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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

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

45:36

Who Told Us Our 20s Were the Best Part? (The Midlife...

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/10/06

What if everything we were told about midlife is wrong?This week, we’re talking to Gabrielle Moss, co-author of The Midlife Plot Twist, about why your 40s can be the moment you finally stop living according to decisions you made at 22 and start asking what you actually want. We talk about our culture’s bizarre obsession with youth, why women are allowed to age but apparently not look like they’re aging, and what pop culture still gets wrong about women in their 40s. We also get into disappearing

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42:02

In the Wake of the Cornell 7, How Can We Raise Good Men?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/10/01

What happens when boys learn about masculinity from the internet before they learn how to understand their own emotions?Jo talks with Peggy Orenstein, author of Boys & Sex, about the forces shaping young men long before they reach college, the locker room or the frat house. They dig into the extraordinary influence of figures like Andrew Tate, how social media algorithms can turn curiosity into increasingly extreme ideas, and why simply keeping kids away from harmful content is no longer

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43:27

You Don't Have to Burn It Down: The Midlife Plot...

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/29

This week we start a two-part series on how not to blow up your life in midlife, with Gabrielle Moss, co-author of The Midlife Plot Twist: How to Reboot Your Life Without Burning It Down, Even If You Really, Really Want To.Gabby spent her career writing about pop culture, so she knows exactly how badly it has served women over forty. We get into why the midlife crisis went from a serious idea to a punchline about men and convertibles, why the '80s sitcoms were doing this better than anything on

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41:01

The Last Free Women of Afghanistan

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/24

Rebecca Blumenstein helped get 124 people out of Kabul when the city fell. Diana Kapp had been reporting on Afghan girls since 2012. Their new book, The Last Free Women, follows four of those young women through five years of starting over in America, learning English, going back to college, and carrying the weight of everyone they left behind. We talk about what's happened to women in Afghanistan since 2021, why the five-year anniversary went almost uncovered, and why this story deserves a spot on

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42:18

Chasing Cozy: The Birthday Episode With Jane Green

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/22

We’re coming to you poolside on Jo's birthday from Marrakech with bestselling author Jane Green for a conversation about the things we learn as we get older, wiser and more bad ass.We talk about choosing the people who choose you, trusting your gut, learning the art of discernment and realizing you’re allowed to build the life you actually want. We get into raising independent kids, why they need room to fail, friendships that have seasons, learning to say no and why aging makes it much easier to

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44:47

Can a Chatbot Love You Back?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/17

Bridget Todd used to read the headlines about people proposing to ChatGPT and write those people off as sad and strange. Then she heard tech leaders describe AI companionship as the future they are building for everyone, and realized dismissing it was not a plan.This week we talk with the award-winning podcaster behind There Are No Girls on the Internet about her new audiobook, Love at First Prompt: AI and the Future of Intimacy, written with social scientist Michael S. Amato and published by

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47:36

The Lone Liberal on Fox News Wrote the Book on...

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/15

Jessica Tarlov has one of the strangest jobs in American media. Five days a week she sits at a table on Fox News' The Five as the lone liberal, arguing in front of millions of people who mostly do not agree with her. Everyone asks her the same question, and it comes from both parties: how do you do that without losing your mind?Her new book, I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends, is her answer. This week we talk with Jessica about building a data-based worldview, the hardest days

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45:55

How Can We Save Child Stars ? Would You Buy Sydney...

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/10

We're dropping an episode of a brand new celebrity news podcast in your feed today. Celebrity Intelligence: The Lowdown. Jo's a lead producer and host on this one and she's joined by her longtime colleague and dear friend, Dan Wakeford.What happens when you become famous before you know who you are? This week on Celebrity Intelligence: The Lowdown, we dig into the darker side of growing up famous and ask whether there's any way to make child stardom less toxic. Could AI be the answer? One expert

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44:03

"How Not to Look Like Shit": Bobbi Brown on Makeup,...

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/08

Bobbi Brown started Bobbi Brown Cosmetics out of her garage while pregnant in 1990. Four and a half years in, Estée Lauder called and said we want to buy you, and she said okay, mostly because she did not really know what a brand was yet. She stayed on for 22 years as an employee of the company that owned her own name. When she finally left, she still had four and a half years left on a non-compete, which meant she was legally not allowed to make a single beauty product. So she renovated a hotel,

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33:55

Sunday Nice Things: Did Emily Ruin Paris?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/06

Today we're sharing an episode from another podcast I think you'll enjoy: The Global Story from the BBC.The question they’re tackling is a great one: Did Emily Ruin Paris?Whether you love Emily in Paris, hate-watch it, or just can't escape it, there's no denying it's had a huge impact. The show has turned cafés, streets and neighbourhoods into tourist hotspots, and even won praise from French President Emmanuel Macron for putting France in the global spotlight.But what happens when a TV show

