Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Download the App for Animal Lovers!

Transcript

UnchainedTV: Download the App for Animal Lovers! · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Unchained TV podcast.
• 0:05
  Animals are suffering by the billions in factory farms.
• 0:10
  What can we do to speak for these voiceless animals?
• 0:14
  There are people who go out there and get arrested.
• 0:18
  There are people who use virtual reality tools
• 0:21
  to go into factory farms
• 0:24
  to document what's happening to them.
• 0:27
  There are people who are writing books.
• 0:29
  We just interviewed two last week,
• 0:31
  trying to wake people up about the need
• 0:33
  to not support factory farms in their consumer purchases.
• 0:38
  Well, now we've got another breakthrough.
• 0:41
  It's called Connect for Animals.
• 0:43
  And those are the three leading team members
• 0:46
  behind this new initiative
• 0:48
  to speak up for factory farmed animals.
• 0:52
  Have you heard about the amazing new platform
• 0:53
  for animal rights events?
• 0:55
  Connect for Animals is a user-friendly platform
• 0:56
  where you can find and share animal rights events
• 0:59
  in all of North America.
• 1:00
  It's perfect for people who are trying
• 1:02
  to find activism opportunities or share their own.
• 1:05
  You can even find lectures, meditations,
• 1:07
  and conferences on their website.
• 1:09
  Empower the hundreds of thousands of people
• 1:11
  who care deeply about ending factory farming,
• 1:14
  but aren't sure where to start.
• 1:15
  We're building a community
• 1:16
  where anyone can learn about this movement,
• 1:19
  discover events and organizations,
• 1:21
  and find ways to get involved.
• 1:38
  Welcome.
• 1:39
  We are talking about Connect for Animals.
• 1:42
  We're so delighted to have the three lead organizers
• 1:45
  of this incredible breakthrough app
• 1:48
  that you can download on your phone
• 1:50
  and you can also get online at connectforanimals.com.
• 1:55
  So let's get right to it.
• 1:57
  The team is here and we are gonna talk to them.
• 2:01
  Stephen Rook, you are the founder.
• 2:05
  Why did you start this incredible app?
• 2:08
  What inspired you?
• 2:10
  Absolutely.
• 2:11
  Well, first of all, thank you so much for having us here.
• 2:13
  It's just a delight to be here.
• 2:14
  And I do wanna give a shout out to the rest of our team
• 2:15
  that couldn't be here today.
• 2:17
  We have lots of amazing folks working behind the scenes.
• 2:20
  So why Connect for Animals?
• 2:22
  Essentially, I've been doing animal advocacy
• 2:24
  for about a decade in various capacities
• 2:27
  and have talked to so many people during that time
• 2:30
  who care about animals, who are vegan or vegetarian,
• 2:32
  wanna help end factory farming.
• 2:34
  And this was my experience too,
• 2:35
  where it's hard to get involved.
• 2:37
  It's hard to find your place.
• 2:39
  It's hard to find out how to take action,
• 2:41
  what events there are, what organizations there are.
• 2:44
  And after a long time of seeing this gap,
• 2:46
  I wanted to do something about it essentially.
• 2:48
  And so that was the seed of the idea
• 2:51
  behind Connect for Animals and asking,
• 2:53
  how can we make sure that if people care about this issue,
• 2:55
  and there are a ton of people
• 2:56
  who care about this issue globally.
• 2:59
  If you care about this issue,
• 3:00
  how can we make it as easy as possible to get involved?
• 3:02
  And that's really the seed of the idea.
• 3:04
  And then we created the Connect for Animals platform
• 3:07
  as the answer to help people get involved
• 3:10
  in ending factory farming,
• 3:12
  which we think is one of the biggest ethical issues
• 3:15
  on the planet today.
• 3:16
  And there you are.
• 3:18
  It's just amazing.
• 3:20
  I did just sign up.
• 3:22
  So excited that this exists.
• 3:24
  I've been dreaming about something like this for a long time
• 3:27
  but it takes a lot.
• 3:30
  It takes marketing and it takes organizational skills.
• 3:34
  So I wanna go out to Jeannie.
• 3:38
  You are the person who is going to kind of
• 3:41
  try to organize all this amongst other people as well.
• 3:46
  How the heck do you do it?
• 3:47
  Because I know just trying to organize 10 people
• 3:50
  for a meetup could drive me out of my mind sometimes.
• 3:54
  So this is gonna take a lot of organization.
• 3:58
  Jeannie, take it away.
• 3:59
  Well, I think, you know,
• 4:01
  the biggest thing is that our group of volunteers
• 4:03
  is super motivated.
• 4:05
  I mean, we are all about meeting people where they're at.
• 4:09
  Whether you're veg curious, if you're vegan already,
• 4:12
  if you're a hardcore activist,
• 4:13
  we want everybody to be part of Connect for Animals,
• 4:17
  to join us on the platform
• 4:19
  and to help out wherever you feel like you fit in.
• 4:23
  We have a really solid volunteer team.
• 4:25
  We have folks that do social media.
• 4:28
  We just created a new blog.
• 4:30
  So we have like writers.
• 4:32
  I am in charge of events data management.
• 4:35
  And what that means is I'm pretty much going through
• 4:38
  and curating these events.
• 4:40
  But like Stephen was saying,
• 4:42
  our team is just rock solid
• 4:44
  and we're just all about new ideas,
• 4:49
  creating, you know,
• 4:50
  just creating an enthusiasm for ending factory farming.
• 4:54
  And that really helps grease the skids.
• 4:57
  It makes our life, you know, not easy
• 5:00
  because there is so much work.
• 5:01
  Like Stephen was saying behind the scenes,
• 5:03
  there is a lot of moving parts
• 5:05
  and we just do the best we can to plug people in
• 5:08
  where they need to be volunteers and, you know,
• 5:11
  members alike, you know, whoever we can get involved,
• 5:14
  that's what we're about.
• 5:16
  All right.
• 5:16
  And you can sign up at connectforanimals.com
• 5:19
  and you can also just do my favorite way.
• 5:23
  You go to the phone,
• 5:24
  just like you've signed up for Unchained TV,
• 5:26
  the world's only streaming TV network.
• 5:29
  You can sign up, have these apps on your phone.
• 5:33
  I signed up and you're gonna be like,
• 5:35
  oh, there's Jane again posting some more
• 5:37
  because I think this is fantastic.
• 5:40
  So let me ask you, Katita,
• 5:45
  how do you get the world to know that this app exists?
• 5:50
  Because that's our challenge.
• 5:52
  We've created the world's only vegan animal rights
• 5:55
  streaming television network and fast channel network,
• 5:58
  but we don't have a multimillion dollar advertising budget.
• 6:02
  We can't have billboards all over LA.
• 6:04
  We can't have TV commercials.
• 6:06
  And I would assume that the challenge is the same for you.
• 6:09
  How are you gonna counteract it?
• 6:11
  Maybe I could learn a thing or two.
• 6:13
  Totally, Jane.
• 6:14
  And that's where we are right now.
• 6:16
  I mean, so far, just Stephen's amazing work
• 6:19
  leading this platform and developing it
• 6:22
  into this app as well.
• 6:23
  It's come such a long way
• 6:24
  and there's been tremendous word of mouth,
• 6:26
  which has gotten us to the place we are at now
• 6:29
  up to almost 2000 users.
• 6:31
  But now we're ready to really take it to the next level,
• 6:34
  meet people where they're at.
• 6:36
  So we're looking at, as Jeannie mentioned,
• 6:39
  blog, new content creation for social media.
• 6:43
  We're also branching out with some paid advertisements
• 6:45
  that are really tested and targeted,
• 6:48
  as well as extending out to events of all sorts,
• 6:51
  local and potentially virtual as well.
• 6:53
  So we really wanna just maximize
• 6:55
  how we can get the word out
• 6:57
  and do a lot of testing along the way to see what works.
• 7:00
  Well, I love this.
• 7:02
  I have to tell you that I feel it's very needed.
• 7:06
  I literally have been dreaming of something like this
• 7:08
  for a long time.
• 7:10
  And one of the reasons is that veganism,
• 7:13
  which obviously is connected to ending factory farming,
• 7:17
  if everybody went vegan, we wouldn't have factory farming.
