Vault: She feels pressured to be a vegan.

Summary

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The Bert Show – Vault: She feels pressured to be a vegan

Episode Date: May 8, 2026
Main Hosts: Bert, Melissa, Kristin, Abby, Cassie, Tommy & Cast

Overview

This episode centers around Melissa's conflicted feelings and pressures about becoming vegetarian or vegan. The cast discusses the cultural and social dynamics surrounding vegetarianism and veganism, sharing personal anecdotes, listener calls, and reflections on documentaries and literature that sway dietary choices. The tone is candid, humorous, and self-deprecating, offering both playful banter and genuine insight into food culture and judgment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Melissa’s Curiosity & Reservations about Vegetarianism

• Melissa opens up about the appeal of vegetarianism but expresses concern over the discipline it requires, especially given her dislike for cooking. She notes some vegetarians swap meat for heavy carbs or junk food, which can have unintended health effects.
  • Quote:

    "I've always been curious about the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Now I'm not a big cook, so I know that it takes a lot of discipline... I've known vegetarians who actually gained weight being a vegetarian because they just focused on the pastas and the very heavy carb type of foods." (01:01 – 01:18)

The Problem with Preachy Vegetarians

• Melissa describes negative experiences with overzealous vegetarians and vegans in her social circle, drawing a comparison to “new money” attitudes—where some feel compelled to prove or showcase their choices.
  • Quote:

    "It's almost as if you have learned the secret of life... Vegetarians tend to be very condescending... I've known vegetarians in my circle who have actually, as I'm eating my food, have let me know about the abuse that has taken place in the food... I had someone actually walk me over to a sink to pour out a drink that was not healthy for me." (01:20 – 02:15)

Memorable Moments: Pouring Out the Soda

• Melissa recalls someone making her pour out a soda because of its chemical content—an anecdote highlighting the sometimes intrusive behavior of others when it comes to dietary choices.
  • Quote:

    "It was a soda... They didn't like the chemicals in the soda and made me pour it out..." (02:40 – 02:44)

Militancy & Motivations in Veganism

• The hosts debate whether judgmental attitudes are more common among those who choose vegetarianism for animal rights versus health reasons.
  • Host 4 suggests health-based vegetarians are “cool about it,” while animal-rights vegetarians can be more “militant.”
    • Quote:

      "Is the line like, if you're a vegetarian for health reasons, you're sort of cool about it, but if you're a vegetarian for animal rights reasons, then you're more militant about it." (03:27 – 03:37)

Impactful Media: “Food Inc.” & “Skinny Bastard”

• Melissa and the team discuss the influence of the documentary “Food Inc.” (05:08 – 05:36) and books like “Skinny Bastard,” which deeply affected their views on industrial food production, the illusion of choice in grocery stores, and animal treatment.
  • Notable point: The widespread corporate consolidation of food production.
    • Quote:

      "You go in thinking you've got this huge variety of foods when it's just a handful of companies that make all those foods and just relabel everything to make you think you have a choice." (05:17 – 05:31)

  • The pressure these sources exert can be overwhelming and off-putting, prompting some hosts to skip certain chapters or stop reading.

“New Money” Syndrome Applied to Dietary Choices

• The team humorously connects the fervor of new vegetarians/vegans to people newly converted to something else, like religion or quitting smoking. The “newness” makes people zealous and, sometimes, annoying.
  • Quote:

    "It's the newness of everything... If anything new in your life, you're obnoxious about it." (06:57 – 07:02)

Caller Perspective: Being a Non-Pushy Vegetarian

• A long-time vegetarian calls in to assure Melissa that not all vegetarians are judgmental. He’s dated a meat-eater for years and advises making the transition on her own terms, without pressure from others.
  • Quote:

    "Don't be around people who are judgmental and who are going to push you into that... you do it on your own time for yourself." (07:05 – 07:36)

Honest Obstacles: Laziness and Convenience

• Melissa admits her main barrier to vegetarianism is simple laziness and the convenience of being a meat-eater in current culture.
  • Quote:

    "I'm lazy about cooking... it's much easier to be a meat eater in this culture for sure." (07:45 – 07:53)

A Lighthearted Question: Vegan Hangover Food

• The group jokes about what vegans eat when hungover, with “tabouli” offered as a (not-so-tempting) suggestion.
  • Quote:

