Best Amanda Montell Podcasts (2024)

1
Why We Overthink (Amanda Montell) 47:10

2h ago47:10

47:10

“Those of us growing up in consumerist society, when confronted with a problem, our tendency is to add a whole bunch of cumbersome variables to the equation. So, if we're experiencing pain in our relationship, I'll speak for myself, every time we were really, really suffering and not doing well. It did not occur to me once to break up. I was like, …

1
Ian Karmel & Dr. Alisa Karmel, Zainab Johnson, and Meklit 52:24

12m ago52:24

52:24

Comedian and writer Ian Karmel pairs up with his sister Dr. Alisa Karmel to unpack the book they co-authored T-Shirt Swim Club, about growing up fat in a world made for thin people; stand-up comedian Zainab Johnson riffs on being one of 13 children; and Ethio-jazz artist Meklit performs the title track off her new EP "Ethio Blue." Plus, host Luke B…

1
The Upper Limit Problem (Katie Hendricks, PhD) 55:44

4d ago55:44

55:44

“The whole sense though, of the Upper Limit Problem, is instead of feeling good and then feeling bad, which is how we think it's supposed to work. You know, you feel bad, you feel good, and then you forget to go to your yoga class and then you start eating things that aren't good for you. And pretty soon, you know, you're off binging and you know, …

1
Overthinking About Crushes 1:00:23

1d ago1:00:23

1:00:23

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 co…

1
Sloane Crosley, Roz Chast, and Black Belt Eagle Scout (REBROADCAST) 52:26

4d ago52:26

52:26

Writer Sloane Crosley unpacks loss in her memoir, Grief is for People, which poignantly weaves the suicide of a dear friend with the burglary of her home; The New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast shares some of her weirdest dreams from her new illustrated book, I Must Be Dreaming, including meeting Fran Lebowitz… on roller skates; and indie rocker Black…

1
OCD Is An Earthquake In The Brain with Stephen Smith 57:15

4d ago57:15

57:15

Stephen Smith, co-founder of the teletherapy platform NOCD, joins us to share his lived experience with OCD (sexual obsessions, relationship obsessions, and more) that fueled him to create a a virtual therapy platform specializing in the treatment of OCD. Like many, Stephen did months of general talk therapy with a therapist who didn’t understand O…

1
The Cult of Twin Flames 1:09:54

2h ago1:09:54

1:09:54

New Age love & wellness influencers turned baby NXIVM: That's kinda the best way we can succinctly describe this week’s cult, Twin Flames Universe, one of the most chilling groups we’ve discussed on the pod thus far. Several months ago, Twin Flames survivor Jessi Hersey, whom you might recognize from the “Escaping Twin Flames” doc on Netflix, slid …

1
Noé Álvarez, Naomi Fitter with Jon the Robot, and John Craigie 52:30

5d ago52:30

52:30

Writer Noé Álvarez traces his family lineage through the history of the accordion in his latest book Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico; professor of engineering Naomi Fitter introduces us to Jon, a stand-up comedian robot she developed who riffs on the dating life of a bot; and singer-songwriter John Craigie explains the …

1
Being Better Leaders (Jerry Colonna) 53:54

5d ago53:54

53:54

“Human beings trigger other human beings, right? My teacher and friend, Parker Palmer, likes to say, riffing on Socrates, "the unexamined life may not be worth living," but if you choose to live an unexamined life, please don't take a job that involves other people, right? And in classic Midwestern Wisconsin brilliance, Parker's got it, I mean, bec…

1
Healing from CPTSD with Stephanie Foo 52:21

6d ago52:21

52:21

Stephanie Foo, author of the New York Times bestseller What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, brought CPTSD to the forefront of mental health care. She joins us to talk about her healing journey, what CPTSD recovery means to her, emotional flashbacks, the painstaking search for a therapist, “the dread”, and more.This podcast i…

