Aging Without Limits: Jane Velez-Mitchell on Living Vegan, Staying Sober, and Speaking Out

Jane Velez-Mitchell, former CNN Headline News host turned animal rights activist, is unchained and fired up. She shares her story of hitting “high bottom” as opposed to “rock bottom,” which led her to sobriety. She is the Founder of Unchained TV, a free streaming platform centered around veganism with thousands of cooking shows, programming, and documentaries. She says aging well is all about attitude. We discuss the benefits of a plant-based diet for health and longevity and the importance of staying relevant and connected as one ages.

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Transcript

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Hello, friend. Today's guest is a firecracker. You likely know Jane Velez Mitchell from her time as a CNN Headline News host, or maybe from her fierce animal activism. But today she opens up and she shares her like embarrassing story that led her to her sobriety and talks about her mother, who lived to almost 100, and the secrets that she learned from her mother about aging. And if you haven't already, please give me a follow on Instagram and Facebook for inspiration recipes to keep up with upcoming guests on the podcast. Just search Lauren Bernick well, elephant or see the show notes. I put the handles there. And don't forget you can watch us now on Spotify and YouTube. And thanks for listening, friend. You'll never know how much I appreciate you not. Hi friends, I'm Lauren Bernick and I'm flipping the script about growing older. My guests have been influencers since before that was even a thing. Welcome to the anti Anti-Aging podcast. Welcome to age like a badass mother. Jane Velez Mitchell is the founder and content editor of Unchained TV, a free global streaming television network and social media news and entertain main outlet. Unchained TV produces and streams original video content on the plant based lifestyle. Unchained TV also streams hundreds of documentaries, cooking shows, lifestyle shows, talk shows and music videos from a variety of sources, all with an eye towards benefiting animals, people in the planet. Jane has won four Genesis Awards or commendations from the Humane Society of the United States for her reporting on animal issues, as well as numerous other awards on behalf of animal rights. Vegnews named Velez Mitchell Media maven of the year in 2010. For six years, she hosted her own show on CNN Headline News, where she ran a weekly segment on animal issues. Previously, Velez Mitchell was a news anchor and reporter at cable TV in Los Angeles and WCBS TV in New York. She is the winner of a Los Angeles Emmy and a New York Emmy for her reporting. Velez Mitchell is the author of four books, as well as an award winning director and producer. She lives with her two companion, Animals, in Los Angeles. I can hardly believe that I am interviewing Jane Velez Mitchell, but please welcome Jane. Will has Mitchell. Hi. Hey. Great to be. Great to be here with you. Who are your two companion animals? What are their names? Well, now we're up to, I have two rescue dogs and a rescue cat. So the dogs are Sunday and Wednesday, which are the days I rescue them. And the cat is tux because she's a classic tuxedo cat. Oh, and then, so I know that you, you know, you and I have, similar backgrounds in that are we had really unconventional, childhoods. I had a lot of animals in my. Did your parents let you have a lot of animals as a child? Well, probably the reason I'm an animal rights activist is I had a dog named Mr. Monday who? A friend of my mother's who was in show business. This guy Cosmo brought in, and he was kind of a pool hall. My upbringing was kind of like, I don't know if you ever saw the Woody Allen film Broadway. Did, there were a lot of characters like that. And he brought this dog in Mr. Monday, and I fell in love with Mr. Monday. And then my parents were moving to a fancier apartment on 57th and seventh, across the street from Carnegie Hall. We had been on 58th Street. And, one day I came home and they had given my dog away. And to this day, I would say it's the worst thing that's ever. My God. I immediately I just felt like this was my brother who had been given away. I never found out what happened to him. I felt betrayed, I felt like I had betrayed him. I stopped trusting my parents because their story about a farm didn't water, you know, in midtown Manhattan. And, a lot of animal activists have similar stories. To this day, I wonder whatever happened to Mr. Monday? No, no accident that my dog's name. Yeah. I was going to say. Yeah, you have a name type that says somebody found a dog that looked when she asked me to adopt the dog that she had found running in the rain with no identification. No way of finding the owner. And I looked at this dog, and I said, this dog has the same fox terrier look as Mr. Monday. So I called her Sunday and I felt a little bit of closure. But who knows? Your parents never told you. Like they just really stuck to the farm. The story. This is the classic thing. Went to the farm. Oh, Cosmo guy gave him to somebody on a train who was going to a farm. It's just not since even as a whatever nine year old or whatever I was, I. I knew that that wasn't the trick, you know? That's enough. Okay, so I was going to say we had so many things in common. I grew up in New York as well. When I was a kid, till I was ten. And that was another thing. When we were moving to Texas, my mother, the night before she said, oh, my friend's coming over for dinner. And she the as the friend was leaving, she's like, oh, hey, by the way, I'm taking your guinea pig, your gerbil in your hamster with me