More Plants; Less Alcohol
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Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Jan Arden Podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke. Adam is here, as always. They are in Toronto. I'm in Springbank, Alberta. So many things to go through today. If I sound excited and if I sound like, oh my gosh, I better talk really fast because we've got a lot of stuff to cover. How are you guys, first and foremost? How was your week?

Sarah, you're feeling good? You're feeling positive? The week has been pretty good, I'm not going to lie. I have an interesting observation about my energy level, but I've also been really full the entire time.

Okay, talk to me about energy. More energy than normal. Let's back up. Let's back up. So what did I ask you guys to do? The vegan challenge for one week. So we started that. Adam and Sarah are both... They went out and bought stuff. They sent me pictures of some vegan cheeses, some meat swaps. But, you know, they're doing lots of fruits and vegetables and lentils and legumes and tofu and things like that. And Sarah's got some kind of a smoothie she just held up and showed me. So...

Okay, so now, sorry, back to your energy level because you are a worker outer. I am a worker outer. And I have got less sleep this week just based on my work schedule and extra projects than usual. And I still have a lot of energy, which is kind of crazy to me.

I also have noticed that I feel fuller a lot longer with the things I've been eating. I'm just going to say this because we're sharing. Anyone else feel a little bit tootie at the beginning of a change like this? Had to be said. Maybe. I think she's talking about the farts, folks, the farts. Listen, any time you change up your diet and you add

and beans and things like that. There's a lot of tricks out there that recipe writers always include on how to make yourself less gassy and things like that. I can't remember. That's a really good observation, but I cannot remember because I've been doing this for seven years and I don't remember being particularly all the time. Yeah.

I eat a lot of vegetables as is. But you know, it means that something's working. It means that your digestive tract is working. And you know what? Farting is not such a bad thing. I remember seeing this Looney Tunes, it was a documentary, and they had a man and a woman

And I think it was one of those zany shows where they're testing out theories all the time or testing out medieval weapons or testing out gasoline mileage. It was those two guys. Do you remember that did that science show and they were constantly kind of

showing us anyway, just shut me up. What they did, they put a man in a suit and a woman in a suit, these rubber suits with hats on and masks. And they kept them in these suits for an eight hour day. And I'm not kidding you. They collected their farts. That's insane. Okay. They collected their farts. And at the end of the day, the woman was way more farty than him, but it had nothing to do with veganism.

But they were saying that Sarah's face right now, if you could see it, is just like she's shaking her head like, wow, can't even believe we're going there. And yeah, the woman was fartier than the guy. And everyone was very surprised that a woman did that. And they collected it in these suits. Oh, man, those were the days. Okay, well, that's our podcast today. Thanks for tuning in. Toot, toot.

So energy level, Kate, a little more gassy, but your energy is good. You feel fuller longer. Yeah, that's a big thing for especially women trying to get enough protein in their diet. They often turn to carby things when they don't feel like satisfied enough, right? After every meal, I am satisfied right away. And to be honest, like I've been...

I'm like, how am I going to finish eating all the stuff in my fridge? Because I'm that full for that long. I want to read you some comments that we got in. Sure. I asked our tweet friends to just send us their comments on how the week has been going for them. Cool Beans said...

That's nice, dear. We cannot afford fresh produce. Okay. I get that. Groceries are nutty. No matter what kind of, if you're keto, if you're vegan, vegetarian, meatitarian, pescatarian, groceries are expensive. So we acknowledge that and we hear you loud and clear. Jennifer LaPointe says, my vegan meals are much less expensive than my husband's meals with meat. That's true. Um,

She said that she made a lentil mushroom sauce made with her marinara sauce and the most delicious homemade tahini, put it on spiralized zucchini, topped it with this year's harvest basil pesto from the freezer and fermented red peppers using zero waste chef's recipe for hot sauce. So that's at zero waste chef. So wow, Jennifer, that was a lot.

Christine Lee, vegan and vegetarian for a long time. Nice that products are more available, but it's tough to be vegan with a nut legume coconut allergy. Oh, that is tough. That's tough. People with allergies and medically necessary diets punished premium prices and accessibility.

My reward is someone at dinner says, this is vegan. It tastes good. So you're seeing that it's all across the board. Another woman wrote in and said that she got a tagine.

for Christmas, which is those beautiful clay pots with sort of the hat that goes over them. And she said she made her family sweet potato, potatoes, carrots, peas. She layered it with vegetables, lots of Middle Eastern spices. And she said her family was absolutely bananas for it. And of course,

I would eat a shoe placed on a bed of rice. I love rice. But lots are really, really great comments out there. Adam, you said that you girls are doing it with you, that you've been preparing some meals. Tell me about a couple of the meals that you've been doing. I've been, since Monday morning, 100% everything I eat is plant-based. I've made smoothies with oat milk.

peanut butter, fresh berries. I've made a vegan cottage pie. I got Beyond Meat. I bought the butter, the Miyokos, right? The butter? Yeah. I bought that. You couldn't tell the difference. Couldn't tell the difference. It was delicious. Any complaints from the little people? No. Last night, we made

