Magical Overthinking with Amanda Montell

FromUnder the Influence with Jo Piazza

Start listening View podcast show

Magical Overthinking with Amanda Montell

FromUnder the Influence with Jo Piazza

ratings:

Length:

49 minutes

Released:

Mar 26, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Released:

Mar 26, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Under the Influence is a deep dive into social media, a place haunted by aspirational marketing where it feels like every other person is a social media influencer trying to sell you something, all while posed in perfect houses that never seem to get messy. And behind this airbrushed perfection is money, so much money. Billions and billions of dollars. Journalist and mom Jo Piazza looks at how we got here, what it all means and how the commodification of every single aspect of our lives is driving everyone (but mostly women and mothers) a little insane.

Skip carousel

It’s Time For A Reckoning: In the influencer industry, women make more money than men, but, as in the real world, there's still a steep racial pay gap. There’s an Instagram account that documents this. @InfluencerPayGap brings transparency to the money influencers make from brands and also to document the pay gap between white influencers and influencers of color. Racial inequality is embedded into the influencer space and it weighs heavily on influencers of color. In this episode we talk to the women who are trying to fight against it while the industry is still young and malleable. Unfortunately, this is just one of many real world problems that finds itself being replicated in the influencer space. Politics, conspiracy theories...they creep into our online lives and make our feeds a dark, dark, place. Like QAnon dark. Is there a way out of this? Does the influencer industry really have to fall into the toxic patterns that dominate nearly every other industry on Earth? This week, Jo by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
40 min listen
Burning Cats: It’s no secret the internet can be a terrible place to be a woman. Any woman who ends up in the spotlight faces an intense amount of criticism and hate. For many reasons, the majority of that hate tends to come from other women and in the mom influencer industrial complex it often comes from other moms. After putting herself out there as a potential influencer Jo has gotten her fair share of online hate, but as a former gossip reporter she also has a long history of doling it out. In this episode Jo talks with a woman who built a website to hate on other women online, an original mom influencer who buckled under the hate, and reckons with how to break the cycle of woman on woman hate online. If that’s even possible. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
40 min listen
Women's Work: Mom influencing is a multi-billion dollar industry. How the hell did we get here? How did influencing become a job? Why doesn’t Wikipedia mention mom bloggers in their history of women and what does the 19th Century economic philosopher Thorstein Veblen have to do with why we are so enchanted by people who seem wealthier than we are. Consider this your history lesson of women influencing other women to attempt to lead more perfect lives. We start in 1896 with the creation of Vogue, wonder if Lucille Ball was actually the first mom influencer, and scroll all the way to the the beautiful mess of the early Mom Internet. Moms have been commodified since the beginning of moms, the only difference now is who is making the goddamn money. And if past is prologue, will answering all these questions help Jo figure out how to become the influencer of her dreams? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
44 min listen
Where’s My Village?: We’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. And women, especially mothers, have been hit the hardest. But what is an entire generation of mothers to do when they live in a country where any kind of health care, especially mental health care, is largely inaccessible? A lot of moms turn to Instagram. Mental health creators have been around for a while, but should they be trusted as a source for psychological well being? Do these creators really help or just make people who are already broken more vulnerable? Maybe both can be true at once. Join Jo on a deep dive into the history of self help and mental health media to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
45 min listen
Rule 35: If it exists in the world, there’s an influencer for it. Teachers absolutely fit the bill as Jo learned when a listener reached out to her about her kid's teacher whose Instagram content concerned her. Should we judge how teachers present themselves outside of the classroom? And if we’re offended by what they post, is it legal to demand repercussions? These questions sent Jo down a rabbit hole into the wide world of Teachergram. Turns out Instagram is a sort of shadow support system for teachers. Influencing can be a way for wildly underpaid educators to support themselves and each other. And this isn’t unique to teachers. Ultimately, if there’s a deficiency in the world that’s ailing women, an influencer who can fill that need is just a click away. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
45 min listen
If You Build It, They Will Come: What goes into making the perfect Instagram post? After being unceremoniously rejected from the Harvard of influencing, Jo manages to convince RewardStyle to let her in anyway. In this episode she puts their lessons to use, and tries her best to turn herself into an influencer, to create a shoppable life. She quickly discovers one of the dirty little secrets of influencing: influencers are hiring professional photographers to take a week or a month of content at once. Yes! Influencer photographers are the new wedding photographers. So Jo hires one and tries to take beautiful pictures of her entire family in matching pajamas. This is a disaster. But is it a profitable one? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
43 min listen