because you can't take it on the plane. And I was so, you know, just blindsided. I was sobbing and we took the dog. We had a little dog, fluffy, and she got to come to Texas. But same thing happened that I just couldn't believe my mother would do that to me. She's like, we take them on a plane, their ears will burst. I was like, well, we could have driven or something. I don't know. Anyway, species this society we live in where we consider animals disposable objects, which is why we're in the trouble we're in right now. LA fires one of the worst catastrophes, one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. The governor himself characterized it that way, and what's the root cause? Root causes, climate change. And what's the root cause of climate change? Well, it's not entirely fossil fuels. If it were, we would be starting to reverse climate change. The U.N. cop conferences wouldn't be the ineffective jokes that they are. So we have to look at animal agriculture's role in the climate. This is something Unchained TV really tries to emphasize. Why don't you hear this in the mainstream media? Because people go, whoa, if that were true, wouldn't that means no? Because look at the advertisers, right? Fast food and pharmaceutical sales, the two industries that are wedded together who profit from animal agriculture. So, of course you're not going to talk about it. They will not talk about it. It's horrific. And yet we're at a point where we are barreling towards a real climate apocalypse. There's only nine boundaries, approximately, according to Sir David Attenborough, who's no radical. And we're breaking through six of them as we speak. We may already be past the point of no return, but if we don't start looking at our daily lifestyle choices, here's the thing. People go, well, the government's going to have to do something. First of all, the government is creating the climate crisis. I can talk about that in depth, but the idea that none of us have the power to reverse no. Three times a day on your plate, you can reverse climate change, in Oxford University study showed. And it was published in the New York Times. And no other media picked it up. That heavy meat eaters, which is most Americans, can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions footprint by 75% by switching to a plant based diet, Most people who listen to this podcast, first of all, are really if they're not completely plant based, they're pretty plant forward. And so I don't want to shame anybody, but I do want people to think about these things that you're talking about because it's very important, like you said, for the health of our planet, for the health of people. I had very bad heart disease. That's how I came to this lifestyle. And then once you, you know, get into it, you kind of can't look away. You can't be like, oh, I improved my health by not eating animals. But now that I'm not eating animals, it's easier for me to see the truth and start looking at, you know, what the factory farming and the greenhouse gas emissions and all the other things once you really dig into it. But yeah, I suggest that people, you know, go to Unchained TV and start watching some of your, programing and some of maybe start with the more palatable, programs and then go on to the hard, harder core Dominion and, things like that. But, you know, may I say something, please? Okay. We are a 501 C3 nonprofit. I do not take a salary. We are available on any cell phone. You simply put the word unchained TV in there. One word, Unchained TV. And these 2000 documentaries, cooking shows like if you say, well, I can never give up cheese, I got a whole category on cheese. Okay, whatever your thought is about this issue, there's an answer in these documentaries. It's free. Yeah, and there's no cash. People are like, well, what's your angle? My angle is I don't want to live in a planet that is torturing 92 billion animals unnecessarily. That's causing terrible problems for humans. Health, heart disease, cancer, people don't even realize it. Processed meat is officially cancer. Yeah. Carcinogen poisoning. And according to the World Health Organization, meanwhile, the news media is writing all these articles about processed veggies. They never mentioned that processed meat is officially cancer causing, cancer causing. And so we have these solutions. And what I will say is, if you're watching this and going, oh, this woman, what a pain in the ass, why am I why? Well, look, you know, that's how I fell. I'm, a recovering alcoholic. Knock on wood, in a couple of months, I'll be 30 years. April fools. I saw that April Fool's Day. And, you know, when I was in my disease, I did not want to hear it. So only my good friend said, Jane, you had a problem. You've had enough. My other friends, my fairweather friends are like, oh, it was fun. Don't worry about it. Right. So only your real friends will tell you if you have a problem. That's right. Secondly, I thought, well, when I get sober, it's going to be the end of fun. The end of dancing, the end of singing, the end of karaoke, the end of no. I go to more parties. I don't necessarily karaoke that much, but I'm having more fun. It's the same thing with giving up meat and dairy. You think, oh, I'll never be able to go to a potluck again. I'll never. What do I order at a restaurant? A nobody cares what you're ordering. Just like when I got sober first, I was like, well, people are going to think, oh, she's not drinking. Nobody. Nobody cares. Nobody cares what you're drinking. You're not drinking. Nobody cares what you're eating or not eating. Do what you know is right and you will feel so much better. You will have so much energy. You know what my biggest criticism