The Movie Amazon Doesn’t Want You to See | Vinny Lingham

A tech founder’s health fell apart, and the fix didn’t come from a supplement stack or another glossy wellness trend. It started with a hard look at seed oils, blood sugar spikes, and the way ultra-processed “healthy” foods quietly inflame the body. That reckoning led Vinny Lingham to the carnivore community, to measurable drops in HS-CRP, and ultimately to making Animal, a documentary that challenges popular diet narratives and asks a simple question: what if controlling insulin and inflammation solves most of what’s making us sick?

We walk through the turning points: how grain-finishing changes the fat you eat, why grass-fed and wild options can shift omega ratios, and how a meat-first elimination approach reveals which foods actually trigger symptoms. We trade notes on going strict for a few months, then reintroducing dairy or berries and letting data—not dogma—guide the plan. The environmental story gets a sober look too, from methane talking points to the deeper damage of monocrop agriculture, and why regenerative grazing restores soil, cycles nutrients, and supports real biodiversity.

Behind the scenes, Vinny shares how he funded the film himself, navigated platform roadblocks, and kept the message focused on personal agency over ideology. We also map a realistic spectrum: lion diet on one end, ketogenic and animal-based through the middle, and targeted carbs for sport and lifestyle on the other—always anchored by protein quality, stable fats, and minimal seed oils. If you’ve wondered why you’re tired, hungry, and inflamed despite “eating clean,” this conversation offers a clear, testable path back to strength and steady energy.

If the episode resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with one change you’re making this week. Your story might help someone else start theirs.

https://www.animal.movie/

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Transcript

Vinny’s Journey From Tech To Film

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey Vinny, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Thanks, Doc. Good to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I'm so excited to talk about your work and your your new movie and uh all the things that are going on. But be before we do that, maybe just take a moment and tell us a little bit about your journey, how you came to be uh I know you've got a you've got a fascinating history and how you came to be in this uh to where you are today.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Sure. Um well I'm a South African-born entrepreneur. I uh I was you know basically I was I came over to the US in 2008. Uh but I was living and working in South Africa since 2003 when I started my first company. Uh so you know, back then I would travel to America a lot. So I'd be, you know, we had offices in California and came back and forth. And I I kind of just loved being here. And uh, you know, I was in my my 20s and I just wanted to come move to the States. So uh the opportunity presented itself in 2008, and I moved across to one of my companies and we set up an office in San Francisco, moved to the Bay Area for about you know 10 years in total, uh, built a bunch of companies there, sold one to a public company. Um, and uh and then moved to San Diego for about six years. Uh, you know, at the start of some some health issues I was having, uh, wanted to just get out of the Bay Area. I wanted to be more Southern California, just more relaxed lifestyle because the Bay Area was quite stressful. And uh after that, I uh I moved out to Austin just over a year ago. Um, and I'm based in Austin, Texas. So, you know, quick background will be tech entrepreneur uh who uh you know did reasonably well and decided to go and waste some money on making movies.

Health Crash And Seed Oil Wake-Up

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I yeah, I I love it. And uh yeah, you you you have a fascinating background and how you got there. And so the well the movie we're gonna be talking about is it's it's just come out not that long ago. It's a documentary, it's called Animal, and it deals with yes, and it deals with um an animal-based diet or a carnivore diet. And so let's let's just talk a little bit about that first and what you you know, kind of uh what your thinking is about about carnivore. Like what um why did you why did you want to make this particular movie? Why didn't you make a movie called Vegan or something?

Grass-Fed vs Grain-Fed Fatty Acids

Insulin Control And Carnivore Basics

SPEAKER_00 2:30

You know? Well, you know, it's it's interesting because what happened was I a lot of how I got sort of unhealthy, excuse me, was was actually watching a lot of the crap on ethics and um and actually believing a lot of the propaganda stuff that was on there. Like, you know, and I'm not saying veganism is bad, I'm just saying the way that some of these films were produced and and and the sort of uh the focus that they had was clearly propagandized, right? And so what actually wound up happening was I I started believing this, I actually went vegetarian for nearly two years, and I got like sicker and more unhealthy you know the whole time. I started eating a lot of beyond meat burgers and impossible burgers, which was loaded with seed oils and like highly processed foods, and and I thought, like, hey, I'm eating healthy, it's not meat, it's special. And I thought I was and I got sicker and sicker to the point that I actually moved to San Diego to try and figure out what is going on with my health. Um, and through that journey, I I came up with like a couple of things that um that make me sick, you know, at least for me. And it was uh, I think you know the the one thing I would say, like for me, and I I said I prefers it and said me because everyone's different, but for me was inflammation, high levels of inflammation in my body, and I I narrowed it down to uh high levels of omega-6s in my body, and uh that was and that's it's basically from seed oil. So um I had a I had some fried chicken and in San Diego from a place called Crack Shack. Um and it's like it's like Kentucky fried chicken or whatever, it's delicious, right? But the next day or middle of the night, I woke up and literally my arms were like numb. I like I could just I couldn't, I could tap my hands and I like shaked them. I felt like I lost an arm. I couldn't feel anything, and my both my arms were just numb. And I couldn't understand why I was going through this like weird type of neuropathy. Um, and you know, and then it happened again uh when I had fried chicken again, you know, and I was like, and I was like, Wait on something's something's wrong here. Um it also happened when I had a very big grain-fed steak, um, a fatty steak, and and some I think it was some fries or whatever else with it. I started putting two and two together, and like, oh, this is like 2019 or 18. Cedols are bad. And so I started eliminating seed oils from my diet, and this practically went away. I think I've had it very few times since, and that's probably when I've had a little bit too much, you know, hidden seed alls in my diet. But I found that like I was able to get my HS CRP down from I think it was like 4.5 or 5 or something, down to you know, twos and even lower sometimes, 1.7. And that basically is an information marker. So I went on the C roll train, first of all. Um, I I went I was very anti sort of saturated fats as well, because what we've been taught and growing up. And then, you know, uh I started realizing that, well, it's not that bad. So when you start eating grass-fed, grass-finished cattle and not grain-fed, the saturated fats actually aid your workouts. I actually had better workouts and um I felt stronger and it was healthier. And so I started realizing it's just you know, not all saturated fats create equal. If you have a big grain-fed cattle where it's just pumped full of like corn, which is high in omega-6s and lake acids, and it's gonna create information in your body. And if you have grass-fed cattle or even salmon or you know, and even specific salmon that's only fed kelp or algae, you're gonna get high levels of omega-3s. And so if you get that, then lies fair. I mean, I don't have next to me. I just like not an endorsement, I just bought it, like I just got it, but like, you know, beef, bristed slabs, um, American rays, uh, grazed on open pastures, you know, grass-fed, no grain, it's grass-fed, grass finished. You can get these snacks anywhere now. There's a big movement of of um you know grass-fed meat uh that you can get, and it's uh grass-fed, grass-finish. And this meat is very, very different from grain-fed. And they've actually done studies where they show that um there's if you finish a cattle, in other words, you raise the cattle on pastures for its whole life, and then a month before slaughter, or 45 days before slaughter, you feed it a ton of grains to fatten it up and make it taste better. They cannot really tell the difference between whether it was grass-fed or grass or grain-fed and finished, or grass-fed and grain finished. There's almost it's indistinguishable, which means that the levels of omega-6s in the fat of the meat is so elevated because of, you know, basically it has to digest and metabolize corn, which isn't a natural food for cattle. Um, you know, it's highly inflammatory. So that's the first thing, which I think the people need to understand is high levels of inflammation cause cancer. We know this. It causes, you know, in my case, neuropathy, uh, you know, it causes basically you know sickness, disease, unhealthiness, right? It's inflammation, your body's fighting something, right? The second thing is um is insulin, actually. So carnivore diet, what makes it actually a really good and interesting diet is you cut out um all carbohydrates. So you can't really get much of an insulin spike. Yes, there is from amino acids, and if you have too much protein, you'll get some spikes, but your body treats it very differently and and this and the insulin comes down. So typically, people on a carnivore diet are on a low insulin diet with very few spikes. Now, there are some you know situations where people say, well, over time that makes your insulin less uh sensitive, so you can't actually handle carbohydrates, and that's true to some extent. And you have guys like Paul Sardino that went off it because obviously he needed more energy in his daily habits, and you know, and and there's there's two sides to every story. So we we set out and interviewed a whole bunch of doctors for animal, and uh everyone from Anthony Chafee, Sean Baker, Ken Berry, um, you know, and a bunch of others. And and we got a whole bunch of perspectives on the carnivore diet, and we we compiled that into a documentary, and I think we did a pretty good job of the production of it. So the goal is just to show one side of the equation to people because I think there's been a lot of one-sided veganism, pro-vegan stuff, not showing the other side of the equation. And so I I've spent a lot of my time over the past couple of years trying to understand my body, my health, uh, and try to reclaim my health, really, and and and see what uh, you know, without using without using like medications, that what's possible, what's not possible, sometimes you need to have medications for certain things. Like I've had some gut issues I've had to treat. I've had you know different things. I've experimented with um with uh some of the GRB1s and try to see what impact it has on your body before and after. So I, you know, the the short end of it is I think if you can control um insulin and inflammation, I think it resolves 80 to 90 percent of the common issues that people have uh across across humans, right? Everyone's got different um, you know, you know, the different compositional issues. But I think insulin and inflammation are the two things I would I would focus on more than anything.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

