Meet Jane Velez-Mitchell | Founder/Managing Editor of UnchainedTV

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jane Velez-Mitchell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jane, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was in the TV news business for decades, as a reporter, anchor and TV host, in New York City, LA and then nationally. Since the start, I had always yearned to be my own assignment editor. There were so many important stories and issues we would gloss over in favor of murder and general mayhem. Well, finally – after my last stint as the host of my own nightly show on CNN Headline News/HLN – I decided the time had come to focus on what I knew to be the most crucial story of our time. That overarching story, being ignored by advertiser-based mainstream media, revolves around the one false assumption that is responsible for most of society’s ills. That false assumption is: we must kill to survive. It is, ultimately a primitive notion that needs to be tossed into the circular file of history. We, as a human species, must evolve away from normalized violence to normalized non-violence. Where is best place to start on that journey? On our plates. We can choose non-violence 3 times a day, by refusing to subsidize the horrifically cruel system of industrialized animal production and, instead, embracing a plant-based lifestyle that is better for our health, for the planet and for the animals. And, as opposed to what they tell you on advertiser-based TV, it happens to be delicious. That’s why I launched UnchainedTV, a free, global, streaming network advocating the compassionate, climate-friendly, plant-based lifestyle.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a TV journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, I find that creativity is like water. It can start with a trickle, which leads to a creek, which leads to a river and then to the ocean. Little projects and small news markets are where we can make our mistakes and learn. I graduated with a degree in journalism from NYU and headed out to my first TV job in Ft. Myers, Florida. At the time, it was a tiny news market. At first, it seemed like nothing much happened there. But, as I looked closely, I saw – perhaps out of desperation – news stories that just needed to be uncovered. There was the disco wedding that I stumbled upon and turned into a hilarious news story. And, there was the investigation into how the county commission always seemed to put the most unpopular projects in poor, mostly minority neighborhoods, using a method that allowed a vote without many noticing. As I moved up, first to Minneapolis, then Philadelphia and then back to my hometown of New York City, I learned and grew and continued to make mistakes. So, I wrote a memoir detailing some of my biggest blunders. That turned into a New York Times bestseller, which led to another book and another. The writing was also intertwined with my own personal journey of self-discovery. I finally admitted that my hard-drinking news persona was actually an addiction called alcoholism. I got sober 27 years ago. Then, with no chardonnay to drown the feelings, I came out as gay. And, in the process, I decided to align my values with my actions and go vegan. That led to starting UnchainedTV, our free, global, vegan, streaming TV network. And, in the process of developing that, I did a documentary called “Countdown to Year Zero,” which won a bunch of awards and explains why we need to transition to a plant-based economy to avoid a climate apocalypse. So, all of my achievements and mistakes and character defects are interconnected, like a giant collage… called LIFE!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My rescue dog Foxy and I pick my friend up from LAX in my Prius and take her straight away to…. Cafe Gratitude in Venice for lunch. This amazing plant-based restaurant is an experience, where the waiters ask you existential questions and the menu items sound like mantras: “I am gracious, I am accepting, I am gifted.” Ok. We feel really good about ourselves now. So, let’s head to nearby Abbot Kinney for dessert. We stumble upon a fabo, new, hot spot called Loco Coco, smack in the middle of this famous hipster strip, and gobble up a delish acai bowl topped with a fantastical array of fruits and, yeah, let’s throw some organic, fair trade cocoa on there too. This place has a beach vibe straight out of Gilligan’s Island. Ok. Time for a stroll along Abbot Kinney. My friend tries to go into Mad Men to score some legal Ganja but I remind her that I’m 27 years sober and don’t want to get a contact high. I suggest, instead, we take our motion… to the ocean! We rent some bikes and start working off all that scrumptious, vegan food, riding on the path that runs along the sand’s edge. First stop? Muscle Beach, where my friend is horrified by some of the extremely politically incorrect slogans on T-shirts for sale. Still, we have fun, taking in the street art and watching the rollerbladers show off and occasionally fall on their butts. Then, we bike south, to the Venice Pier, where we are delighted to hear KC and the Sunshine Band blaring from one of the bars. We shake our groove thing for a quick second. Then, we decide to bike further south, along the alley behind the beach, to the jetty, which is also the entrance to the huge Marina, as in Marina del Rey. We watch more than two dozen pelicans joyfully splashing and diving into the sea. I point out to my friend that, just across the water, is Playa del Rey and the Ballona Wetlands, an ecological reserve that is home to 1,700 species, including threatened and endangered species. I tell her that I’ve been protesting against a cynical plan to bulldoze this last strip of wetlands in Los Angeles and that the developers have the nerve to call this wholesale destruction of a sacred place a “restoration.” She is horrified as I explain there are 4 lawsuits against the plan, which would wipe out the local wildlife and take almost a decade of bulldozing to complete. “Let’s skedaddle, ” she blurts out. So, we do a u-turn and head back up the alley called Speedway, crossing Washington Blvd, whereupon we arrive at one of my old watering holes. Baja Cantina is a non-stop fiesta and an iconic spot, But, it holds a few too many memories for moi. I suggest we park our bikes and walk around the famous Venice Canals. “Look at all the ducks,” my friend exclaims, beaming. “Yes, I say. We need to protect them as they cannot speak for themselves.” Just then, some music drifts out from Baja Cantina. It’s one of my old favorites, by the inimitable Joni Mitchell. “They took all the trees
Put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged all the people an arm and a leg just to see ’em
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise put up a parking lot.”

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The animal rights/vegan movement is a grass roots movement that involves millions of compassionate people around the world. Wish I could thank them all. However, there are some people who really stand out as leading the way, through courage, persistence and strategic activism. Peter Singer, the author of the seminal work Animal Liberation, is a moral philosopher who famously said, “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” Another famous quote of his that is particularly relevant in this time of climate crisis, is this: “Forests and meat animals compete for the same land. The prodigious appetite of the affluent nations for meat means that agribusiness can pay more than those who want to preserve or restore the forest. We are, quite literally, gambling with the future of our planet – for the sake of hamburgers.” Trees absorb carbon. We are destroying a huge percentage of the world’s forests and wetlands to create cattle grazing land and to grow crops to feed the 80-billion cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats and lambs we raise and slaughter every year. If we stopped doing that and reforested that land, we could begin to absorb a lot more carbon and reverse climate change. More of my heroes: Anita Krajnc, who founded the Animal Save Movement, where people offer love and water to animals headed into slaughterhouses, is another extraordinary leader. Jim Greenbaum, of the Greenbaum Foundation, who helps fund our non-profit, makes our work possible. The many people who attend slaughterhouse vigils, who protest, who march, who speak up for the voiceless., who promote the vegan lifestyle: they are ALL my heroes. My highest praise goes to the undercover investigators, who risk arrest and sometimes their lives to go into factory farms to videotape the institutionalized torture of animals occurring there, so that the public can be made aware. I’m also in awe of the incredible organizations that propose legislation, that go to court, that seek Freedom of Information Acts, that educate! Most of them have their own channels on UnchainedTV, our global streaming network. Please visit, via UnchainedTV.com, and get involved.

Website: https://unchainedtv.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unchained_tv/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janevelezmitchell/

Twitter: @jvm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneVelezMitchell

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/UNCHAINEDTV

Other: UnchainedTV streaming network: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/apps/3909/167038 Countdown to Year Zero: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/apps/3909/167038/189585/45777062 Pig Little Lies: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/apps/3909/167038/189608/192819/47216907 New Day New Chef: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/apps/3909/167038/189579/189581