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Cup of Jo Team

Cup of Jo Team

It’s not even April yet, but it’s already been a big year for Cup of Jo. This month, we welcomed Jannelle back from parental leave (and the WILD birth of her third baby!). And our wonderful long-time contributor, Kelsey Miller, has officially joined the team as a senior editor. We had a bittersweet farewell with Maureen after seven wonderful years with us, and our new partnerships director is none other than my friend, Alison Piepmeyer! Since we have a new team full of familiar faces, we’d love to come out from behind the scenes to introduce ourselves…

Joanna Goddard

Joanna Goddard
Founder & Editor
A former magazine writer, I started Cup of Jo in 2007 as a weekend hobby but then developed it into a large-scale daily website, featuring a diverse array of writers and photographers. In 2023, I also launched Big Salad, our weekly newsletter about style, design, and relationships, which is the #1 fashion/beauty publication on Substack. I live in Brooklyn with my two chatty boys.

Go-to breakfast drink: Cinnamon tea made at home; or a walk with my neighborhood dad friend to get a coffee.
Childhood nickname: My dad still calls me Fofans, inspired by that “banana fana fo-fana” song. My siblings and cousins call me Jo. Now anytime someone else calls me “Jo,” I instantly feel close to them.
Favorite after-work activity: Hanging out with my two hilarious boys. The preteen/teen years have been my favorite so far. They can be moody, of course, but they also make me laugh and watch Derry Girls, share smart observations about life, and still want bedtime chats and cuddles.
Celebrity crush: Andy Samberg in Palm Springs. I’d gladly be stuck in a time loop.
Book that changed my life: When I read The Catcher in the Rye in high school, I saw Holden Caufield as a sexy bad boy. He grew up in Manhattan! He smoked! But when I reread it as a forty-something mom, my heart ached for the lost, lonely 16-year-old. I realized how much our perspectives can change, depending on our own lived experiences and life stages. I always try to keep that in mind.

Kelsey Miller

Kelsey Miller
Senior Editor
Kelsey is a culture writer, and the author of three books, including her memoir, Big Girl, and the bestselling pop-culture history book, I’ll Be There For You. Her first novel, Old Money, was published in 2025. Among other things, she often writes about the impact of diet culture and the evolution of the body positive movement. She loves Polish cinema, weird history, and a long swim. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Go-to weekday breakfast: On a good day, jammy eggs and buttered sourdough toast. On a typical day, my daughter Margot’s leftovers.
Childhood nickname: Wunkin. My dad made it up when I was born — it’s a combination of “wunderkind” and “pumpkin” (I had jaundice!).
Favorite after-work activity: Once a week, a couple school-mom friends and I take our kids to Shake Shack for dinner. It’s a mid-week breather; everyone gets some social time, and no one has to do dinner when we get home.
Celebrity crush: Bowen Yang. I KNOW.
Book that changed my life: Holidays on Ice, by David Sedaris. Specifically, the essay, Santaland Diaries. My high-school English teacher had us read it aloud in class the day before winter break, and we were all in tears with laughter. We were astonished by how funny it was — it seemed impossible. It was one of the moments that showed me how powerful good writing can be.

Alison Piepmeyer

Alison Piepmeyer
Partnerships Director
Alison has spent 20 years in marketing, working with brands and influencers, and running her social media agency. She and her family relocated from the West Coast to New York in 2021. She loves a good audiobook and will always say yes to hosting a bagel brunch. She lives with her husband Zach, son Linus, and daughter Georgie. (Also, remember her week of outfits and house tour?)

Go-to weekday breakfast: I love a bowl of Trader Joe’s goat yogurt, with muesli, chia seeds, and a handful of berries.
Childhood nickname: Ali
Favorite after-work activity: Watch crappy reality shows (like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives!).
Celebrity crush: Michael B. Jordan. When he won his Oscar, I turned to my husband and said, ‘WOW, that man is attractive.’
Book that changed my life: I’m not usually a self-help girlie, but Mindset really got me. It shifted how I think about failure, criticism, and growth — and honestly, it’s helped me parent better than any actual parenting book I’ve read.

Christine Pride

Christine Pride
Race Matters Columnist
Christine is a writer, editor and french fry enthusiast. She worked in publishing for 20 years before leaping to “the other side” to write novels. She’s written two with Jo Piazza: We Are Not Like Them, and You Were Always Mine. Her solo debut, All The Men I’ve Loved Again, was published in 2025. She also writes the newsletter, Book Forward. Christine lives in Harlem, New York.