I made vegan burritos. And if you think about it, if you don't add ground beef or chicken, I mean, I mashed up an avocado. I use salsa. I steamed some basmati rice. I made my own homemade refried beans. Oh, I love that. Good for you, Adam. Black beans and red onions and garlic. And and I use, you know, that tahini. It's a chili lime spice.

and corn. I asked the girls, I said, did you miss the chicken? Because normally I'd make a burrito and I'd sear up a chicken breast. And I said to my girls, I said, did you miss it? And they said, nope, didn't need it at all. Totally happy with the rice and the corn and the guac and the salsa. I added hot sauce. It was so filling and delicious. How do they feel about the animal welfare aspect of it? Obviously, you've told them a little bit about why because of the podcast and Jan's challenged us.

to not be eating animal products, which is why we include eggs and dairy into the equation. And just the humane, the inhumane element of that. Do the girls, I mean, they're quite young, but do you feel like that's an important conversation to have with them? So Ellie, who's older, we've had that conversation and she understands. And I think she does now make the connection to like, when you're eating chicken, you're eating, they killed the animal, right? I mean, that's

regardless of what form the chicken comes in, at the end of the day, you've killed this animal. And she understands. And she's thought about, you know, eating more vegetarian food with that in mind. But I think she likes her chicken fingers. Well, there's some unbelievable vegan chicken fingers. She would never know the difference. I'm sorry. A chicken finger is deep fried and

You know, they're always talking about McDonald's chicken nuggets being, you know, 100% chicken. It's been a long time since I've had a nugget, but I don't ever remember them being. I so much prefer the vegan ones. And the price point is better. It's better. I've had some really good ones. Just this week, I saw Beyond Meat had chicken tenders.

They just announced it. They're doing steak stuff. There's so many companies out there. So from an economical point of view, it is a very fast growing industry. So I think the whole thing about supply and demand is interesting to me because, you know, when farmers have historically been doing cattle for generations, you know, they might swap out to soy or they might swap out to pea proteins or

We've talked about this on the show before. Saskatchewan supplies 80 or 90% of the world's lentils. That is a pretty astonishing, like India is very reliant on, you know, Saskatchewan farmers and the kinds of crops there. So you can't tell me that, you know, ranching hasn't been swapped out. Some of those massive grazing lands haven't been changed. Anyway, I'm really proud of you guys. And we'll touch base again next week to see how you're doing because that'll kind of be at the end of it.

It really is so encouraging to see you guys maybe changing the minds of some of our listeners out there. And so many people are trying this. It's pretty cool. I'm certainly thinking about it differently than I would have before. Like I'm not scared of the food or the taste or the textures, but when I shop online,

from now on, I think I'm going to be thinking much differently. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. This always blows my mind. When you eat a hot dog, you're eating buttholes and beaks and knuckles and fricking, you're eating the sludge. If you've ever seen a wiener made and the vats of this white sludge that they are pouring into those casings. So you tell me that eating that and turning your nose up at a bruised banana is

or a crispy, beautiful apple or homemade beans or some homemade hummus, that you would choose that. One thing I kind of wanted to touch on, we got a couple comments from listeners being like, I cheated. I'm only doing this. Like maybe not going full all in. It's not

It's not cheating. It's not cheating. That's exactly what I wanted to get at. And earlier this week, Jan, we were talking about a recipe. And by the way, if you head to our socials at Jan Arden Pod, you're going to find the recipe for Jan's tofu, which I made in the oven this week. And that was really interesting and new for me.

But earlier this week, I by accidentally baked with chocolate chips. And when I looked at the ingredients, I had no idea how many animal byproducts were in something as simple as a chocolate chip. And you said, oh, Sarah, you can't, you know, kick yourself for that. It's a tiny thing. You're doing better than before. Don't do that to yourselves at all, you guys. I've said this before. I'm not an all or nothing plant-based person.

I obviously have made a concerted effort in my life and I'm 99% there, but I never beat myself up. And I'm not going to lie. You know, I do, we've talked about eggs that I get from my veterinarian's neighbor. A couple of times a year, I get six or seven of these beautiful looking eggs and I'll eat them. If you consider the source, eggs, you know, can be very humane.

I would never ever buy from industrial. I wouldn't get them from Costco. I wouldn't get them from anywhere. But it's all about your comfort level. If you can swap two or three meals a week,

boy, oh boy, you are doing great things and you should be really proud of yourself. So don't let anyone food shame you. Don't let people do that. Don't feel bad about, you know, Poppy, you're not having my glasses. He's looking at my glasses. He's right behind you. He's right behind me and he wants these. You're not having my glasses and you're not having this case. You're not having that. No, that's why we can't have nice things.

Yeah, don't worry about the food shaming. Thanks for bringing that up. And you asked me something interesting on the break too, Sarah, about Poppy, my dog. Is he plant-based? No, he's not. He eats lots of fruits and vegetables because I give them to him and he loves them. He loves carrots. He loves cucumbers. He will gnaw on a piece of celery for a while. But as far as his kibble goes, I think, you know, I need to know more about it.

And I need to research it. Erin Ireland, I know her dogs. She's a huge inspiration to me. She has a to live for bakery in Vancouver. If you're ever in Vancouver, the to live for bakery is out of this world. Great. But her dogs, I know her plant base. Like she's one of those people that really I've learned so much from. She's been such a mentor to me, but no, a poppy is not. And judge me if you will, but I am not an all or nothing person. I would never judge you.

