It's not pretty. But it is real. There's a new breed of the ANTI-TRADWIFE out there and they are sharing the raw and honest stories about living a life submissive to a man and what it looks like on the other side. Today we are talking to Enitza Templeton, a mom of four who was a tradwife for ten years before she left her husband to try to make it on her own. Entiza made a video from the food stamps office that went viral on TikTok where she warned young women against depending on a man for financial security. She compares being a trad wife to being a "domestic slave," and says that you are "sitting prey." She feels like her husband never liked her. She felt like his mommy. Life was miserable until she made the decision to leave. We are seeing more and more content pushing back on the tradwife trend. It doesn't always go viral like Enitza's story because it isn't traditionally beautiful and aspirational, but these are voices that need to be heard.

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Meet the Anti-TradWife

Welcome to a new episode of Sunday Nice Things. This week we are bringing you the new show Gratitudeology created by my friend Jamie Hess. When Jamie  almost died, she woke up.As daughter of legendary broadcast journalist Joan Lunden, it seemed from the outside that Jamie had everything… so why did she feel so empty inside?She pondered that question as she fell into a life of drug addiction, and when she hit her bottom, it hit her: nothing feels good until we get grateful… but we often don’t feel grateful until we have a wake-up call.Are you searching for your wake-up moment? Tune in each week for an incredible story of turning pain to purpose, told by some of the most inspirational people on the planet. Through these stories, we’ll help you apply the study and practice of Gratitudeology to live a happier, healthier, more abundant life.You can listen to more episodes here.

Sunday Nice Things: Gratitudeology

Need some news you can use to talk about at your Super Bowl Party? We have Glamour reporter Steph McNeal here to explain the latest right wing conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce faking their relationship to help Biden. Also all the updates from Teen Vogue's Fortesa Latifi on laws to compensate the kids of influencers and the new backlash against luxury stuff influencers on TikTok. Welcome to the world of DEINFLUENCERS.Some stories to catch you up: Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Faking Their Relationship to Help Biden? Inside the Right-Wing Conspiracy TheoryThese States Are Trying to Require Influencer Parents to Pay Their KidsWe're Getting Disillusioned By Overconsumption on TikTok  

A Quickie: The Right Wing's Travis and Taylor Conspiracy + Pay the Influencer Kids Already

Let's talk about anxiety, real talk about anxiety! Today we are joined by Julie Chavez, a librarian, mom of two and the author of the memoir Everyone But Myself.When you are a working mom, there is no time for debilitating anxiety. There's not.  And the terrifying aftershocks of Julie's first panic attack left her grappling with questions about the causes of her mental health crisis and where it was going to lead next.This book resonated with me so deeply. This is a hopeful and honest account of love and loss and the husband who can't read your mind, about disastrous family outings and finding a new path. It is about the joy of a well-lived life and how hard it can sometimes be to enjoy that life.  I think we're all going to feel better after this episode. You can order Everyone But Myself here.

I'm a High Functioning Mess...How About You?

Tia Levings was recruited into a Christian fundamentalist movement as a young wife.   She quickly learned that being a godly and submissive wife in the Christian patriarchy included strict discipline and isolation, and required women to be silent keepers of the home.  Years of pain and abuse followed. After becoming a mother, Tia realized that she was the only one who could protect her children from becoming the next generation of patriarchal men and submissive women.  That's when she fled with her children.One of the things Tia says a lot that really gets to me is  that if we continue to ignore the messages that the fundamental evangelical Christian community are sending out to us, then we're just plunging this country right into the near future of the book The Handmaid's Tale.  Tia was a trad wife and today she is an independent woman living the kind of life she always dreamed about. She has written wisely about the inhumanity of trad wife life and why it is not something to be celebrated with beautiful images on social media.  All of this is documented in Tia's new book, A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape From Christian Patriarchy and on her Substack, The Anti-Fundamentalist. You can also follow Tia on Instagram here. She is a delight. 

Escape from the Trad Wife Life with Tia Levings

Welcome to Sunday Nice Things! Today we have an episode of This American Ex-Wife from the wonderful Lyz Lenz!    I first became obsessed with Lyz when I read her book God Land and then she came on an early episode of Under the Influence to talk about attending a mom influencing conference and I fell hard for her. She's the creator of the newsletter Men Yell at Me which I read religiously every time it hits my inbox.This American Ex-wife is a podcast that explores the state of American heterosexual marriage. Lyz sits down with a cast of women to talk about their divorces, their journeys and unpacks an institution many take part in but few talk about: divorce.Today's episode is with the poet and bestselling author Maggie Smith who delves into how her divorce forced her to spend more time with herself and how that ended up being a very good thing.Listen to This American Ex-Wife hereOrder This American Ex-Wife the book here.Sign up for Men Yell at Me, here.   

Sunday Nice Things: This American Ex-Wife

So many of you have asked me for an audio preview of The Sicilian Inheritance that I finally just sat down and created one! Why not! I love this part. In it our main character has just met our Sicilian protagonist Giusy in a Sicilian restaurant. It's filled with delicious food and wine and even ends in a cliffhanger.

A Taste of The Sicilian Inheritance

The #fitfluencers and #wellness brands are coming for you. And they've been on the attack since January 1. This time of alleged renewal and reinvention is the Super Bowl for brands hoping to sell you a "better" or a "thinner" you. YOU are the product during this time of year and brands pay big money to get in front of you during this vulnerable time. Today we chat with digital brand marketer Amy Shoenthal (author of the Setback Cycle) about HOW you get targeted and Danielle Friedman (author of Let's Get Physical) about the history of fitness marketing and the good, the bad and the ugly of #fitfluencers.You can order The Setback Cycle here.You can order Let's Get Physical Here.You can also read Danielle's piece on #fitfluencers for the NYT here.Also grab yourself a Hot Sicilian.....while it's hot. 

Attack of the Fitfluencers

We talk a lot about the negative parts of social media, but good things do happen online. One of those good things is community. Five years ago the New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg started #1000WordsofSummer.  It’s an online community that convenes for two weeks in June to write 1,000 words a day.  People were obsessed with it. Jami’s new book, 1,000 Words,  is inspired by this community.  It includes letters from her and over 50 seasoned writers on how to do the work when it’s the last thing you feel like doing. So today we are talking to Jami about how to start writing, how to keep writing and how to be a good member of the literary community.Follow Jami on Instagram here.Subscribe to the Craft Talk the newsletter here.Buy 1,000 Words here.

How to Start Writing with Jami Attenberg

If you want more of She Pivots you can find all the episodes here.Under the Influence is sponsored by Quince and Honeylove.Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince! Go to Quince.com/influence for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Get 20% OFF @honeylove by going to https://www.honeylove.com/Influence #honeylovepod

Sunday Nice Things: She Pivots with Stacy London

What if we recognized the ambition inherent in motherhood? What if we normalized corporate career pauses? What if we didn't let ourselves be defined by the false mommy wars created by the media between work at home moms and work outside the home moms? Today we have Neha Ruch, creator of Mother Untitled, the leading resource for ambitious women leaning into family life. They are on are on a mission to update the perception of career pauses and downshifts for motherhood, infusing this life chapter with ambition, dignity, growth, and potential. We are on the cusp of a new feminism and a new narrative made up of so many different kinds of multi-hyphenated women.Learn more about Mother Untitled here.Under the Influence is sponsored by Quince and Honeylove.Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince! Go to Quince.com/influence for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Get 20% OFF @honeylove by going to https://www.honeylove.com/Influence #honeylovepod 

Ambitious Women Leaning into Family Life with Neha Ruch

Social media is political. That is a fact. You may think you're following beautiful images of a woman breastfeeding her baby in the Costa Rican jungle while her nine other children wait patiently by the waterfall, but pay closer attention and she is telling you not to vaccinate your children or use birth control. You never know who is behind a message or who is boosting information and accounts behind the scenes. Emily Amick, of the account Emily in Your Phone breaks it all down for us in the same no nonsense way she does on her Instagram account about all the political news we need to know. She's an incredible resource for using social media in progressive politics and she is very wise about how conservative forces have simply been better at using the socials to achieve their goals.Under the Influence is sponsored by Quince and Honeylove.Give yourself the luxury you deserve with Quince! Go to Quince.com/influence for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Get 20% OFF @honeylove by going to https://www.honeylove.com/Influence #honeylovepodMake sure to follow Emily in Your Phone here @EmilyinYourPhone AND preorder her book Democracy in Retrograde.You can order a personalized Sicilian Inheritance from Bluebird Bookstop.  

Trad Wives, Trad Lives and Politics with Emily in Your Phone

Welcome to Sunday Nice Things.....a bonus episode where we share a podcast we love, a book we love, a rant we have to get off our chests. It's a nice thing for Sunday because we deserve them. This week we have an episode of The Cult of Perfect podcast from my friends Sara Petersen and Virginia Sole Smith. The Cult of Perfect explores the intersection of motherhood, public performance, and bodies, and tries to figure out what our addiction to the idea of perfect says about us and the world we live in. This episode is called Let Them Be Beige and explores everything from Ballerina Farm’s shiplap, influencers cosplaying poverty when they really have SO MUCH MONEY, the psychology of ownership, and the joy of living with less. You can get more Cult of Perfect right HERE.And subscribe to our newsletter OVER THE INFLUENCE HERE.

Sunday Nice Things: The Cult of Perfect

Until about six months ago I didn't know that the Mrs. America pageant existed. And when I did some research and found that it originally judged contestants on their domestic acumen it felt a little trad wifey to me. When I talked about it on an episode I was contacted by a listener named Chloe Rosen, AKA Mrs. New York. And she wanted me to know I was wrong. She wanted me to know that there is way more to the pageant than I talked about and that the contestants are bad ass women who deserve recognition in numerous ways. I love being told something I don't know. I also love civil conversations about bias and the things that might be outside our own worldview. So welcome to Under the Influence Mrs. New York. Let's talk about all things Mrs. America!You can follow Chloe here.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.

Let's Talk About the Mrs. America Pageant

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.

The Evangelical Christians Are Coming in Hot on Instagram

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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Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

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