I started my vegan journey in the fall of 1989 while working on a Kibbutz in Israel. I saw animals being mistreated and became vegetarian then. I still had some dairy until I read Diet for New America by John Robbins, at which point I made the shift to vegan.

I've always had an interest in living in a healthier, more natural way since I can remember. I ended up getting a job at one of the two Health Food Stores we had in town where the owners and employees were vegetarian. I quickly wanted to join ranks. The more I thought about it the more I felt it was something I needed to pursue. Not for health necessarily, but for the animals. I started off by making my husband and I the same food but would replace the portion of meat for me with some alternative without him realizing it. I was so afraid he would be against it enough to stop me from doing it at all. He never did stop me, but he never did join me either. This was when I was in my late 30's. When I was 40 in 1998, I ended up working for the other Health Food Store we had in town. One of the employees and I became close friends and after sharing some of the things I knew was happening to the animals, she became vegetarian, also. I'm not sure how many years later she started losing her hair to the point of having some bald spots and ended up finding out her iron levels were extremely low. She was pushed by her doctor to eat meat to remedy it. This kind of pushed me into doing that as well. So, for a span of about a year, we both ate a small amount of meat. Neither one of us felt good about it and didn't want to continue. My friend got her iron levels back up, but never really believed her low levels were caused by being vegetarian after researching everything she could about it. We went back to being vegetarian but were actually vegan 95% of the time so we decided to jump in all the way on January 1st, 2013. My friend, her husband and I have been vegan ever since. And my friend has never had any more issues with her iron levels being low.

I read a weird story about a man who ate an airplane (it's true) and it made me think that our bodies can take so much abuse and how this abuse is killing us. It was a click moment. I don't miss any of it. I am the biggest vegan fan in the world.

My whole life, I have been extremely connected to animals. Like magnets, we have always been drawn to one another. Even as a baby, my mom wrote in my baby book that I would not eat meat.
I wish I could say that I've been vegan since birth but, truth is I did eat meat and dairy for many years. Like so many others, I was raised in a household that said they loved and cared for animals but, sat down at the dinner table and ate others. I spite of this disconnect, I was otherwise passionate about rescuing and caring for just about every kind of small, furry fuzzy creature... mice, rats, hamsters, gerbils, bunnies, guinea pigs, ferrets, even a squirrel... you name it, I probably cared for it. My animals were my best friends and I was determined to dedicate my life to helping them.
I thought that veterinary medicine was my path and enrolled in Auburn. I was advised to go the "Animal & Dairy Science"/Vet route so I could get hands on experience with the animals faster. I had no clue what I signed up for. I learned first hand about the hormones, pesticides, antibiotics and everything that goes on behind the scenes in animal agriculture. As a sensitive, animal empath - I was horrified and immediately turned vegetarian and dropped out of school. Not long after returning home, "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins came into my awareness and as soon as I learned the truth about the dairy & egg Industry, I became vegan... March 1990. Best Decision Ever.
I became passionate about ianimal rights and for a time was President of Sarasota in Defense of Animals. I went on to become an Animal Cruelty Investigator with Manatee County Sheriff and in 2001, Founded the Non-profit Animal Resuce, Blue Heart Sanctuary.

My last hospital bill was over half a million dollars. I watched "What the Health" on Netflix, went vegan and my only regret is not doing it sooner.

I write short stories, plays and novels focused on the complex and often conflicted relationships between humans and animals. I am co-founder, with Midge Raymond, of the vegan-owned small publisher Ashland Creek Press.

I am a biomedical scientist who has been a passionate vegan advocate since 2013!

I remember telling myself I love meat so much that I can never live without it. This was later replaced with cheese when I went vegetarian.

