Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - Bonus： In the Michael's Parking Lot

00:00:00.000 On the morning of December 8th, the mom Facebook groups and messaging boards in Petaluma, California,

00:00:08.880 right outside of Sonoma and Napa wine country, started blowing the hell up.

00:00:18.660 There were rumors of an attempted kidnapping of two small children in the parking lot of a local shopping center.

00:00:24.800 Details were scarce, moms were panicked, and news reports were still coming in.

00:00:30.000 Of course, local mothers were terrified because kidnapping is one of those mom fears that starts 0.61

00:00:35.160 the second you see those two little lines on a pregnancy test. All the moms were texting each

00:00:41.040 other, trying to piece it together. Who was the mom? Who were the kids? Who were these potential 1.00

00:00:45.660 kidnappers? And why did all of this go down in a Michaels Craft store parking lot?

00:00:51.340 The story slowly started to come together. These accusations were made by a woman named Katie 0.94

00:00:56.680 Sorensen. She's a content creator and aspiring mom influencer who didn't just report this 0.97

00:01:03.660 attempted kidnapping to the police, but broadcast it in real time to all of her Instagram followers.

00:01:10.760 Monday of this week, my children were the targets of attempted kidnap,

00:01:16.040 which is such a weird thing to even vocalize.

00:01:19.900 She eventually got about 4.5 million views on that video.

00:01:29.400 Overnight, she went from about 6,000 Instagram followers to 80,000.

00:01:35.540 That took her from micro-micro-nano-influencer to the realm of pretty powerful mom-influencer.

00:01:43.660 But the police found no evidence that Katie Sorensen's children had been potentially kidnapped.

00:01:51.560 In fact, the Latino couple that Katie accused of trying to kidnap her children

00:01:56.000 had no idea that they had even been accused at all on social media.

00:02:03.140 Petaluma police pretty quickly cleared the couple, Sadie and Eddie Martinez, of any wrongdoing.

00:02:09.380 The Petaluma police also issued a statement indicating that Katie Sorensen's story about this attempted kidnapping had, quote, inconsistencies.

00:02:19.740 Now that was back in December.

00:02:22.140 And a couple of weeks ago, my phone started blowing up.

00:02:26.060 Text messages, DMs, all the ways that you guys talked to me. 0.98

00:02:30.620 Because Katie Sorensen had been charged with two counts of making false reports. 0.99

00:02:36.100 Once to a police dispatcher and once to a police officer.

00:02:39.840 Each of these charges has a maximum penalty of six months in jail.

00:02:46.460 Now, you might remember that we mentioned Katie Sorensen on the podcast when all of this was going down.

00:02:52.600 We were talking about the lengths that some influencers would go to in order to get attention, in order to grow an audience. 0.83

00:03:00.000 I don't know what Katie Sorensen's motivations were. 0.81

00:03:02.980 I don't know if she was genuinely afraid for her children's lives.

00:03:07.280 But all of this is worth talking about.

00:03:10.100 And when the news broke that Katie had been charged, all of you wanted to talk to me about it.

00:03:14.440 It felt so good. It made me so happy because I missed talking about this so much.

00:03:19.080 It's not the same trying to talk to my husband about it at night where I'm like, oh my god. 0.99

00:03:22.580 And he's just like, I don't know who the fuck these people are and I do not care. 0.99

00:03:28.020 So let's get into this story. 0.99

00:03:29.580 This right here is a bonus episode. It's not going to sound as pretty.

00:03:32.980 as the other episodes because I had to beg to make it because we don't get a budget

00:03:36.180 until we get a season two. I have been told that there will be a season two and I will keep saying

00:03:41.300 it over and over again to make sure that it happens. So just bear with me if this episode

00:03:46.360 does not sound as beautiful as the other episodes because at least we're here and we're doing this

00:03:51.020 and that's half the battle my friends. Today we are going to talk about what the hell happened

00:03:56.960 in Petaluma. I'm Jo Piazza, and this right here is Under the Influence.

