Compassionate Videos

There are many great videos on the web around living life compassionately. This page has some of our favorites – check back often because we will continue adding videos.

Environmental Effects of Human Carnivory

WilliamRipple

This video by William Ripple, PhD,  is from Dr. McDougall’s 2016 Advanced Study Weekend. It describes several studies on how human’s consumption of animals degrades the environment, causes increasing climate change, and destroys ecosystems. Here is the link.

(Webmaster note: because of technical issues, the image is not a link to the video – it is just an image – click the link above to see the video).

Mercy for Animals

This is a two minute cartoon video from Mercy for Animals showing how you can end factory farming. Mercy for Animals has been quite active and powerful in showing the horrors of factory farming – since this is all cartoons, it is not graphic but it is powerful.

Gary Yourofsky

YouTube is all “a twitter” with this video, “The best speech you will every hear.” It is from a classroom lecture at CUNY on March 24, 2014. Gary talks about “Peace on your table” and an Isaac Bashevis Singer quote “Humans see oppression when they are the victims. Otherwise, they victimize blindly, without a thought.” This IS one of the best speeches you will ever hear! For a follow-up, here is the YouTube link  for the 17 minute Q&A session after this talk. You can visit the accompanying web site at http://adaptt.org/.

Melanie Joy, PhD

Melanie Joy is author of a favorite book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows. She also gave a talk at a TED conference – so in about 18 minutes, you can see the main points of her book – although the book is well worth reading.

She talks about the invisible philosophy of carnism (her own word, meaning the idea that it is okay to eat animals) which is as much of a choice as veganism. She also ties carnism to other social justice issues, where critics of each movement (think slavery, civil rights, women’s rights, etc.) used the common argument that a practice is normal, necessary and natural.  If you were ever wondering if living compassionately is right for you, this video will provide some food for thought. Note: about two minutes of this video is pretty graphic, but she gives us plenty of warning and you can skip that part if you need to.

Check out the comments after this video on  YouTube – they are enlightening themselves! You can also visit Melanie’s web site at carnism.org.

Draw My Life as a Pig in Today’s World

This is a short, cartoon video about the life of a pig in today’s world. It is mostly shown as drawn cartoons, so it is not as graphic as some videos – but it is incredibly sad and powerful. There is a companion video about life as a chicken.

 

Caldwell Esselstyn, MD

Dr. Esselstyn is a giant among physicians advocating for a plant based diet – especially to address the number one killer of Americans, heart disease. He is also an impressive human being – he takes the time to personally speak with patients who have gotten the dreaded diagnosis of heart disease and the advice to “have by-pass surgery.” He has changed many people’s lives. He advocates a plant-based diet with no added oil, based on scientific evidence.

There are many videos by Dr. Esselstyn explaining how heart disease is a dietary disease. Below is a good one.

Some of us, who have been plant-based for many years, recently changed to the Esselstyn diet of no oil (which, admittedly, was a challenge; there is oil in almost everything – read the labels). However, the result was wonderful: more energy, feeling better, weight loss. It works!

Here is a brief video on the science behind no oil (including olive and canola oil).

John McDougall, MD

Dr. McDougall is another one of the giants in plant-based eating. He calls himself a “Starchivore” which is someone who uses complex carbohydrates such as rice, beans, potatoes, and whole grains as their diet foundation. His books are wonderful and his web site is at drmcdougall.com is a great source of information. Here is one of his many videos.

Colin Campbell, PhD

Author of the popular book The China Study, Dr. Campbell was one of the researchers on the largest nutritional study ever conducted. Dr. Campbell started out his career researching ways of growing animal protein more efficiently – but he followed the scientific evidence from the lab and in epidemiological studies to become a strong voice for the health benefits of a plant-based diet. Here is one of his videos.

 Dr. Richard Oppenlander

If you are concerned about the environment, you need to understand that the best thing you can do to save the planet is to eat plants. Dr. Richard Oppenlander had been a tireless researcher, writer, and speaker about how our unthinking consumptions of animal foods and animal products is the single greatest contributor to global depletion. Why aren’t the facts of this more widely known? Veganism is environmentalism!

Why do you still breastfeed?

From Scotland, watch these activists meet with the public to question the zeitgeist of eating animals. This is also a great example of how to question people in a positive, supportive way.