Go-to weekday breakfast: I don’t eat breakfast! It’s not intentional; I just never get hungry until noon.
Childhood nickname: My family calls me Christie.
Favorite after-work activity: Watch all the TV. And I mean all of it.
Celebrity crush: Girl: Tracee Ellis Ross. Guy: Rege-Jean Page — he had me at Bridgerton.
Book that changed my life: My own first novel, We Are Not Like Them. It changed the course of my career and my whole life.

Jannelle Sanchez

Jannelle Sanchez
Senior Editor
Jannelle has always loved talking to people and hearing their stories. After graduating with a journalism degree, she wrote on the marketing teams of various tech companies, before joining Cup of Jo in 2021. Jannelle lives in the Bay Area with her husband and three children.

Go-to weekday breakfast: Coffee (with a splash of half-and-half and a teaspoon of sugar!), and toast with butter and strawberry jam.
Childhood nickname: Growing up, my whole extended family called me Jannelley (Janelle-eee) — and still do to this day. Sometimes when a stranger reads my name aloud, they’ll pronounce it “Jannelley,” and I instantly feel like a four-year-old.
Favorite after-work activity: A week ago, my five-year-old daughter Ella and I planted some Cup of Sun seeds, and now we love watering the garden and seeing new sprouts pop up each day.
Celebrity crush: Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls. He knows how to yearn and writes notes in the margins!
Book that changed my life: Little Women. It was the first classic book I read as a kid, and I return to it every few years. It’s taught me so much about girlhood, family, friendships, and love.

Kaitlyn Teer

Kaitlyn Teer
Senior Newsletter Editor
Kaitlyn is the senior editor for Big Salad, where she interviews writers like Barbara Kingsolver, Catherine Newman, and Roxane Gay. Her essay collection, Little Apocalypses: Essays on Motherhood, Climate Change, and Hope at the End of the World debuts next month. She lives in Washington State with her husband and two kids.

Go-to weekday breakfast: Peanut butter toast — ideally freshly ground peanut butter, the gloppier the better.
Childhood nickname: I go by Kaitlyn professionally but nearly everyone who knows me outside of work calls me Kaity. Having said that, the Cup of Jo team typically refers to me by my initials, KT, which sound just like ‘Kaity.’ So, wherever I go, there I am!
Favorite after-work activity: I joke that I’m going to crush it in retirement because my favorite things to do are either outdoorsy adventures, like birding and mountain biking, or chill solo hobbies, like knitting and working on my vegetable garden.
Celebrity crush: Cillian Murphy, specifically when he’s doing press junkets. An interviewer once asked for his thoughts about the disappointed Cillian Murphy meme, and he said he didn’t know what a meme was.
Book that changed my life: Annie Dillard’s A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It’s a stunning example of how an ordinary place, like a neighborhood creek, comes alive when you approach it with curiosity and attention. Whenever I pick it up, I notice something different.

That’s our team! We’re all thrilled to be here with you. xoxo

P.S. 10 lessons I’ve learned in my career, and the best career advice I ever got.

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We found the best MacBook deals during Amazons Big Spring Sale — including the MacBook Neo

Amazon’s third annual Big Spring Sale runs from March 25 to 31, and the opening day of the sale already features deals on must-have tech — including flagship Apple products. Apple just refreshed and expanded its MacBook lineup earlier this month, and some of the new Apple laptops are already on sale.

The colorful new MacBook Neo with Touch ID is a whopping — wait for it — $9 off. (Don’t forget about the Apple Store’s $100 education discount.) Of course, there are better deals to be had.

Amazon’s biggest discount thus far is going to a 15-inch M4 model with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, which is now $300 off — its lowest price ever. You can also score 13-inch M4 MacBook Airs starting at $899. Remember: Apple has discontinued the M4 MacBooks, so once supplies dry up, they’ll only be available on the refurbished market.

SEE ALSO:

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale is back: The best deals already live on Apple, robot vacuums, headphones, and more

The brand-new M5 MacBook Airs and M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pros are all $50 off for the Big Spring Sale, and that’s probably going to be as cheap as they get for now. (The then-new M4 models got the same discount last year.) Look for better deals in a couple of months come Prime Day.

This is just day one of the Big Spring Sale, and Mashable will be keeping track of all the latest MacBook price drops. Check back to be the first to know about the top Apple deals.

Note: Deals marked with a 🔥 have dropped to a record-low price.

Best MacBook Air deal

$949
at Amazon

$1,199
Save $250

 

Why we like it

The 13-inch M4 MacBook Air may be a last-gen laptop, but it’s still an incredibly capable ultraportable, now $250 off for its lowest-ever price. It’s faster than much pricier Windows laptops, and it has the same 12MP Center Stage webcam, Liquid Retina display, and 18-hour battery life as its new M5 counterpart. This particular model is also well future-proofed amid the ongoing RAM crunch — thanks, AI.

Read Mashable’s full review of the Apple MacBook Air (M4).

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Amazon Big Spring Sale 2026: Tablet deals are in full bloom with savings on the latest iPad Air

Best Big Spring Sale Tablet Deals

An Apple iPad Air with M4 chip

A Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ (WiFi) tablet

An Amazon Fire 7 Kids

Amazon’s Big Spring Sale kicks off on March 25. The seasonal sale, which runs through March 31, focuses on seasonal transition items – think cleaning supplies to freshen up your home and camping supples to get outdoors. However, it wouldn’t be a sale without tech deals, too.

Ahead of the sale, we’ve spotted early savings on tablets, good timing considering Apple just dropped a brand new tablet. The Apple iPad Air with M4 chip just dropped this month, and the good news is, it’s already on sale. But if iPads aren’t your thing don’t worry, there are plenty of other tablet deals to shop.

Here are all the best tablet deals to shop ahead of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale.

Best Tablet Deal

$559
at Amazon

$599
Save $40

 

Read our full review of the Apple iPad Air (M4).

Apple’s latest iPad drop is the iPad Air with M4 chip. It’s one of the retailers speediest, most efficient tablets, scoring 13,176 on the Geekbench 6 test, which puts it ahead of most laptops. When Apple released the new iPad Air, they didn’t raise the price, keeping the midrange tablet at $599. However, it already receive a price cut at Amazon.

Ahead of the Big Spring Sale, get the Apple iPad Air with M4 chip for just $559. While that’s only $40 in savings and less than 10% off its list price, it’s still a great deal considering it’s a brand new tablet.

So while we might like this deal best, if you want some bigger savings, there are plenty more deals to shop.

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Joss Whedon’s Cancellation Still Makes No Sense, Unless It's An Attack On You

By Joshua Tyler
| Updated

The first twenty years of the 2000s belonged to Joss Whedon, and he found that success by becoming king of the nerds. His was the mind behind the most successful geek properties of all time, and he was Marvel’s chief genius, the architect of assembling The Avengers. Then, in 2021, he was cancelled. I still don’t understand why.

First, it must be said that Joss Whedon definitely did bad things, and he’s not someone I would ever be friends with. The source of my confusion isn’t a debate over whether he’s a virtuous person; he isn’t. What doesn’t add up is why Hollywood’s powers think his level of virtue should determine whether or not he’s allowed to work.

To understand how strange Joss Whedon’s cancellation is, first, we need to understand what he’s accused of. Here’s a simple, bullet-point list.

Joss Whedon’s Bad Behavior

  • Joss Whedon is accused of saying mean things to Ray Fisher and Charisma Carpenter.
  • Joss Whedon was a bad husband and had consensual relationships with his actresses.
  • Joss Whedon’s sets weren’t always fun, according to some people.

None of these things is good, but to put them in context, let’s compare that list to things done by other Hollywood notables who aren’t cancelled and can do whatever they want. 

Woody Allen’s Bad Behavior

  • Woody Allen is accused of molesting his daughter, Dylan Farrow.
  • Woody Allen married his adopted daughter. 
  • Woody Allen cheated on his wife with his adopted daughter.

That seems worse than Joss Whedon. A lot worse. Yet Woody Allen isn’t cancelled. Let’s try someone else, maybe Woody Allen is a one-off? What about acclaimed director Roman Polanski, who frequently wins Oscars and can work on anything he wants? 

Roman Polanski’s Bad Behavior

  • Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, raping a 13-year-old child. 
  • Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to, and was convicted of, drugging a child.
  • Roman Polanski fled the country to escape justice.

Roman Polanski has suffered zero consequences and instead is frequently nominated for awards and praised as a genius. What about a more modern figure, like Mel Gibson?

Mel Gibson’s Bad Behavior

  • Mel Gibson was arrested for a DUI, which endangered the lives of others.
  • Mel Gibson is on tape making sexist and full-on anti-Semitic and racist comments.
  • Mel Gibson pleaded not guilty to domestic battery against a helpless woman.
  • Mel Gibson is on tape making violent threats.

There was, for a time, some vague noise about cancellation over Gibson’s anti-semitic comments, but it never happened. He kept working, getting payday roles in big Hollywood movies like Daddy’s Home. At this very moment, Mel Gibson is working on directing The Passion of the Christ 2. Meanwhile, Joss Whedon’s Firefly series is being handed over to a talentless hack who made a bunch of terrible superhero shows, because Whedon is not allowed to work.

Maybe Joss Whedon’s problem is that most of his bad behavior revolved around things that happened at work. Let’s take a look at another big, Hollywood director.

James Cameron’s Bad Behavior

  • James Cameron is accused of saying mean things to Ed Harris and other actors.
  • James Cameron was a bad husband and had numerous consensual relationships with his actresses.
  • James Cameron’s sets aren’t always fun, and he’s known to yell at people, mistreat his cast, and physically endanger them.

James Cameron’s history seems similar to Joss Whedon’s. Yet he’s currently in production on another Avatar movie, and no one seems to mind any of it.

Evil Flourishes In Hollywood

Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen are not edge cases. Neither is James Cameron, whose behavior is pretty much a mirror of every successful Hollywood director. The movie-making business is full of people who are, by any objective measure, extremely evil.

To actually get punished, you usually have to be as bad as Harvey Weinstein, a serial assaulter and abuser with dozens of accusers. He’s now in jail, where he belongs, but if he gets out (and that’s a real possibility), he’ll never work in Hollywood again.

By comparison, Joss Whedon said some vaguely mean things, was a bad husband, and yet, like Harvey Weinstein, he’s never going to work again. It doesn’t add up.

The Psychology Behind Hating Nerds

Until the early 2000s, nerds like Joss Whedon and the nerd audience he represents were treated like a joke. Nerds were disrespected, hated, and entire movies, like Napoleon Dynamite, were built around the idea of how funny it was to bully and dunk on them.

That changed as Hollywood began to see the profit potential behind catering to geeks, but that doesn’t mean the powers that be were happy about it. They couldn’t be, because of something called Status Identity Threat Syndrome.

Status Identity Threat Syndrome (noun): A psychological response in which individuals experience anxiety, defensiveness, or hostility when the traits or skills that underpin their social status and self-worth are devalued or displaced within a shifting hierarchy.

Extroverted networkers tend to build influence through visibility, relationships, and social fluency, the traditional, human-centric routes to power. For most of human history, these kinds of networkers ran not just Hollywood, but the entire world. When “nerd” types, people who win through technical mastery, obsessive focus, or systems thinking, start outperforming them, it scrambles that hierarchy. 

Napoleon Dynamite gets shoved into a locker for laughs

Psychologically, it’s a form of status inconsistency: the traits that used to signal dominance (charisma, connections) suddenly matter less than competence in domains the networkers don’t control. That creates anxiety, because it’s not just losing, it’s losing in a way that makes your skill set feel obsolete.

People defend traits on which they base their self-worth. If success shifts away from social skills like extroverted networking, those invested in social capital can feel threatened. So if you’re an extrovert who has built your entire life around looking cool, seeing an awkward nerd succeed would, from a well-founded psychological perspective, make you very nervous.

Anti-Nerd Bigotry Is Real

As you might expect, as the founder of sites like GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT, I’m something of a nerd. The more successful I’ve gotten, the more the extroverts who man the levers of power dislike me, and the harder they’ve worked to push me out. It’s not something unique to me; it’s something that happens to every introverted nerd in every industry and social corner. Ask them about it, and they’ll tell you.

It’s why educational research shows that introverted students are more likely to be ignored by teachers, receiving less attention and help, resulting in lower grades and fewer opportunities. It’s why data shows that extroverts are more likely to get favorable outcomes in court and even receive superior medical care. It’s why introverted nerds, on average, make 20% less than their extroverted counterparts, despite data showing they demonstrate superior competence at work.

Joss Whedon isn’t the only nerd to be cancelled over allegations like these. Pixar’s bespectacled, Hawaiian shirt-wearing John Lasseter was kicked out of Hollywood for giving a hug. Anyone seen Harry Knowles lately?

I’m not arguing here that Joss Whedon should be un-cancelled; he seems like a hypocritical jerk. Also, Harry Knowles always struck me as a sleaze; we’re probably better off without him. But if being unlikable is the baseline standard we’re setting for whether or not you’re allowed to work, then shouldn’t Woody Allen be locked up in a torture dungeon, instead of being celebrated as a genius?

Make it make sense. Until you do, I’m going to assume you hate nerds and respond by hating you right back. I’m also never going to celebrate anything by Roman Polanski. Sorry, Rosemary’s Baby.

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