1
Overthinking About Celebrity Worship 1:01:08

8d ago1:01:08

1:01:08

From Taylor Swift's "Lavendergate" scandal to One Direction conspiracy theories colonizing adolescents' personalities, celebrity fandom appears more hallucinatory and brutal now than ever before... or are we overthinking it? A few stats about celebrity worship have been confirmed: In 2019, a Japanese study found that ~30 percent of adolescents aspi…

1
The Cult of Mission Trips 1:08:11

7d ago1:08:11

1:08:11

Pack your hammer and your lack of cultural awareness, because this week on Sounds Like A Cult, we're interviewing Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist, mission trip devotee, and survivor of church-sanctioned domestic violence. Tia is also the author of the brand new memoir A Well-Trained Wife. She joins to discuss the ever-so-common culty…

1
Friendship Breakups: Right or Wrong? 41:13

10d ago41:13

41:13

Get Tickets to Isa Medina's Live Comedy Show in NYC August 24th! Click Here! Follow Isa on Instagram to keep up with her upcoming comedy shows! Subscribe to Isa's new podcast I'm Right You're Wrong on Spotify or Apple! If you want to support Isa's new podcast subscribe above, listen or watch the full episodes at the I'm Right You're Wrong Podcast P…

1
Dave Hill and No-No Boy (REBROADCAST) 52:32

18d ago52:32

52:32

Comedian and writer Dave Hill dives into his newest book The Awesome Game, which makes the case for why hockey should be more popular in the United States, then tries his hand at the surprisingly popular genre of "hockey romance" novels; and singer-songwriter No-No Boy performs "Western Empress" from his latest album Empire Electric, which tells th…

1
Staying with Discomfort (Thomas Hübl) 54:53

12d ago54:53

54:53

“Many of us needed to suppress anger. And what you feel in your throat is an intelligent mechanism to suppress the intensity because it threatened the belonging, most probably the original family. And so when we say, oh, it's not that I cannot experience my anger, it was intelligent to suppress it at certain moments in my development or my life, to…

1
The Cult of Conservative Youth Activism 1:16:39

14d ago1:16:39

1:16:39

Oops a politically flavored episode of Sounds Like A Cult!!!!! Would you believe it if we told you we recorded this nearly SIX MONTHS AGO and just crossed our fingers it would resonate whenever it ended up going live??? This week, host Amanda is joined by Puck reporter and former MAGA youth recruit, Tina Nguyen, author of the 2024 memoir The MAGA D…

1
Really Hearing Our Own Voices (Carol Gilligan): GROWING UP 54:17

16d ago54:17

54:17

“What I became aware of when I started writing about resistance, and I thought, the healthy body resists infection. We have an immune system. And the healthy psyche resists a culture that's going to infect us psychologically, that's going to keep us from basically being able to function psychologically. And what I realized is that there is, I mean,…

1
Amanda Montell, Laurie Kilmartin, and Lizzie No 52:27

18d ago52:27

52:27

Writer and podcaster Amanda Montell (Sounds Like a Cult) unpacks her new book The Age of Magical Overthinking, which looks at our cognitive biases, like why some of us worship celebrities or believe in the power of manifestation; stand-up comedian Laurie Kilmartin gets stoked about her son going to college, so she can start dating again; and singer…

1
Finding Shadow in the Body (Thomas Hübl) 53:28

20d ago53:28

53:28

“I often ask, ‘so how beautiful are you when you need something?’ I call this the beauty of needs. And it's amazing how many of us don't feel beautiful at all when we need something. Like all kinds of other things come up: I'm needy, I feel ashamed, I feel young, I feel afraid, I feel whatever, I feel ugly. Sometimes a hundred people raise their ha…

1
Brain on Fire with Susannah Cahalan 1:14:56

21d ago1:14:56

1:14:56

Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire, joins the Lobotomommies today! She talks the doctor who saved her life, the importance of holistic mental health care, physiological causes of mental health conditions, and more. As the 217th person to be diagnosed with anti-NDMA receptor autoimmune encephalitis, naturally esc…