Yeah, my socials are pretty aggressive about animal welfare on my stories, especially on Instagram. But like we said last week, I'm not going to ease up on that. Moving on, I want to talk about something entirely different. We're going to take a bit of a break and we will be right back. I'm here with Sarah Burke, Adam Karsh. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We will return.

Welcome back to the Jan Arden podcast. Interesting thing came out this week. The Canadian government has issued a new, I want to say warning. I want to say health risk or an update. Thank you, Sarah, of alcohol consumption and what is something that you should consider when drinking alcohol.

And drum roll, two drinks a week. Two drinks a week. It's low risk. And what was it, a decade ago, Sarah? Yeah, so we were talking about this and you're like, I wonder what it was like 10 years ago. And 10 years ago they were saying the first guideline was women should not exceed more than 10 drinks a week with no more than two drinks a day.

Come on. And then men should not exceed more than 15 drinks a week with no more than three drinks a day. Now they're saying anything above two a week, right? It makes me laugh in a way because, you know, if I was still drinking, I'd be one of those people. This is how my brain would work. Ooh, I can save up.

my 10 drinks for Saturday night. I'll do all 10 Saturday night and just be in hell for three days. But I, and then there's those people that say that a glass of wine every day is really healthy, that the Mediterranean and Italian population is

you know, they love their wine and, and you know, my Nana is 92 years old and she has a glass of wine every day and she da da da da. And then you have the other side of the fence again, that is like zero amount of alcohol a week is considered healthy and acceptable. But, um,

I don't know about food guides. The jury's out for me. I was a kid growing up looking at those pyramids when meat and dairy and all the people that were paying into this idea, lobbying the government, taking their handouts, getting subsidized for the farms. They were always at the forefront of those food pyramids and what the nutritional guides are. Those have changed exponentially.

you know, all those guides now, um, fruit and vegetables and whole grains. We were pounded. The catchphrase I think of the decade has been whole grains. Yeah. No kidding. That gum you're eating. That's whole grains folks. What?

Chance calling it out. I was interested though, like when you see updates on guidelines like this, knowing that you're someone who's made that decision to be sober, would any of that played into that decision or was it more of like how you felt when you were drinking? It had nothing to do, I imagine, with guidelines. Oh God, no, I never paid attention to a guideline. The only time that I was actually really, really filled with shame and quite frightened is if I was ever honest in a doctor's office, which I wasn't.

So when my, my family physician, you know, I would go for my checkup, you know, your yearlier by, by decades checkup. I was terrible for that stuff. Um, you know, how, how much do you, are you drinking a week? And I would lie and I would bring it down by half. So I would even say, um, 20 drinks a week, like a couple of glasses of wine every night.

like with friends or whatever. Maybe I don't drink on the weekends. Like I lied, lied, lied, lied when it was probably like 40 drinks a week or something like that. Honestly, I couldn't have counted. I couldn't have counted, but the health risks, I mean, everything from breast cancer is affected by alcohol consumption with women. It goes up a lot. The risks factors. We're not, we're not doctors on this program. This is just, you know what they tell us, but yeah,

I don't think drinking is, is good for me. I would never, um, tell you what you should be drinking. I would imagine that with the way you work out, Sarah, that you don't drink that much.

You know what? I'm like a situational drinker, so love to have a few drinks at it. And when I say a few, I can now say that, you know, based on these guidelines, I'm drinking too much. For example, going to a concert, have, you know, boyfriend or some friends over before going to the show. Probably two drinks at home, probably four drinks at the show. That's six in one night. Four drinks at the concert.

Probably. If it's like a two and a half hour show, yeah. And like the cups that they give you, I'm sorry, but they're like this big. You know, if I'm enjoying myself and I will feel fine after that, like I will be intoxicated a little bit, but I will feel fine. What do you drink? Beer? What do you take to your seat? Beer? I'm a vodka soda. If it's dinner, I do like wine. Okay.

Yeah. And like if I'm, you know, I do like tasting beers at a brewery or things like that, but it's, it's really interesting to me. It really opened my eyes. Like,

I don't drink, you know, between events, I would say, like, I'm not someone who's craving to have a drink of wine when I get home from the radio show at night. That's not me. So does this affect you at all? When, when you have the government of Canada saying, here's your, here's your guidelines for what we think is an acceptable thing for you. A lot of people don't want the government involved in their choices with their bodies whatsoever. But I think it, I think

It would make me think if I was still drinking, if I was having 35 drinks a week and they told me that two was the safe sort of way to go. Yeah, because I'm a once in a while person, I would say I'm going to try to not have, you know, as many in one night for sure when I do. It's going to make me think about it. I don't want breast cancer. Well, it's one of those risk factors that does play in time and time again with any studies that they do with, you know, with women's health.

And it's funny that they let men have more, Adam. I wonder why that is. It's science, like the composition of the body. Listen, I have known very large men, six foot three, 250 pounds, that are so hammered after two drinks and their 90 pound counterpart girlfriend beside them, this is a true story,

could drink a sailor under the table. Like it was so funny seeing them. They were a sight gag to see them. They were the cutest couple, but he was the worst drinker in the world. And she'd be like as straight as an arrow at the end of the night having, you know, six or seven drinks. He'd be like, I'm a two beer guy. That's it for me. I'm like, yes, you are. But it doesn't make any sense. Everyone metabolizes it differently. Do you have any friends? Do you have any people in your life

that you think alcohol is a problem. And if, okay, so this is kind of a scruples question. Would you approach them in any way, shape or form to ask how they are? What's up? Is there anything I can help you with? I noticed that you're having, you know, do you really need that drink? Tell me, explain that to me.

you know, across the spectrum, whether it's like you seeing your friend grapple with like an eating disorder, drinking, smoking cigarettes, like whatever it is. There's like that line you don't want to cross where you feel like it's not your business, even though you can be concerned in a loving way about someone in your life. Right. So I'm, I mean, I find it really hard to approach, especially when, you know, the person that I'm thinking of maybe doesn't think that they have an issue.

And kind of like you said, some people, alcohol, you can't really tell that it's affecting them if they're, call it immunity or whatever, is high. So I almost want to ask you as a sober person, how do you approach that? I know quite a few people that drink too much. Me too. And I think the difficult thing for me is they're very functional. They're not doing anything wrong socially. They're not being too loud, too

I don't worry about them, you know, jumping in a car. I don't have friends like that anymore. When, when, when my pals, people that I know, they're like, they're doing Ubers. They're, they're definitely not driving because we're all older now. So I've never had to say there's no effing way you're getting into your effing car. I thank God I don't have, I'm not 25 and dealing with

tackling your friend from, you know, getting into their Honda Civic to, you know, pile on, you know, eight people in there and drive them all home. Yeah, it's a hard one, isn't it, Sarah? Because usually these relationships have been, they're pretty seasoned ones. These are people that I've known for a long, long time. Yeah. And I have said to partners of these people how so-and-so doing on their drinking. Like, are they drinking this? And because they'll say to me,

you know, how did you stop? Like, do you think I should say something to them? And I'm like, I just don't know. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Yes, that's exactly what I think. You know, so many people probably deal with this, especially January. It's like a very prominent topic right now. It's kind of like a lot of people doing dry January. That's what I said I would do for the whole month. Easy. Yeah. A lot of people do dry January or dry February. And

And I know a whole bunch of people that have never gone back to their drinking patterns again. They're like, I felt so good. The first thing that comes out of their mouth, I can't believe how much better I'm sleeping.

Because alcohol, you'll fall asleep. If you have that three glass of wine night with girlfriends and doing your book club, ha ha ha, you fall asleep 2.35 in the morning, 3.30 in the morning, bing, you're up and your heart's poundy. You feel anxious. You get up to go to the bathroom. You have a drink of water and now you can't get back to sleep. So now you're up for work at six o'clock and you feel completely unrested. That's alcohol. That's literally what happens to me when I drink. I like...

I could normally, like I, you know, I get up and I, I'm not a morning person usually, but when I drink, it's like the sun is coming up and I'm like, okay, here I am. I guess we're starting the day and I have a pounding headache. And then the whole day is kind of shot because you do, or you can have a lot of people suffer from this low grade anxiety, low grade depression, and it's all alcohol based. It's not real. It's your biology. It's your body structure.

telling you, I had to work a fricking overtime to clean this out of our system. And there's still lots of residual here, which is why you can go in back in the day, we'd go into a roommate's bedroom and it would just smell like a brewery. It's because even the lungs are working to clear alcohol out of your body. So every time you're, you're breathing in and out, you know, you're filling up your space with that, that pungent, um,

sour smell of alcohol. That was such a college memory for me is to be around people that had that. So yeah, you're, you can do it when you're younger, but not when you're my age. So people sometimes naturally slow down. And sometimes like I'm watching a guy that I work with, uh, his dad is a raging alcoholic, has probably no idea that he is, uh,

But he's functional. He goes for walks every day. But he starts drinking at 10 o'clock in the morning and doesn't, you know, and probably goes to sleep at six o'clock at night. But I really can see it now. Oh, man, I can see it. I just am like, how is your dad? Well, same. But he has ramped it up. And a lot of people, when they get older, they kind of reel it down.

But yeah, it's a tough call. Listen, if there's anyone out there, if you guys think that you're drinking too much, if you literally look in the mirror one day and say, I'm drinking too much, that's where it started with me. I would get up and see that face, that puffy face. I was anxious. I was bloated. I had so much extra weight on me. A lot of calories in alcohol. So for you calorie counters out there,

And when you don't get rest, you don't heal your body. You're literally stealing time. You're cutting the other end of that blanket off and it will catch up to you. So yeah, it's worth considering. I'm glad they came out with the two drink a week thing. I was cheering when I saw it. But the reason that I wanted you to bring up that 10 years ago is, you know, look at how we're changing how, what we perceive good health to be. And this plays into our vegan conversation too. Yeah.

And everyone knows that a lot of red meat isn't great for you. I know there's people listening right now that goes, I'm keto. I eat so much meat. People are way healthier. Well, you're not. And it's going to catch up on you. And you can't do that every day. And your digestion, you just can't keep up with it. Anyway, you can send your letters to Adam Karsh, 555-713-6669, 59th Street, 71st Avenue, Southeast.

You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We'll be right back. We are so excited to welcome another new sponsor, our friends at Cove Soda. Have I pestered Cove enough to come and join us here at the Jan Arden Podcast? I love them so much. They are Canadian, first of all. They are a natural, certified organic, zero sugar soda, which includes, get this, one big

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for one day. It's hard being a person. There's so much information coming at us. And the whole drinking guide is a perfect example of depending on who you ask, which is kind of where the internet always sends us. Boy, if you want an answer, a certain answer on the internet, you can find it. You will find a group of people to agree with you. You will find a group of people to vilify.

There's no, so it's, it is difficult to get these stats and to get these things in the exercise guide, the food guide, and like how much sleep that you need. Some people say four hours will suffice. Some people say nine hours is what you should aim for. You will find the answer that you seek on the internet. So bottom line is,

I, what makes you feel good? Like you got to have a bar that you go, this is what makes me feel good. Trust yourself. If you know that having four drinks at a something is going to make you not feel so great, then try cutting it back to three. See how three drinks, right? Yep. I don't know. Um, it's been, it's award show season. So it seems like every either Monday night or Sunday night, um,

There's Critics' Choice just happened. There's the Golden Globes. The BAFTA's just announced nominations, which is the UK Television and Film Awards. There's so many. I, honest to God, can't even keep track. I always feel bad watching these things. Why? Because I...

I mean, it's such a fantasy and I've certainly been to my share of award shows and I'm endlessly uncomfortable. I probably look uncomfortable. I hate the red carpet thing. You know, anyone ever asking me, what are you wearing? I'd say, I don't know. I got it at Winners. It took me an hour to find the other shoe. I found one shoe and some very smart woman hid it under cushions in homewares so that she could come back and, you know, think about whether she wanted to buy it or not.

I always just feel like it's a world. I don't know. It's so hard for most people to look at it and go, how could you ever possibly look that great? And it's something that is just not practical to think you could ever achieve. And, you know, they've got four people working on them. I know anytime I've done that, I have a hair person, I have a makeup person, I have a wardrobe person. And I always feel like an imposter.

like going out like that. I feel I have imposter syndrome big time. And if I had my way, I would so love to just throw on my old jacket and some comfortable shoes and jeans and a t-shirt and do my own hair and makeup and just look like me. And, um, I've talked about being on David Letterman before on this show and it was the nineties and insensitive was a huge hit. And

And I had these team of people from Los Angeles getting me ready. The back home. Is this the back home? Yeah. Oh, sorry. It was in New York. It was in New York. It was a team of people in New York, which is even more intimidating than Los Angeles. And I just, I hated being there so much. I had no excitement. I had no sense of pride. I had dreamed about being on the David Letterman show.

And it just was nothing of what I thought because I didn't feel like myself. So I don't know. It's just a, it's just a weird, and the speeches seem disingenuous and you're just like everyone, every word is so carefully plotted out sometimes. It's like what, I think they have social media in mind. I don't know. Maybe I'm probably being really cynical. Do you like them? No, I don't.

I it's, it's very interesting for me to hear from the other side because usually I'm doing the interviews when it comes to like Juno's red carpet, just for an example. Um, funny enough, a colleague of mine this week brought up how you were eating like vegan cheese and crackers on a red carpet a few years ago. She remembered talking to you, but, um, it's,

I've never asked someone on a red carpet what they're wearing, because that's not something I would ever be interested in. I'm like, how are you feeling about tonight and your accomplishments of the past year is kind of the go to question, I would think. But to your point, it's all about what you see and not what about what you've done.

And then there's that whole conflict. And like I said, been to many award shows. I've won my fair Junos. I think I've been nominated 29 times and I've only lost 21 times, right? That's not bad. In the arts, how do we reward, how do we even qualify best performance, best song, best singer,

Best duo. It's usually a committee of voters, right? But how is it possible to judge that in art? Yeah, valid point. Because it's supposed to be everyone's personal sort of experience with the art, like how it's perceived to them. Well, it's economics and art crashing in midair because we all know that an Oscar-nominated film and certainly an Oscar-winning film

goes up in the box office. It just shoots through. An Oscar-winning or an Oscar-nominated actor, it is credibility. It's instant credibility. Like all those foreign films, you know, if they win an Oscar, they know that it's a door that opens globally, that they will actually have eyes on a story that they did about, you know, a goat from Australia

Afghanistan. No, but that's a horrible thing to say, but you know what I mean? Like very specific niche documentaries that are beautifully shot and so much heart and soul. And it's taken them 25 years to get the money together. And it's 31 minutes long and they get an Oscar and all of a sudden they're in con, they're in all these festivals and,

And so there's an economics to it. Parallel to the music and number ones. Are people still watching these award shows? I don't watch them just because I can catch up to everything on social media the next day.

And I can get all like the clips, the speeches, the best ofs. And I always do look of, you know, what people said. I don't really care about what they're wearing. I have no fashion sense. I am like a fashion felony. But I do like hearing a good speech. Yeah. I don't have TV and I don't watch these award shows. I used to watch them when social media wasn't like as big a thing to be able to talk about it on the air in my radio show. But that was the only reason, not because I personally wanted to.

