The full backstory to today's vegetarian and vegan movements. From the iron age to the present day, from ancient India to revolutionary New England.

Vegetarianism: The Story So Far

In India in the middle of the first millennium BCE, the idea of "ahimsa" - non violence - emerges, with the vegetarian order of Jain monks and nuns as its torchbearers. Where did it come from? Ian goes to the intellectual hub of iron age India, the Kingdom of Maghada, to find out.

Pic is public domain painting of Mahavira, Rajasthan, circa 1900.

Music by Robb Masters (@idiotech); with actors Chetan Pathak, Selva Rasalingam, and Sandeep Garcha.

web page for ep

Ep 1: Ahimsa (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

Buddhism emerged from the diverse philosophies of the ancient Indian kingdom of Magadha. Ian travels to its most sacred site - the tree under which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment - to expore its contradictory and sometimes paradoxical attitude to vegetarianism. 

Music by Robb Masters (@idiotech); with actors Chetan Pathak, Selva Rasalingam, and Sandeep Garcha.

More information at the full show post -  http://theveganoption.org/2016/03/01/veghist-ep02-gautama-siddharta-buddha-buddhism/

Ep 2: The Middle Path (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

In Ancient Greece, vegetarianism belongs to a secretive subculture - amongst the mystery religions of Orpheus and the musical mathematical cult of Pythagoras.

Music by Robb Masters (@idiotech), Michael Levy (@ancient-lyre), and Stefan Hagel. The actors were Jeremy Hancock, Sandeep Garcha, Orna Klement and Vinay Varma as Ashoka Maurya.

Show notes, full credits, and more information at:
http://theveganoption.org/2016/04/05/veghist-ep03-pythagoreans-orphics/

Ep 3: Pythagoreans (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

In the third century BCE, the Mauryan empire covers almost the entire Indian subcontinent. From Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal, royal edicts proclaim now just law and propaganda, but a Buddhist-inspired ethic, and opposition to animal slaughter and abuse.

Because Ashoka Maurya, the most powerful man on earth, is an animal advocate. And he's going to transform the religious landscape of Asia in favour of Buddhism and ahimsa.

Ian travels to the Indian Museum in Calcutta to speak with historian Dr Suchandra Ghosh. And he visits a hillside that looks down on the battlefield that - King Ashoka says - turned him way from violence forever, and where Ashoka erected an edict that still stands today.

The actors were Jeremy Hancock, Sandeep Garcha and Vinay Varma as King Ashoka Maurya, and the music is by Robb Masters (@idotech) and Michael Levy.

The image is available for re-use under a CC-BY-SA license; attribution should link back to the show notes page (or list veghist.org in physical media) and name either the "The Vegan Option" or "Vegetarianism: The Story So Far". The original photograph is by Michael Gunther.

This episode was sponsored by Kickstarter backers Menka and Ajay Sanghvi, to whom I'm very grateful.

Ep 4: Ashoka (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

In the eastern Roman Emmpire, different faiths and philosophies agree on one thing;  that you need to eschew flesh to live a life of the spirit.

Music by Robb Masters, and Michael Levy. The actors were Jeremy Hancock and Yasser Sha'aban.

Michael Levy tracks:
* Sacred Flame of Vesta, by Michael Levy
* Avinu Malcheinu, Jewish traditional, arranged and performed by Michael Levy
* Hurrian Hymn, anonymous ancient Mesopotamian, arranged by Michael Levy based on translation of Ugarit tablet by Richard Dumbrill

More information and show notes at:
http://theveganoption.org/2016/06/07/veghist-ep05-rome-plutarch-neoplatonism-manicheans-david-grummet-nicholas-baker-brian-michael-beer-copts-hermits/

The icon of St. Nofer the hermit is taken with permission from ttp://excursovod-web.ru/.

Ep 5: Flesh & Spirit (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

How did vegetarianism permeate Indian society? Ian tracks the changes in India’s religious life during the first millennium, following the vegetarian strands of the tapestry that we now call Hinduism.

Ian travels to a temple to Vishnu in eastern India to understand the importance of vegetarianism to his worshippers. He talks to theologians and historians in Oxford and Delhi about the factors that caused the change. He uncovers heated arguments about vegetarianism and animal advocacy in the leaves of India’s sacred texts. And he explores the medieval Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, in the company of a lecturer from its modern namesake.

