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Organising Bookclub: How to Create a Vegan World
11 min readJul 7, 2025
One of the first activities I organized in Effective Altruism 3 years ago, after I participated in the first Dutch Effective Altruism Introductory course 3.5 years ago, was a bookclub on Tobias Leenaert’s book How to Create a Vegan World. The proximate cause was that this was organized earlier once by Marieke de Visscher but not again and I also wanted to participate.
I ran it 3 times and am quite enthusiastic about it, so I want to share the format here to enable (and encourage) you, or someone else, to run it too. I’ll share the program setup and then the reflection questions to guide the conversation, which Tobias Leenaert as the author provided himself and okayed sharing. Both of the Google documents were shared in full and upfront with the participants, so people knew what to expect and could prepare. And as the facilitator I would quite literally prompt the reflection questions to get the conversation going.
Before sharing these two documents in the sections below I share some context on how I organized it, provide tips on how you could, and why I think you maybe should (value that).
4 weekly one hour sessions via Zoom, details of which are in sections 4 and 5 below. As a fifth session I organized a live Q&A with the author, where I included two cohorts in one call.
Beforehand I would indicate a timeslot or two that fits me, as I find that excessive scheduling to accommodate everyone’s preferences is involved and creates a high drop-out rate. Impact books provides a centralized EA service, where people can order the book for free with a discount code that my national EA co-directors provided. The first time I gathered addresses and ordered the books myself and then sent in reimbursements to EA The Netherlands. This involved much more paperwork and handling of private data.
Afterwards I’ve considered creating a group with alumni but didn’t. I did build some nice connections. One of the participants, Ruben van den Bulck, later created Effective Animal Advocacy Netherlands, which now is an active national community aimed at animal welfare.
I would go for maybe 12 participants maximum in the sign-up phase, considering that usually maybe half of the people drop out before the start or during the bookclub, and I would be left with 4-8 participants per group, which is I think ideal, depending for further specification on the expressiveness of the participants and their contributions in lived experience and reflections, plus the expected continued drop out rate.
For maybe half of the participants I built a (small) personal connection with them beforehand, which I think greatly helps in both reducing dropout rates and managing the group dynamics as the facilitator. Half of the participants came from EA circles, wanting to be/act more animal-friendly, and the other half from animal advocacy circles, which could perhaps benefit from learning from a more analytic, pragmatic approach (and introduction to EA). There was welcome diversity in terms of the consumption of animal( product)s, and the length of one’s related journey, while everyone subscribed to the purpose that creating a vegan world would be a good thing to do. Via EA, I also invited internationally, which would nicely add to the cultural diversity among the more local participants in our online meetings.
All the participants still had room to grow in their journey to more impact. Either on themselves, or in (starting to) communicate effectively to have an impact on others, lowering their consumption of animal( product)s. I was maybe myself vegan for a year, concluding a slow year long process of becoming, from having been vegetarian since I was eight. In this way, what moved and didn’t move me in this regard was still very top of mind, and useful in discussing personal transformation in the bookclub. Engaging with the book was really my starting point for thinking about pragmatic and effective communication about it with others. Developing one’s communications strategy is I think a vital part of impactful vegan activism. After many years of opposition I, and many others with me, had been battered into a moral relativism of sorts, giving up on others.
I have wanted to run the program once with participants that are already fully engaged in effective animal advocacy, and I might still do that, and see what I can learn from that. Interestingly, I found overwhelming interest from these more senior people, when I met them.
The bookclub consists of two types of elements in equal parts. One is reflection, alone and together, on some of the content-based reflection questions; To understand our world better and the effective, pragmatic strategies within it. The other half is more (intra- and inter)personal: e.g. How do you feel about [...]? In the reflection questions below you will I think clearly see these two types of questions. Additionally, the extensive introduction in the first meeting helps to get to know each other better, and the history of one’s relation to animal( product)s over time. Next to bonding and supporting, these personal elements are also a part of the content; Participants are encouraged to take in these personal stories as case studies and to learn from them what works in terms of communication, something that will also be a frequently recurring topic for the group conversation.