You know what I mean? Adam, do you watch award shows? Not really. No, it's not for me. So who's watching them? Because obviously they're on television. I wanted to watch Chelsea Handler. She was hosting something. Oh, I saw that this week. We are losers. We are social media losers. Was it the Critics' Choice? It wasn't the Golden Globes. I think it was the Critics' Choice Awards.

Sarah's looking it up. I didn't see her monologue, but that's my favorite part. I would probably go into an award show just to watch the host monologue. My favorite of all time, Ricky Gervais. Oh yeah. Is anything he's ever hosted. I have just died because he just calls it the way it is. And everyone's,

horribly uncomfortable sitting there going, don't pick me, don't pick me, don't say anything about me, don't say anything about me, don't go past me, don't go near me, don't go near me, don't pick me. That's what everyone's face looks like. It was critics' choice, by the way. Okay, critics' choice. And then on social media, you can watch everybody getting ready now. You can watch everybody without their makeup on and then through the magic of time and time lapse, you can see them completely ready. You do have to be a shameless self-promoter

to be in the film arts, to be in television arts. Because if you're not prepared to do that, and that's what most people aspire to now anyway, they go into the arts because they want to be on award shows. They want to walk red carpets. I can't, I'm the antithesis of that. I can't think of anything worse.

Before every red carpet I've done, my mother and I have gone to Winners. So it's hilarious that you said Winners. And they're like, where'd you get your dress? It's so nice. Mom picked it out at Winners with me and it was $30. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've always had pretty good luck at Winners with the exception of brassieres. Don't buy bras at Winners because it's just, it's really hit and miss. You're going to get a D cup and a C cup on one bra.

So true. You just don't want to go there. And a lot of us do need a D and a C cup. Like, so sometimes those work out for people. I'm sorry. I don't know where we got off on that, but yeah, it's just the clothing. And a lot of people get lent millions of dollars for the jewelry. Like they're literally walking from a car into a theater with $6 million for the stuff hanging off their ears. It would be so nerve wracking. Like what do they have a security guard standing in the corner? I have no idea. Yeah.

Some of these, going back to the beginning of our show today, a lot of these award shows are trying to balance that political correctness with the overreaction

over the top nature of what they're selling, right? So they still want to endear themselves to people environmentally and with climate change and you know what they're selling. So a lot of them are doing plant-based meals. They're doing entirely plant-based dinners and they're doing organic wines and they're, they're, they're doing things like that. And of course it's always a place for, for artists to make a statement and,

of, you know, sustainable fashion. Exactly. Sustainable fashion. Joachim Phoenix, a couple of years ago on his Oscar award winning speech, he got up and spoke about ditching dairy and people were clapping, but I think it was a very uncomfortable moment for the, what is it? A 2 billion people that watch the Oscars or something. It's, it's very high ratings.

So usually that is the opportunity for people to say their stuff. I forget which award show it was, but Vladimir Zelensky, um,

there was like a little cut to one of his speeches. Do you remember that? Golden Globes. It was Golden Globes, yeah. Yeah. That was something. Was he speaking in Ukrainian with a translator? Probably, yes. I think he was speaking in English, if I remember correctly, but he was talking about the strength of Ukraine during, you know, what was the most tumultuous time ever. And just asking...

anyone watching to think about how they can persuade where they live to get involved in help, like in support in any way. It was, it was kind of like showstopping to be honest. But the arts have always been a place for politics and to air their politics. And we're forever being told to just shut up and sing, you know? So, so the average person is just like, shut up. You know, you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be in politics. Well, politics are for everybody.

politics, every lane is my lane. You know, that whole stay in your lane thing, every lane is your lane. So don't ever let anyone tell you to shut up. So I do enjoy that about the arts. I like a good controversial speech when the music is playing louder and louder, and they're still going on about things that they're really passionate about because it does reach a lot of people. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We'll be right back. We've got a few things left to talk about, so don't go away. Welcome back to the Jan Arden Potpourri podcast.

If you've just joined us, it feels like that we're kind of like spinning a wheel and it's landing on topics. But somehow they're all connected because they're all about being a person and trying to figure out how to walk through this life with a little bit of panache. What did the wheel land on next? Well, I wanted to ask you about your parents because I was laying in bed last night, as you do.

Thinking about my parents. And I was just like, I have no idea what your parents do. Like your parents are still with us. So I'm going to tell you right now, I'm a little bit jealous. Adam, your parents are with us too. So I'm jealous of you guys, but you're what? You guys are what? 21, 23? How old are you two? Yes. Adam's 24 and you're? 35. 35. I'll be 49 on April 5th. 49. Oh, you got lots of time.

So your parents, Sarah, what did they do growing up? Did your mom work? So my mom worked in the hospital in like the tech, doing like x-rays and that kind of stuff. And when she had her girls, so me and my sister two years apart, she became a stay-at-home mom until…

She returned to be my father's secretary. So on my dad's side of business in the family, the Burke family, we have a window business and it was his father's business as well. It's called Modular Windows. And dad's just getting ready to retire. So he actually just sold the business. But yeah, so growing up, my mom was my dad's secretary. Isn't that so cute? So were you had under any pressure or any illusions that

perhaps you would take over the modular window business. Did that come up? Oh, there were a few times, like there's this one particular relative who was like trying to talk me out of going to radio school. I remember so vividly. No wonder why. He didn't make it. We'll put it that way. Anyway. Um, yeah. Cause he also, he also worked in, in the music biz at one point, I think he wanted maybe radio at some point. Anyway. Um,

There was like a time in the summer where I just needed to, you know, make some cash to save up for university. And I was answering the phones at dad's office for a little bit, like just helping out, but no pressure to take over the business at all. Like they wanted me to be happy and do what made my heart feel full. What kind of parents were they? Were they strict? Were they easy? Were you an easy kid?

Oh my God, I was a disaster. I feel for my mom because like I was the first, so she was really overprotective and like I had a lot of friends with older siblings and I always, you know, found myself lying to be honest, to like go do what I wanted to do with the friends and the older siblings. And she just wasn't like comfortable with that. So I put her through a really rough time and to this day, I still feel so guilty about how I treated my mom when I was like a teenager. I was terrible.

Told her I hated her all the time. Those are hard things. But you didn't hate her. I know. I was just frustrated, I think. And, you know, she, I will honestly say, you know, she's one of my best friends now. And I love this woman so much that, like, it pains me to think about that day, you know, that, oh, it makes me, I can't even go there, right? Like, I love my parents so much. It's hard growing up.

It's, you know, you're pulled by your friends. We all think that we know more than we know. Especially at 12 years old. Yeah, well, you hit 12, 13. You're dealing with hormones. You're, you know, you're moaning, all right. You're hormones are moaning. And it is, you got things happening to your body. You know, you're growing hair where you just don't even want to think about it.

For men and for little boys and little girls, I think puberty is, it can be really difficult. I was mortified, you know, just going through, there was just a few years I was so, I didn't want to change in the phys ed, in the room, in the locker room. I was wearing four bras in phys ed because I didn't want anyone to see anything. Four bras. Four bras is excessive. I hope you got it down to two at some point. I did. Yeah.

So how did your mother cope? Like when you had a day like that, where you kind of shuffed out the back door and I hate you and you don't understand me. And I mean, and don't feel alone in that. 90% of kids were doing, having the same conversations. Yeah.

I think she, like she is best friends with my dad's sister. Um, and I think she leaned a lot on auntie Lisa, love auntie Lisa. She's like, you know, second mom to me for sure. And just like getting through it, knowing that piece, like this is just a phase and this will get better, but man, that was a marathon for her. And I give her so much credit for it. Did we ever talk on this podcast? I might've brought it up before she read my diary. Yes. I'll tell you guys about this. Yeah. Uh,

It hurts me. Even when you say that, it hurts me that she actually sat there and opened that up because that had to have been a tough call for her. But she was worried about you. She was worried about you. It's like, you know, the intention, but going back to like you feeling uncomfortable during puberty, think about how private you are when you're going through that phase. So it was like, I can't believe that you did this to me. Like I thought it was like a personal attack.

But yeah, just all these years later, I want parents to know you got to give your kids a leash at that time in their lives a little bit. Well, my mom used to say to me, I'm not your friend, I'm your mom. And I think it really hurt me when I was 13 or 14, but I understood it as I got older. But I never thought of my mom as my friend. So you and I are a little different that way. I love my mom. Anyone that knows me knows that, you know, my whole life was my mom.

I'm not going to say I sacrificed a lot because I learned so much and got so much out of looking after her later on in her life, because I know she would have done it for me. And I'm definitely the best part of me is because of her. What did your grandmother do? And I wonder how your mother was parented. Do you remember your grandmother?

Your mom's mom? She did pass away when I was like in grade school, like grade one, I think. Oh, so quite young. Very young. I don't remember her having like an occupation like that. I think she stayed at home. But both my grandfathers were businessmen. I'm trying to remember. Something with like aluminum, I feel like. An aluminum business on my grandfather's side. And did your mom have siblings? No.

Two siblings, two older brothers. Two older brothers. She was the youngest. Sheesh kabobs. Yeah. And Uncle Howie and Uncle Maury, oh my God, she had her hands full just being the little sister with those two. I was going to say, were they really protective of her? Yes. One was definitely a wild card. Putting it nicely. Yeah.

I'm certain that most of my mom's wild experiences as a teenager came from Uncle Maury in some way. But yeah, and Uncle Howie is no longer with us. But yeah, like on my dad's side, six siblings other than him. So quite a large extended family, right? Yeah, yeah. Well, I wonder how much your parents, as you're getting older, Sarah, do you feel...

Do you understand how your parents shaped your thinking now that you're able to get your head around that? Yeah. Are you like them? I'm becoming more and more like them. But, you know, the classic traditional, like, this is how we were raised. This is not how we do things. You know, I think I've taught my parents a lot of, like,

progressive things over the years, you know, just because we're growing up in a different time, like in the early 2000s and the 90s than my parents would have in like the 60s, 70s. Right. So I think I think it's been like an equal learning situation both ways, if that makes sense. Yeah. Are they techno savvy? Does your mom do the phone, the texting, the iPad? Does your mom and dad do that stuff?

Yes, except every once in a while she answers FaceTime with the phone to her ear. And I'm like, mom, nice earrings, but... Yeah, I think... Listen, a couple weeks ago, I'm on the phone. I've been on the phone for 45 minutes talking to my friend. I'm looking at the phone in my hand because we are FaceTiming. And I'm talking to her and I'm like...

She goes, what's wrong? I said, oh my God, I've lost my phone again. She goes, aren't you talking on your phone? And I had this moment where I thought, it's happened. The page has turned. Because when my parents did things like that, the old, the glasses are on your head routine. When you've been looking for them for 20 minutes and cursing and feeling so frustrated and they're on your head.

So I'm talking to her on the phone, you know, looking around and clearly she could see like, what's going on? I can't find my effing phone. God, I hate when I do this. You're on your phone. And, you know, I didn't even feel like laughing. It didn't seem funny to me. It seemed like, shut up, Sarah. Shut up, Adam. Shut up, you guys. I know. Sorry. I just felt lost in this moment of...

wow, I just did that. So it is, it's kind of shame. It's embarrassment. I know, I know my mom and dad get so upset when I make fun of their technology mishaps. Like they're like, oh my God, don't even go there. Like stop. Well, I'm glad that both your parents are here and, um, and that Adam's your parents are here. And, and all I'm going to tell you, just cause I'm a little ahead of you in life, be forgiving, ask questions, ask questions.

Keep a list. Put a little note on your phone. I need to ask dad that. I want to ask them about that. I want to ask, did they go through, did any of our family go through Ellis Island? Where did they come up from? Okay, when you guys came across and you landed, did you go to Toronto? Oh, you were in Winnipeg first and then you came up or they were in Utah? Ask them questions. Ask them what their favorite things are. Ask them, because I'm telling you, as sure as I'm sitting here, you...

we'll have so many things that you will have wanted to ask. And you don't think of it when you're 35 and when you're 49 and when your parents are there and they kind of drive you crazy and you don't think, sit down. Nigel, when I was at Christmas time with them, I went to a little restaurant in Swanage called Tawny's, which is in Southern England. And it was really a quiet evening actually. And we went in there with Nigel's 87 year old mom and his 85 year old aunt, Roz and Ann.

And I started asking them about the war. I started asking them all these questions.

And Nigel, afterwards, he said, thank you so much for asking mom and dad or, you know, mom and Ann all that. He goes, I didn't know that. I didn't know about the train. I didn't know they were that bloody family for four years. I had no idea. I've never thought about asking that. He goes, I really enjoyed that. I'm really grateful that you took the time to ask that. I'm doing the worst accent. No, you got it. It's good. It's good. And we just all enjoyed it. And they lit up.

They lit up. And older people have a great recollection of early days. They have a great recollection of earlier days. This morning might be a freaking stretch. I don't know what it did. I have toast. Did I have, was the dog here? Was that, are you the mailman? But if you go back, they talked about, you know, the woman gave her kids the best stuff.

You know, they got the extra nub of bread and they got this and that and the rasher. And it broke my heart because during the war, everyone was saddled with kids that they probably needed because all the men were off fighting and they needed kids to work.

Like Roz and Anne said, you know, we had to do lots of stuff around the farm to keep up and do stuff. Anyway, yeah, ask them stuff. That's all the time we have. This has been, like I said, the potpourri edition of the Jan Arden podcast. But you know what? The more podcasts I listen to, I like hearing about a lot of different topics. And I think we've always done that over the last couple of years. There's no stone unturned. But thanks, you guys. It was great seeing you.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend. Thanks for asking all the questions. Oh, no. I love it. I'm going to find out more and more things. And I think parents have such an amazing role to play. And they don't get enough credit. And thanks for being vulnerable too, Sarah. There's a lot of young people out there that had the I hate you afternoons and stormed out the back door and feel crappy about it now. Anyway, I was with you. I was right with you.

You can come over to Mom and Dad's if you're ever in Toronto and you need a nice family dinner and you're missing your mom. I would love to meet everybody's mom and dads. That would be awesome. I miss mine every day. Next week, I'm going to talk to you about I visited a favorite of the show, Kim Dennis. I went to see her the day before last.

And boy, I got some interesting things, but I'm going to share that for another day because I want to have Kim. Kim's going to come back on the show and join us. We'll get that organized, but we'd love to have her back. And I think she'd love to do little mini readings for you guys too. I would love that. I would love it. Yes. So look forward to that. We're definitely going to have Kim in the next couple of weeks.

And in the meantime, look after yourselves, guys. And we'll talk to you soon. Keep eating your veggies. We want to hear. We're going to touch base one more time next week to see how everybody's doing with these challenges. We invite your comments. iHeartRadio is a great place to listen to the podcast. There's Apple. There's Spotify. Wherever you listen to your podcast, you can find us there. And hit that subscribe button because then we're just going to pop up in your feed week after week.

Toot toot. Yeah, thank you. I think that was the farts about the vegan thing or maybe that was just a toot toot. I'm not sure. We'll see you next time, TootlyD. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.