• 7:20
  It's been under attack.
• 7:21
  And I'm just gonna put up a couple of the,
• 7:24
  I think, outrageous headlines
• 7:26
  that are the headlines of outrageous articles.
• 7:29
  Meat is back on plates and in politics
• 7:31
  after years in which plant-based was the mantra.
• 7:33
  Meat once again dominates the national conversation
• 7:35
  about dinner.
• 7:36
  That's the New York Times.
• 7:38
  The middle one is new research is bad news for vegans.
• 7:41
  Even if you eat plant-based protein,
• 7:42
  that's the New York Post.
• 7:44
  Yeah, to be expected, but still.
• 7:46
  This one, BBC Science,
• 7:48
  even protein-rich vegan diets may fall short
• 7:51
  on key nutrients.
• 7:52
  Studies suggest hogwash, or should I say,
• 7:56
  maybe I shouldn't use the word phrase hogwash.
• 7:58
  Could that be speciesist?
• 8:00
  Nonsense, okay?
• 8:02
  We have millions and millions of people
• 8:04
  who are vegan for decades.
• 8:07
  I know people who were born vegan.
• 8:09
  Their health stats are better than the general public.
• 8:12
  There's great documentaries like Game Changers
• 8:14
  and documentaries about blue zones, et cetera.
• 8:18
  We can't let this stand.
• 8:20
  I was a reporter for more than 30 years.
• 8:22
  If you start getting negative commentary
• 8:25
  about your reporting, it usually results in a trip
• 8:28
  to your immediate supervisor's office,
• 8:31
  which is not pleasant, and you have to justify yourself.
• 8:34
  So right now, these reporters, these journalists
• 8:36
  are operating in a no-consequence zone,
• 8:38
  and they feel like they can get away with saying anything
• 8:41
  because nobody's gonna respond.
• 8:43
  As soon as I saw your platform, I go, aha,
• 8:47
  because we've already started tweeting responses.
• 8:50
  In fact, today, we just did a donnymossoftheirturn.net
• 8:56
  on his ex account, did a response to a New York Times
• 9:00
  article bemoaning that laboratory animals might be killed
• 9:06
  due to budget cuts.
• 9:08
  It's like, hello, they were gonna be tortured
• 9:11
  and killed anyway.
• 9:12
  Can you at least mention that?
• 9:13
  It was just mind-boggling, but we got whatever,
• 9:18
  seven or eight retweets.
• 9:19
  Imagine if these articles got 1,000 retweets.
• 9:22
  Imagine if everybody who signed up to Connect for Animals
• 9:26
  went on X and retweeted with a comment.
• 9:30
  That would be a game changer,
• 9:32
  and I'd like to get your thoughts on that, Stephen.
• 9:34
  As somebody I know, you have a lot of background
• 9:36
  in the animal rights movement,
• 9:37
  having worked at Mercy for Animals,
• 9:39
  and so you know the territory.
• 9:41
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:43
  And so, a lot of what you said really resonates with me
• 9:46
  and sort of why we started Connect for Animals
• 9:48
  in the first place, and that's because there are,
• 9:52
  first of all, there are so many great actions and campaigns
• 9:54
  that are happening all the time.
• 9:55
  There are a ton of amazing organizations
• 9:58
  that are trying to make progress on different parts
• 10:01
  of the system related to factory farming animals for food.
• 10:05
  There's also animal experimentation.
• 10:07
  There's all kinds of different facets
• 10:08
  at which you can look at animal ethics, right?
• 10:11
  And there's so many amazing organizations.
• 10:14
  And if you want to, for example,
• 10:16
  there are a lot of people out there
• 10:17
  who want to take action across all of these different areas
• 10:22
  or these different organizations,
• 10:23
  and if one of those people just wanted to ask the question
• 10:26
  of where could I go to look at the campaigns
• 10:30
  that are happening across all of the different organizations
• 10:33
  that I care about, I mean, currently,
• 10:36
  the best solution, I guess, before Connect for Animals
• 10:38
  is like you sign up for kind of every email newsletter
• 10:41
  on the planet and wait for those action alerts to come out.
• 10:44
  And I know that some people do this,
• 10:45
  and it's great that they do,
• 10:48
  but we want to reduce the friction however we can.
• 10:52
  So something that we started working on last year
• 10:54
  and something that we're going to keep working
• 10:55
  on going forward is pulling these campaign actions
• 10:58
  from all the different organizations,
• 11:01
  having them on Connect for Animals,
• 11:02
  so that if people say, like,
• 11:04
  what can I do to take action for animals right now?
• 11:07
  And they just want to help.
• 11:09
  They're not putting together the campaigns.
• 11:11
  They're relying on these great organizations
• 11:13
  to put together the campaigns,
• 11:14
  and then they want to take action on them.
• 11:17
  If we can have all of those actions together in one place,
• 11:20
  which we're making progress towards,
• 11:23
  then somebody can come to Connect for Animals
• 11:24
  and say, here's a great action from Mercy for Animals
• 11:27
  or from their turn or from PETA
• 11:29
  or across all of these different areas,
• 11:32
  and they can just go through and boom, boom, boom,
• 11:35
  action, action, action, just run down the list
• 11:38
  and make a difference across all of these things.
• 11:41
  And I guess talking a little bit about that point
• 11:44
  and something else you mentioned earlier
• 11:46
  about there being this backlash against veganism
• 11:50
  or against animal ethics,
• 11:52
  I think that if people start caring about this issue,
• 11:55
  but they're not fully committed,
• 11:57
  like the people here, the people in this room right now,
• 11:59
  like us doing this interview,
• 12:01
  if people hear about it,
• 12:02
  they start caring about the issue,
• 12:04
  but these things always go in cycles,
• 12:05
  and then suddenly there's this big media pushback.
• 12:07
  If this person hasn't gotten connected
• 12:09
  to the rich animal advocacy ecosystem,
• 12:12
  if they do not have all the facts,
• 12:15
  if they do not have the social support,
• 12:18
  if they haven't taken the time to really learn,
• 12:20
  they're gonna be swayed back into the mainstream
• 12:22
  very, very easily,
• 12:23
  or back into whatever the sort of talking points
• 12:27
  of the day are, right?
• 12:27
  So a lot of media outlets don't even necessarily care.
• 12:31
  With the anti-vegan stuff, for example,
• 12:33
  it's just like, oh, we've been pro-vegan,
• 12:35
  pro-animal for a little while.
• 12:36
  Well, now people are bored of that,
• 12:38
  so the thing that's gonna be clickable
• 12:39
  is like, oh, let's be anti-vegan, anti-animal
• 12:41
  for a little bit.
• 12:42
  It's like, can we find something that elevates
• 12:43
  the problems of veganism,
• 12:45
  because maybe people will love to click on that
• 12:46
  if they've gotten bored of the,
• 12:48
  oh, plant-based actually seems like
• 12:50
  it's typically better for your health.
• 12:52
  It's like, oh, that's boring now.
• 12:54
  We need to get people to click on things.
• 12:56
  So if we with Connect for Animals
• 12:58
  can get people more socially connected,
• 13:00
  more engaged in the animal advocacy movement,
• 13:02
  then hopefully they can be more resilient
• 13:05
  to these kind of media cycles that we live in as well.
• 13:08
  And that's also a goal is just keeping people here longer
• 13:11
  in the animal advocacy space.
• 13:13
  I think you've made excellent points.
• 13:16
  I will say, having been a journalist for more than 30 years,
• 13:19
  journalists are pack animals, okay?
• 13:22
  Is that speciesist?
• 13:24
  No, I don't know.
• 13:25
  I don't know that every reference to animals is speciesist.
• 13:27
  It's only if it's a negative reference.
• 13:29
  A lot of them are.
• 13:30
  It's hard to tell, yeah.
• 13:31
  It's hard to tell.
• 13:32
  But the truth is that you're right.
• 13:35
  It happens in waves and there's the swing of the pendulum.
• 13:38
  So with the launch of Beyond Meat
• 13:40
  as a public stock in 2019, there was a swing.
