The Portal Of The Plate: How To Journey Consciously With Food, Ethics & Liberation

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The portal of the plate: How to journey consciously with food, ethics & liberation - Matthew C. Halteman

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This week’s show is with Matthew C. Halteman. Matthew is professor of philosophy at Calvin University (MI, USA) and the Oxford Centre for Animals Ethics (UK). He is the author of Hungry Beautiful Animals: The Joyful Case for Going Vegan and co-editor of Philosophy Comes to Dinner: Arguments about the Ethics of Eating.

Matthew’s work is driven by deep commitments to human flourishing, animal freedom, food systems transformation, and communal cooperation to realise as much truth, beauty, and goodness as we collectively can. He loves Arsenal Football Club, the television show Twin Peaks, and vegan desserts (especially tiramisu!).

In this rich and thought-provoking conversation, Lian and Matt explore the profound intersections between dietary choices, ethics, and the search for a more liberated way of living.

Matt shares how his agricultural roots once framed his understanding of food, only for a childhood visit to a slaughterhouse to plant a seed of dissonance that would take decades to fully bloom. Through philosophy, emotional connection, and a series of serendipitous interventions, he found himself drawn to a new way of being - one that prioritises creaturely flourishing over rigid ideology.

The conversation weaves through the personal and the mythical, touching on the tensions between authenticity and openness, the allure of fundamentalism, and the freedom found in conscious food choices. Lian also reflects on her own lifelong path as a vegan, seeing it through a fresh lens of self-inquiry and deeper meaning.

This is not just a discussion about diet; it’s an invitation to rethink our most ordinary, intimate rituals - what we eat, why we eat it, and how that shapes the world we create.

We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

Food is more than sustenance—it is ritual, identity, and philosophy. Whether we realise it or not, our dietary choices are woven into our values, relationships, and personal mythologies.
Flourishing matters more than dogma. Instead of rigid rules, Matt invites us to see going vegan not as an ‘ism’ but as an aspiration—one that prioritises the joy and freedom of all living beings rather than simply avoiding harm.
The mythical exists in the mundane. By examining something as fundamental as food, we open doors to greater self-awareness, transformation, and connection to the sacred in everyday life.

Resources and stuff spoken about:

Hungry Beautiful Animals Book Website
Purchase Matthew’s book
Matthew’s personal website
Join Matthew on social media: LinkedIn / Bluesky / Instagram / Facebook
Join UNIO, the Academy of Sacred Union. This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.

Be Mythical

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Thank you for listening!

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