Speaker 1:
Welcome to Talking Plant Protein, Jazz Duke, vegan lifestyle content creator, and one of my favorite Instagram pages, Diary of a Mad Black Vegan. Welcome.

Jazz Duke:
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:
Now, let's go right into your Instagram page because that's where originally I found you. Can you tell me about what inspired your journey to create this?

Jazz Duke:
Oh man. It really is truly the people that I saw before I was deciding whether or not I was going to go vegan and really seeing that there needed to be a need to just add some humor to the whole entire lifestyle. And so that's what I bring to the table with Diary of a Mad Black Vegan. It's literally my experiences, what it's like being a vegan in my shoes, and also adding a little touch of humor and style with it all around the way. That's it.

Speaker 1:
Yes. There's a lot of humor. There's a lot of style. Everybody watching, we'll put that on there. Check that out. But I was saying in the pre-interview how I appreciate just how it adds positive and just bringing light to thing. Is that your goal with it?

Jazz Duke:
That's always my goal. I'm always about that. I think that life is really truly to just be lived and be happy and to have fun and not overthink things. And so I'm always making sure that how could we make this in a fun way? What's a funny piece to add to this that's going to make someone laugh? Because I always notice in life, you learn more when you're laughing, you're engaged, and you're entertained. That's why I always bring that to the table.

Speaker 1:
That's right. We are laughing. We're happy. Happy soul, happy face. We fake the face. We'll be happy. Good to go. Right.

Jazz Duke:
Right.

Speaker 1:
Now, you've been vegan for four years now, as I fix my earpiece here, four years now. You must have tried a plethora of vegan food. First, what was the first forte into going full on vegan? What was it like? And then now, what's your favorite go to meals?

Jazz Duke:
Oh man. First going vegan, of course, it's a little rough. You make a lot of mushy looking things. But I think once I really started to understand that I wanted to veganize all of my favorite meals, that's really what made me jump into it. I'm Caribbean. My family's Caribbean. My dad's from Guyana, South America and my mom's from Ypsilanti, Michigan, so our food is a fusion of Caribbean food and soul food. And so I really just brought that into it. Because at first I was overthinking it, feeling like I had to put all of these different plants and not season them or whatever, but then when I really tapped into my true roots, that's when it really came in. My favorite foods now are all vegan curries. I love vegan fried oyster mushrooms. I love pastas. I love tacos, burgers. Everything I loved before I went vegan, but just veganized.

Speaker 1:
You had me at tacos. Anything tacos, I'm a fan. Yeah. Now what about culturally? You brought that in there, right? It's probably difficult, especially I growing up in Southern Missouri, Wisconsin, we had cheese and meat and everything else. How are you able to take those cultural aspects and turn it into a plant-based lifestyle?

Jazz Duke:
Oh man, there's so many substitutes now truly. And so I think it really is just me really actually honing in on a lot of these foods that are actually indigenous to these areas. When you think about Caribbean food, you think about planting all of these different plants, mango, soursop, all of those things, those exotic fruits are native to these areas and actually are the main star players to these dishes. And so it really is just honing in on that. And I just love to remix that vegetables and do as much as I can with it all. And it's very simple for me because you have vegan cheeses now. You have vegan meat substitutes. And so it's really just incorporating that, but also letting those plants be the star of the show that are indigenous from these Caribbean areas that really bring out that spice and flavor of these dishes. That's literally it.

Speaker 1:
You're making me hungry. Now, what if you were to go back to your five year old self, what would she be surprised about you right now?

Jazz Duke:
Oh man, she would be surprised that I'm eating my vegetables every day. She would be like, are you serious? That's not something that mommy and daddy are forcing you to stay at the table, you can't leave until you finish your salad. You're happily eating salad now? She would be surprised with that, but I think that she'd be surprised that I'm having so much fun with this lifestyle and that it really truly is the highlight of my life's experience. Literally going around the world, eating food and eating all these vegetables, she would be amazed and shocked about that honestly.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. I don't talk to my younger self that often, but maybe I should more.

Jazz Duke:
Oh, you got to.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, we should, right? Now, you're in New York City, so you have access to a lot of options. What can somebody do if they're looking to lean more on the plant-based lifestyle who maybe not be in a major metropolitan area?

Jazz Duke:
Oh wow. I would say start following all vegans online truly and there's so many different resources. There's Pinterest. There's an app called Happy Cow that I use everywhere I'm going, making sure that where are the vegan restaurants, what are the vegan options at these locations? Search people that are vegan online in your area because there's so many vegans around the world, you'd be so surprised. And so I always advise people to do that because you're limiting in your own thoughts when truly there's just so much information out there and get in the kitchen and have fun and start trying to grow your own vegetables and just play around with it. It's a whole science fair experiment, surely, but you got to have fun with it and use the right resources. It's 2022, so much out there to learn.

Speaker 1:
That's a great tip. Now, there's all sorts of different holidays now that are coming up. And just recently, in New York City, they declared March 20th, Meat Out Day. What do you think about all these plant-based holidays coming up?

Jazz Duke:
Oh, I am here for it and living for it. Seriously, I think that's what we need to really get a lot of hype around things because unfortunately life is a popularity contest and everyone wants to do what everybody's doing. And I think when you have these holidays, it really helps get people excited about it. And it allows people to learn something. The Meat Out Day, I think is perfect in New York City because you'll see a lot more vegans like myself using the day to, Hey, let's go out to a vegan restaurant and being out there with other people that may be curious and want to see what that's all about. And I'm here for all the buzz around it.

Speaker 1:
All right, Jazz. Thank you so much for coming on Talking Plant Protein. Where can people find you?

Jazz Duke:
Oh, they can find me all over Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, diary of a Mad Black Vegan, all over y'all.

Speaker 1:
Amazing. Thanks for coming on Talking Plant Protein.

Jazz Duke:
Thank you so much for having me.