Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Well, hello there and welcome everyone. We're well into 2023. I'm Jan Arden and you have maybe stumbled onto the Jan Arden podcast. I'm here with my co-host, Sarah Burke, our engineer, Adam Karsh. They have hats on and glasses and I don't, but that doesn't even matter. But I, yeah, I want to give you guys a really clear picture of everyone except Sarah is showered. She has just come from the gym.
She's come from the gym. And how is your workouts? Is this part of your 2023 commitment to yourself? But you're always a worker-outer, right? I'm always. I'm an every-year, every-day worker-outer. If I miss a day, it's because I feel like I need a rest. That's it. I have my aura ring.
O-U-R-A. We are not sponsored by Aura, but they are a fantastic company. Just think Fitbit only like really souped up. Although I like Fitbit too, but I find a ring easier to wear and the charge is longer. You can get like five or six days. Anyway, my ring tells me when I need to rest. They're like, you've really done a lot of exercise this week, so you need to rest. Your body needs to heal. And so take it easy today.
I love that. I wish it would tell me, go get yourself a donut and a cookie, but it doesn't tell me that. How many walks a day do you go on with Poppy? When weather's permitting, he can go up to about eight below, nine below with his little feet. He will not put boots on yet, but maybe when he gets older, I can get boots on him. But we'll go a couple times when the weather's nice. Sometimes that walk is just going around my yard.
which I find almost scarier than being out on the road, to be honest, because there's just so many critters here and it's very treed. When we get out onto the road, it's just an open road and I can see everything. But in the trees, I'm telling you, I cannot count the times that something has darted out of the trees and scared the living hell out of me. So yeah, I like walking around the yard, but I would probably prefer to be out on the road.
And you just had your friends, you had some friends in town, so now you're just settling back into routine. Is that right? My friend Nigel came for 10 days. People might think that's long, but we do it every couple of years. We swap. Actually, I went there for Christmas. I talked about that. And did I go for New Year's? Yeah, I did. You were back. You were back, I think. I think I came back the second. Well, maybe I was back. Was I back? I was back. I was back.
Just don't even, you guys will probably want to just leave this podcast now because I don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, he was here. He's an excellent house guest. My mom said he was the best house guest because he was always cleaning, which he is. I always cook. He always does the dishes. I went downstairs just to, you know, poke my head into his bedroom, the spare bedroom, and the bathroom is spotless. The bedroom looks like a corporal from the Canadian Armed Forces made the bed. I don't know how anyone's going to get into it.
Because it's all tucked into the bed frame and folded back. And it looks good, Nigel. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks. We appreciate that. So maybe I won't have anyone stay over again. Anyway, as you know, last week, guys, we had a little challenge. I put a challenge out to Sarah and Adam. I'm excited. About Veganuary. And Sarah sent me a picture of
this morning, yesterday actually, of some really great
I think options, you know, a lot of people, I'm going to let you take over from here because you got some just egg. You got some breakfast, vegan breakfast patties. You got, tell me what you got. I got the Beyond Meat burgers. I got some breakfast sausages as well. I was told by a number of people, I think including you, that nutritional yeast will be like a go-to for the week. So I got that.
And then otherwise, I'm going to buy fresh produce on Sunday because that's what I like to do. But here's what I will say about this grocery shopping experience. I spent the same amount of money I would normally spend. It was about the same. And to my excitement, where I found the most of those products, because I remember texting you being like, oh, I was going to my normal spots and I couldn't find a few things. I went to like
The equivalent of an independent grocer. So in your area, it might be like, um, Safeway, Loblaws, the co-op. We can say all those names on here. So the big chain, Superstore, President's Choice, whatever your choices are in your neighborhood. But Sarah, where did you find that you, you scored, you scored the gold?
It was there. It was honestly, it was at like an independent grocer and I think it was a Loblaws. And honestly, I found the Just Egg. The nicest man was helping me because he's like, oh, you're trying, I'm vegan. My kid came home from university and me and my wife had to like learn how to keep up. So now we're actually vegan too.
So, yeah, he helped me find everything in the store. And I was shocked that I found everything at the cheaper spot than I would at like the Farm Boy, for example. Yeah, well, things are getting, I'm going to say less expensive. I know there's a lot going on with groceries right now. They're outrageous. $10 heads of lettuce. You know, people are really getting hit hard and it's really scary for people. Food banks are saying they're going to be serving food.
upwards of 250% more people this year than they did last year. Like I keep hearing these, I've heard varying statistics, but I'm still really jarred by food insecurity in this country and being driven now, not only from COVID and job losses, but now going into these unbelievable hikes. But what I was going to say is,
a lot of the vegan products that were stupid, stupid expensive, whether it was the cheeses, some of the, the meat swaps. Um, but I'll tell you what, if you are doing those once in a while, you don't eat a hamburger every day. Like when you're talking about impossible, when you're talking about the beyond meat, uh, any, any of those protein swaps where you're doing a ground, whatever, they can be pricey, but you don't do those. Um,
I've made so many great burgers from black beans and bulgur wheat and walnuts. And there's, they are literally a millions of recipes out there with your whole grains, your vegetables. A lot of the stuff that really fills you up and keeps you satisfied, satisfied, um, are, um,
A lot cheaper than you think. The legumes, the lentils, the beans, everything that disappeared off the shelves during COVID. When you went to the grocery store and people were thinking end of days, we need cans of beans. We need lentil. We need dried kidney beans. Yeah. Adam's nodding because. Yeah. Oh yeah. Lots of beans. Everybody did that because they're thinking I'm going to be boiling beans for the next five years. Sarah, you made a really interesting observation. You and I chatted a few days ago.
and you were talking about carbs. Yeah, yeah. We are not dieticians, but I just, and people are like, I'm getting so sick of Jan talking about veganism, and we're not going to talk about it for the whole show, but a lot of vegans are chunky. Hello, welcome to me. Welcome to my- Oh my God, stop. No, welcome to my bum. That's all right. I carve it up. I love to eat. I've put on 16 pounds since COVID in two years. So eight pounds-
I don't know. I can't do the math. But anyway, I've absolutely enjoyed myself. I work out all the time. I'm a size 10, like I put on a 10 pants. So here's what's funny for listeners. I'm a size 10 too, Jen. Look at that. We're both size 10. Well, you're eight feet taller than me.
Untrue. I know. It doesn't matter. Body size doesn't matter. And trust me, I am not bothered about it. But we were going to talk about when you were getting your groceries, you're like, I'm looking at the back of these. I'm looking at the nutritional information here. And there's a lot of carbs here that people that are wanting to do clean proteins don't want. Go. Tell me about it.
So I actually consulted with my cousin who owns like a nutrition business just because she's been really good at helping me with things for years and years now. So I just said, hey, what are some things to think about? Because this will not be for everyone. Of course, I just bought a bunch of stuff I wanted to try. But I think what I learned, especially from the note that she sent, was that
A lot of the things you have to watch are the same, whether it's a vegan diet or a regular diet. You're going to want to watch blood sugar. You're going to want to watch carbohydrates. Something like a product that would be made of a lot of chickpeas. It's going to have, yes, protein, but way more net carbs. So that's where you just have to ask yourself. Because of the bean. Because it's a legume. Yeah.
Yeah. And she did say, and I thought that this was an interesting point to make if you're going to do the challenge with us, the most available protein out of all the vegan proteins- Soy. Soy, exactly. It's a complete protein, whereas you have to have a lot more of some of the other ones to get all those amino acids and everything that make a complete protein. A lot of people are thinking, oh my God, I couldn't eat tofu if my life depended on it. Go online, go on Instagram if you're a TikToker.
hashtag vegan. Because a lot of people have said to me, where do I start? TikTok's fun. And I'll tell you what, there's some young people on there that there'll be someone in your age group. It you're going to find your jams of people that have just gone vegan, people that have been there for 30 years or 40 years, like Brian Adams, who answered one of your tweets.
Sarah, the Jan Arden Pod Twitter handle, put it out there. Hey, Brian, we're doing a challenge. We're going to try doing veganism for a week or a couple of weeks. Where would you start? Where would you start? What did Brian say? He said to start with fresh fruit and nothing cooked, only raw in the morning. Okay. Well, I do oatmeal every single morning.
Mm-hmm. And I'm not really thrilled about it. I do overnight oats and I'll tell you why. My cholesterol was not high, but it was on the high end of normal. So I thought, my doctor said, you know, it's something you're going to watch. You're 60 years old. Let's keep an eye on that going forward. So four, three, four months ago, I just thought, you know what? I'm going to do the oatmeal thing.
It's plant-based. I can chuck cinnamon in there. I can chuck some maple syrup on it. I'll throw on a handful. Yes. Handful of nuts, some berries. I do some hemp hearts. I do chia seeds. I chuck it in there. I use oat milk, but whatever you've got. I put it in a jar. I set it in the, because I hate hot oatmeal. I don't like it. I just don't want a hot cereal in the morning. I don't feel like it. I want something refreshing. And with the berries, so in the fridge it goes, I get up.
do my little workout. Then I have my oatmeal. So you would not believe what has happened to the cholesterol. Has it gone down? Yes. Amazing. It's way down. Love it. So I'm like, what is happening with your... I'm sitting there going, I was baffled. And then I went, could it be that I'm eating oatmeal in the
Well, yes, Jan, believe it or not, it is. So I was ecstatic. So it motivated me to want to keep going. Listen, you're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We've got a million things to talk about today. It's not all going to be vegan. We're going to definitely talk about how much we love Jennifer Coolidge and how much we would love to have her on the show. We are going to talk about what's happening already in retail with
the spring clothes coming in on January, the whatever. They're starting to like load in spring. Anyway, we'll be right back. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. I'm here with Sarah Burke. Adam is here. We'll be right back. Hello. Welcome back to the Jan Arden podcast. We have issued a Veganuary challenge.
to all our listeners and their families and anyone they know that they're going to drive crazy as they embark on this journey. Listen, just as a caveat, I am frigging thrilled when people do one plant-based meal a week or two or a couple of meat swaps. I'm thrilled.
you know, I am not an all or nothing person. I will cheer you fricking on. I know it's hard to make changes. I know what habits are like. You, you just, you, you grab for certain things in the grocery store. You, you, you have your, your go-to stuff that you cook for your family. I get all of it.
So I just want you to know if you're doing a couple of days, if you're trying at once, I'm grateful. The world is grateful and you guys are kicking butt just with one or two swaps. I put this out to have Sarah and Adam do a week and
but they're coming in for a couple of weeks, which I think we'll get a better idea of what's going to happen. Sarah, you had some really interesting feedback. We have a Facebook page, by the way, now. It's new. A Jan Arden Podcast Facebook page. And if you just search Jan Arden Podcast, you will definitely find us on there. We would love to hear from you. But you had some neat comments, Sarah. I'm going to
I'm going to read you about it. If you're listening and you've made a comment, maybe you're going to hear your name. So don't go away. Okay. So first up, Cheryl, she was saying she really thinks that the Plant Ahead vegan feta at Costco is amazing. It's indistinguishable from goat feta. She says she made vegan meatballs with it. Okay. Plant Ahead feta at where?
Okay, I'm right. I've never heard of that. I'm going to try and find it. Okay, we've got, so Russ Richards, thank you for being in. He said he's going to give it his best. Oh, Russ. Jennifer Fisher, me and my family are starting on Monday. Thanks for the inspiration.
Um, so here's an interesting one. Carolyn's like, I'm all in, but my husband, not so much. He's agreed to vegetarian, but not vegan. That's still great. That's something. It is great. I know. Do you know what, what catches people up? I think most of the time is the egg dairy component of veganism or a plant-based diet. But I want to explain why people, cause people want to know why, because of the
amount of cruelty involved in industrial commercial sized farming. People are much more aware than they were many years ago because of the world wide web. When they see what a free range chicken actually looks like. When you have 100,000 plus birds in a barn, it's overheated. They're not clean. They're walking around in crap.
they're pecking each other's feathers out, their beaks are burnt off to stop that. When you get to the other level, when you don't buy eggs that say free range, you have caged birds that stand on cages their entire life. They never see grass. They never see anything. They get fed and they wait for their eggs to drop out of their butts.
And these are hundreds of thousands of birds. At the end of that, they're killed. Further to that, when chicks are born, by the billions on this planet every year, by the billions, chickens, the male babies, the little fuzzy tennis ball cute ones, and people don't want to hear this. They don't want to know. This is stock across the board. I'm not making anything up. Go look it up. This is what happens. They are put in a conveyor belt and they're ground up live.
The male chickens. Why? Because they are of no use to anyone. Not in the egg industry. And you will see them go, if you tap that into anything, there's so much footage. We Animals has got so much documentation. But when people talk about the egg component, they're like, well, eggs, eggs are so banal. Eggs are benign. Like, what's cruel about an egg? Well, that's what's cruel.
but I will go as far to say I occasionally will eat eggs because my neighbor, my veterinary friend Judith, her neighbor, sorry, has like seven chickens that are six years old. And, you know, twice a week they'll lay an egg. And literally this woman is looking after her mom and she's like,
I can't eat another egg in my life, but it would be a shame to let them go to waste. And so maybe once or twice a year, Judith will bring me six or seven eggs. And I look at them. I'm like, wow, because I know where they're from. They are covered with like grass and kind of slimy things. The shells haven't been cleaned off. And then of course the dairy component is extraordinarily cruel. When you're looking at commercial dairy, the cows are impregnated, forcibly impregnated, right?
They have a baby every two or two and a half, three years. The cow is taken away from them. That's part of the veal industry. They go into veal. They're usually slaughtered very young. If they're female calves, they will enter into the dairy system. At the end of their very, very horrific lives, they go slaughter for meat. And that usually is hamburger. And they're six or seven years old. A cow normally will live to be 30 years old.
So you can understand. So that's where that component comes in. Why is the dairy? Why is the eggs? Because plant-based is one thing, but when people talk about veganism, it's more of a lifestyle and it has everything to do with the humane treatment of animals. But plant-based is what the kids are saying now, which is great. It doesn't come, I think, with the heavy baggage of how they're perceived. Right.
And to Tracy's point, I think her handle was tracerific. She says, I raise my own chickens. I use their eggs. They have the best life. I spoil them. Is that bad? So hopefully we just maybe answered a little bit about that. I responded to her and I said, that's awesome. And I do champion small chickens.
Like I said, I'm not an all or nothing person. Right. But I believe that what we deem as ethical has gone way past. Apathy has made so many cracks in that veneer of what people are getting away with. And if they can get away with something, they look around, can I get away with more? You know, you can't have a giant...
sow pig that has had 15 piglets. They're in gestation crates. That was supposed to be taken out of our system, I think this year or next year. So now the pork people in Canada have rallied. We're not ready. We have to keep the crates. We need to do it. It's for the pig's safety. Bullshit.
Give me a break. It's so that you can make more money. So you still have that commercial aspect. Anyway, it is difficult to talk about animal cruelty. It's hard to see. I get unfollowed by the thousands on my socials because I'm just like, I know you're not going to want to see this, but I'm not going to sit on my hands. And that's also why we're grateful for anyone who wants to actually partake in the challenge while we're shouting out some names here. Should we do a few more? Yeah. Just a few more names? Do it. Shut me up and do it. No.
So Raeann says her and Dames are in. Phyllis, by the way, says Veolife Feta Style is great. Veolife is awesome. Barbara Simmers says she's in, Living Under June. She says, I'm already vegetarian. I'm definitely trying Veganuary. Thanks so much for the great recipes that have been shared.
Debbie wanted to put this out there for people like me who are wanting to go vegan but aren't sure where to start. So we've posted her... It's a guide to starting a vegan diet from the Whole Foods Market. So thanks, Debbie, for sending that out. Janice, Danny, Michelle Leonard, just...
saying thanks for participating. It really is amazing. It's been great. And I think even if people try it for a couple of weeks, they're going to know recipes that like, I really did like that. And the next barbecue I go to, I'm going to, what the hell are you going to know in a burger?
You got your mustard, your ketchup, your pickles, your onions, your tomatoes. Yeah. I mean, you're not going to notice. I told you I'm going to be out of town this weekend. So this is why I was grocery shopping so early and like thinking ahead because I'm going to bring some stuff with me to my boyfriend's place. How is that going to go over with the boyfriend? Because usually it's the relationship that can be hard. So that's exactly why I wanted to put this out there because some of our listeners are saying, well, my husband, I'm not sure about or whatever, right? Yeah.
So I think I can get him to try a Beyond Burger, you know what I'm saying? Or a Just Egg, but he might not be into everything. And I say just having an open mind and like offering. What about not telling him? Oh, not telling him. There's a lot of people that are like, I just made spaghetti and meatballs for my family. I use the Eve's meatballs. I put it in the tomato sauce. It's simmered in there with garlic and onions and everything else. I just fed my family. I carefully watched them. Nobody said shit. Nobody said a bloody thing.
So, and I like that. I don't, is that legal? Is that illegal? Yeah. Maybe Adam needs to try that with his kids.
You said your daughter's going to do it with us, right? My oldest, her name's Ellie. And I told her, Jan, she loves you, by the way. I told her that we're going to do the vegan challenge. And I said, will you participate in some meals with me? And she said, absolutely. I will try anything. And how old is she again, Ellie? 11. 11. Love that. Kids' favorite foods, you know, is French fry and chicken nuggets. You wouldn't know a vegan chicken nugget
I've had them. You just wouldn't know. Fries and vegan chicken nuggets are just like...
And a lot of times those nuggets are loaded with vegetables, pea proteins. They're great. I mean, my God, you could deep fry a shoe and feed it to me. This is the other part that comes up. Don't be sitting there and eating deep fried crap all the time. Don't do it to yourself. It's a mistake that a lot... There is a lot of vegan junk food out there. Why not? Who cares? People are like, there's a lot of vegan junk food. Oh, really? What's in the... Should we call it the straight world? The other stuff you regularly eat. Yeah. Yeah.
What's in the straight world of food? Yeah. But anyway, it's a, yeah, don't do that to yourself. I've been down that road and it's so easy to like, Oh, I just, I'll have this on them. Every menu that I've been to from Earl's to, to small boutique restaurants to, I mean, the fast food sort of catching up. They do much better in the UK. They have plant-based menus. Earl's shout out to you guys.
They have 10, 12 things on their menu now that are mind-bogglingly fantastic. And I took Nigel there last week, and I always have the plant-based version of whatever he's having. If he has a burger, I'm having a plant burger. The same thing. He's like, can I try that? And he says, I wouldn't know the difference. I would not know the difference. This is a guy, meat and potato guy. Yeah.
But anyway, the server said to us, like three or four of our best sellers are on the plant-based side of the menu. Yeah, we're also thinking about going out for dinner this weekend and I'm surprised at how many options we've been finding even when we're looking up the menus. Well, there's no end to the stuff out there. Anyway, how much time do we have left here? We're going to take a break. We're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and we're going to go fresh into...
what's been happening in retail in the last week. Like honest to God, 2023 rang in and all of a sudden out with winter, in with spring. We're going to talk about that when we come back. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast.
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two weeks into 2023, everything now that I have noticed in Costco, in any kind of clothing retailers from, oh gosh, Mark's Work Warehouse to the Bay to Nordstrom's, any of the big chains, we are fully swinging at spring. And I'm baffled. Like, I don't know about you guys, but we have three months of winter left here in Alberta.
You worked retail, Sarah. What the hell is happening? And why is it happening so quickly? Oh, you wouldn't believe. Okay. Okay. So get this. So I used to work at American Eagle and I feel like American Eagle's in almost every mall these days. Yeah, yeah, yeah. On Boxing Day...
The intention was to have everything spring out. So we would do an overnight floor set. They called it an overnight floor set. I mean, when you're like 18, it's the greatest thing. Work overnight with your friends and get paid. It's so much fun. But the next morning, the next shift comes in and they're trying to sell the spring stuff on Boxing Day.
Boxing day. So this has been out for weeks already. Why are retailers doing that? They want people shopping for bathing suits for like March break and all that stuff now. But is it something that they have statistics for that we are not going to move any more of these boots? We're not going to move any more winter coats. That's at the beginning of the season. That's done. And what do they do with all the, so obviously it goes on sale.
Which is always kind of sad. The best time to buy your kid a winter coat is February the 15th, I'm sure. Probably, yeah. You're right about that. Costco has Easter stuff. So I was in there last week and it was the Lint Easter bunnies. And I'm looking around and all of a sudden I saw the baskets and the gift baskets and the eggs and it's Easter stuff. Like what happened to Valentine's Day?
Isn't that a big deal? Doesn't anybody care about Valentine's?
Like we just finished Hanukkah and we're getting ready for Passover? Jeez. Okay, when is Passover? It's usually around Easter. That's why I'm saying that. To be honest, I haven't looked. I'll look it up right now. I always forget. I'm here with the two Jews. Like I always forget. Right, ask us. It's the Jewish calendar. It changes every year. But the first night of Passover is my birthday, which is April 5th. So I have to have matzah on my birthday. You know, the Christians and the Jews, I'm telling you, they're all doing the same thing. They're doing the same thing with a different...
as the CEO. Am I right here? What a great way to put it. They have a different CEO, but I feel like it's the same staff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're making them work double time in both areas. What an analogy. So good. I, um, yeah, it's, there's no end to the stuff that you can buy. I succumb to that a lot. I'm, uh,
You know, I was tempted to buy some Easter stuff. It was all I could do not to. And I'm a sucker for a sale as well. So I don't know if it's just part of what we do to soothe our souls buying things, what we do to...
Because shopping is therapy. I don't know about you, Sarah, but I'm just like, I feel better after I've gone and bought a couple things or done bought something online. I'm always excited when it shows up. I bought a makeup bag about three weeks ago and it showed up and I forgot all about it. It's this really cool makeup bag. It's for your toiletries. So I travel nonstop.
My little toiletry bag is at the end of its road. I've probably had it for six years. It's wearing out. The zipper stops in the middle. I want to kill somebody when it stops and I can't get it open. So one day I just ripped it open. So now the bag doesn't shut. But this bag, you zip it open and it kind of folds out into these little compartments. It's a light pink color. Fancy. It has these compartments that you can stick your Q-tips in and your dingity dong doodly dot diddlers. And you can get that going. Yeah.
And I succumbed to it. It was on Instagram. Oh, yeah. I've purchased from Insta. Have you? Oh, yeah. What have you bought? I'm in a condo, right? So space is always limited. And I just bought these little lights that you can stick on the bottom of a cupboard versus like installing something new and they're motion sensors. I have them.
Okay, you have them. I bought them. It cracked when I went to... I put the USB charger in to charge them up, and when I unplugged the USB, it cracked and exploded. I'm like, okay, this may be... What cracked and exploded? The light. The light. Okay, what do these look like? Is it a long bar with three lights on it? Okay, I have them going down my stairs. I bought eight of them. Smart, smart. And so every time I take a step going downstairs...
I always know where my little dog is because it's lit up. The stairs are lit up. I'm like, Poppy. Yeah. But I will say the, you give me a morning at like Winners or HomeSense, so therapeutic. And I find in a store like that, the season is not really there. They put, sure they put the coats out in the fall, right? Fine. Like everywhere else. But it's not quite the same like
It's like at American Eagle or in the mall, it's like a presentation, like it's time for spring. Whereas it's a little more passive, I think, in a store like that. There is some psychology to that, though, because people are counting the days now. As soon as you get through Christmas and New Year's, you really are pondering the possibility of sunshine and warmth. And this has been... Oh, once and still.
Well, a lot of people do zip away February or March, but a lot of my friends are like, not doing it this year. Travel's too precarious. You know, what happened at Christmastime, at Hanukkah, at the holidays was pretty unacceptable. Oh, Pearson was a mess. It was a mess everywhere. I just realized that. So by the time that this episode's out, isn't Blue Monday going to be? Yeah. Blue Monday is coming up too. What's Blue Monday? That's another...
Well, they always say the third Monday in January is supposed to be like one of the darkest low days of the year. Really? I did not know about Blue Monday. I'm going to go to V Burger or there's an odd burger in Calgary as well called Odd Burger. Yes. Odd Burger is so freaking good.
Um, same concept. It's vegan plant-based fast food, but so maybe I should load up with odd or V burger and just do what I do on Halloween, which is turn all the lights off and lay on the floor. So nobody comes to the door. Do it. I'm surprised they don't have Halloween out at Costco for next October. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I love you. I love you Costco, but man, you, you're just confusing me. And what happened to all the books at Costco? Um,
What's happening in Ontario? They're gone? Well, no, there's some, but it's very limited. It's like there used to be a whole aisle dedicated to books, and I would leave with 10 books that I did not need to buy, but they were really, really a great price point. Maybe they set it up for the holidays, and now it's the post-holidays, so that's why the section is smaller? I don't know. I don't know. All I know is we're going to take a break. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast.
We are very, very happy to have you along. Don't go away. We are going to talk about Jennifer Coolidge when we come back. I finally watched White Lotus. I'm not going to say anything. We're not doing any spoilers on this show, so don't worry. But I stood up and it was like a guy watching a football game. I kind of screamed and I threw something at the television. You're listening to the Jan Arden Podcast. We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Jan Arden Podcast. Sarah Burke is here. Adam is here. We've been talking about Veganuary and the challenge. There's a lot of you that are doing the challenge right along with us, which is really, really great. Last night I had my friends over for dinner and a movie.
And I made them vegan ginger beef. And I don't really say anything. I bake it with soy curls. And they went back for it. Like I just set the pots on the table and everyone dishes up themselves. I'm way past dishing up people's meals for them. So they both went back for more. I made coconut rice. And there was, you would never know, soy curls, if you can't find them in a store, ask for
Whoever. Usually they have them because if they have an Asian section in the store or, you know, international section, a lot of times they'll be there. So you just overlook them. But I buy them on Amazon when I can't find them. I can get them really cheap on Amazon. I buy eight bags at a time because it's Amazon, right?
But it's unbelievable what you can do with them. Chicken shawarma, beef shawarma, stir fries. So they'll take on whatever you do. They come dry in a bag. You soak them in hot water for 10 minutes. Push that water out in a cheesecloth, whatever you want to do. And then you bake them. I don't even fry them. A lot of people will fry them. I don't do that. I just bake them. And then when they're nice and crunchy, then you add whatever sauce you want. So I put on like a ginger beef.
fresh ground ginger, fresh ground garlic, soy sauce. Some people can use honey, but I don't use honey. You can use agave or just a sweetener that you like. But anyway, it's so unbelievable, the chew on this stuff. You would never know. We should do a show where we just fool people. Which one's the vegan one? Which one is the normal one? That's what I'd love to do.
Like kind of like the Pepsi challenge, but the Jan challenge. Yes. So we were talking about Jennifer Coolidge before I went to the break. I just love her and a little bit of the golden globes. I haven't seen her entire speech, but of course, when you wake up and on social media, you kind of get a recap of everything that's happened. And, but Jennifer, you know, did have an impassioned speech when she won for white Lotus, the second season of white Lotus and,
And just how she thought she was off to such a great start, you know, in her 20s. And she was doing those really crazy Christopher Guest movies of best in show. And, you know, she stole every scene that she was in. When you think back to Legally Blonde and when she played the nail person, she stole the show.
And then there's this huge gap when we didn't see Jennifer Coolidge and the guys that made White Lotus, you know, called Jennifer up and, you know, thought this role was perfect for her. And here she is winning a Golden Globe and I'm sure there's more to follow. But it's interesting for people that, for all of you out there that feel that lull in their lives when they feel like, gosh, I was off to such a great start and now I'm,
My career has been very much up and down and all over the place. And some years are better than others. And then it's just, there's something to be said for steadfastness and just, it's not supposed to be high all the time. You're not supposed to be on top of the mountain all the time. It is way, it's ebb and flow. So she was a perfect example to me of staying the course, doing what you're passionate about, you know,
I just loved her speech and I love Jennifer. I think she's so unique. I loved her in The Watcher too. Yes. Yeah. And I'm just glad she finally escaped this Stifler's mom thing that's been following her around. She's now known for something else.
Yeah. And you can't escape that. You are not what you did. You are what you will do. And my dad said that all the time. I think people- I love that. We do get dogged by things that embarrassed us or things that we were ashamed of or-
mistakes that we made. Human beings are the only animal on the planet that continually punish themselves for something they did a long time ago. Their minds will bring it up and they will punish themselves again. A dog doesn't do that. That's why, you know, they're not going to go like, oh, remember when I peed on that thing two weeks ago?
They're not going to bring it up and go, oh, I feel so bad. I'm just going to put myself in the corner and really be hard on myself. Human beings do it. Now, how does that impact, you know, someone like Prince Harry? I feel like we're leading right into it. Yeah. Oh, gosh. I just got sent. So you got the book. Yeah, Random House. That's my publisher. And I was very fortunate to have a book sent to me.
And it's all part of how they promote things. They're like, if you read it, great. If you don't, please pass this book along to someone that you think might like it. But if you do read it, put the hashtag. It's all about marketing and promoting, and I get that. For sure. I've read a quick 50, 60 pages of it when I was just sitting having a cup of tea yesterday. And
I don't know much about the monarchy, to tell you the truth, even though I was a color commentator at Meghan and Harry's wedding in London, England, at Windsor Castle, not so many years ago, with Lisa Laflamme. Anyway, I'm just bragging now. It was a fun day. It was the funnest six hours of live television. I'm just like, when can I go to the bathroom? Lisa, when do you guys, do you just pee under the desk? What happens here? Yeah.
Like seriously, she's like, go now. We have a 90 second commercial break. I'll anyhow. So what I've been reading, it's very honest. I don't, he must've had a ghostwriter or someone helping him. I heard to the grapevine that he just dictated to people and then it was sort of laid out. So he was interviewed by,
countless times, you know, many, many, many times for hours and hours and hours to get obviously the content for the book. But I think it's very brave. I don't know what to think of them. I don't have an opinion. I'm not going to sit here and be mean spirited and say, I don't like them. I don't know them. I've never met them. I'm not going to base an opinion on seeing people on TV about what their lives are like. I certainly don't want people doing that to me. The little glimpses they get of me, I don't want them to go, she seems like an idiot.
I don't want that. So I wish them peace. I can't imagine living a life like that. I mean, Sarah, I couldn't live a life like that in the public eye. Look what happened to his mom. I know. And I was thinking about this. I did a speech on Princess Diana when I was, I think, whatever grade it was. It was, I think, maybe grade four or five, like where you had to stand in front of the class and do a speech. So I researched this person and kind of couldn't believe that
what had happened to this person and the paparazzi. This was like my first time understanding these things. So now I've been listening to the audio book and I will say his voice is very soothing and it feels like... So he does the audio book? Yeah, and it feels really authentic. And one thing that I find striking about it is how he's... And I think anyone who's been through a traumatic event of some sort will understand this.
He's being really forthcoming about the fact that he's telling the story as best he remembers it, but he's aware that he blocks things out because of what's gone on with his mom and with Megan. Well, anybody would. You can't remember it all. Right? Yeah. And they get right to it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I'm in chapter nine right now.
He got right into it. Princess dies, a passing right away. And, you know, the meeting. Did you get to the meeting? I don't know where it falls in which chapter because I was just listening. The meeting with his brother. Yes, I think I went past that. There's a lot of chapters in this book. There's like 80 or 90 chapters. They're small. Small, yeah.
Anyway, my thoughts are like I've never been someone obsessed with the royals. I couldn't care less. Even when the royal wedding's on TV, I don't care at all. But I started listening to Meghan Markle's podcast. It's called Archetypes and it's fantastic. It gives you a window into the type of person that she really is. And that's what kind of led me there to the book.
Megan Markle's got a podcast called archetypes. I have to go listen to that. So what, what does she take? What does she take on? I'll send you a link. She has guests and she has guests like her first guest with Serena Williams. She's trying to destroy stereotypes and talk about how we get these ideas in our head, the archetypes. It's really interesting. Well, I rest my case. It's like, I would never sit here and, and make a blanketed, misinformed, uneducated, um,
you know, have some kind of statement of what they are. Like there was something, a UK broadcaster, I think he works on that car show he has for,
like 25 seasons or something. His name escapes me. It's not the important thing, but this man came out in one of the huge daily mail or one of the big, you know, UK newspapers that can be quite seething. And this man did this op-ed about how much he hated her, that he wanted, he got really massacred for it. He didn't get fired from his show, but I thought if that isn't a misogynistic thing,
weird, like he just made this thing. He just talked about her like she wasn't a person. And we have to be mindful about doing that. I've heard so much commentary about the Netflix show and people just come out with these scathing remarks. I'm like, based on what? And would you want someone talking about you that way? Well, she seems like, she seems like? Okay. Yeah.
Have you ever sat and had a coffee with her? Have you ever had a chance to shake her hand or look her in the eye? And, and no, she's a person and she's had a lot of stuff go down. Yeah. Privilege is privilege. It doesn't take away pain.
What a quote. What a quote. Privilege doesn't take away loss. Privilege doesn't take away grief. Privilege doesn't take away cancer or death. It doesn't do that. Yeah, it's nice to go not worry about spending money on groceries, but privilege comes with its own unique set of difficulties and challenges.
I don't know. I'm happy with my life and it's, it's not without its own stuff, but I also know I have it a lot easier and I have, you know, that I have so many things that I'm grateful for, but I never take it for granted. And I try my very best to pass it forward and to help other people and to help animals. And, and if you think it's hard, you know, for, for anybody, and I'm just using myself as an example, like even with something as
that seems as benign as animal welfare. I take so much heat for it. Do you think I want to wake up to it? But you know what? I'm going to keep doing it. It doesn't matter what you say to me or how you judge me or what stuff you throw at me.
That's okay because my privilege allows me to stand up for things. And I think as Meghan Markle grows into who she's going to grow into, she's a young girl. He's a young man. They have little kids. They have so much ahead of them that's going to be an uphill climb and dangerous and death threats and the whole, you have to think about what happens. So good for him for writing this book. It's called Spare. It's out on Penguin Random House.
If you want to read it, fine. I'm going to try and get through it just because I think it's going to be an interesting take. And I like autobiographies. I like reading them. I read them all the time about people I've never heard of. I've read lots of, I'm like, I'm going to try this. Michelle Obama, I love her. I mean, I've read her stuff and I've- Oh yeah, Becoming. Yeah. Well, and The Light, The New One, The Light We Share. Oh yeah, there's a second one. Oh, it's so good.
It's on my list. It's on my list. I was just going to say, you know, one really valid point that Prince Harry brought up on Stephen Colbert. There's an extended interview. You can Google and find it if you want.
He said, how many of us believe what we see in a picture on the internet and assume it for truth? Right? And you can take that little snippet and think about where his brain is and where he's been. But it applies to every person right now. It really does. Well, and the permanence of social media, the permanence of the things that you write. I mean, I...
I shake my head at some of the tweets that I put out 10 years ago. I shake my head. I'm like, what were you thinking? I am a, I'm, I'm a different person now because I've got 10 years of experiences, 10 years of being humbled, 10 years of being put into my place, 10 years of understanding words can be really hurtful. 10 years of trying to educate myself with, you know, indigenous issues, 10 years of getting it wrong.
And I try and do better. Like I told a guy a few years ago to F his eye socket. I don't know what I was mad about. I know it seemed funny at the time and it really wasn't. But in the moment, it was just this guy being whatever he was being. And it was just a suggestion. Like I didn't think he'd... Anyway, that thing has come back to...
It was stupid. But, you know, thank God I don't write down 99% of the things that go through my mind. Just text it to us. I remember saying so many dumb things on the air early in my broadcasting career. I said the foo farter's on air. I said so many dumb things. Oh, that's funny. I'm sure they would laugh at it. But anyway, I'm...
I'm not going to get it right going forward. Harry and Meghan are probably not going to get it right either sometimes, but, you know, we're just people. We're here to figure out what it is, and it is hard being a person, no matter what your station is. There's difficulties, but I'm just saying that, anyway. Yeah. Bringing it back to even our Viganuary challenge. Let's bring it back to Viganuary, shall we? Yeah.
Everything we talk about on this podcast, I think revolves around being human and walking through life as a human and how to be compassionate to other humans. Right? That's what this is all about. It is. Agreed. Big January. If you're going to partake with us, we'd love to hear from you. Hop on our socials. Tell us what you're having trouble with. A quick thing that I think Carolyn would love you to answer before we go. She's looking for a recommendation for a good vegan butter. Give us a name drop.
Miyoko's, M-I-Y-O-K-O-S, Miyoko's. Out of Cali, right? Yeah, and they have a number of products. Some of them you can get here, some you can't, but that is the best butter. I'm going to call it butter. They call it organic butter.
And I just think it's fantastic. But there's lots of choices out there. This is about taste. It's like anything else. What I like, you might not like. So this is just one thing that I find. Cooking with it, it's so equal to pound for pound for butter. And you won't notice a difference. I've made shortbread cookies with Miyoko's butter. And fantastic. How can you go wrong with Miyoko's butter and
flour and sugar. You know, all the good stuff is plant-based, flour, sugar. Like there's so many. Anyway, you have been listening to the Jan Arden podcast. Thanks for coming along this journey with us. And yeah, it's a battlefield out there. We're doing the best we can, but we have a Facebook page. We have a Twitter page. We have an Instagram page. We'd love to hear from you on wherever you find your favorite podcast. iHeartRadio is a good start.
You're listening to Jan Arden Podcast. We'll see you next time. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.