A More Perfect Mother: It’s two in the morning and journalist and author Jo Piazza cannot stop scrolling and scrolling through Instagram, gazing at picture-perfect images of motherhood that look nothing like her own life mothering her baby and toddler. But she realizes that with just one click she can attempt to buy these women’s perfect lives...because every other mother on Instagram is trying to sell you something. Who are these women? Why are they so mesmerizing? Dive down the rabbit hole of the billion dollar mom influencer world with Jo as she pulls back the curtain on this under-reported and under-valued industry. Stop number one, the Mormon Church. Why are so many successful mom influencers members of the LDS community? Have they cracked the code to getting paid for the unpaid labor of motherhood? And how does this all relate to porn? At the end of the day Jo begins to wonder, as she watches her own media industry crumble around her, could this be the future of content? The futu by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
35 min listen
The Future: Prepare your flux capacitor because we’re going back to the future. In the final episode of Season 2, Jo talks to experts in social media to predict what’s to come in the influencer world. Right now, social media could be compared to the Wild West: unregulated, unpredictable, and quite frankly, unfair to a lot of people. But luckily, with the help of some incredible women, influencers and consumers are starting to fight back. This episode features Lindsey Lugrin who is working to eliminate unpaid labor in social media with F*ck You Pay Me, Jenna Sereni who is working to create a more authentic social media experience with HandsDown, Peggy McDermott who is bringing influencing to academia, and Kim Nortman who is focused on Web3.0 with Tellie. Listen to this final episode to join the movement to change the term “influencer” from a dirty word to a respected profession. Oh! And Jo finally reveals the long awaited date of The Women’s Day Off the Internet. See omnystudio.com/list by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
43 min listen
A Shoppable Life: There is a Harvard of influencing. Yes, you read that correctly. And we're going there...or, at least we're applying. Until recently Instagram was for looking, not buying. But one very savvy tech founder helped to solve that disconnect; a woman, naturally. Amber Venz Box is a 34 year old mother of four and the founder of RewardStyle and LikeToKnowIt. In the past decade, her companies have driven $8 billion in sales for brands. This week, with Amber's help, Jo applies to become a RewardStyle influencer and tries to figure out if her life is shoppable. Shoppability is a new term, one that even academics are now using. But finding out if your life as a mother is shoppable is like asking which of your kids is more commercial. And that's where this all starts to get a little uncomfortable. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
33 min listen
I Can't Quit You (or Can I?): What would it take for you to get off Instagram? The promise of better mental health? An urge to detangle yourself from the algorithm? Or maybe it would take a scare. The threat of someone stealing your photos and role playing as you and your family. Any way you spin it, the decision to get off Instagram is a hard one. But if we’re ever going to use our power to improve the platform, it might be what we have to do. This week, Jo talks to two women–one who took the leap off Instagram and one who didn’t despite a horrific experience. These stories tell show us what we risk when we stay on Instagram and why getting off is such a personal choice. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
46 min listen
Save Me: There truly is an influencer for everything! After spending a week in the hospital when her son got a concussion (don’t worry, everyone is ok), Jo left with a glaring realization: Rule 35 even applies to the medical industry. The nurses in the ICU revealed that they all follow nurse influencers, even post on Instagram during their breaks, and some have over a million followers. But nurse influencing isn't all scrubs sponsorships. COVID-19 and vaccine hesitation have created a social media battle between nurses who are pro-vaccine and those who are against the vaccine. Some of these nurses have lost their jobs for the things they have said on social media. Some have gotten death threats against their entire family. Some live in terror that misinformation could lead to more and more deaths. Because of the largely unregulated nature of social media, some nurse influencers can spread disinformation with few consequences for themselves and massive consequences for society at large. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
33 min listen
Women's Day Off the Internet: Remember the day Instagram went dark last fall? We sure do. It woke us, and so many influencers, up to how precarious making your living off social media can be. It also reminded us just how dependent and addicted so many of us are to a platform that is indifferent about us at best. In season one of Under the Influence we learned just how much content women are creating and consuming on social media platforms, for better or worse. We have a lot of power to make these places better and we don't even realize it. So what if the world had no choice but to realize it? We might just have a plan for that. With a lesson from Iceland and some major planning, we’ve figured out a way to let women take the reins and show the men in charge of the socials how much power we have over their platform. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
39 min listen
An Authentic Woman: Authenticity might be the most over-used word in the influencer industrial complex. But what does it even mean? What the hell is an authentic woman? An authentic mother? From celebrities to politicians to Instagram moms, women are attacked for trying too hard to get it, or are ripped to shreds for not having enough. This week, Jo tries to figure out how to be a more authentic mother by going to both extremes: she speaks to the surfing Instagram mamas of Byron Bay, as well as a woman who chose to post her home birth on Instagram stories. But at the end of the day is searching for authenticity online just a trap designed to keep us on a hedonistic treadmill that makes us feel bad about ourselves? Or is it actually possible to be a real mom and still get paid for it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
35 min listen
Under the Influence with Jo Piazza: Under the Influence is a deep dive into the Mom Internet, a place haunted by aspirational marketing where every mom is a social media influencer trying to sell you something, all while posed in white kitchens that never seem to get messy…with toddlers in cloth diapers that never ever leak; a bastion of carefully curated lives that are #blessed. Behind the airbrushed perfection is a multi-billion dollar industry that is dominated and consumed by women, yet largely ignored by the mainstream media. Journalist and mom Jo Piazza looks at how we got here, what it all means, and how the commodification of motherhood is driving women a little insane. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
