S5. E1: Liza Heavener: The Game Changer
“There would be some mornings that the indigenous tribal leaders would take us out into virgin rainforest… [I was] like, “no human has ever stood here before.”
And it was alive with, I mean, you name the animal… and it was loud full and of life. And they would take us out the very next day and it was just smoldering because it had been slashed and burned illegally in the middle of the night. And it was just completely quiet except for what was left of the fire.
And that that changes you.”
- Liza Heavener
Liza’s story is one of my favorites.
She spent a decade working in federal politics, grassroots and campaign strategy and with the United States Congress. Liza was a healthcare lobbyist for a large membership organization, running their national advocacy program to engage hundreds of thousands of advocates across the country.
Then, she won a contest to work on a documentary and tv series in Borneo. Liza went there for what she thought would be 100 days, but ended up staying for the next year. While she was there, her world turned upside down. And what came out of it is this force of a woman who has dedicated herself to creating a better planet for everyone who lives on it, not just the humans.
Liza is the Chief Operating Officer at NEXUS Global and she chairs the Nexus Working Group on Animal Welfare and Biodiversity Conservation, which is dedicated to educating, empowering and connecting Next-Gen impact investors, philanthropists, and social entrepreneurs.
She also serves as an Advisor to the Millennial Action Project and as a Vice Chair of the Alumni Council for Eastern Mennonite University. Liza had a feature role in the internationally-acclaimed documentary and tv series, “Rise of the Eco-Warrior,” and has spoken at conferences across the country.
Liza amazes, inspires, and tells a really good story. I hope that you love it as much as I did.
Learn More About NEXUS Global
Learn More About the NEXUS Working Group on Animal Welfare and Biodiversity
Transcript:
Liza: [00:00:00] There would be some warnings that the indigenous tribal leaders would take us out into Virgin Rainforest, like no human has ever stood here before, it was alive with animals and birds, it was loud and full of life. They would take us out the very next day, it was just smoldering because it had been slashed and burned illegally in the middle of the night, and it was just completely quiet. Except for the you know, what was left of the fire and that changes you.
Elizabeth: [00:00:40] Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novogratz, this is Species Unite, we have a favor to ask if you like today's episode and you have a spare minute, could you please rate and review species your night on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts? It really helps people to find the show. Today is the first day of season five, so welcome back and thank you for being back. Today is also the first day of the Species Unite 30 day vegan challenge. If you haven't signed up for it, you should. It's 30 days of all things plant based recipes, tips, articles, information, and it's really good. Even if you're already vegan, sign up anyway because the information is really good. If you're thinking there's no way I can eat plant based for 30 days, then do it for 10. Go to SpeciesUnite.com/Challenge.com. Today's conversation is with Lisa Heavener. Lisa's story is one of my favorites. She spent a decade working in politics on the hill and then won a contest to work on a documentary in Borneo. She went there for what she thought would be 100 days, but ended up staying for a year. While she was there, her world turned upside down. What came out of it was this force of a woman who has dedicated herself to creating a better planet for everyone who lives on it, not just the humans. She's now the chief operating officer at Nexus Global, and she chairs the Nexus Working Group on Animal Welfare and Biodiversity Conservation. Which is dedicated to educating, empowering and connecting next impact investors, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs. Hi, Lisa.
Liza: [00:02:42] Hi, Beth.
Elizabeth: [00:02:43] It is so nice to be here in person.
Liza: [00:02:44] It's so good to see a human.
Elizabeth: [00:02:45] Yes, it is.
Liza: [00:02:46] Good to have you here.
Elizabeth: [00:02:47] Let's start. Let's go way back and start with your story where you grew up and how you grew up around food.
Liza: [00:02:55] Sure. The story starts in 1985 in the farmlands of Pennsylvania. Where I grew up around factory farms and meat and animal products being served for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and there was probably bacon as a snack. So, it was all the time and we were completely removed from any understanding of where our food came from and the process of which it got to our plates. I think initially this area in Pennsylvania was probably very connected because they were raising the food that landed on their plates directly. Then, of course, Big Egg came in. So it looks quite different now than what it did. I think naturally, people just lose sight of that connection emotionally and mentally as well.
Elizabeth: [00:03:40] Did you have animals? Was that a thing for you?
Liza: [00:03:44] Oh, did I have animals? So, when I was two, I went to get my ears pierced. I like those cute little kiosks in the mall and they got through one of the two ears and I was putting on such a hissy fit that they could not get to the second ear. So, my mom promised me a pet duck if I just sat still in the seat and let them pierced my ear. So fast forward to when the spring came and Ducky Lock entered into my life, but very sadly I was only ever allowed to have summer pets so I would get them at Easter. This is like a stereotypical story, right? I would fall in love with them all summer, then when the school year started, they went to quote unquote a happy farm. Oh my god, I was in like a puddle of tears. So, I think that was a difference. Like, my sister had the same experience and friends of ours would have a similar kind of ebb and flow to their pets. They were not as upset as I was. I mean, I was devastated and could not understand how I got to love this animal and build such an incredible connection for four months. Then just poof, it was just gone. Like, No, this was part of my family. What do you mean, Ducky luck is going to a farm?
Elizabeth: [00:04:52] Unbelievable. But did you know that at some point? What were you thinking you would do when you got older?
Liza: [00:05:01] Oh, I was going to be a singer. I mean, nothing really whatsoever. But I always had a special affinity to animals and definitely a deeper connection than most, right?
Elizabeth: [00:05:13] Then you ended up working on The Hill once you got older?
Liza: [00:05:16] I did. Yeah, in college. I got my first internship on Capitol Hill, where I was the Senate Majority Leader, who at the time was Senator Bill Frist. He is incredible. I loved his office. I also learned that I'm in fact a Democrat. Since then, I worked for nonprofits on the Hill, like the Faith and Politics Institute, where I got to work and walk alongside the late Congressman John Lewis, going down to Selma, Alabama, about six different times with him on coddles congressional delegations where we would take over a hundred members of Congress, both sides of the aisle, any faith or no faith at all involved and really walk the history of the civil rights movement.
Elizabeth: [00:05:54] What was it like being with John?
Liza: [00:05:56] So growing up in a very white suburb? I am also very white. I don't think I ever had a black teacher growing up, and here I was like literally walking alongside John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and in Birmingham and in Montgomery and hearing what it was like from him and Dorothy Cotton, like so many other incredible luminaries from that time. My mind was blown and I realized truly for the first time, I think I was 19 or 20, what the civil rights movement really was and how it had brought us so far, and yet not far enough.
Elizabeth: [00:06:33] So did this change you, like in terms of who you wanted to be in the world?
Liza: [00:06:38] It led me to see the power of grass tops rather than grassroots. Not that both aren't important, but the point of these congressional delegations and taking one hundred members of Congress on these three day trips was to blur the lines of politics and to say it does not matter if you're on the most extreme right side or the most extreme left. Let's look at one example in history, at the politics back in the civil rights movement, it shouldn't have mattered, and voting in the right way was not maybe the most popular political choice, but it was the right thing. So, we were challenging the lawmakers to look at today's choices to say what is maybe not politically popular, but absolutely the right thing to do. The coolest part was they were allowed to bring their families on these coattails. So, a Republican from Alabama would have his eight year old son and Liberal Democrat from California would have his nine year old daughter and they would be sitting on a bus together for three days. By the end of this, they were best friends, and no joke after many, many months of the trip, you would look at some legislation and see some new co-sponsors that were signing on to bills, and it was really because they started to see each other as more human and they got to not talk about politics, but just talk about their kids or talk about what life is really like outside of the left and the right extremes that we have.
Elizabeth: [00:08:04] We're much more alike than we are different.
Liza: [00:08:06] We're so much stronger together.
Elizabeth: [00:08:08] What made you leave?
Liza: [00:08:09] So I was obsessed with politics and maybe somewhat foolishly thought that politics was a powerful vehicle for change. So, I jumped around and I ran one of the largest political action committees on the hill and ran a grassroots campaign for over three million nurses. Then I was a lobbyist, and this is when things started to go maybe downhill a little bit in my belief of this powerful vehicle for change. We were trying to introduce a bill that should have been bipartisan. It was about the safety of people in hospitals. I learned at the beginning of every Congress they rank and rate the bills, and this had a less than one percent chance of even getting introduced, much less actually going anywhere. This would have been the next two years of my life, like hitting the pavement, trying to get this legislation through. They'd been trying to get it introduced for 10 years, and I have less than a one percent chance.
Elizabeth: [00:09:03] Why is that? I mean, why is it that crazy?
Liza: [00:09:06] I mean, part of it is like, there's so many ideas in the world. So there's so much legislation and there's only so many hours that Congress can be pushing things through. But it's also, for better or worse, a very slow system, in which sometimes those checks and balances are very necessary and needed. Other times it's preventing really viable, helpful legislation and future regulation for Americans from moving.
Elizabeth: [00:09:35] Yeah, yeah.
Liza: [00:09:36] So I said, forget it
Elizabeth: [00:09:35] Like that was just enough. That was it?
Liza: [00:09:37] Yeah, why am I going to spend two years of my life doing this thing that we know now has a one percent chance? Like, no,
Elizabeth: [00:09:45] Did it ever pass?
Liza: [00:09:47] No, it's been how many years? The clock is ticking. So I quit my job and I moved to the jungles of Borneo, Indonesia, and I was selected out of this international competition that was looking for 10 young people to go into the jungles of Borneo for 100 days. When I applied for this, I had to submit a little video, all this embarrassing stuff. After I was selected, I mean, I still remember getting the email being like, You are the one female from North America that we've that we've chosen.
Elizabeth: [00:10:23] Are you kidding?
Liza: [00:10:25] No, I was like, Oh crap, where is Borneo? Like, what have I done? What is this place? Because I really applied on a whim and I was like a little bit lost in life. What's my next move and what am I doing here? So anyway, fast forward quite a few months. I packed my bags, kicked off my high heels, left them on Capitol Hill, put on my boots and got to work.
Elizabeth: [00:10:43] What was the three month program? What did you enter?
Liza: [00:10:47] What did I enter, I was wondering the same. They were looking for 10 young people to go and spend 100 days filming a documentary about just the plight of this part of the world. We lived with the diak tribes. Just incredible, incredible indigenous villages. It's one of the most remote places on the planet. It took me four days from Washington, D.C. to get to Jakarta and then to land on Pontianak. Then I took a 12 hour bus deep, deep into the jungle. Then from there it was a long boat, another eight hours and then a moped. I mean, it was a journey. I've always cared about the planet but in a very disconnected kind of way. Once you go to a place like this, you're literally standing on the front lines of the fight for the planet and you cannot walk away from that unchanged. I landed in the middle of West Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia, which the whole island is about the size of Texas. It is known to be one of the oldest rainforests on the planet. It's literally like the Amazon and Borneo are the lungs of the planet, and we are cutting it down at an absolutely alarming rate. There's been some quotes that have shown we're cutting down a hundred football fields of virgin rainforest every hour. So it won't be here long, and we're cutting it down for mainly for palm oil, which I didn't know anything about this before I got there, but it's the smoothing agent in things like ah, soap and chocolate and peanut butter, like start looking at labels and they often it's like a big, long chemical name that it can be masked by. But sometimes it'll just say palm oil on it and it's in everything. It's not good for us, but it's cheap to grow and it's cheap to cut down. Land in Borneo is cheap, so we're using it, we're using the rainforest to grow palm oil, pulp and paper and things like that. So, there would be some mornings that the indigenous tribal leaders would take us out into virgin rainforest like no human has ever stood here before. It was alive with animals and birds, it was loud, full of life, and they would take us out the very next day. It was just smoldering because it had been slashed and burned illegally in the middle of the night. It was just completely quiet, except for what was left of the fire. That changes you, you can't come back from that and not be an advocate and not say this is so shortsighted. What are we doing for animals, for the planet, for the people that are trying to survive there? I think that there are probably cures to pandemics that we don't even have yet that are living in these virgin untouched rainforests that we're just cutting down for a quick dollar.
Elizabeth: [00:13:38] Did you have encounters with orangutans?
