Above: The 2nd talk in the Library’s new, free series features Amanda Montell. (images cropped from event promo and flyer)
This week, the Southborough Library will offer the second live session in its new virtual series of author talks. The event this Thursday afternoon will focus on “Modern Irrationality”.
Bestselling Author Amanda Montell will talk about her latest book and answer questions from online participants.
Montell is an award-winning podcaster and author of Cultish. Her newest book is “The Age of Magical Overthinking”. Her talk will take place on Thursday, January 23rd, at 2:00 pm. Series producers promote:
In a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.
“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.
In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the “sunk cost fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.
The Library’s new series features 2-3 talks per month with bestselling, award-winning, and highly acclaimed authors from around the world. The featured writers and thought leaders will cover a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. As I previously posted, it also allows access to over 75 previously recorded talks.
As with all library events, participation is free to the public.* Anyone can take advantage of the opportunity, but registration is required for the live talks.
The series will feature 2-3 live events per month. If you can’t make the live events, you can still watch the recordings afterwards, which will be added to the existing library of streaming videos.
To sign up, click here.
This free series is made possible by a supporting grant from the Southborough Community Fund, a fund of the Community Foundation for MetroWest. If you haven’t already, you can mark your calendar for seven more scheduled through March:
- Tuesday, January 28th at 1:00pm – An Inside Look at Working with a Literary Agent: A Conversation with Seth Fishman
- Tuesday, February 4th at 2:00 pm – How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs with Smithsonian Curator Sabrina Sholts
- Tuesday, February 11th at 7:00 pm – Dystopian Tropes from an Indigenous Perspective: In Conversation with Waubgeshig Rice
- Tuesday, February 18th at 2:00 pm – I Am Nobody’s Slave: An Author Talk with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Lee Hawkins
- Wednesday, March 12th at 2:00 pm – Power of Reset and How to Change What’s Not Working with Author Dan Heath
- Thursday, March 20th at 2:00 pm – How Women’s Liberation Transformed America: In Conversation with Clara Bingham
- Wednesday, March 26th at 7:00 pm – Dreams We Chase: An Author Talk with Novelist Jennifer Weiner
For more information or to register for any of the author talks, visit bit.ly/sbliblsc. (You can also read more in my prior post here.)
