The ChickPeeps Return For Season 2, Plus Interviews With Evanna Lynch

Nov 02, 2019

Posted by: Emma Pocock

HP Cast, Lynch, Lynch Interviews, News

Evanna Lynch and cohosts Momoko Hill, Robbie Jarvis and Tylor Starr kick off the episode with a catch-up on their whereabouts since Season 1, and a recap some controversies and milestones in the vegan movement in 2019. We also discovered in episode 1 that Harry Potter‘s Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) will feature on Season 2!

Evanna celebrated the fact that her little brother went vegan after going to Vietnam and reading Sapiens, the omnipresence of vegan chocolate, as well as new vegan business Kinder Beauty Box, Tylor celebrates a new job at one of the U.S.’s largest animal rights organizations, Momo celebrates moving to London and serendipitously getting vegan housemates, as well as visiting family in Japan and finding lots of vegan options, and Robbie celebrated the vegan scene in Los Angeles.

The main portion of the episode involved discussions of environmental issues and climate change. The ChickPeeps ask how we can raise more children to be outspoken, conscientious and courageous with their views like Greta Thunberg, leading into a debate about the separation between environmentalism and veganism.

In Momo’s GLO Vegan Community Facebook group, many people have commented on frustrations at those who are vegan, but aren’t supportive of climate change activists, and aren’t making efforts to lower their impact on the world. But are those who turn vegan for environmental reasons – rather than purely animal rights and compassionate reasons – more likely to stray away from veganism?

The ChickPeeps also discuss backlash against veganism from prominent influencers, including a guest on season 1 (previously a vegan athlete, Tim Shieff) who decided to no longer be vegan – is it important to be patient and empathetic with those who make these decisions, or perhaps more forceful with reasonings behind veganism? Evanna later speaks about the importance of personal conviction when it comes to veganism and other life choices, and knowing your own truths and going on your own vegan journey, which links to discussions in an earlier episode on Activism vs Attractivism.

Finally, the hosts share their intentions for season 2, but well leave it to you to listen and find these out! During the episode Evanna teased an episode with Zero Waste Chef, Max La Manna, and also mentioned that Nikki Glaser and Daniella Monet (actress, activist and Evanna’s business partner, cofounder of Kinder Beauty Box), as well as Bonnie Wright (activist, actress, filmmaker and another Lumos ambassador — she also played Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter) would also be appearing as guests on the show!

In an interview with Evanna for Forbes, she shared her original reservations on setting up a vegan business, and why she decided to go ahead with Kinder Beauty Box with Daniella Monet:

“I also had a lot of mixed feelings around making money from a vegan business. To me vegan activism has always been about service, it was the thing I did in my free time as a way to give back and a way to right the world. But when doing the first season of my podcast, activism began to take over my life and ate into time I should have been working on auditions and lines etc and that was a very stressful time. I realised in order for my activism to be sustainable, to be something I did with joy and willingness, I had to make it part of my work too.”

As well as saying she’d love to set up a YouTube series talking with people about the benefits and experiences of therapy, she also shared an idea for a Cat Dating App, which sounds like a great idea:

“The idea would be that you swipe right or left on cats pictures and see who is available for a playdate nearby! And then you bring your cat over and befriend the person and work out a little schedule for yourselves when you can visit each other’s cats! As you can imagine, there are a lot of security issues to work out with this enterprise. And I suppose it would work better with dogs. It’s probably more likely I’ll write a romcom about this idea than build an app. But for what it’s worth, you heard it here first.”

In another interview with The Irish Sun, Evanna also spoke about losing her Irish accent slightly

“I have always absorbed the accent or mannerisms of people I’m around and I lived in America for five years. 

“I think it’s more about wanting to fit in and a big part of fitting in is sounding like the people you’re around.

“And it’s helpful as an actor to be that way, so when it happens I don’t resist it.”

She also spoke about the rise of veganism, and seeing change within her own family:

“I think the vegan scene is thriving at home and I’m really proud of this.

“I know this because my own father told me that he’s repelled by the idea of meat now.

“It’s quite unbelievable as a few years ago they all thought I was daft, I think they saw it as a fancy type of eating disorder.

“I didn’t push my vegan beliefs on them, I just lived my life and my mum kindly adapted some recipes but I’ve been witness to each member of my family gradually change their eating habits”

Read more on The Irish Sun about developing Kinder Beauty Box, and her experience on Dancing With The Stars.

Evanna also told The Irish Post why she decided to start a podcast, saying Harry Potter podcasts PotterCast and MuggleCast were her inspiration:

“I’ve always loved Podcasts. Before I was in Harry Potter I used to listen to MuggleCast and The Leaky Cauldron [PotterCast]—and this was about 15 years ago when podcasts were barely even a thing. You were listening to it on a computer—it was really nerdy.

And I loved that. I was a nerdy kid.

I would go on the internet and talk to fans. I didn’t really have a sense of community in my life and the podcast community for me was like “You have friends!” Which sounds sad but it’s people who get you and who you feel understood by.

So when I first went vegan it was very isolating. You’re the odd one out, and no one wants that, everyone wants to feel like they fit in somewhere.

Once I started talking about this stuff publicly I started being interviewed by vegans who had been doing this for 20 or 30 years– experts and activists who had devoted their lives to animal rights, and I realised I wanted to talk to them and ask them questions, and to create a podcast where it doesn’t feel like its about perfectionism.

Because there are so many people who are sympathetic to veganism and want to do it but they find it hard and or they don’t know how.

So I wanted to create an environment where people weren’t afraid to ask these questions, or talk about, say, honey– why is honey not vegan? Why is this cruel?

“It’s not black or white, it’s about discussion.”

A new episode of The ChickPeeps will be available every Wednesday ‘to infinity’ (well, for a while) — let us know what you want to hear the ChickPeeps discuss, or who you’d like to hear as a guest this season!





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.