it's a social club.

671
00:27:05,730 --> 00:27:07,410
And, you know, I try to tell people sometimes,

672
00:27:07,530 --> 00:27:08,930
hey, it's not just a social club.

673
00:27:09,510 --> 00:27:11,570
And, you know, it's really interesting

674
00:27:12,150 --> 00:27:13,790
how we affect change.

675
00:27:13,790 --> 00:27:16,290
I'm listening to this book right now called Change.

676
00:27:16,810 --> 00:27:20,010
And it's super interesting talking about

677
00:27:20,010 --> 00:27:23,250
the assumptions we make about how change happens.

678
00:27:23,990 --> 00:27:28,910
And the book, the author actually challenges the notion

679
00:27:28,910 --> 00:27:32,350
that really famous people saying things on social media

680
00:27:32,350 --> 00:27:35,270
is the way because everybody wants those celebrities, right?

681
00:27:35,690 --> 00:27:38,390
And what he seems to be saying is

682
00:27:38,390 --> 00:27:42,290
that it's the connections that people make

683
00:27:42,290 --> 00:27:45,270
and those connections are with family, friends,

684
00:27:45,410 --> 00:27:46,650
coworkers, neighbors,

685
00:27:47,370 --> 00:27:49,670
people that they meet in a social setting,

686
00:27:50,670 --> 00:27:54,550
but that the best connections are weak connections.

687
00:27:54,830 --> 00:27:56,590
Because if you're just talking to people

688
00:27:56,590 --> 00:27:58,530
in your immediate circle who agree with you,

689
00:27:58,650 --> 00:28:03,390
you're just, they call it reinforcement.

690
00:28:04,170 --> 00:28:06,530
Yes, it's basically preaching the converted.

691
00:28:07,010 --> 00:28:09,170
But when he talked about the six degrees

692
00:28:09,170 --> 00:28:12,750
of separation approach is to start expanding

693
00:28:12,750 --> 00:28:14,150
those weak connections.

694
00:28:14,930 --> 00:28:16,950
So I'll give you a personal example on Facebook.

695
00:28:17,650 --> 00:28:20,510
You know, I get requests for friends on my personal page.

696
00:28:21,030 --> 00:28:24,090
And of course I'm thinking, well, the vegans, yeah.

697
00:28:24,190 --> 00:28:26,730
But, you know, actually listening to this book now,

698
00:28:26,750 --> 00:28:28,390
I'm gonna just click on the non-vegans

699
00:28:28,390 --> 00:28:30,510
because those are the weak connections

700
00:28:30,510 --> 00:28:32,490
that I need to get the information out to.

701
00:28:32,950 --> 00:28:35,950
So it's a very complicated three-dimensional chess game

702
00:28:35,950 --> 00:28:36,830
to affect change.

703
00:28:37,430 --> 00:28:38,990
But I think, you know,

704
00:28:39,170 --> 00:28:41,550
we have to get more scientific about it.

705
00:28:41,610 --> 00:28:44,150
That's why my eyes popped out when I thought,

706
00:28:44,330 --> 00:28:48,290
oh, Stephen has all this mathematical ability

707
00:28:48,290 --> 00:28:51,050
because a lot of it is boiling down

708
00:28:51,050 --> 00:28:52,990
to mathematical equations

709
00:28:53,630 --> 00:28:57,670
of how we expand our circle of influence.

710
00:28:58,010 --> 00:29:01,550
Each and every animal rights person,

711
00:29:01,690 --> 00:29:03,930
vegan person who wants to end factory farming,

712
00:29:03,930 --> 00:29:06,350
we have tentacles on social media

713
00:29:06,770 --> 00:29:09,730
and those tentacles are the most important.

714
00:29:10,230 --> 00:29:12,390
I do feel that our movement suffers

715
00:29:12,390 --> 00:29:13,610
from preaching to the converted.

716
00:29:14,010 --> 00:29:14,950
I can't tell you.

717
00:29:15,130 --> 00:29:16,870
One of the reasons I started Unchained TV

718
00:29:16,870 --> 00:29:20,250
is that I went to one too many documentary screenings

719
00:29:20,250 --> 00:29:22,270
where everybody in the room is already vegan

720
00:29:22,270 --> 00:29:24,470
and we're watching a video

721
00:29:24,470 --> 00:29:26,330
with a lot of traumatizing footage.

722
00:29:26,490 --> 00:29:30,510
And it's like, no, other people need to see this.

723
00:29:30,570 --> 00:29:32,250
I'm not re-traumatizing myself.

724
00:29:32,750 --> 00:29:35,370
Other people who say they love animals

725
00:29:35,370 --> 00:29:36,730
and are eating, you know, bacon,

726
00:29:37,030 --> 00:29:39,150
those are the people who need to see this.

727
00:29:39,590 --> 00:29:42,390
And so how do you counteract,

728
00:29:42,470 --> 00:29:43,930
and it's a provocative question,

729
00:29:44,470 --> 00:29:46,290
and maybe you want to take it, Jeannie,

730
00:29:46,610 --> 00:29:48,750
how do we counteract preaching to the converted

731
00:29:49,370 --> 00:29:51,410
in this format that you've created,

732
00:29:51,510 --> 00:29:52,330
which is so incredible?

733
00:29:53,290 --> 00:29:56,590
Well, I think that is the beauty of Connect for Animals

734
00:29:56,590 --> 00:30:01,410
is that we are accepting and welcoming to everybody

735
00:30:01,410 --> 00:30:04,490
no matter at what level you are in this movement,

736
00:30:04,630 --> 00:30:05,190
in our movement.

737
00:30:05,710 --> 00:30:08,770
And that's what's so important is because when you talk

738
00:30:08,770 --> 00:30:10,770
about, you know, going to a documentary,

739
00:30:11,050 --> 00:30:13,630
everybody is vegan, it's the tribe, we're all together.

740
00:30:13,970 --> 00:30:16,970
I don't want to underestimate the power of that.

741
00:30:17,050 --> 00:30:19,030
No, we don't want to be watching traumatizing videos,

742
00:30:19,190 --> 00:30:22,710
et cetera, but the power of having like-minded people,

743
00:30:22,950 --> 00:30:25,550
especially in our movement, because there are so few,

744
00:30:25,630 --> 00:30:28,250
even if you're a vegan who's been vegan forever,

745
00:30:28,890 --> 00:30:32,750
it's still really hard for me to find like-minded people

746
00:30:32,750 --> 00:30:35,250
right in my own town, and I live in a fairly big city.

747
00:30:35,850 --> 00:30:39,270
And so that is, it is a provocative question,

748
00:30:39,350 --> 00:30:40,630
and it is a little tough to address

749
00:30:40,630 --> 00:30:42,770
because it's so multifaceted.

750
00:30:42,790 --> 00:30:45,750
When we talk about the movement and, you know,

751
00:30:45,850 --> 00:30:48,910
pro-animal advocacy, you know, we have people coming from,

752
00:30:49,230 --> 00:30:51,630
I'm just against circuses, I'm against puppy mills,

753
00:30:51,870 --> 00:30:54,150
I'm against, you know, animal testing,

754
00:30:54,150 --> 00:30:56,570
and they have these niches, and I think, again,

755
00:30:56,570 --> 00:30:58,350
that's why we're trying to be this clearinghouse.

756
00:30:58,810 --> 00:31:01,390
And I don't want to say we're trying to do too much

757
00:31:01,390 --> 00:31:04,290
or be too big, because we really do want to plug people

758
00:31:04,290 --> 00:31:09,330
into where, you know, the pieces of the movement,

759
00:31:09,990 --> 00:31:10,870
the pieces of the action

760
00:31:10,870 --> 00:31:12,290
that they really want to get involved in.

761
00:31:12,390 --> 00:31:14,890
And what happens is it is an organic process

762
00:31:14,890 --> 00:31:16,910
where people meet somebody else,

763
00:31:16,910 --> 00:31:18,710
or maybe they come on board, they're like,

764
00:31:18,770 --> 00:31:20,810
I'm against puppy mills, connect for animals,

765
00:31:20,910 --> 00:31:22,210
let me go here, let me find an event.

766
00:31:22,530 --> 00:31:24,670
But what happens is they're on the platform,

767
00:31:24,670 --> 00:31:25,730
they meet other people,

768
00:31:26,170 --> 00:31:29,610
they find an event that's maybe tangentially related,

769
00:31:30,010 --> 00:31:32,010
and they, wow, why not?

770
00:31:32,110 --> 00:31:33,130
Why shouldn't I do that?

771
00:31:34,290 --> 00:31:37,710
You know, it kind of expands people's, you know,

772
00:31:37,750 --> 00:31:39,110
you have to be open-minded anyhow

773
00:31:39,110 --> 00:31:40,850
to be able to want to do this,

774
00:31:40,990 --> 00:31:43,290
but it kind of expands their horizons in a way.

775
00:31:43,650 --> 00:31:45,550
And I think that that's the beauty of what we do

776
00:31:45,550 --> 00:31:48,770
by, you know, having all of these different options,

777
00:31:48,910 --> 00:31:51,030
these different actions, these different events.

778
00:31:51,210 --> 00:31:53,910
We tag the events so that you,

779
00:31:53,910 --> 00:31:58,630
if you are only interested in a certain type of event,

780
00:31:59,050 --> 00:31:59,730
you can do that.

781
00:31:59,870 --> 00:32:02,390
You know, I'm only interested in doing impactful events.

782
00:32:02,410 --> 00:32:04,250
I'm only interested in socializing.

783
00:32:04,810 --> 00:32:05,750
You can do that.

784
00:32:05,790 --> 00:32:08,690
And I've kind of run out of where,

785
00:32:08,870 --> 00:32:10,610
I'm gonna need somebody else from the team to step in

786
00:32:10,610 --> 00:32:11,530
and help me out with this

787
00:32:11,530 --> 00:32:13,510
because I'm going in too many different directions.

788
00:32:13,830 --> 00:32:14,030
But-

789
00:32:14,030 --> 00:32:15,390
No, you're great.

790
00:32:15,630 --> 00:32:17,630
And I want to say for those just joining,

791
00:32:18,150 --> 00:32:20,270
we're talking about this fantastic new app.

792
00:32:20,350 --> 00:32:22,090
I downloaded it, filled it out,

793
00:32:22,090 --> 00:32:23,870
and I'm gonna use it like crazy.

794
00:32:23,990 --> 00:32:24,670
It's right there.

795
00:32:25,310 --> 00:32:26,550
It's got three little birds.

796
00:32:26,750 --> 00:32:27,710
Connect for animals.

797
00:32:27,950 --> 00:32:28,610
There it is.

798
00:32:28,970 --> 00:32:29,830
It's free.

799
00:32:30,310 --> 00:32:31,510
It's a nonprofit, correct?

800
00:32:31,930 --> 00:32:33,630
It's 100% nonprofit.

801
00:32:34,590 --> 00:32:35,810
501C3, yep, absolutely.

802
00:32:36,110 --> 00:32:36,870
Yeah, 501C3.

803
00:32:37,110 --> 00:32:38,550
And this is just like,

804
00:32:39,490 --> 00:32:40,890
on Shade TV is a nonprofit.

805
00:32:41,070 --> 00:32:41,870
This is a nonprofit.

806
00:32:42,150 --> 00:32:45,570
And it's using high tech to get the message out.

807
00:32:46,070 --> 00:32:47,570
We're in the 21st century.

808
00:32:47,730 --> 00:32:48,790
We've got to go high tech.

809
00:32:48,870 --> 00:32:51,310
We've got to use every single technology available.

810
00:32:51,310 --> 00:32:53,690
So if you're just joining us, here it is.

811
00:32:53,830 --> 00:32:55,550
Have you heard about the amazing new platform

812
00:32:55,550 --> 00:32:56,570
for animal rights events?

813
00:32:56,910 --> 00:32:58,710
Connect for animals is a user-friendly platform

814
00:32:58,710 --> 00:33:01,210
where you can find and share animal rights events

815
00:33:01,210 --> 00:33:02,190
in all of North America.

816
00:33:02,850 --> 00:33:04,330
It's perfect for people who are trying

817
00:33:04,330 --> 00:33:06,990
to find activism opportunities or share their own.

