Joanne Molinaro: The Korean Vegan on The Power of Intentional Eating

Dan Churchill's The Epic Table

Legends! Today, the whole team had one of our personal favorites on the podcast. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joanne Molinaro a.k.a The Korean Vegan. This amazing woman truly has a one-of-a-kind story. She went from being a lawyer to amassing TikTok fame essentially overnight. After posting videos of herself cooking while discussing topics such as BLM, LGBTQ+, AAPI, democracy on TikTok, she amassed a massive following and her life changed. Since then, Joanne has been featured on Bloomberg, Chicago Tribune, NBC, Food Network, Los Angeles Times, CNN, The Washington Post, NPR, CBS, and The Atlantic, and more impressively her cookbook ‘The Korean Vegan Cook Book’ received Cook Book of the Year from the New Yorker, Cook Book of 2021 from the New Yorker Times, and became a New York Times Bestseller. While all of her accomplishments are incredible, this isn't what we dive into today. In the episode, we discuss Joanne’s love for running, how she became plant-based, what her passions and values are, and we double down on her past with unhealthy eating habits and body image.

Specifically, we discuss:

• How to stop letting fear control our lives
  • The weight of financial security
• Familial pressure to direct what you do with your life
• How The Korean Vegan became vegan
  • Listening to the Rich Roll podcast and reading ‘Finding Ultra’
  • What movies should you watch when deciding to go vegan?
• Joanne’s relationship with food
  • Why you shouldn’t count calories
• Male eating disorders
  • Body image
  • How to help men get over eating disorders
  • How to help improve male body image

It was truly an honor to talk shop with Joanne Molinaro! Be on the lookout for her new cookbook coming out soon!

Connect with Joanne at the following links:

Her Website

Her Instagram

Her TikTok

Her YouTube