Emily: Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today
I'm honored to be joined by my friend and mentor Gary Yourofsky, who has graciously
agreed to be here and answer questions that you, the Bite Size Vegan audience, have sent
to me. I'm going to be releasing this interview in a series of videos, so be sure to stay
tuned to the channel. Gary I just wanted to thank you so much for taking time out of your
busy schedule to be here and answer some of these questions.
Gary: Anything for you Emily.
Emily: Thank you.
Emily: When you are trying to educate about veganism and you come up against someone who
is either actively combative, or just does not seem to want to hear what you are saying,
is there a point at which you walk away? And how do you know when it's that point? Especially
if it's someone that may be a family member or a close friend?
Gary: Family members and friends are the toughest people to talk to when converting anyways,
so I would not waste too much time on them. Believe it or not, even though I've converted
some say hundreds of thousands of people now worldwide because of my videos being passed
around on YouTube and Facebook, I've had virtually no success with friends and family members.
Give me a crowd of strangers, I could rock the house, I could convert people that I've
never met, inside of 45 minutes. Friends and family members though, they're the toughest
people in the world. Don't spend too long with them. Give them a chance, everybody deserves
a chance, I give everyone a chance when I walk into a classroom. But after my speech,
if you start saying the same dumb things and stupid questions, I'll cut you off after a
few and say you know what man you need to go home and relax. You need to think about
what I said. Your foundations are crumbled, and you need to rebuild those foundations
later on and take a break. So I don't even spend too much time with people who are being
combative. Now I'm fortunate, because most of my crowd is not combative, so I get to
talking to educate. But those are the people I'm looking for. And I've become a great psychologist
over the years, lecturing the 60,000+ students. I walk into a classroom and I'm like good
person, bad, good, bad, on the fence, on the fence, uh oh trouble, and when I see those
troublemakers, in fact I won't even call on them when they raise their hands. I know who
the troublemakers are. Now sometimes professors get involved in the Q and A and they call
on them, so it turns into a little chaotic scene, but I avoid those troublemakers altogether.
I've been doing this for 18 years though, I'm a little tired and I don't want to fight
anymore, I don't. I'll fight for the animals, I will preach for the animals, I will die
for the animals, they can put me in jail for the animals, but I don't want to fight anymore
this is so simple to me that I'm looking for the people who are understanding the messages.
I lay it out throughout the speech, and I want to have a discussion with them about
it, and help them make the conversion. Because that's really the toughest part of converting
somebody, is to explain to them, okay where are you going to eat from now on? Where are
you going to shop from now on? So once I get to those questions I just, that's where I
want to be and help people make that conversion.
Emily: I think something that a lot of new vegans struggle with sometimes is non-vegan
friends or family which we spoke a little bit about. But I've had some people ask, do
you have any non-vegan friends, and if so, how do you navigate that friendship?
Gary: Yes I do. My oldest and dearest friend Darren of 35+ years is still in my life. Although
we've drifted apart over the last few years but I've drifted from everybody. All the violence
in the world, all the evil in the world has made me a misanthropic recluse. So my entire
goal in life after I'm done preaching is to get back home, get back to the hotel, I don't
hang out with too many people. But you don't have to be vegan to be in my life, you just
have to be honest and truthful. Like Darren looks me in the eye and says Gary come on
man you're right about everything, animals don't deserve this. I'm too lazy to switch,
what do you want from me? Now I despise his laziness, but I love his honesty. Because
if you're honest with me that prevents a fight from happening. The fights happen with non-vegans
when they start lying about what's going on. Animals don't feel, animals can't think, God
says it's okay, I need my protein that's the only way. Now we're going to have a fight,
because those are just complete and utter lies. It's absolute stupidity to be saying
things like that. So if you can avoid saying that to me, you don't have to be vegan to
be in my life. However, tough to get into my life at this stage in the game.
Hey guys, it's Emily. I just wanted to let you know that there's a bonus part 2 of this
video in which Gary talks about his one rule for eating with non-vegans. You can check
it out by clicking here. I've posted it over on the Bite Size Vegan Patreon page, but as
a public post so you don’t have to be a patron to watch. But, while you’re over
there, you might as well take a look at the awesome perks that you get for being a member
of the Nugget Army like access to even more bonus footage! With you support as a patron
I can keep veganizing via video and spreading the message. before we return to the interview
to close it out with Gary, now that you've heard his perspective on how he deals with
non-vegan friends and family and those who are a bit combative, I want to hear your experience.
If you're vegan, I would love to hear how you interact with non-vegan friends and family.
And if you're a non-vegan out there, I would love to hear your perspective of your interactions
with vegans and if there are approaches that you've found more effective versus more off-putting.
So let me know in the comments below and now we'll return to close things out with Gary.
Emily: Gary I just want to thank you so much for giving us your time and I've been asked
on behalf of so many of my viewers to just thank you for everything that you do. So thank
you so much.
Gary: Thank you. Keep on. Everybody pass her stuff around, it's tight stuff. Honestly,
BiteSizeVegan.com, share it.
Emily: Stay tuned to the Bite Size Vegan channel for more installations of Gary's interview.
I'll also be posting bonus footage of questions that don't make it to the channel, into the
VIP section of BiteSizeVegan.com, which you can access for free by signing up for the
Nugget newsletter. Give the video a thumbs-up if you enjoyed it, and be sure to subscribe
so that you never miss a nugget. Now go live vegan, and I'll see you soon.