Tig Notaro: I was really blown away by how much better I felt when I shifted things and even though I’d heard it in my life, that food is fuel and you have to put the good stuff in your body I really felt it when I applied it and that became my North Star, which is what I tell everybody is you have to have a reason why you are making a shift or else you’re not gonna stick with it. And so I was doing it for my health. I felt better. And then the deeper I got into learning about what I was eating and the nutrients, everything, making the food, it all just started to fascinate me.
And I’m not a nutritionist, I’m not anything, I don’t have a degree, but I just read and went through the program and have a certificate that, says I completed that program. And during the pandemic, I helped my next door neighbor who had high blood [00:01:00] pressure and he avoided shifting to having to take a daily pill.
I remember I was filming a movie with Reese Witherspoon and I told her that I had gotten that certification and that I had this fantasy of continuing to help people maybe even do it as a side job. And she said, oh my gosh, that’s so great. That’ll make you hundreds of dollars.
It made me laugh so hard. But yeah, so that’s really it is I just wanted more information for myself and if anybody wanted some help or guidance or somebody to check in with I wanted to provide that, but I haven’t started it as a side hustle.
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast. At Mother Earth News for 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources while helping you conserve your financial resources in this podcast. We host [00:02:00] conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading, natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
Thank you for joining us for this episode. My name is Josh Wilder. I am the Content Director for Mother Earth News, and our guest this week embodies the resilience and grounded authenticity that’s so important to sustainable living. Tig Notaro‘s life challenges led her to a major commitment to natural health. While you might know her groundbreaking Emmy and Grammy nominated work all over entertainment, whether it’s in standup comedy such as her latest album, Hello Again in podcasts like her current show, Handsome, with co-hosts Mae Martin and Fortune Marie Feimster, in shows like One Mississippi and Star Trek Discovery, and the producer of a documentary Come See Me in the Good Light about Andrea Gibson, you might not know her journey to a deeply dedicated plant-based lifestyle. We’ll be talking with Tig today about [00:03:00] how that change impacted her health and her family with her trademark, honesty and dry wit.
Tig’s Plant-Based Journey
Josh Wilder: Start off with you’ve spoken about your plant-based journey in the past. I think I heard you say you were 75% whole plant-based four years ago. How would you describe yourself now?
Tig Notaro: I’m always inching towards a pure way of living and eating, and I would say I’m probably somewhere in that to 85%.
Yeah. But I definitely have the whatever plant-based, overly processed food. I have two nine-year-olds, they’re remarkably whole food plant-based, but we can’t avoid having, mac and cheese in our house, vegan mac and cheese and frozen pizzas.
And but I even rarely have a bite of that but yeah, I’m [00:04:00] certainly not a hundred percent.
Josh Wilder: Wow. First of all, I’ll say I have a 6-year-old and I’m very impressed by everything you’ve said about your boys because just the tea time you’ve talked about having with ’em. Oh yeah. Over like that was hearing that was like, I am, I can’t believe we didn’t start doing that like years ago.
That would be it.
Tig Notaro: It’s so fun. Stephanie’s mother her mother is from England, and so it was, tea was a big part of. Their their family. And so when Max and Finn were two, we just started giving ’em room temperature tea and going into the living room saying, let’s talk. And, they would talk about dump trucks, but it was still, it was fun to go to England when they were nine and have them order tea at high tea and really enjoy it.
Josh Wilder: That’s awesome.
Tig Notaro: Yeah.
Josh Wilder: So you were so invested into this diet and nutrition plan that you got a certificate in plant-based nutrition from the [00:05:00] Center for Nutrition Studies. Can you talk a little bit about like why I know it was during the pandemic, so obviously you wanted to try something a little bit different.
But can you talk a little bit about that decision and why you wanted to take that course?
Tig Notaro: Yeah, I in 2012, I had a bunch of health struggles to say the very least. I had, let’s see, pneumonia and then c diff, which is an intestinal disease that’s quite deadly. And then I had invasive breast cancer, and I, that’s what caused me to change my diet.
I was really blown away by how much better I felt when I shifted things and really started to, even though I’d heard it in my life, that food is fuel and you have to put the good stuff in your body. And really I really felt it when I applied it and that [00:06:00] became my North Star, which is what I tell everybody is you have to have a reason why you are.
Making a shift or else you’re not gonna stick with it. And so I was doing it for my health. I felt better. And then the deeper I got into learning about what I was eating and the nutrients, everything, making the food, it all just started to fascinate me. And I was lying in bed. Yeah. In the pandemic.
Reading a book, and I just thought, I’m so deeply interested in this. And then I thought, God, I have all of this time on lockdown. Why don’t I just see if there’s some online course I could take to learn a little more? And so I, yeah, I found that course and took it and now I have, people are like, I can’t believe you’re a nutritionist.
And I’m not a nutritionist, I’m not anything, I don’t have a degree, but I just [00:07:00] read and went through the program and have a certificate that, says I completed that program. And during the pandemic, I started trying to help. I helped my next door neighbor who had high blood pressure and he avoided shifting to having to take a daily pill.
On Zoom I was helping a couple of different comedians that were interested and so it was just something I started to think it would be fun to spend my time. I remember I was filming a movie with Reese Witherspoon and I told her that I had gotten that certification and that I had this fantasy of continuing to help people on Zoom or maybe even.
Do it as a side job. And she said, oh my gosh, that’s so great. That’ll make you hundreds of dollars.
It made me laugh so hard. But yeah, so that’s really it is I just wanted more information for myself and if [00:08:00] anybody wanted some help or guidance or somebody to check in with I wanted to provide that, but I haven’t started it as a side hustle.
Eat and Do Whatever You Want to Do
Josh Wilder: I think that’s okay. I think it’s interesting when we talk about, we’ve talked about plant-based diets a lot over the years in our magazine and content. And it’s always very divisive among our crowd because we have a lot of people that are learning a lot of different skills. We have a lot of homesteaders in our audience, a lot of people that, process their own chickens or, raised their own livestock.
And so when you talk about taking meat out of a diet, I’m sure you’ve run into that, what have been your experiences?
Tig Notaro: Oh my gosh. I run into it all the time. On my, you mentioned my podcast, Handsome and I talk about it. But we all talk about what we’re eating or what we made for dinner.
My co-host Mae was having a date [00:09:00] and did some disastrous hot dog situation. My co-host Fortune loves ice cream and biscuits, and they all talk about that. But as soon as I talk about how I love wild blueberries and people write in saying, I’m food and body shaming my co-hosts and I always say there is no judgment.
You should eat and do whatever you wanna do. And both of my co-hosts have expressed an interest in the different smoothies that I make, or oatmeal and people right in interested, but other listeners will get so upset if I talk about fruits or vegetables.
Josh Wilder: Yeah. And it’s funny, I appreciate that. So my wife actually, was a vegan for five years. So I really value that idea that you took that course because you wanted to be able to know more about it. Because I feel like every time she would bring it up, everyone would have questions. You always get questions. Where do you get your protein?
Tig Notaro: Yeah.
Josh Wilder: [00:10:00] Aren’t you always hungry? Where do you get your vitamins? All that. And I appreciate that idea that you are helping people and that you want to be able to answer those questions.
Tig Notaro: Yeah. Only if people are interested.
Only then, and it’s even like meeting friends out to eat. They’re like, oh I don’t know if there’s a vegan restaurant. And I’m like, I can find something. Or there’s so many restaurants that have just vegan options, even if it’s a salad. I’m fine if I want more, I’ll eat when I get home.
But I don’t. I hope I don’t present as a high maintenance person to be around because I don’t want it to hinder my life or my relationships and what I eat and what I do is my business. And it’s the same with whoever I’m around.
Josh Wilder: Absolutely. I appreciate that. And it’s funny, you’re also the producer of an up upcoming documentary on Andrea Gibson .
Tig Notaro: [00:11:00] Yeah.
Josh Wilder: One of Andrea Gibson quotes that I really appreciated was “Being right is boring.”
And honestly, when you’re trying to be right you’re shaming people for being wrong.
That is not, that’s not the energy that’s gonna win over people.
Tig Notaro: No.
Josh Wilder: Or convince them to, try something new.
Tig Notaro: Yeah. Andrea was a wealth of knowledge and depth and all sorts of that. Yeah. Just mind blowing person. I feel very grateful to have known.
Tater Time and Other Tips
Josh Wilder: Absolutely. One thing I will say would convince people I came across about your nutrition is tater time.
Can you talk a little bit about tater time?
Tig Notaro: I sure can. It’s funny, my closest friend from childhood and I both claim that the other one created this, and I feel like I could really bet my life that she did, because I’m not a huge cook. But it’s just, it’s very simple and it’s just on a plate.
It’s a bed of spinach. Is that what that is? I [00:12:00] can’t see very well.
Josh Wilder: It’s mostly spinach. There’s a little bit of arugula in there.
Tig Notaro: Okay. Yeah. We just, we did spinach. Spinach does well with what goes on top. If you have raw spinach, it you put a plain baked potato on top. That’s right. And because the potato’s hot, for some reason, that kind of rubbery texture of spinach does well with the hot potato on top because it will other, lettuce wilted and stuff. But so it goes raw spinach, then the plain baked potato. You open up the baked potato and you put pico de gallo in there. You just cover it with pico de gallo, which is tomato, onion, cilantro, peppers, and get all of that pico de gallo sauce all over.
And then you put sliced avocado around the potato. Well done. Well done sir. And then on top is the balsamic vinegarette, I believe. [00:13:00] Yes. And that is tater time, and it is one of the most simple and delicious meals that I return to over and over again. And people, when I make it for ’em, they’re like this is interesting.
And I’m like, I know, but just, and I always encourage everyone to get a little piece of everything with every bite because it’s so good.
Josh Wilder: When I first saw that actually, somebody had the whole recipe on Reddit. Oh. I had everything in my pantry except for pico de gallo.
Okay. So all I did was cut up a tomato and a little bit of onion, and then I found, had this green pepper sauce, it’s has jalapeno and onion powder.
Tig Notaro: Gotta do what you gotta do.
Josh Wilder: And it works great. It was delicious. I can eat just about any potato
Tig Notaro: I love a potato.
Josh Wilder: Are there any other quick tips that you give people when they have an [00:14:00] interest?
Tig Notaro: I just basically tell people that they should first of all, to not get freaked out. Oh my God, eating vegan, that’s gonna be insane. And it’s you can eat vegan so easily.
Just, breakfast could be a, without going into different meals or, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, what I would say is look up some very basic options. And basic options can be, having nine-year-olds, they have peanut butter and banana, toasted peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Love it when people are like, how can I make my kid, eat vegan avocado toast, all, smoothies. My kids love strawberry banana, blueberry, kale smoothies. You don’t even taste the kale and it’s in there. And so there’s if you look up several different options for yourself and just alternate a few in before you get started so you can really.
See the breakdown of here are some sandwich [00:15:00] options. Here are some breakfast, some smoothie and the smoothie, it takes absolutely no time. Zero, less than five minutes to throw that a smoothie together. I would just always encourage people to take a deep breath. Don’t freak out. Find several options before you get started so you can see what you need and what you have coming in your plant-based future, and then give it a try for a week or even a few days. It’s really not as difficult as people think.
Setting Yourself Up for Success
Josh Wilder: Just to incorporate a little bit into your diet can help. Can you talk a little bit about how it made you feel when you first started?
Tig Notaro: Yeah, I just, I felt I heard this sometimes happen for people, but I was very surprised the kind of fogginess I felt like I had more clarity. I didn’t feel heavy bloated in ways after certain meals. And I think that was mainly it. And also just my levels were really good when I went to see my [00:16:00] doctor who had her concerns when I told her I was starting to eat plant-based.
And but yeah, that was really it.
Josh Wilder: Yeah. And similarly, not quite as severe concerns that you had, my whole family has high cholesterol, so recently I got the same numbers that I had last year. The way I thought for a long time was eventually I’m gonna have to start eating healthier. I’m at the age where eventually is now.
Tig Notaro: Oh yeah.
But also at any point there’s such a quick shift with the body and levels when you have your blood tested, like you can really see pretty quick, a pretty quick turnaround and that’s also, that just adds to that north star of wow.
I’m gonna keep going. We always tell our kids, even though our family’s fully vegan, they can have whatever they want. We don’t wanna have them growing up feeling like they’re restricted in any way. But [00:17:00] they’re so passionate and proud to be plant-based.
Sometimes when they’re at a birthday party or after one of their games, somebody brings a cupcake and they eat that and there’s no shame. In fact, we’ll say, do you guys wanna grab a cupcake? And sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. But in our house, we just don’t have any any animal products.