Today, I am the Founder and CEO of Allied Scholars for Animal Protection, a nonprofit that brings vegan outreach and education to universities, to support and mentor students and future leaders! We are building a unified, effective, and sustainable infrastructure for animal advocacy in universities by focusing on 3 areas:

Vegan outreach, education and community building, and making dining halls plant based!

www.AlliedScholars.org

My transition started when my friend told me that I can't say I love animals and eat them too! I resisted for several months, but when I was presented with facts and also saw what animals go through for meat, egg, dairy, wool, experimentation, etc. the only rational and ethical decision was to go vegan.

At the same time, the more I learned about the health benefits of plant-based diet, and the health and environmental issues caused by animal consumption, the more I realized this is the root cause of many issues I always cared about! These problems are inherent to animal consumption and not just "how" we exploit animals and factory farms. For instance, free-rage or grass fed animals still contribute to zoonotic diseases, pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and climate change. In fact, in some ways, they are worse!

Veganism isn't just this arbitrary cause that I suddenly became interested in. It is the most impactful, important, and urgent topic we should be talking about. By understanding the depth of the problem and the amount of suffering caused by animal consumption to both human and nonhuman animals, I know that
rationally, mathematically, statistically, and ethically the best way to use my time and energy to help others is to be a vegan and advocate veganism, and that's what I've been doing since 2013!

****Connect with me****

Twitter:
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Website:
https://www.alliedscholars.org

I slowly transitioned to being WFPB/Vegan after attending many NHA health conferences and reading books on Natural Hygiene. I witnessed remarkable health recovery with my young daughter and myself. After being in this lifestyle for over 25 years, I retired from my corporate career and became the Executive Director of the National Health Association which was founded in 1948 as a non profit to promote a Vegan/WFPB lifestyle. www.healthscience.org

Hello, my name is Jeff. This is an evolving story—here’s the foundation.

I went vegan in 2011 after watching "Gary Yourofsky’s Best Speech Ever". At the time, I made no deliberate attempt to “eat healthier.” I simply stopped consuming animals and replaced them with more of what I was already eating—including French fries.

In 2016, while completing bloodwork to save money on my health insurance, I was stunned to see my total cholesterol was 121. That prompted me to dig up earlier labs from late 2010, just before going vegan. Back then, my total cholesterol was 168. Six years of not eating animals—with no other lifestyle changes—had significantly lowered my LDL and triglycerides, raised my HDL, and eliminated the visceral fat that had been steadily accumulating around my waist, just as it had for my father and both grandfathers.

At 42 years old in 2017, I was essentially the same physically as I had been in my late 20s. I also noticed something else: I stopped getting sick. Prior to going vegan, I typically got sick twice a year with seasonal changes—one of the reasons I had bloodwork done in 2010 in the first place.

All of this deeply intrigued me. Around that time in 2016/2017 I began listening to doctors on YouTube and started taking long walks in my neighborhood—something I had never done before. On those walks, I absorbed everything I could. That curiosity led me deeper into whole plant foods, nutrition, science, biochemistry, anatomy, evolution, and logic. I compared my trajectory with that of my extended family, many of whom were already struggling with health issues in their 30s. Meanwhile, here I was in my 40s—mostly sedentary due to editing work—and still physically healthier.

Although I went vegan for ethical reasons in 2011, by 2017 I realized something profound: almost everyone can be vegan—and most would likely be significantly healthier on a well-planned vegan diet. Understanding the potential impact of this way of eating on human health, I felt an obligation to learn more, explore further, and help others along the way.

I repeatedly asked myself a simple question: Is there any reason to eat animals? I researched, asked others around me and on the public via social media. I could find no justification beyond social conformity—essentially an inherited habit.

When it became clear to me there was really no reason to eat animals I began to organize my efforts and contribute more meaningfully. That was when I launched VeganLinked.com as a directory for vegan businesses, events, and services in 2017. With no budget and no help, progress was slow. After a few months, I put the site on autopilot and shifted my focus to building the companion channel, YouTube.com/VeganLinked.

From 2017 to 2019, I offered free video, website, and marketing services to vegan businesses while traveling to events, networking, and filming talks by doctors and advocates. In 2019, I produced a documentary for Jane Velez-Mitchell. By March 2020, momentum was at an all-time high—I had shoots scheduled with Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Joanne Kong, and the Minister of Wellness Nathaniel Jorden. But COVID shut everything down.

