It's been a year since the release of the Wilder podcast about the life and legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder! Thousands of people have listened to the Wilder podcast and continue to keep the dialogue about Laura’s life and legacy alive. Glynnis and Jo published books. But perhaps most importantly, the Little House on the Prairie TV show turned 50! To prepare for this momentous anniversary in early September (and Glynnis’ 50th birthday), Glynnis and our producer Emily got together to share memories from the road and reflect on the lessons we learned from making this show that we still think about every day. Plus, they share never before heard clips from the road trip that started it all and from interviews with some of the most beloved Little House actors who still play a huge role in keeping Laura’s legacy alive. 

Binge all the Wilder episodes here.

Buy Glynnis' book, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, and Jo's book, The Sicilian Inheritance!

Astrology is all over the social medias, for better or worse. Here to guide us through it today is a woman who has been reading the stars for women's mags since before Facebook was a glimmer in Zuck's eye. We're joined by Ophira Edut, one half of the AstroTwins, the official astrologers for ELLE magazine and the matchmakers on Amazon Prime Video’s Cosmic Love.

What can astrology tell us about what is happening right now and how we can handle it? What can we read in the stars to figure out this weird world we live in in 2024 and did these identical twin sister astrologists really predict the trad wife trend? 

Follow everything AstroTwins here.

Buy The Astrology Advantage here.

What makes a great marriage, or even a good marriage? Today we're talking to Frances Mayes, bestselling author of the mega-hit novel Under the Tuscan Sun which has been a touchpoint for women going through any kind of life change or reinvention for nearly 30 years. Now Frances has a new novel called A Great Marriage, to which she brings a lifetime of wisdom from her own two marriages and her parents' tumultuous union. I adore this quote from the book: "You can hammer out a good marriage. Great is a whole other thing. Boiled down, way down, a great marriage happens when two people are big enough to want more for the partner than they want for themselves. Not just as much. More.”

Order A Great Marriage today.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence Newsletter here.

Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to Greenlight.com/Influence.

Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at MINTMOBILE.com/INFLUENCE.

Go to hellobello.com/INFLUENCE, to get 30 PERCENT OFF your first customized bundle, AND a full-size freebie product of your choice.

Visit Bodysmartfitness.com and use the code INFLUENCE for 20% off your coaching program. 

 

 

You know who is alive and well on Instagram?  Jesus.  And I say that without judgment, but it is true. Whether you realize it or not religion, namely Christianity, is being repackaged through beautiful images of motherhood and parenthood on social media. Today we talk to Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, a reporter for Christianity Today who has been researching Christian social media, #tradwives and images of "good motherhood," that quietly promote religious beliefs. Because many of these images look so beautiful and so aesthetically pleasing they lodge in our brains, and we may not know what kind of an ideological place they're coming from or the impact they are having on us.

This episode is sponsored by One Skin. Get started today with One Skin and get 15% off using code Influence at checkout. After you purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you.  

We are also sponsored by the delightful linen, fabric and bedding brand ettitude. You can get $35 off your order, plus free shipping for a limited time when use the code Influence.

Social Media anxiety is now a staple of many, many, many conversations in therapy. People come to the couch to talk about how Instagram and TikTok make them feel left out, make them feel left behind, make them feel shame and guilt. It's a lot. Today we have on clinical therapist Lauren A. Tetenbaum, LMSW, JD, PMH-C. Lauren works with women (usually post-partum) and other caregiver she has seen a massive spike in people wanting to talk about how to deal with all of the crap they feel because of social media. In the spirit of having a renewing January Lauren is here to give us some tips for getting rid of our own social media baggage. It's just like therapy....without the bills.

Learn more about Lauren here.

Nanny shaming in mom Facebook groups, parents hiring $125 private investigators to spy on their caregivers, nannies losing their jobs because of an anonymous tip. Welcome to the nanny wars on social media, where everyone is always watching and the littlest victims, the kids, are caught in the middle. Today we talk to Jen Wieczner of New York magazine about her excellent story on the chaos that ensues after a parent posts about a “bad nanny” on Facebook. This isn't just a parenting story. It is about labor, power, management and money and it impacts anyone who relies on someone else to care for their children.

