Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Holiday joy is supposed to feel cozy and magical. Instead, a lot of women spend December simmering with quiet (or not so quiet) rage. Let's dig into why the holidays can feel especially brutal for women in midlife, and what our hormones, our brains, and the unpaid mental load of the season have to do with it. Her guest is Dr. Kim Einhorn, an OB GYN and founder of the MP Collective, a personalized menopause and perimenopause practice. Kim explains how hormone fluctuations in perimenopause can hijack your mood, why you suddenly cannot stand the way your partner does just about anything, and how sleep, stress, and resentment collide to tank both your patience and your libido. Kim gets into practical ways to lower the mental load, use the power of no, rethink self care, and protect your joy this season, without burning your life down or making one more cheese plate for people you do not like. Learn more about Kim and the MP Collective here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In light of the news about Australia's social media ban for teenagers we are resurfacing an episode with a young creator. This is a deep dive into the world of a 16-year-old TikTok star who wants to change the industry as we know it and ensure that the next 20 billionaires are females under 25. Sloane Price is wildly ambitious in ways I couldn't have imagined possible when I was a teenager. And today we're talking about her business plans, the ways that brands and agencies take advantage of teen girl influencers (plus how she wants to fix it) and why the teenage influencers today are the future of celebrity marketing. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Australia just became the first country in the world to ban social media for anyone under sixteen. It’s a sweeping, messy and imperfect law. But it's also one of the first real attempts to hold tech companies accountable for the impact their platforms have on kids. We dig into what the ban actually does, why it matters even with all its flaws, and what the early backlash from teenagers and tech companies reveals. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Quite Literally Books is doing something rare in publishing. They are bringing back books by American women who were once widely read, widely praised, and then quietly erased from the literary conversation. These writers were bestsellers a hundred years ago. They were reviewed by the major outlets. They shaped cultural debates. And then, because the canon was built and maintained mostly by men, their work disappeared from classrooms, bookstores, and the public memory. Republishing these books is not just a literary project. It is a way of restoring voices that should never have been silenced in the first place. In this episode, I talk with the two women behind Quite Literally Books. They explain how they track down these lost authors, what it feels like to hold a great book that history forgot, and why stories about motherhood, marriage, mental health, labor, and identity from the early twentieth century still feel shockingly current. Check out ⁠Quite Literally Books⁠. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we’re bringing back one of my favorite episodes because it has only become more relevant. On the surface, it is a story about “bad nanny” posts in mom groups. Underneath, it is a story about money, power, and the invisible labor that holds up our entire childcare system. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happens when a thriller writer discovers her novels have been quietly fed into AI without her consent and decides to fight back. In this episode, Jo digs in with Andrea Bartz, author of The Last Ferry Out and Reese pick We Were Never Here, to unpack how pirated books ended up inside massive AI training datasets, what it was like to be deposed and to face down an AI giant, and how that fight led to a proposed 1.5 billion dollar copyright settlement that lawyers are calling the largest in history. They trace every step of the case, explain how authors can check whether their own books are eligible for payouts, and ask what this moment might mean for the future balance of power between artists and AI. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for videos of all episodes here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

W're told that motherhood is supposed to feel natural, fulfilling and instinctive. If it does not, our culture tells you the problem is you. Jo and licensed psychotherapist Vanessa Bennett, author of The Motherhood Myth, are here to rip that story to shreds. They trace how impossible standards for mothers were built, from the Virgin Mary as manufactured ideal to helicopter parenting and the avalanche of parenting advice on social media. Vanessa explains ego death in early motherhood and what separates true intuition from anxiety. They also talk about martyrdom as a trap, internalized misogyny, why women turn on each other online, and how asking for help can be an act of rebellion. If you have ever felt like you are failing at a role you know you are actually good at, this episode is an invitation to start living it on your own terms. Vanessa's Website Follow Vanessa on Instagram Find The Motherhood Myth here Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode dives into the joy of planning a trip, because there really should be a German word for the absolute delight that the anticipation of travel brings you. Perhaps also one for the thrill of getting great recommendations. Jo is in London with her entire crew and she taps into one of her most trusted tastemakers to build some ideal itineraries—a proper Sunday roast, the best pubs, where to walk when the weather turns, the museums that keep kids engaged and the shops worth packing an extra bag for. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may think you know the NXIVM story. The secretive self-help empire. The sex cult headlines. The downfall of its leader, Keith Raniere. But the most famous woman at the center of the story has remained largely silent. Allison after NXIVM tells the story of Allison Mack: former Smallville actress, high-ranking NXIVM member, and convicted felon. With exclusive access following her release from prison, this series traces her astonishing path from Smallville fame to NXIVM’s inner circle—and her effort to rebuild a life in the wreckage. Through raw interviews with those who knew her before, during, and after NXIVM, the show dives deep into the gray zones of influence, accountability, and redemption. And how we as a society treat women who have done bad things, often fueled by social media. In this episode, Allison Mack heads to court to be sentenced. When the judge hands down his sentence—three years in federal prison—Allison must begin to unravel the beliefs she once evangelized, parsing what was true and what was manipulation.  You can find Allison After NXIVM here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you actually have hobbies, or do you just have things that feel like self-improvement projects? In this episode, Jo kicks off an “Adventure Year” with her best friend Jackie, a grad student in positive psychology who went through a midlife crisis that left her feeling like a houseplant in the corner just watching everyone else enjoying their lives. Therapy, research, and a Mahjong class later, Jackie is obsessed with how women both need and lack true hobbies that are not about weight loss, productivity, or caregiving. Jo and Jackie talk about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation, why yoga and Pilates usually don’t count as hobbies, how play boosts wellbeing, and the idea of “psychological richness” that comes from trying new things. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The stories we tell about women matter. How we amplify and promote those stories matters. To that end we are considering how to resurrect a history series we did years ago about bad ass women that history has forgotten. We're dropping one of those episodes in your feed today. This is an episode of Fierce: Stories of Women Who Changed the World. In this episode meet Clementine Paddleford, the forgotten food journalist who elevated food writing from dull and mundane to a delicious art form. The way we write about food today is largely due to Clementine, the roving reporter who taught herself to fly a plane so she could report on every aspect of food across the country and around the world. Afterwards, hear Jo’s conversation with Yasmin Khan, the best-selling food writer whose books on middle eastern cooking, The Saffron Tales and Zaitoun, expertly carry on Clementine’s legacy.   Listen to more episodes of Fierce here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can parents ever really know what’s happening inside their kids’ phones? This episode takes a hard look at how Instagram says it’s protecting teens—and whether those promises hold up. Instagram’s Global Director of Public Policy, Tara Hopkins, explains the new “teen accounts,” parental supervision tools, and age verification systems. We also ask how these safety features actually work in practice, what still slips through the cracks, and what it means when the people building social media are also parents trying to keep their own kids safe online. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re heading back to 1994 for My So-Called Life episode three, “Guns and Gossip.” A gun goes off at school, rumors spread, and Angela Chase is caught between wanting to be seen and wanting to disappear. Pop culture historian Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (Seinfeldia, When Women Invented Television) joins the conversation to explore why the show still feels so real and what it taught us about identity, gender, and growing up. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s been thirty years since My So-Called Life premiered—thirty years since Angela Chase fell for Jordan Catalano and quietly redefined what teenage angst looked like. This week, Under the Influence rewinds to 1994 for a nostalgic deep dive into the one-season show that changed how we saw adolescence, parents, and ourselves. Emily Crandall, a political theorist with a PhD from CUNY who moonlights as an underemployed adjunct and podcast maker (“Yay, capitalism”), and Esme Shaller, a clinical psychologist and professor at UCSF whose middle school daughters are currently reading The Babysitters Club, join the conversation. Together, they explore how My So-Called Life captured the confusion and loneliness of being fifteen, why its portrayal of parents feels so different through adult