Podcrushed – Host AMA: Spirituality

Hosts: Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, Sophie Ansari
Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Episode Overview

This Host AMA centers around spirituality and mysticism as requested by Podcrushed listeners. Penn, Nava, and Sophie, all practicing members of the Baha’i Faith, share their personal mystical experiences, reflect on how spirituality influences their lives, and discuss the big existential questions that have shaped their worldviews. There’s plenty of warmth, humor, thoughtfulness, and a few tongue-in-cheek moments as the hosts seek to be both relatable and real with their audience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening: Why Spirituality?

• [00:22] Penn introduces the topic, prompted by repeated listener queries about the hosts’ faith and spiritual experiences.
  • “We're gonna try to please everybody and offend everybody at the same time.” – Penn [02:44]
• The trio promises to ground the conversation in both rational thought and personal anecdote, aiming to destigmatize spiritual dialogue.

2. What Is Mysticism?

• [00:57] Penn shares a Hitchens quote about mysticism’s ambiguity, riffing on both the literal and figurative “mist” that surrounds spiritual experiences.
  • Sophie pokes fun: “How does it begin with is? It begins with Ms. No.” [01:34]

3. Personal Mystical Experiences

A. Sophie’s Story: A Visit from Her Grandfather

• [06:09–11:03]
  • Sophie describes a late-night moment when, after getting ready for bed (with humorous admissions about her pajamas or lack thereof), she sees a vivid image of her deceased grandfather in her hallway.
    • She’s initially shocked and embarrassed: “My grandfather can't see me topless!” – Sophie [08:18]
    • The encounter brings comfort: “I just had this, yeah, this image of him… and it was as if I was allowed to see him. Just for a moment, to know that it was real.” [08:23–08:35]
    • She feels her grandfather's support, especially concerning building community in her new neighborhood, and continues to sense his presence in small, affirming flashes.

B. Penn’s Story: Chaos, Placebos, and a Moment of Clarity

• [11:07–17:51]
  • Penn recounts the night of his stepson’s ninth birthday sleepover—nine rowdy boys, one insomniac comedian, and Penn’s struggle to help everyone get to sleep.
  • A clever placebo (chamomile tea passed off as melatonin) enables calm. Penn meditates in the room, allowing everyone to settle into sleep.
  • As he leaves, Penn is struck by the stretched-out potential of humanity:
    • “It seemed as though the atoms were charged. My heart lifted. Humanity’s potential seemed to stretch out eons before me… Your life. A walking prayer.” [17:18–17:51]
  • It's a subtle, powerful feeling of mystical connection through a simple, everyday act.

C. Nava’s Story: Saved by a Voice During a Riptide

• [17:54–27:18]
  • Nava narrates nearly drowning while swimming alone in Puerto Rico. She is suddenly swept far from shore and feels herself tiring dangerously.
  • She hears an internal but external-feeling voice calmly guide her:
    • “Don’t panic. God is not gonna let you drown. Just do exactly as you’re told.” [20:50]
  • The guidance instructs her to float rather than swim parallel—a counterintuitive move that ultimately saves her.
  • After praying and trusting the voice, she’s “carried to shore,” overwhelmed by a feeling that “Baha’u’llah carried me.” [24:03]
  • Later, seeing another swimmer almost drown underlines for Nava that her experience was not only mystical but confirmed by subsequent real-world events (the technique she used was later validated in a news story).

4. What Convinced You That God Exists?

• [32:35–49:01]
  • A listener asks, “What convinced you that God exists?” Penn challenges the premise:
    • “It’s not the word that I would use because I don’t think anyone is ever convinced… our experiences shape us over time.” [33:49]
  • He describes growing up in an agnostic environment, feeling that devotion and “worship” are human tendencies, sometimes redirected toward artists, celebrities, or technology rather than something inherently noble or transcendent.
  • His encounter with spirituality intensified after early career successes didn’t bring fulfillment. Travel, reading, and particularly a trip to Colombia with the Kogi tribe (and a fortuitous friendship with a Baha’i peer) set him on a deeper journey toward prayer and belief in a higher purpose.

Memorable Quote:

• “I was actually assuming that my best guess was that the cultures of the past could give us something really ancient... But I couldn’t find that authentically… Eventually I was like, what do you mean? … He was always talking to me about the link between individual transformation and social transformation and that it being a mystical one, a spiritual one.” – Penn [42:03–43:56]

5. Rationality, Psychedelics, and the Limits of Experience

• Penn details his exploration of psychedelics as a means to touch the transcendent. He discovers that while they can open doors, they’re not the ultimate answer.
  • “The more I pursued psychedelics seriously, the more I realized that everyone who does that becomes incoherent.” – Penn [44:17]
• The conversation veers into the distinctions between psychedelic and near-death experiences (NDEs), noting that NDEs more often leave people with calm and assurance, while psychedelics are unpredictable.

6. Spiritual Metaphors and the Nature of God

• The hosts discuss metaphors for God and spiritual experience—energy, source, a “resource” that can’t be exhausted—contrasting that with the scarcity and anxiety of the physical world.
• Sophie reflects on how God’s constant presence is a source of comfort, not fear:
  • “You always have this capacity to tap into this, like, divine source, and it's like an illimitable resource that can never be exhausted… that's so empowering and so beautiful.” [50:07]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Penn on belief:
  “It’s not a rational conclusion that there is no purpose to life and that there is no God. It’s just a philosophical assumption.” [01:46]

• Sophie’s intimate ghost story punchline:
  “My grandfather can't see me topless!” [08:18]

• Nava, on hearing the guiding voice:
  “It’s not like a male voice. It’s not like the voice of God… but it was like unbidden thoughts. Like, thoughts that aren't coming from me.” [21:31]

• Penn, on art as early spiritual fulfillment:
  “Music was like my religion in a way.” [36:36]

• Sophie, reinterpreting the presence of God:
  “I also believe that God is with us 24/7. But to me it's such a source of confidence and safety and security. You're never alone.” [49:47]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamp | | -------------------------------------- | -------------- | | Opening, Listener Prompt | 00:06–02:43 | | Defining Mysticism | 00:57–01:46 | | Sophie’s Mystical Experience | 06:09–11:03 | | Penn’s Birthday Sleepover Story | 11:07–17:51 | | Nava’s Riptide Miracle | 17:54–27:18 | | What Convince(d) You of God? | 32:35–49:01 | | Spiritual Metaphors & Discussing God | 49:01–51:26 |

Tone & Style

The hosts remain candid, irreverent, and playful even as they touch on profound questions:

• Humor and self-deprecation (“Bottoms only? That was my nickname in college. No, I didn’t go to college. It’s a joke.” – Penn [07:16])
• A gentle respect for differing worldviews and a desire to de-mystify mysticism for their largely secular (or spiritually curious) audience
• Storytelling as a central device—anchoring philosophy in lived, awkward, and sometimes hilarious experience

Conclusion

This episode deftly mixes vulnerability, humor, and profound musing on the unseen dimensions of life. The hosts share mystical stories, contextualize them within their Baha’i faith, and open a dialogue about what spiritual experiences mean in a rational world. Their accounts serve as both an invitation and an affirmation: that the search for meaning, connection, and “walking prayer” is universal, sometimes ordinary, sometimes extraordinary, always deeply human.