This episode is sponsored by Green Chef. Go to greenchef.com/60undertheinfluence and use code 60undertheinfluence to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months.

You can read Jen's story on The Cut here.

Who chooses what we see on social media?

Instagram (META) and other social media companies have the power to pick and choose what images they want to show. They also have the power to stop showing your posts to people if they don't like the content. The problem is that there are no real rules for what they don't allow you to post. This week Jo posted a picture of a book cover (Glynnis's new book I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself) that showed a beautiful painting of a naked woman's backside. 

Instagram sent her a warning to remove it or risk losing engagement and followers. Why is Instagram choosing to censor this image when they don't limit much more salacious photos that tend to make them money? The rules are ambiguous so they can change them all the time. In this episode we get Glynnis on the phone to talk through Instagram's decision to censor her book cover and Jo's feed. 

You can check out and order I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself HERE.

As always, pre-order The Sicilian Inheritance this month and get a free subscription to the Over the Influence newsletter.

It's Dry January time for a lot of people. What better time to dive into the world of sobriety influencers. Finding sobriety is different for everyone. It's a journey. These days Instagram and TikTok have become a big part of getting sober.

Suzanne Warye started out as an influencer on her page @MyKindOfSweet by posting her workouts and her outfits. When she experienced post-partum depression she was shockingly honest with her audience about how hard it was. The response was so positive that she began to open up about something that is often even more taboo—sobriety. She didn't realize just how many people needed to hear about how she left alcohol behind.

Now, @MyKindofSweet has evolved into a place where she shares the bright side of sobriety, and spreads the news that you don’t have to wait for rock bottom in order to evaluate your relationship with alcohol. She also shares excellent sweaters!

This episode is the first in our series of January renewal episodes! We talk a lot here about the negative impact of influencers, but this month I want us to focus on how we can use social for the things we want to accomplish. 

For more Under the Influence (transcripts, interviews, show notes and pics) follow our substack, Over the Influence.

You can follow My Kind of Sweet Here.

And as always, pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance here.

 

Why do we care about an influencer baby we will never meet? Ballerina Farm just gave birth to her eighth child.....and the Internet can't handle it. Well, social media can't handle it. The famous influencer's mom announced the birth and now all the influencer message boards are going crazy over it. But why do we care? Why do we care about a woman we don't know and a baby we will never meet? I would argue that influencer babies are the new celebrity babies. They command the same kind of attention. They are also big money. It reminds me of the days when I worked for celebrity weeklies and we all paid millions of dollars for celebrity babies. So let's travel back to those days...back to the magazine wars over celebrity babies before we dissect why we care about this Ballerina Farm baby.

If you are potty training a child these days social media is probably serving you all sorts of potty advice. One of the most surprising accounts we have come across is one encouraging diaper free potty training from infancy. Let's put aside the method for a minute and just call out the fact that this is an account that regularly posts images and videos of children in their most intimate moments...using the potty, or failing to use the potty. We talk to Washington Post and Teen Vogue reporter Fortesa Latifi about the repercussions of this for kids later in life and the privacy issues. We also do a deep dive into the recent #prankmybaby trend where parents purposely play jokes on their kids to make them cry on TikTok. Happy New Year everyone!

You can follow Fortesa Latifi on Instagram here. 

Subscribe to Over the Influence Substack here. 

 

Is there anything lamer than New Years’ resolutions? Part of me thinks that New Year's resolutions are bs. And the other part of me thinks, you know what I’ll try anything to make life easier and better and more enjoyable. As I always say, many things can be true at once. It IS nice to have a time of year when we can renew and revive and just set some goals for ourselves. And so I have gathered some very smart women to tell me their plans and intentions for the coming year.

Let's settle this debate once and for all...is #TradWife content actually dangerous, or just stupid? Today I talk toThe Cut's Brooding columnist Kathryn Jezer Morton about her column on this very subject. Spoiler alert: I think it is dangerous and here is why. #TradWife content on social media strips the idea of motherhood of all of its unseen, really hard labor, and makes it look like it is just beautiful and clean and easy and sourdough kneading all the time. We rarely, if ever, see the men or the other caregivers who are helping #TradWives because it doesn't look as alpha to have help. When we don't see caregiving we can't normalize it in society and it chips away at our efforts to fight for affordable childcare.

#TradWife content also often glorifies and prettifies rural living. A lot of these homesteading skills that are glorified on #TradWife accounts are actually rooted in people who were in poverty, who were doing these things not because they thought it would look nice on social media, but out of necessity.

AND FINALLY, #TradWife content is breathing new life into the mommy wars by pitting women against one another. So much to dive into in this episode.

Read Kathryn's CUT columns here.

Subscribe to our substack OVER THE INFLUENCE here.

 

 

 

 

A story went viral on the NY Post and Reddit in the past 24 hours claiming that a husband left his wife because he became OBSESSED with a #tradwife on TikTok. This is the headline: TikTok ruined my husband of 12 years — now he wants a ‘tradwife’ and we’re getting divorced. We clearly had to do an emergency episode about this and I couldn't think of a better guest than my own husband, Nick Aster, who is constantly confused by #tradwives and social media in general. Is this for real? (probably not) Is it hilarious and totally worth talking about? (Absolutely). Should we turn it into a domestic thriller television series? (working on it right now). And how can we use this topic to talk more with our spouses about equality and sharing the burden of domestic labor? (It is all in this episode).

You can read the NY Post story here.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence Substack here.

Pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance here.

What will the future really look like under Project 2025? Tia Levings escaped an abusive marriage and has since transformed her life through years of trauma therapy. With her new book, A Well-Trained Wife, she's shedding light on the dangers of the Christian patriarchy and its insidious infiltration into American politics. Complacency is not an option. Whether you're a die-hard feminist or just beginning to question patriarchal norms, Tia Levings’ story is a powerful testament to resilience and the necessity of taking action.

Buy A Well Trained Wife today!

Subscribe to Tia's Newsletter here.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence Newsletter here.

Sign up for Greenlight today and get your first month free when you go to Greenlight.com/Influence.

Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at MINTMOBILE.com/INFLUENCE.

Go to hellobello.com/INFLUENCE, to get 30 PERCENT OFF your first customized bundle, AND a full-size freebie product of your choice.

Visit Bodysmartfitness.com and use the code INFLUENCE for 20% off your coaching program. 

 

Breaking news over here. After months of anticipation, Ruby Franke, the mom influencer who was charged with abusing and starving her children, finally pled guilty to child abuse. In court, she expressed regret and sorrow for her actions, revealing that everything she did was, disturbingly, an act of love. New details of her abuse emerged in Franke’s plea agreement and they are terrible! But the story keeps getting weirder. As part of her plea deal Franke will testify against her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. According to reports Franke is going to testify against Hildebrandt, and allege that she is some kind of Svengali who was controlling her during the periods of disgusting abuse. This mini episode is everything you need to know about this bananas case.

You can subscribe to our newsletter OVER THE INFLUENCE here.

Will daycare give your kid attachment issues? Are you breastfeeding wrong? Is sleep training the worst thing you can do as a parent?

Being a mom often feels like you've failed at something at least once a day, sometimes more. Women are judged and shamed for so many of our choices. How we deal with that judgement and shame is often up to us. I have turned to experts like today's guest Emily Oster so many times during my parenting journey to dispel my own guilt, shame and the misinformation surrounding parenting.

Emily is a professor of economics at Brown University. She's also the author of three incredible books that you should definitely get for any new parent in your life. Expecting Better, Crib Sheet, and The Family Firm. Her website and podcast, both called Parent Data, are guides for parents that give you numbers and decision-making tools to feel more empowered about the decisions you make as a parent.  All of which are hard. 

Listen to Parent Data Here.

Order all of Emily's books here.

Welcome to an Under the Influence  - Too Much Money crossover episode! By now you've probably heard about the $59 million wedding that has everyone going crazy on Instagram and TikTok. The bride, Madelaine Brockaway seemed to come out of nowhere with her gonzo bananas wedding content that included a performance by Maroon 5, a rehearsal dinner at the Palais Garnier opera house, and a sleepover at the Palace of Versailles. Prior to the wedding, guests were invited to attend a private party at Chanel’s Haute Couture Headquarters and a lunch at the Eiffel Tower.

It almost feels like the Internet was being punked. But there's so much more to the story, including a surprise criminal twist from the groom.

Jo gets together with her Too Much Money podcast cohost Doree Shafrir to dissect all the conspiracy theories about why anyone would throw a $59 million wedding. Is Maddy desperate to be an influencer, a reality television star? Is her new husband actually going to jail?

If you love this episode then you will adore the rest of our Too Much Money episodes. You can binge all of them here. 

How many of you remember the Katie Sorensen story?  Maybe you don't remember the name, but you might remember the episode we did a couple of years ago about the mom influencer in the Michael's parking lot who falsely accused a Latino couple of trying to kidnap her kids to get more viral attention for her Instagram account.  

Katie's trial for making false claims only happened this year and reporter Emily Guerin has been covering it for the LAist podcast Imperfect Paradise. Today we get all the updates from Emily about Katie's case in addition to shifting the lens onto the couple that she falsely accused, Sadie and Eddie Martinez. 

You can find Imperfect Paradise here.

Here is the original episode of UTI on this story.

No one should ever shame you for how you parent on Instagram. I have said it before and I will say it again—if you feel shamed then it is time to unfollow. Today we talk to Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, a licensed psychologist and mother of four, with a passion for parenting grounded in science and love to debunk the biggest Instagram myths and lies. We're going after whether screentime breaks your kids' brains (nope), whether you should make your kids say thank you (I still think so), Whether time outs are effective (yes) and the best way to potty train (no one knows). All of Dr. Goodwin's posts and advice are grounded in research and not pseudoscience like so many of the parenting influencers and coaches who are flooding your Instagram accounts. 

Follow Dr. Goodwin @parentingtranslator

And visit her website here.

 

In this incredibly brave interview we speak with a woman who considers herself a former trad wife. She got married young and had kids young. Her husband convinced her to quit school, to stay home, to take care of the kids and to give up all agency when it came to their finances. When she wanted to leave the marriage she didn't have the education, work experience or resources to do it. But she made it work and now she is on the other side. She still feels like she is playing catch up as a 41 year old woman and is here to offer advice and warnings for women who decide to be submissive to their husbands and give up their agency and independence.

The postpartum period is a clusterf*ck dumpster fire of hell and do not let anyone tell you different. It is also magical and wonderful and life-changing and gorgeous. Many things can be true. This is all of my advice for how to survive the newborn period and a chat with the incredible Tara Clark of Modern Mom Probs who consistently makes me feel seen as a mother in a world that too often turns a blind eye to us. Send this one to every prego and newborn mom in your life. They need it.

 

You can follow Tara @modernmomprobs

And you can order The Sicilian Inheritance here!

 

 

Does the Internet fundamentally hate women?

Social media platforms can be a battleground, often subjecting women to harsh criticism and verbal violence. And no one knows that better than tech reporter, author and general Internet bad ass Taylor Lorenz. 

Taylor has been called a lot of things online.

She has been lauded as one of the nation’s preeminent tech reporters for places like the New York Times and the Washington Post. She has also been called the scum of the Earth. Told she was ugly. Told she was stupid. She once received a comment that said. "I hope you cry yourself to sleep every night. I hope you take your own life. I hope you live all your days in fear. You are the scum of the Earth. Why are you still breathing?”

This kind of online harassment is not unique to Taylor. Women are constantly subjected to it online. Female influencers, female journalists, any woman who dares to have an opinion about just about anything.

The Internet is a nasty and toxic place to be a woman. It is even nastier if you are a person who is extremely online, which is the title of Taylor’s latest book. Extremely Online in which she chronicles the rise of social media’s power and influence and doesn’t shy away from the dark places it has taken all of us.

