To protect our future, we need to adopt the Earth Day ethos every day. But is that really enough?

This year for Earth Day, I did something I’ve wanted to do for decades. I ordered one of the few existing original copies of the Whole Earth Catalog. They’re hard to find in decent condition and at reasonable prices anymore (one was going for more than $800!). But I found a fall 1969 edition for less than $100. It was a worthy spend, especially watching my seven-year-old daughter leafing through the pages created a lifetime ago. The decades of mustiness have that old, familiar smell. The years of wear are visible in its yellow, crisping pages. …

Activists around the world will go on a hunger strike this summer to bring attention to the ecological crisis ravaging the planet.

Corporations and governments around the world aren’t working fast enough to end the global climate crisis, says the activist group Extinction Rebellion. And on August 28th, activists from at least 25 countries will go on a hunger strike, dubbed “Earth Fast,” to bring attention to the issues.

“After more than three decades of petitions, protests and campaigns, and despite the best efforts of many protestors, global governments have failed to act as necessary to mitigate ecological and climate breakdown and secure the future for our planet,” the group notes on its website. “Greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, and widespread…

What do the 46 million turkeys killed for Thanksgiving say about our ethics?

We celebrate lots of things. Some holidays matter more than others, of course. There are those relevant to our history, traditions, faith. There are others we celebrate, because, let’s face it: as a species, we’re inherently indulgent. And, lest we forget, our sacred corporations need holidays, too.

The celebrations rooted in religion bring with them a nod to something greater than the celebrator. They bring a need to contemplate, to take stock of our place in the world, the universe. And as indulgent and superficial as many of us can be on Christmas or Easter, there is, ultimately, a humbleness…

Swedish heavy metal band Avatar may not be top of mind when you think of typical vegans, but like others making the plant-based shift, the band is proving the diet can appeal to anyone.

Vegan diet stereotypes have deep roots in Woodstock-era long-haired rock ’n’ roll. You know it: that whole counterculture ethos of tuning in, turning on, and dropping out away from mainstream media, politics, and, of course, food. This made healthy and ethical eating trends long ostracized as fringe hippie stuff. But a lot has shifted since the 1960s. Rock ’n’ roll, for one, has evolved from its…

People ask me a lot of questions about parenting. It’s not because I look like I have any idea what I’m doing. I barely look like I showered most days. Mostly I get questions because I’m a single parent raising my almost seven-year-old daughter vegan since birth (and long before). I get a lot of the questions I got as a vegan for more than 20 years myself: Do we get enough protein? Don’t we miss meat? Does my child actually eat vegetables? Is she healthy? Yes. No. Yes. Yes.

We simply can’t maintain the status quo of raising 55…

The first thing my six-year-old daughter notices about Kevin Smith is that the color of his blazer matches the largely purple color scheme of his pop-up restaurant, Mooby’s. We’re seated in one of its booths, looking out at Santa Monica Blvd., which is less busy than it should be on a late Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles.

Before Smith sits down with us, he’s making the rounds, greeting reporters, employees, friends, and fans. He bumps elbows — the unofficial COVID handshake — with a few. He even goes in for a hug to some. His real-life presence is the opposite…

A Venn Diagram of a “perfect” vegan would intersect around a few key areas: avoiding all animal products; working to change existing policies and practices that exploit animals; taking every measure to protect or rescue as many animals from cruelty as possible; and being a consistent voice of encouragement for other humans to do the same. In this diagram of ideals, Damien Mander stands dead center.

Founder and CEO of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAFP), Mander didn’t come to animal rights out of an inherent love for animals. Nor was it disdain for the meat and dairy industries that set…

Arthur Fleck is different. This is evident in the first five seconds of “Joker,” as tears drip down the clown for hire’s painted face. Fleck, played by actor Joaquin Phoenix, is of course, on his way to becoming Joker, the infamous DC Comics Batman villain.

Fleck’s chilly laugh — the result of a neurological disorder likely caused by beatings as a child — is a window into his unrelenting grief. He tells his mother, who nicknamed him Happy, that he hasn’t been “happy” one day out of his entire life.

Fellow actors have praised Phoenix’s performance. “It’s one of the…