people tell me? Calm down, Jane, you have much energy. Don't do it if you tell me. Know, Jane, I'm with you, I don't care. And I, I am whole food plant based. I don't need oil either. And so you want to talk about no fun people? Like, I pull my food out of my purse at a restaurant. Okay, that's. I take it, you know, and I don't give a crap what people think, and I don't care, but, you mentioned so 30 years sober. What? What are you going to do on April 1st to celebrate? Do you do you do some kind of thing every year of all? April Fool's Day is a perfect right perfect anniversary date for me, because that was my spare. That's right. I was the lampshade, on the head person at the party. So, no, I mean, I'll just, celebrate, you know, quietly. It is a milestone, but all we have is today. You can't get overconfident. Your addiction is doing push ups the entire time you're sober. And so you have to know it's a spiritual problem with a spiritual solution, and you have to work it every single day. And, so I certainly do not working perfectly, but I work as best I can. And, I'm just so grateful I have a lot of gratitude. And that's what I think when people go vegan and I know the word vegan. Oh, we're supposed to say plant based now because people are scared of the word vegan. Stop it. It's a word. Okay. And I just found out uploading a video to Unchained TV that it's a very recent word, by the way. Well, yeah, in the mid 1940s that the Vegetarian Society had a subgroup that didn't want to eat dairy or eggs, and they said, can we have a section of your newsletter? And the Vegetarian Society said, no. So they got annoyed and they put out their own newsletter and they took the first, three letters of the word vegetarian and the last two letters of the word vegetarian, and they put them together for vegan. And do you know that vegan only appeared for the first time in a dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary, in 1962, I believe it. So we're talking about a very people have been vegan since the dawn of time. Oh yeah. But the word is very modern and recent. Yeah, absolutely. Can I ask how old you are? 1669. All right. So, because this is age, like a badass mother, and I know that, how old do you feel? I'd say, 40. 42. That's very specific. Why do you feel 42? Well, I probably could calculate it down. You know, they say that when you're drinking alcohol, likely your emotional development stops at the time. So, I would have to say I was 39 when I got sober, so, you know, that means that emotionally, psychologically, I might be around, 16 at that time. And that was when I started drinking. So then you could just do the math and think, well, how long has it been? 16 and 30? Okay, so maybe I'm, 16 and 30. So 40. So, yeah, maybe 47. Okay. Okay. That's interesting. I'm very you are very youthful. Do you have, like, some kind of aside from just eating, vegan? Do you have some kind of, you know, routine? Oh, she has an apple in her hands and an apple a day keeps the doctor away. What happened to that? I know right? It's really true. It really is. What? What do you eat? Tell us some of the things you eat or what's your routine? Well, look, I'm not perfect. And, you know, as a recovering alcoholic, I could say I have very self-destructive impulses. You do trade one for another, like one obsession for another. You know, I I'm I'm not one of these people. Like, who are entirely whole Foods, right? I try, but I also like to have my desserts and my pastries. So, I don't know, I quote Erma Bombeck, imagine those poor ladies who passed up dessert the last night on the town I know, right? One of my favorites. It's true. I loved her, so I try to moderate. I don't one of these. I know a few people, you know. I know, obviously know me dairy. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I don't eat, there's some gluten free. And then I'm like, okay, you know, I, I'm trying to moderate other for people with an addictive personality. The hardest thing is tomorrow. Yes. Right. So I would say I have a sweet tooth. That's probably my one of my big character defects. But, I'll just give you lately I've been on a kick. Somebody send me a video about how to have smoothies that are truly superfood smoothies. And the key is putting the vegetables in first so that you don't pilot with fruit. Now, there's nothing wrong with fruit, but if you just make an entire fruit smoothie with frozen fruit, which is compress fruit to a large degree, that's going to that's going to be very, you know, sugar prone. So I've been doing it and I'm like, what do you put in it? Okay, kale, you just take ahead of kale and put a wash it. Do you take the stems out because it's washed three times. Like where does that come from anyway? Do you take the stems out of it? I do okay. You don't need to. I was like, I'm not eating this. Just put it all in. And then you put I put mango, frozen mango, frozen blueberries. I do use a little stevia with vanilla. That's my secret weapon I would say for those who have sweeteners stevia, vanilla, stevia if you just have the stevia sometimes it's bad after days. But if you mix it with vanilla and I use alcohol free vanilla, you mix vanilla and stevia liquid stevia. And I put that in like maybe four drops, you know, four squirts. And then I put some soy milk, and then I fill the rest up with water and blend it. Delicious. It charges you through the day. I love it. And, I just would recommend it to anybody. I feel like it's life changing. It's a real good way to start off the day. You have a big thing in your Cuisinart. If you have that or whatever your blender is, then you put it in the fridge and then when you want some more water, I've already had mine today.