818
00:33:07,250 --> 00:33:09,190
You can even find lectures, meditations,

819
00:33:09,510 --> 00:33:10,870
and conferences on their website.

820
00:33:11,090 --> 00:33:13,130
Empower the hundreds of thousands of people

821
00:33:13,130 --> 00:33:15,670
who care deeply about Indian factory farming,

822
00:33:15,930 --> 00:33:17,270
but aren't sure where to start.

823
00:33:17,530 --> 00:33:18,730
We're building a community

824
00:33:18,730 --> 00:33:20,850
where anyone can learn about this movement,

825
00:33:20,850 --> 00:33:22,810
discover events and organizations,

826
00:33:23,230 --> 00:33:24,790
and find ways to get involved.

827
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:42,080
By the way, in an article

828
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,120
on some pro-meat industry publication,

829
00:33:45,420 --> 00:33:46,980
Unchained TV was declared a threat.

830
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:47,700
I was thrilled.

831
00:33:47,820 --> 00:33:50,200
I was like, oh, I'm so flattered.

832
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:51,720
So you could probably-

833
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:52,240
It's a badge of honor, right?

834
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:54,940
Is to be called out on one of those websites.

835
00:33:55,220 --> 00:33:55,340
Yeah.

836
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:56,920
Exactly, exactly.

837
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,580
I'm sure that's in your future as well.

838
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,460
Let's break down some of the things you do specifically,

839
00:34:02,660 --> 00:34:03,780
which I thought was great.

840
00:34:04,620 --> 00:34:06,400
We've talked about the blog,

841
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:08,840
but here you can take courses.

842
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,739
Can you tell us about this?

843
00:34:11,199 --> 00:34:15,639
Gadita, what is this course part?

844
00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:18,420
So Connect for Animals,

845
00:34:18,940 --> 00:34:23,120
in addition to allowing for you to find local events

846
00:34:23,120 --> 00:34:26,920
and take action, it also is a hub for tons of resources.

847
00:34:27,300 --> 00:34:29,719
So if you're interested in getting involved,

848
00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:36,380
you can find access to a hub of available online courses,

849
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:38,880
job openings, you name it.

850
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,440
Anything that you need to basically equip yourself

851
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,280
with the type of advocacy you want to lead.

852
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,500
You can go to Connect for Animals

853
00:34:48,500 --> 00:34:53,320
and search on the website or the app

854
00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:55,500
and find the types of resources you need.

855
00:34:55,620 --> 00:34:57,940
And again, it's just like the amazing work of the team,

856
00:34:57,940 --> 00:35:00,560
just pulling together all of these incredible

857
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:02,860
existing resources that are available

858
00:35:02,860 --> 00:35:04,520
and then centralizing them

859
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:06,960
so that somebody who's new to the movement,

860
00:35:07,300 --> 00:35:10,220
somebody who's seasoned and has been doing it for some time,

861
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,160
they just have to go to one specific place

862
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,940
and they can have access to all these available things

863
00:35:15,940 --> 00:35:16,640
out in the world.

864
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:22,020
Now there's also the events per city.

865
00:35:22,140 --> 00:35:23,380
And I thought this was really good

866
00:35:23,380 --> 00:35:26,540
being in Los Angeles myself, I popped on Los Angeles,

867
00:35:26,540 --> 00:35:29,820
but you have, I'd look like hundreds of cities

868
00:35:29,820 --> 00:35:30,640
around the world.

869
00:35:30,940 --> 00:35:34,040
So Stephen, tell us how this works

870
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,060
and how do you find out all the events?

871
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,900
Because like I said, I literally cannot keep up

872
00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:41,660
with all the events in LA alone.

873
00:35:41,740 --> 00:35:44,660
There's something happening every single night

874
00:35:44,660 --> 00:35:48,220
and there's some that I get on Eventbrite and Partiful

875
00:35:48,670 --> 00:35:52,180
and Signal and, you know, I mean,

876
00:35:52,220 --> 00:35:55,400
I get them through all these different platforms

877
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,880
that are coming at me, of course, Facebook as well.

878
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,800
How are you gonna be able to track all these?

879
00:36:01,700 --> 00:36:03,660
It's a big old messy process.

880
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:07,520
And actually, Jeannie helps a ton with this.

881
00:36:07,580 --> 00:36:09,480
This is really like one of her big domains,

882
00:36:09,540 --> 00:36:10,500
but I'll give a little bit of background

883
00:36:10,500 --> 00:36:12,920
into maybe some of the infrastructure that we have

884
00:36:13,420 --> 00:36:14,280
that helps with it.

885
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:17,200
So first of all, we do not have 100% of all events.

886
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:17,900
That is our goal.

887
00:36:17,940 --> 00:36:20,560
Our goal is to have every relevant event

888
00:36:21,420 --> 00:36:24,360
that is related to ending factory farming and veganism,

889
00:36:24,360 --> 00:36:25,620
to have it on Connect for Animals

890
00:36:25,620 --> 00:36:27,960
so that people can find those things in their cities,

891
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,120
but they can also find the events that are happening online.

892
00:36:30,380 --> 00:36:32,820
That's our North Star when it comes to events.

893
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:36,200
We do not have it because like you said, there are so many.

894
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:38,920
Some of them only exist in Signal chats,

895
00:36:39,060 --> 00:36:39,940
WhatsApp groups, et cetera.

896
00:36:40,660 --> 00:36:43,520
But we have built out some technical infrastructure

897
00:36:44,460 --> 00:36:47,000
to automatically pull in as many events as we can

898
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:48,740
from relevant organizations.

899
00:36:48,940 --> 00:36:50,620
We have a list of hundreds of different

900
00:36:50,620 --> 00:36:53,460
animal advocacy organizations and local groups.

901
00:36:53,460 --> 00:36:55,660
We try to automatically pull in

902
00:36:55,660 --> 00:36:56,960
as many of those events as we can.

903
00:36:57,560 --> 00:36:59,720
We are subscribed to basically every newsletter

904
00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:00,700
on the planet as well.

905
00:37:00,820 --> 00:37:04,180
And so this is where Vini helps out every single week,

906
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:06,500
goes through our inbox, looks through those newsletters,

907
00:37:06,780 --> 00:37:08,820
looks for events, adds them to the platform.

