Jane Velez-Mitchell is the founder and managing editor of UnchainedTV, a free, global, streaming television network. Often called the Vegan CNN/Netflix, UnchainedTV produces and streams original video content on the plant-based lifestyle and streams hundreds of documentaries, cooking shows, lifestyle shows, talk shows and music videos, from a variety of sources, all with an eye to benefit animals, people and the planet.

Jane has won four Genesis Awards/commendations from the Humane Society of the United States for her reporting on animal issues. VegNews named Velez-Mitchell Media Maven of the Year in 2010. In 2013, Mercy for Animals awarded her the Compassionate Leadership Award. In 2014, she was honored for fighting animal abuse by the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In 2015, she received PETA’s Nanci Alexander Award.

For six years she hosted her own nightly TV show on HLN/CNN Headline News.  She has served as a commentator on CNN on numerous occasions. Previously, Velez-Mitchell was a news anchor/reporter at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and WCBS-

TV in New York.  Velez-Mitchell is a graduate of New York University and began her career with reporting stints in Ft Myers, Florida, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.

Velez-Mitchell is the author of four books. Her 2014 nonfiction New York Times bestseller, Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias offers a detailed psychological analysis of a salacious trial that gripped the American public. Her other New York Times bestseller is her memoir, iWant: My Journey from Addiction and Overconsumption to a Simpler, Honest Life. Secrets Can Be Murder delves into the secrecy and deceit embedded in tragic scenarios. Addict Nation: An Intervention for America with co-author Sandra Mohr focuses on our culture’s addictive nature and our obsession with overconsumption.

Velez-Mitchell directed and produced the documentary Anita Velez: Dancing Through Life which won a Gracie Award in 2001. In 2019, she produced the award-winning documentary Countdown to Year Zero, now streaming on UnchainedTV and Amazon Prime. Through UnchainedTV, in conjunction with Inspired, she is the co-executive producer of New Day New Chef. This vegan cooking series has won two Taste Awards, considered the Oscars of food and streams on UnchainedTV, Gusto TV and PBS stations around the United States. She is also the co-executive producer of Pig Little Lies, produced in conjunction with Inspired. This groundbreaking project, the first reality series starring pigs, airs on PBS.

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Q. If you are in recovery, what was your drug(s) of choice and when is your sobriety date?

A. I’m a recovering alcoholic and my sobriety date is … April Fools Day. Seriously. April 1, 1995 is when I got sober after making a complete fool of myself at a party in West Hollywood the night before, a somewhat glitzy event where it seemed like everybody I knew was present and watching. So the date is very appropriate. Luckily, my sobriety has not been a joke. I’ve been able to do it one day at a time for 30 years. I’ve made every mistake possible within the rules that do exist, except drinking or using. That I haven’t done, thank god. So, my experience is a good reminder that nobody does it perfectly and – at the same time – everyone who stays sober does it perfectly. Go figure. Oh, and my drug of choice was Chardonnay. Whenever I elected to go with tequila, all bets were off. On that last night, I was drinking – you guessed it – tequila.

Q. Is there anything special in your sobriety toolkit that helps keep you sober?

A. Well, there are these little get togethers – which shall remain nameless – that I totally enjoy and that have really been the key to my sobriety. I know more about some fellow recovering alcoholics after listening to them for 15 minutes than friends I’ve known for 40 years. Fascinating.

Q. Do you think addiction is an illness, disease, a choice, or a wicked twist of fate?

A. I’m going to go with … disease, because you can’t be blamed for having a disease. Or can you? On one side of my family, I come from a long line of alcoholics so I think it was predetermined. What’s not predetermined is … what do I do about it? I’m so thrilled I found sobriety. It’s a lot of fun. It’s also allowed me to discover who I really am. After getting sober, I came out as gay. I went vegan. I became an animal rights activist. In the words of Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Q. Where are you from and where do you reside now?

