Sunday Nice Things: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Personal Journals, Kids & Family, Technology, Parenting, Society & Culture

4.3 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2026

⏱️ 124 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

I’m really excited to introduce you to a new show today. It’s a smart podcast about trashy books: Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, created by my good friend Sarah Wendell. Sarah has been talking about romance novels in a smart, generous, deeply thoughtful way since long before the current romance renaissance. She’s brilliant, she’s an absolute delight, and she has produced more than 700 episodes of this podcast. Typically, Sarah talks with authors, readers, reviewers, and bloggers about romance novels, which happen to be one of the most popular genres in fiction worldwide. But today’s episode is a little different. Her guest is our mutual friend Amanda Matta, best known online as a royal-watcher and pop culture historian, and the host of The Art of History podcast. In this episode, Amanda brings her Art of History treatment to classic old-school romance novel covers. Yes, there is Fabio. And yes, it’s as fun as it sounds. Listen to more Smart Podcast, Trashy Books⁠. 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

Transcript

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	...

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