Liza: [00:13:41] I did. They're my little redheaded babies. So, one of the best parts, we were broken into teams and I was gleefully selected for the animal like rehabbing team, which is, of course, exactly where I wanted to be. The heartbreak in this, did I get to spend a lot of time up close and personal with orangutans? Yes. Is it like the highlight of my life? Yes, how heartbreaking. I should not have that opportunity. They should not need to be rescued and rehabbed, and hopefully some of them are lucky enough to be released like I was bottle feeding a baby orangutan, sometimes like the best moment ever, also hang on. Where is her mother? The fact that I even need to be in this position, and they're often hunted for bushmeat or baby Orangutans on the black market are incredibly lucrative. Many decades ago, the president of Indonesia had pet orangutans, so it became a status symbol. So even though it's technically illegal, it's not something that's really regulated, certainly not in the middle of Borneo. So they would be chained outside of restaurants or outside of homes because, hey, it can be a great pet when they're little. But these things grow into 300 plus pound humongous, incredibly strong animals.
Elizabeth: [00:15:00] There's such smart, soulful animals.
Liza: [00:15:04] Yeah, absolutely. So there was one eight year old orangutan that we rescued while I was there named Marmont, and he just stole my heart forever. His story is really sad, where for almost eight years he was kept at a chicken factory in a tiny little cage, not much bigger than a kitchen table. Really, really small. So much so that he couldn't even sit up so his muscles were completely destroyed. He had no muscle strength at all by the time we got to him. The only thing that he could see day in and day out because he was inside of this chicken factory essentially was the slaughter of these chickens. That's all that his eyes saw for almost eight years. So, we were able to negotiate a release where they handed him over and we started rehab on him. I still remember his very first days at the rehab center. We would put a banana just above his head and we would hang it from a string and to see if he could even use the strength in his arm to reach up and grab the banana, he couldn't. But he would use his other arm to prop up his elbow to lift his hand and like he would try and try and try it. I know this sounds like torture, but it wasn't. It was us really trying to get a gauge of where he was at and the work that we needed to do with him. So through many, many months of rehab, he, of course, has made incredible strides. He will never be able to be fully released, but he's at a soft release site. But my absolute highlight of the entire experience was that we got to take them frequently out to what's called forest school. So in the wild, they stay with their moms till they're about nine years old. Of course, when they don't have their mother, somebody else has to teach them that tree branches will break. If you know it's not strong enough and you're too heavy or you can eat this termite nest, here's how to find it. So Miss Capitol Hill here was digging for termite nests, breaking them open and sucking the termites out of them. I have footage.
Elizabeth: [00:17:01] Oh my god.
Liza: [00:17:03] If you don't believe it. But it was incredible to watch these brilliant animals. They would watch us do it one time and they were like, OK, move out of the way I got this and they like, absolutely, they would get it instantly. So, one day I had Marmont out in the forest. It was his first day out, just a soft release sight, totally safe. He isn't ever going to be able to climb trees, but he can walk and just be back in his natural environment is, of course, great for him. I set him down on the ground for the first time, and he looked all around with these big, big brown eyes and he walked off maybe five feet really slowly, and he stopped and turned around and came back to me and I was just sitting on the ground quietly and he came up to me and he put his forehead right up to mine. So, our eyes were just like inches apart, and he just looked in my eyes for I don't know how long, but it felt like a lifetime. Then he just turned and walked off to explore, and it was like, I mean, I still get emotional talking about that because what are we doing? They're so smart, and his little heart should be filled with rage and hate for what humans have done to him. He had nothing but just the softest spirit and compassion, love and appreciation. So it just changed forever.
Elizabeth: [00:18:19] So you're one hundred days in Borneo and then by the end of it, are you like, I have to do something completely different with my life?
Liza: [00:18:27] I was hooked, I'm like, wait, I'm not done yet. I ended up staying. We tried to launch a non-profit. We were so committed because going there for just one hundred days is like you're just scratching the surface of all of the issues and trying desperately to find solutions. I was, what, twenty seven? Like a white girl from the East Coast? I don't have solutions for the indigenous leaders that have been living there forever. So, it was really like going and supporting the amazing work that they were already doing with reforestation campaigns and raising awareness through this documentary and then later on a TV series as well, helping the orangutans where we could. But we would also travel to schools all over Indonesia and talk about palm oil and talk about how this land that they have there is so precious. That place is like, I live outside New York City. We don't have that here anymore, right? I have a concrete jungle that I can go visit, but like, there is so much richness in preserving what they have and to be so proud of this because they look to America and so many other Western cultures as the ideal. Really for us to come there and say, No, no, this is beautiful. I think that there was some power in that message as well.
Elizabeth:[00:19:45] The people that you were with, I'm sure it was just like an immediate bond because you had a big fight together, right?
Liza: [00:19:51] So there were most nights when we were sleeping in the house under mosquito nets just being like, Is this real? What are we doing? Because we were from all over the world, so myself and one other guy were from America and we had France represented and Kenya and England and Australia and Asia and Indonesia, and so had never met each other. We were all in our 20s or so, just literally thrown together and basically tasked with the understanding of like, do something right, you're not going to be able to solve this in 100 hundred days, surely. But like, come out of this having made it a little bit better. That is like the weight of the world on your shoulders. Right?
Elizabeth: [00:20:31] Especially when you're having these intimate moments with an eight year old orangutan and his life is literally in your hands.
Liza: [00:20:41] For every Marmont there's a hundred others that we can't rescue because it's expensive, because where do you put them? Because we were certainly up against the really challenging question of like, well, what's the safe release spot? Now Marmont will never be able to be fully released, but there are others who absolutely, they'll get rehabbed for a few years and then they can be released with a couple of others in little pods. But where do you put them so that it's going to be safe from poachers, from people intentionally setting fires or bulldozers and things like that?
Elizabeth: [00:21:12] Can you imagine they get released and then it happens again?
Liza: [00:21:16] Yeah. So the amazing part about being alive in 2022, I mean 2020 not 2022.
Elizabeth: [00:21:25] You're just waiting for 2022.
Liza: [00:21:29] We are. Is all the innovation that we have, like tracking devices and some really cool technologies that can help to keep them safe as well. So, there's lots of work that still needs to be done. But satellite data and imagery and things like that are really helpful. One of the things that we launched is a program called Earth Watchers, and it used satellite data to capture images of an amount of hectares. Then we would actually enable school kids from all over the world to quote unquote and adopt for free a piece of the rainforest. And then we gamified it so they would go in and they would check on their land. Oh, OK, the trees are still standing. We're good to go or hang on. I think I see bulldozer tracks and I think that they're heading towards my land. What's going on? So we could then notify local authorities to go out and check it out.
Elizabeth: [00:22:18] What a brilliant idea, really incredible.
Liza: [00:22:20] It’s such a good way to spread the message, and it still is. Greenpeace ended up taking it, which is great. Now they're using it as part of their platform.
Elizabeth: [00:22:30] Really cool.
Liza: [00:22:34] So, I came out of the rainforest, landed back in D.C, a totally changed woman with a lot of, you know, sparked passion and was so lost because a lot of the people that, are still near and dear to my heart in that area, they cared about job titles and how many zeros are in their bank account. I care about that stuff too, and I care about legacy and making a difference and leaving the world a little bit better. So it was around that time that I was invited to this conference, the summit at the United Nations called Nexus, and I was like, all right, I'll go check it out. I walked into this room of a thousand other young people from all over the world that were not sitting around waiting for a bill, to maybe be introduced, to maybe become a law in 10 years. They were taking power and control in their own hands and shaping the future that they wanted. Maybe they don't care about palm oil and that's fine.
Elizabeth: [00:23:33] Right?
Liza: [00:23:34] But they are doing everything they can to stop human trafficking or to stop climate change, or they're investing their money to be aligned with their values or criminal justice reform, like so many amazing initiatives. They were just really woke to what is going on today and taking control right now, they're not waiting around, you know? To start a new business or to do anything else in 5, 10, 20, 30 years, they're doing it today. So, I was totally inspired. I don't journal but on Amtrak from New York back down to D.C. after this three day summit, I remember writing, I would love to work for a place like Nexus. That would be like a dream organization. So, fast forward many years I've been the chief operating officer for the past four years. It's a network of 6000 young people now from some of the world's most known and interesting families. It's next gen and millennials who have a passion for creating change in the world and they know how to do it. They are uniquely positioned through financial capital or social capital or even heart capital to be able to do that and accelerate the future and really hurry history.
