Toby's Oddcast: love, justice, agriculture, travel, economy, activism, biodiversity, nature and more
Toby's Oddcast: love, justice, agriculture, travel, economy, activism, biodiversity, nature and more
Podcast Description
What I love to do with my experience & my passion for life, listening & learning, is to take all of that & mould it into a bubble of intrigue. I invite people for a fun & relaxed chat with me about serious things, scary themes, unspoken words, bright ideas, soft moments, brilliant solutions.
The themes will inevitably be varied because of the connectivity of everything. Farming with justice; economics with speciesism; music with activism; trees with fast fashion; nutrition with drought; nature with everything...all with a tickle of fun and adventure
I invite everyone to join the journey..
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Topics cover a wide array of themes including veganism, animal rights, environmental sustainability, and community activism, with episodes diving into discussions about music's role in advocacy, the intersection of farming and social justice, and the importance of nutrition during droughts.
What I love to do with my experience & my passion for life, listening & learning, is to take all of that & mould it into a bubble of intrigue. I invite people for a fun & relaxed chat with me about serious things, scary themes, unspoken words, bright ideas, soft moments, brilliant solutions.
The themes will inevitably be varied because of the connectivity of everything. Farming with justice; economics with speciesism; music with activism; trees with fast fashion; nutrition with drought; nature with everything…all with a tickle of fun and adventure
I invite everyone to join the journey..
My guest on this episode is Gem De silva, an animal rights activist for over 40 years, with 30+ years of that dedicated to undercover investigations.
From working with the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) in the 1980s, he set up Tracks Investigations https://www.tracksinvestigations.org/ and has travelled the world documenting the truth behind the use, exploitation and commodification of animals at the hands of humans.
His work has been central to many different campaigns and actions, and has lead directly to systemic change.
The dream of every animal rights activist.
Due to the nature of the investigations, Gem has been working silently in the background, but in the last 5 years has been more public.
We met at the end of last year (2025) at a meeting of the fantastic Oxfordshire Coalition of Animal Advocates https://www.instagram.com/oxcoanimaladvocates?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== where Gem is getting back to his activism roots.
I was honoured that he agreed to jump in to the Oddcast on 27th January 2026 to share his wisdom and experiences with us all!
Everyone’s journey in to activism and veganism is unique and wonderful, and Gem’s is just that!
Through listening to Punk music in his youth, admiring the art and reading the sleeves of the albums, Gem was introduced to the issues that animals face on a daily basis.
This is one of the gifts that music and art gave to him, which he is honouring with the creation of his own L.P., in collaboration with Gnostic Front, called ‘Industry Standard’ “a first-of-its-kind sonic art album that documents animal exploitation through sound rather than imagery”https://www.tracksinvestigations.org/industrystandard
Available on BandCamp https://gnosticfront.bandcamp.com/album/industry-standard).
Also available in vinyl with an 8 page colour insert with photography and track content.
It was so much fun recording this episode, and also editing it as I have been given permission to us tracks from the L.P. to enhance the journey for us all.
There is a warning at the beginning of the episode, some of the sounds can be triggering at times, so if that is the case, please skip on a few seconds as the content is so wonderful.
Enjoy……please share if you so desire, and leave a message or a comment.
I am very happy to hear if you enjoy my work, and how I can grow and improve what I offer.
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