Under the Influence with Jo Piazza (Jo Piazza)

Pandora's Box is open. We will never go backwards in terms of technology. Social media literacy is media literacy. There are more eyeballs on small screens scrolling through influencers than people reading political news or watching television shows. Influencers have more of an impact on people than most politicians and traditional celebrities. We need to talk about how to talk about them. Today we are joined by media critic and writer Caroline Burke about the different ways to parse the social media industrial complex to make it healthier for us. Our brains are not up to the task of dealing with the level of manipulation happening on the socials.

We dive into:

• The lack of literacy in Congress around social media
• Why Ballerina Farm should be called a brand, not a person. Also, let's remember that its followers outnumber the population of many small countries.
• Why does our brain feel like it is overheating when we are on social media for too long
• Why don't we teach tech literacy in schools?
• How our parasocial Instagram relationships make us buy more stuff
• Why is jealousy inherently a moral negative?

You can follow Caro on Instagram here.

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Molly Winter recently hit the New York Times bestseller list with her memoir MORE, an account of the first ten years of opening up her marriage when her children were young. She is still happily married and she says her marriage and sex life is better than ever because she has been able to explore more facets of herself with her partners.

Molly's account of the first 10 years of her open marriage is raw and honest and eye-opening.  It has plenty of lessons for people who don't want to open up their marriages, but who do want to figure out how to be a better partner and how to follow their passions and desires as a wife and a mother.

Society loves putting women into boxes, but the truth is that we want more and sharing these stories is the only way we can change the way the world sees us and treats us.

You can order MORE here.

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.

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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 cancel culture and why is it so important for influencers to diversify their content over several platforms and maybe even go back to the basics of blogging. We get to talk to one of Jo's favorite design and renovation gurus, Emily Henderson, who takes us back to the early days of the design blog and explains how she has managed to slow down, take stock, and focus on the basics.

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You can download all of the Infamous episodes here: : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-the-future-and-everybody-is-thin/id1652941051?i=1000628712174

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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.

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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. Reality

LuLaRoe’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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Influencers are taking over the DNC this week! 200+ influencers have been credentialed for the political party and they'll be roaming around taking selfies, conducting interviews and competing with the mainstream media for eyeballs. We've got our own UTI correspondent on the ground @EmilyinYourPhone giving us all the dish on the influencer rumors, the big parties and who is gonna get Kamala to twerk.

Follow @EmilyinYourPhone here and subscribe to her substack here.

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What makes a worthy mother and who gets to decide that? It's a question that is often considered when we think about things like adoption, abortion and the foster system at large. This episode explores the often overlooked perspectives of birth mothers, the socioeconomic challenges they face, and the trauma associated with relinquishment. Based on sociologist Gretchen Sisson's extensive research, including over 100 interviews detailed in her book 'Relinquished', this discussion sheds light on the broader failures of societal and governmental support for mothers and families and how popular culture has shaped how we view adoption in this country. 

Order Gretchen's book RELINQUISHED here.

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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?

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/COMMITTED and get on your way to being your best self.

Follow Renee on all the things here.

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"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 ages and we talk about all of it on today's episode.

Order HOW TO BE OLD here.

Subscribe to Lyn's substack here.

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A small town in Japan is trying to build an Instagram block wall to keep tourists from overrunning their village to take the "perfect" Instagram shot. This seems to be happening more and more lately. Social media doesn't just hurt locations that can't handle thoughtless social media posters, it can also cause disappointment and anxiety for travelers.

Join me and award-winning travel  writer Jordi Lippe as we delve into the intersections of travel, social media, and the quest for authentic experiences. This episode explores the transformative power of travel, the impact of social media on our travel expectations and experiences, and how to navigate the digital world responsibly. 

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As we know, there is an influencer for everything. And ADHD (particularly ADHD for women) is one of those things that now has a ton of influencers. There is a lot of misinformation and a lot of useful information. Many women are telling their own stories of ADHD for the first time ever on social media which is incredible. Today we are joined by Meredith Carder, whose account Humming Bird ADHD has more than 170k views. Meredith only found out she had ADHD when her daughter got diagnosed. After that she took courses to become an ADHD coaching course to help other women in her situation. We are talking about what makes someone an ADHD coach or an ADHD influencer, what kinds of content on social may be helpful for women with ADHD and what might be hurtful. 

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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 are going to want to listen and re-listen to this episode about how media addiction is reshaping childhood and how we can actually make change happen.

Learn more about MAMA here.

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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. 

Listen to “Pop Culture Moms” HERE.

You can read Minna's original piece in the New York Times here and buy Mom Rage here.

As always, grab your Sicilian Inheritance often and early. I need to know how many cannolis to make for the launch!

Welcome to Sunday Nice Things.....a bonus episode where we share a podcast we love, a book we love, a rant we have to get off our chests. It's a nice thing for Sunday because we deserve them. This week we have an episode of The Cult of Perfect podcast from my friends Sara Petersen and Virginia Sole Smith. The Cult of Perfect explores the intersection of motherhood, public performance, and bodies, and tries to figure out what our addiction to the idea of perfect says about us and the world we live in. This episode is called Let Them Be Beige and explores everything from Ballerina Farm’s shiplap, influencers cosplaying poverty when they really have SO MUCH MONEY, the psychology of ownership, and the joy of living with less. 