I got to chat with Taylor about what it is like being a woman who is extremely online and covering communities that are extremely online. We dove into all of it from her public feud with Fox News' former resident woman hater Tucker Carlson to Gamer-gate to why TikTok isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Grab your copy of Taylor's book EXTREMELY ONLINE here.

Mini bonus for anyone who needs a post holiday reminder that you're amazing and no one should tell you any different. Parenting advice influencers are ubiquitous these days. And they are spending thousands of dollars to boost their posts to get them in front of you so they can shame you into feeling like a crappy parent and then sell you their courses where they teach you to be your kids' therapist. You really don't need to be their therapist. You need to be their parent and Jo is getting off the parent advice influencer bandwagon by blocking these snake oil peddlers and accepting that maybe her feral children will eventually just grow out of it.

In our constant quest to stay connected, Instagram and other social media platforms have become staples of our daily lives. Yet, there is a growing counter-movement of folks who have chosen to break free from the shackles of these platforms, daring to live a life beyond the 'like' and 'follow' buttons. But what does life on the other side of social media look like?

The writer, author and bad ass creative Marlee Grace is one of the brave few who have dared to step off the social media stage. The decision to unplug, as Marlee puts it, did not come lightly- it was a long and challenging journey fueled by the need to reclaim their time and creativity. They were uncertain about a world away from the constant validation, but they pressed on, curious about the freedom that lay beyond Instagram's borders.

Marlee Grace’s journey through the social media detox reveals that breaking away from these platforms, despite their seemingly inevitable clutch, is possible. The life that lies beyond is quieter and slower, but it offers a chance for us to regain command over our time, attention, and most importantly, our minds.

You can follow Marlee on Substack at Monday Monday.

Listen to Marlee's COMMON SHAPES podcast here.

Subscribe to Jo's OVER THE INFLUENCE newsletter here.

Order THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE early and often. It makes a great gift and paperweight.

Today's Sunday Nice Things manages to combine two of my favorite women to listen to—Krista Tippett, the journalist and creator of On Being and Kelly Corrigan, NYTimes bestselling author, radio host and all around funny and brilliant lady. This is an episode of a truly wonderful podcast called Kelly Corrigan Wonders. This is a place for people who like to laugh while they think and find it useful to look closely at ourselves and our weird ways in the hopes that knowing more and feeling more will help us do more and be better.  

You can listen to more of Kelly Corrigan Wonders here.

Back in July, an Ohio plastic surgeon lost her medical license after the state medical board investigated her for live streaming operations on TikTok and causing harm to patients in the process.  TikTok fans may know this doctor by the name Dr. Roxy. She gained millions of views and followers over the past few years by live streaming plastic surgeries from her office.  Surgeries like liposuctions, implants, and butt lifts.

You can read Judith Newman's piece on Dr. Roxy on The Cut here.

Jo has made a new podcast and here is a sneak peak of the first episode. From Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir, the host of the hit podcast Forever 35 comes TOO MUCH MONEY. Too Much Money is a podcast that attempts to answer this question by telling stories about people who have more money than they know what to do with, and use it in ways that are sometimes foolish, often petty, and often ridiculous. Each week, Jo Piazza and Doree Shafrir go deep into the story of one of these extremely rich people and how they’ve spent their money: like $500 million yachts, $250,000 dinosaur fossils, and years-long feuds with their neighbors over ocean views. After all, maybe you CAN be too rich.

You can subscribe to TOO MUCH MONEY here.

What are you afraid of? Today we are talking about fears and finances. Because our phones are listening to us all the time they can probably hear us when we voice these fears out loud. Jo has recently been served a bunch of financial influencers who want to sell her advice to be a millionaire in a $500 course. These finance charlatans are preying on all of our very real fears. Thankfully we were able to call up an actual personal finance expert and the author of the new book on fear, A HEALTHY STATE OF PANIC to talk Jo off the ledge and tell us who we should actually follow (or not follow) when it comes to our money terrors. Welcome Farnoosh Torabi to UTI.