• 13:44
  I even had people who used to dismiss me,
• 13:47
  call me and text me and say,
• 13:50
  wow, you were really ahead of your time.
• 13:52
  Well, now it's swinging back,
• 13:54
  but we can easily reverse that again
• 13:57
  and make it even bigger.
• 13:59
  I mean, if you look at social justice movements,
• 14:03
  it was never just a straight lineup.
• 14:05
  If you look at the LGBTQ movement,
• 14:07
  and I speak as a member, it was going up slowly.
• 14:11
  Then the AIDS crisis hit.
• 14:13
  There was a lot of hate.
• 14:14
  Then there was a resurgence.
• 14:17
  And now, I mean, it's not static.
• 14:23
  So I think what you're describing is absolutely correct,
• 14:27
  but the question is,
• 14:29
  how do we tell our side of the story
• 14:32
  in this social media and mainstream media landscape?
• 14:38
  And so I think that what you're doing is very important
• 14:42
  and I will definitely, definitely use your app
• 14:48
  to try to motivate people to respond
• 14:52
  by just clicking on X.
• 14:54
  Because one thing I've learned,
• 14:55
  do you ask people to write a letter?
• 14:57
  No.
• 14:58
  And what PETA and other organizations,
• 15:01
  including PCRM and Mercy for Animals
• 15:03
  and these other big groups, they've automated it.
• 15:05
  Now, I have to go back to you again.
• 15:08
  I did look at your bio, which is very impressive.
• 15:11
  And I noticed that you are a mathematician.
• 15:13
  You graduated summa cum laude with a degree in mathematics.
• 15:17
  And that's just the start.
• 15:20
  You've done a lot.
• 15:21
  How are you gonna use your math skills
• 15:23
  to work with the algorithms to get,
• 15:30
  that I think is the key.
• 15:32
  I mean, I have a calculator, that's my math skill,
• 15:36
  but you have some real math skills.
• 15:38
  How are we gonna use those math skills
• 15:40
  to hit the algorithms?
• 15:43
  Yeah, I mean, I'll say a couple of things
• 15:45
  and then actually I might wanna popcorn it over to Geetika
• 15:47
  to see if she has any marketing insights here.
• 15:50
  Because I very much math brain, right?
• 15:52
  That's kind of my background,
• 15:54
  math, data science, data engineering.
• 15:56
  Like I was on the math team in high school
• 15:57
  for all four years, competed at state level competitions,
• 16:00
  like big nerd, right?
• 16:01
  Big, big nerd.
• 16:02
  Not really good at the social media thing.
• 16:04
  That's never really been my space.
• 16:06
  And so like social media, media,
• 16:07
  I'm actually, I have kind of a hard time at that.
• 16:10
  But I mean, when it comes to math,
• 16:12
  when it comes to data, when it comes to AI, for example,
• 16:16
  technology in general, that's a big part of NEC for Animals.
• 16:20
  What we do is trying to make these things
• 16:22
  happen at scale and get people connected
• 16:25
  to the resources and the organizations and the events
• 16:28
  that are gonna be a good fit for them.
• 16:30
  And so, Jeannie and Geetika definitely have a view
• 16:35
  under the hood here, but there is a lot of data involved.
• 16:39
  There's a lot of technology.
• 16:41
  I mean, with Unchained TV, I'm sure that you know as well,
• 16:43
  the technology gets complicated really quickly.
• 16:45
  And especially when you're dealing with a lot of data,
• 16:48
  a lot of resources, opportunities, groups,
• 16:52
  and users, and you're trying to connect one to the other,
• 16:56
  you're trying to do this matchmaking process essentially
• 16:58
  in general of like, okay, somebody comes in the door.
• 17:02
  They're gonna be interested in certain things.
• 17:04
  They're gonna have certain skills.
• 17:07
  And how can we get them pointed to the spot
• 17:10
  in the animal advocacy space that's going to be
• 17:13
  a really good fit for them, right?
• 17:16
  And so we actually try to be, you know,
• 17:18
  even a little less like biased about where people end up,
• 17:23
  like what organization maybe they end up supporting
• 17:25
  or what campaigns they work on.
• 17:26
  We just kind of want people to get involved, to get engaged.
• 17:30
  And so on the mathy data side,
• 17:32
  there's a lot of really interesting stuff.
• 17:34
  Like I said, I'm a big old nerd,
• 17:35
  data science and machine learning,
• 17:37
  trying to do this matching,
• 17:38
  this like recommendation algorithm, right?
• 17:40
  Like of who would be interested in what.
• 17:45
  We have a lot of really cool work
• 17:47
  that we can do on that going forward.
• 17:48
  And there's already a lot of interesting stuff
• 17:51
  behind the scenes and under the hood.
• 17:52
  But Geetika, I mean, from a marketing
• 17:54
  and social media perspective,
• 17:55
  feel free to chime in if you have anything else.
• 17:59
  Absolutely.
• 17:59
  Thanks, Steven.
• 18:00
  I would just tack onto that.
• 18:04
  The beauty of having a platform
• 18:06
  is that everything is so centralized.
• 18:08
  So, you know, when I first,
• 18:10
  my first big vegan event that I attended
• 18:12
  was in Portland, Oregon.
• 18:14
  And it's a vegan hub
• 18:16
  and there's a lot of access to things.
• 18:17
  But something like Connect for Animals
• 18:20
  would really allow someone
• 18:22
  who doesn't have that access
• 18:24
  to get involved on a much bigger scale
• 18:26
  than they could otherwise.
• 18:28
  And once we have all of that
• 18:30
  sort of centralized data in a platform,
• 18:34
  then we can start to understand
• 18:35
  like what really supports people out there
• 18:38
  to be advocates
• 18:40
  and how can we better support them?
• 18:42
  And also partner with bigger organizations
• 18:44
  that are doing this work to say,
• 18:46
  hey, like we have these learnings,
• 18:48
  now you can use that for your advocacy campaigns.
• 18:51
  And really just by that cohesion
• 18:54
  and centralization,
• 18:55
  I think it can be so much more powerful.
• 18:58
  So where Connect for Animals
• 19:01
  is allowing us to speak with one voice,
• 19:04
  which I personally think is so important.
• 19:08
  I have zero tolerance for infighting.
• 19:11
  And unfortunately it does occur in our movement
• 19:14
  and people try to drag Unshade TV or me into it.
• 19:17
  I'm like, leave us alone.
• 19:19
  We're just wanna speak for voiceless animals.
• 19:23
  Keep us out of your infighting.
• 19:24
  Anytime we're fighting amongst ourselves,
• 19:26
  the other side is applauding
• 19:28
  and saying, yeah, keep fighting.
• 19:30
  So I tell people, for example,
• 19:32
  you wanna be a raw vegan,
• 19:33
  go right ahead,
• 19:34
  but don't post and not meet alternatives.
• 19:39
  Fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains
• 19:40
  have always been there.
• 19:41
  If we, everybody's always had the option to choose those.
• 19:44
  Those products were created
• 19:45
  because people weren't choosing those.
• 19:48
  So that's number one.
• 19:50
  And number two,
• 19:51
  to speak with a unified voice
• 19:54
  because there's strength in numbers.
• 19:57
  And a lot of these meat industry organizations,
• 20:00
  they have all sorts of associations.
• 20:02
  You know, the Cattlemen's Association
• 20:03
  and this association and that association.
• 20:06
  I don't think we have the kind of grassroots association
• 20:10
  where people can speak with one voice
• 20:12
  when something happens that,
• 20:14
  and being in the media,
• 20:16
  I'm particularly attuned to the media,
• 20:18
  which sets the tone for society.
• 20:20
  Let's face it.
• 20:21
  The New York Times is the most important newspaper
• 20:24
  in the world.
• 20:24
  When it says meat is back,
• 20:26
  that telegraphs to everybody
• 20:27
  and the intelligentsia,
• 20:29
  the big money, blah, blah, blah.
• 20:30
  Oh, meat's back.
• 20:31
  We don't have to worry about that anymore.
• 20:32
  So those are very dangerous articles
• 20:35
  that have to be counteracted.
