When Ambition Becomes Identity: On Critical Theory & The Quarter-Life Crisis
At 21, I walked into a philosophy class on Critical Theory, not because I was particularly curious about Marxism, but because the professor radiated something I couldn’t explain. Calm. Clarity. Joy.
I didn’t know that one elective would unravel everything I thought I knew about ambition, success, freedom, and identity.
Two years later, I was living in a hippie commune in rural Nicaragua, showering outside, swearing off money, and trading work for food, trying to figure out what I really wanted when nothing familiar was there to define me.
In this episode, I explore the philosophy that radically changed my twenties, and might just shift something in you, too.
Drawing on the Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory, we talk about how capitalism doesn’t just shape what we do - it shapes how we dream, how we think about happiness.
But we also explore the nuance: what it means to be a content creator and a critic of the system. What it means to hold ambition and awareness. And how to navigate all of this without self-abandonment or moral purity.
This one is deeply personal. It’s philosophical, yes, but more than that, it’s an invitation.
To question what you’ve been told is normal.
To hold space for paradox.
And to begin imagining freedom on your own terms.
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Let’s Stay Connected:
📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel
📸 Follow along on Instagram
📝 Read the blog
🌴 Join my group trip to Bali
Join The Lost & Found Book Club
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36:44
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36:44
The Truth About Main Character Energy: The Beautiful, the Dangerous & the Delusional
In this episode, we explore the cultural phenomenon and philosophical roots of main character energy, both its empowering promise and its dark underside.
Sparked by a moonlit conversation in Hanoi, this episode unspools into many threads.
We talk about:
What main character energy really means (and why it matters)
How to find joy and agency even in the absurd… yes, we’re talking The Myth of Sisyphus
The dark side of performance and Western privilege
Travel, language, culture, and why no one is just a “side character”
Martin Buber’s I-It vs. I-Thou, Simone Weil on attention, and how to live with radical presence
And the ultimate plot twist: But you’ll have to listen to hear this one
This episode is both an invitation to live boldly and a gut-check on ego and empathy.
Plus, a beautiful little cameo by some of my friends on what makes them feel like the main characters in their own lives.
Thank you to Annie, Maatai, Claire, Tiaan, and Henry.
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Let’s Stay Connected:
📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel
📸 Follow along on Instagram
📝 Read the blog
🌴 Join my group trip to Bali
📕Join The Lost & Found Book Club
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36:24
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36:24
From Broke and Burnt Out to Full-Time Travel and Writing: The Stories I’ve Never Told Before (and the Unlearning That Changed Everything)
You know how sometimes all you really need is something that shakes you by the shoulders and gets you so fired up you can’t not do the scary thing?
And other times, you’re craving a deep, heart-expanding, soul-softening chat about life and meaning and why any of this matters.
And then there are those times when all you want is an unhinged conversation with a friend that reminds you how young, dumb, and wildly alive you still are.
Yeah. This one is all of that - in one conversation.
In this special episode of Lost & Found, I’m sharing a deeply personal conversation from when I was a guest on the Kindred Roads podcast — a show I’ve long admired for its soul-filled stories from travellers, creatives, and people building beautiful, unconventional lives.
We talk about:
– The winding road of solo travel and digital nomad life
– How I went from broke and burnt out to building a life with freedom
– Navigating grief, identity shifts, and family expectations
– Why your 20s don’t need to make sense to anyone else
– And how I became the youngest published author in South Africa at age 12 (and what writing has meant to me ever since)
This episode holds stories I’ve never shared before - from romances in Argentina to motorbike crashes in Nicaragua, to what it really feels like to chase freedom and find belonging around the world.
Whether you’re mid-breakdown, mid-reinvention, or somewhere in between, this one’s for you.
Listen the original Kindred Roads podcast episode here
Follow Kindred Roads on Instagram
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Let’s Stay Connected:
📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel
📸 Follow along on Instagram
📝 Read the blog
🌴 Join my group trip to Bali
📕Join The Lost & Found Book Club
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1:19:51
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1:19:51
I Travelled Solo Through India for 3 Months — Here’s Everything I Wasn’t Expecting to Learn, Love, and Leave Behind
You’ve heard the rumours, right? Seen the movies with chaotic streets, overflowing trains, and spiritual awakenings. Heard the warnings: it’s too much, too unsafe, too overwhelming.
Well, I heard them too. And I went anyway.
This is what three months travelling solo through India as a woman really looks like. It was messy. It was heart-achingly beautiful. And it changed me in ways I never expected.
In this episode, I speak honestly about the magic I experienced, the discomfort I leaned into, and the lessons I learned the hard way - from Mumbai’s creative chaos to Udaipur’s quiet grace, from trusting strangers to learning how to say no, from falling in love with food again to remembering what awe feels like.
India unraveled me. It made me braver. Softer. Louder in all the right ways.
I always reflect in my journal at the end of a country - what I learned, what I’m taking with me. So consider this your peek inside my journal.
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Let’s Stay Connected:
📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel
📸 Follow along on Instagram
📝 Read the blog
🌴 Join my group trip to Bali
📕Join The Lost & Found Book Club
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33:38
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33:38
Feeling Lonely, Lost, or Disconnected from Yourself? You Need to Hear This.
Ever felt like you're surrounded by people, but still weirdly alone? Like you're just... not quite you lately? Like something’s missing, but you can’t put your finger on what?
This episode is about that feeling.
The kind of loneliness and disconnectedness that leaves you feeling depleted and lost.
In this one, I get into:
The different types of loneliness (and how to tell what yours is really asking for)
How to go from craving connection to actually loving your own company
What philosophers and poets teach us about solitude
And how to attract authentic, intentional and meaningful social connection
I see you. I’m here. Let’s figure it out together.
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Let’s Stay Connected:
📕 Buy my book — Untethered: A Beginner’s Guide To Solo Travel
📸 Follow along on Instagram
📝 Read the blog
🌴 Join my group trip to Bali
📕 Join The Lost & Found Book Club
Your twenties are weird — beautiful, confusing, electric, exhausting. Lost & Found is a podcast for anyone stumbling their way through this decade, one lesson (and existential crisis) at a time.
Hosted by writer and wanderer Karmen Wiid, this space is all about solo travel, self-growth, relationships, creativity, and the messy magic of becoming who you’re meant to be. From digital nomad life to heartbreak, identity shifts to spontaneous reinventions — we talk about it all, honestly and unfiltered.
Whether you’re chasing a fresh start, healing your heart, or just trying to feel a little less alone in the world, you’re in the right place.
New episodes every Monday and Thursday. Come as you are.
South Africa