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37:50

The Tradwife Era Is Over. So Why Are We Still Obsessed?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/03

Why are smart, progressive, left-voting women are still watching tradwife content? Even after the trend has peaked? Author Claire Swinarski has also written a tradwife novel entitled The Supper Club Saints. Today we're chatting about how Yesteryear became such a phenomenon and whether the book's success is really about giving women a socially acceptable place to put their rage. We also get into why the girlboss-versus-tradwife binary is failing everybody. Claire's new novel is The Supper Club

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38:11

An OBGYN's Cheat Sheet for Getting Taken Seriously

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/09/01

Dr. Tracy Shevell is an OBGYN who has spent 25 years in women's intimate spaces, and she has watched the system fail women over and over. Her goal is to help women get them better care by telling them how to work within a broken system.Tracy tells us the exact phrasing to use going to the doctor or walking into an emergency room, and why describing your symptoms honestly and expecting the system to respond correctly is not always the best strategy. She talks about why many OBGYNs are not trained

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49:49

Pour Yourself a Cup of Ambition: Remembering Dolly

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/26

Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at 80, and she may have been the last thing Americans agreed on. We're replaying this episode in her honor. Our conversation with Will Bonfiglio, the WashU lecturer behind a wildly popular college course on Dolly, is about how the country icon became a cultural unifier across politics, class, gender, and generations. From Dollywood to "9 to 5" to her million-dollar vaccine donation, this is a conversation about kindness, capitalism, and why Dolly Parton was an uber

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35:55

Why We Need Paid Leave Right Now

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/25

The United States is basically the only country in the world without paid family and medical leave, and we are not okay with it. This week, Dawn Huckelbridge of the Paid Leave for All campaign joins us to break down what paid leave actually is (no, FMLA doesn't count), who it's really for (everyone — parents, the sandwich generation, gig workers, you), and why it's a winning issue with 91% of Americans behind it. We bust the biggest myths, including the lie that it hurts small businesses, celebrate

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19:14

Sunday Nice Things: A New Book You'll Absolutely Love

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/23

This week on Under the Influence Sunday Nice Things, we have a book rec you will LOVE. Jennifer Herrera’s Siren Says, a magical, sexy, gloriously witchy novel about embracing your power and finding your confidence as a woman. We have a quick chat with Jennifer about the ancient story that inspired the book, botanical magic, the wisdom women pass down through generations, and why so many of our myths about powerful women have been lost or overlooked. Plus, spell jars, the power of belief, and why we

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40:37

Why We Keep Underestimating Conservative Women

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/20

For years we've been laughing at tradwives.We've mocked the prairie dresses, the sourdough starters, the "submit to your husband" content, and the endless parade of blonde influencers telling women to embrace traditional femininity. Meanwhile, conservative women have been building one of the most effective political movements in modern American history. Today's guest, sociologist Katie Gaddini, spent nearly a decade embedded with Christian conservative women across the country. What she found

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45:49

The Joy of Giving Fewer F*cks

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/18

What happens when good girls grow up and stop apologizing? For generations, women have been rewarded for being agreeable, being accommodating and being grateful for what they have instead of asking for more. And yet many women reach a certain age and find themselves less interested in being nice. Our guest is comedian, storyteller, and longtime public radio host Ophira Eisenberg, whose new comedy special is called I Used To Be Nicer. We're chatting about the cultural expectations placed on

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38:06

The Dark Side of Being a Good Girl

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/13

For years, women have been told that success means being chosen. Chosen by a partner. Chosen for the promotion. Chosen by everyone except ourselves.This week we're joined by Sabrina Bendory, author of The Feminine Code, for a conversation about self-worth, attachment styles, toxic relationships, and the ways women are conditioned to over-give, over-accommodate, and lose themselves in pursuit of love and validation. We talk about why so many smart, successful women stay in unhealthy relationships,

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43:40

Grudges, Revenge, MLMs and Book Recs with Emily Paulson

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/11

This week on Under the Influence, bestselling author and recovering MLM insider Emily Paulson joins us for a rage-filled chat about revenge fantasies, influencer culture, tradwives, motherhood, social media lies, and the absolute exhaustion of watching terrible men fail upward forever.Plus: a huge stack of summer reading recommendations, including books about momfluencers, bad mothers, feminist rage, internet culture, and the patriarchy’s long, weird history of ruining everything. Grab Emily's

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36:53

Book Tour Brain & Majoring in Influencing

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza ·

2026/08/06

It's been a blurry week. Jo and Nick share behind-the-scenes moments fromThe Parisian Heisttour, announce the Catskills Book Festival, and talk about what' books Jo is working on next. Then Nick leaves to pick up the kids and Jo digs into Arizona State's groundbreaking degree in content creation and why she actually thinks it is a brilliant idea. (And they should hire her to be a professor).Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn

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