• 20:37
  And I'll also say as a journalist,
• 20:40
  if you see that another journalist
• 20:42
  has gotten blowback for its reporting,
• 20:44
  it sends a message to you,
• 20:46
  maybe I should think twice about doing a very slanted,
• 20:50
  badly researched piece about veganism
• 20:53
  where I don't contact the other side.
• 20:55
  I mean, the New York Times article,
• 20:57
  why didn't they talk to PETA?
• 20:58
  Why didn't they talk to PCRM?
• 21:00
  Why didn't they talk to MercyFran?
• 21:01
  Why didn't they talk to all these organizations?
• 21:03
  They talked to one organization with one quote
• 21:05
  that I could see.
• 21:07
  That's not a balanced article.
• 21:10
  And so I feel that this is super exciting
• 21:16
  because it would allow if we had an action alert
• 21:20
  and we use mathematics to make it simple,
• 21:23
  not sit there and write a letter to your...
• 21:25
  The other day I was at an event and they said,
• 21:27
  everybody has to write to their city council person.
• 21:30
  I'm like, good luck with that.
• 21:31
  We don't live in that kind of era.
• 21:33
  It's gotta be something where they boom and it goes out.
• 21:37
  That's what PETA is so good at.
• 21:38
  I mean, almost every day I get something from PETA
• 21:42
  that says do Y or do X or do something
• 21:45
  and it sends out letters.
• 21:47
  And there's other organizations as well
• 21:48
  that do that very effectively.
• 21:50
  A small number.
• 21:52
  The vast majority do not have the technology
• 21:54
  or perhaps the funding and or the technology to do that.
• 21:57
  But my question to you is,
• 21:58
  are you gonna fill that space?
• 22:00
  Because I think that would be,
• 22:04
  first of all, incredibly effective.
• 22:06
  And I also think it would put you on the map
• 22:08
  and allow you to collaborate with other organizations
• 22:11
  to be like that mouthpiece.
• 22:13
  Because we've actually been looking for that.
• 22:15
  We've been looking for the project
• 22:17
  that Their Turn and Unchained TV works on
• 22:20
  to challenge these reporters
• 22:21
  who are writing these misinformed articles
• 22:23
  in mainstream media is like,
• 22:25
  okay, we've done an X response and we put it on X,
• 22:28
  we put it on Facebook, we put it on LinkedIn.
• 22:31
  Now how do we get other people to retweet it?
• 22:33
  How do we get other people to say,
• 22:36
  yeah, and blah, blah, blah.
• 22:38
  And people are saying, agree with you.
• 22:40
  So thank you.
• 22:42
  Not always, but this time they're agreeing.
• 22:44
  Okay.
• 22:45
  What do you say?
• 22:45
  No, no, no, of course.
• 22:46
  I think, yeah.
• 22:47
  Not always agree.
• 22:48
  You know, it's good to have
• 22:49
  a little vigorous debate every now and then.
• 22:52
  I hear you on the infighting though.
• 22:53
  And just to go back to one thing there really quickly.
• 22:56
  I do think that healthy disagreement can be good.
• 23:00
  I think that, yeah, the problem absolutely exists
• 23:02
  when it descends into people
• 23:03
  just tearing each other apart for no reason.
• 23:05
  And as Connect for Animals,
• 23:06
  since our entire goal is to help people find groups
• 23:11
  and organizations and events and things,
• 23:13
  we really do in general have to be kind of pro
• 23:17
  the whole movement, support the whole movement.
• 23:19
  I mean, that's our role here is to show people
• 23:24
  all of the options that are available.
• 23:26
  And unless we have a very good reason not to,
• 23:28
  we're generally gonna try to show people
• 23:30
  everything that's out there, right?
• 23:32
  Which is a diversity of approaches, of strategies,
• 23:37
  of theories of change.
• 23:39
  And so I think that's a very healthy thing.
• 23:41
  But when it comes to your question
• 23:42
  about options and centralizing that,
• 23:46
  absolutely, I do think, you know,
• 23:48
  there's, first of all, like get people to care, right?
• 23:51
  And then even if you have all these people who care,
• 23:53
  how do you get them to take action?
• 23:55
  Like you said, like getting people to sit down
• 23:57
  and write a long letter to their city council people.
• 24:00
  Some people will do that, absolutely.
• 24:03
  Some people will invest however much time
• 24:06
  and energy it takes, however difficult the task is.
• 24:09
  But those people are few and far between.
• 24:12
  Lots of us, I mean, myself included,
• 24:13
  like I'm inclined to do certain things
• 24:15
  and not inclined to do others.
• 24:17
  If you make it really, really, really easy for me,
• 24:19
  then I'm probably more likely to do it.
• 24:21
  And I think that that is true
• 24:22
  of pretty much everybody out there.
• 24:25
  And so I think that, you know,
• 24:26
  the question for us at Connect for Animals
• 24:27
  is something that we have started working on,
• 24:30
  is, you know, like I said,
• 24:31
  pulling together these action alerts,
• 24:33
  these campaigns from different organizations.
• 24:36
  One problem that we run into pretty quickly,
• 24:39
  and so this is gonna be a challenge for us going forward
• 24:42
  and something that we're thinking through,
• 24:44
  but if anyone in your audience has ideas also,
• 24:47
  then we'd love to hear,
• 24:48
  is the volume of possible actions
• 24:51
  can get pretty big pretty quickly.
• 24:55
  So for example, large organizations
• 24:57
  will have specific campaigns,
• 24:58
  maybe against specific companies,
• 25:00
  and there maybe won't be a ton of those.
• 25:02
  But if you go down to the individual activist level,
• 25:06
  every single social media post
• 25:08
  that every animal activist is putting out there,
• 25:11
  if we count each one of those as a distinct action
• 25:15
  of like amplifying a certain message,
• 25:18
  then kind of the space of possible actions
• 25:20
  can blow up very quickly.
• 25:21
  And that's not a bad thing.
• 25:23
  I mean, that's actually a very good thing
• 25:24
  if we have so much work that's happening.
• 25:27
  But then the question becomes,
• 25:29
  and this is a challenge for us at Connect for Animals,
• 25:32
  is how do we show the right thing to the right person?
• 25:34
  And how do we present all of this information to people
• 25:36
  without them getting overwhelmed?
• 25:38
  And that's sort of related to the getting people
• 25:41
  to sit down and write their city council members, right?
• 25:44
  Is the question of not getting people to care
• 25:47
  and not about the information itself,
• 25:50
  but the presentation of the information,
• 25:52
  the presentation of this stuff, nudging users,
• 25:55
  getting people to be able to feel like,
• 25:57
  oh, hey, this is easy.
• 25:58
  Oh, like, I can do this.
• 25:59
  This is not overwhelming.
• 26:00
  I'm not in over my head.
• 26:02
  And so it's a big challenge.
• 26:05
  You know, it's much easier
• 26:07
  to put a bunch of things on a website
• 26:09
  than it is to get people to use those things
• 26:12
  in the way that you might want.
• 26:13
  And I think that a lot of people
• 26:15
  who set out to build something like this,
• 26:18
  and there have been other efforts,
• 26:20
  you know, it's like the building of the thing is challenging
• 26:22
  but then having people use it in a way that's easy
• 26:25
  and it's effective and impactful
• 26:27
  is a whole separate problem.
• 26:29
  It's very difficult.
• 26:30
  Yeah, I mean, but it's also very interesting,
• 26:32
  which I think is good for us at Connect for Animals
• 26:34
  because we get to work on it for a while.
• 26:36
  Oh my gosh, yes.
• 26:37
  I can imagine that you would be up all day and night
• 26:40
  adding events because the irony is people think
• 26:44
  that let's say going vegan
• 26:45
  and getting involved in the animal rights movement
• 26:46
  is some sacrifice.
• 26:48
  It's literally a party every night.
• 26:50
  Honestly, I could go to a party or an event
• 26:53
  every single night if I wanted to.
• 26:56
  But I can't afford the dog sitters to be honest with you
• 26:59
  because not all are dog friendly.
• 27:03
  But it's a social club.
• 27:05
  And, you know, I try to tell people sometimes,
• 27:07
  hey, it's not just a social club.
• 27:09
  And, you know, it's really interesting
• 27:12
  how we affect change.