Yeah, it's interesting you said that you were you were a vegan for a couple of years or vegetarian for a couple of years. Yeah, yeah. And um, and it and uh you know, full disclosure, I was a vegan for about 10 years, and you know, and and I and I always say to people, you know, um part of our audience is uh, you know, I love my vegan friends, I love my carnivore friends, you know, and I personally I think you can be you can be very healthy or very unhealthy on practically any diet, all the way from vegan, even to carnivore. But from experience, you know, it's much harder to be healthy as a vegetarian or a vegan just because there's so much junk food, there's so much there there, there's so many things that spike your insulin, there's you know, omega-6, uh, seed oils, all these other things. And going to carnivore, like you say, is um, you know, it's a lot of people go to carnivore uh and then they they add things back in, like if maybe they're allergic to dairy or something and they go to carnivore. You could because carnivore, you can exist on carnivore, you can live on carnivore and get basically all your nutrients. You really can't do that on veganism or vegetarianism unless you're very careful and you supplement some of the micronutrients. So it's just it's more challenging to be healthy on those other things. And carnivore is easy, you know. You just you you know, you eat some eggs, you eat some ground beef, and you're done. You know, you've got it covered pretty much, you know, and and um uh but you know the problem with vegan diets, quite frankly, is all these fake vegan foods.

Vegan Pitfalls And Protein Gaps

SPEAKER_00 11:25

I mean, yeah, I think if if I go vegan today and you said, okay, if any you're forced to go vegan, what would you do? Well, I mean, it's kind of simple, right? I'd have I'd have lots of potatoes, rice, starches, like you know, like marrow, uh, I don't know, um, squash, um, uh, you know, butternut, that sort of thing. So that the but the base of my diet would probably be sweet potato, um, sweet potato butternut squashes. I'd have probably some rice in there. I'd stay away from the grains because they're still pretty inflammatory. So, like, you know, breads and stuff, maybe maybe some sourdoughs are throwing there. Um, I wouldn't try and create like the fake meat that requires all this like seed oil and highly compressed up. I you know, I'd have a lot of mushrooms, I guess. Um, and I think there's a way of being a vegan and trying to get it. But like one of the other problems is uh the vegan community tends to go towards these um these protein powders that are trying to create complete amino acids by having pea protein and chickpea protein and these, and then they mix all together with exfilacres canola oil. And so they have a lot, these processed um protein powders have got a ton of um seed oils in them, which raise omega-6s in your buttons. So I would find like I I haven't done this exercise, but I just go to Chat TPT and say, give me a high omega-3, low omega-6 vegan diet and and see what it comes up with.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah, yeah, that would that would be interesting.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

And and and maybe it's really hard.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

I mean, uh maybe I'll try it right now while we're but yeah, and and and then the and then the point you make, even with even with um a carnivore diet, if the animal has been fed uh omega-6 rich pro-inflammatory grains and corn and soybean, then you're potentially still gonna have problems with that, even. So uh the best thing you can get finished uh ideally uh is uh grass finished and grass raised, ideally, I guess, but grass finished if you can't get if you can't get that, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, exactly. And and look, the nice about vegan diets obviously is you can have you can get a whole bunch of, I mean, extra version olive oil is fantastic, you know, avocado oil is is second to that. Uh and there's there's a lot of like things, but there's you know, there's a lot of good things you can have in a vegan diet that I think is is helpful. But I think get getting the protein is the hardest part. Getting, you know, getting 150 grams a day of protein um is is hard. And I just pulled up, you know, Chat GPT, and it's what it's saying is basically um, you know, uh, more morning would be chia pudding with ground flat seed, black coffee and tea. Midday would be lentil and vegetable bowl, uh, or kale broccoli, onions, garlic, or you know, with some half and avocado, hem seeds, sprinkle vegetables. I mean, it it you know, it's it's not giving you a lot of protein in this diet, um, but it's able to, because it says you have to avoid almonds, cashews, peanuts, tahini, sesame oil, commercial vegan meats, uh store bought bought hummus, dressings, mayo, like literally all the stuff which vegans get their protein from. This is the problem, right? So now the trade-off is you're gonna go towards a high omega-6 diet, which is highly inflammatory, in order to meet your protein needs. Now, everyone's different. Some people just they don't really work out, they don't do heavy weights, they don't need as much protein, and maybe they need 70 grams a day of protein and they can survive with that. That's fine. But if you're active and you're you're doing muscle building and you're trying to work out, you you you're kind of stuck having to use these protein powders that are are going to be you know high, highly inflammatory. And inflammation isn't a short-term thing. It's it's the you know, you can have a like you know, if I if I you know hit you in the face, you you you'd swell up, right? You'd have inflammation, but it would go down, right? That's not a problem. Your body knows how to deal with it. If I hit you in the face every single day, you know, for weeks on end, it's not healthy. That's the point, right? Like the inflammation reacts to acute uh situations. But if that becomes chronic, that's the problem.

Environment, Methane, And Monocrop Costs

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like acute inflammation is life-saving. If I get stuck with a thorn, I want to have you know redness around my finger and I want it to be inflamed for a short time and then go away. But it like you say, it's the chronic inflammation that drives aging, that drives, you know, 80% of the the chronic diseases we face today are driven by inflammation, insulin resistance, and all. So it's a huge, huge problem. Well, what about the, you know, people say that um you, you know, you can just go on X or anywhere and say that, you know, the animal, animals, animal, uh, people eating animals are destroying the planet. The cows make more methane than anything else. But, you know, you know, I I guess I I wonder, you know, 150 years ago there were 60 million buffalo in the in the United States by the estimates. Um today they're 60 million cattle, the same number more or less. Why wasn't the methane from the buffalo destroying the planet 150 years ago be you know before we wiped out the buffalo? But uh and I mean, so what's the mention dinosaur farts, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:46

That must be seriously bad, like T Rex, T Rex gas must have been pretty bad. Um, look, I I I think um there's a lot of misinformation out there in the documentary. We actually do tackle like the impact on the earth. Um, and I've read books about the methane thing. It's it's it's been debunked so many times. Uh, monocrop agriculture, which we tackle in our in our documentary, is actually the worst thing for the planet. It is absolutely the worst thing. It's worse than cows fighting and and releasing methane gas. And people need to understand what that means and why that is. So just you know, all this like these fields of corn and soy and grains, that is infinitely worse for the planet than um that us having more animals. In fact, the animals contribute to the land because like think about it, you plant these seeds, you spray the glyphosates, you kill a whole bunch of like rodents in the process. You have these big harvesters that come in, and the the land goes fallow in a couple of years, and that's it, done. Whereas with pasture-raised animals, and I'm not endorsing, you know, big big farmers, you know, uh raising cattle on these farms. And I'm talking about like grass-fed, grass finish, pasture-raised animals. They're highly regenerative to the earth. They actually utilize a lot of the runoff water that's out there, so it's not even taken from our water supply. They they they poop and the poop goes back in the earth and refer uh it reinvigorates the land and re-fertilizes everything. Um, and you know, like for people who think this is an issue, they should go to South Africa where I'm from. They should go to like Botswana, Zimbabwe. Go on a safari, go and talk to the ranchers, go watch the game, go watch the lion kill an animal, go watch the circle of life and how these ecosystems have existed before mankind came to Earth and brought industrial farming practices. Industrial farming is so much worse for the environment than us living on it, right? The way the way we've done for centuries. Um, industrial farming is actually the reason why we have 8 billion people on this planet. It's the reason because we were able to bring the cost of food down so much that we can support more people. But they're sicker, they're more unhealthy, and they're more dependent on the state. So we move more and more to this sort of communist environment um where the government has to basically pay for everything because we've overpopulated the earth relative to what the national food supply would have been for us, because we can produce and have families and cheaper food. And it's the it would be okay if it was healthy, but it's not healthy. We have a lot of a lot of sick people out there, and America in particular is like one of the sickest nations on earth.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

So so what you're saying is, yeah, this this industrial industrial farming, whether it's raising animals or even raising plants on an industrial scale is very harmful. And we need to shift to regenerative methods for farming, regenerative methods for cattle and uh other animals. And that actually is pro-planet, pro it's better for the climate, you know, it's better for everything. So yeah, that that that's a that but one of the things is that the governments have.

Food Policy, Subsidies, And Sick Populations

SPEAKER_00 20:00

The governments of the world, not any particular one government, they've hit a lot of the inflation that we would have seen over the past, you know, everyone knows that like fiat currency loses value over time. The government's high inflation by keeping the cost of food low. They keep the cost of food low by reducing the quality and you know introducing chemicals and whatever else. So just because the Big Mac costs the same now, or relatively the same, or at the you know, at low levels of inflation versus 30, 40 years ago, it doesn't mean it's healthier. It doesn't mean it's better for you. If you look at the ingredients, a lot of the packaged food industry, how the ingredients have changed over time, it's gotten worse for you and making you sicker. So if the government's able to devalue the currency but keep the cost of food low, people will still have kids and they'll still raise kids and it's still affordable and will overpopulate the earth like we have today. And you know, do I think it's over-over-populated? No, I think we're probably going to be capped out of about 10 billion people on earth. So, you know, if we can move to more regenerative methods of farming, I think this world can sustain the earth population the way it is right now. We we can't sustain 50 billion people, I think we've all realized that, or 25 billion, but I think you know, between eight and 10 is probably a healthy number. And in fact, we're in population decline right now, uh, you know, for many, many countries. Yeah, yeah. So so I I think we're I think we're at the terminal, the terminal number for humans on this earth. So the real question is how do we make the food supply more regenerative? So the same way we want to regenerate using solar and clean energy and whatever else, you know, think about it this way: the way we see solar as clean energy, we should look at regeneratively raised cattle and even agriculture as uh clean energy for humans, right? It's it's you know, we're we we each human requires about 2,000 calories a day. There's a fixed number of calories, 2,000 times 8 billion, that's required on a global scale every single day. That's how many, how much energy the human population on earth consumes per day. The more we can make that regenerative, the better.