You can get more Cult of Perfect right HERE.

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What happens when a mom influencer broadcasts the attempted kidnapping of her children in the parking lot of a crafting store in California wine country? What happens when those claims are completely untrue? This bonus episode dives into the case of mom influencer Katie Sorensen and what happened last December when she falsely accused a Latino couple of trying to kidnap her two children. Sorensen was recently charged with giving false information to the police. Those charges could carry a sentence of six months in jail. Along with journalist Sara Petersen, Jo delves into what happened in that parking lot and also talk about why it may have happened. Nearly 4.5 million people watched that video Sorensen posted. Her followers skyrocketed. If crisis and tragedy drive more and more attention then is there an allure to post the kinds of things that will get you that attention.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, I am joined by the hilarious Laura Belgray, an award-winning copywriting expert and the true queen of libing unapologetically. Laura's book Tough Titties: On Living Your Best Life When You're the F-ing Worst empowers you to live life authentically and honor your unique timeline.

She's hilarious and a massive dork and I love her.

We are also joined by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling to talk about their wonderful new summer novel, The Memo, a book I like to call Sliding Doors for a new generation with a better haircut.

Buy TOUGH TITTIES here.

Buy THE MEMO here.

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In this incredibly brave interview we speak with a woman who considers herself a former trad wife. She got married young and had kids young. Her husband convinced her to quit school, to stay home, to take care of the kids and to give up all agency when it came to their finances. When she wanted to leave the marriage she didn't have the education, work experience or resources to do it. But she made it work and now she is on the other side. She still feels like she is playing catch up as a 41 year old woman and is here to offer advice and warnings for women who decide to be submissive to their husbands and give up their agency and independence.

If you are potty training a child these days social media is probably serving you all sorts of potty advice. One of the most surprising accounts we have come across is one encouraging diaper free potty training from infancy. Let's put aside the method for a minute and just call out the fact that this is an account that regularly posts images and videos of children in their most intimate moments...using the potty, or failing to use the potty. We talk to Washington Post and Teen Vogue reporter Fortesa Latifi about the repercussions of this for kids later in life and the privacy issues. We also do a deep dive into the recent #prankmybaby trend where parents purposely play jokes on their kids to make them cry on TikTok. Happy New Year everyone!

You can follow Fortesa Latifi on Instagram here. 

Subscribe to Over the Influence Substack here. 

Have you ever rewatched a beloved movie as an adult and then been shocked, absolutely shocked by the behavior of the parents in it? A great example is The Parent Trap (both versions) in which two parents choose to abandon one of the children because they don't like one another. Today we are getting into which pop culture representations of parents do and don't hold up with Andie Mitchell,  and Sabrina Kohlberg, the hosts of the brand spanking new Pop Culture Moms (it's not even out yet so this chat is a real sneak preview). We're talking problematic parents and awkward parenting storylines. I also get them to go deep into a very important subject—hot TV dads. So sit back and relax and let's take a break from #tradwives to enjoy a little pop culture nostalgia.

You can subscribe to Pop Culture Moms here. Episode start dropping on Feb 27. 

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!

You can order Clara's book The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973 here.

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Thank you to Jessica Grose for joining me on today's adventure. BUY HER BOOK. She is a national treasure. Screaming on the Inside was just released in paperback.

We used a very brief clip from ABC News. Their coverage of this story is impeccable. You can read more here.

Transcripts of this episode are available to paid subscribers of my Substack, Over the Influence.

I mentioned my new book, The Sicilian Inheritance. It is available for pre-order now.

You know who is alive and well on Instagram?  Jesus.  And I say that without judgment, but it is true. Whether you realize it or not religion, namely Christianity, is being repackaged through beautiful images of motherhood and parenthood on social media. Today we talk to Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, a reporter for Christianity Today who has been researching Christian social media, #tradwives and images of "good motherhood," that quietly promote religious beliefs. Because many of these images look so beautiful and so aesthetically pleasing they lodge in our brains, and we may not know what kind of an ideological place they're coming from or the impact they are having on us.

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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 author of UNDER THE HENFLUENCE where she explores the lives of these quirky, mysterious birds who stole her heart the moment her first box of chicks arrived at the post office.

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A lot of parents are putting really gross shit of their kids online every single day. And millions of people are watching it. Millions!

Millions. We are talking about poop blowouts and booger picking videos and vomit and pee and every possible bodily fluid you can imagine. Sarah Adams is the unfortunate recipient. of many of these videos. Ever since Sarah started the anti-sharenting account, Mom Uncharted, where she discusses the perils and pitfalls of sharing your kids online, her audience have been sending her every single gross video that they come across, including the ones that feel a little (sometimes maybe a lot) dangerous. This is one of THOSE episodes....the kind where you will never want to share your kids online again.

It's gross, but also it's scary, and sometimes even dangerous videos of children.

Subscribe to the OVER THE INFLUENCE substack here to get full transcripts, bonus content and ME in your inbox on a regular basis. 

Follow Sarah Adams of Mom Uncharted on Instagram here.

You can pre-order THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE here and I will love you forever and never have post booger videos of my kids on the Internet.

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 and even our gardening if that is our jam.  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.  

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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. 

You can buy Sloane's book, GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE, here.