And all of us we’re doing well at our checkups.
Josh Wilder: The same kind of thing when my wife was vegan, we didn’t have anything in the house and I was mostly vegetarian. I was a little bit of a compulsive eater.
Tig Notaro: You also have to make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success. Making sure you have the right foods in your house and the different snacks, if you are prone to snack. I’m really excited ’cause my sons never cared about bananas until recently and they wanted, as I said, in their peanut butter [00:18:00] sandwiches or grab one to go.
Two or from school as a snack or on their way to sport to practice or whatever. They always grab a banana now, and I just, it makes me so happy that they’re not grabbing some other thing.
Environmentalism and Compassionate Communities
Josh Wilder: During this, what year was it, you said? Was it 2015?
Tig Notaro: 2012, when I was really sick.
Yeah.
Josh Wilder: Yeah. So it’s been, 13 years now, over that time, eating more plants. A lot of people go to this diet because for environmental reasons.
Have you felt any of those reasons becoming part of the process?
Tig Notaro: Yeah I think. Yeah, plenty of people go towards it for environmental reasons, but they also go towards it for, animal rights or health reasons like I did. And I feel like you can’t help but bleed into the other avenues of what leads everyone there. It just makes you a little more conscious of what you’re eating, why you’re eating [00:19:00] it, and your mind just naturally goes to other issues. Like I said, I’m way more aware of the planet. I’m not a perfect person. But all of it matters to me. Animals, environment, health, everything.
Josh Wilder: That’s great. Yeah. And we have a little bit of time left and I wanted to make sure that we talked a little bit about the movie Come See Me in the Good Light about A ndrea Gibson. And honestly, they were environmentalist.
A lot of poetry is, directly about the earth and their place on the earth and all of our place on the earth and together.
And, like you said, when you’re eating like this and thinking about your connection to everything and your health and your family, how does producing a movie like this speak to building that sort of community and health?
Tig Notaro: This film is so extraordinarily beautiful. I’m so proud of it. It won the Sundance Film Festival [00:20:00] this year, like out of even scripted movies. It blew everyone’s minds.
And I would say. One of the things I’m most excited about with this coming out, which it comes out on Apple TV, November 14th, is that it really encourages compassion, which that in itself creates community. And people could hear that, oh, this is a movie about a non-binary poet with stage four cancer in the mountains of Colorado.
That doesn’t sound like a shiny Hollywood movie. But I have not seen a person walk out of any of these film festival screenings without, it’s so wild. They always thank us. Thank you so much for making this movie. Thank you. And it’s not just [00:21:00] because they love Andrea or they fall in love with Andrea.
It’s because of what it does to you and what it makes you want for yourself and your life and everything around you. I think this will really open so many avenues of connection. Whatever it may be.
Josh Wilder: That’s great. Yeah. I really appreciate having the opportunity to talk to you and frankly, especially at this time because, I was aware of them, before but watched all the performances of their poetry and interviews with ’em it’s remarkable. They’re amazing.
Tig Notaro: Truly, yeah. Yeah. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of in my nearly 30 year career.
And I’m just so excited for people to see this and, yeah, it’s called, Come See Me in the Good Light. And it’s Andrea Gibson and Andrea’s wife, Megan Falley, who is also a poet and has her own storyline [00:22:00] in this film, which is woven into Andrea’s storyline so beautifully. They’re both just remarkable people and subjects for a film.
But I appreciate you having me and talking to me about it. And I’m always up for chatting about fruits and vegetables, so thanks for hearing me out. Great.
Josh Wilder: Yeah, absolutely. and we have some pretty open-minded, homesteader folks.
There’s actually one, our guy who does chicken processing out of New Jersey. It’s this Italian guy who’s got a great sense of humor. I think the two of you …
Tig Notaro: Oh, nice.
Josh Wilder: Would be a lot of fun.
Tig Notaro: Great. Until next time sir, thank you so much.
Josh Wilder: Absolutely. It was great to talk to you.
You too. Appreciate it.
Tig Notaro: See ya.
Josh Wilder: Bye
Tig Notaro: Bye.
Josh Wilder: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.motherearthnews.com/podcast. [00:23:00] You can also email us at podcast@ogdenpubs.com with any questions or suggestions. Our podcast production team includes Kenny Coogan, Alyssa Warner, and myself, Josh Wilder.