In light of what I just mentioned, I find it important to take extensive time for the introduction (e.g. this could be half of the session), while also making it clear that people are not obligated to share, so are free to also not share. Participants (and more so if initially shy) will usually add texture to their stories in the conversation in later weeks such that their story remains an integral part of the group’s learning trajectory. This usually results in a delay, and I try to at least have half of session 1’s reflection questions covered (to be found under “reflection questions” as opposed to “program”), which are also integrally connected to the earlier parts, which could also mean that you can be quick there if much of it has already been covered. In the next session it is then important to not skip the earlier reflection question. We would do those first, and the initial delay might persist until the last session.
Take the time, to relate to each other, instead of for example rushing through the content as is more commonly maybe the case with bookclubs yet more suitable with other books. This book is quite a lot to process, and would require a lot of reflection (together) to translate into behaviour change. One’s own difficulties in behavioral change are informative to people’s difficulties with behavioural change in general. The more personal questions require more time and attention and probably a complete round of participants, while the more analytical questions can receive a more direct approach, until all the main considerations are included.
I often went 15 to even 30 minutes overtime, of course in agreement with the participants, and with resolutions to do this better. All in all this keeps the pace and pressure a bit, and with that focus. And any people that are behind in reading get a second chance the next week in case the conversation is also behind. Do discourage reading ahead, I found it very derailing if a few people start to insert concepts from future chapters into the conversation. So also safeguard against doing that yourself as the facilitator, while commenting on and parking conversations that will receive attention in future sessions. I’d also advise against changing what to read per session. I found for example half a chapter proves too difficult to communicate clearly, or to stick to as a participant, and I am content with the choice of chapters per session, including a light first sessions where people can participate quite well just based on their personal experience, e.g. if the book is still to arrive to their home.
In session 1, The Update Project is really important to set the norms of conversation. I since then always start any EA fellowships this way, where I also encourage meta reflection. The part about EA is mostly so that also people completely new to EA become context-aware, and there is room to air burning questions or critiques, where I would answer quite succinctly (e.g. longtermism, red-teaming or controversial people are of course not the focus here), with an option to discuss more outside of the main sessions. Both take e.g. 3-10 minutes.
OPIS, The Organisation for the Prevention of Intensive Suffering, recently launched a strategic guide, accompanied by a webinar; A topical development I’d like to reference: Right after our book’s author, Holly Elmore relates within this webinar her experience of becoming vegetarian as a kid and her related interactions with adults after. I think this greatly illustrates the power of sharing such a personal story, and one’s related learnings, in a way that it would also be a part of this bookclub. She then directly connects this to her current work on changing people’s minds on AI governance, elaborating how the insights and skills from this experience benefit her work today. Later in the webinar they also exchange views on sustainable activism, which is a point of focus at the end of How to Create a Vegan World. You might know Holly from this influential writing of her included in EA introductory courses.
In making a difference for animals, I think we cannot avoid changing human minds. Therefore, impact includes engaging with the question of how to effectively change these minds. And as just-mentioned this is a generally useful skill in making a difference in any cause area. It could for example dovetail into another project on effective communication about effective giving. Third and related, this would be relevant within the effective altruism community, as setting morally ambitious standards is likely to elicit moral defensiveness in others. This is very similar and recognizable to the response veganism elicits, and learning how to pragmatically deal with this with effective communication a crucial skill. Fourth, there are no limits; This bookclub can be organised in large numbers. No job openings are required or monetary sums, given effective altruism’s support to sponsor the book itself, while participants can support each other and as a result more effectively and sustainably have an animal-friendly influence on their surroundings. Fifth, increased veganism, and effective communication around it, would I believe add to the credibility of (individuals in) the effective altruism community, much like how this is argued to be the case with pledges.
Of course evaluations are in order in the final (fourth) week to gauge impact. You could contact me to request the form I used, to save time and/or have comparability. My evaluations were a tiny bit lower than what I later got to expect from facilitating a fellowship. I attribute this to a bookclub being a bit less organized, part of which was also intentional to make it look easier to take over the baton, such that someone else will also organize the bookclub - an aim to which I hope this post will also contribute!
And much of the impact would not be evaluated and requires trust. I believe the bookclubs have made a (not measured) impact in: onboarding people in the EA/EAA community, bonding to deepen commitment towards veganism and finding new and creative ways of communication around it, influencing surroundings towards veganism, building skills and motivation for further and new engagements for animal welfare, among which is also quite deep reflection on and developing further one’s worldview (e.g. wild animal suffering).
4/5 sessions of one hour.
-- Session 1:
An extensive introduction round (feel free to prepare!):
- Who are you? What do you do?
- How did you get to know about this book club?
- What, if any, is your connection with effective altruism (EA)? (There is no need to!)
- Would you like to share one or multiple personal stories that are relevant to eating less animal( product)s? This can also be about still eating meat, but please don’t make it too graphic! The idea is that we can learn from each other’s personal stories.
- Are you part of the audience for the book Tobias Leenaert has in mind, as described in the book’s introduction?
- Is there anything else in your background that is relevant to effectively promoting veganism?
- Is there anything else you would like to share? Anything unexpected?
These are commonly used discussion norms and values within effective altruism (EA): https://juliagalef.com/update-project/ (The book also contains something about “slow opinion” in its introduction.)
- Any questions or comments?
What is EA? We vary in our backgrounds within EA, and that is fine, but at least some basic awareness of this digital environment is I think useful. Here is one possible place to have a look: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ (The book also contains something about this in its introduction.)
- Any questions or comments?
Introduction & Chapter 1 (See the reflection questions!)
-- Session 2:
Chapter 2 & Chapter 3
-- Session 3:
Chapters 4 & Chapters 5
(Note this week is relatively intensive in terms of the number of pages!)
-- Session 4:
Chapter 6 & Conclusion
Reflections - in advance - on personal changes during the reading and this book club, with now the opportunity to share. Did you change your mind on anything? (It is also helpful to have started this from the start, to enable comparisons.)
Private Q&A and preparation for next week’s Q&A with the author, preferably we curate and send questions we want to ask beforehand.
[-- Session 5:] - Potentially!
Q&A with Tobias Leenaert himself!
- -1. Foreword
- 0. Introduction
1. What do you think of the road to Veganville as a metaphor for the project to create a vegan world? Is it suitable? Do you see any shortcomings or inconsistencies?
2. Do you often catch yourself having opinions before you’re well enough informed? Do you think the concept of slow opinion is useful to you?
- 1. Getting our bearings
Do you agree with the goals of the movement as the author defines them?
Is wild animal suffering something you worry about?
Do you agree that the fight for animal liberation is different and more challenging than maybe any other social challenge in history?
Do you consider yourself an idealist or a pragmatist, according to the author’s description of the terms?
- 2. The call to action
How do you feel about asking people to reduce their meat consumption rather than to go vegan? Is it something you are (un)comfortable with?
Do you agree that the glutenfree phenomenon contains interesting lessons for the vegan movement?
Do you have any other objections to a reducetarian call to action that the author does not tackle?
- 3. Arguments
Were your initial reasons to go vegan moral or non-moral (animal or non animal)? Have you seen them evolve?
Do you agree that awareness is overrated?
Do you agree the animal rights/movement is very much focused on moral messages and how that might not be ideal?
Can you think of additional counterarguments against “using all reasons”, apart from the ones the author gives?
- 4. Environment
Can you think of examples where your environment helped you make better choices, which otherwise you wouldn’t have made?
Do you agree that meat companies getting into veg products are not the enemy?
How do you feel about money? Are you comfortable with it? Or do you think it’s bad/evil?
Who do you think helped animals most: Karen Davis (United Poultry Concerns) or Josh Tetrick (Hampton Creek, now called Just)?
- 5. Support
Are you comfortable trying to influence people? Or are you a closet vegan?
Can you think of examples where the people you tried to talk to were clearly different from you? In what way?
Are you a good listener?
Do you agree with the author’s recommendation to “thread softly”? Or do you think an “in your face” approach is more effective?
Do you agree that consistency may be overrated, and that being 100% consistent can be ineffective, unnecessary, insufficient and impossible?
How consistent are you? Are you comfortable calling yourself 100% vegan?
Do you agree that the image we create of veganism is more important than how pure we are?
- 6. Sustainability
What are the challenges you face in keeping on?
What motivates you to go on?
If you’d ever become a non vegan again, what would be the reason for that?
Are you paying enough attention to sustainability? What can you do better?
- Our own additional questions:
[ - Space for participants to add questions, potentially to be asked to the author in a Q&A if possible. I organised this each time in a fifth session, in which I merged two groups.]