Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Latest Episodes:

How to be Fabulous at Every Age with Lyn Slater Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

"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.

Order The Sicilian Inheritance here.

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Let's Talk About Perimenopause and Getting Older with Stacy London Mar 07, 2024

Show notes

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.

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Bonus: A Sicilian Road Trip With My Best Friend Mar 06, 2024

Show notes

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.

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How Social Media is Toxic for Women and Girls Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

Social media is incredibly toxic for women and girls. I say this all the time, and sometimes I start to feel like a real conspiracy theorist, like the social media version of a prepper telling you to build a tunnel under your house with lots of canned goods, but it is still something I truly believe. My guest today is Kara Alaimo, the author of OVER THE INFLUENCE (a book, not my substack).

It looks at how social media is affecting every single aspect of the lives of women and girls from our parenting to how we date to our careers and our physical safety. But it also gives practical tips about what we can do about it, as users, as creators and as lawmakers to solve a problem that is not just going to go away.

You can order OVER THE INFLUENCE (the book) here.

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Sunday Nice Things: The Silver Chain Mar 03, 2024

Show notes

Today's Sunday Nice Things has everything that you want in a Sunday listen—swingers, the seventies and puritanical Minnesota. From my friends who bring you the Terrible Thanks for Asking podcast comes a new show called Time Capsule: The Silver Chain.

This is an 8-episode “true no-crime” documentary podcast that delves into the secret world of partner-swapping suburbanites in 1970s Minnesota. Newsletters from an abandoned safe deposit box set host Paul Ditty on an investigation to learn all he can about The Silver Chain – a suburban Minnesota swing club from the 1970s – and its members.

Paul attempts to reach several of the club's members. No one will talk until finally he reaches Carol, one of the club’s founders who eventually agrees to talk. But just as Paul is on his way to Modesto, an email from Carol's daughter changes his course.

Subscribe to Time Capsule: The Silver Chain here.

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Grief is for People with Sloane Crosley Feb 29, 2024

Show notes

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.

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Using Instagram to Save Your Child Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

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.

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Sunday Nice Things: Momplicated with Big Time Adulting Feb 25, 2024

Show notes

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!

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Ballerina Farm is a Brand and Other Social Media Literacy We Need to Talk About Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

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.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter here.

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Breaking News on Ruby Franke Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

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.

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