Show Notes
Years ago, Spencer Pratt was dismissed as a fame-hungry reality TV idiot with frosted facial hair and a crystal obsession. But looking back? He may have understood modern media better than almost anyone else on television.
Now he’s running for mayor of Los Angeles.
Jo digs into the strange pipeline from reality TV to political power, why audiences are drawn to “outsider” candidates they already feel connected to, and how the attention economy changed politics forever. Because as ridiculous as Spencer Pratt for mayor sounds, it also feels deeply, painfully American. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More from Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
What if moms were in charge? This week we sit down with Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder of Vote Mama, who ran for Congress in 2018 while nursing two toddlers and became the first woman to win federal approval to use campaign funds for childcare. That ruling changed how parents run for office, and the fight has since spread to 41 states and DC.
We had a whole different episode planned, and then Shane Gillis stood up on SNL and called women who wear shorts to the gym whores. So we’re doing another emergency episode, and this time Nick Aster joins us to talk about why this matters so much right now. We get into what a joke like this on live network television tells young men in the wake of the Cornell Seven group text, why Dan Levy’s call for more men to speak up is exactly right, and why we think the most effective response isn’t just calling this misogyny but calling it what it is: sad, pathetic, and dumb. We also talk about raising a boy and two girls in a house full of ’80s comedies and boob jokes, how a MAGA-coded comedian getting this platform before the midterms feels like a distraction, and what a more nuanced conversation could look like. Plus, our rescue kitten Geoff makes his podcast debut, and we’re putting on our whore shorts and heading to the gym.
Today we're talking about one of our favorite things in the world. BOOKS.
Amanda Litman, co-founder of Run for Something and author of When We’re in Charge, joins us to talk about what the hell we can actually do when everything feels terrible. How do you run for local office? How much does it cost? Can you do it while working a full-time job? And what if you don’t want to run but still want to help?
What if you're not having less sex because of perimenopause? What if you're just tired of your husband and the pile of dirty laundry on your bed? And while we're at it, how the hell is everyone on Instagram affording those vacations?