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 the messy knot of motives behind people pleasing. With the help of listener-submitted thought spirals, they explore the fine line between compassion and control, the traumas that might fuel this behavior, and how to rid your life of "pathological over-accommodation" once and for all.    

Further Reading: Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne 

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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? Host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by seasoned HR expert Daniel Space (@danfromhr) to break down this all-too-relatable phenomenon, offering both practical advice and thought-provoking insights on managing career FOMO and reclaiming your own unique path.

Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://Zocdoc.com/MAGICAL to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

Head over to https://Masterclass.com/MAGICAL for the current offer, up to 50% off.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

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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_montell) is joined by Anna Goldfarb (@annagoldfarb), journalist and author of Modern Friendship. Together, they discuss why so many grown-ups feel friendless and what we can do to bounce back in a time when community is more important than ever. *Sends “friendship calendar invite.”

Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://Zocdoc.com/MAGICAL to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

Head over to https://Masterclass.com/MAGICAL for the current offer, up to 50% off.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, DM, email, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkers 

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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 very special guest Dr. Denise Montell, a cancer researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara and host Amanda's (@amanda_montell) very own mother. Mother Montell joins the pod to answer a plethora of unfiltered, listener-submitted questions on the relationship between our bodies and the environment, and what we can do to limit our "toxic" exposure while protecting our precious mental health.

Get an additional 15% off any annual membership at https://masterclass.com/MAGICAL

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

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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, New York Times-bestselling author of several books including the recent memoir Grief Is for People, for the ultimate magical overthinker's discussion of death in the Information Age.  

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/MAGICAL and get on your way to being your best self.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, DM, email, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkers 

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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 communicate with our family members who plan to vote differently or not at all? Are we screwed either way? Do we need to move to Canada? To help dial down the temperature on our election-centric magical overthinking, host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by former Obama speechwriter, Crooked Media co-founder, and host of the podcasts Pod Save America and Offline, Jon Favreau (@jfavs). Further Reading: How Trump Could Ban Abortion 

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Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://Zocdoc.com/MAGICAL to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

- To access early, ad-free episodes and more, subscribe to the Magical Overthinkers Substack.

- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

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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 one-size-fits-all advice. In our ever-complicating society, as we increasingly center critiques of systemic injustice and legitimize mental health discourse, how is our relationship to "resilience" changing? Journalist Soraya Chemaly (@sorayachemaly), author of The Resilience Myth, joins Amanda (@amanda_montell) to help us better understand the concepts of grit, optimism, and the not-infrequent desire to just give up all "resilience" and break down.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/MAGICAL and get on your way to being your best self.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

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It's more than side parts, skinny jeans, and the way you make a heart symbol with your hands—"millennial cringe" is the breed of shame exclusive to a generation that had about .0001 seconds of glory in between their status as entitled babies and out-of-touch olds. But is the cross-generational roast of adults who suck at #adulting, those born roughly between 1982 and 1997, just garden-variety ageism, or is the millennial plight more profound than that? Host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by the brilliant high priestess of millennial culture, Kate Kennedy (@katekennedy)—host of the Be There In Five podcast and author of "One in a Millennial"—to unpack these Lisa Frank-tinted thought spirals. 

Go to https://Zocdoc.com/MAGICAL to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today.

Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at https://Shopify.com/magical (all lowercase)

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/MAGICAL and get on your way to being your best self.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

- To access early, ad-free episodes and more, subscribe to the Magical Overthinkers Substack.

- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, DM, email, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkers 

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When life here on earth feels painful, we often look to the sky for comfort, answers, and escapism. Thinking about what’s out there can inspire so many forms of magical overthinking: awe, fantasy, paranoia, religiosity, even UFO conspiracy theories. This week’s thought spirals take us away from our planet’s problems and into outer space. There, we’re joined by astrophysicist and folklorist, Dr. Moiya McTier (@goastromo), who’s indulging host Amanda Montell’s (@amanda_montell) overthinkiest questions about aliens, deep space, science fiction, and how pondering the cosmos might actually be a cure for some of the digital age’s most frustrating irrationalities.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, DM, email, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkers 

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Before the internet, getting lost in a spiral of romantic, obsessive feelings for someone was already an all-consuming experience… but now? With algorithmic dating apps and the ability to overanalyze everyone watching your Instagram Stories, crushes in the digital age are ripe for delulu. In some cases, they might even pose a threat to IRL human connection. This week on the pod, OCD specialist Alegra Kastens (@alegrakastens) joins host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) for an open-hearted, all-too-relatable discussion of limerence, neurodivergence, and how crushes have combined with the social media era to produce a perfectly chaotic cocktail of magical overthinking.

- Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers.

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- Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.

- Sources:

What causes a crush to develop? - bit.ly/3Z0G4SC

Is it a crush or have you fallen into limerence? - nyti.ms/3WS2KSB

Why your internet crush can be stronger than your in-person feelings - bit.ly/3WWRIv9

Office crushes can be fun and excruciating - bit.ly/4dUhvvc

Why crushes are so common, and healthy, at all ages - bit.ly/3Xc1fzT

To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkersYouTube ; Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening

If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, DM, email, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/MagicalOverthinkers 

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