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
May 21, 2026 • 47 mins
Years ago, Spencer Pratt was dismissed as a fame-hungry reality TV idiot with frosted facial hair and a crystal obsession. But looking back? He may have understood modern media better than almost anyone else on television.
Now he’s running for mayor of Los Angeles.
Jo digs into the strange pipeline from reality TV to political power, why audiences are drawn to “outsider” candidates they already feel connected to, and how the atte...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 19, 2026 • 48 mins
If you loved Yesteryear — or absolutely hated it — a lot of you have been asking the same question: what should I read next?
This week on Under the Influence, we’re diving into the ultimate post-Yesteryear reading list, from influencer thrillers and feminist rage novels to nonfiction deep dives into tradwives, Christian patriarchy, mommy influencers, and the very real cost of turning domesticity into content. We’re talking The Ste...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 14, 2026 • 38 mins
Social media has changed pregnancy in a big way. Between picture-perfect bumps, “effortless” births and endless advice, it’s easy to feel like you’re not measuring up. But it’s also made space for more honest and authentic conversations—the parts of pregnancy that aren’t camera-ready.
In this episode, we talk with journalist Fortesa Latifi, author of Like, Follow, Subscribe, and Ayla Woodruff, an influencer and mom with millions o...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 12, 2026 • 40 mins
There's a very specific kind of rage that comes from realizing that the rules were rigged against you the entire time. As women, we were told that we could have ambition, careers, power, money, independence, all of the things, that we could have it all, but only if we managed to pursue all of it while we also remained endlessly agreeable, attractive, maternal, selfless, accommodating, emotionally available, and completely non-thr...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 9, 2026 • 16 mins
Happy weekend! Here's a sneak peek of the first chapter of Jo van Gogh's story in The Parisian Heist. Just in case you needed a little taste before getting your orders in. In the past timeline of this book we are telling the untold story of Jo van Gogh, Vincent's sister in law who inherited his hundreds of worthless paintings and dedicated her life to making him a household name. She is the reason you know him so well today.
ORD...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 7, 2026 • 39 mins
A Wall Street Journal headline about a powerful female executive spending “only” three hours a weekend with her kids turned into an internet blood sports. So we unpack why. In this episode, we get into the outrage around Skims executive Emma Grede, the impossible standards put on mothers, and why no one ever asks dads to account for every minute they spend parenting.
Join our newsletter community here.
ORDER The Parisian Heist ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
May 5, 2026 • 50 mins
What happens when you step inside the internet? In this episode, we head to the Ballerina Farm farm shop in Midway, Utah and the Ballerina Farm Dairy (and get a tour with none other than Daniel Neeleman himself).
Come, watch and listen in real time as the branding does exactly what it’s designed to do: make you believe that if you just buy the gingham tote or the sourdough starter or the beef tallow, maybe your life could look...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 30, 2026 • 45 mins
Art has a branding problem.
Somewhere along the way, we decided it was only for rich people, or academics living in their ivory towers
Liz Lidgett is changing that.
Liz opened a gallery right before the world shut down during the pandemic, started putting art on Instagram when no one could leave their homes, and built a following by making the art world feel way more human.
We talk about how to live with art instead of being in...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 28, 2026 • 46 mins
What does it mean to move through the world at a human pace? To ramble and wander and chat up strangers in real life?
This week, we sit down with writer Isaac Fitzgerald to talk about his new book American Rambler and what happens when you decide to walk across America and follow in the footsteps of Johnny Appleseed.
These great American yappers get into the idea that midlife is a second coming-of-age, why wandering might be the...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 23, 2026 • 42 mins
Ask Jo anything this week. We've got a grab bag of audience questions and completely unfiltered responses to things like:
What’s the biggest lie women are being sold right now?
Can you actually “have it all”?
How do you stop feeling like you’re failing every day?
How does it feel to be in your 40s (body, confidence, not giving a f*)
How often do you get Botox?
What’s it like bringing a kid on a work trip?
