Vegan Fireside

My Costume Made Everyone Uncomfortable (and I Liked It)

• Krimsey • Season 1 • Episode 2

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0:00 | 15:05

I wore a vegan Halloween costume, and people hated it. Then I had two conversations that went surprisingly well — one at a dairy booth, one at the library — and they reminded me why small, awkward moments matter. This episode is about speaking up even when your voice shakes, finding gentle ways to ask hard questions, and realizing activism doesn’t always look like a protest sign. Sometimes it’s just a conversation. 

Full Episode Transcript: available at Vegan Fireside on Substack

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How to contact me:

💌 E-Mail: fireside@krimdom.com

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💼 LinkedIn: @krimsey

📚 My Books: krimdom.com/books

📝 Substack (AI, systems, food): @krimsey

Links

📝 Substack (get episode alerts): veganfireside.substack.com 

🌐 Website: krimdom.com/veganfireside

🐌 Krimsey's Newsletter: E-Snails

📚 Krimsey's Books: dabblerouser.com/books

💌 Contact: krimdom.com/contact

Vegan Fireside: A podcast by Krimsey Lilleth — honest conversations about the inner life of being vegan in a world that mostly isn't. 

[00:00:00] Speaker: Hey, what's up? Who's ready for Halloween? I am, and I just debuted my costume this past weekend and everyone hated it. So I'm probably gonna wear it again this weekend and you can probably guess why everyone hated it. It's a vegan costume. Clearly. If you wanna check it out, I'll put the link in the notes.

It's nothing. Gruesome or nasty, but it is a vegan theme. And yeah, people were not pleased. But I really wanna see what all of you are doing. So if you have a vegan costume and you wanna share it with me find a way to contact me in the notes and send it to me. I'm not gonna be like, reposting or anything.

I'm just really curious and I wanna see.

Because I like to see what my vegan friends are up to and how they're using their voices, even when it makes people uncomfortable, especially when it makes people uncomfortable.

[00:00:56] krimsey: Hello again. I wasn't sure if the [00:01:00] last one was gonna land or if anyone was going to care, and the response has been really positive and it seems like all of you are wanting this and needing this just as much as I am.

And the fact that you're willing to jump on board when I don't even know what this is, so certainly you don't know what this is. It's really touching. It means that you trust me to make something useful for you,

and thanks for sticking with me through this first bumpy part while I try to figure out how to make a podcast. I don't even have a good mic yet, but I'm gonna get one and really commit to this process because I want this to turn into something good and exciting for all of you and for myself.

And the feedback I got is that You're interested in general casual conversation between vegans and you wanna hear about stuff that feels good. you wanna hear about vegan things happening in other places. I got some requests for parenting stuff.

And it seems like many of you care a lot about how to connect in real life. So at the end of this [00:02:00] episode, I'm gonna share one upcoming event that I just found out about. And for future episodes, I'm also gonna be compiling lists of things that might interest you. Mostly us based, probably all US based, at least for now.


[00:02:14] krimsey: I got one email from someone that was especially touching and relatable. She's.

86 years old. She used to come to the restaurant. She actually grew up very close to where the restaurant was. She's been vegan for about 20 years, and over time she's lost a lot of friends. As that does happen. And now she's at a place in her life where she doesn't have one single friend her age, who's vegan.

Though she's active and healthy, she finds herself in a funk 

because not having close friends who share some of your most important values is devastating. And I think we all deserve that. So hopefully this thing can turn into something that can better connect us and help us find each [00:03:00] other.

And hey, if you're in your eighties and living in Los Angeles and you're looking for some new vegan friends, reach out to me and I'll see if I can put you two in touch.

Okay, so looping back to the conversations you asked for, I have a few ideas for places to start and here are some examples. Please gimme feedback if you're excited or not excited about these, or if you have other ideas too. So first one is how to host a successful Friendsgiving or than living vegan dating in an omnivorous world.

Musician fireside chats

and feeding vegan toddlers.

I have some friends in mind for all of these, and I think it'd be a lot of fun

So another question I got a couple of times, because I sent information about this out on my mailing list was from people who are like, I'm not vegan. Is that cool? So absolutely everyone's welcome to listen also, even if you weren't, I don't [00:04:00] think I could stop you. So go for it.

