Kristen and Kyla are joined by Manic Pixie Dream Coffee’s Kristen and Casey to discuss the ins and outs of coffee roasting. Topics: what is coffee roasting; how can coffee be ethically sourced; what is it like to run a small business; how can businesses better support the communities they source from; is it better to buy small or to buy Fair Trade.
Read MoreKristen and Kyla take on the world’s most iconic millennial food: the avocado! Tune in to hear a little of the history of the avocado (Kyla’s brain explodes when she realizes avocados are berries), as well as some of the modern issues facing farmers today, including cartel violence driven by lax American gun control laws and the war on drugs.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen talk about everyone’s favourite work drug: coffee. Topics: how coffee is made; coffee history; the coffee industry; working conditions on coffee farms; what is a fair price for coffee; the environment and coffee growing, brewing, packaging, and accompaniments; what you can do.
Read MoreWould you buy lab-grown meat if you could? Cell-cultured meat is now being sold in Singapore, and it is coming soon everywhere else. In this episode, Kyla and Kristen are joined by climate activist Robert Miller to discuss the promise and dilemmas of cell-cultured meat. Topics: how cultured meat works; the race to bring lab grown meat to market; justifications (animal welfare, climate change, hunger, antibiotic resistance); is cultured meat a good solution and can people get over the “weird” factor.
Read More“We call it an ugly fruit…the uglier it is on the outside, the more beautiful it’s going to taste on the inside.” In this episode, Kyla and Kristen are joined by Samantha Luc to talk about chocolate. Samantha is a former professional chocolate eater! She used to be the Head of Traceability and Tastings and Education at Soma Chocolatemaker. Now she is working with companies across a variety of industries to support their traceability efforts with Wherefour ERP. Topics: what is chocolate; the history of chocolate; chocolate and colonialism; poverty and the price of chocolate; child labour; deforestation and chocolate.
Read MoreIn this episode Kyla and Kristen spill the tea on tea production. Kristen tries to make chai and vows to leave future attempts to the experts. Kyla disses George Orwell’s formula for the perfect cup of tea. Topics: what is tea; how tea is produced; the tea supply chain; tea and the environment; tea and human rights; what to do about it.
Read More“Apparently stinkbugs taste like apples.” In this episode, Kyla and Kristen try cricket powder and dig in to the subject of eating insects as food. Is this a fad, or the future of food? Topics: History of eating insects, environmental and health benefits, the ethics of farming insects, and the potential downsides of scaling up the industry.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kristen interviews Michelle Desilets, the Executive Director of Orangutan Land Trust. Michelle shares her personal and professional journey in orangutan conservation, her love of orangutans, and the work of Orangutan Land Trust. Topics: orangutan conservation, the threats orangutans face, palm oil, the boycott v. sustainable palm oil debate, the future of sustainable palm oil, and what you can do.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen discuss palm oil production and people, as well as what you can do about it. Topics: working conditions; Indigenous peoples; food security; the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil; boycott versus labelling; what you can do.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen talk about palm oil and the environment. Kyla flummoxes two McDonald’s employees. Kristen can’t pronounce the palm derivatives in her makeup. Topics: what is palm oil; why is palm oil in everything; palm oil and deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kyla and Kristen uncork the topic of ethics and wine. Topics: South African wine and Apartheid legacies; Fairtrade wine; migrant labour and wineries; pesticide use on vineyards; organic wine; biodynamic wine; salmon-safe vineyards; climate change and wine; boxed versus bottled; and animal welfare and wine.
Read MoreIn part two of this two-part seafood series, Kyla and Kristen explore questions about animal welfare and human rights in fishing and fish farming. Kristen talks about her seafood-alternative kitchen disaster. Kyla considers getting a monkfish as a pet. Topics: animal welfare and wild-caught versus farmed fish; human trafficking and the fishing industry; seafood sustainability labels; what to think about when choosing ethical seafood.
Read MoreIn part one of this two-part seafood series, Kristen explains how fishing works and the problems behind the overfishing crisis. Kyla discovers what a monkfish looks like. Topics: overfishing; illegal, irregular, and unreported fishing; seafood fraud; different fishing methods; and the environmental impacts of fishing and aquaculture.
Read More“You’re just giving side-eye to all of the dogs in the airport, being like: ‘Hey! Don’t narc!’” In this episode – recorded on 4/20 – Kristen and Kyla talk cannabis. Topics: how cannabis works; the cannabis supply chain; legalisation; the Canadian cannabis market; the Mormon grandma story; Cannabis and the environment; and which method of consumption is best (it’s not disposable vapes).
Read MoreIn this episode, Kristen and Kyla are joined by food, migration, and labour historian Alexandra (Lex) Sundarsingh. Lex adds her knowledge about historical human rights abuses in sugar production — which, unfortunately, look a lot like present-day human rights abuses in sugar production. In their discussion, Lex, Kyla, and Kristen explain sugar production and why human rights practices are so fraught. They also discuss what you can do if you want to combat human rights abuses in sugar. Topics: indentured servitude in the British empire; sugarcane versus sugar beets; sugarcane is still a human rights hellscape; there’s some baggage in the history of Canadian sugar beet production; Stevia and biopiracy; Kyla goes through sugar withdrawal; Kristen struggles to find fair trade; Lex is giving out Sweetness and Power like it’s a car and she’s Oprah.
Read MoreCheers to a new decade! In this special New Years episode, Kyla and Kristen sip their most ethical alcohol choices while talking about alcohol, and especially beer. Topics include: alcohol fun facts; the environmental impact of brewing/distilling alcohol; is it better to go with a big or small brewery; do cans or bottles have a lower environmental footprint; where does labour fit into all of this; and what about the alcohol industry’s complicity in substance abuse. Then Kristen and Kyla make New Year’s resolutions.
Read MoreIn this episode, Kristen and Kyla tackle the question on every millennial’s mind: will I be sent to the Bad Place for drinking almond milk? TL;DL: no. Topics: alternative milks and their amazing rise; the alt-milk OGs; and which alt-milk is best for people, animals, and planet. We also provide amateur-tips on making your own alternative milk, so you can avoid our mistakes. No dogs were milked in the making of this episode.
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