How to pronounce “amanda” in English

I'm very excited to introduce today's guest, Amanda Montell, whose book "The Age of Magical Overthinking" I recently finished.Amanda is a writer and linguist from Baltimore, who, in addition to her most recent New York Times bestseller, has also authored the books "Word Slut" and "Cultish."Additionally, she is the host of two fantastic podcasts, "Sounds Like a Cult" and "Magical Overthinkers." Amanda's prevailing message about magical overthinking

And that is why I am so thrilled for her to join us today.Amanda Montell, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the "Talks At Google." Thank you so much for having me.Also, Natalie, I have to tell you, I don't know if you noticed this, but when you held up the book, it was upside down--

like, say, me, who's a little less comfortable promoting tons of stuff left and right.Amanda just wants to drop a note of appreciation to you.

Now I'd like to introduce Amanda Martinez.Amanda Martinez is a Canadian singer-songwriter of Mexican and South African descent whose music is an original blend of influences from her roots.She has released four albums, and her latest recording "Libre" is her most eclectic creation to date.

Career highlights include headlining the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and the Pan American Games in Mexico and Canada.Amanda has also been recognized as the best world music artist at the Toronto Independent Music Awards and was awarded as one of the top 10most influential Hispanic Canadians by the Hispanic Congress.

Amanda, thank you so much for that wonderful performance.I've been a fan of yours for many years, and you never disappoint.

Today, I'm thrilled to have Amanda Nguyen, the CEO and Founder of Rise, a national non-profit working to protect civil rights of sexual assault survivors.Amanda was the power behind the Sexual Assault Survivors Rights Act, the 21st bill in modern US history to pass unanimously through Congress.The law overhauls the way that rape kits a processed within the United States and creates a bill of rights for victims.

Hello, everyone. And thank you so much for having me.Amanda, thanks so much for being with us today.I know that in the past, pre-COVID days, you were on the speaker circuit quite a bit.

And she sat with me.Amanda? I literally like slank-- is that a word?

It takes nothing for me to get rolling.Amanda goes right for the truth of the food, you know?

about a potential match, and a curated community of ambitious singles who desire an equally driven partner.Amanda previously worked in technical roles at both Salesforce and Google and holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BS in information systemsfrom Carnegie Mellon. It's a great pleasure for us to have Amanda here with us today.

That's an admirable trait.Amanda, what are you playing?

That's an admirable trait.Amanda? It's on the page, man.

My relationship, it started with the mirror, I have to say.-Amanda come on in.

office, and the principal delivered a lecture that I would absolutely kill to have a recording of just to be able to use the line, "You think you're so special,Amanda, but you're not actually special" in my techno remix of 'Creep' by Radiohead.As I moved through my life as a street-performing statue and later as a musician, I started to understand something-- there's

And actually when I was in New York about a week ago, my guest was Brandon Stanton.Amanda Palmer, who just know me as a person.

office, and the principal delivered a lecture that I would absolutely kill to have a recording of, just to be able to use the line, "You think you're so special,Amanda. But you're not actually special," in my techno remix of "Creep," by Radiohead.As I moved through my life as a street performing statue, and later, as a musician, I started to understand something.

Story ties back to the central theme.Amanda Palmer is a musician.

Totally excited about this.Amanda Alonzo: I think innovation is the ability to look at a problem or a question in a new way.

Presenter: So Amanda, thank you so much for being here.Amanda: Thanks for having me.Presenter: We're thrilled to have you. And we're, first of all, sorry that Merrill couldn't join us. I know she's off doing more important things than coming to Google.

Presenter: We're thrilled to have you. And we're, first of all, sorry that Merrill couldn't join us. I know she's off doing more important things than coming to Google.Amanda: Mostly just being very pregnant.Presenter: So I'm glad she didn't get caught up in the whole baby Beyonce debacle. She's still waiting it out and not -- good.

Presenter: So I'm glad she didn't get caught up in the whole baby Beyonce debacle. She's still waiting it out and not -- good.Amanda: She'll be at the hospital, thankfully Presenter: She'd be actually able to see her baby. That's a good thing. So Amanda canyou talk to us about how you got your start in food writing.

you talk to us about how you got your start in food writing.Amanda: Well, I started by cooking. I was in college studying finance and economics and I was, you know, kind of lost and so, started -- I did a study abroad at the LondonSchool of Economics and traveled around and had this sort of classic 'aha moment' that lots of Americans have the first time they travel in Europe which is like, “oh my God,

Presenter: This is how old I am. I was in college. I didn't even know what they were.Amanda: France had this crazy thing called Minitel. Do you know Minitel? Oh you know it. It was like Minitel and e-mail. That's prettymuch all we had. So I just started writing and sending pitches and I got lucky. My first story was in the Washington Post and then I got hired. And then I started writing a

Presenter: So it really just happened from you just deciding to write about something you were passionate about not really knowing you were a writer.Amanda: Exactly. You know when you want -- you need to express yourself in some way, writing was the form that sort of made sense then and I got some lucky breaks. So thenspent a lot of years kind of actually improving.

this move to the web, how did that happen? Or what sort of prompted that?Amanda: Boredom one. I mean, the thing is like because I didn't intend to become a writer, I don't think like I was necessarily like born to be a writer for the rest of my life.And you know I do think I had an entrepreneurial side which is why I studied finance and economics.

