Virtual Author Visit with Amanda Montell

Notes on Modern Irrationality with Bestselling Author Amanda Montell

Join us as we chat with the New York Times bestselling author Amanda Montell about her new book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality. “Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world. In all its forms, magical thinking attempts to restore agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that, in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded. Montell delves into the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “halo effect” cultivates worship of celebrities to how the “sunk cost fallacy” can keep us in dysfunctional relationships. Her message is one of hope, empathy and forgiveness for our anxiety-laden selves. 

Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist from Baltimore. She is the author of the books Wordslut, Cultish and The Age of Magical Overthinking. She is a host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles with her partner, her plants and her pets. 

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