Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Bölümler

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  Get Out of the Waiting Room of Your Life 28.07.2026 48dk

  Jess Ekstrom, the author of Making It Without Losing It: How to Stay Motivated in a World Where We Are Never Done, grew up in the shadow of one of the biggest financial scandals in American history. After her family lost everything to Bernie Madoff, she eventually sat across from him in prison and asked him why he did it. His answer was slightly heartbreaking and it became the lynchpin of Jess's personal transformation. What if the next promotion, bestseller list, milestone, or parenting phase isn't the thing that's finally going to make you happy? This week we're talking about the pressure women feel to constantly strive for more and to achieve external validation. We chat about the "arrival trap" that keeps so many of us convinced that real life begins after the next achievement, why motherhood can completely upend our sense of identity, and how to stay ambitious without tying your self-worth to your accomplishments. Order Making It Without Losing It: How to Stay Motivated in a World Where We Are Never Done here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Best Ideas Come at 3 in the Morning with Allison Winn Scotch 23.07.2026 38dk

  Nobody talks honestly enough about the 3 a.m. wake-up—the sweating, spiraling and sometimes creative genius that strikes women in the wee hours of the morning. This week we’re joined by bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch to talk about insomnia, midlife, creativity, and how all of it inspired her latest novel, The Insomniacs. What starts as a conversation about melatonin, mouth guards, indica gummies, and why husbands seem biologically engineered to sleep through anything turns into a much bigger discussion about ambition, burnout, publishing, found family, and why some of the best ideas arrive in the middle of the night. Buy The Insomniacs here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  How to Thrive Through Life's Plot Twists 21.07.2026 49dk

  Eliza Reid never expected to become the First Lady of Iceland. The Canadian-born writer and mother of four was living a hectic, but totally normal life when her husband launched a presidential campaign during a political crisis. Seven weeks later, she was a First Lady of a small Arctic nation. Eliza is a magical human who speaks so candidly about the strange experience of becoming publicly known as someone's wife, and the challenge of holding onto your own identity while navigating a role with no job description. We chat about Iceland's approach to gender equality, the famous Women's Day Off, social media's effect on how we see ourselves and one another, and why Eliza came away from her years as First Lady feeling more optimistic about humanity than ever before. Pick up Eliza's book The First Lady Nextdoor here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Why We Keep Falling for Paris 16.07.2026 47dk

  Why are we so obsessed with Paris? It is the f*cking best, but long before Instagram convinced us that a destination could transform our lives, Paris had already perfected the art of selling a fantasy with the promise that if we could just get there, we'd somehow become a more sophisticated version of ourselves. This week, we sit down with bestselling author Danielle Trussoni (writing as Danielle Postel-Vinay) to unpack the phenomenon known as Paris Syndrome, the very real psychological crash that happens when reality fails to live up to our fantasies about the City of Light. Together we explore why Paris remains one of the world's most powerful forms of escapism, why women are increasingly drawn to stories centered on pleasure rather than productivity, and what our obsession with escape says about our modern lives. We also discuss Danielle's delicious new Paris-set mystery Murder Most Delicious, plus: French lingerie, literary ambition, writing routines, perimenopause, and why we all need to be doing more nothing. Order Murder Most Delicious here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Heists, Billionaires, and the Untold Story of Jo van Gogh 14.07.2026 38dk

  The art market is one of the most secretive, least regulated wealth machines on the planet. Billions of dollars change hands between billionaires, oligarchs, and dynasties with almost no oversight, and behind almost every famous man in that world is a woman who did the work and got written out of the story. This week I'm sharing my conversation with my brilliant friend Farnoosh Torabi from her podcast So Money, where we get into: the shadowy families who control what art is worth, the real-life scandals that inspired the rich people behaving very badly in The Parisian Heist, and the untold true story of Jo van Gogh-Bonger, the widow who single-handedly made Vincent van Gogh the most famous artist in the world. We also talk about why women still hand over financial control to the men in their lives, what the end of the tradwife era means for all of us, why I love writing unlikable women (who I still want to have drinks with), and my honest thoughts on Belle Burden's Strangers. Binge more episodes of So Money here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Laura Ingalls Wilder is Getting Her Due on TV 09.07.2026 1sa 3dk