Funding, Bias, And Propaganda In Food Films

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, yeah. Like, and like you say, the keeping the cost of food low. Unfortunately, the government does that by subsidizing corn and soybeans primarily with farmers. And those are like the two of the worst things uh as far as you know, high fructose corn syrup is now made from corn. It's no more cane sugar because it's cheaper and you know it it has a better shelf life. But it these are the main ingredients for junk food and high omega-6 and all sorts of problems. It was interesting. You made a point about um watching documentaries on food and you know, and and health and wellness, and how so many of them are full of propaganda. You know, you just listen to it and it's like, oh my god, this is propaganda. How did you make your movie so that it's not propaganda? What what how do you tell if a movie's propaganda or not? And how did you avoid it? Or what what did you do in this movie to um not fall into that trap?

Carnivore As An Elimination Reset

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Okay, so so firstly, I'm an independent filmmaker. The movie was 100% funded by myself. I have no special interest in anything related to meat, other than I have shares in a steakhouse in Vegas, uh Boa steakhouse. That's it. And I invested in a place called Tallow Girl, which is a uh you know restaurant, like a small little you know restaurant in uh in Los Angeles. And uh that's the extent of my my special interest. And I'm not making a global documentary to promote two local steakhouses or businesses, right? So whereas you look at the other movies that are made, it's all funded by big, big corporations that are trying to make money off selling their you know, their fake meat burgers and whatever else. So that's the way you should look at it. Like, here's a guy who was a tech guy and found a lot of value in understanding the carnivore diet and the uses and applications of it, and actually found some really great benefits from it. Um and wanted to make a documentary about it and you know present the information to the world, and you know, people should use it as they see fit. But I'm like, I'm not trying to make you know the this movie. If I even get my money back on this movie, that would be a miracle. Because it's like, you know, I spent a bunch of money making it. It was a passionate project, and it's it's been live for about six months. We're nowhere close to breaking even on it. But you know, it's a labor of love. And and I still think that the the carnivore diet is a very appropriate species appropriate diet for for most people. Um, and I think that uh, you know, I I personally think that it is very difficult to follow if you travel a lot, because I do travel a lot and I try and take the snacks and the and the eggs and whatever else. I think it's very hard to follow when you're when you're on the road a lot. Um, so but I think that there's there's it's a spectrum, right? So you look at the one end, you have carnivore. Uh you have actually the the most extreme is the lion diet, right? Which Michaela Peterson's on, which is just like basically meat. And and so you have the lion diet, then you have you have carnivore, and then the the next up from there is is is like animal-based um slash keto. I think keto is probably in the middle there, then you have animal-based according to Paul Saladino. And then you move, you know, the other end of the spectrum is obviously like fruitarianism and veganism and vegetarianism, so pescatarian or whatever else. Um, so I think everyone needs to see where in the spectrum they fall in. Um I personally think that keto is a very, very good, sustainable diet. Uh, I you know, it depends on what what plants you eat, because I still think that some plants have got high levels of oxalates and very bad for you, and you know, and and and you're trying to avoid kidney stones, don't eat spinach, that sort of thing. I think that's all like very good, well-proven advice. Um I think that for most people a ketogenic diet is appropriate. So some spectrum of you know, healthy fats, uh, some steaks, some some salmon, um, whatever else, avocados, uh, olive oil, uh, you know, a higher fat kilo diet. I think in general, low carb is the way that most humans should function, unless you're an athlete. And even if you're an athlete, like high levels of carbs are proven to cause diabetes later on in life. Um, so I think that um somewhere around the low carb community said that's like 125 grams a day is low carb. I I think you know, and then the keto community is like 25 to 30 grams, you know, is is the upper limit for keto. So I I think somewhere between 25 and 50 grams is where is where it I say is optimal in a ketogenic-based diet, which is about you know maximum 200 calories a day from carbohydrates. The rest is from healthy fats and proteins. And if you really want to push it and be like what what's the normal range, let's say 125 grams of carbs a day, which you know is about 500 calories, probably 25% of your daily intake is car is carbohydrates. I think anyone did that, you'd be pretty healthy. I think you start going over that limit, that's when you start having you know issues with insulin and uh and glucose clearing in your blood and that sort of thing. But again, it also depends, right? If you you take someone who's very, very overweight and highly insulin resistant, and you give them 125 grams of carbs a day, it's not good for them. They're gonna have a problem clearing those carbs, especially if they're sedentary and they're not really active and doing much. So then you want to have them on the lower carbohydrate intake, 25 grams, or even carnivore, which is zero grams. Um, but controlling insulin is the most important thing for losing weight. You cannot lose weight if you have um elevated insulin levels. And so um your carnivore diet does get you does get you there without medication. It's a it's a slower process, and it's um it's a lot harder to follow and stick to. Um but yeah, yeah, you're the doctor. I'm just giving my no, no.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

