Interview
with animal rights advocate and Go Vegan Radio show host, Bob Linden

Q: Hello Bob. Why you become a vegetarian-vegan?

A: I was attending Queens College in New York City in 1971 and was getting to be a pretty good cook, especially glazing chicken. Just one night, the chicken wasn't a round, non-descript, cellophane-wrapped
"food." That night, for some reason, the body was more apparent to me, something about the leg, the thigh. It really hit me that this was someone, not something – someone who probably is on my plate involuntarily, someone who suffered who-knows-how-much pain, and in fact, she was killed just for me to eat. I decided I could no longer eat animals. Unfortunately, I remained quite unaware of the suffering inherent in dairy and eggs and I continued to consume those, until I really awakened in 1984 and became a true vegetarian – a vegan (as a 65 year-old new vegan recently called it – "the truth of life").

Q: What is the Go Vegan Radio show and how can our visitors listen to it?

A: Technically speaking, and subliminally suggesting "tax-deductible donation," Go Vegan With Bob Linden is the radio show produced by GoVeganRadio.com, a project of 501©(3) International Humanities Center. Currently, it is broadcast Sundays in Los Angeles at 1:30pm on KTYM-AM-1460, and Sundays in San Diego at 1pm on KCEO-AM-1000.
It is available online anytime at www.GoVeganRadio.com as well as podcasts.

Go Vegan Radio, in its mission to save the world as the only sane radio program in all of corporate "meaty-uh," attempts to counterbalance the meat-head propaganda forced down our throats by our genetically-mutated, McNugget–Pharmaceutical, Vivisection–Prison industrial society. Go Vegan Radio is where eating carcass and embryo and drinking bloody trans-species mammary secretions are examined as the aberrant animal-sacrificing cult behaviors that they are, with emphasis on their catastrophic impacts on human health, environment, world hunger, war and peace.

Q: Wow, sounds serious... and powerful. So what else is a typical show on Go Vegan Radio like?

A: …Make fun of meat and the people who produce it... Make fun of George Bush and the people who support him… Try to connect the two issues, as in – "what greater evidence do we need of the presence of Mad Cow disease in the human population in America than the behavior of Bush and Cheney?"… Encourage people to not be like Bush, to not eat meat, and give reasons why... Go to commercials (for vegan and cruelty-free products and services only..Guest interview – usually some heroic figure making the world a better place… Calendar of events (mostly Southern California)…Animal News & Views (from liberation to diet and health studies, circuses to cookie recipes, and everything in between)…Run out of time wishing show could be on many more hours to properly cover subject matter…Sign off…i

Q: Please describe for us one of the more memorable shows you have hosted.

A: As Go Vegan With Bob Linden approaches its 5th anniversary in January, there are now hundreds of shows. The very first one with Ingrid Newkirk, founder and President of PETA was memorable not just because she is one of the most phenomenal of inspirational speakers, but just in the novelty of creating a new VEGAN show. Considering the content, I imagined I would not be allowed to do a second show. And now, five years later, I would have to say that some of the programs with celebrity guests are memorable. Now, I don’t ever want to upset a big Hollywood celebrity because, well, I'm afraid of never working in this town again. I love Ed Asner! Who doesn't? He was a guest on my show because he was a spokesperson for MeatOut, and he believed we should cut down on meat, certainly all can give it up on MeatOut day, but my interrogation of Mr. Asner lead me to conclude that he should be categorized as a chick-a-fish-atarian. The conversation continuerd. I asked Mr. Asner, "What issue of all issues really concerns you most?" He said – the death penalty, capital punishment. "Oh no," I thought, "Bobby, keep your big mouth shut. You don't want Mr. Grant mad at you. You know how bad you felt when Betty White yelled at you at the LA Zoo commission meeting." "Mr Asner," I said – something to the effect of – "aren’t the chickens, and all animals who are eaten, under the 'death penalty.' What crime did they commit - being born?" Something lit up in Ed Asner's eyes. He hugged me after the show. The next day "his people" called me for vegan restaurant suggestions near Mr. Asner's office.

More and more past shows are being uploaded all the time to the archives at www.GoVeganRadio.com.

Q: Anything else you would like to share?

A: Free speech is expensive, and radio airtime is purchased each and every week. The animals can't pay, except with their lives. Those who represent vegan and cruelty-free products and services are invited to advertise on the program. Those who can afford it, please make a tax-deductible donation payable to "Go Vegan," and mail to PO Box 40246, San Diego, CA 92164, USA. Call 818-623-6477 or email Bob@GoVeganRadfio.com . For those not in a position to advertise or donate, please listen to the program and encourage others to be kind enough to animals, not to eat them, wear them, or buy products tested on them.

Thanks, Bob!

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