That same month, I met with Dr. Garth Davis in Asheville, North Carolina, to discuss an ongoing collaboration. He was fully on board. I purchased a nearby property, renovated it, rented it out for income, and converted an accessory building into a studio. By fall 2020, we had completed five projects together—before he and his family unexpectedly moved back to Texas.

Like many others, I was deemed “non-essential” in 2020 and became financially dependent on rental income. Around that time, Dr. Joanne Kong approached me about her book "Vegan Voices", featuring stories from 50 authors. I offered to interview contributors in exchange for help with travel and coordination. Those first twenty plus interviews set everything in motion.

Within the first three interviews on that initial run, I knew I needed to make a documentary—not someone else’s vision, but my own. One that unfolded organically through the stories I was capturing as I navigated the vegan movement myself.

Over the years, as time allowed, I returned to developing VeganLinked.com. From late 2022 through early 2023, I overcame long-standing technical barriers related to listings and events. In 2024, I finally resolved persistent user profile issues and added new features. In 2025, I began passively promoting the site in every video I released.

In 2025, while maintaining weekly uploads, I helped Alex Hershaft—now in his 90s—with a six-part docuseries. I traveled across the country, shooting more than 90% of the footage and editing multiple versions. Alex ultimately scaled it down for his immediate needs, leaving me with a more expansive version to release in 2026.

I also collaborated again with Jane Velez-Mitchell on a project alongside Anne Dinshah of the American Vegan Society and Seth Tibbott of Tofurky, shooting approximately six hours of interviews, b-roll, and event coverage over three days. This project pushed me fully into using new cinematic camera gear I had invested in during 2024—gear I’ve since used for projects like filming tours of Dr. Ron Weiss’s Ethos Farm to Health.

My goal moving forward is deeper storytelling—true documentary work. I’ve invested significant time and resources into upgrading my skills and equipment. Several major projects, captured before 2026 and still unreleased, are now coming into focus.

These projects center on four key themes: Omega-3s, chronic disease, ahimsa & dairy, and raising children vegan—with the latter two potentially merging.

In December 2025, I purchased 192 terabytes of hard drives to build a RAID-10 system, finally consolidating eight years of footage scattered across 20 external drives. This marks a turning point—allowing me to fully organize, reflect, and create with everything I’ve captured.

Since 2017, this work has been my full-time focus. As of early 2026, the channel is approaching 100,000 subscribers. I’ve filmed hundreds of interviews across the country—solo. Over the years I've come to realize growing vegan food, raising children vegan, and the pillars of lifestyle medicine are—without exaggeration—the most important topics in the world.

In 2025, I completed a year-long weekly series on Raising Children Vegan, and launched RaisingChildrenVegan.com to support that initiative. In 2026, I will continue amplifying the voices of lifelong vegans while also focusing heavily on lifestyle medicine, raising children vegan, professional health services, food cultivation, and normalizing veganism.

I’ve made connections I never imagined possible, including with many of my heroes. As I refine my focus and work through years of unreleased material, my hope is that VeganLinked evolves to reflect all of this—perhaps with a redesigned homepage that better tells the story.

To make that redesign happen, I need more practitioners who *get it*: physicians, dietitians, nutritionists, health coaches, and professionals practicing lifestyle medicine in meaningful ways. Showcasing these voices is one of the most powerful ways to help people transition to veganism in the healthiest way possible.

So please—join, connect, add listings, add events, and help me build a truly vegan world.

This is how my vegan life evolved: from ethics, to health, to everything—and now, this is what I do. I still dream of making a major documentary. For now, it’s just me, with no budget. If it becomes a compilation rather than a traditionally produced film, so be it. The story still matters.

