On August 8, 2026, Kasie and Rex took on gluttony. Here are the show notes:

Topic: Seven Deadly Sins – Gluttony

Agenda:

• Quick catch up
• What are the seven deadly sins?
• What is gluttony?
• How can you use it in your story?

Segment 1

We’ve done the seven deadly sins for the last few summers. It’s a good way to dive deep into character motivation and talk about specific works that engage specific “sins” as catalysts for protagonists and antagonists alike.

This week we take on gluttony. The last two times we’ve done this (Episodes 156 and 274) we’ve talked about the excess of gluttony, the habit of it, and the moral imperative to take and receive only what one needs.

Boring.

Moderation is boring. And even though gluttony is primarily about comfort, can even be a mental illness born out of scarcity, it is not satisfied with satisfaction. It needs excess.

How is it different from greed? Greed is primarily about hoarding wealth or power, and gluttony is about indulging in excessive possessions or consumption. 

Greed focuses on having and withholding – hoarding or denying others access. While gluttony is about using up or going overboard. 

The sin of greed is related to control over others while the sin of gluttony is a lack of control over oneself.

Segment 2

Gluttony, as a sin, is about consuming more than one is allotted based on what the Lord has measured out. How we know what the Lord wants us to have is entirely speculative, but the people writing about gluttony were making assumptions about the availability of resources and the fair distribution of those resources.

So is this about fairness?

What modern examples of gluttony do we see? Is this the disgust with the billionaires? That we think their amassing so much wealth is a kind of unredeemable gluttony?

Does gluttony require a “have not” to show its excess? Can we recognize excess while we’re in it unless we have the opposite to compare it to?

This is a good one for Gatsby because it’s worth asking whether our lens character, Nick Carraway, would be so critical of Gatsby if he had himself acquired such wealth.

If gluttony is about the moral failing of lack of self control, then it is an internal condition, not an external one. Which means it does not require a counterpoint – poverty – to be recognized.

There is a kind of wastefulness to gluttony, in that if one consumes more than one ought, he is keeping that resource from others. But it may also be just a symptom of prosperity, and could gluttony, if accompanied by gratitude, be okay?

Thanksgiving is about gratitude but has also turned into a kind of gluttonous ritual.

Segment 3

Where else do we see gluttony in literature? Either the true representation or the false one?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

A Brave New World

The Hunger Games

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Animal Farm

Why does gluttony persist in political satire?

Ayn Rand distinguishes between gluttony and greed saying gluttony is an unthinking, self-destructive behavior like alcoholism or drug addiction. But greed is the pursuit of one’s own self interests for security and prosperity. The producer creates value and earns what he keeps, the moocher takes wealth he did not earn.

“Devouring the world” without creating anything of value, is the philosophical definition of gluttony.