WHISTLER VEGAN FEST: THE PODCAST

Our season 1 finale highlights all of the stars/dieticians/doctors/activists/athletes/businesses we had the pleasure of interviewing this year!  Listen in for snippets from:  Jasmine C Leyva, Lauren (Hot for Food), Ed’s Bred, Dr. Matthew Nagra, Dr. B the Gut Health MD, Candice (Edgy Veg), Dara (DJ Tiger Lily), Dotsie Bausch, Amy Soranno, Dr. Pamela Fergusson, Zoe Peled, Ian McIntosh, Rachel (The Plant Riot), Hippie Snacks, Kevin Brooks and Plant X. 

Our guests today are Sean Dollinger and Julia Johana of Plant X. Sean is the Founder of Plant X and has a diverse business background  from a successful food delivery service to selling satellite parts to being a successful advisor for 3 public companies. He’s also a passionate vegan who has an excellent grasp of the plant based market. Julia is the CEO of Plant X with an MBA and Masters Degree in digital entrepreneurship. She’s a passionate vegan, an accomplished executive, and she’s to revolutionize the plant-based industry.     Listen in to their vegan stories, and how the Plant X platform is becoming the digital face of the plant-based community as the one-stop-shop for everything plant-based.  

He’s an internationally renowned speaker, author, actor and comedian. He went vegan 5 years ago, inspired by punk rock culture.  He’s a cool dude with an incredibly inspirational life story.   His life was turned upside down 20 years ago. He was paralyzed from his chest down from a car crash. After 2 years of emotional and physical rehab, he started sharing his story, and since then, his resilience, positivity and tools to deal with trauma have inspired thousands. 

We had a great chat with the ladies and you can look forward to hearing about:   -Each of their background -The farmer connection and relationships their building -The importance of sourcing sustainable ingredients  -The emissions within trucking vs boating from afar -Business brainstorming tips for anyone out there who wants to create a positive vibe within their own company   There’s some great business advice in here, and the conversation should get your brain rolling when it comes to creative ways to market what ever it is that you might be producing yourself. 

The Plant Riot is a delicious vegan blog by Rachel Steenland. She’s grown her Instagram to 180000, and is inspiring many to make delicious + colourful vegan food! Listen in for: -her vegan story + the role her ducks played -the power of connecting to the animals -meal prep tips for a busy life -why she won’t ever eat dairy again -how to stay vegan

Listen in to see how this gingerly pro skier feels on a plant-based lifestyle: - Ian’s veg journey - Environmental reasons for going vegan - The immediate cheese and inflammation connection - Ian’s compassionate strategy for open veg doors for friends and family - Gut health - Bringing up a healthy vegan baby with his veg wife Jenny - Resources that have inspired Ian - Protect Our Winters   We won’t give too much more away - and we will see you on the OTHER side.

Zoe is an animal activist, the founder of Vancouver Vegan Resource Center, co-organizer of @vancouvermtcas, and she's on the board of @peaceeverywhereorg (she's a busy, inspiring woman, doing all she can for the animals).Listen in as we chat with Zoe (10 year vegan) about: -her vegan story -why she became a passionate activist   -the difference between preachiness and compassionate activism -the egg industry -why chickens and especially turkeys are some of her favourite emotional creatures.  -tips for new vegans & ways to be a compassionate activist

Our guest today is Dr. Pamela Fergusson AKA the vegan dietician supermom’ is a vegan Registered Dietitian with a PhD in nutrition. She is raising her 4 plant-based kids in the mountains in Nelson, BC. Pamela has a virtual nutrition counselling practice where she helps people optimize their health and nutrition. Her road to becoming a vegan dietician Tips for transitioning kids to a vegan lifestyle Time saving kitchen ideas Weight Loss tips with whole plant foods Choosing sunflower seeds over cashews  + her viral sunflower hacks What about oil? The importance of FIBRE Intermittent fasting Her best tip for new vegans

We like to refer to our guest today as a real life Wonder Woman for the animals.  Amy Soranno is an animal rights activist and has dedicated her life to fighting for animal liberation. She focuses on taking direct action through investigating animal agriculture, organizing open rescues, as well as engaging in mass civil disobedience events.  --- She stops people in their tracks, and speaks up for the animals so eloquently.    Amy was the ‘ring leader’ for, the 2019 “Meat The Victims” protest and investigation at the Abbotsford Pig Farm, just over a year ago along with 200 other activists, exposing the reality of a pig slaughterhouse, showing that even the farms with the highest standards are hell on earth for the animals. PLEASE watch her youtube video called Meat the Victims Canada.   This interview comes out at the perfect time, because the court date was just announced for her and 3 other brave activists who were arrested at Meat the Victims. 

