Decoder Ring | How “Chicken Soup” Sold Its Soul

Podcast: Slow Burn (Slate Podcasts)
Host: Willa Paskin
Guest/Reported by: Amanda Chicago Lewis
Date: April 23, 2025

Overview:

This episode of Decoder Ring, guest-hosted by Slow Burn’s Willa Paskin and featuring reporting by Amanda Chicago Lewis, unravels the surprising saga of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" franchise. What started in 1993 as an uplifting book series peddling positivity and can-do stories ballooned into a cultural juggernaut—and then a bizarre modern corporate cautionary tale involving streaming, meme stocks, and bankruptcy. The episode dives into the philosophies behind the brand, its wild commercial growth, the pseudoscience embedded within, and how it ultimately came to represent the risks of magical thinking both in self-help and business.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Influence and Ubiquity of "Chicken Soup for the Soul"

• Amanda recalls her childhood experience with "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul":
  • “Chicken Soup for the Soul is so accessible and chewable that I just, like, hoovered it up.” (00:44)
• The book and its many spin-offs became status objects for teens and a staple of 1990s/2000s American culture.
  • “Everyone was obsessed with it. Girls would sort of, like, carry it around. It was like a status item.” (02:01)
• The series is called “the best selling non fiction book series of all time.” (02:59)

Origins: Philosophies and Founders

• Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen:
  • Both were self-help speakers driven by the “Law of Attraction.”
  • Canfield: “Everything you need is in you now. You have everything you need to do, everything you want to do.” (07:15)
• Law of Attraction: Think positive, attract positive; think negative, attract negative.
  • Amanda: “Everything bad that's ever happened to you is your fault.” (09:30)
  • Canfield: “Take 100% responsibility for your life and your results. 100%.” (09:32)
• Historical roots of this philosophy are traced from 19th-century thinkers, through Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and W. Clement Stone (his daily mantra: "I feel happy, I feel healthy, I feel terrific." (11:33))

Storytelling as a Method

• Canfield’s training emphasized emotional storytelling:
  • “A crucial part of these trainings is sort of like bringing people in with a story.” (12:39)
  • Books designed for readers to “cry” or “laugh”—to feel a big emotion. (14:53)

Book Launch and Explosion

• After rejections from publishers, Canfield and Hansen self-published (1993) and sold out their initial 20,000 print run through aggressive, unconventional sales.
  • “They sell them out of bakeries, they sell them out of mortuaries.” (18:44)
  • The first book sold 11 million copies (19:19).
• The books rapidly spun off into sequels and themed editions (“Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul”, “Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul”, etc.), and then into non-book products—most notably pet food (21:31).

Subliminal Ideology & Criticism

• Though seemingly apolitical, the stories communicated an ideology of unbridled individual agency and personal responsibility, often ignoring or minimizing structural inequity.
  • Amanda: “These are stories that are telling you there is no such thing as structural racism. And if a teacher just loves her students, those kids will overcome any...socioeconomic and racial things going on.” (23:27)
• The political subtlety is contrasted with The Secret (2006), which made the Law of Attraction’s extreme premises explicit, facing significant backlash (“You’re at fault for whatever’s happening to you,” Amy Poehler’s SNL sketch parody—25:57).

The “Exit” – Canfield and Hansen Cash Out

• In 2007, founders sell the company for $63 million. (27:07)

Act II: New Owners, Modern Corporate Ambitions, and the Brand’s Dismantling

• New Owners: Bill Ruhana (telecom exec) and Amy Newmark (former hedge fund manager)
  • “It went from being a hippie, dippy, Southern California…to like a shiny financial object.” (28:49)
• Brand extension attempts became increasingly scattered: puzzles, beauty products, pasta sauce, literal Chicken Soup (29:44).
• A failed push to become a media/streaming conglomerate:
  • Acquiring and producing inspirational shows, but none reached critical or commercial mass (30:46).
  • Shifted to ad-supported streaming platforms and made a risky $30 million public crowdfunding raise via “Regulation A+” (33:00).

The Redbox Acquisition and Meme Stock Madness

• 2022: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment acquires Redbox, the struggling DVD kiosk company.
• Amanda: “This kind of went from being...a self-help thing to like a shiny financial object.” (28:49)
• The Redbox acquisition, happening as Redbox teetered on bankruptcy, became a meme stock event as Reddit/retail investors sought to squeeze hedge funds shorting the dying business, mimicking the GameStop episode:
  • Amanda: “The people on the meme stock crusade had kind of a delusional or you would say like, you know, positive mental attitude about manifesting the merger…” (37:51)
• But this time, magical thinking failed:
  • “This was not GameStop 2.0...the value of Redbox stock went down and the short squeezers lost.” (38:14)

Collapse and Aftermath

• The Redbox deal saddled the parent company with crushing debt; by 2024, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment was delisted and bankrupt, owing nearly $1 billion (39:16).
• Lawsuits allege “mismanagement and pillaging by insiders on a scale rarely seen with public companies.” (40:16)
• Yet, the core Chicken Soup books and pet food business lingers on, and the brand’s optimistic “manifestation” message remains—now as pure nostalgia and podcast fodder.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Chicken Soup for the Soul is so accessible and chewable that I just, like, hoovered it up.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (00:44)
• “Everything you need is in you now. You have everything you need to do, everything you want to do.” — Jack Canfield (07:15)
• “Everything bad that's ever happened to you is your fault.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis, explaining the “Law of Attraction” (09:30)
• “Perseverance, don't give up. Keep going, no matter what.” — Jack Canfield/Mark Victor Hansen (13:23)
• “People want to buy something. It's like Chicken Soup for the Canadian Soul. It's like, I'm Canadian, right? ...Oh my God, my aunt has a cat. I'm going to buy her this book.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis, on the proliferation of themed editions (20:04)
• “By 2003, research showed that young people were more likely to seek guidance from Chicken Soup for the Soul than from the Bible.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (20:38)
• “These are stories that are telling you there is no such thing as structural racism.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (23:27)
• “You’re at fault for whatever’s happening to you.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (on The Secret, 25:57)
• “The people on the meme stock crusade had kind of a delusional or you would say like, positive mental attitude about manifesting the merger...not going through.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (37:51)
• “The brand was so successful that they were able to like milk it until there was like nothing left and the only thing left was like the idea and the memory and the nostalgia for the thing.” — Amanda Chicago Lewis (40:03)

Segment Timestamps

• Intro & Amanda's Childhood Memories: 00:00–03:29
• Genesis of the Books & Law of Attraction: 06:45–13:28
• Story Collection & Emotional Appeal: 13:28–17:29
• Self-Publishing & Early Success: 18:36–20:19
• Franchise Proliferation & Brand Extensions: 20:19–22:31
• Underlying Ideology & Criticism: 22:31–25:51
• Shift to Explicit Magical Thinking ('The Secret') & Backlash: 25:51–27:07
• Founders Sell the Company: 27:07
• New Management, Brand Licensing, and Media Aspirations: 28:49–33:00
• Tech Bubble: Crowdfunding and Streaming Gambit: 33:00–34:21
• Redbox Merger & Meme Stock Event: 34:21–38:14
• Bankruptcy and Lawsuits: 39:16–40:16
• Brand Limps On as Nostalgia: 40:03–42:35

The Final Message

Despite the magical thinking and corporate hubris that undid the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment empire, the brand’s essence—positivity, personal responsibility, and eternal self-reinvention—persists in books, pet food, and a podcast. As Willa Paskin summarizes, “Despite everything that's happened, Chicken Soup for the Soul can keep pretending that its story might have a different ending, so long as there are people willing to buy it.” (42:35)

For more in-depth reporting: Read Amanda Chicago Lewis’s feature at Business Insider (linked on the Slate show page).

[Summary by AI podcast summarizer. All timecodes and attributions as in the official episode transcript.]