Main Street Vegan

What happens when vegan activism, cultural identity, community resilience, and a deep connection to home come together?
In this episode of the Main Street Vegan Podcast, Victoria Moran speaks with Anthony Martinez, Executive Director and Programs Director of Casa Vegana, a Puerto Rico-based nonprofit working to strengthen the Island’s vegan movement through education, community-building, and plant-based outreach.
Casa Vegana grew out of community relief work following Hurricane María in 2017 and eventually became an autonomous nonprofit. Anthony, who had been involved in vegan education in New York, relocated to Puerto Rico in 2019 to reconnect with his roots and stepped into leadership as the organization evolved.
Today, Casa Vegana is helping create a more connected and sustainable vegan community in Puerto Rico — while navigating the very real challenges of infrastructure, economics, and island life.
In This Episode
Anthony’s journey from vegan activism in New York to building Casa Vegana in Puerto Rico
The evolution of Casa Vegana from post-Hurricane María community relief work into an autonomous nonprofit
What Puerto Rico’s vegan community looks like today — and how it is growing
Why cultural identity and Puerto Rican roots matter when building a lasting vegan movement
The unique challenges of making plant-based living accessible and practical on the Island
Taller Vegano, Casa Vegana’s hands-on community education program
What Anthony has learned from Puerto Ricans who are exploring plant-based living
The importance of bringing vegan people, organizations, and businesses together
Building a broader and more sustainable funding base for grassroots vegan work
How the Puerto Rican diaspora and global vegan community can support Casa Vegana
Anthony’s vision for the future of veganism in Puerto Rico
Vegan Paradise Fest, planned for March 7, 2027, and what it represents for the Island’s growing vegan community
About Anthony Martinez
Anthony Martinez is the Executive Director and Programs Director of Casa Vegana, a Puerto Rico-based nonprofit dedicated to growing the Island’s vegan movement through education, community engagement, and advocacy.
After working in vegan education with the Chilis on Wheels New York chapter, Anthony relocated to Puerto Rico in 2019 to reconnect with his roots. When Casa Vegana’s founder, Michelle Carrera, stepped back, Anthony took on leadership and helped transform the project into an autonomous nonprofit.
During the uncertainty of the 2020 pandemic, he secured Casa Vegana’s nonprofit status, helped build a board representing both the Puerto Rican diaspora and local vegan community, and kept the organization moving through consistent online programming focused on plant-based nutrition and animal rights.
Today, Anthony continues working to deepen Casa Vegana’s connections throughout Puerto Rico and build a stronger, more unified vegan community on the Island.
Connect with Casa Vegana
Website: www.casaveganapr.org
Facebook: Casa Vegana
Instagram: @casavegana.pr
About the Main Street Vegan Podcast
Subscribe, rate, and review the Main Street Vegan Podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.
Sign up for the Main Street Vegan blog and newsletter at www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive your FREE e-book, Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi.
And become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook: Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group

Complement are supplements made by vegans, Pamela Fergusson, RD, PhD, Matt Frazier, and Joel Kahn, MD, to enhance diet. Check our their new product Sulfora HERE, and enter 'MAINSTREET' in the discount box to save yourself 10%.

What does it take to create a healthier life, not just for ourselves, but for the animals, the planet, and future generations?

In this episode of the Main Street Vegan Podcast, Victoria explores 2 very different, yet deeply connected, ways of putting our values into action.

First, Victoria talks with Karen Ranzi, M.A., a vegan and raw food health coach who has been sharing the benefits of raw vegan nutrition since 1998. Karen is an award-winning author of six books, an internationally acclaimed speaker, founder of an online health coach certification focused on the raw vegan niche, and a speech pathologist with 43 years of experience.

Then, Victoria turns to an increasingly important question for anyone who wants their money to reflect their ethics: Can our investments be vegan, too?

Victoria speaks with Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Investing, about the launch of the International Vegan Climate ETF (VEGX). Beginning September 10, 2026, VEGX offers investors exposure to international companies screened according to vegan and climate-conscious principles. 