Presenter: Once you've acted with Meryl Streep, you're done.Amanda: Yeah, I sort of feel like I had the perfect acting career because I got a part. I ended up actually in the movie and then I never had to tryout again.Presenter: Find yourself. Amanda: Exactly. But so I -- I just thought like you know I could stay at the New York

Presenter: Right. So now when you started Food 52, was the intention just to do another startup because food is your background that's the natural place to land or.Amanda: We had a problem we wanted to solve and we decided to try to get at that solution with a very simple proof of concept. The problem we wanted to solve was that like, in the earlydays of the Internet, there were a couple of really good recipe databases started, all recipes dot com, Epicurius and the like. Something called Recipes Are, which is now food dot

Presenter: You were looking for something online that wasn't.Amanda: It was like too much. But then on the other side was this other interesting thing that was going on which, of course, was the explosion of food blogs. And the thingthat was interesting to us -- it was not like technology had allowed this mass of people to express themselves. Of course that is one aspect. But to us it

Presenter: So the goal was always to go back to print 37 so it was going to be crowd source out the recipes.Amanda: Print was sort of -- that was part of, but that wasn't our goal. Our goal was to build a business. We wanted to prove that our theory was right and there was a businessworth building. And so, we felt like if all we did was create a cookbook at the end of the year. And by the way the idea was to do it in 52 weeks. Which is why we're called

we'll talk about in a few minutes, then why put it back into book format.Amanda: Couple of reasons. One was like a business reason. Nobody is going to give us money to just build a site. Yes, we could do that, but I knew the issues involved withtrying to raise money to do something like that. Like, it would be better if we bootstrapped and then raised money later which is what we did. But the other -- the main reason with

etcetera. Presenter: And so, what will the second book be?Amanda: The second book? It will be another Food 52 cookbook.Presenter: So another in a year of recipes.

Presenter: So another in a year of recipes.Amanda: Yes. So technically we should have started our third book last September. And we decided instead to create an iPad app which I'll show you as well.Presenter: Okay. Great so what's your favorite recipe from the current book.

Presenter: Okay. Great so what's your favorite recipe from the current book.Amanda: I can't say. It's like choosing between your children.Presenter: I would totally choose between my kids. I only have one. One's got to be your favorite. One's kind of your favorite.

Presenter: I would totally choose between my kids. I only have one. One's got to be your favorite. One's kind of your favorite.Amanda: There's so many that I like. I'm just going to name one and I'm sure you know.I'll regret this later. But like fried chick peas. I love it because you take a can of chick peas and you drain it and you shallow fry it with sliced garlic, lemon zest and

That sounds good. And so, what recipe would you recommend for Googlers or New Yorkers to try in their tiny New York kitchens.Amanda: That's a perfect one.Presenter: Chick peas and a frying pan.

Presenter: Chick peas and a frying pan.Amanda: It's not -- you can shallow fry so you don't have to deep fry.Presenter: So you have some exciting new things coming up with all the apps and all that.

Presenter: So you have some exciting new things coming up with all the apps and all that.Amanda: I just want to show you what we're up to and all that.Presenter: I'll be of no help..

Presenter: I'll be of no help..Amanda: All right. So this is great. Come along. So this is our site. And I just want to give you kind of a quick tour on -- it's very curated. So most of the pictures thatyou're seeing here on the home page, we take. But they -- all of the recipes come from our community. So we launched our site with these contests. And then, we also created our own

Presenter: I'm going to start doing that though. I'm going to start calling you.Amanda: See, now we have hot line. So we created Food 52 Hotline and the idea is you can ask any food or cooking question. You can mark it as urgent. You -- and you can-- and the crowd answers. And so, the way it works is -- I just want to show you. So

Presenter: And it's even on Chrome so I can't even make it show.Amanda: I know. What is up? I was just on there. Look at the contests. They're great.You know, I don't know what else to say. But okay. So let's move on. Lastly, I want to show you an iPad. It's kind of like an app. It's kind of like a book. We did it

advantage to us. Presenter: It's really beautiful. Thank you. Looks really gorgeous. Are you going to be doing anything for Android? Will you be moving to Android?Amanda: Probably. Not yet.Yeah. Presenter: So what's next.

Yeah. Presenter: So what's next.Amanda: So we are working on -- what is next? Well, we're going to spend a lot of time on hot line because we just have seen, I think, mostly through the app that likepeople the adoption from the app is really great and we've basically haven't publicized it at all and people use it a lot. So, you know, and there's just like little things.

for it. Presenter: So just to continue to sort of build all these pieces out that you've already got.Amanda: Yeah. Yeah. You know because we do -- we tend to like a company do the -- you know we like -- we experiment a lot and we put things up not unfinished all the time.And so, like that has been evolving for like a year. And now it's starting to get traction.

Presenter: Crowd sourcing is.Amanda: is community building.Presenter: Print is Amanda: wilting.

Presenter: Diplomatic answer. Presenter: Julia Child is....Amanda: Difficult. Presenter: Food bloggers are Amanda: Energetic.Presenter: My favorite thing about New York is Amanda: The people.

I don't know what the deal is.Amanda: It's more like this obsession over like the minute details of pizza and hamburgers.Presenter: About like what goes in? >>Amanda: Not that it's not interesting. It's just like every single publication has done like the, you know, we've explored, you know,

have trucks. Presenter: Reality chef competitions are.Amanda: Oh, fun. I like them. Fan. I'm only supposed to do one word, right? So kind of cheating.Presenter: Oh you can have as many as you want. There's no rules for launching and iterating this whole process. You can do whatever you want. Most surprising thing to me about Google

Presenter: Well, actually I'll ask you a question. I remember when we came up with recipe search.Amanda: Well, I was just thinking about that. Yeah, well -- it's not because it's going to sound like a complaint. But even Google hasn't figured out recipe search.Presenter: But now you have. So there you go. We created a business opportunity for you.