Order Farnoosh's Book A HEALTHY STATE OF PANIC here.

Follow Farnoosh on Instagram here.

And pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance so I don't need to sell plumbing supplies.

I want to tell all of you moms out there something very important today.

You are a good mom, a good parent, a good caretaker. You are good. You are good at taking care of your children.  

Are trad wives happier than the rest of us? So many of the women I know who are bad-ass boss babes struggling to juggle it all—career, relevance, fulfillment, being a good mother, being good at work, being OK at being a wife—are really unhappy and anxious. I don’t believe in being submissive to your husband and I don’t particularly want to stay home and be the sole caregiver for my children and the only one taking care of my house. But I have been hearing from many traditional wives who say THEY LOVE THEIR CHOICE. They are happy and in fact they believe their decision to opt out of the system where women work their asses off outside of the home IS RADICAL. Today we will be hearing from some of these women in their own words.

Today's episode is brought to you by Honeylove, my new favorite shapewear. 

Treat yourself to the best bras and shapewear on the market and save up to 50% Off sitewide at honeylove.com/influence this month only. Inventory is limited and the sale ends soon so don’t miss their best deals of the year. After you purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you. It’s time to ditch the underwire for good thanks to Honeylove.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter HERE for episode transcripts, bonus content and more of my ramblings about weird stuff on and off the Internet.

And order your college roommate a copy of The Sicilian Inheritance to make up for that Pearl Jam CD you never returned.

You can subscribe to the Radical Mom's Union Substack HERE.You can also follow Andrea at @instinctualmothering and Nicki @Nicki.french

You can follow Bianca Saeed on her Instagram @motherhoodempowerment. 

Treat yourself to the best bras and shapewear on the market and save up to 50% Off sitewide at honeylove.com/influence this month only. Inventory is limited and the sale ends soon so don’t miss their best deals of the year. After you purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you. It’s time to ditch the underwire for good thanks to Honeylove.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter HERE for episode transcripts, bonus content and more of my ramblings about weird stuff on and off the Internet.

And order your college roommate a copy of The Sicilian Inheritance to make up for that Pearl Jam CD you never returned.

To support this show, skip the grocery store and have delicious meals delivered right to your doorstep, go to HelloFresh.com/terryfree for free breakfast for life while your subscription is active. You're gonna love it. HelloFresh is America's number one meal kit for a reason.   

Order Devorah's Book HERE

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter HERE for episode transcripts, bonus content and more of my ramblings about weird stuff on and off the Internet.

And order your college roommate a copy of The Sicilian Inheritance to make up for that Pearl Jam CD you never returned.

A couple of years ago, Kelli Stuart was diagnosed with breast cancer after she went in for a routine mammogram and it did not go the way she expected. Once Kelli got her diagnosis she wanted to find one thing in her life that she could control.  Like a lot of women that I know and love, Kelli is a doer and a fixer. She talked to all of the doctors and did the treatments that they recommended, but she also wanted to do more. She wanted to know more.  

While Kelli was waiting for her treatments to do their thing, she went down a deep rabbit hole of cancer influencers. Some of it was helpful, because finding community when you are going through it can be a wonderful thing. But some of it got dark, and unhelpful, and even scary.  Some of the influencers she found were recommending treatments that were so expensive people were mortgaging their homes. I asked her to come on today to share her personal story with diving into this cancer influencer rabbit hole and the moment that she realized she had to dig herself out of it.

Hello Fresh is our sponsor this week. HelloFresh.com/terryfree and use code terryfree for FREE breakfast for life! You get one breakfast item per box while your subscription is active. 

You can follow Kelli here and order her book The Master Craftsman here.

And if you want to surprise all your family members with copies of The Sicilian Inheritance come Spring you should definitely do that. I won't stop you. In fact, I'll come make dinner...or at the very least I'll order the Hello Fresh.

A lot of parents are putting really gross shit of their kids online every single day. And millions of people are watching it. Millions!