908
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:11,720
And then people can submit their events as well.

909
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,500
So we have a lot of people who either work at

910
00:37:14,500 --> 00:37:17,780
or volunteer at other animal advocacy organizations

911
00:37:17,780 --> 00:37:21,620
or groups, nonprofit groups, as well as grassroots groups,

912
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:24,760
who will come and add their events to Connect for Animals

913
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,200
because they know that it's going to be on the platform

914
00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:29,780
and that we're gonna send it out to our email newsletter.

915
00:37:30,520 --> 00:37:32,980
And so we get events from all these different places

916
00:37:32,980 --> 00:37:36,520
and it's our job to make sure that they all look clean,

917
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:39,580
that the data is good, that there's nothing inappropriate,

918
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,580
that it's all relevant, that if there's any duplicate events

919
00:37:42,580 --> 00:37:44,080
that we go through and we take care of those.

920
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,000
It's a big old messy process.

921
00:37:47,340 --> 00:37:48,340
Jeannie helped with a ton of that.

922
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,340
Jeannie, do you wanna give any more insight

923
00:37:50,340 --> 00:37:52,200
into how we do it?

924
00:37:52,340 --> 00:37:56,560
Yes, but thanks to Steven and the tech team,

925
00:37:57,080 --> 00:37:59,580
we have something called scrapers that go.

926
00:37:59,980 --> 00:38:02,120
And once we've pulled a group

927
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:04,200
and we know that they have regularly occurring events,

928
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,140
these scrapers will go in and they will actually

929
00:38:06,140 --> 00:38:08,860
pull these events and fill out as much information

930
00:38:08,860 --> 00:38:09,940
as they can.

931
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:12,640
And one of my jobs is to go into these events

932
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:13,880
that have been pulled automatically

933
00:38:14,460 --> 00:38:16,720
and make sure that they're tagged correctly,

934
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:17,980
that like you were saying,

935
00:38:17,980 --> 00:38:20,800
that has everything that is valid and needed

936
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,160
and filled out on the event.

937
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:24,720
So that whenever it pops up,

938
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:27,660
it's a clean event that anybody can click on.

939
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,880
So yeah, we go through, we do.

940
00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:33,320
If we have all the groups,

941
00:38:33,460 --> 00:38:36,560
we are following nearly everything that's out there.

942
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:37,600
We try to pull it in,

943
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:39,760
but there is so much more to be done.

944
00:38:40,260 --> 00:38:42,760
And the city, the LA one is,

945
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:44,740
that's something that we've just been starting on.

946
00:38:44,860 --> 00:38:46,560
So if you are from a certain city,

947
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,620
if you're from San Antonio and you go in

948
00:38:48,620 --> 00:38:50,120
and you're like, gosh, there's no events at all,

949
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:50,960
it's coming.

950
00:38:51,100 --> 00:38:53,780
It will be here, but we're building, building.

951
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,100
And there's so much in the background that's happening.

952
00:38:56,300 --> 00:38:58,360
So just be patient or be like,

953
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:00,300
hey, I can add my own events.

954
00:39:00,460 --> 00:39:01,780
All you have to do is create an account.

955
00:39:01,860 --> 00:39:03,360
It's very simple, it's very easy.

956
00:39:03,500 --> 00:39:05,360
And we're always looking to create partnerships

957
00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,580
with pro animal groups that have their own media people

958
00:39:09,580 --> 00:39:11,740
that are willing to go in and drop in their events,

959
00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:13,280
make sure that they're on the platform.

960
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:14,220
And we love that too.

961
00:39:14,900 --> 00:39:17,960
So Amira St. John says, I just downloaded the app.

962
00:39:18,060 --> 00:39:19,420
I look forward to checking it out.

963
00:39:19,580 --> 00:39:20,000
Excellent.

964
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:22,800
And you know, it takes about five minutes

965
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,960
to fill out the app so that it's successful.

966
00:39:26,420 --> 00:39:30,380
And I know personally from running Unchained TV,

967
00:39:30,660 --> 00:39:32,480
which is our TV streaming network,

968
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:33,700
that's also an app on the phone.

969
00:39:33,860 --> 00:39:35,280
When people say they're gonna do it later,

970
00:39:36,860 --> 00:39:38,060
doesn't happen that often.

971
00:39:38,300 --> 00:39:38,940
Doesn't happen, yeah, yeah.

972
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:40,260
So do it now, people.

973
00:39:40,700 --> 00:39:42,180
Just download it.

974
00:39:42,540 --> 00:39:43,480
It's very easy.

975
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:44,880
You just go to your app store.

976
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:45,620
I did it.

977
00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:48,720
And you just put in Connect for Animals in the app store.

978
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:49,180
It's free.

979
00:39:49,300 --> 00:39:50,120
You just hit download.

980
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,840
And then you fill out some little information

981
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:54,820
about your city, your name, blah, blah, blah,

982
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,540
so that they can target.

983
00:39:57,200 --> 00:39:59,680
Like let's say we just had somebody comment,

984
00:39:59,860 --> 00:40:01,460
I'm gonna look for events in Chicago.

985
00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:06,020
So let's take your app through that now.

986
00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:08,420
So he's in Chicago, he's interested.

987
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:09,260
What does he do?

988
00:40:09,700 --> 00:40:11,720
Aside from obviously download the app.

989
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:13,360
You can download it online.

990
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,140
You can also download it on your phone.

991
00:40:17,260 --> 00:40:18,320
That's the easiest, obviously.

992
00:40:18,540 --> 00:40:18,780
Go ahead.

993
00:40:19,500 --> 00:40:20,100
Yeah, absolutely.

994
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:22,120
So I think, I mean the best thing to do, right,

995
00:40:22,140 --> 00:40:23,400
is first of all, when you sign up,

996
00:40:24,380 --> 00:40:25,640
make sure that you're subscribed

997
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,540
to the weekly Events Digest email newsletter.

998
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:30,900
We've had that going.

999
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:33,440
People love that because we send the events,

1000
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:34,580
including local events.

1001
00:40:34,620 --> 00:40:35,460
So if you live in Chicago,

1002
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:37,720
when you sign up, fill out your location,

1003
00:40:37,900 --> 00:40:39,160
say like I live in Chicago,

1004
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:41,320
sign up for that Events Digest newsletter.

