Overthinking About Burnout

About this episode

The episode revisits a conversation about burnout and its evolving nature in modern life.

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 The girlboss hustle era may be less aspirational than it once was, but it’s been replaced by new flavors of exhaustion: constant digital overwhelm, economic anxiety, doomscrolling, and the strange pressure to be “healing” productively at all times.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…

People in this episode

Host: Amanda Montell

Guest: Amelia Nagoski

Topics covered

• burnout
• mental health
• stress response
• digital overwhelm
• economic anxiety

Keywords

• burnout
• stress cycle
• digital overwhelm
• economic anxiety
• healing

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Magical Overthinkers Club, Magical Overthinkers Substack

Products: The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality

Books & works: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

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