Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - Sunday Nice Things： Taylor Isn't a Tradwife

00:00:00.000 Hey y'all, Jo here and you are listening to Under the Influence.

00:00:10.340 I've been on the road a lot and I've heard from so many of you when I've gotten to see you in

00:00:14.720 person and enjoy cheese and spicy margaritas with you and hug you and compliment your trad

00:00:20.700 wife dresses. I've been hearing from you that some of the shows you love the best are the ones

00:00:26.480 where we're just chatting, where we're just chatting like old friends, and we get to talk

00:00:31.920 about what it's like to be women living in the world right now, which is crazy, to be honest.

00:00:39.120 I also have a lot of episode topics that I really want to dive into, but I don't necessarily have an

00:00:45.300 expert for them. I just want to talk them through. I want to talk through some crazy article I read

00:00:50.900 or some show that I watched. And so in service of that, I'm going to be bringing on a few special

00:00:56.160 guests. One of them, who is going to become a show regular, is my very best friend in the entire

00:01:01.960 world, Jackie Cascarano. I met Jackie when I was 18 years old and she burped in my face at a bar

00:01:09.380 after a sorority rush event and I was like, you're gonna be my person. Yep, I choose you. And we've

00:01:16.340 chosen each other again and again over the years. It has not always been perfect. No good and long

00:01:23.760 friendship is. And yet every time that we've struggled, every time that we've really had to

00:01:29.860 go through it, I think that it's made our friendship stronger. And now as middle-aged

00:01:35.420 mothers, both of us have three kids. We both have very demanding jobs. I have to say, I love her

00:01:42.200 more than ever. Jackie's an attorney who's reinventing herself as a women's career coach

00:01:47.560 and launching the Juno Collective down in Nashville. It's awesome. I got to go hang with

00:01:51.960 those ladies in Nashville recently. They were so much fun, so inspiring. And while we were there,

00:01:57.440 Jackie and I listened to Life of a Showgirl many, many, many times. And since then, I've been getting

00:02:04.360 asked by a lot of media organizations to comment on all of the crap out there calling Taylor Swift 0.98

00:02:09.940 a trad wife. Now, I have to say, I think that literally everyone is missing the point in this 0.97

00:02:17.120 plot. I think that there is absolutely something we should be talking about when it comes to

00:02:22.500 Taylor Swift being engaged to Travis Kelsey, something that I think truly matters for young

00:02:27.340 women. But I don't think anyone's talking about it yet. So I'm bringing Jackie on today to talk

00:02:32.520 through it with me. Good morning, Joe. Good morning. I love this new iteration of the podcast

00:02:40.020 where you and I just we get to shoot the shit about things that I think are interesting in the 0.95

00:02:47.300 world. And it's just a great excuse to get to talk to my best friend twice a week, which we all know 0.98

00:02:55.180 we need more. We need we need more of this. We need more of chatting and less of texting in our

00:03:01.200 lives. Heck yes. Yeah. And I liked we did a reel on the Instagram and I liked how you titled it

00:03:08.240 Two middle-aged moms, you know, dancing to Taylor Swift.

00:03:11.600 Two middle-aged moms just...

00:03:12.960 I do think that this could be, yeah, two middle-aged moms talking about...

00:03:15.780 Stuff. 1.00

00:03:16.560 Shooting the shit. 1.00

00:03:17.620 Shooting the shit. 1.00

00:03:18.360 Two middle-aged moms talking about whatever they want to talk about. 1.00

00:03:21.200 Well, today we are going to talk about Taylor and Travis because I love them.

00:03:26.580 I do love them.

00:03:28.360 I've been asked about it in a lot of interviews.

00:03:31.500 I did two podcasts with other people's podcasts this week.

00:03:36.120 I've got a bunch of media requests coming in.

00:03:38.240 and i've got a lot to say about the two of them you're not a swifty swifty but you like taylor

00:03:44.500 right i love taylor i love taylor yeah and you've got three and you've got three girls

00:03:49.700 yeah and my love you know what i always had a really like a positive i always had positive

00:03:56.160 feelings towards taylor swift and then i took my then 13 year old daughter to the concert so two

00:04:03.140 years ago two and a half years ago and it was but it was a phenomenal experience and then my like

00:04:09.960 love for her was was reignited um love her yeah this is how i felt after i went to the weezer

00:04:15.880 concert last year birthday well john and i went to the weezer concert and we we left at like nine

00:04:22.820 we retired and we left before i know wow shame you should feel shame because we were really it

00:04:29.720 was a monday dude it was a monday i just don't know i don't know why concerts start so late i

00:04:35.680 don't know why concerts start so late like why can't things start at five o'clock and then we

00:04:39.380 got in the car we played weezer we're like it's okay we're just gonna play weezer in the car on

00:04:44.060 the ride home well i i saw a dj on instagram this week who was mashing up uh is it actually

00:04:51.440 romantic the new taylor swift song yeah it's good with uh beverly hills oh my god it was and then

00:04:59.600 And then he also did Actually Romantic with Weedus' Teenage Dirtbag.

00:05:03.740 And both of them were perfect, to be honest.

00:05:05.880 You know what? It's funny.

00:05:06.280 It's funny that you say that because I did notice that song and some other ones are really 90s alternative.

00:05:12.360 Like the intros are actually really the center of our youth.

00:05:17.460 Well, there's also a TS cover band that covers all of her shows in 90s alternative rock.

00:05:24.100 It's like bros.

00:05:25.340 And they all hold up.

00:05:26.860 It's really, it's all delightful, okay?

00:05:28.260 I mean, my whole feed for the past two weeks has been a lot of opalite, OK?

00:05:34.500 And then also a lot of people attacking Taylor Swift, calling her a trad wife and a sellout for saying she wants to get married and have kids.

00:05:45.420 And I've got strong thoughts about this.

00:05:47.440 Yeah.

00:05:48.240 First.

00:05:48.860 I mean, well, I was aghast at the question she got.

00:05:53.720 And, of course, I saw it because it was on your Instagram.

00:05:56.660 But I think it was a British journalist asking.

00:05:59.040 It was the BBC.

00:05:59.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the BBC.

00:06:00.760 Yeah, yeah, right?

00:06:01.520 Asking, like, is this your last album?

00:06:03.640 I thought that was a joke.

00:06:05.420 Right?

00:06:05.920 It was a male reporter saying, is this your last album?

00:06:09.860 Fans are worried, you know, because you're getting married.

00:06:14.660 I guess they have to ask questions like that.

00:06:17.640 No, they don't. 1.00

00:06:18.200 They don't ask men questions like that.

00:06:19.600 Like, a man doesn't get married and gets asked, are you just going to quit your job?

00:06:23.980 Yeah.

00:06:24.280 Yeah. I mean, but it's just so it's so ridiculous. I mean, like, do you think a big meaning? Do you think he's asking that because he wants to get the press for being that guy that I do? 0.84

00:06:32.420 Yeah, 100%. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. No, it was a ridiculous, ridiculous question. But what is more ridiculous is the fact that a lot of the criticism levied at her has been from progressive women saying, oh, my God, Taylor's a trad wife now.

00:06:47.820 And I'm like, first off, y'all don't know the definition of a trad wife at all. 0.74

00:06:51.540 I get it.

00:06:52.200 It's a fun word to say.

00:06:53.720 But can we use it properly? 1.00

00:06:55.400 And second of all, just because you want to get married and have kids doesn't make you any less of a feminist. 1.00

00:07:00.420 That is such BS. 1.00

00:07:02.560 That's more like what's the definition of a feminist, which is you can do whatever the fuck you want to do. 1.00

00:07:06.860 Which is choice, which is you can you get to choose. 1.00

00:07:10.220 You get to have freedom. 1.00

00:07:11.580 You want choice for all women. 0.98

00:07:14.000 Although I will tell you, I posted something along those lines on threads, which I think is the dumbest, most toxic social media out there. 0.96

00:07:21.040 And I got attacked from all sides being like, you don't know what feminism is. 0.97

00:07:24.620 Attacked from other progressive women.

00:07:25.960 And I'm like, this is why our party's falling apart, people. 0.84

00:07:29.560 Why do they know it, but you don't?