1005
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:43,580
Every week, those events,

1006
00:40:43,780 --> 00:40:45,360
virtual events and conferences

1007
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:46,960
and local events in your area,

1008
00:40:47,300 --> 00:40:48,260
straight to your inbox,

1009
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:50,120
or at least as many as we know about, right?

1010
00:40:50,540 --> 00:40:51,780
So that's the biggest thing.

1011
00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:53,580
And fill out your location,

1012
00:40:53,780 --> 00:40:55,480
subscribe to the Events Digest newsletter.

1013
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:56,720
Every week you'll get those.

1014
00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:59,240
And then on the platform itself, on the app,

1015
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:00,540
when you go to your homepage,

1016
00:41:01,340 --> 00:41:04,360
you scroll down, you'll see those events in your area.

1017
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:05,400
You'll see events in Chicago.

1018
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:07,360
You'll see people who live in Chicago.

1019
00:41:07,580 --> 00:41:09,900
You'll see some of the local Chicago animal rights

1020
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,300
or animal advocacy or vegan groups,

1021
00:41:12,420 --> 00:41:15,280
meetup groups and nonprofit groups and things like that.

1022
00:41:15,820 --> 00:41:16,780
So really, that's the biggest thing

1023
00:41:16,780 --> 00:41:17,640
is enter your location,

1024
00:41:17,780 --> 00:41:18,520
sign up for the newsletter,

1025
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:19,560
and then you can go to the homepage,

1026
00:41:19,820 --> 00:41:21,200
scroll down, you'll see things.

1027
00:41:21,340 --> 00:41:23,780
And if you go to any of the other pages,

1028
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:25,800
like you go and look at events specifically,

1029
00:41:26,620 --> 00:41:28,040
because you entered your location,

1030
00:41:28,260 --> 00:41:29,640
it'll show you those virtual events,

1031
00:41:29,660 --> 00:41:31,900
but it'll also show you the local events in your area.

1032
00:41:32,100 --> 00:41:34,660
And so it's really just as simple as that.

1033
00:41:34,700 --> 00:41:36,020
And then just keep up with it

1034
00:41:36,020 --> 00:41:38,200
anytime that you're interested in going to an event.

1035
00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:39,280
You can look through the email,

1036
00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:40,340
you can go to the app,

1037
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:41,900
go online to the website,

1038
00:41:42,100 --> 00:41:43,320
connectforanimals.com.

1039
00:41:43,620 --> 00:41:45,540
So that's pretty much it.

1040
00:41:45,940 --> 00:41:49,220
Yeah, and how are you going to interact with social media?

1041
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:55,040
Because so many people don't really use websites anymore.

1042
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:57,800
They're just DMing each other.

1043
00:41:59,020 --> 00:42:02,500
And so how do you plan on handling that?

1044
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:04,720
Should I throw that over to Katika?

1045
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:07,860
Yeah, thanks, Jane.

1046
00:42:07,860 --> 00:42:09,640
I think to start,

1047
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,240
and then I'll let Stephen take this one,

1048
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:14,420
but I think to start,

1049
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,500
this is something that between social media

1050
00:42:18,500 --> 00:42:19,860
is really like an amplification

1051
00:42:19,860 --> 00:42:21,640
of what's happening on the app.

1052
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:24,140
So we definitely leverage it to,

1053
00:42:24,660 --> 00:42:27,160
if there are particular events that are of interest

1054
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:29,840
or things that we really feel like should be highlighted,

1055
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,360
it's a great channel for doing so.

1056
00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:37,140
But most of the information would be centralized on the app.

1057
00:42:37,140 --> 00:42:38,960
So that's like your first place to go

1058
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:41,420
if you really want to get the specific information

1059
00:42:41,420 --> 00:42:43,800
that's relevant to you and your profile

1060
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,320
in terms of your location and interests

1061
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:47,340
and things like that.

1062
00:42:47,540 --> 00:42:50,980
But then we can definitely use that information

1063
00:42:50,980 --> 00:42:52,840
and push it out on various channels

1064
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,100
as we see opportunity to get more people excited

1065
00:42:56,100 --> 00:42:57,720
and involved in different events.

1066
00:42:59,260 --> 00:43:01,720
Now, not everything is an event or a course.

1067
00:43:01,940 --> 00:43:03,020
Like sometimes, for example,

1068
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:05,640
we will debut a new video.

1069
00:43:06,300 --> 00:43:09,300
We just wrapped up Vegan Creator Con,

1070
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:14,300
the first two-day conference for vegan social media creators.

1071
00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:15,640
When I say we wrapped,

1072
00:43:15,720 --> 00:43:17,800
I was there videotaping and participating,

1073
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:18,860
and I did a panel,

1074
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:21,500
but it was done by the woman

1075
00:43:21,500 --> 00:43:23,620
who does Vegan Street Fair, Jessica Cruz.

1076
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:24,840
It's a breakthrough.

1077
00:43:25,540 --> 00:43:28,220
I learned so much in this two days,

1078
00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:29,020
and we did a video.

1079
00:43:29,540 --> 00:43:30,660
Is there any way,

1080
00:43:30,740 --> 00:43:33,280
is there any portal within your organization

1081
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:38,060
to publish videos about events?

1082
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:40,540
Yeah, that's a great question.

1083
00:43:41,260 --> 00:43:43,400
And the way that I think about this, right,

1084
00:43:43,460 --> 00:43:44,820
sort of nerdy math brain,

1085
00:43:44,940 --> 00:43:46,580
is like different types of information

1086
00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:47,920
that people might want to know.

1087
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:49,700
So people want to know about events

1088
00:43:49,700 --> 00:43:50,820
that are happening in their area,

1089
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:52,200
about campaign actions.

1090
00:43:52,360 --> 00:43:53,900
People might want to know about organizations

1091
00:43:53,900 --> 00:43:55,180
they can volunteer for,

1092
00:43:55,340 --> 00:43:56,640
about courses they can take.

1093
00:43:57,060 --> 00:43:58,600
But then there's this big category

1094
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,400
of just resources or videos or content.