00:04:12.340 The second that I saw this story about the Petaluma mom influencer, I called you because

00:04:19.320 you have carved out a niche for yourself. You are a mom influencing journalistic expert.

00:04:24.940 You've written so many articles this year,

00:04:27.520 but you're also, like me, fascinated by this world

00:04:30.540 in a probably unhealthy way.

00:04:33.300 Totally. 0.74

00:04:34.680 That is Sarah Peterson.

00:04:36.240 When we recorded this episode,

00:04:37.680 Glynis had just gotten her second COVID vaccine 1.00

00:04:39.700 and she was feeling like complete shit. 0.99

00:04:42.880 Like she felt like she got knocked over by a truck 0.99

00:04:45.000 and I still called her and was like,

00:04:46.620 hey, can you talk about mom influencers with me?

00:04:49.140 And she didn't return my call.

00:04:51.380 that's not to say that sarah peterson who we are talking to right now is not amazing sarah and i

00:04:58.700 became friends on the internet while i was reporting under the influence i actually made a

00:05:03.620 lot of wonderful and incredible new friends on the internet while making this podcast and i hope that

00:05:09.000 one day we can have some kind of raging kegger where i get to meet all of you in person hold me

00:05:15.240 to that people hold me to that but for now i can only talk on the phone which is why i called sarah

00:05:20.580 Sarah has been reporting on mom influencers for more than a year now and she actually just landed 0.56

00:05:25.860 a book deal with Beacon Press for a whole goddamn book about mom influencers. She knows her shit 1.00

00:05:32.420 and I wanted her to go through the basics of this Petaluma mom influencer attempted kidnapping case 1.00

00:05:38.820 about exactly what happened in December in the parking lot of a Michael's craft store.

00:05:44.620 can you give me a rundown because I think this story is confusing um what exactly happened in

00:05:51.260 Petaluma in December so in December Katie Sorensen the same day I believe made a video from her car

00:06:00.800 I think in the parking lot of Michael's where everything went down the fact that this happened

00:06:05.240 in the parking lot of a Michael's Michael's craft store it reminds me of how in the first season of

00:06:12.120 cereal with Adnan, everything went down in the Best Buy parking lot. So true. So true.

00:06:18.840 So this Michael's parking lot situation is like the cereal Best Buy. A hundred percent.

00:06:25.220 Under the influence. I just want to say that because, you know, we're just like cereal.

00:06:29.420 You're the same thing. There's really no difference. Millions of downloads.

00:06:33.720 so she goes to get a few things at michael's with her two kids she makes a big point i don't know 1.00

00:06:42.140 why of saying that she parked far away because she has a double stroller and doesn't want to 1.00

00:06:46.780 inconvenience people with her double stroller and then says definitively twice that she her kids

00:06:53.640 were the target of an attempted kidnapping she doesn't say something weird happened they might

00:06:59.140 have been you know victims of a target uh targeted kidnapping she says definitively they were

00:07:05.200 targets of a attempted kidnapping but let's talk about the videos because she's talking into the

00:07:10.760 camera it's like selfie mode yeah right and she looks genuinely scared but she looks like she

00:07:18.380 she also looks good by the way yeah yeah yeah yeah like her skin is really glowy it is 0.86

00:07:24.000 her hair is smooth yeah she's got a cute little hat okay so she posts this video what else does

00:07:31.440 she say in the video because she identifies these people pretty specifically yeah so hold on i have

00:07:38.040 a quote that really sort of floored me this part of the video you can't find anymore but somebody

00:07:45.080 did um it's an nbc news article and she says in the video that the man was accompanied by a woman

00:07:52.780 and they gave her the quote heebie jeebies then she goes on to say i didn't feel good but i thought

00:07:58.780 i was judging a book by its cover they were not kind that sounds bad but they weren't clean cut

00:08:05.540 individuals so and so let's make this clear this is a this is a latino couple yes um in petaluma

00:08:16.500 california where i used to spend a lot of time nick and i even thought about moving to petaluma 0.98

00:08:20.880 before I decided that you know I need to be in Philadelphia where people just say fuck you to 1.00

00:08:26.440 your face because the nice thing um about California is that people are really nasty 1.00

00:08:31.900 behind your back yeah this happened in Philadelphia if someone thought someone 1.00

00:08:36.620 were threatening their kids they would open the car door and be like get the fuck away from my 1.00

00:08:39.460 kids motherfucker right right right whereas I feel like this just feels sneaky just going on 1.00

00:08:46.400 Instagram and saying this about this couple. And then the couple has no idea that it's even 0.98

00:08:51.260 happening. They find out later, they find out later that they have been accused of kidnapping

00:08:56.100 this woman's child. Yes. Children, many children. So tell me how that went down.

00:09:01.440 So there was a screenshot. And I think the police released the screenshot and the couple's

00:09:09.920 daughter saw it and said, uh, mom, I think this is you. And so they were super freaked out because

00:09:17.160 they were like targeted on like hashtag save the children, which is a hashtag about, you know,

00:09:24.040 child trafficking and goes into QAnon stuff. And they, you know, immediately

00:09:32.080 declared their innocence and ultimately so the police looked into everything the charges were

00:09:40.220 dropped they found no evidence to corroborate katie sorensen's story and just recently um

00:09:47.600 katie sorensen was charged with two misdemeanors two counts of making false reports and she did

00:09:54.260 she reported this to the police yes twice once to a dispatcher and once to an officer

00:10:00.920 But she did that at the same time as she was broadcasting this to her Instagram account.

00:10:06.120 Right. 0.57

00:10:06.840 Her accusations, they went viral.

00:10:10.380 They were viewed, I think, according to some reports, more than 4.5 million times.

00:10:17.080 Yeah.

00:10:18.960 That's scary.

00:10:20.420 Super scary.

00:10:21.620 So the couple, you know, were horrified by this and said they were looking for, I think, a nativity scene for their grandkids.

00:10:28.820 i mean i know come on i know the story like the details of the story just blow me away he at the

00:10:38.300 time was wearing a black lives matter sweatshirt which i think is just a really interesting detail

00:10:43.580 and she has become really active in race relations um since this has happened she did a press

00:10:51.100 conference basically talking about this and said that she was targeted for shopping while being

00:10:56.360 brown and she says she's scared to go back to michael's because she thinks you know there's

00:11:00.840 like a target on her back everyone should be able to go to michael's get those scrapbook little like

00:11:07.080 fluffy blue boots for the baby books i'm not mocking michael's i can love a michael's i mean

00:11:13.240 it's very soothing michael's is soothing in fact maybe i'll go to michael's right now while we take

00:11:24.580 a quick ad break. When we come back, Sarah and I are going to talk way more about this case

00:11:29.400 and why it seems to be fueled by a very disturbing attention economy. Be right back.

00:11:43.540 The Petaluma mom Facebook pages blew up. Mom Facebook pages all over the country blew up

00:11:49.260 when this story broke. And people, I don't want to speculate too much, but people did

00:11:54.440 begin to speculate about why she did this. Was she genuinely afraid? Or some people

00:12:02.580 wondered whether or not this was a hoax to try to get more attention and more followers on Instagram.

00:12:11.320 Right. I mean, her follower count rose dramatically after this happened.