• 27:13
  I'm listening to this book right now called Change.
• 27:16
  And it's super interesting talking about
• 27:20
  the assumptions we make about how change happens.
• 27:23
  And the book, the author actually challenges the notion
• 27:28
  that really famous people saying things on social media
• 27:32
  is the way because everybody wants those celebrities, right?
• 27:35
  And what he seems to be saying is
• 27:38
  that it's the connections that people make
• 27:42
  and those connections are with family, friends,
• 27:45
  coworkers, neighbors,
• 27:47
  people that they meet in a social setting,
• 27:50
  but that the best connections are weak connections.
• 27:54
  Because if you're just talking to people
• 27:56
  in your immediate circle who agree with you,
• 27:58
  you're just, they call it reinforcement.
• 28:04
  Yes, it's basically preaching the converted.
• 28:07
  But when he talked about the six degrees
• 28:09
  of separation approach is to start expanding
• 28:12
  those weak connections.
• 28:14
  So I'll give you a personal example on Facebook.
• 28:17
  You know, I get requests for friends on my personal page.
• 28:21
  And of course I'm thinking, well, the vegans, yeah.
• 28:24
  But, you know, actually listening to this book now,
• 28:26
  I'm gonna just click on the non-vegans
• 28:28
  because those are the weak connections
• 28:30
  that I need to get the information out to.
• 28:32
  So it's a very complicated three-dimensional chess game
• 28:35
  to affect change.
• 28:37
  But I think, you know,
• 28:39
  we have to get more scientific about it.
• 28:41
  That's why my eyes popped out when I thought,
• 28:44
  oh, Stephen has all this mathematical ability
• 28:48
  because a lot of it is boiling down
• 28:51
  to mathematical equations
• 28:53
  of how we expand our circle of influence.
• 28:58
  Each and every animal rights person,
• 29:01
  vegan person who wants to end factory farming,
• 29:03
  we have tentacles on social media
• 29:06
  and those tentacles are the most important.
• 29:10
  I do feel that our movement suffers
• 29:12
  from preaching to the converted.
• 29:14
  I can't tell you.
• 29:15
  One of the reasons I started Unchained TV
• 29:16
  is that I went to one too many documentary screenings
• 29:20
  where everybody in the room is already vegan
• 29:22
  and we're watching a video
• 29:24
  with a lot of traumatizing footage.
• 29:26
  And it's like, no, other people need to see this.
• 29:30
  I'm not re-traumatizing myself.
• 29:32
  Other people who say they love animals
• 29:35
  and are eating, you know, bacon,
• 29:37
  those are the people who need to see this.
• 29:39
  And so how do you counteract,
• 29:42
  and it's a provocative question,
• 29:44
  and maybe you want to take it, Jeannie,
• 29:46
  how do we counteract preaching to the converted
• 29:49
  in this format that you've created,
• 29:51
  which is so incredible?
• 29:53
  Well, I think that is the beauty of Connect for Animals
• 29:56
  is that we are accepting and welcoming to everybody
• 30:01
  no matter at what level you are in this movement,
• 30:04
  in our movement.
• 30:05
  And that's what's so important is because when you talk
• 30:08
  about, you know, going to a documentary,
• 30:11
  everybody is vegan, it's the tribe, we're all together.
• 30:13
  I don't want to underestimate the power of that.
• 30:17
  No, we don't want to be watching traumatizing videos,
• 30:19
  et cetera, but the power of having like-minded people,
• 30:22
  especially in our movement, because there are so few,
• 30:25
  even if you're a vegan who's been vegan forever,
• 30:28
  it's still really hard for me to find like-minded people
• 30:32
  right in my own town, and I live in a fairly big city.
• 30:35
  And so that is, it is a provocative question,
• 30:39
  and it is a little tough to address
• 30:40
  because it's so multifaceted.
• 30:42
  When we talk about the movement and, you know,
• 30:45
  pro-animal advocacy, you know, we have people coming from,
• 30:49
  I'm just against circuses, I'm against puppy mills,
• 30:51
  I'm against, you know, animal testing,
• 30:54
  and they have these niches, and I think, again,
• 30:56
  that's why we're trying to be this clearinghouse.
• 30:58
  And I don't want to say we're trying to do too much
• 31:01
  or be too big, because we really do want to plug people
• 31:04
  into where, you know, the pieces of the movement,
• 31:09
  the pieces of the action
• 31:10
  that they really want to get involved in.
• 31:12
  And what happens is it is an organic process
• 31:14
  where people meet somebody else,
• 31:16
  or maybe they come on board, they're like,
• 31:18
  I'm against puppy mills, connect for animals,
• 31:20
  let me go here, let me find an event.
• 31:22
  But what happens is they're on the platform,
• 31:24
  they meet other people,
• 31:26
  they find an event that's maybe tangentially related,
• 31:30
  and they, wow, why not?
• 31:32
  Why shouldn't I do that?
• 31:34
  You know, it kind of expands people's, you know,
• 31:37
  you have to be open-minded anyhow
• 31:39
  to be able to want to do this,
• 31:40
  but it kind of expands their horizons in a way.
• 31:43
  And I think that that's the beauty of what we do
• 31:45
  by, you know, having all of these different options,
• 31:48
  these different actions, these different events.
• 31:51
  We tag the events so that you,
• 31:53
  if you are only interested in a certain type of event,
• 31:59
  you can do that.
• 31:59
  You know, I'm only interested in doing impactful events.
• 32:02
  I'm only interested in socializing.
• 32:04
  You can do that.
• 32:05
  And I've kind of run out of where,
• 32:08
  I'm gonna need somebody else from the team to step in
• 32:10
  and help me out with this
• 32:11
  because I'm going in too many different directions.
• 32:13
  But-
• 32:14
  No, you're great.
• 32:15
  And I want to say for those just joining,
• 32:18
  we're talking about this fantastic new app.
• 32:20
  I downloaded it, filled it out,
• 32:22
  and I'm gonna use it like crazy.
• 32:23
  It's right there.
• 32:25
  It's got three little birds.
• 32:26
  Connect for animals.
• 32:27
  There it is.
• 32:28
  It's free.
• 32:30
  It's a nonprofit, correct?
• 32:31
  It's 100% nonprofit.
• 32:34
  501C3, yep, absolutely.
• 32:36
  Yeah, 501C3.
• 32:37
  And this is just like,
• 32:39
  on Shade TV is a nonprofit.
• 32:41
  This is a nonprofit.
• 32:42
  And it's using high tech to get the message out.
• 32:46
  We're in the 21st century.
• 32:47
  We've got to go high tech.
• 32:48
  We've got to use every single technology available.
• 32:51
  So if you're just joining us, here it is.
• 32:53
  Have you heard about the amazing new platform
• 32:55
  for animal rights events?
• 32:56
  Connect for animals is a user-friendly platform
• 32:58
  where you can find and share animal rights events
• 33:01
  in all of North America.
• 33:02
  It's perfect for people who are trying
• 33:04
  to find activism opportunities or share their own.
• 33:07
  You can even find lectures, meditations,
• 33:09
  and conferences on their website.
• 33:11
  Empower the hundreds of thousands of people
• 33:13
  who care deeply about Indian factory farming,
• 33:15
  but aren't sure where to start.
• 33:17
  We're building a community
• 33:18
  where anyone can learn about this movement,
• 33:20
  discover events and organizations,
• 33:23
  and find ways to get involved.
• 33:39
  By the way, in an article
• 33:42
  on some pro-meat industry publication,
• 33:45
  Unchained TV was declared a threat.
• 33:47
  I was thrilled.
• 33:47
  I was like, oh, I'm so flattered.
• 33:50
  So you could probably-
• 33:51
  It's a badge of honor, right?
• 33:52
  Is to be called out on one of those websites.
• 33:55
  Yeah.
• 33:55
  Exactly, exactly.
• 33:57
  I'm sure that's in your future as well.
• 33:59
  Let's break down some of the things you do specifically,
• 34:02
  which I thought was great.
• 34:04
  We've talked about the blog,
• 34:06
  but here you can take courses.
• 34:09
  Can you tell us about this?
• 34:11
  Gadita, what is this course part?