That's good, that's good. And and back to the point, I love the the point about obviously about finding bias in the in the move in the movie or the documentary or the perspective is that um who's paying for it, obviously, like you say, the funding. Now, in some cases, the funding can be obscured, or you know, it may not be obvious who's paying for it, you know, Coca-Cola is you know, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Young meat, the possible boga.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, there's so many interests. I mean, um, both, you know, there are interests on the animal side as well, the beef, the beef council, and you know, there's interest, much more interest on the other side with uh, you know, all the junk food makers and everything, which is much larger. But but if you if you if you can't tell who's funding it, are there ways to look at the uh look at the movie itself? In other words, like like um, is there a way to look, is it balanced?

Finding Your Spot On The Low-Carb Spectrum

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Like, or do the vegan people actually we didn't go balanced. We had this discussion, and we felt that every vegan movie out there, every documentary was very unbalanced. So we didn't find the point in balancing this out. We're like, let's present the facts as aggressively as possible, and people can make up their minds. And uh, you know, I it's not that I disagree with much of that. I think the movie was the documentary is pretty to the point. And yeah, every single person who struggles with some sort of health and ailment should try carnivore for three months and then see what disappears and what stays. And you'll be surprised how many ailments that you had before carnivore were actually a result of something like if you think about it at and it's very core, a carnivore diet is an elimination diet. If all you're eating is eggs and beef for the most part, you know, maybe some bacon, uh, which is a high omega-6. I don't super recommend that. But you know, bacon bacon is fine on a non-regular basis, but but you know, bacon, beef, butter, eggs, if you eliminate everything else, you'd be surprised. Like, oh, I had this oxidate butter from these spinach smoothies I was having every day. Oh, I feel better now because I had oxidate dumping into water my system. And you know, I had uh I've been eating these nuts that have been causing problems for me, and this and that, and these high moment you eliminate that stuff, what are you left with? You you know, like you most people are not allergic to beef, butter, bacon, or eggs. So you you it's an elimination diet. So I would say it's got a ton of value. I would start there and then evaluate. But what happens is people try it for two weeks and go, I'm not seeing any benefits, I'm giving up. I'm not gonna do this anymore. And I think that that's also a mistake because uh most of the benefits I found on being on carnival was after like 45 days. Um, the one the one you know exception I would make with carnival is I'd maybe have some wine once in a while, and I'd have some berries and grapes. Uh sorry, um just berries, and obviously wine was made from grapes. But that that was it. For the most part, I was pretty, pretty strict on my carnival diet. It was just like, you know, you know, eggs, omelet, maybe I have some cheese here and there. Um and I found tremendous like gains and in the germ strength gains, whatever else, on just eating pure meat. Um, but yeah, you know, like I knew for a fact that like if I had berries, uh, it wouldn't affect me, right? I I I was like tracking my insulin levels, I was tracking my um uh you know, I have my whoop on. And so you can track, but some people they're allergic to berries. Some people they're allergic to you know sulfites in the wine, and then they have these reactions. Um, so I think at the very least, a three-month carnivore diet will teach you things about yourself that you didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Yeah, yeah, and then add things onto it, like add the dairy, add the grains, maybe, add the other stuff and see what happens and see, yeah. And so it's a good, it's a good baseline uh starting point. Now that you you you didn't come to this from a filmmaking background, right? I think this is this is your first film project, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Uh yeah, I hired a I hired a director and uh I have a I started a studio, I have a producer there, so we we hired a director and we hired the whole team and we put it together.

Making “Animal”: Budget And Distribution

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Yeah, I mean we're we're I am in Los Angeles, and you know, we actually full, we fall we fill most of it in Los Angeles, actually. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean with the the town is full of stories like there was a there's a very, very successful movie person who just passed away uh not that long ago. Uh and uh when he died, his estate came out and it was worth$600 million. And they go, wow, you know, how'd this guy, you know, he made$600 million? Well, as it turned out before he came to Los Angeles, he he was from a very wealthy family, and his family left him almost a billion dollars. And so, how do you make$600 million in the movie business? Start with a billion, you know, like the joke goes. So, what did what did you learn? Uh what did you learn about making your first movie that what are what are some of the surprises that, like, oh, I won't do that again, or I wish I would have done that, or you know?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