00:07:31.580 Well, exactly.

00:07:31.980 They have a direct line with Glorious Dynum.

00:07:34.900 I don't feel the need to attack anyone's definitions online.

00:07:37.800 And yet, and yet, and yet, like most of these, like the most outspoken progressive people on, on like these toxic social media platforms are so ready to attack everyone else.

00:07:47.240 And like, we're very, we're so busy attacking each other that the Republicans are just turning us into a fascist empire right now.

00:07:55.120 So maybe focus on that, friends.

00:07:59.080 A little more unity.

00:08:00.020 A little more unity.

00:08:00.600 You know what?

00:08:01.040 Make the tent bigger. 1.00

00:08:02.260 Make the, I want all, I want all the women in our tent and let's figure out what's best for women. 1.00

00:08:06.660 Okay? 1.00

00:08:07.000 Like, how can we make the world better for all of us? Anywho, back to the point. You know, Taylor's response was great. She's like, that is an offensive thing to say. Because it is. Because it is wildly offensive.

00:08:22.240 And here is my hot take on it. And I actually have not given this hot take yet in any of my interviews. I think we are focusing on the wrong thing when it comes to the Taylor and Travis relationship. People are so focused on, oh, my God, she's getting married. She might have children. God forbid.

00:08:42.060 what I think we should be focusing on the narrative of this is she chose a great guy

00:08:49.980 okay she has dated so many douchey or just like not even douchey men but men just like

00:08:57.380 we're not up for her awesomeness and at the end of the day she waited she waited until the right

00:09:05.320 guy came along the guy who loves doesn't just love her but is her champion is her professional

00:09:11.560 champion and like looks up to her, promotes her, hypes her up every chance he gets. And that should

00:09:19.200 be the role model that we're looking at. Yeah. It's not that men are the enemy. I mean, what

00:09:23.000 are we, what is happening here? Right. You're just waiting to wait for a man that's really

00:09:27.840 going to compliment you and really support you as you grow and as you evolve as a person. How

00:09:33.240 beautiful. I mean, I'm a mother of daughters and I love that. She waited. What a great example.

00:09:39.320 she waited till she was 35 if you meet someone who is your champion who's your equal who loves

00:09:44.740 you who supports you before them that's great after then that's great but you have the self-worth

00:09:51.300 and to value yourself and your own um you know your own potential such that you're waiting for

00:10:00.320 that so what i was envisioning are all these beautiful albums we're going to get in the future

00:10:07.120 about her life as a mother perhaps i mean if she chooses to have children or not right i mean i

00:10:13.220 think it's just every every chapter of life brings such beautiful experiences and she is such a

00:10:20.580 phenomenal artist and the song i mean the songs that she has written in like the depths of pain

00:10:26.300 have been gorgeous and the hype of her joy from you know meeting this amazing man um i mean i'm

00:10:33.640 just excited for the next couple of chapters and all the albums she's going to give us. This is

00:10:37.700 all good. This is all good. It's all amazing. It is. It's watching someone evolve, I think,

00:10:45.260 in a really, really beautiful way. And and I am also very excited for all these albums. I want

00:10:50.820 to talk. I want to talk about like albums that I would love to see after a very quick break.

00:11:03.640 OK, we are back. I'm super psyched for the pregnancy album and then the postpartum album.

00:11:09.700 Like, I think then it's going to go kind of dark again.

00:11:11.460 Oh, it's going to be it's going to be moody, broody, moody, broody.

00:11:14.900 No, I think I think that Taylor Swift is really, really going to shed some lovely lyrical light on the postpartum experience for us.

00:11:24.520 On what it's really like.

00:11:25.800 on what it's really like exactly but again I just I feel almost bad doing this podcast and

00:11:34.280 talking about her and dissecting her this way but again as as a former media celebrity reporter

00:11:42.040 this is what you sign up for when you were a famous person and yet I do think it's so interesting

00:11:48.440 that all of our cultural anxieties are then filtered through the lens of this woman every

00:11:56.140 time she releases an album can you imagine can you imagine just how heavy that is like i'm very

00:12:00.780 happy that i feel like and i don't know because we don't know any of this but that she has

00:12:04.980 surrounded herself with good friends and then this good man who also has a great family

00:12:09.720 like that feels safe because being under this level of scrutiny has got to be so incredibly

00:12:17.880 hard. I cannot imagine it. Oh, yeah, I can't imagine. I mean, what is the which which song

00:12:23.320 is a wish list where she's like, we tell the whole world to leave us the fuck alone. And they do. I 0.99

00:12:29.940 mean, she just in so many ways. I mean, you know, you understand celebrity culture far more than I

00:12:34.860 do. But it's like there is I imagine this love hate relationship with the experience of being

00:12:39.880 famous, right, where it's like you need it. It's a lot like living in New York. You hate it, but

00:12:44.240 you'll never leave. It's hard to leave. It's so hard to leave. It's a drug. It is a drug. Everyone

00:12:50.420 I know has their moment where they decided to leave. Mine was some dude was masturbating in 0.99

00:12:56.060 front of me on the subway. That's what did it for me. It's different for every person. But that was 0.99

00:13:01.900 I was like, you know, San Francisco looks nice. Of course, then San Francisco was worse and more

00:13:06.980 disgusting and then i made it to philadelphia um back to taylor back to taylor sweet yeah i mean

00:13:14.140 that that particular song lyric i'm like oh yeah she does she does want to be left alone can you

00:13:19.960 imagine it and there's it's there's the haters the haters who really do hate the haters really

00:13:25.400 do hate you and again most of the taylor swift i mean almost 99.9 percent of the taylor swift

00:13:32.420 haters on the internet are other women and that is what drives me so insane we talk about this 0.98

00:13:38.120 on the podcast so much women cutting down other women women hating on other women instead of you

00:13:45.260 know just finding ways to lift each other up i've got to say you know most most of the female author

00:13:53.040 community is very very supportive it is just like let's lift each other up selling books is hard 1.00

00:14:01.060 But there are one or two out there who are just nasty and mean and jealous.

00:14:06.740 I've heard people talking about me behind my back. 0.69

00:14:09.440 And it is just, it is so uncool.

00:14:12.480 It is so uncool. 1.00

00:14:13.460 There is a special place in hell for women who do not support other women. 1.00

00:14:16.200 I truly believe this. 0.99

00:14:17.660 And because I'm Sicilian, I hold grudges against these people forever.

00:14:21.920 You will not forget.

00:14:23.320 No, never.

00:14:23.980 No, it's like Julia Roberts. 0.95

00:14:25.360 Yes, yes, we hate Julia.

00:14:27.340 I know, but here's the problem with Julia, okay?

00:14:29.540 we haven't watched a julia roberts movie in my house in the eight years since she dropped out 0.98

00:14:34.980 of the charlotte this is a difficult thing to do tv project um that said if she does the my best

00:14:42.980 friend's wedding sequel i have to watch it i don't have a choice so we i we watched my best

00:14:48.980 friend's wedding my older daughter marina and the entire time i was like this is basically based on

00:14:56.740 auntie joe this character oh the character was that is the problem that character is you that

00:15:02.520 character was me okay like i and i it's it's my favorite rom-com actually no i mean all of the

00:15:08.720 bridget of law is my favorite rom-com but uh it was close because yeah you know i'm like high

00:15:15.340 powder high powered journalist lady except the fact that it's they're turning 28 and she's like

00:15:20.820 i must get married by the time i'm 28 that part doesn't hold up but yeah that was my life that

00:15:25.720 was my life oh that was you yeah that was like this every every bit of this every bit of this 0.86

00:15:29.740 self-destruction self-destruction chain smoking in a hotel hallway oh yes and i'm your gay best

00:15:36.760 friend and my gay best friend who's dapper and devastatingly handsome uh i don't know what the

00:15:43.440 heck they're gonna do with a sequel though i don't i don't think i mean i want to watch george

00:15:48.080 i was not aware there was going to be a sequel oh no i think it's in the works really really

00:15:52.680 I don't know. I don't know if it's the internet teasing me about it all the time because they know how I feel about Julia Roberts and they're like, let's irritate Joe Piazza this morning.

