Community Spotlight

Vegans Explore Year-End Update: What's Coming in 2026

As 2025 comes to a close, Vegans Explore founder Sean A. Russell steps back from the daily grind to reflect on a year of ups and downs, and to lay out where the platform is headed in 2026.

Vegans Explore Podcast

Episode 61 · Dec 31, 2025 · 20 min

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A year of scaling back to scale forward

Russell describes 2025 as a year of shedding infrastructure that was built before it was ready. Rather than growing a team before the model was proven, he narrowed Vegans Explore down to a team of one so he could figure out the long term, sustainable system needed to build what he calls the world's largest vegan community.

The daily podcast, he says, became the anchor that kept him from disappearing into hibernation during a difficult year. Committing to an episode every single day forced consistency, and that consistency became the foundation for everything else: studying content patterns, connecting with the Vegan Creator Con community, and clarifying what Vegans Explore is actually for.

What 2026 looks like

Russell commits to two things starting January 1: a podcast episode every day and daily social posts across Vegans Explore and his personal brand. Beyond content, the focus for 2026 shifts to building resources before building community infrastructure, starting with city directories for restaurants, businesses, and events in the places Vegans Explore plans to tour.

Global tour stops planned for 2026 include Los Angeles for Natural Products Expo West in March, the Vegan Creator Con in June, New York City, and a possible North Carolina and Virginia leg.
City directories are being built ahead of each tour stop so local communities already know what Vegans Explore offers before Russell arrives.
Vegans Explore is working with outside organizations on fundraising to eventually place a paid, boots on the ground representative in each city it visits.

The throughline, Russell says, is consistency. Vegans Explore is committed to releasing a podcast episode every day through November 1, 2026, World Vegan Day, when the project will mark one full year of daily episodes.