• 34:16
  So Connect for Animals,
• 34:18
  in addition to allowing for you to find local events
• 34:23
  and take action, it also is a hub for tons of resources.
• 34:27
  So if you're interested in getting involved,
• 34:29
  you can find access to a hub of available online courses,
• 34:36
  job openings, you name it.
• 34:39
  Anything that you need to basically equip yourself
• 34:43
  with the type of advocacy you want to lead.
• 34:46
  You can go to Connect for Animals
• 34:48
  and search on the website or the app
• 34:53
  and find the types of resources you need.
• 34:55
  And again, it's just like the amazing work of the team,
• 34:57
  just pulling together all of these incredible
• 35:00
  existing resources that are available
• 35:02
  and then centralizing them
• 35:04
  so that somebody who's new to the movement,
• 35:07
  somebody who's seasoned and has been doing it for some time,
• 35:10
  they just have to go to one specific place
• 35:13
  and they can have access to all these available things
• 35:15
  out in the world.
• 35:17
  Now there's also the events per city.
• 35:22
  And I thought this was really good
• 35:23
  being in Los Angeles myself, I popped on Los Angeles,
• 35:26
  but you have, I'd look like hundreds of cities
• 35:29
  around the world.
• 35:30
  So Stephen, tell us how this works
• 35:34
  and how do you find out all the events?
• 35:36
  Because like I said, I literally cannot keep up
• 35:39
  with all the events in LA alone.
• 35:41
  There's something happening every single night
• 35:44
  and there's some that I get on Eventbrite and Partiful
• 35:48
  and Signal and, you know, I mean,
• 35:52
  I get them through all these different platforms
• 35:55
  that are coming at me, of course, Facebook as well.
• 35:58
  How are you gonna be able to track all these?
• 36:01
  It's a big old messy process.
• 36:03
  And actually, Jeannie helps a ton with this.
• 36:07
  This is really like one of her big domains,
• 36:09
  but I'll give a little bit of background
• 36:10
  into maybe some of the infrastructure that we have
• 36:13
  that helps with it.
• 36:14
  So first of all, we do not have 100% of all events.
• 36:17
  That is our goal.
• 36:17
  Our goal is to have every relevant event
• 36:21
  that is related to ending factory farming and veganism,
• 36:24
  to have it on Connect for Animals
• 36:25
  so that people can find those things in their cities,
• 36:28
  but they can also find the events that are happening online.
• 36:30
  That's our North Star when it comes to events.
• 36:33
  We do not have it because like you said, there are so many.
• 36:36
  Some of them only exist in Signal chats,
• 36:39
  WhatsApp groups, et cetera.
• 36:40
  But we have built out some technical infrastructure
• 36:44
  to automatically pull in as many events as we can
• 36:47
  from relevant organizations.
• 36:48
  We have a list of hundreds of different
• 36:50
  animal advocacy organizations and local groups.
• 36:53
  We try to automatically pull in
• 36:55
  as many of those events as we can.
• 36:57
  We are subscribed to basically every newsletter
• 36:59
  on the planet as well.
• 37:00
  And so this is where Vini helps out every single week,
• 37:04
  goes through our inbox, looks through those newsletters,
• 37:06
  looks for events, adds them to the platform.
• 37:09
  And then people can submit their events as well.
• 37:11
  So we have a lot of people who either work at
• 37:14
  or volunteer at other animal advocacy organizations
• 37:17
  or groups, nonprofit groups, as well as grassroots groups,
• 37:22
  who will come and add their events to Connect for Animals
• 37:24
  because they know that it's going to be on the platform
• 37:27
  and that we're gonna send it out to our email newsletter.
• 37:30
  And so we get events from all these different places
• 37:32
  and it's our job to make sure that they all look clean,
• 37:36
  that the data is good, that there's nothing inappropriate,
• 37:39
  that it's all relevant, that if there's any duplicate events
• 37:42
  that we go through and we take care of those.
• 37:44
  It's a big old messy process.
• 37:47
  Jeannie helped with a ton of that.
• 37:48
  Jeannie, do you wanna give any more insight
• 37:50
  into how we do it?
• 37:52
  Yes, but thanks to Steven and the tech team,
• 37:57
  we have something called scrapers that go.
• 37:59
  And once we've pulled a group
• 38:02
  and we know that they have regularly occurring events,
• 38:04
  these scrapers will go in and they will actually
• 38:06
  pull these events and fill out as much information
• 38:08
  as they can.
• 38:10
  And one of my jobs is to go into these events
• 38:12
  that have been pulled automatically
• 38:14
  and make sure that they're tagged correctly,
• 38:16
  that like you were saying,
• 38:17
  that has everything that is valid and needed
• 38:20
  and filled out on the event.
• 38:23
  So that whenever it pops up,
• 38:24
  it's a clean event that anybody can click on.
• 38:28
  So yeah, we go through, we do.
• 38:31
  If we have all the groups,
• 38:33
  we are following nearly everything that's out there.
• 38:36
  We try to pull it in,
• 38:37
  but there is so much more to be done.
• 38:40
  And the city, the LA one is,
• 38:42
  that's something that we've just been starting on.
• 38:44
  So if you are from a certain city,
• 38:46
  if you're from San Antonio and you go in
• 38:48
  and you're like, gosh, there's no events at all,
• 38:50
  it's coming.
• 38:51
  It will be here, but we're building, building.
• 38:53
  And there's so much in the background that's happening.
• 38:56
  So just be patient or be like,
• 38:58
  hey, I can add my own events.
• 39:00
  All you have to do is create an account.
• 39:01
  It's very simple, it's very easy.
• 39:03
  And we're always looking to create partnerships
• 39:05
  with pro animal groups that have their own media people
• 39:09
  that are willing to go in and drop in their events,
• 39:12
  make sure that they're on the platform.
• 39:13
  And we love that too.
• 39:14
  So Amira St. John says, I just downloaded the app.
• 39:18
  I look forward to checking it out.
• 39:19
  Excellent.
• 39:20
  And you know, it takes about five minutes
• 39:22
  to fill out the app so that it's successful.
• 39:26
  And I know personally from running Unchained TV,
• 39:30
  which is our TV streaming network,
• 39:32
  that's also an app on the phone.
• 39:33
  When people say they're gonna do it later,
• 39:36
  doesn't happen that often.
• 39:38
  Doesn't happen, yeah, yeah.
• 39:38
  So do it now, people.
• 39:40
  Just download it.
• 39:42
  It's very easy.
• 39:43
  You just go to your app store.
• 39:45
  I did it.
• 39:45
  And you just put in Connect for Animals in the app store.
• 39:48
  It's free.
• 39:49
  You just hit download.
• 39:50
  And then you fill out some little information
• 39:52
  about your city, your name, blah, blah, blah,
• 39:54
  so that they can target.
• 39:57
  Like let's say we just had somebody comment,
• 39:59
  I'm gonna look for events in Chicago.
• 40:02
  So let's take your app through that now.
• 40:06
  So he's in Chicago, he's interested.
• 40:08
  What does he do?
• 40:09
  Aside from obviously download the app.
• 40:11
  You can download it online.
• 40:14
  You can also download it on your phone.
• 40:17
  That's the easiest, obviously.
• 40:18
  Go ahead.
• 40:19
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 40:20
  So I think, I mean the best thing to do, right,
• 40:22
  is first of all, when you sign up,
• 40:24
  make sure that you're subscribed
• 40:25
  to the weekly Events Digest email newsletter.
• 40:29
  We've had that going.
• 40:31
  People love that because we send the events,
• 40:33
  including local events.
• 40:34
  So if you live in Chicago,
• 40:35
  when you sign up, fill out your location,
• 40:37
  say like I live in Chicago,
• 40:39
  sign up for that Events Digest newsletter.
• 40:41
  Every week, those events,
• 40:43
  virtual events and conferences
• 40:45
  and local events in your area,
• 40:47
  straight to your inbox,
• 40:48
  or at least as many as we know about, right?
• 40:50
  So that's the biggest thing.
• 40:52
  And fill out your location,
• 40:53
  subscribe to the Events Digest newsletter.
• 40:55
  Every week you'll get those.