I mean, I oh overall, I think um it was a good experience. I think budget management is obviously very important, distribution is important, so all these basic things you learn about making movies. Um, the industry is constantly changing. You have this you have the streamers and the platforms. Um I think you can make good movies for pretty good low cost uh budgets. Um you can make a good movie, I think, these days for under under three million, under three to four million forever. Uh and and back in the days, three million was considered like a a low budget film. And today it's it's uh, you know, I'd say it's it's like a made-for-tv type movie that if you get the elements right, can be more than that, right? So you the baseline is you should you should be able to make good movies in the in a two to three million, maybe four million dollar range um these days. Good, decent movies, watchable, enjoyable. There's there's also such a um diverse audience space right now, globally, that even small movies with kind of niche sort of topics or or interests with the right actors and the right cast um will attract an audience. Um and so there's niches of those. I think I think you know, Hollywood in America needs to move towards more high-volume movies, like producing more movies across a wider range of audience sort of demographics and what people are looking for, then the traditional sort of you know, blockbusters and and people don't really go to the movies that much anymore. I mean, they they've been struggling, but you know, obviously the blockbusters are great, gets people in, Avengers and whatever else. Um, you know, Doomsday is a new one coming out. That that'll always attract an audience, but most people sit at home, they'll watch Netflix, or they'll, you know, they'll download an Apple. And I think it's very clear that the the streamers like Netflix and Apple, these are the big distribution channels where lots of people watch a movie. But you know, I've seen movies that are made for less than 10 million bucks and get three, 400 million views, and they don't get paid much for it. So the streaming platforms do have a monopoly on on the production of content right now. And I think this is why you know LA is struggling, as you as you well know. Like the you know, the industry is out of work, uh, a lot of people are a lot of actors and actresses out of work, um, you know, screenwriters, etc., because it's just hard to make money in that industry at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

Yeah, and then and then we add artificial intelligence as generative AI on top of this, and everything changes. And uh did you did you disclose what the your budget is for animal, or do you talk about that?

SPEAKER_00 35:49

We didn't disclose it, but it was it was over a million dollars. So, you know, with the average documentaries like 250 to 500, we spend over a million bucks making it. And um, like I said, probably maybe make the money back, but it's it's not wasn't about that. It was a it was a passion project.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

So yeah, documentaries are tough. I mean, that's a tough, tough.

Censorship Fights And Platform Gatekeepers

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I mean, they'll everybody wants it for free. And so you know what? We you know, we we are looking at you know, we're looking at releasing it on on um you know on ad supported channels, so we can try and make some revenue back on ads. And so that's that'll be coming soon. But right now it's available. You can go to watch.animal.movie and and just watch it there, or you can go to uh Apple and download it from Apple. Um but uh yeah, those are the for independent formakers. There aren't a lot of good options for distribution, and also we you know, we struggle to get this into the streaming platforms. Um, you know, we've been censored on Amazon, they took us down. Um, you know, so it's the movie that nobody wants you to see uh from Apple.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Because why did they take you down? What was that?

SPEAKER_00 36:48

Amazon. So Amazon, if you ask me why, I I think that they don't like someone there doesn't like the content who's probably a vegan. And because Apple, uh Amazon's, I should say, sorry, because Amazon is is really, you know, they're based out in Seattle. It's a very, very, very vegan, vegan forward community um that work at Amazon in Seattle, and Seattle's a very vegan place. That like any other reason for why you would take down a movie? I mean, it's still live on Apple. Apple supported us and allowed us to run the end. It's it's a documentary, it's factual, it's got doctors in it, but but but Amazon is refusing to take it down, uh refusing to put it back up. It was out for a while, and then they just they they delisted.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

Interesting. So it's it it's but they don't do that to other other type of uh diet option like like vegetarian, vegan or keto or neither of a vegan or vegetarian uh documentary delicit from Amazon. Interesting, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

That's yeah, yeah. Like again, I I don't know exactly what the reasons were, but there's no one to talk to. They just take you down, they don't tell you why, and you have to assume the worst in this situation. Like, why would you take down a movie that is actually, you know, people enjoy it? We've got a big community of people following and watching it. There's no you know, there's you know, they can argue like medically incorrect or whatever. We have doctors saying these things on you know, uh uh you know, on camera. And these are medical doctors, they're registered doctors. Like, what do you want? We're filmmakers. We made this movie, we took testimony from the doctors, we put it live. You know, I can't I can't validate whether it's true or not. And if a doctor made a mistake and said something, well then ping us and tell us, like, this is untrue. But they're not doing that, they're just like, you know, they don't want this information out there.