A. I’m from midtown Manhattan and grew up directly across the street from Carnegie Hall. Yes, you do have to practice, practice, practice to get there. A young man, who later became a very famous pianist, lived several floors below ours. He did practice about 8 hours a day. Just saying. We all heard it. I escaped New York after graduating from NYU and worked around the country as a reporter. Then, it was back to NYC reporting and anchoring at WCBS-TV. Then, I left for LA where I anchored at KCAL-TV on the Paramount lot for 12 years. Then, I did a 6-year stint back in New York hosting my own nightly TV show on HLN/CNN Headline news. Aside from that one detour back to New York, I have lived in Los Angeles at the beach since 1990. I got sober in LA. I love this place. Every day, on my gratitude list, I mention the ocean, the sky, the sand, the birds, the squirrels, the egrets, the seals, my favorite pigeon called Limper because she has a limp. The crows know me. All the birds and squirrels follow me around because I carry peanuts. It’s great.

Q. What is one word you would use to describe yourself?

A. Plucky.

Q. If you ever retire, would you prefer to live by the ocean, lake, river, mountaintop, desert, or penthouse?

A. Technically, I have retired and do I live by the ocean. However, I haven’t really retired in the sense that I founded and run a nonprofit: UnchainedTV is the world’s only streaming TV network to promote the plant-based, cruelty-free, sustainable lifestyle for animals, human health and the climate.

You can download UnchainedTV on your phone, on your Smart TV with streaming devices and it’s online at https://unchainedtv.com. We stream 2,000+ documentaries, vegan cooking shows, podcasts, reality TV shows, travel series, etc. It’s life-changing! Please, check it out and you can tell me what you think on LinkedIn or DM me at @Unchained_TV on IG.

Q. How do you measure success?

A. I consider myself successful if I can honestly say I did my very best, no matter the outcome. I try to do the next right thing and stay out of the results. I try to be of service. I’m also working on my character defects and there are still plenty of them to work on. I’m a work in progress like everybody else. Ultimately, I don’t think anyone knows their actual success or failure rate till we get to the other side, if you know what I mean.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?

A. People who are scared off by the word “vegan.” Most people have no idea what a joy it is to adopt a plant-based lifestyle. It is not a sacrifice. It is an adventure in delicious food, optimal health, sustainability and compassion. I think we can all agree we’re against world hunger. More than 700-million people are experiencing hunger right now. Meanwhile, we are feeding about 40% of all grains and legumes grown to farmed animals. The overwhelming majority of soy grown is fed to farmed animals, for example. So, if we redirected all that food to humans, we could drastically reduce world hunger. We could also reduce the amount of land used for agriculture by up to 75% when you consider grazing lands and land for crops. Allowing that land to reforest would drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions because trees absorb carbon. So, for all these reasons and more, consider trying plant-based. Right now, there are 8.2 billion humans on this planet killing and eating 90-billion animals every year. 90-billion every year! We’ve industrialized animals and don’t want to see what’s happening behind those closed factory farm doors. But, it’s really awful. So, when we seek to be of service to others and practice kindness and nonviolence as part of our sobriety, let’s include all beings including cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and lambs. It’s in our own self-interest. All this animal consumption is giving us heart disease, cancer (processed meat is a level one carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization) plus deforestation, wildlife extinction, pollution, climate change. And, think of the people who have to kill all those animals for a living and how they suffer from depression as a result. They are on the lowest rung of society and don’t have much choice, sadly. But, we do.

Q. If you had an extra million dollars, which charity would you donate it to?

A. I would split it up between PETA, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Mercy for Animals, Switch4Good, Animal Rising, White Coat Waste, The Center for a Humane Economy, Farm Sanctuary, Rowdy Girl Sanctuary and – of course – UnchainedTV.

Q. Who has been the biggest influence throughout your life?

A. My mom: Anita Velez-Mitchell. She came from Puerto Rico at the height of the Great Depression and made a very successful career for herself as a dancer with her own dance troupe. When she was too old to dance, she began writing and directing plays and publishing poetry. She was inspirational and I did a documentary about her called Anita Velez: Dancing Through Life that won a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation. My mom was a great subject as there were so many fabulous photos of her dancing that I was able to use. She had a great sense of humor. She managed to find the humor in just about everything, which is something I try to do as well. She was ahead of her time, shunning meat and doing yoga in the 1940’s. And, she was an early hyphenate. When she married my dad, Pearse Mitchell, who was an Irish advertising executive, she kept her own name and just added his. Again, always ahead of her time and always with the knowledge that life is a mysterious and somewhat surreal, often absurd adventure and then it’s over. She was months away from turning 100 when she died.

Q. If you could give advice to your younger self what would it be?

A. Don’t ever start drinking. Don’t ever start smoking. Be true to yourself, especially when it comes to your sexuality. Follow your heart always. I wish somebody had said that to me back when I was in high school. That would have saved me a lot of trouble.

Q. Who made you feel seen growing up?

A. My parents had a couple of friends who were very nice to me, particularly dad’s best friend, the man we called Uncle Charlie. He didn’t do anything special. He just treated me like another person, not a kid, but a person. It was a very casual friendship. He never gave me any advice, but he was charming and fun and I always enjoyed being around him. Come to find out that Charlie’s biological son resented that Charlie was around our family all the time and felt that his dad neglected him. So, it’s all about perspective. He made me feel seen while his own son was feeling unseen.

Q. From what school of thought or teacher did you learn the most from?

A. I’ve dabbled in various philosophies from libertarianism as a teenager to Buddhism. By coming out as gay while a TV personality, I served as a LGBTQ rights activist and still consider myself such. In my daily work, running my nonprofit (UnchainedTV) I’m an environmentalist, a vegan and an animal rights activist. We are destroying our planet at such an alarming rate, wiping out wildlife to the point where we are now in the 6th mass extinction. We are suffering the consequences and it’s going to get a lot worse unless we change our lifestyles. I compare it to when I got sober. I did experience a psychic shift where I went from “I won’t drink today” (which never worked) to “I don’t have to drink today,” which worked. We can do the same with our diets.

Q. What is a phrase that has kept you sober during challenging times?

A. ”When you’re going through hell … keep going.”

Q. What major event or realization shaped who you are?

A. Getting sober, coming out as gay, going vegan: my 3 miracles!

Q. What do you love most about living sober?

A. No hangovers and no awkward damage assessment meetings. And, knowing that whatever is happening, I’m living life on life’s terms, not numbing myself out and drowning my feelings with booze. When I first got sober I thought, darn, no more karaoke. No more dirty dancing in nightclubs. Actually, I don’t do either of those things anymore. But, I have much more fun. I go to lots of parties and I still make a fool of myself, but I remember it now! Seriously, I did feel like I was born again when I got sober and the first thing I say in my morning prayers and meditation is that I am grateful for being sober today, one day at a time! It’s corny but it’s true!

Q. What’s your concept of a Higher Power?

A. I don’t really have a firm, fixed image of a higher power. I do feel there is a force that is a higher power so I believe in that, but I can’t define it concretely. It’s not me though and that’s the most important part. When you get sober, you stop playing God… hopefully.

Q. What is your Astrological sign?

A. I’m a Libra.

Q. Who is your favorite celebrity in recovery?

A. Oh gosh. I respect anonymity above all things. However, I saw a very large billboard in Los Angeles the other day, featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, with her photo on it and it quoted her as saying “My bravest thing? Getting sober.” So, given that she’s talking so publicly about her recovery, I think it’s okay to say that she is my favorite celebrity in recovery.

Q. What book(s) have you read more than once?

A. ”Be Here Now” by Ram Dass. Sometimes I still have to struggle to Be Here Now! And, of course, there’s a little navy blue book filled with amazing stories that I love to read over and over again. You’ll have to guess what that book is.

Q. What books are you reading now?

A. I read tons of articles but I mostly listen to books now on Audible. I just listened to Original Sin by Jake Tapper. Transfarmation by Leah Garcés, The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance by Jonathan Wells. Very appropriate to our times. The Middle Ages Around the World, which is a riveting lecture series. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and Beyond Beliefs by Dr Melanie Joy.

Q. If you were giving a dinner party for your 3 favorite authors, living or dead, who would they be?

A. Franz Kafka, Emily Brontë, Leo Tolstoy and – just to mix it up – Mel Robbins!

Q. Which film have you watched the most?

A. Body Heat.

Q. Who is your favorite film director?

A. It used to be Woody Allen for most of my life.

Q. What book would you most like to see turned into a movie or TV show that hasn’t already been adapted?

A. How about my bestselling memoir, “iWant, My Journey From Addiction and Overconsumption to a Simpler, Honest Life.” Who should play me?

Q. Are you binge watching any TV series?

A. Bizarrely, I only watch Brit Box and only like Agatha Christie style mysteries. I have no idea why.

Q What is your favorite App?

A. UnchainedTV.

Q. Who is your favorite performer, living or dead?

A. Paul McCartney.

Q. What are some of the most memorable songs in your life?

A. Actually, I love the songs that my parents played when I was a little kid.

It Had to Be You. Just One of Those Things. Night and Day. Almost Like Being in Love. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Besame Mucho. Quizàs, Quizàs, Quizàs.

Q. What is your favorite city?

A. Los Angeles.

Q. What is your favorite hotel?

A. I have no favorite hotel. I’m not really a fan of hotels. I especially avoid hotels with lots of curtains and carpets.

Q. What is your favorite restaurant?

A. Planta Cocina in Marina del Rey, Ca. Amazing!

Q. What is your favorite cuisine?

A. Vegan sushi can be so incredibly tasty. Also, vegan Thai and vegan Mexican. I’m getting ready to throw a little vegan cookout with Beyond Meat burgers, corn, sweet potato fries, salad and – yes – kale chips. Delish!

Q. What is a style trend you wish would come back?

A. Nudity?

Q. What are five things you always carry with you?

A. My 2 dogs: Sunday and Wednesday. I take them everywhere I possibly can. Other than that, I really don’t carry much around. These days, I definitely wouldn’t leave home without my driver’s license though.

Q. What is the best and or worse piece of advice someone has given you?

A. Someone once told me that a new job is a perfect opportunity to let go of bad habits and reinvent yourself. That was good advice. I didn’t take it, unfortunately. Another great piece of advice I got when I first got sober 30 years ago: Sit through the feelings. They don’t last forever. That one I still use!

Q. What is the best piece of advice you’ve given someone else?

A. I definitely borrowed this line but, “90% of success is showing up.”  Usually said in a scolding manner when somebody stands me up.

Q. What is one thing that always makes you smile?

A. My two dogs and my cat.

Q. Is there anything you do that seems mundane on the surface but has turned out to be sacred for you?

A. Taking my dogs for a long morning walk always leaves me more centered and relaxed and puts my life in perspective. There’s a lot of famous quotes that basically say, a long walk can solve most problems. I really cherish my morning walks.

Q. What is your biggest fear?

A. We live in a world of normalized violence. My biggest fear is that I’m going to die before we get to see a world of normalized NONviolence. When the earth is ravaged and the animals and the people are dying, a new group of humans will arise from every race, creed and background to defend the voiceless, heal the planet and enable us to evolve to the next level of human existence. I just hope to see it in my lifetime.

Q. What is your biggest regret?

A. Having that first drink.

Q. Have you ever been arrested and, if so, what for?

A. No, I have never been arrested but I was a reporter for a feature TV news story where I was faux-arrested, so there’s photos of me on the Internet in an orange jump suit with way too much makeup. I wish I could get rid of those.

Q. What is the hardest amends you’ve ever had to make?

A. Oh god. That’s a hard question. I had to make amends to my ex-husband and a couple of ex-boyfriends who put up with my drinking. I came out as gay after I got sober and that’s no accident. As long as I had a glass of wine in my hand, I could lie to myself. But, without a drink to numb out, I couldn’t continue the charade. Those amends were difficult but they were gracious about it. There were only one or two amends that didn’t go well. But, as they say, it’s not about how they turn out, it’s about doing them.

Q. How important are your pets to you?

A. They’re my kids.