Culture & Media

Dominic Thompson on Incarceration, Purpose, and Building Crazies and Weirdos Into a Vegan Lifestyle Brand | Ep 008 | SoFlo Vegans Podcast

Sean sits down with activist, entrepreneur, and Crazies and Weirdos founder Dominic Thompson for an unflinching conversation about the incarceration that triggered a total lifestyle transformation, becoming one of Instagram's earliest visible Black vegan bodybuilders, and why he believes the vegan movement needs more leaders of color with real platforms.

SoFlo Vegans Podcast

Episode 8 · Sep 10, 2018 · 72 min

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Topics Covered

17 years total plant-based (10 vegetarian, 7 vegan), tracing back to a childhood memory of looking at chicken wings and his own arms at age eight
Going fully plant-based during incarceration, trading meat rations for carbs from fellow inmates, and dropping from 260 to a lean 180-195 pounds without any nutrition science to guide him
Founding the clothing brand Crazies and Weirdos in New York after his "Eat Well" shirt (worn with a gun-show flex) went viral and became, by his account, the top-selling vegan shirt in the world
Becoming one of the first visibly muscular, Black vegan advocates on early Instagram, in contrast to the stereotype of the "middle-aged white hippie" vegan
Food deserts, growing up without access to fresh produce, and why framing veganism as a "budget hack" reaches low-income communities better than moralizing
Why he calls out celebrities like Joe Rogan and The Rock directly over animal exploitation content, and his critique of Joe Rogan's guest lineup lacking vegan voices of color
Launching his own podcast, Dominic Thompson: An Elephant in the Room, covering food deserts, prison reform, and plant-based nutrition