My Most Anticipated Book of the Year

My Most Anticipated Book of the Year

Author: Jo Piazza January 14, 2026 Duration: 46:53
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. ORDER The Fountain here. Request that Casey Zoom into your book club 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
Want to Feel Human Again? Break Your Phone Addiction [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:54
We spend nearly two months a year on social media. Two months!!!!That’s how much time the average person gives to an algorithm built to hijack their attention, flood their brain with dopamine, and quietly rewire how they…
So Your Parents Are Old [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:51
We talk a lot on this show about women doing too much. About the impossible math of modern life—motherhood, work, ambition, marriage, self-care, friendship—and then one day, another full-time job sneaks in: caregiving fo…
Sunday Nice Things: Taylor Isn't a Tradwife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:17
Taylor Swift isn’t a tradwife. She’s the opposite. She’s a woman who waited, who dated the douchebags, found herself, built an empire, and then finally chose a partner who celebrates her, supports her, and will never be…
Gabrielle Hamilton on the Myths That Make a Family [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:31
Every family runs on a kind of mythology — the stories we tell about who we are, where we come from, and what we’ve survived. For Gabrielle Hamilton, those stories fueled both her cooking and her writing. The James Beard…
I Bought a Vintage Trailer… How Can I Turn it Into a Bookstore? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:44
I finally did the thing. After years of dreaming about a Philly bookstore, Nick and I bought a vintage trailer and christened it The Bookcase, a pop up mobile shop we’re rolling around the Catskills this winter. To figur…
Divorcing Heterosexuality (and Other Data-Driven Decisions) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:30
Wharton economist Corinne Low wrote a viral article for The Cut titled “This Economist Crunched the Numbers and Stopped Dating Men.” Low, the author of the new book Having it All, is here to talk all about it. In this ep…
Sunday Nice Things: Book Journey x Alka Joshi [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:35
Today we're dropping an episode of Book Journey into the feed, a behind-the-scenes podcast from editor and Northern California Writers Retreat director Heather Lazar about how writers become authors. This conversation fo…
I Miss the 90s. What I Really Miss is Real Life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:17
We are living in peak nineties nostalgia. Everywhere you look there are slip dresses, scrunchies, bucket hats, even Tamagotchis making a comeback. But this revival is not just about clothes or hair accessories. It is abo…
The Bright Side of Not Drinking [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:21
How do you make sobriety cool? Suzanne Warye was one of the first influencers asking that question. On her account The Sober Mom Life and in her new book The Sober Shift, she shows why quitting alcohol isn’t about rock b…