00:12:16.300 Again, like, I don't want to do too much speculation, but I did some research into

00:12:19.940 this and i want to throw a couple things out there you've we've all heard of munchausen syndrome

00:12:26.640 right yeah you know it was in like tv movies of the week where moms get their kids sick so that

00:12:32.680 they get more attention yes yes that's munchausen by proxy and then there's munchausen syndrome

00:12:37.480 where you pretend to be sick um or have a crisis to get more attention there's actually a phenomenon

00:12:43.440 on now called Munchausen by internet, which people pretend to have a crisis on a social

00:12:50.960 media platform in order to get more attention. Interesting. It's a real thing. Wow. And it's

00:12:57.760 people putting themselves out there either saying they're sick, their kids are sick,

00:13:01.200 or they're in some sort of crisis situation because they crave attention. And the fact

00:13:07.040 of the matter is attention is also a very basic human need yeah i was reading this story in the

00:13:15.080 guardian written by leo benedictus the headline was why attention seeking is the defining need

00:13:22.240 of our times you know he quotes this psychologist dr jeff mcdonald he's a psychologist at the

00:13:29.260 university of toronto who says attention is one of the most valuable resources in existence

00:13:35.920 for social animals yeah people have become even more desperate for attention and frankly addicted

00:13:42.760 to attention because of social media and so i think again we're speculating and i don't want

00:13:51.020 to speculate too much and i don't you guys have listened to the episodes i don't want to trash

00:13:55.120 this woman I don't I don't know I'm gonna put on my like I don't know your life right right snap

00:14:01.020 snap I don't know your life well it's more just a lens through which we can look at this phenomenon

00:14:05.960 right like take away the particulars and the specifics like it is a lens through which to sort

00:14:13.620 of look at how that need that very human need for attention will impact people's behavior

00:14:23.620 And absolutely. And so I want to take a step back, even if she genuinely thought that these people were going to kidnap her children. As a mother, my first instinct would not be to go on Instagram to tell the world that someone was trying to kidnap my children. My first instinct would be to get my kids and get the fuck out of there.

00:14:43.560 yeah so that that I think it's that instinct to go on Instagram that is making people so 0.99

00:14:50.580 interested in this and curious about why she did this because in a moment of crisis I would not

00:14:56.040 feel I mean broadcast that well so she says in the video the part of the video that's still

00:15:02.840 available um that the reason she's doing it right then and there is because she really wants to draw

00:15:09.940 attention to this and to make people aware she makes this interesting comment about you know

00:15:15.720 we're also focused on protecting our kids by wearing masks but we're forgetting to protect

00:15:21.560 our kids by just keeping them with us so she says the reason she's doing it right then in the moment

00:15:28.680 is to create more awareness I still think that in a moment as a mother with adrenaline going

00:15:35.900 I don't, again, this is so hard because I don't want to judge other mothers, but

00:15:39.480 you're, my first instinct would not be to, to do a PSA. No. Or I'd call my best friend because

00:15:46.680 my husband totally wouldn't believe me. He'd be like, I mean, I would call someone, but it would

00:15:51.880 not be Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Now, no matter why Katie did this, we don't, we don't

00:16:01.240 know we can't talk to her i've tried to reach her can't reach her yep what i do want to talk about

00:16:05.820 is how the press covered this because we talk about this a lot in under the influence how

00:16:12.860 the entire media is very condescending to the industrial complex and frankly that was also

00:16:19.740 the case here had katie had another job like what if katie were an accountant or a dental hygienist

00:16:28.020 would that career be in the headline would have said local accountant katie sorenson right a couple 1.00

00:16:34.720 of kidnapping but instead because she's a mom influencer which is something that the media 0.98

00:16:40.000 patently believes is ridiculous it was in the headlines but it wasn't just in the headlines

00:16:45.100 it was put in quotations mom was put in quotations and both nbc and sf gate which is the digital arm

00:16:53.320 of the San Francisco Chronicle as if it were a fake job. Ooh. So yeah, I'm looking at the,

00:17:01.020 like I read a bunch of the Buzzfeed articles and they did not put it in quotes, but yeah,

00:17:07.320 that is really, I guess to play devil's advocate and to be annoying, I would say that maybe putting

00:17:15.880 it in the headline is drawing attention to the fact that she has the power to reach more people

00:17:22.020 than say an accountant or a dental hygienist maybe yes yes that's fair but also come on like i've

00:17:30.140 written headlines forever like that is clickbait 101 totally totally and putting it in quotes is

00:17:36.120 definitely gross 100 putting it in quotes is gross because it as we've established no matter

00:17:42.700 what you think about her or what she did being a content creator on the internet is a job so by 0.79

00:17:49.040 putting it in quotes. It's like you're, um, hula hoop enthusiasts. Yeah, no, that's totally true.

