Overthinking About Burnout

Magical Overthinkers

Amanda Montell & Studio71

Education, Science, Society & Culture

4.3 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When we first aired this episode in 2024, burnout felt like the defining emotional state of modern life. Two years later… honestly, not much has improved. If anything, burnout has shape-shifted. The girlboss hustle era may be less aspirational than it once was, but it’s been replaced by new flavors of exhaustion: constant digital overwhelm, economic anxiety, doomscrolling, and the strange pressure to be “healing” productively at all times. So this week, we’re revisiting Amanda’s conversation with the brilliant Amelia Nagoski (@burnoutbookgroup), co-author of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, for a much-needed refresher on what burnout actually is. Together, they unpack what happens when our bodies get stuck in an incomplete stress response cycle, why modern life keeps us there, and what it actually takes to start feeling better. If you’re emotionally fried, physically depleted, or somehow both overstimulated and numb, this one’s for you. We’ll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode.Further Reading: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA - Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers. - To access early, ad-free episodes and more, subscribe to the Magical Overthinkers Substack. - Pick up Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook.Thanks to our Sponsors: If your glasses are overdue for a refresh, now is the time. Use code PODCAST15 for 15% off your first order at ⁠bit.ly/3OdtU5X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Even in 2026, somehow getting new glasses can be such a production. It's so inconvenient.
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0:39.5	promo code, podcast 15. Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money, because behind
0:47.8	every headline is a bottom line. Whether it's the funds-fueling AI or crypto's trillion- dollar swings, there's a money side to every story.
0:57.9	And when you see the money side, you understand what others miss.
1:02.4	Get the money side of the story.
1:04.4	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
1:24.5	Welcome to the magical overthinkers podcast, a show for thought spirulers, exploring the subjects we can't stop overthinking about, from imposter syndrome to nostalgia.
1:29.1	If you can relate to the feeling that despite living in the information age,
1:34.4	the world only seems to be making less sense, if you can connect to the idea that for some mysterious reason, it just feels especially hard to exist as a human in the world right now,
1:39.9	then you're in the right place. This podcast is here to take down the temperature on this
1:45.0	especially mentally overwhelming time in history to help us think less about the things that
1:50.6	don't matter and more about the things that do. I'm your host, Amanda Montpel. Today, we're
1:55.9	overthinking about burnout. I don't know about you, but until a couple of years ago, I had the impression that
2:06.6	feeling burnt out just meant being really, really tired.
2:10.6	I pictured the image of the flicker of a candle being snuffed out.
2:14.6	Burnout just meant you needed a really long nap. I thought the meaning
2:18.8	of the word was how it sounded. You were just spent like a fire in the fireplace that nobody
2:23.6	tended to. And I thought, well, if being burnt out is just feeling tired, then I must not be
2:28.6	burnt out because I don't feel tired. I feel wired. Turns out when I'm exhausted, I feel that sort of empty buzzing
	...

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