1095
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,740
Right now, the best place to find that stuff

1096
00:44:05,740 --> 00:44:07,320
is we have a resources page

1097
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:08,740
where people can go to find some of that,

1098
00:44:08,820 --> 00:44:11,260
but it's focused mostly on the courses,

1099
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,560
on some self-care and like burnout prevention,

1100
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:16,640
resources and things like that.

1101
00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:18,640
So that's not something that we do

1102
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:20,540
too much of right now,

1103
00:44:20,620 --> 00:44:22,660
is sort of this broader resource

1104
00:44:22,660 --> 00:44:24,420
and video and like content thing.

1105
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:26,640
I know that there are other websites

1106
00:44:26,640 --> 00:44:29,140
that will try to host more of this,

1107
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:30,080
or like on social media.

1108
00:44:30,180 --> 00:44:30,960
I know that people are constantly

1109
00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:32,140
reposting each other's things

1110
00:44:32,140 --> 00:44:33,020
and sharing things.

1111
00:44:33,520 --> 00:44:35,180
In the future, there might be space for us

1112
00:44:35,180 --> 00:44:36,540
to help surface some of this

1113
00:44:36,540 --> 00:44:37,960
really great content better.

1114
00:44:38,620 --> 00:44:40,520
It's just from a technical

1115
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:41,940
and like a user perspective,

1116
00:44:42,380 --> 00:44:43,560
it's a difficult thing to do.

1117
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:44,980
And we decided that we wanted to focus

1118
00:44:44,980 --> 00:44:46,720
on a few of these other things first,

1119
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:50,160
like events, actions, groups, profiles.

1120
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:51,960
So maybe in the future,

1121
00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:53,940
but right now, not so much.

1122
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:55,780
We're focusing on these other features

1123
00:44:55,780 --> 00:44:56,480
that we've been developing.

1124
00:44:57,080 --> 00:44:58,740
Yeah, and you don't have to play the whole,

1125
00:44:58,860 --> 00:45:00,060
you can just have a link.

1126
00:45:00,060 --> 00:45:01,760
Like there could be a way to add links,

1127
00:45:01,900 --> 00:45:04,020
but let me ask you about sanctuaries.

1128
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:07,000
Now, we have all been in this movement

1129
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:07,860
for a long time.

1130
00:45:07,940 --> 00:45:09,000
And I remember when I started,

1131
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:10,400
there were maybe three sanctuaries.

1132
00:45:10,500 --> 00:45:11,360
There was farm sanctuary,

1133
00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:12,080
there was animal play.

1134
00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:14,120
I mean, there were a small number.

1135
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:15,660
Now there are hundreds.

1136
00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:19,280
And I think it's one of the greatest resources

1137
00:45:19,860 --> 00:45:23,140
is to, where are all these sanctuaries?

1138
00:45:23,500 --> 00:45:24,880
How can people visit?

1139
00:45:25,860 --> 00:45:28,420
Is that something that you're considering adding

1140
00:45:28,420 --> 00:45:29,700
and whoever wants to take it?

1141
00:45:31,020 --> 00:45:33,100
Yeah, I can, I'll talk to that really quick.

1142
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:33,660
And by the way,

1143
00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:34,940
we were talking about social media earlier.

1144
00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:36,360
I do wanna give a quick shout out

1145
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:37,700
to our social media manager, Hemena,

1146
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:40,400
who manages our Instagram and our LinkedIn pages,

1147
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:41,640
does a great job with those.

1148
00:45:41,740 --> 00:45:43,440
So social media is not really my realm,

1149
00:45:43,580 --> 00:45:46,120
but thankfully we have somebody who it is her realm.

1150
00:45:46,420 --> 00:45:48,540
So when it comes to sanctuaries,

1151
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,480
we currently tackle that in having sanctuaries

1152
00:45:53,480 --> 00:45:55,980
listed as groups on Connect for Animals.

1153
00:45:55,980 --> 00:46:00,000
And so we have a lot of sanctuaries on the platform.

1154
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,220
There are probably a ton that we do not have.

1155
00:46:02,300 --> 00:46:06,660
So if your favorite animal sanctuary is not listed,

1156
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:08,400
then there's a way through Connect for Animals

1157
00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:10,240
that you can suggest a new group.

1158
00:46:10,860 --> 00:46:12,440
And so if you go to the groups page,

1159
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:13,700
or if you're on your home page,

1160
00:46:14,940 --> 00:46:16,160
sanctuaries would be groups

1161
00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:19,360
and they're tagged with the animal sanctuary tag.

1162
00:46:19,460 --> 00:46:21,520
And so the best place to see that

1163
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:23,220
would just be to go to the groups,

1164
00:46:23,220 --> 00:46:26,360
search by tagged as animal sanctuaries

1165
00:46:27,380 --> 00:46:28,980
and search in your location,

1166
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:30,320
which I think it probably automatically

1167
00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,680
does filter down to your location specifically.

1168
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:35,240
So that's the best way currently.

1169
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:36,620
It would be nice to have a map of them.

1170
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:39,380
I know that there are some websites.

1171
00:46:40,220 --> 00:46:42,120
There's a website that I don't know too well.

1172
00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:43,200
So I might get it wrong,

1173
00:46:43,300 --> 00:46:46,240
but Global Federation of Sanctuaries or something like that.

1174
00:46:46,260 --> 00:46:48,320
And there's a website called Open Sanctuary as well,

1175
00:46:48,340 --> 00:46:49,340
which provides resources.

1176
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:51,120
I don't know if they provide a map per se.

1177
00:46:51,860 --> 00:46:53,300
But we do have that list,

1178
00:46:53,460 --> 00:46:55,700
even if not in like a map format necessarily.

1179
00:46:56,900 --> 00:46:59,700
And just listing that group as a link,

1180
00:46:59,780 --> 00:47:00,680
then it includes it.

1181
00:47:01,100 --> 00:47:02,280
That's the great thing about links

1182
00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:07,200
is that you could just add on and on and on and on.

1183
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,160
And I just think it's very fascinating.

1184
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:15,200
Like I said, I've even thought about doing this years ago,

1185
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:20,780
but ran headlong into a whole bunch of issues that came up.

1186
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:26,780
And my idea was just like a next door.

1187
00:47:27,300 --> 00:47:31,300
Like the reason being is that I have found

1188
00:47:31,300 --> 00:47:33,240
that there's a bunch of vegans in my neighborhood

1189
00:47:33,240 --> 00:47:35,180
and people who care about animals and animal rights,

1190
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:36,380
not just dogs and cats.

1191
00:47:36,420 --> 00:47:38,000
Although I have two dogs and a cat,

1192
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:39,120
so I care about them too.

1193
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:41,800
And I stumbled upon these people.

1194
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,560
And I was like, damn, if I'd only known they existed,

1195
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:49,140
I could alert them to protests, meetups,

1196
00:47:49,460 --> 00:47:50,880
let's support a vegan restaurant

1197
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,420
that's struggling, blah, blah, blah.

1198
00:47:53,820 --> 00:47:58,960
And the problem I ran into is that how small

1199
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,100
the demographic and the area you're going to pick,

1200
00:48:02,460 --> 00:48:05,260
because you don't wanna get into a situation

1201
00:48:05,260 --> 00:48:08,180
where people can figure out where somebody else lives.

1202
00:48:08,700 --> 00:48:11,440
So how do you balance the privacy issue

1203
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:16,360
with providing information to a particular locale

1204
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:19,420
so that it's effective for that organization?

1205
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:22,120
Yeah, that's a great question.

1206
00:48:22,220 --> 00:48:25,020
I'm happy to tackle this one unless anyone else wanted to,

1207
00:48:25,140 --> 00:48:27,340
but we take this very seriously.

1208
00:48:27,580 --> 00:48:31,580
And so just in general, user privacy, data privacy,

1209
00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:33,320
these are things that are very important

1210
00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,040
and they matter a lot to users

1211
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:36,560
of online platforms like this.

1212
00:48:37,020 --> 00:48:40,220
So in general, we don't wanna know where people live.

1213
00:48:40,280 --> 00:48:41,520
We don't wanna know your address.

1214
00:48:42,420 --> 00:48:44,860
We give people the ability to add their location

1215
00:48:44,860 --> 00:48:47,640
at the city level, essentially, which we think is,

1216
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:50,500
I think people might be able to input their zip code as well

1217
00:48:50,500 --> 00:48:52,660
if they wanna get down to a specific section of a city.

1218
00:48:52,820 --> 00:48:54,500
Like I used to live in Denver, for example,

1219
00:48:54,860 --> 00:48:57,420
and different zip codes can help you narrow in

1220
00:48:57,420 --> 00:48:58,340
on these different neighborhoods.

1221
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:01,180
But there's not a place to enter your address.

1222
00:49:01,340 --> 00:49:02,120
We don't wanna know.

1223
00:49:02,300 --> 00:49:05,860
We don't wanna necessarily show any of that to other users,

1224
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:08,000
but we want people to be able to enter their location

1225
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:09,220
in a way where they can say,

1226
00:49:09,340 --> 00:49:10,540
hey, what's going on in my city

1227
00:49:10,540 --> 00:49:12,540
or what's going on in my zip code,

1228
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:14,500
like my part of that city, right?

1229
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:20,380
And so as time goes on, we'll see if people like that.

1230
00:49:20,380 --> 00:49:22,360
So far, and it doesn't get us

1231
00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:25,840
into any of these user privacy issues

1232
00:49:25,840 --> 00:49:27,380
about people having their addresses exposed

1233
00:49:27,380 --> 00:49:29,780
or things like that, while still giving people

1234
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,860
that functionality that they want that's location-based.

1235
00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:36,720
And as time goes on, maybe we can update that.

1236
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:38,300
But for right now, I think that that's kind

1237
00:49:38,300 --> 00:49:39,080
of a good compromise.

1238
00:49:39,220 --> 00:49:41,440
And then we let users do what they want to at that point.

1239
00:49:41,460 --> 00:49:43,300
If they wanna go to an event and meet people

1240
00:49:44,180 --> 00:49:46,640
and get to know people that way and share their phone number

1241
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:48,840
and share where they live to hang out for potlucks

1242
00:49:48,840 --> 00:49:50,780
or for doing projects together or things like that,

1243
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:53,180
that's kind of on the user side at that point.

1244
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:57,160
But for right now, we try to stay away to just let people.

1245
00:49:57,740 --> 00:49:59,280
What about protests?

1246
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:03,520
Because obviously mobilizing people to attend protests,

1247
00:50:03,680 --> 00:50:07,680
there's actually a protest coming up in a couple of days

1248
00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:11,520
here in Los Angeles against a supermarket

1249
00:50:11,520 --> 00:50:17,260
that allegedly uses animals from a factory farm

1250
00:50:17,260 --> 00:50:19,380
where cruelty has allegedly,

1251
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:21,260
extreme cruelty has been documented.

1252
00:50:21,620 --> 00:50:22,860
I'll say that much.

1253
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:24,180
I won't give it away.

1254
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:27,820
But can you mobilize people to attend protests?

1255
00:50:28,900 --> 00:50:31,800
Yes, so protests are frequently listed

1256
00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:32,860
on Connect for Animals.

1257
00:50:33,360 --> 00:50:35,840
I know that, so by default, all of the events

1258
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:39,800
on Connect for Animals are public.

1259
00:50:40,100 --> 00:50:42,560
So we do that so that people can find them from Google

1260
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:43,360
and things like that.

1261
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:44,940
So if people are searching for vegan events,

1262
00:50:45,020 --> 00:50:46,180
like they can come across,

1263
00:50:46,180 --> 00:50:47,680
kind of like you would on Eventbrite, right?

1264
00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:49,540
You can find specific events.

1265
00:50:50,620 --> 00:50:52,040
There are certain protests

1266
00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:53,960
that people are comfortable making public.

1267
00:50:54,060 --> 00:50:55,860
And I know that within the activism space,

1268
00:50:55,940 --> 00:50:57,720
there are certain protests that people

1269
00:50:57,720 --> 00:50:59,980
maybe don't necessarily want to make public

1270
00:50:59,980 --> 00:51:01,180
for whatever reason,

1271
00:51:01,180 --> 00:51:04,080
just because they want to have the element of surprise

1272
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,160
or they're afraid of something negative happening

1273
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:08,460
if it's made public ahead of time.