1
Overthinking About Layoffs 1:01:35

1M ago1:01:35

1:01:35

When the work-specific euphemism "layoff" was first coined in the 19th century, it indicated "respite" or "relaxation." But layoffs in 2024 are anything but. It's almost impossible not to spiral after getting "let go," "phased out," "reduced in force." In a culture that makes hiring and company culture extremely personal, being laid off out of nowh…

1
The Cult of Wine Moms 58:33

1M ago58:33

58:33

Learn more about host Amanda's Italian writing "cult" ;) It's a Live Your Life!!! https://trovatrip.com/trip/europe/italy/italy-with-amanda-montell-oct-2024 If you’ve ever seen a suburban lady wearing a tee shirt that reads, “I wine because he whines” or “I’m not a normal mom, I’m a wine mom,” then you have likely born witness to a follower of this…

1
Signs of High Intuition (Carissa Schumacher): GROWING UP 1:31:01

1M ago1:31:01

1:31:01

“When you have a feeling, you can recognize when it's a feeling, when it's a knowing, a lot of knowers, especially automatic channel writers, are like, did I write this? Was I channeling? Did Mary Magdalene write that, you know, where is this coming from? And so they do have the tendency, knowers, to really second guess themselves some of the time …

1
Avery Trufelman, Camille Dungy, and Olive Klug (REBROADCAST) 52:21

1M ago52:21

52:21

Podcaster Avery Trufelman unpacks her podcast Articles of Interest, in which she reveals the history behind fashion and clothing, including prison uniforms and the debate over pockets; author Camille Dungy discusses her latest book Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, which chronicles her attempts to diversify her garden in the predominately…

1
The Life-Saving Power of Friendship (Mark Nepo) 45:55

28d ago45:55

45:55

“The real meaning of ‘remember’ is to put the members back together, to make whole. So a lot of times we go back in time to a special time or a special moment and nostalgia is wanting to go back there, as if there's something there that we lost. And the true value of memory is to touch that moment and see where it lives or is dormant in me or you n…

1
Surviving Suicide with Chrissie Hodges 1:03:38

1M ago1:03:38

1:03:38

In part two of this discussion, Chrissie opens up about her suicide attempt that led to her hospitalization and OCD diagnosis. She also shares her OCD treatment experience utilizing Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and recovery journey.This podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, affordable, and convenient OCD therapy. Schedu…

1
The Cult of Hollywood 55:41

28d ago55:41

55:41

From TV executives abusing kids on sets to Scientology's "Celebrity Center," the cult of the entertainment business can getcha from about 6,000 different angles. After all, what other mainstream American industry is glamorized and lusted-after to this extreme degree, only to betray its most successful acolytes with financial and physical exploitati…

1
Botox & Filler: Right or Wrong? 49:18

28d ago49:18

49:18

Listen to Isa's new podcast: I'm Right You're Wrong! Isa is the co-creator and former host of Sounds Like A Cult<3 Click here to Subscribe/Listen on Spotify Podcasts Click here to Subscribe/Listen on Apple Podcasts Botox & Filler: Right or Wrong? Does getting botox and filler contribute to unjust beauty standards? Or are women literally not allowed…

1
The Long-Term Implications of Sleep (Harvey Karp, M.D.): GROWING UP 54:20

1M ago54:20

54:20

“I remember a wonderful psychologist was talking about, we shouldn't, should on ourselves. Don't should on yourself. And it's all of what I should do. And there's a big lie for new moms, which is that when the baby is born, you should take care of the baby. You're the best person. You're the mother. There's no one else who's going to take care of y…

1
Hanif Abdurraqib and Kristin Hersh 52:31

1M ago52:31

52:31

Critically acclaimed writer Hanif Abdurraqib unpacks his latest book, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, in which he explores his lifelong love of the game and what it means to make it; singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses discusses her new book The Future of Songwriting, where she considers how to be an artist in a…

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Amanda Montell Podcasts

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