    "What does a vegan eat when they're hungover?"
    "Tabouli. That's not going to sound good at all." (08:24 – 08:26)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Melissa's initial thoughts on vegetarianism: 01:01 – 01:20
• Vegetarians as “new money” – condescension anecdote: 01:20 – 02:44
• Militancy & animal rights vs health: 03:17 – 03:38
• “Food Inc.” and grocery store insights: 05:08 – 05:36
• “Newness” and pushiness parallel: 06:54 – 07:02
• Caller with balanced vegetarian advice: 07:05 – 07:36
• Melissa’s true reason for not going vegetarian: 07:45 – 07:53
• Joking about what vegans eat hungover: 08:19 – 08:29

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Notable Quotes

• Melissa:

  "I would love to be a vegetarian, but I don't like vegetarians." (03:19 – 03:24)

• Host 4:

  "When people are just overly passionate about anything... like, I've had some friends that became born-again Christians and every conversation we had with them all of a sudden had to be about the Bible." (06:37 – 06:54)

• Caller:

  "To me, you do [become vegetarian] on your own time for yourself, not for other people." (07:13 – 07:18)

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Tonal Highlights & Memorable Moments

• The show balances humor with honesty, using playful analogies (“vegetarian squared” for veganism), self-deprecating wit, and affectionate ribbing within the team.
• The social awkwardness of food choices, peer pressure, and “preachiness” is lampooned without dismissing the real ethical or health motivations people have.
• The episode acknowledges the complexity and emotion involved in eating choices, while ultimately advocating for personal agency and non-judgment.

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For listeners new to the episode: This discussion offers a relatable, nuanced take on why some people feel pressured about dietary choices, the social landmines of food conversations, and the role of documentaries/books in shaping those decisions—all wrapped in The Bert Show's signature witty, unfiltered style.

Transcript

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[Melissa]

Show I've always been curious about the idea of becoming a vegetarian. Now I'm not a big cook, so I know that it takes a lot of discipline to be a vegetarian because you can't necessarily just go out and get stuff to eat. And I've known vegetarians who actually gained weight being a vegetarian because they just focused on the pastas and the very heavy carb type of foods. However.

[Host 3]

Or junk food.

[Melissa]

Or junk food, exactly. But the problem I have with vegetarianism sometimes with the vegetarians. Okay, anybody that you might even bring it up to because it's is almost a comparison that Katie and I bring up about new money. Like anybody who has new money has to show it out and almost has something to prove. Where somebody from old money, you can't really tell that they come from old money. Cause they're so used to money they don't care. Right. Well, almost the same with vegetarianism. Because if you become a vegetarian then all of a sudden it's almost as if you have learned the secret of life. And it's not that you just want to bestow it on people and be nurturing and want to introduce in a happy way. Vegetarians tend to be very condescending and very, I don't know, like I've known vegetarians in my circle who have actually, as I'm eating my food, have let me know about the abuse that has taken place in the food that I, you know, in the way I'm eating the food. I've had someone actually walk me over to a sink to pour out a drink that was not healthy for me because for some reason, they felt like I was abusing my body by drinking the wrong thing.

[Host 4]

Well, you've told the story before. Yeah. And if this was not somebody that you knew.

[Melissa]

Right. This was somebody I did know that walked me over. That's the only reason I walked over to sink with him. I'm like, okay, fine, you know, just to get him to shut up. And then I'll go get another drink once they're gone. And then.

[Host 1]

What was the drink story again? What was the drink?

[Melissa]

It was a soda. I mean, it was not.

[Host 1]

And they just didn't like the chemicals in the soda.

[Melissa]

They didn't like the chemicals in the soda and made me pour it out. And then. And then all. And then recently, it was a couple, and one of the people in the couple was trying to be that vegetarian. I think they were. They were vegans, actually, which is, you know, a step above. It's like, you know, vegetarian square. And so the V is so. And what? Both were vegans. And one was the older vegan, one was the newer vegan. In this conversation, the newer vegan actually was the one trying to say, oh, well, this is what I think about. And this is the reason I do it, and was very nice about it. But then, you know, their boyfriend tended to, once they got in, the conversation,

[Host 4]

got a little more militant.

[Melissa]

Little more militant about it. So that's the only thing is, like, I would love to be a vegetarian, but I don't like vegetarians.

[Host 4]

Is the line.

[Melissa]

I'm sorry?

[Host 4]

Is the line like, if you're a vegetarian for health reasons, you're sort of cool about it, but if you're a vegetarian for animal rights reasons, then you're more militant about it.

[Melissa]

I don't know. I don't know. Because I appreciate both. I appreciate the passion for both, but I just. It's just hard to. Because it's almost. It's almost like. Yeah. Is it a circle of people that I really want to spend time with?

[Host 1]

The health reasons. They don't have anything like the animal rights ones. Like, we had the.

[Melissa]

Yeah.

