Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
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.
Episodes
September 17, 2024 • 30 mins
Let's take a deep dive into the intensely dramatic and overly scandalous new reality show The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Joining me today is New York Times columnist Jessica Grose to dissect the deeper meanings behind all the Botox, swinging scandals and brattiness. Like them or not, these women are attempting to dismantle the patriarchy in their own way and they've gained a ton of power and money through social media. Come for ...
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September 12, 2024 • 45 mins
It's Jo's 44th birthday. We've got a little advice, a little hilarity and a brand new podcast to share with you. Jo has been working on a new show with @EmilyinYourPhone called We've Got Issues. It's a politics show that will actually give you some hope again, will make you laugh a little and will help you start hard conversations with friends and loved ones about this insane election.
This week we are talking about the realities o...
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September 10, 2024 • 47 mins
Raised by a single mother in Dayton, Ohio, Macy Eleni began thrifting at age 12 out of financial necessity and to help escape anxiety from bullies and an estranged relationship with her father. Over a decade later, Macy has built a massive TikTok platform around her love of second hand and vintage finds, and the belief that authentic self expression is crucial for mental health.
Macy has created a sustainable niche amidst the hype...
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September 5, 2024 • 62 mins
When you're a mom two things can feel impossible, making new friends and making dinner. In today's episode we are joined by NYT bestselling author Caroline Chambers of the What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking substack to talk all about her book of the same name. We're digging into how hard it can be to build community, but how wonderful it is when you do it. We will also chat about how Caroline took a rejected cookbook ide...
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September 3, 2024 • 37 mins
Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. Let's dive into a gothic true tale of murder, sex, jealousy and mayhem in paradise. In Eden Undone Abbott Kahler tells the story of the German ex-pats who tried to build themselves a utopia in the Galapagos Islands with dire consequences. This story has so much to tell us about fame and infamy and the pursuit of both. Just like today's homesteading influencers who claim to go off the grid in...
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September 1, 2024 • 49 mins
It's been a year since the release of the Wilder podcast about the life and legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder! Thousands of people have listened to the Wilder podcast and continue to keep the dialogue about Laura’s life and legacy alive. Glynnis and Jo published books. But perhaps most importantly, the Little House on the Prairie TV show turned 50! To prepare for this momentous anniversary in early September (and Glynnis’ 50th birthda...
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August 29, 2024 • 49 mins
Astrology is all over the social medias, for better or worse. Here to guide us through it today is a woman who has been reading the stars for women's mags since before Facebook was a glimmer in Zuck's eye. We're joined by Ophira Edut, one half of the AstroTwins, the official astrologers for ELLE magazine and the matchmakers on Amazon Prime Video’s Cosmic Love.
What can astrology tell us about what is happening right now and how we ...
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August 27, 2024 • 26 mins
In light of the recent attacks on Gus Walz for showing a beautiful display of emotion when his dad took the stage at the DNC we are discussing how dangerous it is when men are not allowed to show a wide range of emotions. Too many men are taught that they can't experience anything except for rage and that is simply unacceptable. Today we are joined by our husband in residence Nick Aster to talk about how to raise boys to have all t...
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August 15, 2024 • 47 mins
Do #TradWives have any real basis in American history? Are they nostalgia or mythology? Here to unpack it is journalist Clara Bingham, the author of The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973.
What made #TradWives so popular in the 50s and 60s? Was it real or was it advertising? Aren't today's social media #TradWives just performing and creating advertisements of domesticity for brand deals? Let's dig in!
Yo...
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August 13, 2024 • 47 mins
Never forget that if it exists in the world there is an influencer for it. Welcome to the world of HENFLUENCERS where people dance and drink and sing with their chickens for their millions of followers. They're selling $20 chicken coops and shipping baby chickens through the mail. Once you go down the henfluencing rabbit hole you might not come back and culture reporter Tove Danovich is here to tell us everything. Tove is the autho...
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August 6, 2024 • 38 mins
What will the future really look like under Project 2025? Tia Levings escaped an abusive marriage and has since transformed her life through years of trauma therapy. With her new book, A Well-Trained Wife, she's shedding light on the dangers of the Christian patriarchy and its insidious infiltration into American politics. Complacency is not an option. Whether you're a die-hard feminist or just beginning to question patriarchal nor...
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August 4, 2024 • 60 mins
Today's Sunday Nice Things manages to combine two of my favorite women to listen to—Krista Tippett, the journalist and creator of On Being and Kelly Corrigan, NYTimes bestselling author, radio host and all around funny and brilliant lady. This is an episode of a truly wonderful podcast called Kelly Corrigan Wonders. This is a place for people who like to laugh while they think and find it useful to look closely at ourselves and our...
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August 1, 2024 • 45 mins
How can parents save their kids from social media addiction? What can we be doing right now to make the digital world better for all children? The answer is that there is so much we can be working on. Today we're chatting with Julie Scelfo, the founder of MAMA. MAMA is a grassroots group of parents standing up to big tech and reclaiming the power of parents to fight media addiction in our homes, our schools and our communities. You...
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July 30, 2024 • 43 mins
Being a woman in the world isn't easy. Being a mom isn't easy. How do we find time for ourselves when we're caring for everyone and everything around us? Today's we're talking to Liz Tenety, co-founder of Mother.ly about the impossible standards society places on mothers and how to redefine success and ambition while juggling tiny humans.
Follow all things Mother.ly here.
Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter here.
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July 28, 2024 • 24 mins
Here are 43 pieces of good advice that do not suck, gleaned from a life that is aging like a fine cheese.
Read the original 43 pieces of advice for 43 years newsletter here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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July 25, 2024 • 45 mins
A new interview with the CEOs of the Ballerina Farm brand reveals startling never-before-heard details about their lives together, their courtship and their plans for the future. But it also reflects strict conservative political views that directly mirror those expressed at the recent Republican National Convention. Come with us as we go deep into the latest on the Ballerina Farm brand with momfluencing expert Sara Petersen.
Subs...
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July 23, 2024 • 58 mins
Join Glynnis and I as we talk about our aging and changing bodies and the wildly popular books that dive into perimenopause and menopause. We talk about middle-aged women in the starring roles of our own life and why we need more steamy sexy TV shows and movies with real women with real bodies in their forties and fifties.
Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter here.
Buy The Sicilian Inheritance here.
Order Glynnis's book I...
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July 21, 2024 • 65 mins
This week on Sunday Nice Things we are bringing you an episode of The Only One in the Room, a podcast by writer Laura Cathcart Robbins about what it is like to be the "only" in a variety of situations. In this show comedian and writer Jodi Miller discusses being the only single mother in the room. Jodi tells the story behind adopting her daughter, which included a last minute and unexpected phone call from her lawyer instructing he...
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July 18, 2024 • 46 mins
Before Judy Blume was JUDY EFFING BLUME she was a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey.
Today we're talking to Rachelle Bergstein, the author of the new book The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood For All Of Us about how the story behind how Judy transformed her life after having her kids, how she dealt with early rejections and nasty reviews and why she remains so damn ...
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July 16, 2024 • 45 mins
Victoria Hunter went viral on Instagram for her unconventional depiction of a 'trad wife.' Dressed in a long modest dress, Victoria identified herself as a bisexual advocate of trans rights whose husband does all the cooking. The Internet went crazy for it.
But Victoria doesn't consider herself a tradwife. She just likes the aesthetic (as does every woman who shops at Doen) and she used that viral moment and her increase in followe...
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