  Wilder is back in the Under the Influence feed. A brand new Little House on the Prairie just landed on Netflix and obviously Glynnis and I had thoughts. I talked to Executive Producer Joy Gorman Wettels, who had her whole team listening to Wilder while they made this show, about how she spent years getting the rights from the Friendly family, why this version centers Laura instead of Pa, how they wove in the Osage story, and why Laura Ingalls Wilder might be one of the few things that can actually get people talking to each other again. Little House on the Prairie is on Netflix July 9th. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Art of the Heist: Why We Root for Thieves 07.07.2026 41dk

  Why do we all root for art thieves? This week we're joined by Anthony Amore — director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the heist expert behind the heist in The Parisian Heist — to bust every myth Hollywood ever taught us. We get into the real story of the unsolved 1990 Gardner heist (two fake cops, 81 minutes, 13 masterpieces, none recovered), why the empty frames still hang on the walls, the Robin Hood myth of art heisting, the woman who masterminded a Vermeer heist in 1974, the greatest art thief who ever lived, and what the Louvre heist means for museums everywhere. Plus: why most heists are inside jobs, how AI is changing museum security, and why you could not, in fact, pull a heist off. Grab all of Anthony's wonderful books here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Life After Ambition: The Midlife Crisis We Weren't Prepared For 02.07.2026 54dk

  We were promised that if we worked hard enough, checked all the right boxes, and built successful careers, we'd eventually arrive at some stable version of adulthood. So why do so many women in midlife feel like we're teetering on the edge of a cliff. This week we're joined by writer and cultural critic Amil Niazi, author of Life After Ambition, for a chat about the modern midlife crisis. Not the cliché dude version with sports cars and dramatic reinventions, but the reckoning happening to so many women who have spent decades chasing success only to discover that the old definitions no longer fit. We chat about aging in industries obsessed with youth, the anxiety of work in an increasingly unstable economy, why ambition may need a complete rebrand, and what happens when we stop measuring success by titles, promotions, and external validation. Most of all, we explore the things that actually sustain us: friendship, community, creativity, family, and the freedom to build an actual life and not just the idea of one. Get Amil's book Life After Ambition here. Read her story about Midlife Crisis-ing in End Times here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  How to Actually Relax This Summer 30.06.2026 42dk

  Summer is supposed to be relaxing, so why does it feel like five summers' worth of stress before July even hits? This week, we're pushing back on the algorithm's demands that we all have a "'90s summer" or a "nonna summer" and making the case for opting out of any kind of perfection or summer archetype entirely. We're joined by creator, blogger, and debut novelist Chassity Evans. We dig into Chassity's wild path to authorship, why she chose self-publishing over the slow grind of querying and traditional publishing, and what it's like to have real-time sales data as an indie author. Plus: our quest to bring badminton back and a tease of a very sexy Sound of Music retelling. Pre-order The Parisian Heist and grab Pink Sand Summer wherever you get your books. Join our newsletter community here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Why We're All Binging Parks and Rec Right Now—The Most Hopeful Show on Television Was Almost Canceled 25.06.2026 44dk

  Why does Parks and Recreation feel more necessary now than when it first aired? We're chatting with bestselling author and pop culture journalist Jennifer Keishin Armstrong about the enduring appeal of Leslie Knope, Pawnee, and the sitcom that accidentally became a blueprint for rebuilding community. We talk about why audiences have embraced earnestness over cynicism, how Amy Poehler helped create one of television's most iconic feminist characters, and what the show's message about friendship, local government, and collective action can teach us today. This episode is about much more than television. It's about what happens when good people decide to build something together. Get Jennifer's Book Parks and Rec: The Underdog TV Show That Lit'rally Inspired a Vision for a Better America here. Subscribe to Ministry of Pop Culture here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  What Should We Be Watching Right Now? With Kate Casey 23.06.2026 42dk