4 min listen
Bonus: Holly Frey In Conversation With Seneca Women to Hear Winners Kris McDaniel and Andi Gordon: Holly Frey, host of Stuff You Missed in History Class, sits down with Kris McDaniel and Andi Gordon, two winners of Seneca Women to Hear: Search for the Next Great Female PodcastersSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
5 min listen
Bonus: A Little Dash of Comfort with Kate Baer: Last week we dove down the rabbit hole of mental health Instagram. We're all in the midst of a mental health crisis right now and frankly we could all use a little help. While social media is often a major contributing factor, if not the source, of these mental health problems, there is also the flipside: comfort creators. These are the people who use social media to post content that you turn to when you are feeling down and need a pick-me-up. They are not necessarily there to give advice like the mental health influencers we covered last week, but instead to show you a picture of their fluffy dog or read you an uplifting poem that helps to release the stress you’ve been carrying all day. For this special bonus episode, Jo is joined by her comfort creator: the poet Kate Baer, whose poems helped Jo through the insanity of her postpartum time and still lift her up today. If you want more Kate Baer in your life you can buy her books I Hope by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
19 min listen
Do No Harm: Influencers pop up where women need them most. They create a space to discuss taboo topics and provide resources when social structures fail us. Fertility is one of those topics, and fertility influencers have a large community of women flocking to them for answers, advice, and support. But not all women feel the same about this content. Are fertility influencers good? They destigmatize the topic and offer free information for an otherwise pricey process. Or, are fertility influencers bad? They often are not associated with a medical professional and cannot deliver individual care, just like with mental health influencers. And ultimately, what does the increase of fertility related social media content say about the lack of resources in our society? We wouldn’t even need to turn to social media if we were able to have these discussions IRL. Listen to this week’s episode to decide if you’ll be cheering YAY or NAY for fertility influencers. Learn more about your ad-choices a by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
46 min listen
The Sharenthood: The French have laws limiting parents who Instagram their children. We have no such restrictions in the United States. In fact, social media and the world of influencing are still the wild west when it comes to children, the adorable little creatures whose images are fueling this industry. This episode got darker than we expected as we try to figure out the psychological and emotional impact of sharing images of children online. There are issues of privacy, of consent, of dignity. These ethical and moral quandaries have no easy answers and the only models we have for what this will look like in twenty years are child stars. And, well, we all know how most of them turned out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
46 min listen
Bonus: Secrets of the Sprakkar with Eliza Reid: As women’s rights are eroding in the United States, our Women’s Day Off (the Internet) is becoming increasingly necessary. While we plan it, we take one more look at Iceland as a model for how to build a better society for everyone and particularly for women. Luckily we don’t have to go too far back this time. We can look at the women who are there right now–specifically Iceland’s first lady, Eliza Reid. In her book, Secrets of the Sprakkar, she tells the stories of extraordinary Icelandic women to illustrate how the country became a leader in gender equality. Jo and Eliza sat down together to talk about the book and how being a mom in Iceland is just different than in the US. With paid paternity leave, less guilt, less judgment, and a strong sense of sisterhood, there’s so much we can learn from Eliza and her country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
28 min listen
Bonus: I Wiped My Kids From My Instagram: A stranger recently approached Jo's kids and their babysitter on the playground. She acted like she knows them, like she knows Jo. But none of it is true. Are you terrified? We sure are.In this bonus episode of Under the Influence Jo commiserates over this crazy incident with top influencer Jess Kirby who completely removed her daughter from Instagram after a similar thing happened to her. Jess made the call so quickly, the way only a mother can do, to wipe her daughter's image offline. Will Jo follow her lead? Is it finally time to take her own children the hell off her Instagram? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
22 min listen
Just Feed the Damn Kids—With Virginia Sole-Smith: Feeding kids is hard. It doesn't matter if you have a sushi-loving toddler or one who eats three beige foods. There is judgement and stigma about everything and it is easy for moms to feel like they are constantly failing. Today we talk to author, podcaster and substacker Virginia Sole-Smith (author of Fat Talk and substacker of Burnt Toast) about how kid food influencers on social media can make mothers feel shame and promote diet culture and anti-fat bias from an incredibly young age. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
43 min listen
Bonus: Pay the Bookstagramers!: Momfluencers aren’t the only online creators that have to fight for fair pay. Bookstagram is full of women posting dreamy photos of books and thoughtful reviews of titles, new and old. Their content drives a ridiculous amount of book sales, but do publishers pay the women making these posts? Rarely...if ever. Mostly they just get free books, which doesn’t exactly pay the bills. Fresh off her own book launch, Jo talks to two bookstagramers who have recently started asking publishers to pay them for their work. They also discuss the power shift that happens when women are allowed to review books, diversity within the bookstagram space, and much more. Buy Jo’s new book, We Are Not Like Them! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
24 min listen
