The Burnout Beneath Ambition

The Burnout Beneath Ambition

Author: Jo Piazza May 26, 2026 Duration: 35:54
Why does success still feel so empty for so many women? Executive coach Brooke Taylor says the answer is something she calls “the success wound”: the pain that comes from tying our self-worth to achievement, productivity, perfection, and external validation. In this episode, we unpack why so many high-achieving women are burned out, anxious, over-functioning, and terrified they’re never doing enough. We get into Google hustle culture to addiction, motherhood, ambition, burnout, and the panic spiral that starts with one weird email from your boss. We also talk about the deeper cultural forces shaping women’s relationship to work, why so many women are rethinking ambition in midlife, and how we raise daughters who know they are worthy even when they fail. Order The Success Wound here. Follow Brooke 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
Holding Rosie: A Mother’s Story of SUDC and Survival [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:46
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 rol…
How to Build Deep Friendships Without Burning Yourself Out [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:17
What does friendship actually look like in the messy middle parts of midlife, when time is scarce, energy is finite, and relationships have to earn their place? This episode with journalist Anya Kamenetz explores how fri…
How to Travel with Kids [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:12
Traveling with kids is not a vacation. It’s work. It’s labor. It’s also one of my absolute favorite things to do. In this episode I talk about how we actually make it happen as a family, from taking my “lumpy babies” to…
Sunday Nice Things: Dissecting Tradwives and Feminism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:16
Today I'm dropping an interview that I did with the Love-ly⁠ podcast into our feed. This week on Love-ly, Mehak sits down with bestselling author, journalist, and podcaster Jo Piazza, widely considered one of America’s s…
We've Reached Peak Tradwife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:19
The trad wife trend has finally hit its ceiling. After years of algorithm-friendly homemaking, the movement is showing the cracks in its seams. The performance is shifting. The ambition underneath is no longer hiding and…
Holiday Rage, Hormones, and the Power of No [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:18
Holiday joy is supposed to feel cozy and magical. Instead, a lot of women spend December simmering with quiet (or not so quiet) rage. Let's dig into why the holidays can feel especially brutal for women in midlife, and w…
Sunday Nice Things: Inside the World of a Teenage Tik-Tok Star [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:08
In light of the news about Australia's social media ban for teenagers we are resurfacing an episode with a young creator. This is a deep dive into the world of a 16-year-old TikTok star who wants to change the industry a…
Australia Just Banned Social Media for Teens. What Happens Next [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:16
Australia just became the first country in the world to ban social media for anyone under sixteen. It’s a sweeping, messy and imperfect law. But it's also one of the first real attempts to hold tech companies accountable…
The Books by Women History Tried to Forget [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:21
Quite Literally Books is doing something rare in publishing. They are bringing back books by American women who were once widely read, widely praised, and then quietly erased from the literary conversation. These writers…
Sunday Nice Things: The Nanny Wars [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:18
This week we’re bringing back one of my favorite episodes because it has only become more relevant. On the surface, it is a story about “bad nanny” posts in mom groups. Underneath, it is a story about money, power, and t…