00:18:00.160 And it, and it immediately putting it in the headline like that immediately discredits her

00:18:05.240 story, whether or not, you know, it should be just, you know, that that's not their job to

00:18:09.680 discredit a story. It's not their job. Their job is to report the news, right? Report the news and

00:18:14.160 tell me what happened. But by putting it in quotes, by putting that in the headline, I think

00:18:18.140 you are automatically putting a lens on this story and not letting us make that decision for

00:18:22.840 ourselves. And I, I don't, that's why I like want to check out of the entire news industrial complex

00:18:28.620 these days. Um, I think we're going to hear more from this story. I think we're going to hear more

00:18:33.640 about it. I wanted to do this bonus episode. I think about 317 people sent me this story in a

00:18:38.860 DM on Instagram. And I was like, I cannot not address it. And it does, we'll talk more about

00:18:46.420 this in season two about the science behind attention and how even if your job is creating

00:18:52.960 content on the internet of course you're personally enjoying the attention that you're getting from it

00:18:58.380 because it's a basic i mean it is a basic human need i think it may even be in maslow's hierarchy

00:19:04.700 of needs somewhere maybe enough but hold on i'm looking i'm looking in the guardian story it says

00:19:09.160 Abraham, Abraham Maslow, you know, the Maslow, but put belonging into his famous hierarchy of

00:19:18.180 needs in 1943, belonging, attention, the fact that we want people to pay attention and care

00:19:24.540 about what we're doing. So we're going to, all right, we're going to do a whole episode on

00:19:29.360 attention and the need for attention in season two. And we're also going to follow up on this

00:19:35.500 story about Katie who again like I really do want to know her skincare routine because she looks

00:19:40.560 looks beautiful I always think that if I'm ever caught in a crisis and the newspaper has to

00:19:47.140 quickly grab a screenshot of me from something they're gonna grab one where I look like sloth 0.65

00:19:52.660 from Goody's I always think I'm gonna look like a fraggle yeah yeah like that's that's true like

00:19:59.380 it's good like they're gonna be like instead of journalist or writer did something ridiculous 0.90

00:20:05.900 it'll be like slop from goonies or a sweaty red fraggle and i will never look as good

00:20:14.880 as katie sorensen did in that screenshot no on a good day and i but i also do think that there

00:20:22.760 has to be no matter why she did it it's and it's terrible that she also targeted i mean we know

00:20:30.340 it's it's this story has so many levels because there's the accusing someone of kidnapping but

00:20:35.620 there's also it's a white woman accusing a latino couple of a kidnapping in such racially charged 0.81

00:20:40.980 times um i can't help but think would this story be different if she accused like a creepy pasty

00:20:48.260 white guy wearing pleated khakis. I mean, I think it 100% would. I think it 100% would. I mean,

00:20:56.320 that is terrifying to have your face out on the internet associated with kidnapping.

00:21:03.000 And especially with the hashtag save the children, millions of people, you know,

00:21:09.140 check that hashtag. And that's really, really scary. And I think that cannot be taken lightly

00:21:16.760 in this no no it can't be and thankfully the martinezes are have been they were they were

00:21:23.800 never charged but and their names are being cleared and i'm so glad that they're speaking

00:21:28.020 out and saying right we do feel that this was was racially motivated it has some sympathy

00:21:35.800 for her and just has to as a fellow mother i she made a bad decision and it brings me back to

00:21:44.040 cancel culture too and the fact that these stories get so much attention will this will 1.00

00:21:50.580 this ruin the rest of her life i i don't know why i think it won't but i do i just think white women 1.00

00:22:03.560 do get the gift of you know like the cat with nine lives like i do think there's just built-in 1.00

00:22:11.260 second chances for white women in a you know not fair way obviously yeah 100 100 um but it could 1.00

00:22:20.320 but it might color the rest of her life and it's just again that's just something that's interesting 0.99

00:22:24.160 to think about yeah one moment right putting something online yes going to affect you and

00:22:32.660 your kids so i guess i guess the moral of this story what moral number one try not to look like

00:22:38.860 sloth

00:22:39.540 on the internet because it will

00:22:42.920 it could end up on the cover of the New York

00:22:45.040 Post one day absolutely

00:22:47.020 yeah if I were in like a

00:22:49.000 biplane crash it would be

00:22:50.780 like

00:22:50.960 what would happen to me I'm like

00:22:56.980 definitely a biplane

00:22:57.820 100%

00:22:59.080 100%

00:23:00.540 or like a tragic trampoline

00:23:03.020 accident

00:23:03.520 that's what would happen to me

00:23:06.980 But I think, you know, the other more, think before you post.

00:23:11.660 Yeah.

00:23:12.380 Yeah.

00:23:12.700 Think before you post.

00:23:15.780 Yeah. 1.00

00:23:15.900 Take a goddamn breath, everybody. 1.00

00:23:22.640 That's me taking a breath. 1.00

00:23:27.700 Morning, the Petaluma Police Department.

00:23:29.800 If you have questions about the coronavirus, please visit socoemergency.org

00:23:35.600 I do want to say we tried to reach out to the Petaluma Police Department.

00:23:43.440 Hi, this is Joe Piazza. I'm a reporter from iHeartMedia, and I'm working on a story about Katie Sorensen.

00:23:50.840 We left a message with the chief of police and got no response about this story.

00:23:56.540 We also attempted to reach out to Katie Sorensen and to Sadie and Eddie Martinez.

00:24:02.040 you guys will be the first to know

00:24:04.560 if anyone gets back to us

00:24:05.920 I miss you guys

00:24:16.600 I miss Under the Influence 0.99

00:24:18.460 I miss talking about this shit all the time 0.99

00:24:20.380 I really do 0.99

00:24:21.080 and that is why I'm just so happy

00:24:23.440 that we are about to start reporting season 2

00:24:25.600 because the world needs this

00:24:26.860 and I like to do good things for the world

00:24:28.640 thank you guys for tuning in

00:24:30.800 and we will be back very soon.

00:24:33.060 And I promise, if another influencer scandal blows up,

00:24:36.140 I'm here for it.

00:24:36.960 I will do all the bonuses, all of the bonuses,

00:24:39.400 even if it drives our producer, Emily, a little bit crazy.

00:24:42.540 It's okay, Emily.

00:24:43.440 I'll drink tequila with you at 10 in the morning.

00:24:46.580 Goodbye, everybody.

00:24:47.980 Talk more soon.

00:24:52.960 Under the Influence is reported and hosted by me, Joe Piazza.

00:24:58.140 Emily Marinoff is our producer.

00:24:59.900 Our theme and additional music was composed by Jessica Kreinchich.

00:25:03.620 Many, many thanks to Sarah Peterson for joining me today.

00:25:06.440 And thank you to Oren Rosenbaum at UTA.

00:25:09.760 I just realized that other people thank their agents and their credits,

00:25:12.420 and I thought I should give Oren a big thank you.

00:25:14.620 Thank you, Oren.

00:25:15.960 You're the best.

00:25:24.520 Maybe we could put this at the end of the episode,

00:25:26.440 But note to Emily, wouldn't it have been funnier if we had recorded this whole episode from inside of a Michael's?

00:25:35.260 Just inside, like, the scrapbook aisle at Michael's season two, maybe?

00:25:42.420 It's on the to-do list.

00:25:44.140 Thanks, Emily.

00:25:45.640 You're a goddess.

Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - May 13, 2021

Bonus： In the Michael's Parking Lot

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