The social media influencer has officially replaced the plucky girl journalist as the heroine of choice in women's fiction. The latest and most hilarious example of this is Jenny Mollen's new novel City of Likes, a wickedly funny story about a woman just like us who gets sucked into the maddening web of a mom influencer. Jo got to hop on Jenny's podcast "Third Wheel" this week to chat all about influencers, female friendship, the attention economy and Mormon momfluencers soft swinging with each others husbands. It's everything you want to listen to while you ignore your kids this weekend.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bonus: Third Wheel with Jenny Mollen

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.

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Is it just us, or does American culture have narcissism fever? Between 2004 and 2016, the volume of Google searches for the word “narcissist” grew exponentially. Thanks to factors like the rise of therapyspeak, TikTok mental health diagnoses, and badly behaving reality stars-turned-world leaders, discourse about this buzzy, yet poorly understood phenomenon has exploded. Are we as a society becoming more narcissistic? Or are we now over-using and misusing this term to the point of meaninglessness? Wait, is obsessing about other people's narcissism its own kind of narcissism?? In an effort to soothe these thought spirals, host Amanda (@amanda_montell) settled in for an illuminating chat with her debut guest, psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula (@doctorramani), author of the New York Times bestseller "It's Not You" and one of the world's foremost narcissism experts. Tune in for a relatable, brain-tingling, and clarifying discussion about this confounding topic, complete with questions submitted by the "Magical Overthinkers Club" and bits of wisdom to help us overthinkers get out of our own heads. 
- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.
- To access early, ad-free episodes and more, subscribe to the Magical Overthinkers Substack.
- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.
- Sources: 
What Is Narcissism? Science Confronts a Widely Misunderstood Phenomenon
Time grows on trees: The effect of nature settings on time perception
Therapist Aisha's Instagram

Sunday Nice Things: Magical Overthinkers with Amanda Montell

Let's talk about Harrison Butker's viral graduation this week where he informed women graduates that their highest career calling was to be a wife and mother. If you got #tradwife vibes from that sentence, you aren't alone. The Internet is not happy and here to dissect the politics and the culture wars of it all is none other than Emily Amick, author of Democracy in Retrograde and the guru behind the account @EmilyinYourPhone. 

We also explore the broader context of Christian patriarchy, authoritarianism, and the pushback against progressive gender narratives. Additionally, we touch on the emotional labor and societal expectations imposed on women, the allure and pitfalls of the 'Trad Wife' lifestyle, and the rise of polarizing ideologies in digital spaces. 

Sigh.

Harrison Butker and the TradWives with Emily in Your Phone

The new hit romance The Idea of You has everyone buzzing about so-called middle-aged women and the pursuit of pleasure. What kinds of pleasure do we deserve? Which ones are taboo, and who decides? Today we talk all about the movie with resident lady pleasure expert Glynnis MacNicol of the new book I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself.

Women and Pleasure with Glynnis MacNicol (PLUS All the thoughts on The Idea of You)

For today's Sunday Nice Things I get to chat with Rachel Hirsch, one of the incredible audiobook narrators of The Sicilian Inheritance. I love audiobooks. I often toggle between the audio book and the print version for efficiency. I also sometimes listen to the audio book AFTER I finish the print version because it is simply relaxing. I love chatting with Rachel today about how audio books get made and the incredible actors behind them.

Sunday Nice Things: The Magic of Audiobooks

What would you do if you discovered your therapist was on TikTok? And worse than that...what if they were talking about things YOU told them in therapy. Today we are talking with Bustle writer Kate Lindsay about her reporting on the mental health TikTok stars and the patients who are concerned. There are so many ethical and practical issues surrounding mental health content on social media these days and we are going to dive into all of it.

Bonus: Third Wheel with Jenny Mollen

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