Music by Robb Masters. Acting by Sandeep Garcha, Chetan Pathak, and Selva Rasalingam. The picture is of contributor Ranjan, and taken by Ian.

More information and show notes at:
http://theveganoption.org/2016/07/05/veghist-ep-6-hinduism-nalanda-mahayana-vishnu/

Ep. web page

Ep 6: Hinduism (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

In the Middle Ages, a string of religious groups across Eurasia held one common belief: that this world was a terrible place; and to escape its cycle of rebirth and redeath you needed to join an order following a pure life abstaining from violence. They all have some level of abstention from flesh, up to and including a vegan diet. But in so abstaining, they face suspicion.

Ian joins a Chinese Buddhist congregation in London for its full moon service. He discovers how Buddhism not only spread across China, but made vegetarianism part of Chinese culture. He discovers a war against pescetarian heretics in Europe, the medieval Chinese horror stories that encouraged kindness to animals, and visits his local Tofu maker.

Includes theme music by Robb Masters, other music by Klank Beeld, Jayme Amatnecks, and the London Uyghur Ensemble.

The actors were Sandeep Garcha, Chetan Pathak, Selva Rasalingham, Jeremey Hancock, Guillaume Blanchard, and Yasser Sha'aban.

Full information at:
http://theveganoption.org/2016/09/06/veghist-ep07-medieval-buddhism-manichaeanism-cathar-bogomil/

Ep 7: Heresies (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

From the middle ages, some Indian vegetarians are ruled by Muslims; from the sixteenth century, Christians.  

This episode, Ian examines not just how the conversation between east and west changes Indian vegetarianism; but how the rulers are changed in return.

Ian visits a shrine in Agra to when a Jain saint met a Mughal emperor, and uncovers the heretic emperor Akbar the Great's relationship with vegetarianism. 

He meets a Jesuit theologian who follows on from the Sanyassin priest who adopted vegetarianism to spread Christianity in south India, and singing dancing devotees in London who distribute vegetarian food and revere a sixteenth century guru as an incarnation of God. 

Academics in Delhi, Oxford, and London explain how these evens fit into the flow of ideas through history, including the when the Portuguese inquisition started forcing local Hindus to eat land animals.

Press play to discover how it's a conversation that goes both ways.

Theme music by Robb Masters @Idiotech
Archive Sufi music CC-BY Vintage Sense
href="https://archive.org/details/www.VintageSense.com-Vintage-Indian-Music-90n#
Sikh Temple ambience CC-BY Casa Asia
href="http://freesound.org/people/CasaAsiaSons/sounds/240820/

For more information see show post at http://theVeganOption.org/

Ep 8: Contacts (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

Old medieval certainties about the hierarchy of God over man over beast are cracking under the combined assault of new sciences and rediscovered classics. It's an age when "natural philosophers" combine scientific discovery with philosophical treatises, and when their Republic of Letters transcends national boundaries in the name of free thought.

It's the age of Descartes, whose mechanical philosophy dismisses animals as "automatons". But his rivals like Gassendi suggest that animals have more in common with humans than he thinks. Ian traces a trail that leads from Paris to the Mughal Court and back to the medical schools of the Enlightenment. And discovers the forgotten story of how Christian mythology, early anatomy, classical thinkers, and Indian medicine came together to make it normal to prescribe vegetarianism.

The period music was Anna Simboli's performance of 'Signor, quell'infelice' from L'Orfeo by Montiverdi (CC-BY); and, to evoke 1700 London, Papalin's performance on recorders of Henry Purcell's Sonata in C Major (CC-BY), which is dedicated to Lady Rhodia Cavendish.

Archive monastery bells recorded by Robin Whittaker, Gregorian chant CC-BY Ramagochi, fast ticking recorded CC-BY Patrick Liberkind, and clockwork toy recorded CC-BY Steven Brown.

The cover picture is The Garden of Eden, by Jan Brueghel.

With the voices of Connor Ogg (Monro), Iain Brodie (Cullen) and Vachel Novesha (all from Joot Dundee); and other parts played by Sally Beaumont (Margaret Cavendish) and Guillaume Blanchard.

Vegetarianism: The Story So Far - from The Vegan Option

Ep 9: Renaissance (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

In England, the 1600s are a century of revolution. The artisans and yeomanry are picking up books – and the New Model Army is picking up pikes and muskets to turn the world upside down.