Who is Dotsie? a 2012 Olympic silver medalist (as one of the oldest competitors ever). eating disorder conqueror  one of the top 20 most influential vegans in the world’ by @vegnews   @tedx_official speaker ‘Olympic Level Compassion’  featured in 2 @netflix documentaries, ‘Personal Gold’ and the popular, @gamechangersmovie she runs a the anti-dairy non-profit @switch4good she co-hosts one of our fave podcasts, the Switch 4 Good podcast with Baywatch star @alexandra_actress

Get ready for our guest today.  She's a party starter, a passionate vegan, a force of positivity, and a woman of rockin' outfits and so many wigs with a beauty radiating from the inside out. Her electrifying stage presence and drive to transcend the traditional expectations of a DJ puts her in a league of her own.  She's a true entertainer taking the world by storm and one of the top 10 most engaged Australian acts on social media (with about 600000 in her instagram fam) Her DJ tour usually takes her across the entire globe. She's played for big events like Tomorrowland, The Grand Prix, and the Australian Open. She's been featured in Women’s Health, Teen Vogue, GQ, Galore, and Cosmo. Dara is also a passionate animal rights activist & health ambassador and runs a blog and instagram Our Soul Purpose, dedicated to sharing the healthy vegan lifestyle. She's often found speaking at, or fundraising for charity organizations, recently raising over $500,000 for the Australian bushfires... AND she's a regular volunteer at animal sanctuaries around Australia.

Candice aka the EDGY VEG is on a journey to revolutionize how we think about food, eco-conscious living, and feminism. She’s the author of “The Edgy Veg: 138 Carnivore-Approved Vegan Recipes”, a delicious cookbook that delivers AMAZING vegan recipes with attitude and comedy.  She is a FOODIE. She went vegan 9 years ago, when it wasn’t seen as ‘Cool’, which is what inspired her to start her blog The Edgy Veg. She’s quirky, edgy, and refreshingly bold. And she pretty much makes sure the world knows that VEGAN FOOD IS NOT BORING.

We couldn't get enough of DR. B, and after a 2 hour convo, we made it into 2 episodes. Tune into our Podcast this week for the 2nd half of @theguthealthmd interview (listen to last week's first if you haven't yet).He’s an easy to talk to, highly qualified Gastroenterologist who loves bringing 90’s hip hop references into the conversation. We think Will is great, and his new book, #FiberFueled is helping many already after just 2 months on the book shelves. What to expect: -How and why to go low and slow  -Why eliminating foods is the wrong answer -If you think you’re gluten sensitive, news flash: it’s NOT the gluten! -How to decipher research papers + find the truth  -A study showing the Lectins can help prevent cancer  -How to live a long healthy life + The Blue Zones  -The power of sulforaphane!!!  -Foods to eat for a healthy gut (the FGOALS acronym)  -Personal life chats about the most important thing in life, and his Dad’s recent passing -How 2020 = The Last Dance + Tiger King + Fiber Fueled  -Covid chat 

"Low and slow that is the tempo"  His book, Fiber Fueled is a @nytimes INSTANT Best Seller (for a good reason)!We loved our convo with Dr. B so much, that we chatted for 2 episodes worth. He's a gastroenterologist people can relate to. Listen in to Part 1 for: -Dr. B’s personal transformation story & how he lost 45lbs -The Gut Connection to IBS, Leaky Gut, Hormones, Digestion, Mood, Weight Loss, Stress -Training your gut like a muscle -Inflammatory TMAO from animal products -How we’re mostly bacterial cells (not human cells) -Meat + Dairy affects on the gut -What foods to include in your life for gut health -What causes dysbiosis (microbiome imbalance)

Matt is a Vegan Naturopathic Doctor, Plant-Based, Athlete, and Volunteer at NutritionFacts.org and he busts nutrition myths.  Today we chat heart disease, iron, blood type diet, lectins, keto diet, best way to eat for weight loss, plant paradox + lectins, the soy myth, dairy issues, supplements to take, the protein answer in 10 seconds, #1 vegan tip, #1 life tip.

We chat their inspiring vegan story, business tips, names of their Sourdough starters (@stanrey7), and more. If you haven't been to Ed's Bred yet, it's fair to say you are MISSING OUT. This couple inspires us daily by being one step ahead with their sustainability actions + of course with their EPIC sourdough and baked good creations.

Lauren Toyota is hot for food… as long as it’s vegan! She’s cooking up vegan love and bringing the increasingly popular lifestyle to food fans across the globe. Her knack for creating vegan versions of popular comfort foods like mac and cheese, burgers, caesar salad, and even cheesecake is helping to catapult the vegan lifestyle into the mainstream and proving that plant based diets are far from boring.  We chat about life + go deep into the meaning of it.

Jasmine Leyva is a filmmaker and actress based in Los Angeles.  In 2019, Jasmine and Kenny Leyva released their own feature-length documentary, The Invisible Vegan, a film that chronicles Jasmine’s personal experience with plant-based eating.  The film also explains how plant-based eating is directly linked to African roots and how African-American eating habits have been debased by a chain of oppression stemming from slavery, economic inequality, and modern agribusiness.

We are the ladies behind THE WHISTLER VEGAN FEST and this podcast will capture our storied journey to the festival.  We will chat with vegan chefs, nutritionists, doctors, celebrities, business owners, volunteers, sponsors and collaborators on our journey to the festival.