You know, it's, well, 1: 17:40

30 p.m. Pacific time, and now I'm having my botanicals, which. What's that? Tea? Well, you can get tea. That's already. This is blueberry. Raspberry. Hi. Biscuit botanicals. So, you know, people think of tea as hot. This is one, glass for tea. So it I don't I don't like water. Like, I love these people. Walk around with a water bottle. It's very hard for me to just drink water. So I have these botanicals instead of drinking soda, for example, I have this, so this isn't bad for you. And you get your water. It's good. So then. Okay, I'll continue. And again, I am definitely not perfect. I have always thought if it's bad for you, I want. That's right. If it's too expensive, I want. If it's dangerous, I want to try it. Those are my instincts. But so I, I do, a lot of tofu extra for get me to do tofu. Do it. Yeah. Firm. Yeah. People say, oh, I hate tofu. Did you, did you try to use the tofu that's wobbly? That's only for creams. And try to make a sandwich out of. It's not. Yeah, they have that super firm now from, like, Trader Joe's. It's not expensive either. The organic us. Delicious. That's super firm. What I yesterday I had a tilt tempeh tofu lettuce and tomatoes. Yeah. And then I get those carb balance tortillas and I put it in a tortilla. Or I use whole grain food like Dave's Killer bread. Or there's another one that's very Switzerland type bread. That's. Yeah. You know, it's. Yeah. And so that's what I had yesterday. I'll have a salad. I'm big on popcorn. I'm a love panel holic. Do you have a air popper? Popcorn? I have a popper. Yeah. Me too. And I try to put. Well, one of the things that I realized along the road, because I've always struggled with my weight, jumping on that 10 pounds back and forth person. And, I realized that I was pouring oil on things. And you, you can go out and have a vegan ice cream sundae for what, a tablespoon of. All right. So I use the spray oil and I go yeah. And I try to use as little oil as possible I know you're no oil but that's okay. It doesn't. You're my hero. But again I try to again, the moderation is what I'm aiming for, to see if I can moderate some of these behaviors. So that's, that's that. And then at night, because this is really where my sweet tooth kicks up is about I've worked all day. I work like I bet sometimes 14 hours a day. And then around 930 at night, I want to reward myself. And I happen to like watching BritBox. I don't know why, but I only like to watch British detective stories. Don't. That's so funny. I have no clue. But maybe it's the murders that happened in the gorgeous estates. Yes. And then the murders are very sanitary to people. Just have a little champagne that they get. They fall over. It's much better than some of the American stuff is just so over the top. Grim and unrealistic, like some gorgeous model fighting 50 ninjas and beating, you know, it's like, I'd rather watch BritBox. And so then that's when my sweet tooth comes out. Where I start. Oh, I should have chocolate while I'm doing this. I should have. So actually was a friend of mine. And we're doing a series on this, vegan beauty queen. She has great stuff. She says she makes a parfait, she puts fruit, then some vegan yogurt, silk or, forager. I love forager. Yeah. Then she puts more, then she puts a little granola, then she puts a little. She makes, like, a parfait. She actually has a parfait with, like, one of those little. And she does it with yogurt and fruit, and you can even mix in some cacao and some or some date sirup. Something like that. Oh, be delicious. Go to town and have fun with it. Well guess what? Psychologically it has the same impact as if I went out and bought, you know, a container of vegan Ben and Jerry's. Which by the way, the mainstream, ice cream places like Ben and Jerry's, they're becoming. Yes. Plant based. Absolutely. You know, I'm the type of person I get. If I got a pint of vegan Ben and Jerry's at Ralph's, it would be gone before I got back. I'm the same way. If I start something that I like. For me, it's like chips and dip, so like that. Okay, so forget it. I got one yesterday. It's already gone. So that I it's, you know, I'm the same way. Like I nobody's perfect but you know you nobody's perfect. But like I said people I just want to meet them where they are. Just, you know, you can make these small changes. Yeah. But the difference is that, you know, like I say, if I, if I did eat a container of vegan Ben and Jerry's, I'm not going to drive the wrong way down this way, you're not going to kill somebody, right? That's exactly. And if you eat animals, an animal dies. Okay? Or make sure you eat the average hamburger. It's blended food for many, many cows. You could be eating body parts of hundreds or even thousands, right? It's disgusting. So, you know, have you ever met, Renee King Sonnen from Rowdy Girl, one of my best friends. We done a music video. Oh, I love her. She's been on Texas is going. Yes, yes, Texas is going. That's right. Maybe it's. This is go. Oh, you did that with her? Now. Oh my God, please don't have a cow. Oh, you know, it's so funny because you remind me of her. I didn't know you guys knew each other, but obviously the animal rights thing. But also, you've both been sober for for quite a while, and I think that that's interesting that, you know, that sobriety. I wonder if that's, you know, like you said, you trade one obsession for another. And now maybe you're putting your energy into such this great place, the two of you, you think that's part of it? Well, we did a Texas vegan tour to get a love for her, which was launched after we recorded that song. And it's on Unchained TV. If you want to watch. Oh, I'd love to. Are you kidding? I love her under the music section. And then we went on a Texas vegan tour. And here's the funny thing. So I'm coming in from L.A., and I decide I want to be very Texan. So I went and bought two red, white and blue cowboy hats and these red, white and blue vests. This was years ago, and we went on this Texas Vegan tour, and I bought an extra one for her husband to tell me. And he looked at me like, yeah, you silly girl. Well, we went through the entire like half of Texas going from Veg Fest to universities, doing a total tour. We were the only two people were in cowboy hats the entire time. We don't wear cowboy hats here. Well, some people do. That's not true. But yeah, well, we were particularly prominent with our red, white and blue cowboy hat. Jane. That's hilarious. It was very funny. So we we we laugh. The two of us. Oh my God, when we get together because we're both loud and obnoxious. Let's. She's hilarious and, But she's my hero. I mean, she, is the Texas cattle ranchers wife who went vegan and turned her husband vegan and turned her calf cow operation into a vegan animal sanctuary. I know, and he talks. People listen because she talks now. Sometimes she'll call me up and she's so funny. She'll be. Now listen here, listen good. Like, yes, she does. That's how she answer. I know she's called me up too. And we've had her on the show and I just I was like, she doesn't live that far from me. I'm like, I'm coming to your ranch. I was going to mention, yeah, prior to the show, but, we just. Yeah, we just. But she go visit. Yes. Rowdy girl. Oh, my God, I know I need to I'm going to go and do. Have you ever visited Central Texas Pig rescue because it. I saw on Unchained TV you have this show called Pig Little Lies. And it reminded me because, Central Texas Pig Rescue had to raise money. It was like, like a beauty pageant for pigs. And these pigs were all dressed up. Oh, my God, it was in is there video? There might be I, we were talking about the Pig pageant and Unchained TV because you have pig little lies and people need to know that they get these little teeny tiny pigs and their people say, oh, these are baby potbelly pigs, and they're not going to get bigger. But of course they do. And they're huge, 500 pound pigs. And then people are like, what am I going to do with this? And then they surrendered them. And so you guys find homes for them. I you know, I've seen that on, pig Little Lies, but that's what Central Texas Pig Rescue did. And that's why they had this beauty pageant for pigs to raise awareness. And there were all these huge pigs. They were adorable in their tutus. And, you know, I think that once people see this, they realize, oh, a pig is like a dog. A cow is like a dog. A chicken is like a dog. You know, I don't think that it's speciesism like we talked about that people don't realize this. But yes, I will introduce you. That will be Central Texas pig rescue is amazing. Here's what happened with Pig Little Lies, which, by the way, has been on PBS stations around the country. It's been a real hit. And, so what happened was we were talking about Unchained TV. We're the world's only free nonprofit streaming TV network for animal rights. For plant based. We're pretty much the only plant based. There's there's a couple of people streaming a little bit of content, but we're pretty much we're the premier plant based streaming television network. So we were talking with a group of us like, how do we get, how do we put our name on the map? Because we don't have multimillion dollar advertising budgets like the other networks. So somebody said, you know, Netflix was made by, I believe it was House of cards. And Disney, Disney's streaming network, was made by the Morning show. You need a hit show. And I was like, yeah, we need a hit reality show. So I called my friend Simon Reyes, who's been in reality TV shows, and I said, Simon, we need to do a reality show. She goes, hold on, Jane, I can't talk right now. I'm trying to rescue two kings pigs. They're in a high kill shelter. If I don't get them out by tonight, they're going to be killed. I said, wait a second, that's our show. And literally we followed those two pigs. The only thing we reenacted was the opening phone call. Everything else is exactly our. How it happened. We got the two pigs out. They went to a sanctuary, micro sanctuary in North Hollywood. Then it turns out mama was pregnant and she ended up giving birth. I don't want to give it away, but the drama and the excitement, it's a roller coaster. It's a really fun ride. So people, you