[Host 1]

The incident in studio that we've talked about with our old. When Jamie Massey was here, she was an animal lover and a vegetarian. And one of the new restaurants. New restaurant had opened, and the chef said, hey, I'm gonna bring some food for you guys for lunch. So, like, it was toward the end of the show, and we started snacking on it, and one of them was a foie gras something.

[Host 3]

Pancake.

[Host 1]

Pancake. And Jen was About to take a.

[Host 3]

She was in the middle of eating

[Host 1]

it, had it in her mouth and was about to put another in her mouth. And Massey whips open this picture of a goose with the, you know, being like, yeah. Cause it's goose lover. Yeah.

[Host 3]

And sticks it in my face.

[Host 4]

I started reading that book like four or five months ago, that Skinny Bastard book, which is really just the offshoot of Skinny Bitch. And because I was really interested, I think you might have turned me onto it at first.

[Host 3]

Yeah, I read that a while ago.

[Melissa]

Yeah.

[Host 4]

But then I'm about a quarter of the way through it and they're just, I mean, a hardcore pressure about what they do to the animals. And they're basically telling you you're a piece of crap if you're eating.

[Host 3]

I skipped the meat chapter.

[Host 4]

I stopped.

[Melissa]

I stopped.

[Host 3]

I skipped it and moved on. Because if you ever want to eat meat ever again, you can't read that stuff.

[Melissa]

Well, and one of the reasons that Kati and I really thought about it is after watching Food Inc. You know, several months ago, and we have changed our eating habits based on it.

[Host 4]

What is that?

[Melissa]

Food Inc. Is a documentary about the food industry and how foods get in the grocery stores and the fact that very few companies own every single grocery. In the grocery store. So you go in thinking you've got this huge variety of foods when it's just a handful of companies that make all those foods and just relabel everything to make you think you have a choice.

[Host 4]

Oh, really?

[Melissa]

And the practice is once you, you know, once, once anything gets corporate, sometimes the details kind of fall through the cracks because they're so big. Really. And so in the food industry is the same thing.

[Host 1]

But what would a detail be? Like a live mouse falling into my Cheerios?

[Melissa]

No, it's more of a. Because they mass produce farms now instead of it being mom and pop farms that you have so much cattle and they talk about the feed to the cattle so it's easier to produce corn. And so they feed corn to the cows, which is not really what they need to be eating. And the chemical changes that happen in the cows and you know, the.

[Host 3]

There's a difference in the taste if you have corn fed beef or grass fed beef.

[Melissa]

And there's a different, there's a higher potential for E. Coli poisoning if it's a corn fed. If it's corn fed beef. And so, you know, it's almost as if it's introducing it where innocently enough, you know, it was just the idea of making things cost cutting more Production, like in anything in corporate. But it shows how it's actually affecting us in a negative way.

[Host 4]

And I think you could apply this to anything when people are just overly passionate about anything. It could be a movie, it could be. Look, I've had some friends that became born again Christians and every conversation we had with them all of a sudden had to be about the Bible.

[Host 1]

It's some smokers too much right after they quit smoking.

[Melissa]

It's the newness of everything. It's new money. It's the new money syndrome. If anything new in your life, you're obnoxious about it.

[Host 4]

Hey, man, good Morning. You're on Q100.

[Caller]

Hey, Melissa. I just wanted to kind of chime in with you quickly. You know, this whole thing. I've been a vegetarian for eight years. My girlfriend is not. We've been dating for six years. So, you know, to me, don't be around people who are judgmental and who are going to push you into that. You know, to me it's a transition and it's something that, you know, to me you do on your own time for yourself, not for other people. It's something that it's your choice and I know you have no problem making your own choices. So, you know, just take the time and do the research and you should be just fine.

[Melissa]

I appreciate that. The one reason we have found a

[Host 4]

cool vegan,

[Melissa]

Well, cause he's done it for eight years, so it's not new to him anymore. But I think that, you know, the main reason, like I said in the beginning of the conversation, I'm lazy about cooking. I'm not. I don't cook. I don't take the time to prepare foods and that kind of thing. So it's laziness. Is the reason I'm not a vegetarian because it's much easier to be a meat eater in this culture for sure. But yeah, I appreciate that. I think the reason I come across vegetarians and vegans is because if I'm asking the question, then that's the response, you know, then it becomes this condescending conversation response I get. You know, it's like, I know, I just want to kind of know how you cook. I don't need to know anything else.

[Host 4]

What is it? What is a vegan eating on Sunday mornings when you're all hungover and stuff and you need just something greasy and meaty?

[Host 3]

Yes.

[Host 4]

What does a vegan eat when they're hungover?

[Host 3]

Tabouli. That's not going to be sound good at all.

[Host 4]

I don't even know what that is.

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