Elizabeth: [00:24:45] Tell me about what you do at Nexus?
Liza: [00:24:48] So historically, we hold a global summit at the United Nations and then that is an opportunity for any member all over the world to come together for a summit, then throughout the year, we do regional summits in the U.S., in LATAM, in Africa, in MENA, in Australia, in Asia and in Europe. Those are opportunities for our members to come together in smaller regional summits to really take a deep dive into the opportunities and challenges that they are up against in that corner of the world. The beauty of this is that we're bringing together millennials who would be inheritors and philanthropists and impact investors. We're pairing them and then also bringing together social entrepreneurs that have a proven track record of knowing how to move the needle on some of the most pressing issues that are out there, that our generation is up against. So, by bringing them together, we really think that we're able to accelerate the future and just watching the collaborations that they have together has been so powerful.
Elizabeth: [00:25:49] Talk about the animal welfare and conservation part of everything?
Liza: [00:25:53] Sure. So at Nexus, we have a number of different working groups, and about five years ago, I launched the Nexus Working Group on Animal Welfare and Biodiversity Conservation. I really started that out around a couple of different buckets. There's the biodiversity conservation bucket. Then when it comes to animal welfare, there is companion animals, factory farming and wildlife conservation. So I've really tried to use this as a ladder of engagement for people who might not think that they care about animal protection and are heavily involved in that space. For the first year, I almost solely focused on companion animals because who doesn't love their cat or dog or riding their horse or something like that? From there, we moved on to really focus on wildlife conservation, because maybe you've done a safari to Africa or you've just always had an affinity towards elephants. You want to learn more about the plight of why they are being poached and what's going on with the pangolin and things like that. Then lastly, we started talking about our plate because there are some things that you just don't touch in this world like religion, politics and plates. It's a loaded conversation.
Elizabeth: [00:27:04] It's a big jump from dog to cow.
Liza: [00:27:06] For sure, exactly. I never, ever wanted to come at any of our members or anyone in the world with judgment. I don't think that there's a perfect vegan that's out there walking around. I think everyone needs to do the best that they can with what they've been given and to continue educating themselves on how deeply broken a lot of our systems are and how disconnected we are certainly from our food system. But fashion and so many other systems as well that we've just been blindly led into. So one of the great speakers that we had a few years ago was Melanie Joy, and I love the title of her book because it's called Why We Eat Pig, Wear Cows and Love Our Dogs. I think that whole, like the psychology behind how we get convinced of certain things is so fascinating. Of course, here in America, very few of us would consider a golden retriever appetizing as a meal on our plate. But other parts of the world would absolutely do that, and they would look at some of the foods that we eat and think that that wasn't appetizing. So, just what is going on culturally, with how any of us are raised and led to believe certain things. So within Nexus, I never want there to be any judgment. I just want people to come and learn because I do think this is a group of individuals, who strive to make the world a better place and want to be informed about their decisions. So, it's been really exciting that over three years ago, we took our global summits completely plant based. I will say the first year we got some feedback. Where's my burger when I'm hungry? We stayed on the straight and narrow and continued having plant based summits, and we get almost no negative feedback now. I think that's a testament to how far this conversation has come globally and certainly here in the U.S., like the future of food is something that people are waking up to. Even a handful of years ago, I think there was still a huge disconnect happening between people who care about climate change, but they're still going to have their steak for dinner. That's not to say never to have steak. If that's your thing, it's to recognize what went into that food. Where was it sourced from? It's like really stepping back and critically looking at the choices that we're making and then making sure that that's the right choice for you.
Elizabeth: [00:29:29] How did it change for you in terms of eating and your lifestyle? Like when was it and what happened? Was this part of Borneo?