Social media is political. That is a fact. You may think you're following beautiful images of a woman breastfeeding her baby in the Costa Rican jungle while her nine other children wait patiently by the waterfall, but pay closer attention and she is telling you not to vaccinate your children or use birth control. You never know who is behind a message or who is boosting information and accounts behind the scenes. Emily Amick, of the account Emily in Your Phone breaks it all down for us in the same no nonsense way she does on her Instagram account about all the political news we need to know. She's an incredible resource for using social media in progressive politics and she is very wise about how conservative forces have simply been better at using the socials to achieve their goals.

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Make sure to follow Emily in Your Phone here @EmilyinYourPhone AND preorder her book Democracy in Retrograde.

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Each week on the SSR (Shit She Read) podcast host Alli Hoff Kosik will challenge a guest to reread a literary throwback or to experience for the first time ever a book they may have missed as a kid. 

The show covers everything from The Baby-Sitters Club to Holes to Nancy Drew and Harry Potter.

Guests are asked to spill all the feels and all the opinions about their throwback read for your podcast-listening pleasure. A glass of wine is not required, but it's certainly allowed. This week I happen to be the guest talking about none other than Little House in the Big Woods in all its prairie problematic glory.

You can subscribe to SSR here.

Dropping a new show into your feeds today for Sunday Nice Things. The Creative and the AI is a journey through how artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the creative process. We are at the beginning of a creative revolution that is sweeping over a content hungry world. In technology and the arts, AI is set to change everything.

For creators the fear and hope is palatable, as they look to a future where AI is part of everything they do. From replacement to ruin, collaboration to co-existence, and everything in between, join Corin Lines-Stary, on a journey to discover what artists, creatives and technologists think about AI and their practice.

Corin Lines-Stray on LinkedIn

Mike Russell on LinkedIn

Music Radio Creative Website

Mike Russell on Youtube

In our constant quest to stay connected, Instagram and other social media platforms have become staples of our daily lives. Yet, there is a growing counter-movement of folks who have chosen to break free from the shackles of these platforms, daring to live a life beyond the 'like' and 'follow' buttons. But what does life on the other side of social media look like?

The writer, author and bad ass creative Marlee Grace is one of the brave few who have dared to step off the social media stage. The decision to unplug, as Marlee puts it, did not come lightly- it was a long and challenging journey fueled by the need to reclaim their time and creativity. They were uncertain about a world away from the constant validation, but they pressed on, curious about the freedom that lay beyond Instagram's borders.

Marlee Grace’s journey through the social media detox reveals that breaking away from these platforms, despite their seemingly inevitable clutch, is possible. The life that lies beyond is quieter and slower, but it offers a chance for us to regain command over our time, attention, and most importantly, our minds.

You can follow Marlee on Substack at Monday Monday.

Listen to Marlee's COMMON SHAPES podcast here.

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Order THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE early and often. It makes a great gift and paperweight.

Let's talk about Harrison Butker's viral graduation this week where he informed women graduates that their highest career calling was to be a wife and mother. If you got #tradwife vibes from that sentence, you aren't alone. The Internet is not happy and here to dissect the politics and the culture wars of it all is none other than Emily Amick, author of Democracy in Retrograde and the guru behind the account @EmilyinYourPhone.

We also explore the broader context of Christian patriarchy, authoritarianism, and the pushback against progressive gender narratives. Additionally, we touch on the emotional labor and societal expectations imposed on women, the allure and pitfalls of the 'Trad Wife' lifestyle, and the rise of polarizing ideologies in digital spaces.

Sigh.

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What are you afraid of? Today we are talking about fears and finances. Because our phones are listening to us all the time they can probably hear us when we voice these fears out loud. Jo has recently been served a bunch of financial influencers who want to sell her advice to be a millionaire in a $500 course. These finance charlatans are preying on all of our very real fears. Thankfully we were able to call up an actual personal finance expert and the author of the new book on fear, A HEALTHY STATE OF PANIC to talk Jo off the ledge and tell us who we should actually follow (or not follow) when it comes to our money terrors. Welcome Farnoosh Torabi to UTI.

Order Farnoosh's Book A HEALTHY STATE OF PANIC here.

Follow Farnoosh on Instagram here.

And pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance so I don't need to sell plumbing supplies.

We talk a lot about the negative parts of social media, but good things do happen online. One of those good things is community. Five years ago the New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg started #1000WordsofSummer.  It’s an online community that convenes for two weeks in June to write 1,000 words a day.  People were obsessed with it. Jami’s new book, 1,000 Words,  is inspired by this community.  It includes letters from her and over 50 seasoned writers on how to do the work when it’s the last thing you feel like doing. So today we are talking to Jami about how to start writing, how to keep writing and how to be a good member of the literary community.

Follow Jami on Instagram here.

Subscribe to the Craft Talk the newsletter here.

Buy 1,000 Words here.

Tia Levings was recruited into a Christian fundamentalist movement as a young wife.   She quickly learned that being a godly and submissive wife in the Christian patriarchy included strict discipline and isolation, and required women to be silent keepers of the home.  Years of pain and abuse followed. After becoming a mother, Tia realized that she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal men and submissive women.  That's when she fled with her children.

One of the things Tia says a lot that really gets to me is  that if we continue to ignore the messages that the fundamental evangelical Christian community are sending out to us, then we're just plunging this country right into the near future of the book The Handmaid's Tale.  Tia was a trad wife and today she is an independent woman living the kind of life she always dreamed about. She has written wisely about the inhumanity of trad wife life and why it is not something to be celebrated with beautiful images on social media.  

All of this is documented in Tia's new book, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape From Christian Patriarchy and on her Substack, The Anti-Fundamentalist. You can also follow Tia on Instagram here. She is a delight. 

No one makes parenting more fun than my artist and author friend Steven Weinberg. I will co-parent with him and his wife Casey any day of the week. We even created a fake summer camp for our kids so we could get a little bit of work done in the Catskills. Steven's new book What is Color is out this week and it is an absolute delight for curious and creative minds who love paintbrushes as much as microscopes. This clever and eye-catching full-color nonfiction book dives deep into the strange, wacky, silly, and occasionally perilous history behind the colors that paint our everyday lives and this wacky podcast episode dives into all things color and how to make parenting a little bit more fun.

Order What is Color here.

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The postpartum period is a clusterf*ck dumpster fire of hell and do not let anyone tell you different. It is also magical and wonderful and life-changing and gorgeous. Many things can be true. This is all of my advice for how to survive the newborn period and a chat with the incredible Tara Clark of Modern Mom Probs who consistently makes me feel seen as a mother in a world that too often turns a blind eye to us. Send this one to every prego and newborn mom in your life. They need it.

You can follow Tara @modernmomprobs

And you can order The Sicilian Inheritance here!

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.

Munchausen by Proxy has gotten a lot of attention lately with Patricia Arquette's star turn in the series The Act. MBP refers to when a caregiver abuses a child by pretending they are ill in order to get attention for themselves. With the rise and prevalence of social media there are more and more cases of Munchausen by Proxy and Munchausen syndrome happening in the digital world. There are cases of people pretending to be sick themselves to get attention and cases of caregivers pretending their children are ill to get attention, and sometimes to raise money. To talk about all of this I am joined by Andrea Dunlop, the host and executive producer of NOBODY SHOULD BELIEVE ME an investigative true crime podcast about Munchausen by proxy. Andrea is the founder of Munchausen Support, an online resource and non-profit that supports survivors and families. She is a member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children’s Munchausen by proxy committee where she serves alongside some of the country’s foremost experts.

The #fitfluencers and #wellness brands are coming for you. And they've been on the attack since January 1. This time of alleged renewal and reinvention is the Super Bowl for brands hoping to sell you a "better" or a "thinner" you. YOU are the product during this time of year and brands pay big money to get in front of you during this vulnerable time. Today we chat with digital brand marketer Amy Shoenthal (author of the Setback Cycle) about HOW you get targeted and Danielle Friedman (author of Let's Get Physical) about the history of fitness marketing and the good, the bad and the ugly of #fitfluencers.

You can order The Setback Cycle here.

You can order Let's Get Physical Here.

You can also read Danielle's piece on #fitfluencers for the NYT here.

Also grab yourself a Hot Sicilian.....while it's hot. 

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.

If you love this and want more subscribe to The Sicilian Inheritance podcast here.

Order copies of the book The Sicilian Inheritance for everyone you know!

OH and did I tell you there is also a Sicilian Inheritance Olive Oil?

Jessica Elefante used to be part of the problem. She was a brand strategist and marketer who created fake problems for us so we would buy things and do things. Because that is what brands and influencers do. They trick us into believing we need things to make our lives better. But now Jessica is a reformed BS artist and she wants to fix the problem. She wants to help us figure out how to stop the nefarious forces of influence from making us unhappy and unhinged with her new book Raising Hell, Living Well. I love this woman and I feel so lucky that I made a new friend by reaching out to her to work on this podcast.

You can buy Jessica's book here!

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/711835/raising-hell-living-well-by-jessica-elefante/

Hello Fresh is our sponsor this week. Go to HelloFresh.com/terryfree and use code terryfree for FREE breakfast for life!

Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe to Anne Helen Petersen's Substack Culture Study.

Read her piece on #tradwives here.

And listen to her podcast Work Appropriate.

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.

ORDER ZIBBY'S BOOK BLANK HERE

Visit ETTITUDE to get $25 off your first order of delightful bedding.

Visit Quince for all the easy luxury you deserve.

Visit Honeylove for all your shapewear needs. 

Order The Sicilian Inheritance here.

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/listener for privacy information.

Let's settle this debate once and for all...is #TradWife content actually dangerous, or just stupid? Today I talk toThe Cut's Brooding columnist Kathryn Jezer Morton about her column on this very subject. Spoiler alert: I think it is dangerous and here is why. #TradWife content on social media strips the idea of motherhood of all of its unseen, really hard labor, and makes it look like it is just beautiful and clean and easy and sourdough kneading all the time. We rarely, if ever, see the men or the other caregivers who are helping #TradWives because it doesn't look as alpha to have help. When we don't see caregiving we can't normalize it in society and it chips away at our efforts to fight for affordable childcare.

#TradWife content also often glorifies and prettifies rural living. A lot of these homesteading skills that are glorified on #TradWife accounts are actually rooted in people who were in poverty, who were doing these things not because they thought it would look nice on social media, but out of necessity.

AND FINALLY, #TradWife content is breathing new life into the mommy wars by pitting women against one another. So much to dive into in this episode.

Read Kathryn's CUT columns here.

Subscribe to our substack OVER THE INFLUENCE here.

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 Cosimano has inspired me so much on my own journey and I know that she is going to inspire you.

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Learn more about Elle and buy all of her books here.

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Order your Sicilian Inheritance here.

I want to tell all of you moms out there something very important today.

You are a good mom, a good parent, a good caretaker. You are good. You are good at taking care of your children.  

Nanny shaming in mom Facebook groups, parents hiring $125 private investigators to spy on their caregivers, nannies losing their jobs because of an anonymous tip. Welcome to the nanny wars on social media, where everyone is always watching and the littlest victims, the kids, are caught in the middle. Today we talk to Jen Wieczner of New York magazine about her excellent story on the chaos that ensues after a parent posts about a “bad nanny” on Facebook. This isn't just a parenting story. It is about labor, power, management and money and it impacts anyone who relies on someone else to care for their children.

This episode is sponsored by Green Chef. Go to greenchef.com/60undertheinfluence and use code 60undertheinfluence to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months.

You can read Jen's story on The Cut here.

The robots are coming for all of us. Companies like Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, are using books to train their AI machines without asking for permission. Jo did a search on The Atlantic's database of books that AI is using to train its robots to steal our livelihoods and found FIVE of her titles on there. We are now clearly living in the Matrix.  It begs the question of what else are these companies hiding and what else could they be stealing from us. We have to care about how Meta uses author's works because it is a reflection of how little they respect anyone's words, thoughts or images. Jo talks to fellow author and podcaster Emma Gray of Love to See It (and the author of A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance) about why the entire publishing world is going bananas about this today.

Listen to Emma's podcast Love to See It here

https://www.emmarosegray.com/podcast

Buy her book A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance.

https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Guide-Joining-Resistance-Feminist/dp/0062748084

And you can read The Atlantic story about the database here.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/09/books3-database-generative-ai-training-copyright-infringement/675363/

And you know you can always buy The Sicilian Inheritance if you feel so inclined.

https://www.bluebirdbookstop.com/product-page/pre-order-the-sicilian-inheritance-by-jo-piazza

Fresh out of the cockpit. I am joined by Nick Aster for a fun little bonus session to debrief on our new flying hobby. Somehow we also talk about how he wears khaki shorts to the gym and how he believes I steal all of his socks. Which is not a true thing.

The former family Youtuber and vlogger Ruby Franke has been sentenced to up to 60 years in prison for felony child abuse. And frankly, I'm just going to say it here—I hope she serves the maximum sentence. This comes after Ruby has admitted to punishing her children in a variety of horrific ways. Quick update on the news and the ripple effect it could have in the parenting influencing community.

Today we have just a taste of a new series called We Are the Great Turning that is truly bringing me hope and resilience when it comes to talking about the climate crisis. The show shines a light on 95-year-old legendary eco-spiritual teacher, Joanna Macy, in heartfelt, intimate dialogue with her friend, activist Jess Serrante. Together, they explore what it truly takes to stay resilient, joyful, and motivated while confronting the climate crisis. You can listen at WeAreTheGreatTurning.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

For today's Sunday Nice Things I get to chat with Rachel Hirsch, one of the incredible audiobook narrators of The Sicilian Inheritance. I love audiobooks. I often toggle between the audio book and the print version for efficiency. I also sometimes listen to the audio book AFTER I finish the print version because it is simply relaxing. I love chatting with Rachel today about how audio books get made and the incredible actors behind them.

You can get The Sicilian Inheritance audiobook here.

And learn more about Rachel here.

Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to GREENLIGHT.com/influence.

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 relevant to all of us today.

Buy The Genius of Judy today!!!

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It's Dry January time for a lot of people. What better time to dive into the world of sobriety influencers. Finding sobriety is different for everyone. It's a journey. These days Instagram and TikTok have become a big part of getting sober.

Suzanne Warye started out as an influencer on her page @MyKindOfSweet by posting her workouts and her outfits. When she experienced post-partum depression she was shockingly honest with her audience about how hard it was. The response was so positive that she began to open up about something that is often even more taboo—sobriety. She didn't realize just how many people needed to hear about how she left alcohol behind.

Now, @MyKindofSweet has evolved into a place where she shares the bright side of sobriety, and spreads the news that you don’t have to wait for rock bottom in order to evaluate your relationship with alcohol. She also shares excellent sweaters!

This episode is the first in our series of January renewal episodes! We talk a lot here about the negative impact of influencers, but this month I want us to focus on how we can use social for the things we want to accomplish. 

For more Under the Influence (transcripts, interviews, show notes and pics) follow our substack, Over the Influence.

You can follow My Kind of Sweet Here.

And as always, pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance here.

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.

Follow Caro here!

And order your copy of The Sicilian Inheritance TODAY right here.

Welcome to an Under the Influence  - Too Much Money crossover episode! By now you've probably heard about the $59 million wedding that has everyone going crazy on Instagram and TikTok. The bride, Madelaine Brockaway seemed to come out of nowhere with her gonzo bananas wedding content that included a performance by Maroon 5, a rehearsal dinner at the Palais Garnier opera house, and a sleepover at the Palace of Versailles. Prior to the wedding, guests were invited to attend a private party at Chanel’s Haute Couture Headquarters and a lunch at the Eiffel Tower.