Ian meets Dr Ariel Hessayon, a lecturer in the radicals of the English Civil War at a Thameside pub that was there during the 1600s, to discover tabloid scares and firebrand sermons about people who ate only bread, and water and fruit.

In Ahmedabad, India, he visits the kind of animal hospital that astounded European travellers. And he hears from author Tristram Stuart about the impact stories of India had on Europeans, and how they shook Christendom’s moral certainty.

Dr Anita Guerrini researches the first vegetarian diet gurus, whose books about food and medicine interpreted the intellectuals of the Republic of Letters for everyone else. And she tells Ian about the secret religion of Sir Isaac Newton.

The theme music is by Robb Masters.

The period music was Greensleeves performed by Paul Arden-Taylor and Carol Holt (PD); slow reels (dances) “Long Acre” and “Kerry Fling” performed by the “Peak Fiddler”; Papalin’s performance on recorders of Henry Purcell’s Sonata in D Major (CC-BY) to again evoke turn-of-the-century London, and Telemann’s performance of Händel’s recorder Sonata.

With the voices of Jeremy Hancock, Ian Russell, and Brian Roberts.

Cover picture by me.

Full show notes at http://theveganoption.org/2017/01/03/veghist-ep10-revolution-stuart-guerrini-ahmedabad/

Ep 10: Revolution (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

Ian traces a winding path of vegetarian inspiration from the personal diary of an Indian vegetarian working for the French, to the darkest corner of British imperial propaganda, to the Enlightenment's favourite Paris café, to a rural retreat that inspired a social revolution, and to the squares where citizens plotted a real one.

More information at the full show post:
* http://theveganoption.org/2017/02/07/veghist-ep11-enlightenment-voltaire-rousseau-renan-larue/

With the voices of Guillaume Blanchard, Brian Roberts, and Selva Rasalingham, and the music of Robb Masters.

The featured image is "Banyan tree with Hindu temples at Agori, Bihar" by Thomas Daniell, 1796, CC-BY Wellcome Trust - an early colonial vision of Indian religion to match the information about Indian religion that sets the episode in progress.

This episode is kindly sponsored by Kickstarter backer Martin Taylor Costumes</a>, which specialises in vegan costumes, particularly for the century this episode covers:
* https://facebook.com/MartinTaylorCostumes

Ep 11: Enlightenment (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

After the American and French revolutions, the sects and philosophies that embrace a "vegetable diet" multiply - from New England cults to Grahamite crusades, to Alcott's utopian community to Salford's radical congregation. No longer are they isolated groups - they connect with each other in books, magazines, and letters. Until a single word catches on - "vegetarianism".

In the United States of America, Ian discovers the the vegetarian sword and shoes of a 1790s "free love" vegetarian sect in a Deerfield Massachusetts museum, and visits the failed vegan commune where "Little Women" author Louisa May Alcott lived as a child.

And in Salford, he walks in the footsteps of the nineteenth century Bible Christian church, with local historian Derek Antrobus and the vegetarian history specialist Dr Samantha Calvert.

It's a story that also takes in the French bohemian "cult of the bearded men", the puritanical preacher Sylvester Graham, Robin Hood, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Full show notes at:
http://theveganoption.org/2017/04/28/veghist-ep12-radicals-romantics/

The theme music is by Robb Masters @idotech. The actors were Jeremy Hancock, Guillaume Blanchard, Amy Saul, Matthew Arenson, Orna Klement, and Ian Russell.

The Romantic period music was by Ludvig van Beethoven - for the Bracknell Circle, his "Pastoral" Sonata No. 15 performed by Paul Pitman (PD), and for Shelley's circle, his Piano Concerto no. 3 performed by Stefano Ligoratti (CC-BY).

The Bible Christian vegetarian hymns were very kindly performed by The Choir of St. Mary's Nottingham, directed by John Keys.

The cover picture is from Asenath Nicholson's "Nature's Own Book", 1848 edition.

The Vegan Option

Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

After their foundation in 1847 and 1850, the vegetarian societies in Britain and America rose swiftly faced new challenges - Britain's imperial moment, and in America the fight against slavery that escalated into a long civil war.

Dr Adam Shprintzen, author of the history of US vegetarianism "Vegetarian Crusade, tells Ian how the American Vegetarian Society poured its energies into an anti-slavery vegetarian settlement in the Wild West. And how its founder, Englishman Henry Clubb, ultimately took a bullet for the union in the Civil War.

