From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking. Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet. “Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring 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, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven. In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
Add to your library to track progress and write reviews
Find The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality Amanda Montell in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
3 books in catalog
Nonfiction books examining pop linguistics, cognitive biases, and cultish social behaviors have reshaped how modern readers understand the relationship between everyday language and human psychology. Amanda Montell is an author and linguist whose work dissects the hidden power dynamics of speech in books like Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. Her writing explores how subtle linguistic cues and shared vocabularies shape group identity, modern belief systems, and social influence across digital and offline spaces.
Born on February 16, 1992, in Baltimore, Maryland, Montell earned her degree from New York University before working as a beauty writer and editor. She later transitioned into pop linguistics and cultural commentary as a full-time author and media creator. Her prose and reporting have appeared in outlets such as The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian, Esquire, and Harper's Bazaar. In addition to writing books, she co-created and hosted the podcast Sounds Like A Cult and created Magical Overthinkers, shows that have garnered over 40 million downloads and earned accolades including a Webby Award and an iHeartRadio Podcast Award.
Montell blends sociolinguistic research, behavioral psychology, and personal anecdotes to analyze how language reflects and reinforces societal structures. Her work focuses on female-oriented speech patterns, language bias, high-demand group jargon, and common cognitive illusions that prompt irrational thinking in modern life. By combining academic research with accessible cultural critique, she helps readers identify the psychological mechanisms and subtle speech choices that influence everyday human behavior.
