Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

No one is going to check in with you to make sure you're enjoying your life.

What if fun—not self-care, not optimization, not doing more—is the thing missing from modern motherhood?

This week on Under the Influence, we’re talking about why moms feel guilty for wanting joy, adventure, and pleasure that doesn’t serve anyone else. Our guest is Kelly Conroy, the creator of Your Mom Races Rally (YOMO), who went from feeling invisible and depleted in early motherhood to learning how to race rally cars—yes, actual rally cars—on dirt tracks at high speed.

This episode is about the lies we’re told about motherhood: that it should fulfill every need, that good moms are selfless, and that fun has to be earned, justified, or monetized to be allowed. We talk about why women feel pressure to prove the “ROI” of their hobbies, why dads are never asked to account for their leisure time, and how reclaiming adventure can radically change how we parent, partner, and exist in our bodies.

Kelly shares how racing became a form of deep presence, confidence-building, and community—and why modeling joy, risk, and selfhood for our kids might be one of the most important things we do as parents.

This conversation is about identity, autonomy, and why choosing fun isn’t frivolous—it’s revolutionary.

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There are only a few topics women in their forties can’t stop talking about right now: perimenopause, hormone replacement therapy, and GLP medications. In this episode, we sit down with physician Dr. Mary Brandon for a no-bullshit conversation about what’s actually happening in our bodies—and why so many of us feel like we’re losing our minds.

We break down how GLP medications really work (and why many women feel better on them beyond weight loss), the role inflammation plays in joint pain, sleep, mood, and energy, and what the next generation of these drugs could look like. We also get into hormone replacement therapy—what it actually does, why testosterone is so often ignored in women’s care, and how decades of fear, shame, and misinformation have made this phase of life harder than it ever needed to be.

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Three things are happening in the group chat right now: perimenopause, ICE, and Heated Rivalry. That’s it. That’s the list. And yes, I am late to this particular party because this is a show I have to watch alone, in the daylight, with no children within a one mile radius.

So let’s talk about why this Canadian, low-budget, nipples-everywhere hockey romance has basically taken over the brains of American women in this exact moment. I brought in the only person I wanted to unpack it with: Sarah Wendell, co-founder of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, who has been taking romance seriously since before the rest of the world decided it was cool.

We get into what makes the show feel so different from American TV, why it probably couldn’t have been made here, and how it became a global obsession without a celebrity tentpole (hahaha tentpole). We talk about what it means to watch two men do their own emotional heavy lifting for once, with no woman managing the feelings, and why that turns women on.

This episode is funny, smart, extremely not safe for kids, and designed for anyone who has ever loved “delicious trash” and also wanted to talk about it like it's Proust.

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I’m really excited to introduce you to a new show today.

It’s a smart podcast about trashy books: Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, created by my good friend Sarah Wendell. Sarah has been talking about romance novels in a smart, generous, deeply thoughtful way since long before the current romance renaissance. She’s brilliant, she’s an absolute delight, and she has produced more than 700 episodes of this podcast.

Typically, Sarah talks with authors, readers, reviewers, and bloggers about romance novels, which happen to be one of the most popular genres in fiction worldwide. But today’s episode is a little different.

Her guest is our mutual friend Amanda Matta, best known online as a royal-watcher and pop culture historian, and the host of The Art of History podcast. In this episode, Amanda brings her Art of History treatment to classic old-school romance novel covers. Yes, there is Fabio. And yes, it’s as fun as it sounds.

Listen to more Smart Podcast, Trashy Books⁠.

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Taylor Wolfe, better known as The Daily Tay, has built a massive following online by helping us laugh about the hardest parts of motherhood.

In this episode, we talk about Taylor’s new book Just a Busy Season, a brutally funny and deeply honest look at postpartum life, breastfeeding shame, marriage after kids, and how the so-called “busy season” never truly ends. We dig into how she went from a 2009 blogger to running a full-blown media business, why the word “influencer” still feels condescending, and what it’s like when satire goes viral and strangers decide they know who you are and decide to crap all over your life in the comments section.

We also get into mom shaming, why one cruel comment can outweigh a hundred kind ones and how women end up policing each other online.

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There are so many “most anticipated” lists about what to read this year. We have one book at the very top of ours: The Fountain by Casey Scieszka.

Casey is one of our closest friends, and this is the novel we’ve been quietly recommending for years before anyone could actually get their hands on it. The Fountain, out in March, is set in the Catskills and follows Vera, a woman who looks like she’s in her mid-twenties but has been alive for more than two hundred years. She comes back to her hometown to figure out what happened to her and whether she can finally stop living forever. It’s a page-turner, but it also asks bigger questions about aging, power, womanhood, and building a life with purpose and love.

We also talk about friendship and books as a form of survival, the high-stakes insanity of swapping early drafts with someone you’re just getting to know, and what it looks like to build a creative life while parenting, running a business, and juggling more jobs than anyone should have at once. Plus, we get into writing process, imposter syndrome, and what actually makes someone a writer.

If you’re choosing a March book club pick right now, this is one to put at the top of your list.

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January should officially be Women’s Rest and Recovery Month, because after December most of us are sick, behind on work, emotionally fried, and trying to pretend that carrying the mental load of not just our own families but everyone we care about was somehow restful.

In this episode, we’re joined by Jackie Oña Cascarano, founder of Juno Women’s Collective, an executive career coach, entrepreneur, and former attorney who works with women navigating transition, burnout, and big life shifts. Jackie brings language, research, and real-world experience to the question so many of us are asking right now: how do we rebuild joy when we’re exhausted.

The conversation moves through what joy can realistically look like in daily life, from mid-January getaways and intentional planning days to micro-pleasures that quietly make everything feel lighter, like good coffee, using the nice olive oil, burning the candle instead of saving it, and clearing clutter that fuels anxiety.

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January feels like a real dumpster fire so far. It's supposed to feel like a reset, but instead it feels chaotic and messy and exhausting.

Today we are zooming in on why the urge to fix everything at once backfires every time and why the smallest changes are often the ones that actually stick. We're joined by Under the Influence tidying guru Tyler Moore, aka Tidy Dad to walk through his five-to-ten-minute approach to tidying just your own stuff. Not the whole house. Not your partner’s drawers. Just yours. because being the boss of other people feels like too much right now.

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We’re kicking off the new year by talking about something we both love and hate: “resolutions.” Or, more accurately, a list of what we don’t want in our lives in 2026. With bestselling author Glynnis MacNicol, we get into why this week is useful for taking stock, even if you refuse to “manifest” anything, and how writing things down (by hand, in a real planner) can make your brain take it more seriously.

We talk about setting boundaries with toxic people, getting clearer about what projects and workplaces we’re willing to say yes to, and why “less screen time” isn’t really the point—it’s less social media, less surveillance of our own lives, and a better approach to being online: go in with a list, do what you need to do, and leave. We also get into news diets, the complicated reality of stepping away from your phone when you have kids, and the way social media magnifies the sense that everything is on fire, all the time.

Then the conversation turns to something bigger: relational retirement economics—the idea that friendships and community function like long-term savings, and that investing in relationships is often the most practical kind of security.

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In this heartfelt conversation, Dr. Florencia Segura shares her personal journey of losing her daughter Rosie to Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC). She discusses the lack of awareness surrounding SUDC, the role of social media in her grieving process, and how she keeps Rosie's memory alive. Dr. Segura emphasizes the importance of research and community support in understanding and preventing SUDC, while also navigating the complexities of grief within her family and marriage. Ultimately, she encourages listeners to live fully and love deeply, inspired by Rosie's spirit.

Learn more about Rosie, SUDC and Florencia's mission here.

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