Soft Girls Don't Want Your Hustle with Steph McNeil: Have you heard about #softgirls? They're young women who want to check out of hustle culture. Their greatest dream is to achieve nothing. She doesn't want to be a girl boss. In fact, a lot of them do not want to work for pay at all. She just wants to perfect her skincare regime and do all the Pilates. Are these women aspiring to be little more than trophy wives? Are they the gateway drug to #tradwives and a life of submission to men? We're here to find out with Glamour reporter Stephanie McNeal who wrote a truly excellent piece on the #softgirls for Glamour mag. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
44 min listen
Introducing: The Rise and Fall of LulaRoe: Listen to host Jo Piazza take on the role of guest on a new podcast about the LuLaRoe scandal hosted by Buzzfeed writer Stephanie McNeal.#BecauseofLuLaRoe: The Dream Vs. RealityLuLaRoe’s rise coincided with the rise of influencers and platforms like Facebook Live which retailers used extensively to sell their products and host online events. These platforms became the perfect medium for depicting the aspirational lifestyle that LuLaRoe was selling. Top sellers were encouraged to show off a flashy and upbeat lifestyle by posting about their achievements and using the hashtag #becauseofLuLaRoe. So how did LuLaRoe retailers build their followings online, and what was the reality vs. the image they were creating? Author and Under the Influence podcast host Jo Piazza joins us this week to break down how social media and influencer culture contributed to LuLaRoe’s success. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
35 min listen
Bonus: Third Wheel with Jenny Mollen: The social media influencer has officially replaced the plucky girl journalist as the heroine of choice in women's fiction. The latest and most hilarious example of this is Jenny Mollen's new novel City of Likes, a wickedly funny story about a woman just like us who gets sucked into the maddening web of a mom influencer. Jo got to hop on Jenny's podcast "Third Wheel" this week to chat all about influencers, female friendship, the attention economy and Mormon momfluencers soft swinging with each others husbands. It's everything you want to listen to while you ignore your kids this weekend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
57 min listen
Is a Sick Child Content? With Fortesa Latifi: What line do we cross when we post pictures of sick kids to social media and why does the Instagram algorithm and content machine seem to promote these kinds of images? I am not the only one who gets creeped out when I am served pictures and videos of other people’s sick kids in the hospital. The discomfort is very real. I need to talk through all of my feelings about posting sick kids on Instagram and the money making infrastructure (branded content of sick children) around it which is why I am so excited for today’s guest, Fortesa Latifi. She is a kick ass journalist who is one of the few covering the influencer world seriously and smartly for places like the Washington Post and Teen Vogue. Her recent piece in the Washington Post examined the phenomenon of medical influencers and asked the very important question….why can’t millions of people look away from these pictures being posted of kids during their most vulnerable experiences? by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
32 min listen
Is This The End?: Over the course of a year of reporting on mom influencers we watched the business model evolve and shift in myriad ways. There are brand new mom influencers on TikTok who weren't even doing this when we started the podcast. And they're killing it! Jo talks to some of the moms who are just crushing it on the video platform and, of course, tries to master TikTok herself. How do you think that's going to go? We also look to the future of influencing, starting with a conversation between Jo and Gabrielle Carteris, President of SAG-AFTRA, about bringing influencers into their union. There’s so much possibility for this industry and the women who are a part of it. As we wrap up the season, Jo reflects on all of this and decides where she lands in the fabric of the influencer world. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
39 min listen
Do The Hustle: These days it seems like everyone’s houses look remarkably similar. White kitchens, brushed brass accessories, exposed beams and all the shiplap. Why, you ask? Because we are all under the influence of design influencers. These people log on to Instagram every day and show you, yes you, how to take your older home and make it look newish, modern, but still cozy and old-timey. In a lot of ways this has been a revolutionary and wonderful development: free advice on how to renovate your home at your fingertips. No more subscriptions to design magazines, hiring expensive designers, or spending hours doing research. Nope, it’s right there on Instagram. But, of course, this type of influencing is not without scandal. Often the pressure to perform and establish yourself as a brand has led to overcharging and under providing. And then inevitably, the takedown is much larger than the rise. Ultimately, this episode helps us answer two questions: how does hustle culture lead to can by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
37 min listen
An Intermission: In the past six episodes, we’ve travelled far and wide across Instagram’s momosphere. We’ve gone through the history of influencing, learned how to craft the perfect Instagram post, and weighed the consequences of sharing your life and your kids’ lives online. That last one really weighed on Jo. Learning about the potential dangers of posting about your children on social media was a shock and made her question this entire influencer experiment. This week, we’re taking a mental health break away from the ‘gram to process what we know about this insane world. We’ll be back next week with a full episode, but for now Jo and Glynnis have a quick chat to digest The Sharenthood and discuss whether Jo should continue as an influencer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
18 min listen
Under the Influence Season 2: Just when you thought it was safe to go back on Instagram, we're here to blow everything up. On season 2 of Under the Influence, we’re exploring what it means to be a woman social media. We’re going into different pockets of influencing from teacher influencers, to fertility and mental health influencers, to talk about how Instagram is a reflection of all the ways women are mistreated in our society. And how we might fix that by shutting it all down. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
4 min listen