  Kate Casey, host of Reality Life with Kate Casey returns to the show with recommendations for what to watch right now, from buzzy new documentaries to true crime rabbit holes and reality television that is deliciously bonkers and addictive. We chat aboutThe Crash, Should I Marry a Murderer?, the surprisingly emotional Martin Short documentary, Kate's latest Housewives obsession, the Martha Moxley case, Spencer Pratt's political future (ed note: we recorded this before the primary), and why some stories stay lodged in our collective imagination for decades. Listen to Kate's podcast here. Read Kate's Vanity Fair piece on Martha Moxley here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Ballerina Farm Gets Real With Steph McNeal 18.06.2026 32dk

  Our friend Stephanie McNeal wrote a truly great piece for Vulture this week called BALLERINA FARM IS HAPPY WITH HER CHOICES. Steph went to the farm and sat down with Hannah inside the homeschooling schoolhouse to talk about everything from being called a tradwife to Yesteryear to who does what in her marriage. It's the best profile of BF and Neeleman we have ever read so we had to get Steph on the show ASAP to chat through it. Read the piece here. Subscribe to Steph's Substack here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Jane Green on Rewilding, Reinvention, Mushrooms, Tattoos and Midlife Freedom 16.06.2026 48dk

  Bestselling author Jane Green spent decades looking like she had the perfect life: a beautiful house, a successful career, a long marriage, children, stability, all of it. But behind the scenes she was drowning in financial fear, people pleasing, resentment, perimenopause, and the terrifying feeling that she had completely lost herself. Then she walked away. She Rewilded herself. In this deeply honest conversation based on Green's new memoir Rewilding, Jane talks about leaving her marriage, running away to Marrakech, experimenting with mushrooms, tattoos and reinvention in midlife, navigating the hormonal and emotional earthquake of menopause, and learning how to stop caring what everyone else thinks. Thanks to Bellesa for sponsoring the show! EVERYONE who signs up wins a FREE toy or gift card! Just click the link! https://www.bboutique.co/vibe/undertheinfluence-pod Get Jane's book REWILDING here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Sad Beige Babies With Sad Beige Parents 11.06.2026 42dk

  Sad beige motherhood helped inspire this podcast. This week we're diving into the internet aesthetic that convinced an entire generation of mothers that parenting should look like a luxury hotel lobby in Denmark. We talk with Hayley DeRoche, aka The Official Sad Beige and author of Dress Your Baby in Sage and Taupe, about how influencer culture turned motherhood into a perfectly curated performance built on guilt, consumption, and extremely expensive neutral-toned stacking cups. We get into the rise of sad beige motherhood, stealth wealth aesthetics, why every stroller suddenly costs as much as a used Honda Civic, and how social media sold women the lie that if we just bought the right swaddle, sleep suit, or baby carrier, we could somehow control the total chaos of early parenting. There’s also a lot about community: why modern motherhood feels so isolating, why moms desperately need real-life support systems instead of influencer advice, and why we may all need to start forming feminist mom communes immediately. Follow the Official Sad Beige here. Order Dress Your Baby in Sage and Taupe here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Girls Gone Wild Go Feral—Behind the Scenes of the Show That Shaped a Generation 09.06.2026 50dk

  What if the women from Girls Gone Wild finally got the mic? This week we go all the way back to the horrifyingly normalized misogyny of the early 2000s with author and podcaster Courtney Kocak, who spent seven deeply unsettling weeks working on the actual Girls Gone Wild tour bus. Courtney takes us inside the world Joe Francis built: drunk college girls signing contracts they didn’t understand, creepy power dynamics disguised as “fun,” and the moment she realized the entire machine was designed to separate women from their agency while making terrible men rich. We get into feminism’s branding problem, the manosphere, abortion shame, sex positivity after trauma, why women are exhausted from watching men face zero consequences, and whether the left needs to stop eating its own alive every five seconds online. Get Courtney's book Girl Gone Wild here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Sunday Nice Things: Family Money 07.06.2026 31dk

  So excited to drop Family Money from Babylist into your feed! Having a baby comes with real money questions, no matter where you're starting from. Welcome to Family Money, a new podcast from Babylist, because it shouldn't feel like only some people know how to play the game. Family Money is the podcast about the financial side of family life that parents think about constantly but rarely say out loud. Childcare costs. Saving strategies. What it actually means to give your kids a good life. Each episode brings together parents, economists, therapists, and financial advisors for the conversations you've been carrying around. No judgment. No shame. Just honest answers. In our very first episode, we're tackling the question every parent asks: are kids actually more expensive than ever? Yes—but the reason might surprise you. We hear from an economist who reframes what that actually means for your family's finances (hint: you're not burning money, you're investing it), and a mom of three who proves you don't need a huge home, a fancy car, or a perfectly curated nursery to raise a happy family. Because here's the truth: kids will flip your finances upside down. And they're worth every penny. Subscribe to Family Money here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Royals Were the Original Reality Television Stars 04.06.2026 44dk

  Before there were influencers, there were royals. For centuries, the British royal family has provided the world with fashion trends, family feuds, public scandals, doomed romances, and enough gossip to fuel generations of headlines. Long before social media, people were obsessing over what royals wore, who they married, and what happened behind palace walls. Bestselling author Melanie Benjamin joins us to talk about her new novel, The Windsor Affair, which revisits one of the most consequential scandals in modern history: King Edward VIII's decision to give up the throne for Wallis Simpson. Together we unpack why we're still fascinated by the royals, how the monarchy became the blueprint for celebrity culture, and what really happened between Wallis Simpson and the future Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. They also dig into the parallels between Wallis and Meghan Markle, the media's obsession with pitting women against one another, and why history keeps recycling the same female archetypes. Get The Windsor Affair here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  What Killed the Girl Power Movement? 02.06.2026 43dk

   The greatest scam of the last 20 years is that women were told if we just worked harder, leaned in more, woke up at 5:00 AM, negotiated better, practiced enough gratitude, optimized ourselves hard enough, and girlbossed with enough intensity, equality and equity would finally be ours. That didn't happen, did it? This week we're talking about why the entire promise of girl power failed so many women. Not because our ambition was wrong or dangerous, and not because women did anything wrong or dangerous or because we failed, but because the systems around us just never actually changed to support us. Order The Ambition Penalty here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  MAHA Moms, the Influencer Election and What the Hell Will Happen With Midterms With Emily Amick 28.05.2026 38dk

  There’s a reason so many people are tuning out politics right now. Every day feels like another terrible headline, another scandal too big to process, another moment where you wonder whether we live inside The Onion. But while everyone is overwhelmed and exhausted, the right has built one of the most sophisticated media ecosystems in modern history. Emily Amick returns to the podcast to talk about Trump’s new loyalty settlement fund, the influencer-to-political operative pipeline, why “independent” MAGA creators are shaping public opinion more effectively than traditional media, and whether the MAHA moms are gonna jump ship. Buy Emily's book Democracy in Retrograde here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Burnout Beneath Ambition 26.05.2026 35dk

  Why does success still feel so empty for so many women? Executive coach Brooke Taylor says the answer is something she calls “the success wound”: the pain that comes from tying our self-worth to achievement, productivity, perfection, and external validation. In this episode, we unpack why so many high-achieving women are burned out, anxious, over-functioning, and terrified they’re never doing enough. We get into Google hustle culture to addiction, motherhood, ambition, burnout, and the panic spiral that starts with one weird email from your boss. We also talk about the deeper cultural forces shaping women’s relationship to work, why so many women are rethinking ambition in midlife, and how we raise daughters who know they are worthy even when they fail. Order The Success Wound here. Follow Brooke here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices