The ChickPeeps Vegan Podcast · Evanna Lynch

S2, Ep5: Fake News with Robbie Lockie

·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

A dying cat's gaze made Robbie Lockie feel a spiritual connection, instantly turning him vegan.

Robbie Lockie, founder of Plant Based News, joins hosts Robbie Jarvis and Evie Lynch to discuss navigating misinformation in the vegan movement. Lockie is a media figure who co-founded the prominent vegan news platform, which now reaches 29 million people monthly. The conversation explores how fake news spreads and strategies for identifying credible information. Lockie recounts his personal vegan journey, triggered by health issues, a documentary called *Earthlings*, and the traumatic death of a cat he witnessed. He details how Plant Based News began as a YouTube channel with co-founder Klaus Mitchell before receiving a £300,000 investment from Prince Khaled of Saudi Arabia. The discussion identifies economic incentives and clickbait as key drivers of misinformation, with examples like PR strategist Rick Berman's campaigns for the animal agriculture industry. They reference a study by researcher Bradley C. Johnson, who has previously accepted funding from Coca-Cola and McDonald's, to illustrate conflicts of interest. Lockie describes "deep fake" AI videos as a terrifying extreme of fabricated content. He notes a paradox where vegans, inclined to question mainstream narratives, can also be susceptible to conspiracy theories about climate change or vaccines. The hosts cite author Yuval Harari's point that countries like Russia may have economic incentives to downplay climate change. They analyze how misleading graphs, such as those showing selective ice sheet data, can distort reality by removing context. A memorable moment is Lockie's account of the dying cat, which he calls a spiritual experience that cemented his life's mission. He advises listeners to critically assess a source's intention and transparency, using tools like News Guard Media for evaluation. The hosts emphasize checking a professional's actual expertise, like verifying if a "doctor" giving dietary advice is a dentist. The tone is a casual, conversational dialogue among friends, blending personal storytelling with educational commentary. It maintains an urgent and advocacy-oriented style when discussing media manipulation. This episode is ideal for vegans seeking to improve their media literacy and anyone interested in the mechanics of online misinformation. Listeners who prefer strictly fact-based, non-anecdotal discussions might find the personal tangents less engaging.

As heard by us

A lively conversation about fake news, vegan media literacy, and skeptical thinking.

The ChickPeeps episode with Robbie Lockie uses fake news as a doorway into vegan media literacy, climate breakdown, and conspiratorial thinking inside movement spaces.

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Why you'd press play

You want vegan media talk that also takes on fake news head-on.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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