00:16:01.520 Is there an algorithm for that?

00:16:03.720 There's an algorithm for everything. I will tell you, I have really retrained my Instagram algorithm. Everything I'm being served is so lovely right now. Like I said, I'm getting a lot of Opalite dance videos, which is great. Can't get enough.

00:16:20.540 I'm also getting a lot of nun content just nuns doing sassy things I know it's really really nice

00:16:27.260 and then obviously like the other things I love like otters holding hands and baby hippos being

00:16:34.000 fat baby hippos is really really enjoyable yeah I know because I've chose what to like and to engage

00:16:40.380 with and it works that's what what Instagram is giving me now and I'm no longer getting these 1.00

00:16:45.520 women with their perfect stupid houses i'm thinking oh stupid stuff oh yeah that's you 0.99

00:16:50.280 know i've i have enjoyed instagram i think for a lot longer than most people have because i've 1.00

00:16:55.360 been very very deliberate about the algorithm and who i'm following and who you're following

00:17:01.500 yeah i'm not following i do not want to follow people that are going to make me feel bad about

00:17:06.180 my body so i do not need to see you in your bikini and i don't i don't want to see anyone 0.94

00:17:10.780 actually you know what i like seeing 50 year old women oh yeah normal if you're normal that's great 1.00

00:17:15.400 thank you yeah yeah yeah but i don't want to see someone in their 20s because you know what that's 0.94

00:17:19.520 what i looked like in my 20s when my diet was marlboro lights then cheese okay and bad decisions

00:17:25.380 but yeah whatever i could look like that too and do nothing it's like dorothy spornak says

00:17:31.860 even your 20s even if you're ugly you're beautiful exactly exactly they're gorgeous they're stunning

00:17:36.860 everyone everyone is beautiful in their 20s uh everyone is beautiful at all age all ages all

00:17:42.360 ages i do think and this is something that i'm going to write a newsletter on i want to pivot

00:17:46.460 this taylor travis conversation to talking to young women about how the man you marry is your

00:17:52.960 glass ceiling um which is you know something that the great uh writer calton moran said to me

00:18:00.080 during an interview for one of her books the person that you choose to hitch your wagon to

00:18:05.520 is the one who is going to, you know, essentially determine how successful you can be. And I

00:18:12.300 genuinely think, I mean, the fact that he promoted her album before they got engaged,

00:18:19.040 and clearly this was a decision, right? A business decision. It's like, which one comes first? I do

00:18:23.800 not think that any of that was serendipitous, but it did show what they're prioritizing and

00:18:30.020 they're prioritizing her and her career and he knows where his bread is buttered but he's also

00:18:35.700 so he's successful in his own right he is he is indeed he is i mean she is way more successful

00:18:40.580 yeah but at the same time he's doing great and i mean new heights is doing very well and it's also

00:18:47.220 like i i mean listen you and i have talked ad nauseum about the fragile male ego and how fragile

00:18:55.460 Why are they so why are they such snowflakes? I mean, listen, he is in and of in his own right, a successful football player. Right. He's still playing. He's still doing well. He's still playing. And that is great. And that is wonderful. And that probably contributes to his acceptance and promotion of her and her career. You know, who knows? He seems like a phenomenal guy.

00:19:23.240 Look, I'm a big Kelsey Brothers fan.

00:19:26.160 Love them.

00:19:27.020 Let the kids listen to a lot of the podcast episodes because obviously go birds.

00:19:31.520 Love Jason.

00:19:33.100 Also big Kylie Kelsey fan.

00:19:34.940 I think I'm going to see Kylie interview Malala here in Philadelphia.

00:19:38.240 Oh, why?

00:19:39.100 I know.

00:19:39.620 Doesn't that sound nice?

00:19:40.540 Yeah, it's incredible.

00:19:41.760 I know.

00:19:42.060 I know.

00:19:42.280 But she's dated a lot of successful men before who I do not think supported her in her journey

00:19:50.380 and all, who were probably a little bit jealous.

00:19:52.460 I do think, listen, I mean, I do think there's some wisdom that has come with age, too. Like, I definitely think she might have been a little crazy ex-girlfriend. 0.82

00:20:09.040 Okay. Maybe, and I also don't care, because I was the quintessential crazy ex-girlfriend for so long. 0.94

00:20:15.460 Like, I think here she is in her 30s. She's a little more stable. You know, she's coming into her own.

00:20:21.480 She grew up.

00:20:22.160 She grew up.

00:20:23.040 And I think that's a beautiful example, too, for young women.

00:20:26.520 It's like, you know, we evolve.

00:20:28.500 We change.

00:20:29.140 We become different people.

00:20:30.880 And then hopefully we wait for the right person to come along.

00:20:34.820 I wouldn't have married Nick Astor in my 20s.

00:20:36.840 I wouldn't have looked at this man with, like, his hippy, dippy long hair and his hiking sandals climbing rocks in the Galapagos and been like, you're the person I'm going to have three kids with.

00:20:47.200 It takes wisdom and perspective, right?

00:20:49.580 But because she went through all, again, she kissed all the frogs.

00:20:54.540 All of the frogs.

00:20:55.320 And now she is in her 30s and she is probably prioritizing herself and stumbled upon this delightful man.

00:21:03.000 Delightful man.

00:21:03.540 Delightful man.

00:21:04.100 He was attracted to that energy as well.

00:21:06.280 And that's beautiful.

00:21:08.180 Well, and that's what we should also be promoting to young women.

00:21:11.340 That the right man will be attracted to that energy.

00:21:14.480 that the right man will love you for doing all of the things and for showing up as your real self

00:21:20.760 like that and that is the partner you should be looking for and waiting for if you want a partner

00:21:25.640 at all yeah I agree preach girl preach all right let's take one more quick break and when we get

00:21:33.540 back I want to talk a little bit about actually I'm not gonna tell you I'm not gonna tell you

00:21:38.740 all right let's let's take one more quick break

00:21:40.300 chew on this bold question from dentine gum is it ever okay to compliment a millennial

00:21:51.280 on their skinny jeans in 2026 dentine chew bold

00:22:00.000 all right we are back what actually i don't know what i want to talk about because i think i want

00:22:07.120 to do a whole episode about bama rush bama rush yeah okay right well being in the south i will

00:22:13.320 have uh you will have you will have thoughts you will have thoughts um or we could talk a little

00:22:17.740 bit about it right now um okay so jackie i went i popped into a book club last night here in philly

00:22:25.480 and it was a surprise for all the members the the organizer didn't tell them i was coming

00:22:30.680 and the fun thing was like unbeknownst to any of us it turns out that half of the young women there

00:22:38.100 they were millennials had gone to pen and were tried outs no yes yes which is our sorority

00:22:46.000 which is our college and our college and so they immediately wanted to find out

00:22:50.660 if i was in their lineage which if you haven't been in a sorority your lineage is you get a big

00:22:57.580 sister and a little sister and you know they kind of like help you live in the world of sorority

00:23:02.580 dumb I look I think sororities get a bad rap I really liked being I loved my experience in a

00:23:10.460 sorority it was I really loved it it was it was I think our experience was the best possible 0.94

00:23:15.720 experience where it was women lifting other women up and supporting other women most of the time I

00:23:21.860 mean yeah sure there were some catty bees but there's catty bees everywhere and you and I got

00:23:25.860 to live in the house together for two years, which was really nice. Yeah. And it was, I mean,

00:23:29.840 I, yes, it is Northeastern Ivy League colleges are going to have different sorority experiences

00:23:37.380 also than the rest of the country where you have to get a letter of recommendation to get in and 0.89

00:23:45.220 your mom has to be a member and all this craziness. Which is something I haven't experienced. And so

00:23:50.580 I want you and I actually to watch some watch some Bama Rush stuff together to like really dissect this experience.

00:23:59.780 I read this Wall Street Journal story the other day talking about how the stars of so Bama Rush.

00:24:06.520 It's Alabama.

00:24:07.680 Is it University of Alabama?

00:24:09.100 Yeah.

00:24:09.740 Yeah.

00:24:09.940 University of Alabama. 1.00

00:24:11.020 They're following these sorority girls as they're going through Rush.

00:24:13.800 And I think in the South, too, they rush really early.

00:24:17.040 Right.

00:24:17.300 They do.

00:24:17.660 They rush before school starts.

00:24:19.460 So you get onto campus and you, I mean, can you, Matt, can you fathom being like you just graduated from high school two months ago?

00:24:28.400 You're about to go to college.

00:24:29.980 You don't know a soul.

00:24:31.780 You're terrified. 1.00

00:24:33.520 You're so dumb. 1.00

00:24:34.400 And now you're going through this awful process, which seems incredibly superficial and just ridiculous. 1.00

00:24:41.220 Yeah, no, I can't. 0.51

00:24:42.060 So at Penn, we rushed.

00:24:43.880 You don't rush until second semester.

00:24:45.460 You have an opportunity to get your feet wet and know what you're doing and make friends so that it's not the end all be all. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. It's not the end all be all. You kind of know, you know, a little more about the social system. You're a little more comfortable in your skin at this brand new place.

00:25:02.080 So I yeah, I really like that. But there's this Wall Street Journal story that I think we're going to get into in our next episode together that sorority girls are cashing in big for their viral rush videos like college athletes earning brand endorsements. 0.90

00:25:19.700 sororities are now the target of companies looking to advertise products on social media i mean

00:25:26.640 my first reaction to that is good on them you make your money girl but then also it seems like so much

00:25:36.080 pressure to put on a young woman who is 18 years old and living alone for the very first time

00:25:42.040 i cannot imagine that i cannot i cannot imagine no no i will say i mean the the appeal i mean

00:25:51.280 coming from the the from the business case for this is some of these southern sorority houses

00:25:59.040 are insane i mean our our sorority house was a row house yeah they were a row house in phil

00:26:09.200 like a creaky old it was not fancy it was not fancy and you see some of these homes and i'm

00:26:15.680 like that used to be a plantation they have had interior designers come in it's like in your book

00:26:22.820 it's like the shadow house i mean these these homes are stunning and if i were to put my product

00:26:28.160 in this gorgeous sorority house with these gorgeous sorority girl i mean yeah i get it look

00:26:34.620 I've considered sending them all everyone is lying to you, just to sprinkle around the house, right? 0.98

00:26:41.400 No, absolutely.

00:26:42.880 It makes sense.

00:26:44.140 And I think the smart and savvy marketers every day are like, where are the eyeballs? 1.00

00:26:48.760 Oh, the eyeballs are on these very blonde young women in these beautiful houses. 1.00

00:26:53.780 Let's get them our products. 1.00

00:26:56.080 And the women are smart enough because I think a lot of the brands originally sent them stuff for free.

00:27:00.640 And the young women wrote back and they're like, no, girl, pay me.

00:27:04.620 Pay me, which I do get. And I have seen a lot of these young women being cut down on social media for doing this. And I think that that is also dumb because, look, AI is going to take over and replace everything. You get your money where you can. 0.98

00:27:19.340 And frankly, personal branding is at an all time high. And if this is how you can set yourself up for success and also create your own nest egg of money that is yours prior to getting married, that is what we should be telling all young women to do. 0.85

00:27:36.420 And they're creating a brand for themselves. You know, a lot of these girls are going to be, you know, getting a business degree undergrad. And they are now learning at the age of 18 that they could be a brand. 0.96

00:27:51.120 that they could be that they that they may have to be a brand in order to survive in the new

00:27:57.140 economy so yeah i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna dive deep into bama rush i'd like you to dive deep

00:28:01.920 into bama rush as well so that we can dive deep into it together oh my god now i'm just thinking 1.00

00:28:06.820 about how gross our sorority house actually was there was that dirty mangy opossum who lived 1.00

00:28:11.200 under the stairs oh you're right who would like come out and like mess with you when you came home 0.97

00:28:17.960 too tipsy just like with his little weird opossum hands i don't remember that oh yeah no i have i

00:28:24.620 have vivid memories i think i disassociated that opossum no no i well i saw one in my backyard

00:28:30.300 here because i don't live that far from the house uh and i was like maybe it's the same opossum how

00:28:35.340 long do opossums live could it be 23 years later well i lived a senior year i lived down was it

00:28:43.300 senior year yeah like several doors down and you lived in a house with those girls who hated me 0.94

00:28:49.560 those nasty bees you lived with that girl who hated me remember that girl who hated me and 0.99

00:28:54.620 yelled at me when i came to crying one night i don't i i won't forget that shit to this day 0.99

00:28:59.600 because we hold grudges that's not cool those nasty bees in college julia roberts why didn't 0.98

00:29:05.500 just live together why so in that house that i lived in um i remember walking home walking into

00:29:12.240 oh god I'm gonna I'm just getting the chills thinking about it walking in to my bedroom

00:29:17.860 and there were like oh my gosh there were like six mice in the middle of my room and I flipped

00:29:24.720 the light on and they all scurried and I was like oh my god I want to die I was maybe we were like

00:29:30.540 a week away from graduation and I ended up sleeping somewhere else for the next week but

00:29:35.980 probably a terrible boyfriend topic of our next pod topic of a next pod okay so i've got an

00:29:44.640 assignment for everyone for the bama rush pod that we are going to pod um i want i'm going to put the

00:29:50.840 wall street journal story sorority girls are cashing in big for their revival rush videos

00:29:54.840 in the show notes we're all going to watch some of these i want everyone to take a look at the

00:30:01.320 queen of rush talk uh not sure how to say her name it's k-y-l-a-n kylan kylan k-y-l-l-a-n kylan

00:30:11.500 you're in the south so you understand yeah they got interesting it's probably a family name

00:30:16.580 quote-unquote that's what they do there's a grandfather named kyle and they turned it

00:30:21.620 into a lady name they couldn't they could have done that you're right what's someone's weird

00:30:27.380 last name because they do that they'll just name they'll name perfectly normal women like graves

00:30:33.600 like you see a woman and you're like hi what's your name and she's like my name is worthington 0.87

00:30:39.040 like weird fucking weird shit and you're like okay actually i met a young woman at this book 0.56

00:30:46.560 book event last night and i told her i love her name story so much that i'm gonna put it in my 0.99

00:30:52.200 next book in my my dude ranch murder mystery uh her name is carlin and she is named carlin because

00:30:59.620 her parents her state was at a george carlin concert or george carlin comedy show oh that

00:31:05.320 i i know several carlins oh really i'd never she named carlin it's a name down here yeah

00:31:10.720 yeah well and i really liked it but i liked the fact that it was because her parents went to this 0.69

00:31:15.120 george carlin show and i thought she was i thought she was like shitting me and she's like no they're

00:31:19.580 really big George Carlin fans. I'm like, you know what? I wouldn't have looked at you and seen that.

00:31:23.220 I love it. I love it so much. All right. So everyone's homework is rush talk. And then you

00:31:29.240 and I are going to get into some rush talk. And yeah, I mean, the quote that I want to leave

00:31:34.040 everyone with is that Kylan, Keelan, whatever, Keelan Darnell. This is the quote that ends the

00:31:40.300 Wall Street Journal story. And I think we should all think about this and think about it with mad

00:31:43.820 respect is I'm going to be debt free when I graduate. I paid for college all by myself.

00:31:49.580 More power to her.

00:31:51.400 More power to her, right? 1.00

00:31:53.580 So, like, I just, I do think that a lot of these young women and this whole system is written off as fluffy and frivolous, and there's massive problems with it as well.

00:32:04.700 And yet, and yet, and yet, young women are building brands for themselves and making money, and let's focus on those things.

00:32:12.100 Let's elevate those stories. 0.99

00:32:15.240 Love it.

00:32:16.380 Love it.

00:32:16.820 Okay, I know my homework assignment.

00:32:18.280 You know your homework assignment.

00:32:19.140 everyone knows their homework assignment um love you love this chat love you more this is fun this

00:32:25.120 is fun love this all right bye guys

00:32:49.140 chew on this bold question from dentine gum is it ever okay to compliment a millennial

00:33:07.440 on their skinny jeans in 2026 dentine chew bolds

00:33:19.140 You

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