• 40:57
  And then on the platform itself, on the app,
• 40:59
  when you go to your homepage,
• 41:01
  you scroll down, you'll see those events in your area.
• 41:04
  You'll see events in Chicago.
• 41:05
  You'll see people who live in Chicago.
• 41:07
  You'll see some of the local Chicago animal rights
• 41:10
  or animal advocacy or vegan groups,
• 41:12
  meetup groups and nonprofit groups and things like that.
• 41:15
  So really, that's the biggest thing
• 41:16
  is enter your location,
• 41:17
  sign up for the newsletter,
• 41:18
  and then you can go to the homepage,
• 41:19
  scroll down, you'll see things.
• 41:21
  And if you go to any of the other pages,
• 41:23
  like you go and look at events specifically,
• 41:26
  because you entered your location,
• 41:28
  it'll show you those virtual events,
• 41:29
  but it'll also show you the local events in your area.
• 41:32
  And so it's really just as simple as that.
• 41:34
  And then just keep up with it
• 41:36
  anytime that you're interested in going to an event.
• 41:38
  You can look through the email,
• 41:39
  you can go to the app,
• 41:40
  go online to the website,
• 41:42
  connectforanimals.com.
• 41:43
  So that's pretty much it.
• 41:45
  Yeah, and how are you going to interact with social media?
• 41:49
  Because so many people don't really use websites anymore.
• 41:55
  They're just DMing each other.
• 41:59
  And so how do you plan on handling that?
• 42:03
  Should I throw that over to Katika?
• 42:06
  Yeah, thanks, Jane.
• 42:07
  I think to start,
• 42:09
  and then I'll let Stephen take this one,
• 42:12
  but I think to start,
• 42:14
  this is something that between social media
• 42:18
  is really like an amplification
• 42:19
  of what's happening on the app.
• 42:21
  So we definitely leverage it to,
• 42:24
  if there are particular events that are of interest
• 42:27
  or things that we really feel like should be highlighted,
• 42:30
  it's a great channel for doing so.
• 42:33
  But most of the information would be centralized on the app.
• 42:37
  So that's like your first place to go
• 42:38
  if you really want to get the specific information
• 42:41
  that's relevant to you and your profile
• 42:43
  in terms of your location and interests
• 42:46
  and things like that.
• 42:47
  But then we can definitely use that information
• 42:50
  and push it out on various channels
• 42:52
  as we see opportunity to get more people excited
• 42:56
  and involved in different events.
• 42:59
  Now, not everything is an event or a course.
• 43:01
  Like sometimes, for example,
• 43:03
  we will debut a new video.
• 43:06
  We just wrapped up Vegan Creator Con,
• 43:09
  the first two-day conference for vegan social media creators.
• 43:14
  When I say we wrapped,
• 43:15
  I was there videotaping and participating,
• 43:18
  and I did a panel,
• 43:19
  but it was done by the woman
• 43:21
  who does Vegan Street Fair, Jessica Cruz.
• 43:24
  It's a breakthrough.
• 43:25
  I learned so much in this two days,
• 43:28
  and we did a video.
• 43:29
  Is there any way,
• 43:30
  is there any portal within your organization
• 43:33
  to publish videos about events?
• 43:38
  Yeah, that's a great question.
• 43:41
  And the way that I think about this, right,
• 43:43
  sort of nerdy math brain,
• 43:44
  is like different types of information
• 43:46
  that people might want to know.
• 43:48
  So people want to know about events
• 43:49
  that are happening in their area,
• 43:51
  about campaign actions.
• 43:52
  People might want to know about organizations
• 43:53
  they can volunteer for,
• 43:55
  about courses they can take.
• 43:57
  But then there's this big category
• 43:58
  of just resources or videos or content.
• 44:03
  Right now, the best place to find that stuff
• 44:05
  is we have a resources page
• 44:07
  where people can go to find some of that,
• 44:08
  but it's focused mostly on the courses,
• 44:11
  on some self-care and like burnout prevention,
• 44:15
  resources and things like that.
• 44:17
  So that's not something that we do
• 44:19
  too much of right now,
• 44:20
  is sort of this broader resource
• 44:22
  and video and like content thing.
• 44:24
  I know that there are other websites
• 44:26
  that will try to host more of this,
• 44:29
  or like on social media.
• 44:30
  I know that people are constantly
• 44:30
  reposting each other's things
• 44:32
  and sharing things.
• 44:33
  In the future, there might be space for us
• 44:35
  to help surface some of this
• 44:36
  really great content better.
• 44:38
  It's just from a technical
• 44:40
  and like a user perspective,
• 44:42
  it's a difficult thing to do.
• 44:43
  And we decided that we wanted to focus
• 44:44
  on a few of these other things first,
• 44:47
  like events, actions, groups, profiles.
• 44:50
  So maybe in the future,
• 44:52
  but right now, not so much.
• 44:54
  We're focusing on these other features
• 44:55
  that we've been developing.
• 44:57
  Yeah, and you don't have to play the whole,
• 44:58
  you can just have a link.
• 45:00
  Like there could be a way to add links,
• 45:01
  but let me ask you about sanctuaries.
• 45:04
  Now, we have all been in this movement
• 45:07
  for a long time.
• 45:07
  And I remember when I started,
• 45:09
  there were maybe three sanctuaries.
• 45:10
  There was farm sanctuary,
• 45:11
  there was animal play.
• 45:12
  I mean, there were a small number.
• 45:14
  Now there are hundreds.
• 45:16
  And I think it's one of the greatest resources
• 45:19
  is to, where are all these sanctuaries?
• 45:23
  How can people visit?
• 45:25
  Is that something that you're considering adding
• 45:28
  and whoever wants to take it?
• 45:31
  Yeah, I can, I'll talk to that really quick.
• 45:33
  And by the way,
• 45:33
  we were talking about social media earlier.
• 45:35
  I do wanna give a quick shout out
• 45:36
  to our social media manager, Hemena,
• 45:37
  who manages our Instagram and our LinkedIn pages,
• 45:40
  does a great job with those.
• 45:41
  So social media is not really my realm,
• 45:43
  but thankfully we have somebody who it is her realm.
• 45:46
  So when it comes to sanctuaries,
• 45:49
  we currently tackle that in having sanctuaries
• 45:53
  listed as groups on Connect for Animals.
• 45:55
  And so we have a lot of sanctuaries on the platform.
• 46:00
  There are probably a ton that we do not have.
• 46:02
  So if your favorite animal sanctuary is not listed,
• 46:06
  then there's a way through Connect for Animals
• 46:08
  that you can suggest a new group.
• 46:10
  And so if you go to the groups page,
• 46:12
  or if you're on your home page,
• 46:14
  sanctuaries would be groups
• 46:16
  and they're tagged with the animal sanctuary tag.
• 46:19
  And so the best place to see that
• 46:21
  would just be to go to the groups,
• 46:23
  search by tagged as animal sanctuaries
• 46:27
  and search in your location,
• 46:29
  which I think it probably automatically
• 46:30
  does filter down to your location specifically.
• 46:33
  So that's the best way currently.
• 46:35
  It would be nice to have a map of them.
• 46:36
  I know that there are some websites.
• 46:40
  There's a website that I don't know too well.
• 46:42
  So I might get it wrong,
• 46:43
  but Global Federation of Sanctuaries or something like that.
• 46:46
  And there's a website called Open Sanctuary as well,
• 46:48
  which provides resources.
• 46:49
  I don't know if they provide a map per se.
• 46:51
  But we do have that list,
• 46:53
  even if not in like a map format necessarily.
• 46:56
  And just listing that group as a link,
• 46:59
  then it includes it.
• 47:01
  That's the great thing about links
• 47:02
  is that you could just add on and on and on and on.
• 47:07
  And I just think it's very fascinating.
• 47:10
  Like I said, I've even thought about doing this years ago,
• 47:15
  but ran headlong into a whole bunch of issues that came up.
• 47:21
  And my idea was just like a next door.
• 47:27
  Like the reason being is that I have found
• 47:31
  that there's a bunch of vegans in my neighborhood
• 47:33
  and people who care about animals and animal rights,
• 47:35
  not just dogs and cats.