Liza: [00:29:38] I'm always so jealous of people who say, this is my vegan anniversary, March 12th, 19th whatever, because I don't have that. For me, Borneo really woke me up spending that much time up close and personal with the orangutan that we share. 97% of our DNA with, I started forming like the deepest bonds that I ever have with other animals and just recognizing truly what it means to be a sentient being. But hold on, I had really great bonds with my duck growing up. What about those chickens that I used to have? So it became like the slippery slope of just recognizing the pain and suffering that some of my decisions were causing. If I want to be a changemaker for good, then I can make three choices every single day that really matter. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Elizabeth: [00:30:30] With the climate, like you said, there really was the separation people could say, I'm an environmentalist. I'm fighting climate change and literally eat beef three times a day. There was nobody really saying much about it. Part of me wonders, is it like the bubble I'm in that it feels like that's not the case anymore?
Liza: [00:30:49] Yeah, I think there's been so much education in that space. Jonathan Safran Foer came out with a book a year ago, and his theory is scientific. You know, he's obviously done the homework on this. Is eating vegan for breakfast and lunch actually a better way to give back to the planet than being vegetarian 24-7. Which is fascinating because if you had said which one of these two things, I would have not thought that is actually right. But it is, and it's really fascinating. it's not that hard. Like you, It's so doable
Elizabeth: [00:31:24] When you were talking at Nexus with bringing in the animal, starting with the companion animals and working the way up. Were people resistant to even hearing about animals and animal welfare? I feel like they're finally getting a seat at the table and people are starting to listen in a different way and connect. Have you seen that shift?
Liza: [00:31:45] So I do think and it's the nature of the animal protection space, right? It is really graphic. It's really the more you know, the more you know and like when you start going down the path of education, it just doesn't stop like, Oh, OK, I'm just vegetarian, I'm still going to drink milk because the mom cow is fine. Oh, wait, this is what happens to the calf. This is how many times they're impregnating them. I mean, it is like, Oh my gosh, you have to like, really seal yourself off for some of this. So, I do think that focusing more on the answers and the people that are driving those solutions has helped to bring in more new voices into the space. I never wanted this to be like the vegan club because then I'm only going to get the vegans. You know what they're already in?
Elizabeth: [00:32:34] Yes. No, you don't have to talk to them. They get it. So, talk a little bit about some of the solutions for people who don't aren't really aware of what's happening right now, because it's so damn exciting. The future of food and how much it's changed and going to change in the next ten years.
Liza: [00:32:50] Yeah, I mean, there's just incredible companies. So, everyone by now has heard of Beyond Meat with Ethan Brown. But there is Uma Valenti, who's working day in and day out at Memphis Meats, which is cellular agriculture. So regrowing actual meat meat. There's Modern Meadow, which is in New Jersey, and they are figuring out how to regrow leather. There's just so much technology that is beyond incredible right now. So, there's that side of the innovation. But then there's also people like Damien Mander who runs the International Anti-Poaching Foundation in Zimbabwe, and he was previously an Australian sniper based in Iraq and came back from that and thought, How do I use my shooting skills for good? Has now launched an incredible organization in the middle of Africa, that is saving and also training up entire villages of now vegan powerhouse women called Akashenka. So that's incredible because he's not only transforming the lives and saving the lives of so many animals, but he's completely reframing the communities there and in the way that they want and working alongside them and having them be the leaders and the solutions in this. So like, the list is endless, and that's part of why I love the work that I do at Nexus two, because I get to bring these incredible people to the stage at Nexus in front of all of these young people with power and influence and say, All right, go inspire them. Tell them your story. Then we get that many more people bought into this and excited about it.
Elizabeth: [00:34:23] This is the way to really move the needle. This is where the change happens and it's happening. It's awesome. Yeah, Lisa, thank you. Thank you so much for today and thank you for all the work you're doing in the world. It's amazing. It's changing the world. So thank you.
Liza: [00:34:39] Thanks so much, Beth.
Elizabeth: [00:34:51] To learn more about Liza and to learn about Nexus Global. Go to our website, we will have links to everything at SpeciesUnite.com. While you're there, sign up for the 30 day vegan challenge. You will not regret it, I promise. We are also on Facebook and Instagram, @Species Unite. If you like today's episode, please do us a favor and rate and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you would like to support the podcast, we would greatly appreciate it. We're on Patreon at Patreon.com/Species Unite. I would like to thank everyone at Species Unite, including Gary Knudsen, Natalie Martin, Caitlin Pearce, Amy Jones, Paul Healey, Santana Poky and Gabriela Cibulska. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day!
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