Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

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**Under the Influence with Jo Piazza**

Under the Influence is a deep dive into social media, a place haunted by aspirational marketing where it feels like every other person is a social media influencer trying to sell you something, all while posed in perfect houses that never seem to get messy. And behind this airbrushed perfection is money, so much money. Billions and billions of dollars. Journalist and mom Jo Piazza looks at how we got here, what it all means and how the commodification of every single aspect of our lives is driving everyone (but mostly women and mothers) a little insane.

Latest Episodes:

All About #TradWives with Anne Helen Petersen Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

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

Read her piece on #tradwives here.

And listen to her podcast Work Appropriate.

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Can I Quit Being Influenced with Jessica Elefante Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

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/

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Influencer Kids Are Probably Fed Up - With Fortesa Latifi Oct 09, 2023

Show notes

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?

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

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

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Is a Sick Child Content? With Fortesa Latifi Oct 05, 2023

Show notes

What line do we cross when we post pictures of sick kids to social media and why does the Instagram algorithm and content machine seem to promote these kinds of images? I am not the only one who gets creeped out when I am served pictures and videos of other people’s sick kids in the hospital. The discomfort is very real. I need to talk through all of my feelings about posting sick kids on Instagram and the money making infrastructure (branded content of sick children) around it which is why I am so excited for today’s guest, Fortesa Latifi. She is a kick ass journalist who is one of the few covering the influencer world seriously and smartly for places like the Washington Post and Teen Vogue. Her recent piece in the Washington Post examined the phenomenon of medical influencers and asked the very important question….why can’t millions of people look away from these pictures being posted of kids during their most vulnerable experiences? Fortesa is a goddamn gem of a human and you are going to love her as much as I do.

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Just Feed the Damn Kids—With Virginia Sole-Smith Oct 02, 2023

Show notes

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

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Meta is Stealing Our Words! What Will They Take Next? Sep 27, 2023

Show notes

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

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Munchausen by Proxy on the Socials Sep 25, 2023

Show notes

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.

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Infamous! A Chat About Ozempic Sep 23, 2023

Show notes

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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Even More Ballerina Farm Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

Well we just had too much to say about Ballerina Farm to keep it to one episode. Her brand has become a mini empire and I look at it a little like Ree Drummond meets Laura Ingalls Wilder meets the personality of Emily in Paris. Prairie life nostalgia is currently big business and that's why I had to call our very own Wilder/Prairie Life expert Glynnis MacNicol to figure out why so many people have such strong feelings about this woman.

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A Very Mrs. American Ballerina Farm Sep 18, 2023

Show notes

Buy Sara's book y'all. MOMFLUENCED is an incredible read. You can also subscribe to her substack here.

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