It almost feels like the Internet was being punked. But there's so much more to the story, including a surprise criminal twist from the groom.

Jo gets together with her Too Much Money podcast cohost Doree Shafrir to dissect all the conspiracy theories about why anyone would throw a $59 million wedding. Is Maddy desperate to be an influencer, a reality television star? Is her new husband actually going to jail?

If you love this episode then you will adore the rest of our Too Much Money episodes. You can binge all of them here. 

So many of you have asked me for an audio preview of The Sicilian Inheritance that I finally just sat down and created one! Why not! I love this part. In it our main character has just met our Sicilian protagonist Giusy in a Sicilian restaurant. It's filled with delicious food and wine and even ends in a cliffhanger.

Welcome to Sunday Nice Things! Today we have an episode of This American Ex-Wife from the wonderful Lyz Lenz!    

I first became obsessed with Lyz when I read her book God Land and then she came on an early episode of Under the Influence to talk about attending a mom influencing conference and I fell hard for her. She's the creator of the newsletter Men Yell at Me which I read religiously every time it hits my inbox.

This American Ex-wife is a podcast that explores the state of American heterosexual marriage. Lyz sits down with a cast of women to talk about their divorces, their journeys and unpacks an institution many take part in but few talk about: divorce.

Today's episode is with the poet and bestselling author Maggie Smith who delves into how her divorce forced her to spend more time with herself and how that ended up being a very good thing.

Listen to This American Ex-Wife here

Order This American Ex-Wife the book here.

Sign up for Men Yell at Me, here.

It's not pretty. But it is real. There's a new breed of the ANTI-TRADWIFE out there and they are sharing the raw and honest stories about living a life submissive to a man and what it looks like on the other side. Today we are talking to Enitza Templeton, a mom of four who was a tradwife for ten years before she left her husband to try to make it on her own. Entiza made a video from the food stamps office that went viral on TikTok where she warned young women against depending on a man for financial security. She compares being a trad wife to being a "domestic slave," and says that you are "sitting prey." She feels like her husband never liked her. She felt like his mommy. Life was miserable until she made the decision to leave. We are seeing more and more content pushing back on the tradwife trend. It doesn't always go viral like Enitza's story because it isn't traditionally beautiful and aspirational, but these are voices that need to be heard.

Introducing the She Did What?! podcast. Life as a mom, entrepreneur, wife, friend and HUMAN is…A LOT!  Join Katie Jacobs and Brandy Chandler, every Thursday as they have unfiltered, hilarious and relatable conversations about the ups, the downs and the chaos of it all. 

Binge all the episodes of She Did What?! here.

Need some news you can use to talk about at your Super Bowl Party? We have Glamour reporter Steph McNeal here to explain the latest right wing conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce faking their relationship to help Biden. Also all the updates from Teen Vogue's Fortesa Latifi on laws to compensate the kids of influencers and the new backlash against luxury stuff influencers on TikTok. Welcome to the world of DEINFLUENCERS.

Some stories to catch you up: 

Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Faking Their Relationship to Help Biden? Inside the Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory

These States Are Trying to Require Influencer Parents to Pay Their Kids

We're Getting Disillusioned By Overconsumption on TikTok
 

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. 

Follow Sayer here. 

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.

For more on Healthy Screen Habits and to listen to all the episodes check them out here.

Indulge in affordable luxury! Go to Quince.com/influence for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. 

Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to Greenlight.com/influence.

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.

BUY Virginia's book Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture here.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/fat-talk-parenting-in-the-age-of-diet-culture-virginia-sole-smith/18525159

Subscribe to Virginia's newsletter and podcast Burnt Toast here.

https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/

Buy The Sicilian Inheritance here.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-sicilian-inheritance-jo-piazza/20266161

To support this show, skip the grocery store and have delicious meals delivered right to your doorstep, go to HelloFresh.com/terryfree for free breakfast for life while your subscription is active. You're gonna love it. HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit for a reason.   

Order Devorah's Book HERE

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter HERE for episode transcripts, bonus content and more of my ramblings about weird stuff on and off the Internet.

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If you want more of She Pivots you can find all the episodes here.

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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. 

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'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself here.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe wants to celebrate summer with you! This week only (July 22 - 28), Tropic Rewards Members get a Free Island Punch Smoothie with bowl or food purchase. Peach, guava, passion fruit, mango and pineapple! Order in the app, online or in-cafe! You’re on Tropic Time Now®

Visit BodySmartFitness.com and use the code INFLUENCE in your application form to get 20% off your coaching program.

Let's talk about anxiety, real talk about anxiety! Today we are joined by Julie Chavez, a librarian, mom of two and the author of the memoir Everyone But Myself.

When you are a working mom, there is no time for debilitating anxiety. There's not.  And the terrifying aftershocks of Julie's first panic attack left her grappling with questions about the causes of her mental health crisis and where it was going to lead next.

This book resonated with me so deeply. This is a hopeful and honest account of love and loss and the husband who can't read your mind, about disastrous family outings and finding a new path. It is about the joy of a well-lived life and how hard it can sometimes be to enjoy that life.  

