Amanda Montell

About

Nonfiction author, linguist, podcaster, and speaker known for her books Wordslut, Cultish, and The Age of Magical Overthinking. She is also known for her Instagram account @amanda_montell and her YouTube channel Sounds Like A Cult & Magical Overthinkers where she shares podcast episodes, author content, interviews, book updates, and commentary.

Before fame

She earned a degree in linguistics from New York University and worked as a writer and editor before becoming widely known as an author. She published her debut nonfiction book Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language in 2019. Her major breakthrough came with Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism which was released in 2021 and became a New York Times bestseller.

Trivia

She created and has hosted the podcast Sounds Like a Cult which premiered in June 2021 and won the 2023 iHeartRadio Award for Best Emerging Podcast. She has also hosted Magical Overthinkers which is a podcast based on her book The Age of Magical Overthinking and launched in May 2024. She has appeared in documentary series including Netflix's How to Become a Cult Leader, Vice TV's True Believers, and HBO's Breath of Fire.

Family life

She was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland before eventually moving to Los Angeles, California. Her book Cultish was partly inspired by her family history and she has written about her father's experience growing up in the 1970s-era cult Synanon.

Associated with

She received praise for Cultish from Molly Ringwald. She also received praise for Wordslut from Whitney Cummings and Joey Soloway.