Interview: Taryn & Pete from Let's Rage Together Podcast!

Taryn Mansfield & Pete Thoreau

Please tell us a bit about yourselves and your history with punk rock and veganism / animal rights.

Taryn&Pete: Both of us come from the South African hardcore scene, which is where we met and became friends more than 10 years ago. We've both played in a couple bands. T played guitar in Among Friends and Brainwreck. Pete played drums in Towers, Provider and Peasant. We've also organised shows, tabled literature and vegan food etc. We were both initially exposed to veganism / animal rights (liberation) through hardcore, and are both quite active.

So Let's Rage Together is on its 15th episode and going strong. What motivated the starting of this project and has the motivation changed in any way?

Taryn&Pete: We've always enjoyed having long, intense debates and critical discussions about literally anything and everything. One day Taryn's husband Brett suggested that we should start a podcast to record and solidify the conversations we were having. That's also where the name comes from; us sitting and raging together about everything. The “Let's” in the name refers to our motivation to encourage other people to engage in critical thinking and discussions, both with us directly and with each other. We wanted to create a sense of community in talking about issues of justice and the concept of total (or collective) liberation, for both human and other animals. The motivation's still the same. We had no idea what we were doing or if anyone would even be interested in what we had in mind, but we were honestly just keen to learn and challenge our own thinking, regardless of whether anyone listened or not. We're stoked to have reached this point and that we're still doing it.

So far how has the reception been and what has been the most popular episode? Also what are your personal favourites?

Taryn&Pete: We've received mostly positive feedback, more often from people overseas in places like Europe and the US than South Africa. We have had positive feedback from here too though. We're pretty sure that a lot of people really don't like our opinions though and we just don't hear from them. The most popular episodes have been Episode 5: Smash the Patriarchy; An Introduction to Feminism, Rape Culture and Toxic Masculinity, Episode 8: White Privilege, Episode 10: Anarchy! An Interview with Aragorn Eloff and Episode 11: Are All Animal Rights Activists Worth Supporting?. These are probably also our favourite episodes.

What do you think our odds are that we can escape the mess we have made of everything (namely the environment / climate, and our economic and social relations) and in turn grant animals freedom from subjugation.

Taryn&Pete: It's hard to answer this question without seeming super negative, but answering honestly, unless there is some kind of radical, drastic change, and we manage to get rid of capitalism, in our opinion, we're pretty doomed. That said, we still feel that it is worth fighting as hard as we can against that anyway. The science also points towards us as a species not being around for much longer, being the cause of environmental collapse and the sixth mass extinction, taking millions of species out with us. We should all be using less water, recycling, not flying, not reproducing, riding bicycles and going vegan, but in our opinion, while capitalism is the dominant system those things will only get us so far. While the Earth, humans and other animals are seen as commodities, labour and resources, we are digging our own graves. Capitalism relies on infinite growth on a finite planet and is simply unsustainable. Even with the best intentions, trying to find solutions within a capitalist framework will ultimately fail. We don't think that we will ever see animal (including human) liberation under capitalism. “The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.” - Audre Lorde.

Is punk a sound or a philosophy for you?

Taryn&Pete: Both. There is a separation between the genre and ethics. In our opinion it's pretty frustrating when a “punk” band has no punk ethics or politics. What is the point of just singing about getting drunk or something?

What's new on the music horizon and what are some hopes for Let's Rage Together in the new year?

Taryn&Pete: We've actually just started a new Anarchist Vegan Feminist hardcore band called Domestic Violence with our friend Pat (Corax, Conqueror, etc.), so watch this space. As far as LRT goes, we just want to keep putting out more episodes, high quality content, and find ways to reach more people who will be interested in what we're doing.

Questions by: Shaun

*for more info and snazzy cups go to - http://www.letsragetogether.co.za