Carnivore As A Tool, Not A Dogma

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yeah, yeah. And and uh and the your the cast or the the people that you interview are on there are all really first-rate uh physicians and experts in the field, so uh it yeah, it's and we shouldn't have a world where there's this level of censorship. I mean, this is America for crying out a lot, yeah, yeah, and and intelligent people can disagree. I mean, there are plenty of intelligent people who disagree with with uh carnivore diets, and there are plenty of intelligent physicians who disagree with vegan diets, you know, and vegetarian diets for so yeah, uh I personally think carnivore diets a tool.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

I don't think that I don't think that you know it's necessarily something you want to be doing your whole life. I think you can use it for a period of time. I think it, you know, but I do lean towards a meat-heavy diet. I think a lot of meat is a good thing, and I think depending on your ability to to digest fats, you want to tone it down. Maybe you want to have you know higher you know, in in in in in you know, fish and chicken and maybe less less ribeys, right? But this there's this dial, and everyone needs to make the decision for themselves. But my argument is that it's we shouldn't be, as humans, not eating meat or trying to avoid meat. We should embrace meat, and everyone's got different levels of meat that they can ingest. And the meal. Acids are complete. You're not trying to like combine five different vegetables together. Like literally, I don't think veganism would be a thing. Uh, you know, 200 years ago or even 100 years ago, if you know if people um didn't have the ability, you know, that we didn't have the medical technology today to synthesize vitamin B12 and understand what the what the composition of amino acids are in everything we're eating, like you wouldn't be able to do that. Your body would just be like rejecting the stuff, and you wouldn't be able to, you're like, why am I sick? Oh, I have a piece of meat. I feel so much better. Great. Like, because we're able to go into the science of it, now we're able to hack the human body to accept things that I don't think is really it was meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Yeah, no, that's that's that's really a great point. Well, well, I I guess your experience with this has been good enough that you're actually your next project is not gonna be a documentary, but it's gonna be a a feature. Uh do you want to talk about that?

SPEAKER_00 40:53

A horror film.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

A horror film. Do you want to tease that one a little bit uh for for our audience? We're gonna we're gonna run the trailer for animal as part of the podcast. But uh, do you want to tease this one too? And we can uh I don't think the trailer's out for this one yet, but you want to talk about it.

New Feature Film “Nice People” Preview

SPEAKER_00 41:10

It's it's it's it's not like a horror, it's kind of like a kind of a gore thriller, I would call it. Gory thriller. Um, it's a um, you know, I don't want to give too much away, but it it's it's it's a quite an exciting, interesting um cost of people. We've got uh Soucy Bacon, Kevin Bacon's daughter, and uh uh you know a couple other people like that. Uh you know, uh Elisha Balter's in it as well, so John Travol's daughter and a few others. And um it's it's it's a really nice uh cast of young, young folks, and um you know it's like a who-done it, right? In a way. And and you know, in a very, very tasteful way. It was it was it was uh it was produced and filmed last year, and we're putting it together. I'm I'm really excited. I saw the first director's cut of it, and I thought it was great. And you know, like now the first movie was a passion project. This one I actually want to make some money off because I think like this would be a great movie for it to go, you know, into theaters and you know, people love it and it blows up, and that's great. Now I go, okay, let's go make more movies, right? Uh so the the whole movie business, you have to be able to make money so you can make more movies. And so uh that's the goal of this one. But uh, this is this is gonna be a bigger audience appeal. I think uh when most people will kind of this is the animal is a bit more niche and more focused on the carnival community. Uh, this is gonna be a bit more um mainstream. So yeah, wish me luck. Let's see how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Nice, nice. Yeah, would you have a title of it yet you can release or nice people? Nice people, uh I love it. And uh hopefully Amazon won't take you down, or you'll have you'll have other distribution as well. And maybe maybe even we can see it in theaters. That would be great. Uh, or at least you could do a release um, you know, and have screenings in theaters no matter what. When you're right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

I think I think I think this will get picked up by a big distributor. And it's the the the the the cut that I saw or the first cut was actually really impressive. So uh it's not usually the case you can say that for a first cut, right? Because they kind of like put the scenes together and it was really good. I I enjoyed it, so I'm I'm looking forward to sharing it to people.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

And who's the director? It's a different director, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's um uh Mark O'Brien. Uh so he was in um uh yeah, the biblioteric uh Mark O'Brien, he he's uh he actually stars in it as well. Um so he's a Canadian, uh Canadian actor director, and he played um uh he played a role. He won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor at some point. Uh he was in a the the uh like a drama film called Goldie. I he played that. So um, but he's done a bunch of other roles as well. So he's a good up-and-coming uh director, actor, and and uh people like him. He's great.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Well, I can't I can't I can't wait to see it. Just to be clear though, people in this movie they eat other stuff than just carnivore, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:18

They don't need humans, they don't need humans, so we'll get it for that.

Closing And Where To Watch

SPEAKER_01 44:22

All right. Well, well, maybe what we'll have you back when uh that that comes out. We can run the trailer and uh do a do a promo on that for our audience as well. But thanks, thanks so much, Vinny. Is there anything we didn't cover that you want to hit before we uh before we wrap up here?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah, this this has been wonderful. And thanks, thanks for making this movie and helping helping educate people. This is this has been Vinny Lingham, and the movie is called Animal. It's on Apple, it's not on Amazon. And it's also uh the other we'll put it in the show notes, but maybe you could just tell people again.watch.animal.movie. Perfect. Perfect. Great. All right, Vinny. Thanks, thanks again so much. We appreciate it. Thank you.