24 VegNews SUMMER 2019
One Mississippi, an Amazon Prime series
loosely based on her experiences. When
the double mastectomy left her with
no nipples, Notaro figured the best way
to deal with it was to bear all—literally
removing her shirt—during yet another
career-defining stage performance.
It was this journey that led this
Mississippi native to where she is today.
Not only has Notaro landed a role as
an intergalactic engineer on the cult-
favorite CBS series Star Trek: Discovery,
but these days—in addition to raising her
twin three-year-old boys alongside her
wife Stephanie Alynne—Notaro has got
something big on her mind, and it’s made
only of plants. VegNews’ Jasmin Singer
sat down with the star to find out what
it’s like to raise vegan kids, the only thing
more important than politics, and what
she hopes the future of food (both real
and in Star Trek) has in store.
VegNews: We really wanted to interview
your cat (we follow @therealfluffnotaro on
Instagram), but she wasn’t available. So
we’re glad you were able to fill in. How is it
having a cat who’s an internet sensation?
Tig Notaro: I don’t know if she’s a
sensation, but she definitely, clearly has
some followers. It all started out as just a
page for me to post my favorite pictures
I had a lot going on in 2012 [when I was
diagnosed with cancer], and I came through
all that, but was still experiencing a lot
of chronic pain. So I did my research and
everything kind of pointed to veganism, so
I tried it out and had pretty quick results—I
would say just four days into it. And then
it just kind of spilled into other things likeclothing that isn’t totally vegan, but I’m no
longer buying clothing that isn’t truly vegan.
I’m not the biggest shopper, but on different
projects I’ve worked on, I’ve had the luxury
of letting everybody know that I want my
clothing to be vegan.VN: Are your wife and kids supportive
of your veganism?
TN: Yeah, my wife and kids are also vegan.VN: How is it raising vegan kids?
TN: It’s great. It’s easy, and it makes sense.
I’ll talk to my sons who are almost three, and
it’s the most insane conversation. I’m like,
“We don’t eat the animals.”VN: As if the concept of eating animals
would ever make sense to a toddler ...
TN: Exactly. They just think it’s utter
insanity that I would be suggesting
such a thing.VN: As weird as it is to become an adult and
realize that we’ve had this great cognitive
dissonance and we’ve been eating animals
our whole lives, it might somehow be even
weirder to realize that other people do.
TN: Yeah, yeah, for sure. I’m very curious
what’s going to happen if they start
showing some sort of interest in that, but I
also try not to get too hung up on that fear“Veganism brought me back in touch with my
genuine love of animals and with realizing that
society allowed me to forget the real connection
there—that I was eating and abusing them.”
Tig on the set of
One MississippiJessica^ Brookseducating myself and becoming more aware
of environmental issues and animal rights.VN: When you were a kid, you wanted to
be a veterinarian. Is there a connection
between your childhood love of animals
and your veganism?
TN: Veganism brought me back in touch
with my genuine love of animals and with
realizing that society allowed me to forget
the real connection there—that I was
eating and abusing them. And that’s part of
why what I’m talking about is beyond just
eating vegan food. I mean, I still have someof her, then one person started following
her account, and then comedian Kevin
Nealon saw the name of the account and
just assumed it was mine. So he tagged me
somewhere, and that’s how the account
started to grow.
VN: In addition to Fluff ’s career, we’ve been
following yours for some time, too. When
we learned that you were leaning toward
the plant side, we were thrilled. We’d love
to know a little bit more about how your
veganism came to be.
TN: I actually went to it for health reasons.