Photo by Kaitlyn Mikayla
(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Author-podcaster Amanda Montell's acute, wry perception of humanity's fine points and foibles has ever-growing audiences of listeners and readers clamoring for more. If the world at large is making ever-decreasing sense to you, join the New York Times bestselling writer for her Ocean County Library Virtual Author Talk on Thursday, January 23, 2025. The event begins at 2:00pm.
The Age of Magical Thinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, available in print, audiobook and digital versions at the Ocean County Library, probes the upsides and downsides of the human mind’s cognitive biases. She builds on her premise of “magical thinking,” the belief that one’s inner thoughts can create positive impacts on the external world, suggesting that in the revved-up information age our brains are oversaturated, and irrationality has shifted into overdrive.
With empathy and hope, keen observations and cunning wit, Amanda explores the exaltation of celebrities through the “halo effect,” how the “sunk cost fallacy” detours failed relationships from their end points, and many more unexpected outgrowths of our reasoning processes.
The Californian’s previous works, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism and Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, are also available at OCL. Amanda’s work has won plaudits from NPR and publications including The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews and The Economist. Her podcast Sounds Like a Cult has earned awards from iHeart Radio, Marie Claire, Vulture and Esquire.
Please register at https://libraryc.org/theoceancountylibrary to attend this free program, to view the upcoming schedule, and to view previous talks. Registrants will receive links to the program by email and may submit questions for the author during signup.
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