Fresh Air host Tonya Mosley talks to Amanda Montell about the contents of her new book in the interview 'Magical Overthinking' author says information overload can stroke irrational thoughts. The interview is very interesting for advanced language learners and teachers, the vocabulary is very rich so it is recommended for C2 students and Experts, although there is also a script available which could be most useful for C1 learners. In the interview you will come across interesting words like: gluttonous, [cognitive] dissonance, to square, confirmation bias, sunk-cost fallacy, to fulfill, to serve [me], to double down [on something], to stick around, to engineer, zeitgeist, clash, cognitive bias, deep-rooted,
a [mental] trick, [a term] was coined, a saber-toothed tiger, [existential] pain, innate, onslaught [of information], to catch up with, to overthink, to underthink, worldly, nurturing, to align with [our political beliefs], to jump to the conclusion, gregarious, a role model, the halo effect, to prompt [us to do something], disfigurement, parasocial [relationships], to set [everyone] up for [failure], to uplift, to mend, to dethrone [them], a fallible [human being], [parent-child] attachment, superfan [relationship], to trace [something back to the early 1980s], to turn out, [the lines] to blur, an outsider, a [new] paragon, to swerve, the stan, to long [for role models], ruthless, a surrogate mother, a slim [margin of error], to be transfixed, to crack [my world open], a malapropism, to cut my teeth [as a writer], a crash course in [feminist sociolinguistics], it is our penchant [to think], lore, ad nauseam, low-stakes, a factoid, a double-edged sword, nefarious [intentions], a buzzword, manifest, healing wounds, to dovetail, a stock [of expressions], a grifter, to put dissonance to bed, a mindset, an edgy [point], to boil down to, a bunch of, random, a misfortune, over-the-top, freak, to crave, to hold accountable, the outcome, sketchy, grifty, culty, gainfully, bespoke, vernacular, an op-ed, doomslang, numb, doomscrolling, bed-rotting, demise, small talk, blasé, doomy, grounded, detrimental, screech owls, doomsayers, the rapture, ennui, harrowing, a coping [mechanism], to get through, grassroots, to reckon with [something], wisdom, daydreaming, overthinky panic, awe, quaint, [brains] are wired for, DIY, easier said than done, a disorder, the attention span, to shrink, to scroll [through her feed], zero-sum [bias], to clock, stiff [competition], clout, nemesis, aka, a compound, haywire, to indoctrinate, chills, a tenet, a kink, sunk-cost, MAGA, a zealot, blackout, to cling to [something], a glut [of something], tradwives, anemoia, hardcore, a back-to-basics [style], cottagecore, tchotchkes, toadstool, delulu, to be soothed, a backfire [effect], doomed, verbatim, declinism, to stomach.
Although Amanda Montell is a very young author and a podcaster, she has a long, successful experience as a feminist sociolinguist and producing audiovisual content for young people. Here you can find a link to one of her earliest video series "The Dirty Word" -when she was "finding her voice" in YouTube- it is called "I hate the word "PANTIES_THE DIRTY WORD", and below you can watch a short video (3:51) of herself with the podcasters "The Minimalists", where she feels cutely embarrassed and laughs out loud when they remind her of that "cringy" video about language and gender: