Gossip is Good For You! Dissecting Taylor Frankie Paul and the Justin Timberlake DUI Video

Gossip is Good For You! Dissecting Taylor Frankie Paul and the Justin Timberlake DUI Video

Author: Jo Piazza March 26, 2026 Duration: 44:11
Time to do a deep dive into breaking celebrity news and what it’s revealing about our culture right now. Our guest is Dan Wakeford, a longtime force in entertainment journalism and one of the smartest editors to come out of the celebrity magazine era. He’s now launching a new newsletter, Celebrity Intelligence, built on real reporting, no rumor-chasing and no AI sludge. We dig into the cancellation of The Bachelorette after the Taylor Frankie Paul scandal and the difference between what audiences say they want and what corporations can actually tolerate. Is the cancellation of the Bachelorette the best thing that could actually happen to taylor? Then there’s the Justin Timberlake DUI footage, which was supposed to be damaging and somehow makes him more relatable. We're also chatting as longtime entertainment reporters and good friends about how gossip is anthropology, sociology and modern storytelling that can actually be good for you! Subscribe to Celebrity Intelligence here. Join our newsletter community here. ORDER The Parisian Heist here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Under the Influence with Jo Piazza, journalist and mother Jo Piazza pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar world of social media influence. This isn't just another show about viral trends; it's a critical exploration of the aspirational marketing that haunts our feeds, where perfectly posed lives in spotless homes mask a complex economy. Jo examines how this ecosystem fundamentally reshapes our culture, our families, and our personal sense of self, especially for parents and kids navigating this curated reality. Each episode of this podcast digs into the forces that brought us here, asking what it means to live, parent, and consume under this constant, monetized influence. You'll hear specific stories and analysis that connect the dots between the content we scroll past and the larger societal machinery at work. The conversation naturally extends beyond the screen to question the real-world impact on our journals, our relationships, and our understanding of value. Under the Influence with Jo Piazza provides the context often missing from the comments section, offering a necessary perspective for anyone who has ever scrolled and wondered about the true cost of that airbrushed perfection.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
Podcast Episodes
How History Erased Mothers [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:20
Motherhood makes history, but history keeps trying to erase mothers. In this episode of Under the Influence, feminist cultural historian Elinor Cleghorn discusses her new book A Woman’s Work: Reclaiming the Radical Histo…
Grab Bag: Where Did Love Taza Go? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:01
Who was your gateway influencer? For us, it was Love Taza—Naomi Davis—the Juilliard-trained ballerina (yes, a different one) turned mommy blogger and social star who made New York City look like a candy-coated dream of r…
Sunday Nice Things: Birth With Babylist [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:59
Jo has been working on a brand new podcast about birth for the past year and she is so excited to share it with you all. Today we are sharing the very first episode of Birth with Babylist. In our first episode, we walk t…
Can You Actually Retire Early When You Have Kids? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:17
Financial advice for parents usually lands in extremes, either panic-inducing warnings about how expensive kids are, or unrealistic frameworks that don’t account for how life actually unfolds. This week’s guests, Christy…
How to Be a Rich Old Lady [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:24
Close your eyes (not if you’re driving) and picture your old lady life. You wake up when you want. You wear glorious caftans. You’re strong and you’re rich because you built yourself a safety net. Today we’re chatting wi…
Toe Pick! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:05
In celebration of the Winter Olympics (the best thing to ever happen to Peacock) we are bringing back one of our favorite episodes of Committed with professional figure skaters Chris and Alexa Knierim. These two shared t…
Moms Drive the Economy. So Why Are They Still Underpaid? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:50
Moms drive the majority of household purchasing decisions. Recommendations from mom influencers outperform traditional ads. They even convert better than celebrity endorsements. And yet, they’re still treated like they s…
Why Planning Summer Has Become a Nightmare [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:17
Every January, parents are asked to plan the entire summer for their kids months in advance, spend a lot of money, juggle waitlists, and pretend this isn't a hellscape of doom. In this episode, we chat with journalist Ka…
From Momfluencers to MILFs: Who Gets Labeled a Bad Mother [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:16
If you’ve had kids, you’ve probably wondered at some point if you’re a bad mother. I would say this is true for 99.9 percent of us. And the other 0.1 percent is Ruby Franke. On today’s episode of Under the Influence, we'…