Magical Overthinkers
Are you an overthinker? Prone to thought spirals? Do you wonder why, despite living in the "Information Age," life only seems to be making less sense? From extreme celebrity worshippers to people with master’s degrees basing their real-life choices on Mercury’s whereabouts, there seems to be a lot of delulu out there these days. More than ever, in fact. Enter: This relatable, thought-provoking podcast for curious overthinkers. Every other week, tune in as host Amanda Montell, author of the New York Times bestselling book The Age of Magical Overthinking and host of the Sounds Like A Cult podcast, interviews a brilliant expert guest about a buzzy, confounding, anxiety-provoking topic. Think: narcissism, nostalgia, polyamory, social media comparison, "millennial cringe." Complete with heart-on-their-sleeve personal stories, thought-provoking conversations, and actionable takeaways for how chronically online listeners can get out of their own heads, this podcast is here to make some sense of the senseless. To help quiet the cacophony in our brains for a while. Or even hear a melody in it. For advertising opportunities please email PodcastPartnerships@Studio71us.com We wanna make the podcast even better, help us learn how we can: https://bit.ly/2EcYbu4 Privacy Policy: https://www.studio71.com/terms-and-conditions-use/#Privacy%20Policy
Episodes
June 25, 2025 • 53 mins
In an age where everyone has to have a hot take, how does this shape our inner voice? This week, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by journalist Fortesa Latifi (@hifortesa) to unpack the emotional weight of opinion overload: the pressure to react, post, and declare where we stand before we’ve even had a chance to feel what we feel. Together, they explore what it means to live in a world where silence is suspect, nuanc...
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June 11, 2025 • 55 mins
How much of who you are is really you—and how much is habit, circumstance, or a story you started telling yourself a long time ago? This week, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by journalist and author Olga Khazan (@olganator) to explore the strange, sticky concept of personality: where it comes from, why it feels so permanent, and whether we can actually change it. We touch on the appeal of personality frameworks lik...
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May 28, 2025 • 65 mins
Why do we, against all logic, evidence, and bank account balances, still kind of believe that billionaires earned it? This week on Magical Overthinkers, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) sits down with writer and cultural critic Dasia Sade (@dasiadoesit) to unravel the glittery, gaslight-y spell of billionaire worship in America: how it started, who profits from it, and what it’s doing to our collective sense of possibility (an...
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May 14, 2025 • 68 mins
What even is laziness? A moral failing? A personality flaw? Or just capitalism talking? In a culture obsessed with productivity and grindset mentality, the fear of being perceived as “lazy” runs deep—and it’s often weaponized against people who are overwhelmed, burnt out, or simply existing outside the hustle.To help us rethink laziness from a more philosophical (and compassionate) perspective, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell)...
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April 30, 2025 • 54 mins
Is intuition just a fancy word for guesswork, or is it a real, reliable tool we can actually trust? And if it is real, how do we tell the difference between genuine gut feelings and anxiety disguised as instinct? For a phenomenon that’s supposed to be effortless, intuition can spark a lot of magical overthinking. To help untangle it all, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by journalist and author Elizabeth Greenwood (@...
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April 16, 2025 • 61 mins
The decision to cut someone out of your life—whether a parent, a sibling, or a once-close friend—can feel both deeply necessary and impossibly fraught. But why does going no contact inspire so much shame, confusion, and second-guessing, especially when it’s often a tool for self-preservation? What does it really mean to choose absence over obligation?
In this episode, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by Jeanette Tra...
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April 2, 2025 • 44 mins
We live in an era where misinformation spreads faster than ever—shaping our beliefs, fueling our anxieties, and making it nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. Why are our brains so susceptible to false narratives even when we know better? How do we resist falling for this stuff? And also, where is the line separating misinformation from harmless ~lore~ anyway?
In this special episode, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montel...
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March 19, 2025 • 59 mins
Climate anxiety is nothing new, but lately, it feels like the volume has been cranked all the way up. Between record-breaking heat waves, apocalyptic air quality, and the general sense that our leaders are doing basically nothing to stop it, it’s hard not to spiral about the future of our planet. Are we completely doomed? Should we all be prepping for societal collapse? And how do we balance staying informed with not losing our min...
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March 5, 2025 • 60 mins
Weddings! They’re supposed to be the "happiest day of your life"... so why do they inspire so much stress, scrutiny, and existential dread? From the absurd cost to the vague standards of "tradition" to the social politics and not-so-subtly gendered pressure to make every detail deeply personal yet universally beloved, modern weddings are a minefield of overthinking. Should one cave to family expectations or take on the creative lab...
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February 19, 2025 • 62 mins
According to 2023 Pew Research, nearly half of social media users have been politically active on their platforms of choice in the last year. In an era when Instagram, TikTok, and the app formerly known as Twitter aren't just venues for brunch pics and cat memes but have turned into sites for collective action and grassroots organizing, social media activism has become a powerful tool... and a major source of internal conflict. Is ...
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February 5, 2025 • 63 mins
Is gossip just a petty pastime, or a tool to empower the marginalized? Or both? From ancient hearsay to celebrity blind items to the group chat’s hottest tea, gossip has always been a part of how humans connect, but why does it carry such a negative (gendered) reputation? Host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by journalist, novelist, and Normal Gossip creator Kelsey McKinney (@mckinneykelsey) to unravel the fascinating et...
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January 28, 2025 • 47 mins
Sharing another podcast we can’t get enough of: Your Mama’s Kitchen. It’s a show about
cuisine and culture, ingredients and identities, and the meals and memories
that make us who we are. Host Michele Norris talks to Michelle Obama, Glennon
Doyle, José Andrés and so many other guests about the complexities of family
life and how their earliest culinary experiences helped shape their personal
and professional lives. And of course, e...
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January 22, 2025 • 71 mins
Delicate does not even begin to describe this week's topic, and we're so thankful for the vulnerable thought spirals listeners submitted for discussion. The concept of fertility is often surrounded by an overwhelming mix of mystery, pressure, shame, fear, and misinformation—and, if you're fortunate to find it, hope and solidarity, too. From decoding hormones to navigating the emotional and societal complexities of "trying" (or choo...
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January 8, 2025 • 59 mins
Why do some of us feel the overwhelming urge to say yes, smooth things over, and keep everyone around us happy—even at our own expense? And why does it sometimes feel... kind of manipulative? Is people pleasing just kindness in overdrive, or is there something deeper (or even darker) at work? Host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) invites author, former therapist, and self-proclaimed sociopath Patric Gagne (@patricgagne) to untangle...
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December 11, 2024 • 69 mins
Have you ever scrolled through LinkedIn or Instagram, and someone you know—a peer, an ex-coworker, a high school nemesis—just landed a dream job, got a promotion, or launched a project. And with one post, which objectively has little to do with you, that sinking sour feeling of career jealousy sends you into a self-worth spiral. Is career jealousy inevitable in the age of curated success stories? And is it something we can overcome...
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November 27, 2024 • 67 mins
Making friends as an adult can be confusing, awkward, and—let's be real—embarrassingly hard. Why is it that something that came so naturally on the playground feels like pulling teeth now? Is it just a symptom of getting older and more curmudgeonly, or does it reveal something deeper about our culture, our priorities, and even our fears? To help us untangle the magical overthinking of adult friendships, host Amanda Montell (@amanda...
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November 13, 2024 • 67 mins
What could be more ripe for thought spirals than the concept of tiny, invisible poisons secretly lurking in our food, clothes, and the air we breathe? With such mystery, misinformation, and conspiracy surrounding "toxins"—everything from forever chemicals in our sparkling water to carcinogens in our skincare—it's impossible not to overthink about them. To help soothe our noxious spiraling on the subject, we're pleased to welcome a ...
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October 30, 2024 • 56 mins
Big question: Is life in the ever-disembodied digital era changing our attitudes toward death? Already, Americans' relationship to mortality is terribly distant—but how do phenomena like social media, the brandification of the apocalypse, and technology-assisted modes of "cheating death" further widen that divide? Just in time for Halloween, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by a personal idol of hers, Sloane Crosley,...
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October 16, 2024 • 61 mins
Is it just us, or do thought spirals about the forthcoming American presidential election seem to hum in the background of nearly every quotidien conversation these days? When asked to submit their overthinkiest thoughts on the matter, listeners had lots to say: Is it wrong to feel hope? Is it wrong to feel fatalistic? Would a Kamala Harris win provoke civil war? Why are we still tolerating the two-party system? How can we communic...
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October 2, 2024 • 63 mins
At the opening assembly of host Amanda Montell's Baltimore public arts high school, whose student body featured a wide range of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, the vice principal gave an address that encouraged everyone listening to "have grit." No matter what you're going through at school or at home, in the face of adversity, keep your nose down and your chin up. Be resilient. This always stuck out as a complicated piece of...
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