1274
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:10,400
And so those types of protests currently

1275
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:12,800
do not really live on the platform so much

1276
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:15,520
because things are public by default.

1277
00:51:15,740 --> 00:51:17,760
In the future, there might be a way

1278
00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:20,400
to have some of those types of protests

1279
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:24,480
that are private by default or things like that.

1280
00:51:24,600 --> 00:51:25,660
But for right now, yes,

1281
00:51:25,720 --> 00:51:27,100
there are protests on Connect for Animals

1282
00:51:27,100 --> 00:51:29,120
from different organizations that host them,

1283
00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:31,040
kind of happening all over the country.

1284
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:32,980
So Jeannie and I, every week,

1285
00:51:33,020 --> 00:51:34,420
get to see all the events that are happening

1286
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:36,760
everywhere across the US.

1287
00:51:37,860 --> 00:51:41,420
And frequently, pretty much every weekend, some weeks,

1288
00:51:42,100 --> 00:51:43,760
lots of protests in different cities

1289
00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:45,660
for different causes, different campaigns.

1290
00:51:46,140 --> 00:51:47,180
So yeah, it's very inspiring.

1291
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:50,080
Well, I think this is so exciting.

1292
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:53,400
Now, I'm urging everybody who is watching

1293
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:57,520
and who will watch, just Connect for Animals.

1294
00:51:57,940 --> 00:51:58,720
Take a moment.

1295
00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:01,120
The animals cannot speak for themselves.

1296
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:03,960
And there you are.

1297
00:52:05,020 --> 00:52:07,060
Connect for Animals, I signed up.

1298
00:52:07,120 --> 00:52:07,940
It's very easy.

1299
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,920
And now I have the ability to add things

1300
00:52:10,920 --> 00:52:13,340
that are happening in our movement,

1301
00:52:14,020 --> 00:52:16,520
in Los Angeles, and globally.

1302
00:52:16,740 --> 00:52:18,000
I mean, there's a really important,

1303
00:52:18,660 --> 00:52:22,500
for example, I just got a notice this morning,

1304
00:52:22,700 --> 00:52:27,340
PCRM is having a Friday talk about new changes

1305
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:29,920
in government to end animal testing,

1306
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:30,680
and it's a breakthrough.

1307
00:52:31,020 --> 00:52:32,620
I'm registering for that.

1308
00:52:33,020 --> 00:52:35,120
That's something I think would be fantastic

1309
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:36,440
for everybody to register for.

1310
00:52:37,260 --> 00:52:40,540
It's not directly connected to factory farming,

1311
00:52:40,540 --> 00:52:42,020
but it's all connected.

1312
00:52:42,500 --> 00:52:44,660
When one animal is abused, they say,

1313
00:52:44,880 --> 00:52:47,520
if one person is abused, we're all abused.

1314
00:52:47,700 --> 00:52:50,240
So it's part of that general umbrella.

1315
00:52:50,900 --> 00:52:52,480
And I wish you guys the best.

1316
00:52:52,580 --> 00:52:55,040
I think it's absolutely fantastic.

1317
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:59,780
And this is the time when I talk about Unchained TV

1318
00:52:59,780 --> 00:53:01,060
at the end of our broadcast,

1319
00:53:01,060 --> 00:53:03,500
because there's a lot of commonalities.

1320
00:53:03,660 --> 00:53:04,640
We're also using an app.

1321
00:53:04,700 --> 00:53:06,380
You can also download it on your phone,

1322
00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,260
and it's on your TV behind you.

1323
00:53:08,260 --> 00:53:12,800
You can do Amazon Fire Stick, Roku device, Apple TV device.

1324
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:16,660
It's on every Samsung TV, on every LG TV.

1325
00:53:17,340 --> 00:53:18,980
It's also on the phone.

1326
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:20,420
You can just download it for free.

1327
00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:21,380
It takes 10 seconds.

1328
00:53:21,500 --> 00:53:25,440
Go to Unchained TV, right there.

1329
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,440
2,000 videos, including this one's gonna be on,

1330
00:53:29,960 --> 00:53:31,680
and you can text the videos.

1331
00:53:31,780 --> 00:53:33,520
The great thing is when you get it on the phone,

1332
00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:35,620
somebody says, I could never give up cheese.

1333
00:53:35,700 --> 00:53:37,740
We have a whole category of all these vegan cheeses

1334
00:53:37,740 --> 00:53:38,780
that you could send to them.

1335
00:53:39,100 --> 00:53:40,840
You just go, boom, send it to them.

1336
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,760
So I could never give up dairy, boom.

1337
00:53:43,980 --> 00:53:46,740
There's hundreds of videos about dairy alternatives,

1338
00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:49,420
and the list goes on and on.

1339
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:53,700
So I hope that while you're having your download app day,

1340
00:53:53,780 --> 00:53:57,080
you include Unchained TV as well as Connect for Animals.

1341
00:53:57,280 --> 00:53:59,920
We're all trying to do the same thing.

1342
00:54:00,180 --> 00:54:04,880
We're using technology, in Unchained TV's case,

1343
00:54:04,980 --> 00:54:06,860
as the world's only vegan streaming network,

1344
00:54:07,540 --> 00:54:09,320
to change hearts and minds,

1345
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:11,380
get out of the vegan echo chamber,

1346
00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:13,340
and reach people who need this information.

1347
00:54:13,540 --> 00:54:15,180
So it's a vegan Netflix.

1348
00:54:15,500 --> 00:54:17,380
Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

1349
00:54:17,380 --> 00:54:18,600
I love Unchained TV.

1350
00:54:18,900 --> 00:54:20,620
Unchained, Unchained TV.

1351
00:54:20,800 --> 00:54:22,800
Your life will change, it's just that easy.

1352
00:54:23,160 --> 00:54:26,100
Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody.

1353
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:28,560
Unchained TV changed my life.

1354
00:54:28,760 --> 00:54:31,660
Unchained TV is crushing it.

1355
00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:33,340
I love Unchained TV.

1356
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:35,340
Unchained TV is my go-to.

1357
00:54:35,340 --> 00:54:37,460
Unchained TV, who knew?

1358
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:40,080
Unchained, baby, yes!