HOT TAKES

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0:47Hello, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. This is Pia Baranchini. I got really riled up on my Instagram yesterday, and I've had in my head that I wanted to do some hot takes because I always keep my fucking opinion to myself online because I'm not available for the dialogue and I don't care and nothing is really that deep. And I'm just watching everybody act like complete fucking morons and it pains me and I will never contribute to it. But these are very lighthearted. None of it is that deep. And the whole point of what I'm saying is how beyond overly sensitive and ridiculous everybody's reactions are to anything anybody says.

1:37And I understand that for a long period of time, I have had a little pocket of the internet that I love and cherish with my life. And in this pocket, I am extremely vulnerable. And that vulnerability opens me up to a great deal of criticism because it allows for people to feel very connected to me. And if I do or say anything that somebody disagrees with, the way that people turn on me instantly is alarming. But it's because you think that you know me. And I understand that because I am constantly giving you lots of information, which is why I eventually cannot wait to gracefully bow out of the internet.

2:26But I have seen, you know, like we're all open DMs and I'll say something and I'll get this huge really unbelievably nasty response. And then I'll see that it's somebody that's been messaging me since like 2017. And I get it. I've like disappointed you. And that, you know, a lot of that is par for the course. But I, what I do think is like having a reaction to something and feeling some type of way is one thing, but then feeling the need to go and destroy that person because you disagree with them is where we're fucked up. And I love that like super liberals, and I'm a Democrat, but I love that super liberals will be like, well, look who our president is.

3:13And I'm like, this is happening with all parties. I've never seen, I think the morality police are really, whoo, hot take. The morality police really live on the far liberal left in a way that's actually just like really sad. And I think it's like the demise of the party, which is why we have Trump as president. And it makes me sick to my stomach. But again, hot take, and I'm not going to get into politics because I don't want to, but I feel like, you know, it's pretty obvious that both sides are so far on either side that we've just, it's sad. I gave an opinion yesterday on social media in regards to something that my friend Shea released, which is Rini, her skincare line.

4:05And I'm not going to give an opinion on the marketing behind the product or any of that because it's not like whatever. I don't go around critiquing her brands. I think that I think what's sad to me is that there's so much like the other products that are coming and the impetus for the launch and like all of that has such like a deeper meaning. And when she told me about it, I was like, yeah, duh, like, give me this mask. Because as I said on my Instagram, I grew up watching my mom put on all of her makeup and I would put it on in my, my mom, more too. Like my mom's mom. Oh my God. I would slather myself in her Pond's cold cream.

4:54And this is when I was like four little, little, you know, I mean, Carlo uses my makeup brushes all the time when he always finds his way up to my bathroom and is in there with me. And so I just, you know, in regards to Rini in particular and people's reactions, it's been really interesting to me because I think that we just need to understand that like every household is completely different. And someone even said to me yesterday, like, oh, I would never buy a face mask for my little kid. And then five minutes later, she was telling me that she, her daughter loves wearing press on fake nails and it's a four-year-old.

5:34And I was like, okay, this is such a good example of judging just like the inter-workings of a household because I find that fake nails on a child, which by the way, have been sent to me by multiple companies recently for nails made so small that they fit three and four-year-olds because they were given to Carmella, that to me is a sexy thing. Like long nails on a hand, I do it because it makes me feel feminine and sexy. So to see like an extended nail tip on a baby to me is like so warped and weird. But would I judge that? No, because I trust that parents can say to their kids, that's cute and fun.

6:32This is something that we don't do outside the house and we don't get real nails because like, this is just a fun play thing. Or we're going to play with this for a little bit, but then we put it away because like our real nails are so beautiful and we have to take care of our real nails. And I'm hoping that But most households are constantly explaining to their children, you know, what's appropriate and not appropriate. And so if you aren't concerned about your child, like if you are so concerned about your child getting corrupted by like a face mask, number one, just don't buy it. because I'm assuming you're, if you're so concerned about little kids, I'm assuming that your little fucking kids aren't on the fucking internet to be persuaded to buy said mask, right?

7:23So it's, it's up to you to just like police your household. So it's like, I just, I just couldn't believe like people were using the word dystopia. It's like, you think that's dystopian, you don't think that all the other things that are happening right now are not level 10 dystopian. All the other things that, and just like the normal, you don't think that it's dystopian that people make videos about other women all day long, or we'll post a video like, what's your least favorite influencer? Tell me why you hate them now. That's not dystopian to you. That's like, can you imagine? Like, this is what we're teaching our fucking kids.

8:12And the kids are fucking kill themselves in fucking elementary school over bullying because we're normalizing. Normalizing bullying to me is so fucking dystopian. Oh, it makes me want to cry. I'm so sad for us. I'm so sad for us. I think it's really dystopian to film people in public and put it on fucking TikTok. Like, can you just have an experience with a celebrity or anybody entering a space and you just don't have to film it and put it on the internet, that's fucking dystopian. And it's sick. And it's such a, I feel so sad because it's such a low frequency to be, to like live on, to get off on those kinds of things.

9:01And I hope that there are moments when you, this is my goal for the podcast And I really hope that there are like moments on here where you realize what a lovely life you can live and how nice it can feel to be light. And maybe I'm your age or maybe I'm older than you. And I have made so many mistakes in my 20s, especially. And I hope that you can learn from my mistakes and hope that we can learn from all of our mistakes. But I really hope that we just can try to alleviate this like high level of judgment and this immediate reaction to fucking destroy another woman.

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12:38It keeps its shape. And listen, I love cotton for a multitude of reasons. One of them also being, you know, financial, but on top of that, the nostalgia that comes with wearing an item that you've had for so many years of your life, like my favorite jeans, the jeans I'm wearing right now. I've had these since before I had my daughter and I've worn them through two pregnancies and my favorite, favorite, favorite white t-shirt I've had through my 20s. So I always think about when I put it on, like how many places I've worn it. Davide wears one of my dad's t-shirts, this cotton short that he loves so much that he wears every single time we fly for good luck.

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15:44subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode.

15:58And I brought up something that was really concerning to me, which is that in the last week, there were multiple articles about women in the cut has just turned into a complete fucking snark. I makes me so sad because the cut was my favorite fucking the New York New Yorker. I mean, I have so many issues of the New Yorker from the early 2000s, like when I lived in New York. And it makes me sad that it's become I mean, the New Yorker has a high level of decorum for the most part. But I was really upset about an article that they released last week about Martha's story. And I don't even want to say what it is because if you go and type this in, you're giving it more clicks.

16:45And so what I really don't, what I'm really especially concerned about in terms of like, we have social media, right? But in terms of like the quote unquote, like real media that we're ingesting, these people are trying to keep a business going the same way everybody is. So the more that we click and engage with stories that are harmful, the more that they are going to present us with stories that are harmful. NY Mag, again, one of my favorites. I've had a subscription forever. I have lots of... I have really cool issues of NY Mag that I saved for my 20s. That's only... Their Instagram is only snark.

17:30And I had to unfollow it for my own mental health because it was so sad to me. Vanity Fair posted a really fucking shitty article about another woman the other day that was really concerning to me because I never see all these profiles on men and their companies. And it's very cool to like shit on a female founder, but I don't see any articles ever about like a male founder being a fucking shithead. And it's so sad. And what's sad is that the more that we engage with these articles, which is why I go out of my way not to read them or click on them. And I really, if you take anything out of this episode, I really hope that you understand that every click, like if you are a part of a Reddit page that you love to go, I hope you aren't.

18:29I hope none of, I hope nobody, I hope I don't want to have anything to do with anybody who lives that way. So please exit this fucking chat. But if you are, you're only driving sales and attention and popularity to that person. And I've been screaming this for years. Like the more that you engage with somebody that you don't like online, the more that you are feeding them. And so it's, and people will say that and like Taylor Swift will say it or whatever, but you really don't, you really don't, like we can see the clicks, you know what I mean? So it's like the worst thing that you could do to somebody if you want them to like turn into dust and blow away is to stop talking about them.

19:16Truly. And that's one thing, but when I'm talking about media in particular, you know, it's all algorithm based and it's all click based. And so if we're continuing to tell them that this is what we want to read, they're going to continue to give you shitty fucking stories. And it's just not good for anybody. It's not. And I feel really bad for journalists right now because everything that they write needs to somehow end up being placed on a social media platform with a caption or title that is snarky enough to get you to click on it so they can continue to pay their employees and pay their bills.

20:03It makes you really sad. So I urge you to be very careful. I had to unfollow. I unfollow accounts that don't serve me all the time, but I've had to do it a lot recently. And if I see an article about a woman, instead of being like, Ooh, I want to know what they said about her. I go out of my way to make sure that I do not like the post that I don't engage with the post that I don't click on the post that I don't read the post. What we engage with is really going to shift what they are serving us. And we need to demand a higher level of journalism. And I feel bad for these journalists because they're trying to do what they're passionate about, but it needs to just have some sort of decorum because we can't just be this shitty to each other all the time.

20:53Okay. This is another hot take. That's such a shift, but we also have to keep it light in here. There is an epidemic in my neighborhood of new buildings that are stark white boxes with black trim and lots of small windows and like gray linoleum floors. And there are large houses being built this way all over Los Angeles, especially in my neighborhood. and I see them in La Cunada. And it is truly heartbreaking because Bassadina, especially in particular, is known for like mid-century and craftsman houses and like old Spanish houses that were built in the 1920s. And so to see all these new buildings that are so cold and lack any sort of depth or warmth or ability to like blend into the environment.

22:04It's so weird and confusing to me and I don't know who's responsible for it, but it has to say like, it looks like, it looks like, like when we're in Italy and I'll see like, David will be like, oh, like, that's like a Mussolini building. Like you'll see all of a sudden these like beautiful buildings that are like thousands of years old, you know, everything that you imagine and dream of when you think of Italy, then all of a sudden next to it is this like stark, modern, cold, institutional building. And it's happening in neighborhoods. And I'm just so curious what that means and what that is like, like where we are headspace wise that we want to live in an environment that feels so institutional, but it's fucking sad to me.

22:54And I saw it happened with my grandmother's house when she passed away. She passed away right before Carmela was born, which was so sad to me because she was about to turn a hundred. And so they would have been exactly a hundred years apart, but they were, they're both Gemini's. She passed away after in her home that she had had for 70 years. She got that house when she was in her twenties with my grandpa Carlo and died in that house at 99. And so my mom listed the house and we sold it to a really cute family and the family, you know, like the, it was like a young family whose other family members lived in the neighborhood.

23:31And that neighborhood used to be all Italian when my dad was growing up, all, you know, his grandparents and my grandpa Carlo's grandparents and all the cousins, like the entire neighborhood. My Aunt Teresa, my Uncle Lou, my Aunt Betty and Uncle Louie, like everybody lived in that neighborhood. And so to see it happen again is adorable. We were like really happy to help like propel that kind of family dynamic forward. And so my mom kept, would like drive by the house after they did construction to like see what they were doing to the house that we had spent like every Christmas even and every, you know, all so many important moments of our life.

24:12This fucking house, man, they just took all the plants out in the front yard and remodeled it because it clearly needed to be remodeled. And I'm sure what they did inside is lovely, but they painted that house stark white and did all the trim in dark, dark, shiny black and put in really small, I don't know what the thing is with the small windows. And so it just looks like a little prison. It's so sad. And I was just like, oh God. Okay. Here we are. Oh, really, really broke my heart, but that's okay. It's not, it's not my, listen, am I going to get mad about it and write about it? No, I'm just curious what it says for where we are mentally.

25:09And maybe that type of, you know, style makes somebody feel safe. My house looks like old as shit. And, you know, I don't, I don't at all think that anybody's aesthetic needs to match mine by any means. Like my house looks like a grandparent lived in it. And it's definitely not everybody's style. But man, these little white boxes with black trimmer pop it up all over the place. And it makes me so fucking bummed out.

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