More Episodes from Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Skip carousel

Help! My Therapist is on TikTok: What would you do if you discovered your therapist was on TikTok? And worse than that...what if they were talking about things YOU told them in therapy. Today we are talking with Bustle writer Kate Lindsay about her reporting on the mental health TikTok stars and the patients who are concerned. There are so many ethical and practical issues surrounding mental health content on social media these days and we are going to dive into all of it. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
47 min listen
Genealogy Influencing is a Real Thing with The Barefoot Genealogist: If it exists in the world there is an influencer for it. And Genealogy and family research is no exception. I found Crista Cowan (The Barefoot Genealogist) while I was trying to solve my great great grandmother's murder for the Sicilian Inheritance true crime podcast and I became fascinated by how she uses her platform and her position as Ancestry's Corporate Genealogist to help people climb their family trees, but more importantly to help them shape their identities and how they move in the world. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
40 min listen
Meatfluencers with Nick Aster: Let's journey into a strange corner of social media filled with uncomfortably buff men chowing down on raw meat. Yes, meatfluencing is a thing. My special guest is Nick Aster, my very own husband, who I will try to convince to become a meatfluencer to put our kids through college. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
32 min listen
Messy Women and Money with Jean Chatzky: There is a prevailing narrative around women and money that says women are a mess financially. It isn't true! And we are talking about that today with Her Money podcast host and personal finance guru Jean Chatzky. We dispel the myths that women aren't good with money. We talk about how to save for college and retirement and we dive into why influencers can create dangerous expectations when it comes to investing. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
39 min listen
Taping Your Mouth Shut and Influencers in Books: For a long time every novel I read or rom com that I watched contained a lady journalist, or a hard-hitting ad executive. And about two years ago all those characters became influencers. Now about every other novel I read has an influencer character and I don't know if I like it. Today I talk to the journalist and novelist Sheila Marikar about her decision to write influencers into her new book Friends in Napa. I also have a bonus conversation from the car (DRIVING IN CARS WITH JO) with Glynnis MacNicol about why she is taping her mouth shut when she sleeps. The answer has to do with Gwyneth Paltrow. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
44 min listen
Touched Out with Amanda Montei: I'm touched out. I say that all the time. Before I became a parent I didn't know that was possible. But once I became a mom my body was no longer my own; it belonged to my children. But I didn't have a way to talk about the feeling of being touched out until I read the stunning book by Amanda Montei of the same name—TOUCHED OUT. There is an expectation gap between what we imagine motherhood looks like and what it actually is and the cultural script for motherhood has often been written by men. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
42 min listen
Blowing Up Your Life (To Follow Your Dreams) with Elle Cosimano: Bestselling author Elle Cosimano (of the famed Finlay Donovan series) was miserable in her job working in real estate. Then her mother offered to care for her children for the summer and take on the physical and mental load of parenting so that Elle could try to write her own book. That moment of receiving permission to do something for herself, completely changed Elle's life and put her on the path to writing her first book, to finding an agent, to publishing a book and then many books and then hitting the bestseller lists. And along the way Elle connected with other women who were also blowing up their lives to switch careers to become authors. Those women inspired her every single day to keep going. This is about women lifting each other up and supporting one another unconditionally. It is about the fear and shame and guilt many of us have about doing something that seems selfish, that is for ourselves. Elle Cosim by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
45 min listen
Sunday Nice Things: Sex and Cheese in Paris with Glynnis MacNicol: On today's Sunday Nice things we have an episode of the podcast Your New Life Blend with my dear friend, soul mate and constant companion Glynnis MacNicol talking all about her new memoir about eating all of the cheese and delicious food and having all of the sex in Paris. Glynnis MacNicol spent the long stretch of COVID lockdown mostly alone in small Upper West Side apartment, mostly without really touching another person. So by summer 2021, after vaccines had rolled out and restrictions were finally lifting, she jumped at the chance to stay at a friend's apartment in Paris, and immediately bought a plane ticket out of her pandemic-imposed solitude. Landing in Paris she found a city just waking up from its own lockdown, and felt in Parisians all around her the same urgent, greedy desire to enjoy every pleasure life had to offer - food (cheese, croissants, chocolate), community (in-person, Zoom be damned), and connect by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
47 min listen