• 47:36
  Although I have two dogs and a cat,
• 47:38
  so I care about them too.
• 47:39
  And I stumbled upon these people.
• 47:41
  And I was like, damn, if I'd only known they existed,
• 47:46
  I could alert them to protests, meetups,
• 47:49
  let's support a vegan restaurant
• 47:50
  that's struggling, blah, blah, blah.
• 47:53
  And the problem I ran into is that how small
• 47:58
  the demographic and the area you're going to pick,
• 48:02
  because you don't wanna get into a situation
• 48:05
  where people can figure out where somebody else lives.
• 48:08
  So how do you balance the privacy issue
• 48:11
  with providing information to a particular locale
• 48:16
  so that it's effective for that organization?
• 48:20
  Yeah, that's a great question.
• 48:22
  I'm happy to tackle this one unless anyone else wanted to,
• 48:25
  but we take this very seriously.
• 48:27
  And so just in general, user privacy, data privacy,
• 48:32
  these are things that are very important
• 48:33
  and they matter a lot to users
• 48:35
  of online platforms like this.
• 48:37
  So in general, we don't wanna know where people live.
• 48:40
  We don't wanna know your address.
• 48:42
  We give people the ability to add their location
• 48:44
  at the city level, essentially, which we think is,
• 48:48
  I think people might be able to input their zip code as well
• 48:50
  if they wanna get down to a specific section of a city.
• 48:52
  Like I used to live in Denver, for example,
• 48:54
  and different zip codes can help you narrow in
• 48:57
  on these different neighborhoods.
• 48:58
  But there's not a place to enter your address.
• 49:01
  We don't wanna know.
• 49:02
  We don't wanna necessarily show any of that to other users,
• 49:05
  but we want people to be able to enter their location
• 49:08
  in a way where they can say,
• 49:09
  hey, what's going on in my city
• 49:10
  or what's going on in my zip code,
• 49:12
  like my part of that city, right?
• 49:14
  And so as time goes on, we'll see if people like that.
• 49:20
  So far, and it doesn't get us
• 49:22
  into any of these user privacy issues
• 49:25
  about people having their addresses exposed
• 49:27
  or things like that, while still giving people
• 49:30
  that functionality that they want that's location-based.
• 49:33
  And as time goes on, maybe we can update that.
• 49:36
  But for right now, I think that that's kind
• 49:38
  of a good compromise.
• 49:39
  And then we let users do what they want to at that point.
• 49:41
  If they wanna go to an event and meet people
• 49:44
  and get to know people that way and share their phone number
• 49:46
  and share where they live to hang out for potlucks
• 49:48
  or for doing projects together or things like that,
• 49:51
  that's kind of on the user side at that point.
• 49:54
  But for right now, we try to stay away to just let people.
• 49:57
  What about protests?
• 49:59
  Because obviously mobilizing people to attend protests,
• 50:03
  there's actually a protest coming up in a couple of days
• 50:07
  here in Los Angeles against a supermarket
• 50:11
  that allegedly uses animals from a factory farm
• 50:17
  where cruelty has allegedly,
• 50:19
  extreme cruelty has been documented.
• 50:21
  I'll say that much.
• 50:23
  I won't give it away.
• 50:24
  But can you mobilize people to attend protests?
• 50:28
  Yes, so protests are frequently listed
• 50:31
  on Connect for Animals.
• 50:33
  I know that, so by default, all of the events
• 50:35
  on Connect for Animals are public.
• 50:40
  So we do that so that people can find them from Google
• 50:42
  and things like that.
• 50:43
  So if people are searching for vegan events,
• 50:45
  like they can come across,
• 50:46
  kind of like you would on Eventbrite, right?
• 50:47
  You can find specific events.
• 50:50
  There are certain protests
• 50:52
  that people are comfortable making public.
• 50:54
  And I know that within the activism space,
• 50:55
  there are certain protests that people
• 50:57
  maybe don't necessarily want to make public
• 50:59
  for whatever reason,
• 51:01
  just because they want to have the element of surprise
• 51:04
  or they're afraid of something negative happening
• 51:06
  if it's made public ahead of time.
• 51:08
  And so those types of protests currently
• 51:10
  do not really live on the platform so much
• 51:12
  because things are public by default.
• 51:15
  In the future, there might be a way
• 51:17
  to have some of those types of protests
• 51:20
  that are private by default or things like that.
• 51:24
  But for right now, yes,
• 51:25
  there are protests on Connect for Animals
• 51:27
  from different organizations that host them,
• 51:29
  kind of happening all over the country.
• 51:31
  So Jeannie and I, every week,
• 51:33
  get to see all the events that are happening
• 51:35
  everywhere across the US.
• 51:37
  And frequently, pretty much every weekend, some weeks,
• 51:42
  lots of protests in different cities
• 51:43
  for different causes, different campaigns.
• 51:46
  So yeah, it's very inspiring.
• 51:47
  Well, I think this is so exciting.
• 51:50
  Now, I'm urging everybody who is watching
• 51:53
  and who will watch, just Connect for Animals.
• 51:57
  Take a moment.
• 51:58
  The animals cannot speak for themselves.
• 52:02
  And there you are.
• 52:05
  Connect for Animals, I signed up.
• 52:07
  It's very easy.
• 52:08
  And now I have the ability to add things
• 52:10
  that are happening in our movement,
• 52:14
  in Los Angeles, and globally.
• 52:16
  I mean, there's a really important,
• 52:18
  for example, I just got a notice this morning,
• 52:22
  PCRM is having a Friday talk about new changes
• 52:27
  in government to end animal testing,
• 52:30
  and it's a breakthrough.
• 52:31
  I'm registering for that.
• 52:33
  That's something I think would be fantastic
• 52:35
  for everybody to register for.
• 52:37
  It's not directly connected to factory farming,
• 52:40
  but it's all connected.
• 52:42
  When one animal is abused, they say,
• 52:44
  if one person is abused, we're all abused.
• 52:47
  So it's part of that general umbrella.
• 52:50
  And I wish you guys the best.
• 52:52
  I think it's absolutely fantastic.
• 52:55
  And this is the time when I talk about Unchained TV
• 52:59
  at the end of our broadcast,
• 53:01
  because there's a lot of commonalities.
• 53:03
  We're also using an app.
• 53:04
  You can also download it on your phone,
• 53:06
  and it's on your TV behind you.
• 53:08
  You can do Amazon Fire Stick, Roku device, Apple TV device.
• 53:13
  It's on every Samsung TV, on every LG TV.
• 53:17
  It's also on the phone.
• 53:19
  You can just download it for free.
• 53:20
  It takes 10 seconds.
• 53:21
  Go to Unchained TV, right there.
• 53:25
  2,000 videos, including this one's gonna be on,
• 53:29
  and you can text the videos.
• 53:31
  The great thing is when you get it on the phone,
• 53:33
  somebody says, I could never give up cheese.
• 53:35
  We have a whole category of all these vegan cheeses
• 53:37
  that you could send to them.
• 53:39
  You just go, boom, send it to them.
• 53:41
  So I could never give up dairy, boom.
• 53:43
  There's hundreds of videos about dairy alternatives,
• 53:47
  and the list goes on and on.
• 53:49
  So I hope that while you're having your download app day,
• 53:53
  you include Unchained TV as well as Connect for Animals.
• 53:57
  We're all trying to do the same thing.
• 54:00
  We're using technology, in Unchained TV's case,
• 54:04
  as the world's only vegan streaming network,
• 54:07
  to change hearts and minds,
• 54:09
  get out of the vegan echo chamber,
• 54:11
  and reach people who need this information.
• 54:13
  So it's a vegan Netflix.
• 54:15
  Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
• 54:17
  I love Unchained TV.
• 54:18
  Unchained, Unchained TV.
• 54:20
  Your life will change, it's just that easy.
• 54:23
  Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody.
• 54:26
  Unchained TV changed my life.
• 54:28
  Unchained TV is crushing it.
• 54:31
  I love Unchained TV.
• 54:33
  Unchained TV is my go-to.
• 54:35
  Unchained TV, who knew?
• 54:38
  Unchained, baby, yes!