I think we're all going to feel better after this episode. 

You can order Everyone But Myself here.

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.

Today we get into the loneliness and alienation of motherhood, what it means to be touched out and what sex looks like after becoming a mom.

Treat yourself to the best bras on the market and save 20% Off at HONEYLOVE.COM/INFLUENCE

Grab Amanda's book here!

Subscribe to our newsletter Over the Influence here.

Order The Sicilian Inheritance here.

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.

To read Kate's Bustle piece go here.

Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to GREENLIGHT.com/influence.

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. 

On today's episode of Sunday Nice Things we are bringing you the series Momplicated where host Dana Phillips dives into the dumpster fire of motherhood with women who aren't afraid to swim around in the muck and pick trash out of your hair. Today she is joined by the hilarious Caitlin Murray, who is best known for her wickedly funny Instagram account Big Time Adulting! Dana and Caitlin discuss vacationing with kids, the awfulness of sick and snow days and why it is OK to not love the baby stage of childrearing.

Follow Dana on Instagram @dana.p.phillips

Follow Caitlin and Big Time Adulting here.

Subscribe to Momplicated on your favorite podcast app!

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. 

Follow Caro HERE.

Order your Sicilian Inheritance HERE.

Will daycare give your kid attachment issues? Are you breastfeeding wrong? Is sleep training the worst thing you can do as a parent?

Being a mom often feels like you've failed at something at least once a day, sometimes more. Women are judged and shamed for so many of our choices. How we deal with that judgement and shame is often up to us. I have turned to experts like today's guest Emily Oster so many times during my parenting journey to dispel my own guilt, shame and the misinformation surrounding parenting.

Emily is a professor of economics at Brown University. She's also the author of three incredible books that you should definitely get for any new parent in your life. Expecting Better, Crib Sheet, and The Family Firm. Her website and podcast, both called Parent Data, are guides for parents that give you numbers and decision-making tools to feel more empowered about the decisions you make as a parent.  All of which are hard. 

Listen to Parent Data Here.

Order all of Emily's books here.

No one should ever shame you for how you parent on Instagram. I have said it before and I will say it again—if you feel shamed then it is time to unfollow. Today we talk to Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, a licensed psychologist and mother of four, with a passion for parenting grounded in science and love to debunk the biggest Instagram myths and lies. We're going after whether screentime breaks your kids' brains (nope), whether you should make your kids say thank you (I still think so), Whether time outs are effective (yes) and the best way to potty train (no one knows). All of Dr. Goodwin's posts and advice are grounded in research and not pseudoscience like so many of the parenting influencers and coaches who are flooding your Instagram accounts. 

Follow Dr. Goodwin @parentingtranslator

And visit her website here.

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. 

Buy Friends in Napa here.

Buy I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself here.

And order nine copies of The Sicilian Inheritance here.

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 weird ways in the hopes that knowing more and feeling more will help us do more and be better.  

You can listen to more of Kelly Corrigan Wonders here.

This week we dive into the transformative power of motherhood on creativity. Join us as we chat with photographer and filmmaker Karni Arieli about her inspiring Eye Mama Project, a collection of raw and gorgeous images of motherhood collected from around the world.  

Eye Mama  captures both the beauty and struggles of motherhood, aiming to provide a truthful, empathetic portrayal of the invisible aspects of motherhood.

Learn more about the Eye Mama Project here.

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Visit Bodysmartfitness.com and use the code INFLUENCE for 20% off your coaching program. 

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Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to GREENLIGHT.com/influence. 

What is a Cute-servative? It's an adorable nickname that conservative women are giving to themselves online as part of the Barbie-rific branding of the conservative party to young women. And this brand is working!

Join us as we discuss the current political burnout many women are feeling and the critical need to stay engaged. Our guest,

Emily Amick of the Instagram account @EmilyInYourPhone, explores how conservative forces are successfully courting young women through social media. We dive into the importance of keeping hope alive in politics, the impact of effective messaging, and the necessity of local political involvement. The conversation also touches on Emily's personal battle with thyroid cancer and the power of community support.

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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.

ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE TODAY

New podcast alert! Today we are bringing you a show called You Probably Think This Story's About You.

You Probably Think This Story’s About You is an exploration of love, betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of one man’s deceit, told through the eyes of the women whose lives were irrevocably changed by it.

Brittani Ard wants to understand how the man she once believed to be her soulmate could have deceived her so deeply. Devastating revelations unfold.

Listen to all the episodes of You Probably Think This Story's About You here.

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.

Follow everything Jean does over at Her Money.

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We've talked a lot on this podcast about using kids as content and where the line should be drawn.  We've also talked about mothers posting pictures of their sick kids to get attention. But there is another side to the story. What if your child had a rare disease?  What if one of the only ways to get the medical establishment and doctors to take notice of that disease was to shout about it at the top of your lungs, sometimes on social media? What would you do?

It's an impossible question.

Last November, Amanda Byerly's daughter Elin was diagnosed with retinol dystrophy, a disease that could ultimately make her go blind. And because the disease is so rare, there's not a lot of funding for it. So it is up to the parents to fund research and ultimately to find a cure.  Amanda made the decision to post her daughter and the diagnosis on Instagram to raise both money and awareness.

But it's tricky, and Amanda has to draw new boundaries for herself every day about the things she should share to help educate people about Elin's disease and what might invade her daughter's privacy.

You can learn more about the disease here.

You can follow Amanda and Elin here.

Jo has made a new podcast and here is a sneak peak of the first episode. From Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir, the host of the hit podcast Forever 35 comes TOO MUCH MONEY. Too Much Money is a podcast that attempts to answer this question by telling stories about people who have more money than they know what to do with, and use it in ways that are sometimes foolish, often petty, and often ridiculous. Each week, Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir go deep into the story of one of these extremely rich people and how they’ve spent their money: like $500 million yachts, $250,000 dinosaur fossils, and years-long feuds with their neighbors over ocean views. After all, maybe you CAN be too rich.

You can subscribe to TOO MUCH MONEY here.

What will happen to all the kids having their lives made into content? How do they feel? Maybe they're fine, maybe they're miserable. It is so hard to know because most of them are still so young. But reporter Fortesa Latifi has done a deep dive into how influencer kids are feeling about their entire lives being broadcast online. She spoke to one young woman of an influencer who told her parents she didn't want to be in their videos any more and they told her if she didn't appear they would lose all their money. How should we think of this labor as we consume this content and how can and should the government step in to protect children from online exploitation?

This episode is sponsored by HELLO FRESH which I truly love. It makes meal times so much better and easier for me. Go to www.HelloFresh.com/50rushhour and use code 50rushhour for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Offer is for new subscriptions only and varies by plan across 9 boxes. That’s code 50rushhour at www.HelloFresh.com/50rushhour for 16 free meals!

You can read Fortesa's story on influencer kids here:

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/influencer-parents-children-social-media-impact

Laura Ingalls Wilder probably couldn’t have imagined the multi-million dollar media empire that would emerge from her books. From the television show to prairie chic dresses to dolls to tin cups bearing her name, Laura is a brand, a business and, dare we say it, an influencer. Her stories have spawned industries large and small, both directly and indirectly for nearly a century. In this very special episode from the new podcast, Wilder, Jo discovers how the fantasy of a simple prairie life got sold to millions around the world.

Go deeper: 
Stay at the Prairie House Manor in De Smet, SD
The Queen’s Treasures 
Melissa Gilbert’s Modern Prairie 
Stephanie McNeal on the Nap Dress
Sara Petersen’s Momfluenced

Follow us for behind the scenes content!
@WilderPodcast on TikTok
@Wilder_Podcast on Instagram

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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 with host Shoshanna Hecht.

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 connection (very much in person, very pleasurable, very much enjoyed). She recounts it all and then some in her joyful, decadent, and insightful new memoir, "I'm Mostly Here To Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris," coming in June, which dares to suggest that women have the right to enjoy themselves - and their choices - fully and gloriously, without needing permission. In this episode of "Your New Life Blend," Glynnis talks to host Shoshanna Hecht about how seeking & claiming pleasure is actually a radical feminist act; the power of a free woman freely making her own choices; the joys of embracing your life unfolding at any age; and why we all deserve to truly enjoy ourselves.

Subscribe to Your New Life Blend Here.

Order Glynnis's book I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself HERE.

Who chooses what we see on social media?

Instagram (META) and other social media companies have the power to pick and choose what images they want to show. They also have the power to stop showing your posts to people if they don't like the content. The problem is that there are no real rules for what they don't allow you to post. This week Jo posted a picture of a book cover (Glynnis's new book I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself) that showed a beautiful painting of a naked woman's backside. 

Instagram sent her a warning to remove it or risk losing engagement and followers. Why is Instagram choosing to censor this image when they don't limit much more salacious photos that tend to make them money? The rules are ambiguous so they can change them all the time. In this episode we get Glynnis on the phone to talk through Instagram's decision to censor her book cover and Jo's feed. 

You can check out and order I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself HERE.

As always, pre-order The Sicilian Inheritance this month and get a free subscription to the Over the Influence newsletter.

Earlier this week we asked whether the "traditional wife" Lex Delarosa was trolling us with her Instagram account. So many of you were convinced that her content was satire. UTI is here to clear up the confusion once and for all. You'll have to listen to find out the answer. But what I can tell you is that this conversation veers off into so many different tangents, including the massive levels of hate Lex gets on her account. The comments she gets vary from things like, "I don't like your hair," to "you should be murdered." I think this Friday bonus episode (to close out #Tradwife Week) will surprise you and give you plenty to think about.

Happy Friday all! You can follow Lex here.

You can subscribe to our substack OVER THE INFLUENCE here.

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A story went viral on the NY Post and Reddit in the past 24 hours claiming that a husband left his wife because he became OBSESSED with a #tradwife on TikTok. This is the headline: TikTok ruined my husband of 12 years — now he wants a ‘tradwife’ and we’re getting divorced. We clearly had to do an emergency episode about this and I couldn't think of a better guest than my own husband, Nick Aster, who is constantly confused by #tradwives and social media in general. Is this for real? (probably not) Is it hilarious and totally worth talking about? (Absolutely). Should we turn it into a domestic thriller television series? (working on it right now). And how can we use this topic to talk more with our spouses about equality and sharing the burden of domestic labor? (It is all in this episode).

You can read the NY Post story here.

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