In This Episode

With Karen Ranzi:
Why Karen believes predominantly fresh, unprocessed foods can support long-term health
The personal and family experiences that shaped her approach to healing
The potential benefits of a raw plant-based lifestyle for people of all ages
Why obesity and chronic health problems have become so widespread
Protein and calcium on a vegan and raw food diet
Helping children develop healthy relationships with plant-based food
The connection between food choices, animals, the environment, and our own health
How spending time in Nature can deepen our sense of connection with other living beings
Other lifestyle factors that can support vibrant health
Why sharing the raw vegan message has become Karen's life's mission

With Claire Smith:
What makes an investment genuinely vegan and climate-conscious
The new International Vegan Climate ETF (VEGX)
Why ethical investors may unknowingly support industries that conflict with their values
How Beyond Investing screens companies for animal cruelty, fossil fuels, weapons, and human rights abuses
The importance of aligning our financial lives with our personal values
How vegan investing can support businesses creating a more compassionate and sustainable future
Beyond Investing's engagement with companies and shareholder voting
The growing global movement toward vegan and climate-conscious investment

About Our Guests

Karen Ranzi is an award-winning author of six books on raw vegan nutrition, an internationally acclaimed speaker, founder of an online Health Coach Certification focused on the raw vegan niche, and a speech pathologist with 43 years of experience.

Karen has presented at events including London Vegfest and the Woodstock Fruit Festival, as well as hundreds of events across Australia, Borneo, Russia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Canada, the UK, and the United States. Through her education, personal experiences, and passion for helping others, she has guided thousands of people toward better health through simple plant-based living.

Learn more about Karen: https://feelfabulouswithfood.com/

Instagram: @superhealthyraw
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/feelfabulouswithfood

A Spotlight on Vegan Investing with Claire Smith

Claire Smith is CEO and co-founder of Beyond Investing, a US-based registered investment adviser created to develop investment products for people who want their portfolios to reflect vegan and environmental values.

Claire spent 34 years in the finance industry, including roles at UBS and as a partner at Albourne in hedge fund research. She is also co-founder of Beyond Animal and Beyond Impact, and chairs the Beyond Cruelty Foundation.

The new International Vegan Climate ETF (VEGX) complements Beyond Investing's US Vegan Climate ETF (VEGN), giving investors another way to consider vegan and climate-conscious principles when making long-term financial decisions.

Learn more about Beyond Investing: https://beyondinvesting.com/
FB - https://www.facebook.com/beyondinvesting/

Main Street Vegan Academy

The 39th cohort of Main Street Vegan Academy begins in October 2026 via Zoom. If you've ever wanted to deepen your knowledge of veganism, compassion, nutrition, advocacy, and the vegan movement, this could be your opportunity.

Podcast listeners can receive $250 off with the code VEGCOACH250.

Subscribe, rate, and review the Main Street Vegan Podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.

Sign up for the Main Street Vegan blog and newsletter at https://www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive your FREE e-book, Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi.

And become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/207997266555049

Complement are supplements made by vegans, Pamela Fergusson, RD, PhD, Matt Frazier, and Joel Kahn, MD, to enhance diet. Check our their new product Sulfora HERE, and enter 'MAINSTREET' in the discount box to save yourself 10%.

What might Catholic spirituality have to say about veganism, compassion, and our relationship with other animals?
In this fascinating conversation, Victoria Moran speaks with Fr. Daniel Mascarenhas, SJ, a young Jesuit priest and vegan, about Catholic teachings, contemplative prayer, spirituality, and the possibility of a kinder world.
The conversation begins with a deeper exploration of Catholicism and the Jesuit tradition. Fr. Daniel shares insights into contemplative prayer and the teachings of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order, including his understanding that the world remains inherently good despite the suffering and hardship we encounter.
Victoria and Fr. Daniel also explore the remarkable range of perspectives within the Catholic Church. They discuss how the same spiritual tradition can be home to figures as politically different as Dorothy Day and J.D. Vance, and what that says about the breadth and complexity of Catholicism.
Then the conversation turns to veganism. Fr. Daniel explains why he sees compassion for animals and a vegan way of living as a natural conclusion for a follower of Christ, even though veganism remains uncommon within the Catholic community.
Together, they consider what could happen if religious communities became more engaged with animal compassion and the movement toward a kinder food system.
In This Episode
Catholic teachings and their relationship to compassion
What it means to be a Jesuit
Contemplative prayer in the Catholic tradition
The spiritual teachings of St. Ignatius
How Catholicism can encompass very different worldviews
Why Fr. Daniel became vegan
The connection between Christianity, compassion, and veganism
How faith communities could help create a kinder world
The potential for Catholic institutions to move toward greater compassion for animals
About Our Guest
Fr. Daniel Mascarenhas, SJ is a Jesuit priest whose work explores spirituality, faith, compassion, and the call to live more consciously. A vegan himself, Fr. Daniel brings a thoughtful perspective to the relationship between Christian teachings and compassionate living.
In this conversation, he shares his experience of the Jesuit tradition and explains why he believes veganism can be a natural expression of the teachings of Christ.
🍽️ A Special Visit from Chef Mark Reinfeld
Chef Mark Reinfeld, founder of Vegan Fusion, makes a special pop-in appearance during the episode to share information about his upcoming culinary course.
If you're interested in taking your plant-based cooking to the next level, listeners can receive 30% off the course through Victoria's special link.
Learn more and claim your 30% discount: https://veganfusion.com/
More from Fr. Daniel & the Compassion Consortium
Watch Fr. Daniel's appearance as a Special Spiritual Guest for the Compassion Consortium:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTJEL7XzGm0
Victoria also spoke with Swami Chidananda of the Compassion Consortium about his spiritual calling and the journey from a successful secular career toward a life of spiritual service:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYscIyFRH8s
And watch Victoria's 2019 film, A Prayer for Compassion:
https://watch.unchainedtv.com/videos/a-prayer-for-compassion
Main Street Vegan Academy
The 39th cohort of Main Street Vegan Academy begins in October 2026 via Zoom. If you've ever wanted to deepen your knowledge of veganism, compassion, nutrition, advocacy, and the vegan movement, this could be your opportunity.
Podcast listeners can receive $250 off with the code VEGCOACH250.
Subscribe, rate, and review the Main Street Vegan Podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.
Sign up for the Main Street Vegan blog and newsletter at https://www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive your FREE e-book, Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi.
And become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/207997266555049

What does it take to challenge one of the most deeply entrenched systems of animal suffering and what can each of us do to help end it?
In this powerful conversation, Victoria Moran speaks with animal rights advocates Gretchen Primack and Ella Magers, co-founders of the March to Abolish Animal Testing, about their fight to end the use of animals in laboratories.
The two are coming together to undertake a 200-mile march calling attention to the millions of animals used in experimentation and to demand a future beyond animal testing. Ella shares the story of Jane, a beagle bred for the laboratory industry who came into her life following the open rescue effort at Ridglan Farms. Jane's transformation from a laboratory animal to a beloved family member offers a deeply personal reminder of what is at stake.
Gretchen and Ella also talk about why they chose a march as their form of activism, how their work with farmed animals led them toward the fight against animal experimentation, and what they would say to anyone who cares about animals but feels powerless in the face of such a massive system.
This is a conversation about courage, compassion, direct action, and the belief that change becomes possible when ordinary people decide that the status quo is no longer acceptable.
In This Episode
Why Gretchen and Ella created the March to Abolish Animal Testing
How the fight for farmed animals led Ella toward animal testing advocacy
The story of Jane, a beagle rescued from the laboratory industry
What happened at Ridglan Farms
Why a 200-mile march?
What Gretchen and Ella hope the March will accomplish
How grassroots activism can create meaningful change
What you can do if you care about animals but feel powerless
Why ending animal experimentation requires both courage and collective action
About Our Guests
Gretchen Primack is a poet, author, and animal rights advocate. She is the co-founder and co-lead of the March to Abolish Animal Testing. Her books include Kind, a poetry collection exploring the relationships between humans and other animals, and The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals, which she co-wrote with Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary founder Jenny Brown. Gretchen also taught in maximum-security prisons for 20 years.
Ella Magers, MSW is an internationally recognized animal rights advocate, professional speaker, and holistic fitness coach. A vegan for more than 30 years, she has spent her career encouraging people to embody fierce compassion through education, coaching, public speaking, and grassroots activism. Ella serves on the founding Board of Directors of Hogs & Kisses Farm Sanctuary and is co-founder of the March to Abolish Animal Testing.
Ella's connection to the fight against animal experimentation became deeply personal after the open rescue at Ridglan Farms, when she adopted Jane, a beagle who had been bred for the laboratory industry.
The March to Abolish Animal Testing
The March to Abolish Animal Testing is a 200-mile march calling for an end to the use of animals in experimentation and for meaningful change in the systems that allow animal testing to continue.
Learn more and follow the March at:
Website: https://www.marchforanimals.org
Connect with Gretchen & Ella
Gretchen / March to Abolish Animal Testing: https://www.marchforanimals.org
Ella Magers: https://ellamagers.com/
Ella on Instagram: https://instagram.com/sexyfitvegan
March to Abolish Animal Testing on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marchforanimals/
Subscribe, rate, and review the Main Street Vegan Podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.
Sign up for the Main Street Vegan blog and newsletter at https://www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive your FREE e-book, Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi.
And become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/207997266555049

