Show Notes
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 talk about why there are more millionaires in Congress than moms of young kids, why childcare and paid leave are economic issues and not “women’s issues,” and what it actually takes for a regular person to run when the job is basically an unpaid two-year interview. Liuba shares stories from the trail, including a congressman who called her an “illegitimate constituent,” and introduces us to some of the incredible moms on the ballot this November. We also get into the very real safety threats women candidates face, the state legislators who earn more teaching classes at the Y than they do in office, and whether we should finally throw our own hat in the ring.
With 202 Vote Mama candidates on the ballot and less than three weeks until the midterms, this is your sign to check back in. Host a Moms’ Night Out (rage rooms encouraged) at votemama.org/ready, follow @votemamalobby on Instagram, and sign up to volunteer at votemama.org.
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More from Under the Influence with Jo Piazza
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?
What happens when boys learn about masculinity from the internet before they learn how to understand their own emotions?