Soul Gum

Victoria Hutchins
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  • Philosophy
  • Updated weekly

A self-development podcast with philosophical, psychological and literary flair hosted by Victoria Hutchins, the creator of @thedailyvictorian and nationally bestselling author of MAKE BELIEVE. Episodes every other Sunday.

  1. 19 Jul

    Secret Portals to Your Next Self

    In stories, the narrator tells you which ordinary things are portals to magic and adventure. In real life, you have to find them yourself. This episode reveals 5 secret portals to the next version of yourself: seemingly ordinary choices, traits, and habits that are thresholds to the future version of you who lives with more courage, clarity, and freedom. It’s for you if an old version of you has died but the new one hasn’t been born yet. You might have recently experienced a big life change: a move, or a relationship ending, or a career change. Or maybe you know one is coming. It’s for you if you have an unshakeable feeling that there is a more alive version of you out there, if only you could figure out how to get to them.  We’ll examine the work of philosophy’s greatest minds, like Nietzsche, Kant, Kafka, and the Ancient Greeks, to uncover the hidden thresholds between who you are and who you're becoming, and point out clues for how to spot them when they appear in your own life. EPISODE OUTLINE  00:00 Intro 04:54 I missed you 06:05 Help me keep Soul Gum ad-free 07:35 Talk to me!!!  08:18 1. Intuition is a portal 08:49 Nietzsche’s beef with Socrates 10:44 The neuroscience of intuition (Gary Klein)   12:31 I exist because of a woman’s intuition 13:03 The tension between ambition & intuition 14:13 Mary Oliver on reacquianting with your intuition 15:05 Small ways to reconnect with your intuition 15:42 2. Solitude is a portal (Pascal) 16:39 The fear of being alone with your thoughts 17:33 2014 study on the discomfort of being un-stimulated 18:05 Solitude as a tool in my creative process 18:58 Brain drain study: it is that d**n phone 19:30 Going phone n*k*d 20:12 3. Aligned friendship is a portal 21:36 Nietzsche: Friends should be your “best enemies” 23:06 Friendship as a mirror  23:40 The research of social contagion  24:18 Look for friends that show you what’s possible  24:52 4. Nature is a portal 25:40 Our increasingly sanitized relationship with nature 26:15 Kant, the sublime, and the gorpcore of it all 28:41 The ego-interrupting power of awe 29:45 5. Action is a portal (Kafka’s Before the Law) 31:29 Mary Oliver on the most regretful people  32:00 You deserve to know what’s on the other side of fear 32:33 Leap by Joy Sullivan 33:34 For the Ones Who Left by Me (Victoria Hutchins) 34:29 Lightning round recap 35:40 Subscribe, rate, share, talk to me!!!  LINKS My debut poetry collection MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now Subscribe to Soul Gum’s new instagram :-)  Follow me on Instagram and TikTok

  2. 07/09/2025 ·  Bonus

    Season 3 Coming Soon

    See you soon - I'll miss you! Make sure you're subscribed so you know when Soul Gum is back. WHERE TO FIND ME: MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now⁠⁠Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (write “REQUEST FOR SIGNED COPY” in the order notes!)Join the waitlist for future retreats! ⁠Practice yoga with me at Shanti Yoga Houston on the last Sunday of every month!⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  3. 24/08/2025

    The Philosophy of Love

    Everyone wants love, but no one can tell you exactly what love is. In this episode, we deep dive into seven philosophical perspectives on love, ranging from the Ancient Greeks to the existentialists. If you’re curious whether Plato thought soulmates were real or Kierkegaard would tell you to text your ex, this episode is for you.  EPISODE OUTLINE  00:00 Intro (the philosophy of love) 03:19 What even is love? (hypotheticals on love) 07:07 Ancient Greek philosophy on love  07:35 Origins of the concept of soulmates (Plato’s The Symposium) 09:03 Socrates’ ladder of love  13:03 Enlightenment thinkers on love  13:15 Love as social performance (Rousseau) 13:58 Rousseau’s two types of self love  15:22 How self love affects how you love others 17:31 The humanity formula (Kant)    19:49 Practical vs. passionate love (Kant) 22:07 Love as a trick (Schopenhauer) 24:04 Why do opposites attract? (Schopenhauer) 24:28 Is love just biological encouragement to reproduce? (Schopenhauer) 26:06 Existentialists on love 26:14 The tension between love and freedom of choice (Sartre) 27:50 Love as an objectifying force (Sartre) 30:32 Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir’s non-monogamous love story  31:40 The relationship between love and possession (de Beauvoir)  33:06 How your fear of being seen impacts your ability to give and receive love (Sartre, Doestoevsky, de Beauvoir)  36:54 Kierkegaard’s Works of Love  37:22 Unreasonable standards in love (Kierkegaard) 42:24 Lightning round recap MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Plato, The Symposium (c. 385–370 BCE)Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract (1762)Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals (1797)Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (1818)Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love (1847)Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (1864)Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness (1943)Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit (1944)Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949)Gordon Marino, The Existentialist’s Survival Guide (2018) MY LINKS MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now⁠⁠Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (write “REQUEST FOR SIGNED COPY” in the order notes!)Join the waitlist for future retreats! ⁠Practice yoga with me at Shanti Yoga Houston on the last Sunday of every month!⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  4. 17/08/2025