eyes, and how it laid the groundwork for every coming-of-age show that followed. It’s a love letter to the nineties—a time before phones, when friendship was analog, music was everything, and watching a boy lean against a locker could still break your heart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For decades, menopause has been treated like a medical afterthought—a punchline, a whisper, or something to “just get through.” But millennial women are starting to hit perimenopause, and we’re not going quietly. The hormones are unpredictable, the rage is real, and the information gap is staggering. Psychotherapist and author Lauren Tetenbaum, who wrote Millennial Menopause: Preparing for Perimenopause, Menopause, and Life’s Next Period, joins the show to unpack how an entire generation is redefining what it means to age. The conversation moves from sleepless nights and hormonal chaos to the deeper stuff—mental health, careers, sex, friendship, and the ways the medical system continues to fail women. With humor and clarity, Lauren explains what perimenopause actually is, why most doctors aren’t trained to recognize it, and how millennial and Gen X women are demanding better care, better research, and better conversations. This isn’t the end of anything—it’s the start of women taking ownership of their bodies and rewriting the story of midlife. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tradwife influencers are selling women a dangerous fantasy — that dependence is aspirational. It’s not. In this episode, we dig into the real cost of giving up financial agency with Steph Wagner, National Director of Women & Wealth at Northern Trust and author of Fly: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom and Living a Life You Love. We unpack why budgets fail, how a weekly money date can change your life, and the four principles every woman should know to actually grow wealth. Steph shares how losing everything after her marriage ended became the catalyst for her financial awakening — and why owning your money is the ultimate rebellion against tradwife culture. Buy Steph's book Fly here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Therapist, writer, and content creator Vanessa Spinarsky helps women untangle the cultural scripts that shape how we mother. Her viral message to “unf*ck your conditioning” has resonated with thousands of mothers who are tired of feeling like their worth depends on self-erasure. This conversation dives into the myths of the “good mom,” the performance of control, and how social media keeps us dysregulated for profit. We talk about what it looks like to stop performing motherhood and start living it, why burnout is really a form of self-abandonment, and how to find authenticity in a system designed to make women disappear. Follow Vanessa on Instagram here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The publishing world can feel like an exclusive club: one where the rules are unwritten and the gatekeepers speak a different language. In this episode, we talk to novelist Kristin Vuković to break down what really happens behind the scenes of selling a book. From finding and querying a literary agent to surviving rejection, negotiating deals, and choosing the right publisher, we pull back the curtain on all the things. We also chat about the upcoming Adriatic Writers Conference in Croatia that I am co-organizing which is changing the game for authors by teaching both the craft and the commerce of writing. If you’ve ever dreamed about getting your book into the world, this is your roadmap to how it actually happens. Apply for a spot at the Adriatic Writer's Conference in Spring 2026 here. Find more of Kristin's work here. Find Lidija's tips for what to ask an agent here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our friends at Tink Media and the Resonate Podcast Festival have launched something called Pitch Party—a brilliant idea that gives independent audio creators a place to share their podcast pilots with real listeners. This week’s pilot, Heart Trouble, is a haunting and beautiful piece of storytelling. It begins when country radio DJ Sid Wood dies suddenly in 1987. Decades later, his daughter finds a box of old cassette tapes and hears her father’s voice for the first time. That discovery sends her on a cross-country journey through the Midwest and the American South—from honky-tonk bars to the Grand Ole Opry—to uncover who her father was, and what his life (and his music) meant. Listen to more of Pitch Party here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We spend nearly two months a year on social media. Two months!!!!That’s how much time the average person gives to an algorithm built to hijack their attention, flood their brain with dopamine, and quietly rewire how they connect, focus, and feel joy. In this episode, clinical psychologist and addiction medicine expert Dr. Thekla Ross breaks down the science of how our phones became “sophisticated attention traps”—and what that’s doing to our relationships, our sex lives, and our ability to feel joy. Jo and Nick join her for a brutally honest conversation about how to break the habit, rebuild intimacy, and reclaim the parts of life that can’t be lived through a screen. Learn more about Thekla's work here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices