About Dr. Victoria Ranade

a letter to you

Hi there,

Thank you for joining me here!

I’m Dr. Victoria Ranade, a board certified licensed clinical psychologist with a passion for exploring questions related to existence and what it truly means to be human.

I started this podcast because I wanted to create a space where your inner truth is honored — a place to talk about what happens when you actually live that truth. I also started it so that you would know that whatever you're going through, you are not alone.

I am motivated by a simple but powerful desire: that whatever you are facing, you would know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. That there are possibilities in every moment. Here, you will find a space where we explore how to make sense of darkness to connect to the greater light, strength, and resilience within you.

As a clinical psychologist, I've spent thousands of hours talking with people about life. I know how difficult it can be, how it can be filled with times of great beauty but also darkness and moments of deep sorrow. There are things we experience that are so beautiful they are indescribable—and moments that feel impossible to overcome. There are times when we experience depression and darkness that feels enormous, never-ending, where you are filled with doubt for the road ahead. Times when you wonder how to keep going.

So if you are currently feeling like this or have been through a time like this, welcome. I’ve been there too. This is a podcast, but it’s also a community of listeners who believe in the power of the human voice and spirit. In something within is that is also beyond us. It is something that no darkness can overcome. Magnificent in it’s beauty, it is more beautiful than any sun rise or sunset, and transcendent beyond words.

Sometimes we just forget. This podcast is about remembering. It's about walking together and helping each other reconnect to the light within—the light that is calling us home. It's about kind encouragement from people who have been there—who are further up the road, reaching back with the wisdom they've gained to help us find the courage to keep going.

And inspired by my passion for existential psychology, it's about honoring how hard it is to be human — and timeless questions related to purpose, existence, and meaning.

Welcome to innercalling.

Credentials

I'm a licensed clinical psychologist, board certified in behavioral and cognitive therapies. I trained at Johns Hopkins, where I also earned my MBA, and I'm currently attending Harvard Business School's Program for Leadership Development.

My expertise as a clinical psychologist lies in providing evidence-based treatment of depression, anxiety, mood, and existential concerns in kids, teens, and adults of the highest quality. My approach is based in existential, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology; these are traditions that honor the whole person, including the search for meaning, authentic self-expression, and connection to something greater than ourselves.

Philosophy & Approach

I'm Taiwanese American and neurodivergent. I live with bipolar ii, which is a serious condition where your brain is biologically wired to want to kill itself.

It was actually an innercalling that kept me alive.

That's why I believe so deeply in this place that exists within each of us. It’s a place of peace. Of hope. Of beauty. And this podcast is my invitation — to you — to find your way back to it.

I know what it's like to struggle against your own limitations, and to try to put into words what is beyond language. I know what it's like to feel weird, to live within systems not designed for you, systems that feel as if they keep you down, and all the energy it takes to rise to the best of yourself. I know what it’s like to have to overcome yourself and your own nervous system. This show is a space where these struggles are recognized, where there’s nothing to accomplish or prove, and where you are safe to be yourself, simply as you are.

innercalling is where I host conversations about what it means to trust the truths you know deep inside yourself, despite all the challenges that modern society brings. Conversations that are organic & intellectually intimate. Just two humans exploring the complexities of life together.

Inspiration & Intention

The guests I invite are diverse, they may be experts or community members, leaders or spiritual teachers, but above all, they are everyday people. As a clinical psychologist and keeper of sacred stories, I am endlessly fascinated by people and the power of the human voice and spirit. Each person who sits with me has often overcome very difficult things just to be here, and yet so much of it remains unsaid and unknown. You, the listener, bring your own unsaid things too. Thank you for being here.

I’m inspired by the ancient art of sitting around a warm fire, listening to stories that stay with you long after the fire goes out. I don't believe in optimizing conversations for virality or the algorithm. In a world that has less time and space for humanness, this is a place where we wrestle with what it means to be human, and where that humanity is honored and held.

I'm also inspired by honest, organic conversation, the kind that happens in a therapy room. This is my homage to the lineage I come from: clinical psychologists, keepers of the human voice, of stories and conversation that heal. This tradition is dying, crowded out by algorithms and the pressures of social media. It's up to us to keep it alive.

Here, there is no advice and nothing you need to do or accomplish or gain. You are simply invited to slow down, listen, and trust what you already know inside yourself.

Show Topics

• Depression, Trauma & Suicide Prevention: Clinical Perspectives · Lived Experience · Evidence-Based Treatments · Finding Your Way Back Home to Yourself

• Integrative & Holistic Medicine: Mind, Body & Spirit · Psychedelic Medicine · Ancient Healing Traditions · Evidence-Based Treatments · Healing Beyond the Medical Model

• Identity, Culture & Mental Health: Neurodivergence in Women · Asian American Mental Health

• Existential Psychology: Meaning & Purpose · Life, Existence, Death & Mortality · Spirituality · Nature & the Natural World

• Spirituality & Ancient Wisdom: Taoism · Buddhism · Christianity · Ancient Egypt · Timeless Teachings

• Divine Femininity: Healing from Trauma · Reclaiming Femininity · Divine Embodiment · Mother Wounds

• Authentic Voice & Leadership: Leadership · Finding Your Voice · Intuition & Inner Knowing · Listening to Your Truth vs. Society's

• Storytelling & The Creative Life: Storytelling · Writing Craft · How Stories Calm, Connect, and Orient Us · The Creative Life

• Business & Entrepreneurship: Building from Vision · Idealism in Business · Bringing Ideas to Life · Social Change & Impact

• Living Well with Technology: Mental Health & Technology · Artificial Intelligence · Digital Detox & Intentional Living · Simplifying Life

Values & Intentions

innercalling is built on a simple belief: that science and the human spirit and experience don't have to live in separate worlds, but can be integrated.

Every episode is an invitation to explore what research can teach us, and to honor the wisdom that lives within stories, intuition, and our connection to something greater. I love bringing these together, not to resolve the tension between them, but to sit inside it with honesty, curiosity, and joy.

I care deeply about nuance and about making space for truth that's complex and voices that are diverse. But more than anything, I believe in the power of conversation itself — not as a vehicle for takeaways or tips, but as something healing in its own right. This is the kind of organic, wandering exchange that psychologists have long understood to be healing. In an age of algorithms and AI, this is what's at risk of being forgotten.

This is a slower, more honest space where beauty lives in our imperfections.

At its core, innercalling is a space to explore the heart of what it means to be human. This is a slower, more honest space, where human connection still matters, and where you can remember yourself beneath all the noise. It’s a place where you can simply be.

FAQ: Why is there a dog on your podcast art?

That is my dog Mei Mei. She represents how I followed an inner calling to discover my deep love of dogs.

A few years back, I met a shaggy old Welsh Terrier with one eye whose name was Iris. Even though I had no interest in dogs at that time, I fell in love with Iris. This led me to get two Welsh Terriers of my own, Mei Mei and Kai Kai. Thus, Mei Mei symbolizes what happens when we each follow the inner callings that arise within ourselves, no matter how spontaneous. We discover parts of ourselves and of life that we never could have imagined.

FAQ: Why do you leave sounds like dogs barking, garbage trucks beeping in the background?

Because life is happening. Algorithms are quietly reshaping what it means to be human, optimizing our experiences until the rough edges — the very things that make us real — are smoothed away. I'd rather take back that narrative. The beauty of being human lives in imperfection, in the unscripted moment, in the sound of the world continuing outside the window. Nothing here is algorithmically determined or artificially perfected. Just two people, talking.

FAQ: What inspired you to create this space?

I remember the moment I decided to create it. I was sitting in my doctor's office when something unexpected happened. She finished with my visit, and then just... kept talking about the fear and division she was seeing in the world. About how disconnected people had become from one another. About how it was affecting her too. She talked to me for a half an hour, about the world we were experiencing.

And I realized: I missed this. The kind of conversation you have with someone in your own community — unhurried, unscripted, not trying to sell you anything or tell you what to do. Just two people being honest with each other about what it means to be alive right now, regardless of political beliefs, just as humans. This kind of connection is quietly disappearing. innercalling is my attempt to cultivate a space where our natural humanity is honored and held.

FAQ: How do you find your guests?

I only invite people I am genuinely inspired by. Each guest is someone I have a real connection with, whether we know each other in life, or whether something they created found its way to me: a book, an article, a piece of work that spoke deeply to me. There is always a connection before there is an invitation, and I hope the connection inspires you too.

FAQ: How is your show different than others?

As a clinical psychologist, I guide conversations in a way that is natural and flows with the moment. I'm simply here to honor guests and feature the beauty of their experience and voice. This is what clinical psychologists do: we meet each person in awe, as if they are a sunrise, with genuine unconditional positive regard. Through this practice, I hope you too are inspired to deeply listen, and to meet each person you meet in life, regardless of their circumstances, where they are. This is the beauty of my discipline, which is deeply humanistic, and what I bring to this show.

FAQ: What is the point of the conversation?

The point is that there is no point. The point is simply to be present with the guest and see what organically emerges between two humans. I invite you to go on this journey with me, to see what we learn from each guest.

Thanks for joining me here. I know there are so many other things you could be doing so am very grateful for your support in creating a community where we remember the beauty of what it is to be deeply human.

With gratitude,