Maggie Baird Is The World’s Coolest Mom

Aug 30, 2021

Maggie Baird, a veteran actor and vegan activist, shares her journey as the mother of Grammy-winning artists Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. She discusses the unique challenges of parenting in the spotlight while keeping her children grounded. The conversation dives into her non-profit, Support And Feed, which combats food insecurity with plant-based meals. Baird also highlights the importance of unschooling and fostering creativity in parenting, all while navigating the complexities of fame and activism in a rapidly changing world.

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ADVICE

Parenting Teens

Teens need their parents more than ever during their teenage years, even if they don't show it.
Be present and available for them, especially during challenging times.

ANECDOTE

Billie's Rise to Fame

Maggie Baird never expected Billie Eilish's fame, even after 'Ocean Eyes' got 1,000 plays overnight.
It was a year of meetings and songwriting before things took off.

ADVICE

Encourage Early Creative Exploration

Let kids use real equipment like cameras and tripods, even if they might mess up.
Early creative exploration is crucial for artistic development.

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Parenting typical teenagers is no easy feat. Today’s guest parented two as they skyrocketed to bewildering fame—and kept them astonishingly grounded in the process.

Today we explore the uncommon reality that is Maggie Baird’s life.

A veteran actor, improv performer, and writer with a long list of screen credits to her name, Maggie is also a long-time vegan, animal rights and environmental activist, and the founder of Support And Feed, a non-profit that partners with restaurants across America (and soon the world) to provide plant-based meals to those experiencing food insecurity.

She’s also the coolest mom ever to two of the biggest musicians in the world—7x Grammy Award winning 19-year old Billie Eilish and Billie’s equally talented brother and counterpart, 8x Grammy winning 23-year old brother Finneas O’Connell—all portrayed alongside Maggie’s husband Patrick O’Connell in the recent Apple TV+ documentary The World’s A Little Blurry.

Although Billie serves as the film’s primary protagonist, the documentary paints a technicolor family journey portrait. The story behind the story of this uniquely gifted foursome is both surprising and deeply heartwarming—a narrative exploration of parents striving to consciously guide their talented kids through their trepidatious and vertigo-inducing ascent to superstardom.

It goes without saying that this is a conversation about parenting, how to raise conscious kids, and the many benefits of homeschooling and unschooling.

It’s about what happens when your children become unbelievably famous at a young age, seemingly overnight.

And it’s about organizing your life and your family’s priorities around what is most important.

It’s also about the challenges of pursuing an artistic life. The importance of finding your cause. And it’s a dive into Maggie’s particular cause, which is to solve food insecurity and make the music industry, concerts, and touring, more ecologically sustainable.

To read more click here. You can also watch listen to our exchange on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

This one is chock-full of sage advice across many topics, and there’s something for everyone to learn from Maggie’s refreshing perspective.

Wise and charming, Maggie is the mom we all wish we had.

Enjoy!

Peace + Plants,

Rich