Under British rule, Hindu vegetarianism faced a mix of threat and opportunity. In India, Ian meets historians DN Jha, Burton Cleetus, and Bhaskar Chakraborty, who explain how, faced with rule by distant Christians, vegetarianism became more important as a marker of caste and identity.

Ian also sets off on a cycle tour of vegetarian Victorian London, and talks to the first modern academic to study vegetarian history - Dr Julia Twigg.

By Ian McDonald

The theme music is by Robb Masters. Actuality of West Ham United Supporters CC-BY Hooger WS; and Civil War songs sung by the US Army Band (and hence public domain).

The cover picture is a picture of a set of vegetarian magazines from around the world taken from "Fifty Years of Food Reform".

Featuring Harish Bhimani as Mohandas.

Other parts were played by Chetan Pathak, Matthew Arenson, Ian Russell, Amy Saul, and Orna Klement.

More information, including pictures, at:
http://theveganoption.org/2017/05/16/veghist-ep-13-vegetarians-colonialism-abolitionism-victorian-reformers-julia-twigg-bhaskar-chakraboty-london/

Vegetarianism: The Story So Far from The Vegan Option

Ep 13: The Vegetarians (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

As animal agriculture industrialises and meat consumption rises, the ways that food reformers respond are familiar to people today - the plant-based meat, the celebrity athletes, and the reformers who worship nature, sunshine, and fresh air.

Ian goes to the shops to discover just how many vegetarian staples he owes to pioneers like John Harvey Kellogg. In Sabarmati, northwest India, he visits the Ashram of Mahatma Mohandas K Gandhi.

The theme music is by Robb Masters; "Nature Boy" is written by Eden Ahbe and performed CC-BY Jennifer Orna. The incidental music was John Philip Sousa's Gladiator March performed by the US Air Force band, Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag performed CC-BY Stefano Ligoratti,  "Russian Easter Festival Overture" by Rimsky-Korsakov performed by the Musopen symphony orchestra, and Wagner's Siegfried performed by the US Marine Band.

The actors were Brian Roberts, Ian Russell, Guillaume Blanchard, Orna Klement, and - as Mohandas K Gandhi - Harish Bhimani.

Ep 14: Diet Reform (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

This final episode recounts the growth of veganism, vegetarianism, and the modern animal advocacy movement.

Ian treads in the footsteps of the handful of pioneers who set up the vegan movement in the 1940s, and meets a life vegan born in 1951.

He investigates the sixties counterculture that combined the philosophy of ethics, activism, and new ways of living and working, visiting one of Britain's first vegetarian wholefood co-operatives.

And as vegetarian and vegan movements increasingly link up around the world, he looks at developments in China and India. In New Delhi, he meets the vegan politician who is also the most prominent animal advocate in the world's largest democracy.

Cover image by Animal Rights Photography. The theme music is by Robb Masters @Idiotech.  Variations for the Healing of Arinushka by Arvo Pärt is performed CC-BY Markus Staab. Les Sylvains, Op. 60 by Cécile Chaminade is performed CC-BY Takashi Sato, and the clip of "Summer of Love" is CC-BY Saul Rouda. With the voices of Amy Saul, Jeremy Hancock, Brian Roberts, Robert MacDougall, Julie Cummings, and Sally Beaumont.

Episode 15 is generously sponsored by Kickstarter backer Jaysee Costa.

Full show information at:
http://theveganoption.org/2017/09/13/veghist-ep-15-liberation-veganism-hippies-and-the-animal-rights-movement-with-sam-calvert-and-maneka-gandhi-at-london-cambridge-and-bangalore/

Show web page

Ep 15: Liberation (Vegetarianism: The Story So Far)

Stories, Science, and Analysis from a Vegan Perspective

iTunes reviews: "Informative, fun, and well produced ... really worthwhile and entertaining listen" - Dan;  "Best vegan podcast on iTunes! Recommended." - Richard; "Witty, informative, calm presentation and entertaining. I've learned a lot." - McKous; "not too heavy, not too light, refreshing and serious at the same time. Perfect length for a commute" - Daisy vegan.

Presented and produced by Ian McDonald. Theme music by <a href="http://www.idiotech.com/">Robb Masters</a> (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/idiotech">Idiotech on Soundcloud</a>).