As I continue this work, I hope to eventually settle down and purchase some land—somewhere conducive to a like-minded community. A place where food can be grown, where people can gather to learn how to eat and live this way, and where educators, advocates, and creators can come to share ideas, give talks, or simply find respite. A place that allows me to slow down, travel less, stress less, continue learning, and teach more—while living in alignment with the values that brought me here in the first place.

Katya Gorbacheva aka the Vegan Powerlifter is the 3rd strongest vegan woman on the planet. Katya’s passion is to educate that plants have all the protein you need to get strong and popularizing strength sports among men and women of all ages. She wrote the Vegan Powerlifting Starter Guide to help women obtain confidence through strength training instead of endless diets.

Katya has gotten into powerliftng after college and noticed that eating too much animal protein made her sluggish despite looking lean. Found out why when work offered free blood testing. Cholesterol and triglycerides were borderline risk at 23 y.o.! Katya has decided to give a plant based diet a shot and never looked back. As an environmentalist it only makes sense to be vegan. The ethical argument solidified the commitement to stay cruelty free for life. Now Katya is a mother, raising a vegan baby.

Katya's coaching company, veganpowerlifter.com is a supportive community of aspiring plant-based athletes succeeding in competitive sports and personal wellness goals - be it losing 20 lbs or getting stronger to live longer.

Katya and her clients have been featured on Great Vegan Athletes, Plant Based News, Veganlinked, Duke Alumni Network, No BS Vegans and more Vegan Strong Plant Built team.

@gorbachevae - feel free to DM for any questions or colaboration ideas if you have a vegan friendly business. I am always happy to connect with fellow athletes - if you are competitive, looking to step on the paltform or know someone - please connect.

Use code VEGAN to get 10% off your first month of coaching 🙂 All coaching is done online so it doesn't matter where in the world you live, train and eat.

In 2020 I was graciously given the title of “PETA Prime’s Most Beautiful Vegan Over 50.” for that year. I had almost not applied. I don’t seek attention in life, but I felt it was my duty to show up and share my experiences with the world, aiming to shatter myths and advocate for animals. I sent my application to PETA at the last minute and was honored to be selected as the winner—although I believe all vegans are winners!

When I started this journey in 2011, I never would have imagined that I’d be looking back on these major milestones:

In 1996, my mother gave me a book about vegetarianism, which immediately led me to stop eating meat and move away from my unconsciously speciesist lifestyle.

I moved from Türkiye (Turkey) to the U.S. in 1998, after singing as a soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Istanbul, under the direction of American conductor William Thomas.

In 2004, I discovered my true baritone voice after training as a tenor for years at three different conservatories, which began my transformational journey.

I confidently and joyfully went vegan in 2011 after reading vegan triathlete Brendan Brazier’s Thrive. This decision dramatically fueled every aspect of my life.

It 2012, I began functional bodyweight training at home, which initiated my surprising physical transformation.

I formulated my vocal method, The Vocathletic System, in 2019 and added “athlete” to my credentials.

In 2020, shortly after the PETA Prime contest, I removed all oil from my diet and soon after started a whole food vegan diet.

In 2021, I became fully raw vegan.

And then I was the guest in three great interviews:
1- “Opera Singer Goes Vegan, Gets Massive Muscles” with Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room Podcast by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), founded by Dr. Neal Barnard.

2- “Bülent Güneralp’s Transformation Debunks Vocal, Athletic, Nutritional Myths” with Chef AJ.

3- “An Update on Food Is Climate” with Glen Merzer, hosted by Climate Healers, founded by Dr. Sailesh Rao.

Today I am an activist and an opera singer who ended up looking like a bodybuilder—solely as the result of eating plants, maintaining daily full-body functional training (no lifting weights or going to a gym), and as the byproduct of my extraordinary vocal journey.

artist / musician / maker of organic cannabis clothing born and raised primarily whole food plant based vegan - have enjoyed 47 years of vibrant health and feel better than ever! have been an advocate of going vegan for health, the animals and the planet most of my existence and have guided many to this lifestyle... so thrilled to see how far it has come via sites like these!