can watch it as an hour movie or you can watch it as a five part series. And again, it's also been on PBS. So, yeah, that was one of our more successful shows, and I knew we had a hit when my neighbor, some neighbor, came up to me and said, what happened to Beatrice? Did I said, wow, that's right. That's interesting. So we're we're we're putting ourselves on the map. It's a process, not you are a event. And you've had a right. So yeah, you have that great, great show started. They laughed at it and they said, nobody's going to watch 24 hour news. And they called it right night noodle night. But Ted Turner had a vision and he stuck to it. And I use that as an inspiration because I have a vision and I'm sticking to it. Yeah. You do. I think nobody can stop you, Jane. If I had to guess, and, but also, you know, you have great cooking shows. New day, new chef. You've had a lot of my friends on chef AJ and Julianna have her, and, me, I'm about to interview Miyoko Scheiner. I can't wait to talk to her next week. Yeah. So you've had on the lot of you have a lot of great chefs, doing plant based cooking. I used to do a plant based cooking on chef AJ's channel once a month. She is. You want to talk about dessert? Have you, do you have her new cookbook, the, Sweet indulgence that I did, and I worked on it. And there was this guy who was doing plumbing work for me or something. He was here all day, and I. When somebody is really nice, I try to always give them a vegan book. Oh, nice. Because really funny. Some of the workmen who come in here are far more open to this conversation than some of the hoity toity that know it all, you know? And he took the book and he goes, my, my wife or my girlfriend is really going to love this because he was quite overwhelmed. I would say he was obese. And we're going to use these recipes. And he was so grateful. And I hope they do his the recipes because, you know, Jeff, I used to be obese and she changed her entire physique. She's now like she's tiny by using dates instead of sugar. And her food is so delicious. When we had her on New Day, new Chef, when we yelled cut! Everybody, including the crew, which was not necessarily vegan, raced in. We were almost like fighting over it because her food is. It's like a feast for the eyes and it's so, so delicious. She's amazing. Yeah, and I love it. I love her too. She's making me do improv with her over zoom now. She's oh, God, I love her. I would only do it for her, but, she's she's wonderful. So I want to get back to your parents. I know you did a documentary about your mom, Anita Velez dancing Through Life. So you and I again, I started talking about how we had some things in common. Like parents with no boundaries. I know you used to go to cocktail parties with your parents. I went to singles bars with my mother. I mean, I think our parents didn't necessarily make us go to school. It was kind of, you know, like your dad took you on vacation, and my mom was like, yeah, you'll learn in life. Whatever. It sounds like you read my biography. Oh, I read, yeah, I read your book. And, of course I'm going to read your book to prepare to interview you. But also, you know. So what do you think having parents like that with no boundaries. How do you think that that shaped you? I'm very grateful for the parents I had. They weren't perfect. But who is? My dad was, I would say, a high functioning alcoholic, although, you know, it's self-diagnosed for the most part. But he was typical Mad Men. He was an Irish advertising executive with an agency on Madison Avenue, straight out of Mad Men with, olive martinis and the pipes. And he never put a pair of jeans on in his entire life. And, really? Honestly, I don't even have to watch that show because I lived it. And my mom was a showgirl. She was a dancer. She came from Puerto Rico to New York by herself on a boat at the height of the Great Depression. And she taught herself to dance by watching movies. And then she was actually on a bread line getting bread for her, for her mom during the depression. And somebody said to her, she actually went on the wrong line and was on a line for extras at a Broadway. And they said, do you know the Mexican hat dance? And she said, sure. And she did it. And they hired her. And she then started working in show business. And, at one point she worked for Ringling Brothers and got shot out of a cannon. God. And, that's the last time she worked for Ringling Brothers. She she got out of that. But she, formed a dance troupe called Anita Velez Dancers. And they would travel hotels. The Caribbean, United States and Canada perform. And then her partner, her dance partner was Marina's vet, Lola, who was Russian. And Marina would do the ballet and mom would do the Latin dancing. And so it was kind of like this take the show on the road. She also did the five the days, during the kind of early days, I guess it ended when, vaudeville ended. But they would have, live performances in between movies, in between movie showings. So her claim to fame was she played the Palace Theater. Wow. And, she was super fun, very avant garde. She was doing yoga in the 