    7 Secrets of Creative Geniuses

    Ever wonder why some people seem to have endless creativity while you’re stuck with half-baked ideas that never make it out of your Notes app? In this episode, we explore the habits, tips and artistic processes of creative geniuses ranging from Plato and Picasso to Mary Oliver and Rick Rubin. I reveal the 7 secrets of creative geniuses that helped me stop chasing perfection, relight my creative spark, and actually enjoy the process of making art. If you’re ready to stop gatekeeping your own creativity, this one’s for you.  EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00 Intro: Why creativity matters for everyone (not just artists) 03:58 1. Great creatives don’t let perfection be the enemy of creation (Plato’s Republic, perfection vs. forms, Ira Glass on “the gap”) 11:28 2. They separate creation, refinement, and critique (Rick Rubin, The Creative Act) 14:41 3. They focus on next possibilities, not ultimate goals (Stuart Kauffman’s adjacent possible, evolutionary biology, Bhagavad Gita, Rick Rubin on artistry vs. craftsmanship) 20:56 4. They embrace flow and anti-flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow state; Mary Oliver’s editing process; Stanley Kubrick’s many takes) 25:52 5. They thrive under constraints (Barry Schwartz’s paradox of choice; Mary Oliver writing Wild Geese as a constraint exercise; Parkinson’s Law) 30:35 6. They know that if they don’t create it, someone else will (Rick Rubin on how ideas move, Elizabeth Gilbert’s hand-off story with Ann Patchett) 34:01 7. They know that no one really knows (Socrates on knowing nothing, imposter feelings, why your contributions matter) 37:57 Lightning round recap MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE  • Plato, The Republic  • Studies on the impact of perfectionism on performance and creativity (2022 and 2025) • Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being  • Stuart Kauffman, At Home in the Universe  • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience  • Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook; “Wild Geese”; On Being interview with Krista Tippett  • Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice • Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear  MY LINKS • ⁠MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (write “REQUEST FOR SIGNED COPY” in the order notes!) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠Join the waitlist for future retreats!  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠Practice yoga with me at Shanti Yoga Houston on the last Sunday of every month! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  5. 10/08/2025

    How I Got My Spirituality Back

    What happens when your faith collapses? In this episode, I share my story of spiritual deconstruction and how I learned to believe again—sort of. This isn’t a “how to get your faith back” story. It’s the story of tearing my faith down to the studs, sifting through the rubble, and deciding what was worth keeping. We’ll talk god shaped holes, Kierkegaard, Camus, Pascal’s wager, and the surprising peace of not needing all the answers. This episode if for anyone who is currently filling their god-shaped hole with TikTok marathons, self-help books and spiral-inducing questions. If you started at church camp and have landed in full-blown nihilism, press play.  EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00 Intro: the story of how I lost my faith and got it back (sort of) 08:01 1. Why spiritual crises often happen at the worst possible time 10:35 How my own spiritual crisis began 18:07 Kierkegaard on despair and the self 19:47 2. Why spiritual health gets worse before it gets better 26:19 The delight of spiritual curiosity 27:43 3. Choosing how to fill the God shaped hole 29:42 Absurdism and optimistic nihilism (Camus) 30:57 Pascal’s Wager explained and what it gets wrong 32:51 Approaching belief pragmatically (belief as a choice) 33:53 What “god” means to me now  35:33 Can you make yourself believe? Should you? 36:16 On stepping in the same river twice (Heraclitus) 36:49 Five reflection questions (Rainn Wilson) 38:14 Lightning round recap  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE  Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death (1849) Rhett McLaughlin’s Spiritual Deconstruction Story Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670) St. Augustine, Confessions (c. 400 CE) Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942) Heraclitus, Fragment 49a (c. 500 BCE) Rainn Wilson, Soul Boom (2023) Mary Oliver, Upstream: Selected Essays (2016) MY LINKS • ⁠Listen to my episode of Soul Boom with Rainn Wilson on Spotify  • ⁠Watch my episode of Soul Boom with Rainn Wilson on Youtube • ⁠MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (write “REQUEST FOR SIGNED COPY” in the order notes!) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠Join the waitlist for future retreats!  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  RESOURCES  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• Chat with a Trevor Project counselor now  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• ANAD helpline  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠• 988 lifeline

  6. 03/08/2025

    How to Get Better at Confrontation

    Confrontation is hard. But avoiding it is harder—on your peace, your relationships, and your self-respect. In this episode, explore how to get better at having tough conversations. We’ll look to Aristotle, Joan Didion, and the Gottman institute’s world-renowned research on conflict to create a roadmap for navigating confrontation without abandoning yourself or bulldozing anyone else. If you spiral after hitting send, avoid awkward conversations for weeks while playing out fake arguments in the shower, or disassociate every time someone says “we need to talk,” this one's for you. EPISODE OUTLINE  00:00 Intro  05:19 1. The correlation between confrontation and respect  06:27 Joan Didion On Self Respect  08:47 The trolley problem (Foote) 14:33 2. Approaching confrontation practically  16:33 Phronesis (Aristotle)  18:35 Kant’s categorical imperative 20:50 Thich Nhat Hanh’s three gates  23:27 3. Confrontation dos and don’ts 23:49 the Gottman institute  24:44 Confrontation don’ts 26:14 Confrontation dos 26:17 The magic ratio for healthy relationships 26:53 Bids for attention 27:59 Soft startups  29:08 Repair attempts 32:09 Lightning round recap MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE  ​ ⁠Joan Didion, On Self Respect (Vogue, 1961)​ ⁠Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics (c. 350 BCE)​ ⁠Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (1785)​ ⁠Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Art of Communicating (2013)​ ⁠Drs. John & Julie Gottman, The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work (1999) MY LINKS ​ ⁠MAKE BELIEVE is out everywhere now⁠​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Get a signed copy of MAKE BELIEVE from Blue Willow Bookshop​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠​ ⁠Join the waitlist for future retreats! ​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠​ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠​ ⁠⁠Find me @thedailyvictorian on TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  7. 27/07/2025

    5 Habits of Great Conversationalists

    Want to become a better conversationalist? You should! Good conversations can open doors, build friendships, and even change your life. But in an age of goldfish attention spans, hot takes, and chronic fear of being seen, real connection is harder than ever. The good news? Conversation is an art, but it’s also a science. In this episode, we walk through 5 things great conversationalists do differently, according to philosophy and psychology. If you want to feel less robotic on dates, network without cringing, vibe better with your friends, or just not panic when someone says “tell me about yourself,” this one’s for you.  EPISODE OUTLINE: 00:00 Intro 04:07 1. Seeing conversation as a skill 11:03 2. Starting lots of conversations 18:30 3. Asking more questions 25:06 4. Leaving room for the unexpected 29:08 5. Expecting reality, not hyperreality  33:27 Lightning round recap  36:19 Challenge  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard (1981) TALK: The Science of Conversation and The Art of Being Ourselves, Alison Wood Brooks (2025)

  8. 20/07/2025

    How to Get Unstuck Post-Crash Out

    Feeling stuck, numb, or overwhelmed? Crashing out for the third time this week? Good news! Philosophy, the sad girl discipline of academia, has lots of advice for you. This episode breaks down 5 reasons why we get stuck according to philosophical greats like Franz Kafka, Soren Kierkegaard, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and more. We’ll talk about practical strategies to climb out of your spiral and start feeling like yourself again. If your search history includes ‘why am I like this’ and ‘how to feel okay again,’ press play. EPISODE OUTLINE 00:00 Intro  04:53 You’re stuck because… 05:00 1. You’re free  05:18 The dizziness of freedom (Kierkegaard) 06:04 We’re condemned to be free (Sartre) 07:13 The fig tree allegory (Sylvia Plath) 13:21 2. You’re choosing information over experience  13:35 Mary’s Room hypothetical (Jackson) 22:49 3. You’ve outgrown a version of yourself 23:02 The Metamorphosis (Kafka)  26:54 4. You’re expecting sense in senseless places 27:04 The Trial (Kafka) 35:14 5. You think nothing matters  35:24 Mechanical life (Camus) 36:34 The moment of the absurd (Camus) 37:13 The myth of Sisyphus (Camus)  40:08 Lightning round recap  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:  On Anxiety, Soren Kierkegaard (1844) Being and Nothingness, Jean Paul Sartre (1943) The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath (1963) The Big Secret, Deepak Chopra (2008) Epiphenomenal Qualia, Frank Jackson (1982)  The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka (1915) The Trial, Franz Kafka (1925) The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus (1942)

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About

A self-development podcast with philosophical, psychological and literary flair hosted by Victoria Hutchins, the creator of @thedailyvictorian and nationally bestselling author of MAKE BELIEVE. Episodes every other Sunday.

Information

  • Creator
    Victoria Hutchins
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    37
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Victoria Hutchins
  • Show Website
    Soul Gum

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