What...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 21, 2026 • 55 mins
There's nothing I love more than quietly reading. I love it alone. I love it in groups. But I especially love doing it in public, with the rest of the world buzzing around me, all absorbed in their own little worlds. What if the antidote to burnout, loneliness, and the attention economy was… sitting in a room with strangers and reading quietly?
This week, I’m talking to Guinevere de la Mare, the co-founder of Silent Book Club, a g...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 16, 2026 • 47 mins
We’ve become an indoor species and it is making us sick and burnt out.
Today we're chatting with Dr. John La Puma about the indoor epidemic and what happens when we spend almost all of our time inside under artificial light and on screens.
We break down what that’s doing to sleep, mood, and focus. Dr. La Puma explains how something as simple as stepping outside each day for 17 minutes can reset your brain, improve sleep, and hel...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 14, 2026 • 56 mins
Jo’s new true crime obsession started with a trip to Midway, Utah.
She was there for an event at Folklore bookstore and a visit to Ballerina Farm Dairy, and within about five minutes of driving around town someone pointed at a house and said, “that’s the murder house.” At which point she needed to know everything.
This is the story of Kouri Richins, the Utah mom who poisoned her husband with fentanyl (after sending a text to her ...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 9, 2026 • 44 mins
A third of Gen Z men think wives should obey their husbands. This generation of young men, ages 14 to 29, is getting more conservative by the day. How? Why? And can we reverse it?
To figure it out, we talk with Gen Z strategist and creator Haley Lickstein about what the hell is going on with young men and how much of it is the internet’s fault. And what about the women? Are they fighting back or also moving backwards? From the r...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
How does something marketed as healing, empowerment, and connection start to slide down the slippery slope of becoming a sex cult?
That's just one part of Star Stone’s story inside OneTaste, the sexual wellness company built around “orgasmic meditation,” that sits right on that blurry line between wellness program and cult.
Star takes us from the Bay Area wellness scene of the 2010s to today’s influencer-driven “healing” economy...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
April 2, 2026 • 46 mins
How do you make a move when you have no idea what comes next?
Jen Shahade has spent her life inside the world of chess as a two-time U.S. women’s chess champion and the author of many books about chess including her latest Thinking Sideways, a book that uses chess as a way to think better, live better, and stop pretending we can plan ten moves ahead in a world that changes nineteen times a day.
Get Jen's book here!
Join our news...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 31, 2026 • 53 mins
We're often told or indoctrinated to believe motherhood is supposed to be magical, fulfilling, your highest calling, the thing that finally makes everything make sense. And yet so many women are quietly unraveling and filled with rage.
This week we sit down with Libby Ward—the hilarious creator behind Diary of an Honest Mom, and author of Honest Motherhood—to talk about the reality of parenting colliding with the expectations we’v...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 26, 2026 • 44 mins
Time to do a deep dive into breaking celebrity news and what it’s revealing about our culture right now.
Our guest is Dan Wakeford, a longtime force in entertainment journalism and one of the smartest editors to come out of the celebrity magazine era. He’s now launching a new newsletter, Celebrity Intelligence, built on real reporting, no rumor-chasing and no AI sludge.
We dig into the cancellation of The Bachelorette after the T...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
March 24, 2026 • 53 mins
Why have women been told the only choices are girlboss or tradwife, lean in or opt out, burnout or retreat? We're chatting with author and coach Megan Hellerer about why that binary is so false and so seductive, especially for women who did everything “right” and still wound up exhausted, anxious, and unhappy. Megan shares how she went from Stanford to a dream job at Google to panic attacks on the bathroom floor, and how that break...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
An emergency episode is needed because the Bachelorette just got canceled before it even started and it's just so Secret Lives of Mormon Wives......
ABC pulled Taylor Frankie Paul’s entire season after a video resurfaced from a 2023 incident that was already public and very much part of her story on Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
None of this is new and ABC knew exactly who they were casting to try to revive the corpse of the Bac...
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.