Default Parenting and the Mental Load with Renee Reina: Renee Reina worked on her PhD in psychology for ten years. Then the pandemic happened and she started making TikToks and podcasts about mom life with her eighteen month old. When that started making money she decided to pursue content creation as a career path instead of what she refers to as a "real job." Why don't we consider what women do online a "real job?" That's just one of the things we are diving into today. Renee talks about ambition and guilt and shame and mental load and I would argue she is still using her PhD every day to help women and mothers. She simply isn't using it the way white men have used PhDs for the past 200 years. Just a little bit of what we are touching on in this episode: How can we enjoy our lives more? Does being the default parent make it harder to enjoy life? Are a lot of the things that cause us stress self-inflicted? Why do clean houses on social media piss me off the most? by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
37 min listen
Trad Dads and Dad Guilt: Sam Dogen offered himself up to me as a sacrificial lamb when he wrote to me and told me that he was the male equivalent of the trad wife. He was kidding. But Sam is a stay-at-home dad who is the primary caregiver for his children and today we talk about the stigma and judgement he feels for having taken on that role. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
45 min listen
Sunday Nice Things: LORENZA: Dropping the Sicilian Inheritance true crime podcast into your feeds while she is hot. This show is a gonzo adventure. It is White Lotus Meets Only Murders in the Building and I am Selena Gomez and Nick is Steve Martin and Charlie is Martin Short. Here is the official fancy description of episode two. Journalist Jo Piazza’s family has been playing a hundred year long game of telephone about the murder of her great great grandmother Lorenza Marsala. Family members who have gone back to Sicily to discover the truth, including Jo’s dad have been shut down by authorities and threatened by seemingly supernatural forces. But Jo is determined, maybe even a little obsessed, to cut through the stories, the lies and the mythologies to find out the truth, even if her family members don’t want her to. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
37 min listen
The Great Bookstagram Revolution with Jordy's Book Club: I love book influencers! They're my biggest hype people. And my guest this week is Jordan Moblo, but you might know him better as Jordy's Book Club. Jordy's Book Club has more than 140,000 followers. That is a lot of influence and clout my friends. And I don't think it's giving him too much credit to say that Jordy's recommendations, really can help an author find new readers. I love our conversation today because we're really gonna dig in to how we can create more respect in the book influencing ecosystem. How can we all meet one another's needs? And how can we value the people who are selling books for publishers and authors? And also, what can we all learn from book influencers about growing our own personal brands online and how to share our passions with the world? by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
40 min listen
Nice Things: Healthy Screen Habits for Families: Hillary Wilkinson found the need to take a big look at technology when her children began asking for their own devices. Quickly overwhelmed, she found that the hard and fast rules in other areas of life became difficult to uphold in the digital world. As a teacher and a mom of 2, Hillary believes the key to healthy screen habits lies in empowering our kids through education and awareness. We are the first generation to parent while balancing screens, life, and family. Each episode on the Healthy Screen Habits podcast features insights, tips, and takeaways to help parents make informed decisions on how to help their family live a healthy digital life. Parenting is hard. Technology can make it tricky. Hillary uses this podcast to help bring these areas together to help all families create healthy screen habits. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
52 min listen
Bite-Sized Bits of Mindfulness: Twenty minutes a day of mediation seems pretty out of reach for most moms. Frankly five minutes of meditation seems pretty out of reach. Today we are talking to clinical psychologist Kathryn Barbash about ways to bring mindfulness into your daily life that will actually work for you as a busy parent. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
39 min listen
Embracing Uncertainty in Life and Parenting with Maggie Jackson: Is a daily dose of uncertainty exactly what we need? Is embracing uncertainty instead of fearing it the answer to happier and more curious parenting? I believe that my guest today is one of the most interesting writers and thinkers talking about social trends and technology's impact on humanity today. Maggie Jackson's new book Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure has shaken up my brain in many new and wonderful ways. Today we discuss how we can be challenged by uncertainty and also really thrive in it. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
37 min listen
Sunday Nice Things: Parenting with Empathy, from Pop Culture Moms: Sharing an episode of another podcast Jo is loving: Pop Culture Moms. Andie and Sabrina are toddler moms and best friends of 20 years. They’re taking their obsession with TV and movies to the next level by talking to celebrities, writers and fellow “scholars” of pop culture about what they can learn from the fictional moms they love most. In this episode: Some of the best moms on TV right now are cartoons. We hear from Deena Margolin and Kristin Gallant, the moms behind parenting resource Big Little Feelings and co-hosts of the podcast, After Bedtime, about what the mothers in Bluey and Daniel Tiger are doing right. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