40s. She was a pescatarian, in the 40s and 50s. And actually, when she married my dad, my dad switched to primarily pescatarian. We actually thought of ourselves as vegetarian, but we were not sure. But at least we didn't have dead animal, you know, meat the same. And, so I, I do thank my mom for sending me on the journey. It is a journey. Very few people, God bless them, the ones who they see, one video, boom. They're vegan. But, she put me on the journey. And so as I followed my career, I went to NYU and worked in Fort Myers, Florida and Minneapolis, Minnesota and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And I started to see things and see how animals were treated. And I became more interested in animal rights. And essentially what happened was I was at kcal TV, where I worked for 12 years on the Paramount Studios lot, and this guy walks in by the name of Howard Lyman, who I was scheduled to interview, and he was the mad cowboy who had been on Oprah, revealing the horrors of his industry and his story is he got very deathly ill, and he was going into surgery and he made a pact with God. God, if you get me out of the surgery alive, I'm going to reveal the horrors of my industry. He survived. He wrote a book called Mad Cowboy. He went on Oprah, remember? Yes, yes, yes. That's when we got Doctor Phil. Exactly. That's how we got Doctor Phil. He was, I guess, a trial consultant on that. Anyway, so he walks into the newsroom and I interviewed him, and then afterwards I'm at like, Cubicle and Howard Lyman and his publicist, Mark Nealon, who turns out is very vigorous activist. They walk up to me and they said, we hear you're a vegetarian. And I said, yes, I am. And they said, well, do you eat dairy? And I hung my head kind of shocked because they just said about how the babies are ripped from the mothers in the boy calves or shot or put in veal crates were all this horrible things. And I said, yes. And he said, liquid meat like that right at my last liquid, put his fingers in your face. That's the moment I went vegan. So when you say, don't shame people, well, I was saying, you know what I now. And so if he had just said, well, we think maybe you shouldn't do that and maybe you should try, I probably wouldn't have heard it. But when he said meat like that. So you know what I do now? I go up to people and I go liquid meat, and they get mad and throw me out of their house. No, honestly, I have to thank him for being real. We have to stop apologizing for being right. Yes, we're at a point of no return. I mean, really, are we a stupid species? Maybe yes, because if we keep eating animals and looking at the impact of animal agriculture on climate change, we're going to get to the point of no return. This is just the appetizer, people. Yeah, yeah. No, you're. I don't say I'm right about it the way I handle it, because I always admire people who just tell it like it is because I feel like I've been dripping. I feel like a lot of my friends have gone vegan. I've been vegan for ten years. I was a vegetarian for a long time, but same as you. But I feel like I dripped on people long enough that they're now going. But it took a long time and maybe I could have gotten it done a lot sooner. So I'm not saying you're wrong. I wish I was like that a little more. No, listen. Different strokes for different folks. For me, it work because look at me. I'm kind of a loud mouth, you know? I'm not a wallflower. I can handle that. Some other people might have gotten upset, you know. Oh, my nerves are shattered. Whatever. So, yeah, I don't say that's going to apply for everybody. I think you have to read the rules right. And there are some people who just refuse to get it. It doesn't matter what you say to them. It doesn't matter how much fact. They just do not want to know. They look, it's just like alcoholism. There are people I would consider myself of High bottom. I had the house, the car, the relationship, the the dog. I didn't lose all that, okay? I just had an experience of incomprehensible demoralization. I realized that I had a problem and I got help. But some people have to lose. Not just the car, the house, the home, the relationship. They have to kill three people on a freeway, okay, that's their bottom. In my case, I made a big fool of myself at a party in Hollywood where everybody I knew was at. Was that the incident that caused you to go sober? Yes, yes. And, so that was my bottom. I woke up the next day filled with what is described as incomprehensible demoralization. Who was that person? Oh, my God, that person was me. Right. Well, people have to have that same hitting bottom when it comes to eating meat and dairy. And then what they have to realize is it's not a sacrifice. It's fun. We vegans have more fun. I'm sorry Okay. Let me bring it back to, age like a badass mother. Jane, which is my daughter's name, by the way. One of my favorite names in the world. Badass, badass mother. My daughter's name is badass mother. Her name is Jane. Oh, Jane. Well, you know, my parents do a lot of kooky things, but I have no complaints saying thank you. Me, too. I like my name, too. My parents are off the wall, but okay. They picked a good name. Do you have a best piece of advice for aging? Well, well, this is a magnet on my refrigerator from Oscar Wilde. Oh, this is this is actually my best piece of advice. Okay. Best piece of advice? Okay, my best piece of advice from Oscar Wilde. Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken. I love that that's true. And then do you have one for aging well or. Well, I would say don't become an old timer like certain people who get older. First of all, I've had people come up to me like this, I watched you when I was a little kid. Well, I'm not. I mean, really, so. Yeah, I think it's attitudinal to a certain degree. My mother always had a very youthful she was into at the end of her life. Even she lived to 99. And so we give her a hug now. But she was she knew the new artists she did. She actually didn't want to hang around with old people. She had younger friends and she was into the culture, whatever the culture was at the time. Now my dad, God bless his soul, was very old fashioned. So nothing after Cole Porter sounded good. It was all garbage. And, so there was a different takes, right? And tragically, my dad died at 67 and I thought he was old when he died. But I realized how young he. Sure. And, again, mom lived to 99.5. She had a very youthful and funny enough. Okay. When when I was in New York, I was walking my dogs in Central Park. I used to run into this older lady, and she was Russian. And remember, my mother has a lot of Russian friends, but she had this Russian partner. Dance partner. And so I said, you know, you should come and meet my mother. And she was an older lady, and I brought her over because we lived two blocks in the park on 57th, and I brought her over to meet my mother. My mother said, you know, when the woman turned around, I don't want to get that old person out of here. And she didn't like she want to be around old people or to be around younger people. Now I'd start to paint her as mean. She sure, I get that's very compassionate, but it was just kind of a funny moment where I was like, mom, really? She's probably 20 or 20 years younger. Like, that's. But, you know, I think having a sense of humor. Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't feel like you know it all because you're a certain age. Stay in touch with popular culture, even though I break that. Honestly, I'm not in touch with, like, the latest singers. Obviously, I love Billie Eilish. Yes. And I also love this, chapel. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure she's she's a girl. I heard her music and I was like, wow, this is a break. So exactly one will break through, but I don't I will say I sound old, but I'm not into rap. Yeah. Okay. So that makes me sound old, so maybe I should be open my mind to rap. Keep your mind open. Those guys out and go vegan, man, I know it's it's funny. Show your longevity rate increases absolutely interest. Yes, absolutely. And what's, out of curiosity, your favorite concert you've ever been to? Could be a long time ago. Recent. I have a favorite concert series because when I was growing up across the street from Carnegie Hall, I was invited to go see the Beatles when they were at Carnegie Hall. And my dad had to go to a cocktail party that night. And so he nixed the idea and did this. I mean, talk about a resentment, right? I couldn't believe that. I couldn't go see the Beatles. Like, this was like a thing that I carried around for years. So I'm at PETA's gala that's celebrating some huge anniversary, I can't remember. It was 35th or what. And Paul McCartney is singing and I've got a table right here, and he's singing. I hear it's your Birthday and it was, my God, approximate within a week or something. And I was like, yes, you're singing to me, oh my, it's me you're singing to. That was my best. Gosh, that's a pretty good one. That is good. Oh, I love him. He's, I just I saw him, I've seen him twice, but I saw him a few years ago at, ACL at in Austin at. Oh, he is just unbelievable. And I just saw, Ringo not too long ago, Ringo Starr and his all star band. That was another incredible goal. Very cool. Yeah. Well, Jane, I mean, I can't even thank you enough for coming on. You're just such a powerhouse. So passionate, helping the animals. I just adore you. Thank you. Thank you. Jim. Thank you for all you do. Let's keep spreading the word. But, you know, we're just trying to wake people up. I know you're trying to do it, too. The clock is ticking, by the way. On on TV, there's a documentary we did that won quite a few awards called countdown two Years zero. Okay, that explains Rene King Solomon's in it. It explains why we have to go plant based. Keep your mind open, people. You know, just like I didn't want to give up alcohol. I was fighting tooth and nail, but when I surrendered to it, I've never looked back. My worst day sober is better than my best day drunk. It's the same thing with meat and dairy. Drop kick people. You will be happier. That's it. Thank you, thank you. Dane. Take care. Right. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well. Until we meet again.