I just called it vegan fireside, because it's meant to be a space where vegans can exhale for a minute. Out in the world, we're surrounded by omnivorous norms, and most of the time we end up explaining or defending our choices or just feeling weird and silent.

So I want this to feel like the opposite of that, a place where the baseline is already shared, where we can talk, reflect, and reconnect without having to translate.

So today, since it's just me, I want to share two quick success stories about conversations I had out in the world that went unexpectedly well, and hopefully this is encouraging for you to go out and start having these tiny conversations that feel unimportant, but actually can lead to major ripple effects.

Okay, so the first one, I went to a community garden event where there were lots of booths set up and they had food trucks and it's the whole thing for the kids. And my kid came over, he was holding a little squeaky cow key chain, and I was [00:05:00] like, oh, where did he get that?

I mean, it's cute. And I looked over and saw that there was

a dairy company with a table and information handing out the little toys to kids. So I thought, okay, we do like cows. Let me go over and talk to them. And I made sure that my attitude was inquisitive and simply asked, Hey, what happens to the baby cows on your dairy farm? Thinking I would get met with some kind of smart 

answer or maybe have them even visibly annoyed at me, because that certainly does happen a lot of these times. But they instead just kind of got this blank look on their face and took a couple seconds to answer and I realized they don't know,

and I was so glad that I asked.

They then responded. I think they just stay on the farm to which then I followed up with more questions. Of course. I said, oh, so does your herd just get bigger and bigger each year? And what about the male [00:06:00] calves? Because they don't make milk, right? So do they just live there until end of life?

And again, got met with more blank stares and. They eventually asked their coworker who was talking to another person at the moment, but they then said, Hey, got a question I don't know the answer to. And we went through the whole thing again and again, more blank stares. And we eventually came to the conclusion that, yes, the mail calves must get sold for beef.

And then I asked, well, are they sold as veal? Because I think a lot of. Dairy companies sell the baby male calves as veal, clearly they'd never thought about it or asked the question,

so by simply going up to this booth and innocently asking questions about how they handle their baby calves on the dairy farm. Who knows what may happen. They may go back to their boss or supervisors and inquire and will [00:07:00] probably be horrified because the two people I spoke with at this event were both women.

Women who likely have children of their own and perhaps breastfed their own children. And learning about how the dairy industry operates is really upsetting for many mothers when they realize the depth of the abuse and suffering that these cows go through.

And it was pretty easy for me to have these conversations. I just asked questions, no convincing,

no pointing fingers,

no making about myself. I could just ask these questions and disappear.

 the second story is about a trip to the library. I like to take my toddler son to story time, but I'm really grossed out by how often animal products are used in books and how

casually we switch from. Adoring farm animals to eating animal products, and for the most part I just try to ignore it. But this one particular story, time was upsetting [00:08:00] to me because we opened with singing a song to the farm Animals

hello Sun. Hello Cows, wishing you peace. Shanti, Shanti, something like that. And Shanti means peace.

And then in the next breath, asking the children. And what do cows give us? Meat. All the kids screamed in unison after. We just wished them well and wished them peace. And we did that for all of the animals and I sat through the rest of the story time, but just felt this icky, yucky gut feeling. So I texted a couple of my vegan friends and explained what was happening and was like, I'm gonna go talk to them after.

Please wish me luck. And when story time was over, I went over there and tried not to sweat through my t-shirt because I'm so used to these conversations, not going well, but I just simply said, Hey, this is my son. We're trying to teach him to be kind to animals and right then I saw her face and I knew that she knew, [00:09:00] and I proceeded, I said.

And when we go in one breath from singing songs of peace into killing and eating the animals, it's quite jarring and it's really hard to explain to him. He probably doesn't even notice right now, but very soon it's gonna be a tough conversation and.

She admitted that it was weird and

it actually unfolded into a very wonderful, productive conversation about the climate effects of eating meat, raising vegan kids and about humane slaughter, which of course, I don't believe exists. 

And I closed it all out with thanking her for story time 'cause her story times are great and for listening to me and

Letting her know that I really appreciated her taking our situation into consideration, even though we know it's not the norm, that we may have been the only vegan family in the room, But I felt like I had to say something.

[00:10:00] I think it's really easy to walk around in the world feeling like there's nothing we can do or there's no point in saying anything. But in both of these situations, these two very short conversations I had with a few people could very well end up leading to changes in how the library thinks about the books that they read at story time.

these two employees may go back to their employer and suddenly start questioning things from the inside, which is one of the most powerful places to be.

So let's not overthink it. When you get that icky feeling in your gut, like you need to say something, that means you need to say something. Say it. It gets easier and easier every time you do it. I'm starting to sweat less. My voice shakes less. It still does shake sometimes because it's a very emotional issue for me to talk about

I mean, even thinking about it, I almost start to get choked up. I'm a sensitive one. But practicing having these conversations over and over leads you to eventually deliver [00:11:00] your points with more confidence and to ask questions without questioning yourself. But you can't get to that confident stage without first speaking up in a way that is terrifying.

Your voice has to shake first.

It's okay.

Moving on from that. I've got two more, I'll call them segments I wanna share with you. The first one is something I am calling for. Now you need to know. And the second, would be the upcoming event I wanted to share. So what you need to know right now is I just read this article in NPR about lead in protein powders.

It's not great news, but even in the title of the article it says, don't panic.

Let me summarize it real quick. Basically, protein powders have lead in them and plant protein powders have the most because the plants go down to the soil and suck up all that nasty stuff. Whereas in dairy or whey protein, It gets filtered through the cow first.

And stuff [00:12:00] like lead and arsenic tends to wind up in bones and organs. Not so much the muscle tissue, but if you've got friends eating that stuff, it might be worth mentioning.

They've tested cows around highways and industrial areas, and they have the most lead in their systems to go figure. That makes sense.

So I don't wanna alarm you, but it is something to be aware of and also know that, you can buy Vegan Whey protein.

It's made through a process called Precision fermentation, which uses microbes instead of cows to produce the same whey proteins found in dairy.

Scientists copied the DNA segment from cows that codes for whey proteins,

and then they insert that DNA sequence into a microbe such as yeast, fungi, or bacteria. And this tells the microbe how to make whey protein. These modified microbes are then fed sugar and nutrients inside stainless steel fermentation tanks, kind of like brewing beer. And as they grow, they secrete pure whey protein into the broth.

[00:13:00] That liquid is then filtered to remove the microbes and other residues leaving behind the isolated whey proteins, and then they just dry that into powder. It's pretty cool and very eco because it's in VATS and 

Because it's a fermentation process, there's no risk of this lead and arsenic and other kind of contaminants that plants pull up through the roots. So if you're worried about lead in your protein powder, which I think we all should be, even though they're saying don't freak out about it because the levels aren't that bad, just like 10 times higher than recommended.

 Oh, I don't like that.

Yeah, it might be worth considering this vegan waste stuff. And this is not an ad, it's just something I've bought and I know that a lot of people aren't aware of it, so I'm sharing it. I'll put the brand we buy down in the show notes. There's probably other brands, I'm not sure, but that's just the one I'm familiar with and I like how it tastes.

Okay, so the last thing, upcoming events. I only have one for right now because I haven't really had it on my radar [00:14:00] to start making lists, but I am gonna start keeping an ear out for these kinds of things

so the one I just heard about is called the Conscious Leadership Retreat. It's in Palm Springs, California, May 3rd through sixth, 2026. It's being run by the organizers of the Vegan Women's Summit, it appears that perhaps the Vegan Women's Summit is no longer happening and they're evolving it into something they're calling more intimate, immersive, and transformative.

It looks to be a retreat situation. They're saying it's for professionals, investors, and leaders shaping the future for people, planet, and animals.

If this sounds interesting, I'm going to drop a link to this down in the show notes and you can check it out for yourself.

[00:14:44] Speaker: All right, so that's all for today. I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween weekend. And don't forget, send me your vegan costume photos. I really wanna see 'em. I wanna get a good laugh

[00:14:55] Speaker 2: and be like, hell yeah.

All right. Talk to you [00:15:00] later.

[00:15:00] krimsey: