How “Chicken Soup” Sold Its Soul

Decoder Ring

Slate Podcasts

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chicken Soup for the Soul was the brainchild of two motivational speakers who preach the New Thought belief system known as the Law of Attraction. For more than 30 years, the self-help series has compiled reader-submitted stories about kindness, courage, and perseverance into easily digestible books aimed at almost every conceivable demographic: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Grandma’s Soul, Chicken Soup for the Golfer’s Soul, and on and on. Since 1993, these books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling non-fiction book series of all time. But in recent years, the company has become many other things that seem lightyears away from inspirational publishing: a line of packaged foods, a DVD kiosk retailer, and a meme stock. In this episode, with the help of journalist Amanda Chicago Lewis, we tell the story of how this feel-good brand went from comfort food to junk. This episode was written by Willa Paskin and Max Freedman and produced by Max. It was edited by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring’s supervising producer. Our show is also produced by Katie Shepherd. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Special thanks to Rachel Strom. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at [email protected], or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.0	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:24.5	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:30.3	Before we begin, this episode contains adult language.
0:39.8	When Amanda Chicago-Lewis was growing up in the suburbs of New York City, she was a big reader.
0:45.6	I would read everything that came to the house, every magazine. If my parents had a weird book
0:49.8	laying around, I would just pick it up and start reading. But one day she came across a book,
0:54.8	its title in swoopy, multicolored letters
0:57.4	that wasn't for her parents.
1:00.3	It was for her.
1:01.6	Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul came out when I was in, like,
1:03.7	fifth or sixth grade, and that really imprinted on me.
1:07.4	Teens will welcome Chicken Suit for the Teenage Soul,
1:10.4	like a good friend.
1:12.1	One who understands their feelings is there for them when needed and cheers them up when
1:17.0	things are looking down.
1:18.4	Chicken Sufer for the Soul is so accessible and chewable that I just like hoovered it up.
1:25.8	Published in 1997, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul contains scores of short, uplifting stories.
1:32.3	What we learned that year was that nothing can beat persistence.
	...

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