Millions. We are talking about poop blowouts and booger picking videos and vomit and pee and every possible bodily fluid you can imagine. Sarah Adams is the unfortunate recipient. of many of these videos. Ever since Sarah started the anti-sharenting account, Mom Uncharted, where she discusses the perils and pitfalls of sharing your kids online, her audience have been sending her every single gross video that they come across, including the ones that feel a little (sometimes maybe a lot) dangerous. This is one of THOSE episodes....the kind where you will never want to share your kids online again.

It's gross, but also it's scary, and sometimes even dangerous videos of children.

Subscribe to the OVER THE INFLUENCE substack here to get full transcripts, bonus content and ME in your inbox on a regular basis. 

Follow Sarah Adams of Mom Uncharted on Instagram here.

You can pre-order THE SICILIAN INHERITANCE here and I will love you forever and never have post booger videos of my kids on the Internet.

You can read Minna's original piece in the New York Times here and buy Mom Rage here.

As always, grab your Sicilian Inheritance often and early. I need to know how many cannolis to make for the launch!

How can parents save their kids from social media addiction? What can we be doing right now to make the digital world better for all children? The answer is that there is so much we can be working on. Today we're chatting with Julie Scelfo, the founder of MAMA. MAMA is  a grassroots group of parents standing up to big tech and reclaiming the power of parents to fight media addiction in our homes, our schools and our communities. You are going to want to listen and re-listen to this episode about how media addiction is reshaping childhood and how we can actually make change happen.

Learn more about MAMA here.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter here.

Earlier this week we asked whether the "traditional wife" Lex Delarosa was trolling us with her Instagram account. So many of you were convinced that her content was satire. UTI is here to clear up the confusion once and for all. You'll have to listen to find out the answer. But what I can tell you is that this conversation veers off into so many different tangents, including the massive levels of hate Lex gets on her account. The comments she gets vary from things like, "I don't like your hair," to "you should be murdered." I think this Friday bonus episode (to close out #Tradwife Week) will surprise you and give you plenty to think about.

Happy Friday all! You can follow Lex here.

You can subscribe to our substack OVER THE INFLUENCE here.

Have you heard about #softgirls? They're young women who want to check out of hustle culture. Their greatest dream is to achieve nothing. She doesn't want to be a girl boss.  In fact, a lot of them do not want to work for pay at all. She just wants to perfect her skincare regime and do all the Pilates. Are these women aspiring to be little more than trophy wives? Are they the gateway drug to #tradwives and a life of submission to men? We're here to find out with Glamour reporter Stephanie McNeal who wrote a truly excellent piece on the #softgirls for Glamour mag.

Read all of Steph's Glamour pieces, but especially her one on soft girls here.

You can buy her book Swipe Up For More here.

As always, you can pre-order the Sicilian Inheritance and I might just show up at your house with Sicilian wine and cannoli.

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

Read her piece on #tradwives here.

And listen to her podcast Work Appropriate.

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/

Hello Fresh is our sponsor this week. Go to HelloFresh.com/terryfree and use code terryfree for FREE breakfast for life!

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?

This episode is sponsored by HELLO FRESH which I truly love. It makes meal times so much better and easier for me. Go to www.HelloFresh.com/50rushhour and use code 50rushhour for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Offer is for new subscriptions only and varies by plan across 9 boxes. That’s code 50rushhour at www.HelloFresh.com/50rushhour for 16 free meals!

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

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

 

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.

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

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

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.

 

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

Being a woman in the world isn't easy. Being a mom isn't easy. How do we find time for ourselves when we're caring for everyone and everything around us? Today's we're talking to Liz Tenety, co-founder of Mother.ly about the impossible standards society places on mothers and how to redefine success and ambition while juggling tiny humans.

Follow all things Mother.ly here.

Subscribe to the Over the Influence newsletter here.

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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.

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

Quick update on the Ruby Franke story wherein everyone throws everyone else under the bus. Kevin Franke says he and Ruby were separated! He has been in "a fog" for the past year. Her sisters call her a narcisscist who should be put away forever and her sister-in-law just says Ruby IS NOT her cup of tea. My takeaway? Everyone in this story is awful in their own special awful way.