29 min listen
White Lotus Meets Only Murders in the Building — The Sicilian Inheritance True Crime Podcast: It's finally here! The true-crime podcast where I try to solve my great great grandmother Lorenza's murder that The Sicilian Inheritance is based on. DO NOT WORRY there are no book spoilers. These were created to be enjoyed together...companions, not spoilers. Journalist Jo Piazza’s family has been playing a hundred year long game of telephone about the murder of her great great grandmother Lorenza Marsala. Family members who have gone back to Sicily to discover the truth, including Jo’s dad have been shut down by authorities and threatened by seemingly supernatural forces. But Jo is determined, maybe even a little obsessed, to cut through the stories, the lies and the mythologies to find out the truth, even if her family members don’t want her to. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
37 min listen
Midlife Career Switching to be a Post-Partum Doula: Today kicks off our miniseries of women who have switched careers in midlife. My friend Corynne Cirilli used to be a gossip columnist and entertainment journalist with me. After having kids she took a career pause and then trained to be a post-partum doula! We dig into how Corynne decided she was passionate about post-partum care and how she used that passion to make a massive change in her own life after taking a career pause to have her babies. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
43 min listen
Who Wants to Work at Buckingham Palace?: All the latest on the dumpster fire coming out of Buckingham Palace. Apparently the royals think NOW is a good time to hire a new communications assistant. And Jo has applied for the job! Also Donald Trump has weighed in on Kate-gate and he has thoughts....thoughts that might surprise you. All that and more with our resident Kate expert Caro Claire Burke. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
32 min listen
Facing Setbacks and Fostering Ambition: Today we're going to talk about two things that we don't talk about nearly often enough—career setbacks and women's ambition. And these things have way more to do with one another than we might think. I genuinely believe that our ambition only increases or has the potential to increase after a setback. That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring on both of today's guests. We will be hearing from business strategist and all over hype woman Amanda Wagner about why ambition should never be considered a dirty word. We need to be allowed to be ambitious in all of the things—our careers, our parenting, our relationships etc. We are also chatting with the author and journalist Amy Shoenthal. whose book The Setback Cycle is all about working through life's inevitable setbacks and coming back stronger than ever. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
41 min listen
#FarmLife in Real Life with Sayer Palmer: A lot of things get fetishized on Instagram and #farmlife is one of them. Farm life on social media is often portrayed as hazy, beautiful, aspirational leisure. We rarely, if ever, see the hard actual work that goes into farming, the backbreaking labor and the intense costs of maintaining a farm. We do see a lot of chickens and beautiful blue eggs, but never the dirt under the fingernails or the fields that have failed due to unpredictable weather patterns. We don't see these things because they aren't always pretty and perfect. And social media thrives on pretty and perfect. Today we're talking about what it's really like to be a woman farmer. What it's really like to work your land and what it's really like to depend on your farm for a living. Our guest is Sayer Palmer, a vegetable farmer and a mom who tries to juggle work-life with mom life. This is the beautiful reality of living on a farm, not the dream of it. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
29 min listen
Sunday Nice Things: Back to the Babysitters Club: Who wants to enjoy a little bit of nostalgia this Sunday morning? Join Jo on the magical and wonderful happy-making Stuck in Stonybrook podcast where they revisit our favorite childhood series through a modern (and often feminist) lens. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
60 min listen
Influence, Books and Bookclubs with Zibby Owens: How do YOU discover new books that you love? I think that people want to read what other people are reading. I think we are desperate for water cooler conversation about books, the kind we used to have before everyone had Stanley Cups. Today we are digging into the world of book influence with Zibby Owens (AUTHOR OF THE NEW NATIONAL BESTSELLER BLANK). Zibby has been at the forefront of getting books to people for the past decade as a podcaster of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, as an event planner and content creator and now as a publisher and bookstore owner. She freaking does it all. And today we are digging into it all, including spilling a little tea on how those celebrity book clubs actually work. She's done all of the things. She's been a podcaster, a content creator and event planner. And now she's a publisher and a bookstore owner. This woman lives and breathes books. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
41 min listen
What the Heck is Happening with Kate Middleton with Caro Burke: Very important topic today in this emergency episode—what the heck is going on with Kate Middleton? We do a deep dive into all the conspiracy theories (and how the Swifties are involved), the specifics of the photo manipulation, why people even give a flying eff and most importantly what this has to do with how we treat women in the media. We also have to talk about how we cover brands, because make no mistake the Royal family is a celebrity brand that is failing spectacularly at their crisis management right now. And of course...the question everyone is asking...is Kate Middleton a tradwife? Here to give us a primer and some incredibly astute commentary is none other than Caro Claire Burke, the only person I actually follow on TikTok. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