Every vegan is a spokesperson for the movement, whether they want the job or not. The good news is there's a version of that role for exactly who you already are. Felicia Greenfield found hers creating Friends Not Food, a farcical sitcom pilot filmed at a Florida farm sanctuary.

A former marketing manager for MLB and the NHL, Felicia knows no single pitch connects with everyone and when she recognized that protests weren't the right method for her, she built something that didn't exist instead. She shares that vegan advocacy isn't just about protests and boycotts, it exists in forms you're allowed to invent, and yours might resonate with someone the existing options never would.

Together, Victoria and Felicia explore narrative transportation, the reason people let their guard down inside a story in ways they never would inside a debate, and why comedy can deliver a message that a lecture would only repel. Felicia also gets into Friends Not Food itself, a show built inside Cli-Fi, the climate fiction genre already dramatizing flooded cities and dystopian hellscapes, but one that has left out the industry actually driving the crisis it exists to depict: animal agriculture.

It's a conversation about finding a lane that's actually yours, and what happens when you let an animal just be itself and call it activism.

In This Episode
Why every vegan can find their own form of advocacy
How Felicia created Friends Not Food
Why traditional protest wasn't the right fit for her
The power of storytelling to reach people differently
What narrative transportation means and why it works
How comedy can open people up to difficult ideas
Why animal agriculture belongs in the climate fiction conversation
Finding an advocacy approach that feels authentically yours

About Our Guest
Felicia Greenfield is a former marketing manager for Major League Baseball and the NHL who found her own creative approach to vegan advocacy through storytelling and comedy. She is the creator of Friends Not Food, a farcical sitcom pilot filmed at a Florida farm sanctuary that brings animal agriculture and veganism into the world of climate fiction.

Felicia's work explores how stories can create connection and open conversations that traditional advocacy approaches sometimes cannot. Her message is simple: vegan advocacy doesn't have to look one particular way. There is room to find the form that fits who you are.

About Friends Not Food
Friends Not Food is a sitcom pilot filmed at a Florida farm sanctuary. The project uses humor, storytelling, and the relationships between humans and animals to explore veganism and animal agriculture in a way that invites audiences in rather than talking at them.

The project also sits within the growing world of Cli-Fi, or climate fiction. While many stories imagine the consequences of climate change, Friends Not Food asks us to consider the role of animal agriculture in that conversation.

Connect with Felicia
Friends Not Food: https://www.friendsnotfood.tv/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/feliciag.nyc/

Subscribe, rate, and review the Main Street Vegan Podcast to help more people discover the joy of living with vitality, spirituality, and compassion.

Sign up for the Main Street Vegan blog and newsletter at https://www.mainstreetvegan.com and receive your FREE e-book, Recipes to Help You Age Like a Yogi.

Become an insider by joining the Main Street Vegan Podcast Listeners Group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/207997266555049

Complement are supplements made by vegans, Pamela Fergusson, RD, PhD, Matt Frazier, and Joel Kahn, MD, to enhance diet. Check out their new product Sulfora, and enter 'MAINSTREET' in the discount box to save yourself 10%.