Sign up here: Notes on Modern Irrationality with Bestselling Author Amanda Montell

Writer, linguist, and podcaster Amanda Montell is a whip-smart cultural commentator with a knack for seeing and explaining the zeitgeist as it takes shape around us. Known for her phenomenal breakout bestseller Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, the critical darling Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, and her hit podcast Sounds Like a Cult, she writes about Virginia Woolf and spray-tanning with equal verve—and she’ll make you laugh while doing it.

Her newest novel The Age of Magical Overthinking is penned with journalistic rigor and personal storytelling that is refreshingly unguarded and laugh-out-loud funny. It's a genre-bending exploration of modern malaise—equal parts social science investigation and cultural critique. As she explores our collective irrationalities, Montell also grapples with her own magical overthinking. Readers will emerge with a sense of solidarity with our fellow flawed humans—cognitive biases spare no one— and a feeling that life makes just a little more sense now.