58 min listen
How to be Fabulous at Every Age with Lyn Slater: "If we weren't so afraid of being old, we could have a vision in our head of what we could be when we are an older woman." — Lyn Slater In 2014, Lynn Slater became an accidental icon when she started a fashion blog and Instagram account in her early sixties. The media went wild and all of the stories focused on how she was an older woman who dared to talk about style and fashion and put it out there on the Internet. Lyn rode the influencing wave for nearly a decade before she decided she wanted to take more control of her narrative. As she approached her 70th birthday she began writing her new book How to Be Old. I love this book. I love that Lyn is taking the piss out of everyone that only wanted to describe her as an old woman. And I gained so much knowledge about how now in my forties, I can start to plan for who I want to be in my fifties and my sixties and my seventies. This book is filled with so much wisdom for women of all a by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
46 min listen
Let's Talk About Perimenopause and Getting Older with Stacy London: Gen X is the scrappiest generation and we might just be the generation to change how we think about and treat perimenopause. Today we get to talk to my dear friend Stacy London about perimenopause and perimenopause influencers. When Stacy was going through perimenopause herself advocacy and education for women's healthcare became her new passion and her new business. Stacy has worked her ass off to break through the noise and the b.s. around perimenopause and we are going to get into all of it. ALL OF IT. There is value in age. As Stacy so wisely tells me in this episode: Menopause is Mother Nature's biological fail safe to make you sit up and realize that you don't have an expiration date but the values that you held when you were younger do. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
53 min listen
Bonus: A Sicilian Road Trip With My Best Friend: There is nothing better than leaving your children and going on vacation with your best friend. My own BF Jackie crashed my reporting trip in Sicily this week (much to my delight) and it reminded me of the importance of both travel and girlfriend time. This does not sound like every other episode of UTI, but I thought maybe you might like to be in a car with us on this weird journey in Sicily. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
34 min listen
How Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls: Social media is incredibly toxic for women and girls. I say this all the time, and sometimes I start to feel like a real conspiracy theorist, like the social media version of a prepper telling you to build a tunnel under your house with lots of canned goods, but it is still something I truly believe. My guest today is Kara Alaimo, the author of OVER THE INFLUENCE (a book, not my substack). It looks at how social media is affecting every single aspect of the lives of women and girls from our parenting to how we date to our careers and our physical safety. But it also gives practical tips about what we can do about it, as users, as creators and as lawmakers to solve a problem that is not just going to go away. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
32 min listen
Sunday Nice Things: The Silver Chain: Today's Sunday Nice Things has everything that you want in a Sunday listen—swingers, the seventies and puritanical Minnesota. From my friends who bring you the Terrible Thanks for Asking podcast comes a new show called Time Capsule: The Silver Chain. This is an 8-episode “true no-crime” documentary podcast that delves into the secret world of partner-swapping suburbanites in 1970s Minnesota. Newsletters from an abandoned safe deposit box set host Paul Ditty on an investigation to learn all he can about The Silver Chain – a suburban Minnesota swing club from the 1970s – and its members. Paul attempts to reach several of the club's members. No one will talk until finally he reaches Carol, one of the club’s founders who eventually agrees to talk. But just as Paul is on his way to Modesto, an email from Carol's daughter changes his course. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
43 min listen
Grief is for People with Sloane Crosley: There is no one-size fits all cure for grief. It's something you just have to go through and we all go through it in different ways. There has recently been a rise in grief influencers on Instagram and some of them can be quite predatory, targeting people at their most vulnerable time to purchase things like course to overcome their grief. Some of them are also wonderful and helpful. Like everything on social media there is a spectrum. Here to talk to me about all of this today is Sloane Crosley, author of the gorgeous new book Grief is for People. You will want this book in your life and this conversation, even though it was about grief, brought me so much joy. Quick warning, this episode does talk about death by suicide so please take care while listening. by Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
48 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Magical Overthinking with Amanda Montell

Magical Overthinking with Amanda Montell

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Under the Influence with Jo Piazza