ONCE UPON A TIME WE ATE ANIMALS The Future of Food

Vegans have a reputation for being strident, and Roanne van Voorst is occasionally guilty of this in her anti-meat manifesto. But Eileen Stevens saves the day with her narration: The soft edges and welcoming tone of her voice are anything but heavy-handed. Van Voorst, who calls herself an "anthropologist of the future," alternates between making the case for veganism and crafting vignettes of what the world might look like after "carnism." There are many compelling arguments, but far too much pandering to irrelevant celebrities and trivial social media trends. Again, it's Stevens who carries the burden, making many of these passages more palatable than they would be in print. D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2022]