Back Row with Amy Odell

Latest Episodes:

How Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Built Two Billion-Dollar Empires (Part 1) Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

Back Row is on vacation this week, so we're revisiting one of the most popular episodes of the year: a two-parter on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, in honor of The Row's 20th anniversary.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were on television before they could talk and millionaires before they could read. Former Us Weekly editor-in-chief Dan Wakeford, author of the new ⁠Celebrity Intelligence newsletter⁠, joins Back Row to break down the Full House casting story, the Dual Star empire, the billion-dollar licensing machine, and the NYU years that changed everything.

Part Two — revealing the secrets behind The Row — is available to Premium subscribers. Sign up at ⁠Back Row⁠ (https://www.backrow.net/subscribe) to get newsletter access included with your subscription, or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

⁠Find Part Two in Apple Podcasts here⁠

⁠Find Part Two in Spotify here⁠

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:40 Dan Wakeford and Celebrity Intelligence

02:47 Why the Olsens are a unique case study

07:50 The Full House casting story

10:07 The reality of child stardom

16:22 How their personalities diverged early

19:49 From pennies to $80,000 an episode

26:27 The home video empire begins

33:28 The billion dollar licensing machine

48:00 Turning 18 and taking control

53:41 NYU and the paparazzi years

57:47 How everything changed

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

'Matcha, Pilates, Alo' Enters Its Flop Era: Inside the Influencer Recession Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.

Is everything on social media — even lifestyle content — just rage bait now? New York Magazine features writer Rebecca Jennings joins Amy to unpack her hit Vulture piece on the "influencer recession," when aspirational content no longer works and creators have to come up with "brand-safe rage bait." What does this mean both for the content landscape but also, for rage itself?

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

02:00 What is the "influencer recession"?

02:45 The clipping economy & fake virality

05:15 Audrey Peters & the $25 DoorDash coffee

10:30 Why the Alo yacht flopped

14:35 Why Birkins are embarrassing now

19:30 The OpenAI influencer farm trip

24:00 Brands manufacturing their own rage bait

30:00 How Substack changed the game

34:30 Is rage bait losing its power?

Read Rebecca's story: The Influencer Recession — https://www.vulture.com/article/influencer-recession-audrey-peters-interview.html

Edited by Chrissi Harris.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is Fashion in Total Creative Collapse? Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

*SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.* Is fashion in the throes of a total creative collapse? Critic Eugene Rabkin — founder of StyleZeitgeist and author of the new book Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism — joins Amy to make the case. He argues luxury has "devolved into a consumerist spectacle," its lack of ideas papered over by relentless marketing. They get into the greedflation behind a $140,000 Dior dress, why "craftsmanship" is the industry's greatest con, the Italian sweatshop scandals that never seem to stick, how Bernard Arnault turned the fashion world into the fashion industry — and the death of criticism, and why nobody seems to care. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction

02:30 Fashion's creative collapse: the thesis

08:30 Greedflation & the $140,000 Dior dress

13:00 The craftsmanship con

15:00 Sweatshop scandals: Dior & Loro Piana's vicuña

23:30 The death of fashion criticism

32:00 Bernard Arnault & how he industrialized fashion 📺 SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row Newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe 📷 Follow Back Row on Instagram: @backrow 📷 Follow Amy on Instagram: @instamyodell Follow Eugene Rabkin 📷 Follow Eugene on Instagram: @eugenerabkin 📚 Buy the book: Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism This episode was edited by Chrissi Harris.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Galliano Is Finally Getting a Met Gala. Should He? (Teaser) Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

John Galliano is the subject of the Costume Institute's 2027 exhibition and will be celebrated with his very own Met Gala. Galliano's biographer Dana Thomas — author of Gods and Kings, a dual biography about Galliano and Alexander McQueen — joins the show to talk about what this means. Amy and Dana recap Galliano's fall from grace and image rehabilitation — thanks to Anna Wintour.

This is a free preview. Hear the full conversation — a detailed recap of the controversy, the apology Galliano never made, and Amy's take on whether the Met should honor him — in the full episode in Back Row Premium.

Sign up for the newsletter at backrow.net/subscribe to access the newsletter plus all Premium podcasts, or subscribe for audio only in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Louvre Heist and Shady Billionaire Art Owners Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

"Parisian Heist" author Jo Piazza joins Amy to break down the October 2025 Louvre robbery — the suspects, the mysterious "sponsor," and why authorities aren't sure the suspects are telling the truth.

Plus: why museum security is so basic, how art gets used to launder money and fund violent crime, the billionaire families who quietly run the art market, and what a $181 million Jackson Pollock says about the state of art and wealth. (00:00) Introduction (02:30) Recap: the Louvre heist, October 19, 2025 (04:30) The Isabella Stewart Gardner heist: $500M, still unsolved (07:30) The arrests and the mysterious "sponsor" named Joe (08:30) How basic museum security really is (13:00) What was stolen: the Napoleonic crown jewels (16:30) The Wildensteins & how art launders money (30:00) The $60 billion shadow art market (31:00) Restoring Empress Eugénie's crown & the French jewelry houses (38:30) The $181M Pollock & Jerry Saltz's takedown of the art market Subscribe to the Back Row newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe Buy The Parisian Heist: https://amzn.to/4yLV6ex Follow Back Row: @backrow · Follow Amy: @instamyodell · Follow Jo: @jopiazzaauthor Edited by Chrissi Harris.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How Meta Turned Smart Glasses Into 'Hot Surveillance Summer' (with Taylor Lorenz) Jul 30, 2026

Show notes

In this special episode in collaboration with the Power User podcast Amy Odell joins tech journalist Taylor Lorenz to trace the arc of wearable tech — from the abomination that was Google Glass to Snapchat's vending-machine Spectacles and the company's recent $2,000 flop. Also, why Meta's rollout of it's new $299 fashion-first AI glasses, odious as many find them, may end up being a smash hit.

Follow Taylor's show Power User on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube, and subscribe to her newsletter, UserMag.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro — why everyone's arguing about Meta's glasses

01:36 Turning a camera into a fashion accessory

01:55 Welcome + the "hot surveillance summer" question

02:45 Google Glass and the original abomination

04:16 Snapchat Spectacles, vending machines, and a $130 flop

06:48 GoPro and how sports normalized filming everything

08:55 Ray-Ban Stories (2021) and the "creep" problem

10:57 2025: Oakley Meta and the first AI glasses

11:55 2026: low-profile frames, rhinestones, and AI as the real sell

13:25 The influencer rollout and the decline of fashion media

18:39 Why Kylie Jenner

21:40 How phones already normalized recording everything

24:56 Fashion, plausible deniability, and getting women on board

26:20 Will they actually sell? Meta's copy machine

29:19 The anti-screen crowd may be Meta's best customer

32:14 Beyond glasses: pins, pendants, and camera AirPods

35:29 Who owns the data? Facial recognition and the scary part

37:11 Zuckerberg, Bezos, the Met Gala, and OpenAI's fashion play

39:59 Snap's $2,000 flop and why ugly tech dies

43:03 Wrap-up

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Kennedys and British Royals: Diana's Death, Meghan Markle's Muse, and JFK Jr.'s Ego Jul 27, 2026

Show notes

***SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.*** Town & Country editor Caroline Hallemann's new book is The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made. She joins Amy to discuss the eerie parallels between these two dynasties. Among the surprising stories in Hallemann's book: how Jackie Kennedy fought to keep wearing French designers as First Lady, why JFK Jr. wanted Princess Diana on the cover of George, the real story behind Diana's death and the ongoing conspiracy theories, and how Meghan Markle copied Carolyn Bessette's style. Plus: what Jack Schlossberg's blistering congressional loss means for the Kennedy dynasty.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

03:00 Young Jackie at Miss Porter's and her enduring fashion influence

08:00 What "American Love Story" got wrong about Carolyn Bessette

10:30 JFK Jr. launches George magazine

14:00 Why John wanted Diana on the cover

20:00 Diana's death: what actually happened

32:00 The conspiracy theories that still swirl around Diana's death

39:00 Why Meghan Markle keeps copying Carolyn Bessette's style

53:00 Is Jack Schlossberg the next JFK Jr.?

Subscribe to the Back Row newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe

Follow Caroline Hallemann: https://www.instagram.com/challemann/

Buy the book: https://amzn.to/4fVX8Bq

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Stylist to Billionaires on How the .01 Percent Really Shop Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

This is a teaser of a paywalled podcast. Get the full episode by subscribing to the Back Row newsletter. For podcast content only, go Premium on Apple or Spotify. Joy Cioci has been in fashion for 23 years — first with her own ready-to-wear and bridal brand, and for the past six years, as a private stylist to some of the wealthiest families in the country. She joins Amy to talk about what that job is actually like: how she pulls $80-90K worth of merchandise on loan for a single client, why some of her clients refuse to play the Hermès "game," and why women spending $1.5 million a year on clothes have no idea what just dropped at Chanel. CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

4:00 Who Joy's clients actually are

9:30 How pulling merchandise on loan from stores works

11:00 Inside an $80-90K shopping trip

18:00 What ultra-wealthy people actually want from their wardrobe

21:00 Finding rare pieces no one else has

Follow Joy Cioci

📸 Follow Joy on Instagram: @joycioci

🛍️ Shop Joy Cioci: https://joycioci.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Phia's Latest Scandal: Is Phoebe Gates's Startup in Trouble? Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

Lawyer and The Fashion Law founder Julie Zerbo makes her Back Row pod debut to discuss the latest Phia scandal. The startup, founded by Bill Gates's daughter Phoebe Gates and her Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni, was just found to be taking credit for affiliate sales it did not drive. People are calling it "fraud" but is it, really? Can the Gates name and a slew of celeb founders help them sail through this unscathed?

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:32 Phia's origin story and Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kiani's Stanford beginnings

09:16 The first scandal: Fortune's report on Phia's data collection

16:17 The second scandal: Bloomberg's cookie-stuffing investigation

19:18 Explaining cookie stuffing — and the Honey/PayPal lawsuits

27:23 Did Phia's investors do proper due diligence?

36:22 Could this be fraud? The legal answer

43:15 Does Phia's celebrity halo make it bulletproof?

Subscribe to the Back Row newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe

Follow Julie Zerbo and The Fashion Law: https://www.thefashionlaw.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fall 2026 Couture Awards: Dangerous Shoes, Hat Wars, and Wedding Dresses Jul 13, 2026

Show notes

Veteran fashion journalist Dana Thomas returns for Fall 2026 couture awards! We talk about the hat wars at Dior, the wildest shoes, and the Chanel chicken bag that seems like it can't carry more than a pill or two.

This is a teaser of a paid episode. Subscribe at Back Row (save three months on an annual subscription) to access paywalled podcasts AND all newsletter stories. For podcast access only, sign up in Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

03:18 What "couture" actually means

08:08 Award: Most Viral Front Row Celebrity

10:49 Award: Best Front Row Celebrity

13:37 Award: Best Couture Handiwork

16:58 Award: Best Shoes

20:18 Award: Best Bags

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices