#288 – Sarma Melngailis: Bad Vegan
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13.6K Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2022
⏱️ 261 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sarma Melngailis is a chef and restauranteur who was the subject of the Netflix documentary Bad Vegan: Fame, Fraud, Fugitives. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Sarma’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarma
Sarma’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/sarmamelngailis
Sarma’s Website: https://sarmaraw.com
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (book): https://amzn.to/3G9pMvs
Party of One (book): https://amzn.to/3NtcH2n
Beautiful Ruins (book): https://amzn.to/38Cfgkc
Darkness Visible (book): https://amzn.to/3tdxoYL
Projections (book): https://amzn.to/38DrRDJ
Confessions of a Sociopath (book): https://amzn.to/3sM39Ys
On Love (book): https://amzn.to/3sS3Orj
Dear Reader (book): https://amzn.to/39JPE4M
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:44) – Childhood
(12:46) – Films
(23:17) – Gifts
(32:20) – Favorite food creations
(38:31) – Leon: The Pitbull
(50:39) – Bad Vegan
(1:02:41) – Abusive relationship
(1:07:24) – Remorse for employees
(1:13:19) – Sociopathy
(1:23:44) – How Sarma met Anthony Strangis
(1:45:43) – Retrospection
(1:58:24) – Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
(2:06:17) – Is Anthony Strangis a sociopath?
(2:10:24) – What Bad Vegan got wrong
(2:27:40) – Darkest personal discovery
(2:38:22) – Road trip from hell
(2:45:36) – Wild stories
(2:54:33) – Prison
(3:04:13) – Ghislaine Maxwell
(3:19:44) – Running restaurants
(3:33:26) – Last meal
(3:37:50) – Relationships
(3:47:02) – Advice for young people
(3:52:16) – Regrets
(3:56:01) – Mortality
(4:12:04) – Love
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with Sarmah Melengalis, a chef and restaurant tour who |
| 0:05.6 | was the subject of the Netflix documentary Bad Vegan, fame, fraud, and fugitives. |
| 0:11.8 | That documents the rise and fall of her vegan raw food restaurants in New York City that |
| 0:17.3 | ended in what she called a road trip from hell, being a resident in Tennessee, her pleading |
| 0:23.0 | guilty for stealing over $2 million and serving four months at Ryker's Island jail. |
| 0:30.4 | Sarmah desputes the veracity of the documentary and its conclusions, saying that she was |
| 0:36.0 | misrepresented. |
| 0:37.7 | So I wanted to talk to her to get the full story, at the seek understanding of who she |
| 0:42.5 | is as a human being. |
| 0:44.2 | The good and the bad. |
| 0:47.8 | And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. |
| 0:50.1 | Check them out in the description, it's the best way to support this podcast. |
| 0:54.2 | We got mailgun for email campaigns, buy optimizers for health, notion for startups, better |
| 1:01.0 | help for stress management, and aid sleep for sweet sweet naps. |
| 1:07.4 | Choose wisely my friends. |
| 1:08.8 | And now onto the full adries, as always, no ads in the middle. |
| 1:12.3 | I hate those. |
| 1:13.3 | I try to make these interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out the sponsors. |
| 1:17.9 | I enjoy their stuff, maybe you will too. |
| 1:22.1 | This episode is brought to you by mailgun by Sinch, the leading email delivery service |
| 1:27.1 | for businesses around the world. |
| 1:29.2 | But honestly, it's not just for businesses, because I've been using it forever and I love |
... |
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