Podcrushed: “Sophie & Nava React To Your Worst Dates”

Hosts: Nava Kavelin & Sophie Ansari (Penn Badgley on paternity leave)
Release Date: September 17, 2025
Episode Theme:
An honest, hilarious, and sometimes harrowing journey through listeners’ most mortifying, awkward, and just plain disastrous date stories—read and discussed live on air by Sophie and Nava with their signature warmth, empathy, and wit.
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Episode Overview

With Penn Badgley away on paternity leave, Sophie and Nava hold down the fort and dive into a pile of listener submissions about the “worst dates ever.” Stories range from allergy mishaps to accidental public embarrassments and everything in between. The hosts share their own cringe-worthy date memories and offer comic, heartfelt, and occasionally sobering commentary as they go.

Key Discussion Points & Listener Stories

1. Intro: Where’s Penn? / Book News

• Hosts update listeners about Penn’s absence for paternity leave:
  • “Penn is on paternity leave right now. He’s with his cutie, cutie little twins. Actually. We don’t know if they’re cute because he hasn’t shown us a picture or anything.”
    —Sophie (00:06)
  • Nava calls for Penn to send baby pics and jokes about their trustworthiness keeping secrets.
• Plug for their upcoming book, Crushmore.

2. Sophie & Nava’s Own Worst Date Stories

• Sophie’s Story: Too much anticipation led to arguing, overspending, and disappointment:
  • “When there’s so much hype around something, the come down is harder.” —Sophie (04:13)
• Nava’s Story: A streak of polyamorous dates leaves her baffled:
  • “Three times in a row, two of them were in the same week. Why does this keep happening to me?” —Nava (04:47)

3. Listener Submissions: Worst Date Stories

(a) The Peanut Allergy Crisis

• Kissed by a date who’d eaten peanut butter—had to leave, use EpiPen, and go to the ER. Date accused her of faking it.
  • “He said, sorry, I thought you were faking.” (05:53)
  • “Near death experience on a date… but almost died to prevent her from ending up with that bozo.” —Nava (06:34)
  • Discussion on EpiPens and medical emergencies.

(b) Silent Double Date at Knott’s Berry Farm

• Listener’s double date—her date didn’t say a single word all day, painfully awkward.
  • “I’m sure he was very shy, but that day was painfully awkward.” (07:44)
  • Nava’s “Princess Diaries” billionaire date story: A silent billionaire, a limo, and a crystal vase.
    “I was like, oh my god, I’m in the Princess Diaries… he took me to a five-star restaurant and didn’t talk to me the whole night.” —Nava (09:15)
  • Sophie: “This is like an epidemic where men just don’t ask questions.” (10:28)

(c) Movie Date Gone Wrong

• A crush named Brian took listener to see Stand By Me. He vomited on her during the infamous pie-eating scene.
  • “Instead, I got a lap full of vomit.” (11:11)
  • “If someone threw up on me, all my gentle nature would go out the window.” —Sophie (11:34)
  • “I would have been throwing up right back at that guy.” —Nava (11:50)

(d) Mom Crashes First Date at the Mall

• Forgotten house key leads mom to barge into Hot Topic, embarrassing listener and ending date.
  • “We’re holding hands, walking around Hot Topic. Then my mom comes into the store yelling for me.” (12:03)
  • “That just seems like such an overreaction.” —Nava, on boyfriend dumping listener (13:02)
  • Conversation on parental dating restrictions and nostalgia for mall stores.

(e) Car Fire and Honesty Bomb

• Car caught on fire on the highway—date confesses he wishes he was with his ex after checking that the listener was safe.
  • “‘Wish I was still with my ex-girlfriend.’” (14:47)
  • “That really does sound like he… had a near-death experience and was like, ‘Okay, now I know what I need to do.’” —Sophie (15:08)

(f) Preschool Makeout Disaster

• Making out on a park bench, turns to 30 preschoolers staring. Then, run-in with a long-lost friend with cancer.
  • “Comedy of errors… preschoolers. The friend. Oh my gosh.” —Sophie (16:30)
  • “Why are you making out in broad daylight when the preschoolers are out?” —Sophie (16:37)

4. Personal Anecdotes: Getting Caught

• Hosts discuss embarrassing times they've been caught—picking noses, making out, playing doctor as kids, etc.
  • “My mom walked in and I told her, ‘We’re tickling each other.’ She still talks about it.” —Sophie (23:50)
  • “Such a sign that teenagers have no inhibition.” —Sophie (23:00)

5. Funeral Date & Inappropriate Advances

• Listener invited to a funeral by a classmate; he sits with her, brings flowers, tries to touch her thigh—she rebuffs him.
  • “First red flag was date to the funeral.” —Nava (25:46)
  • “I’m proud of our listener who had her wits about her.” —Sophie (25:53)
  • Hosts express empathy about coping with loss at a young age.

6. Misguided Motives / Closeted Crushes

• Date only wanted to get closer to listener’s guy friend (whom he had a crush on)—listener feels hurt and outed.
  • “Middle school is a time when a lot… anyone who is gay or queer is trying to figure it out and maybe doesn’t feel comfortable to… explore that.” —Sophie (26:43)

7. Tinder App Nightmare: Fake Name, Assault, & Cop Saves the Day

• Listener’s date keeps bragging, forcibly kisses her; she kicks him, cop witnesses, she refuses to press charges due to safety concerns.
• Years later, the guy finds her online, apologizes, then asks for inappropriate pics.
  • “He grabbed my face and mauled it with his mouth. I kicked him in the ankle, and thank God there was a cop standing on the sidewalk.” —Sophie (28:01)
  • “That’s assault.” —Nava (28:12)
  • “Moral of the story is always press charges.” —Listener (28:55)
  • “I feel like I need to give some section of men, like, just a preschool lesson…” —Sophie (29:25)

8. Gym Bro Romance with the Mirror

• Date takes listener to gym, obsessed with his reflection, brags about muscles, invites her back for Round Two—she bails.
  • “I finally told him, ‘You have mirrors at home’… I blocked him afterwards.” (30:06)
  • “That’s wild… there’s something wrong; there’s gotta be an underlying issue there.” —Nava (30:35)
  • Sophie: “I could never date a gym bro.”

9. Bad Homecoming & Boundary Issues

• Homecoming date says friend is “a step up” from her, gifts her necklace over the agreed budget, she uses it as justification to break up but keeps the necklace.
  • “You’re not breaking up when you should… you’re letting it go too long.” —Sophie (32:19)
  • Tips on setting up short, easy-exit first dates.

10. The Revenant Movie and a “Deuces” Goodbye

• Saw a grim movie on a first date; left in silence, date flashed a peace sign, said “Deuces,” and walked off.
  • “We sat in silence. When we left, he looked at me, said, ‘Deuces,’ flashed a peace sign and walked away.” (33:19)
  • “That’s almost like a poem.” —Sophie (33:47)

11. Brutal Middle School Body Comments

• Boyfriend ditches listener at dance, sends friend to say: “Anthony doesn’t want to go out with you anymore and to grow some tits.” He tries to come back after her body changed.
  • “It really was about the tits, you know.” —Nava (34:35)
  • Sophie and Nava discuss bra padding, changing bodies, and self-acceptance with warmth and humor.

12. Final Bad Date: The Audacious Baseball Boy

• Double date with a cocky baseball player who insists a beagle is a car, insults her taste, kisses aggressively, calls her a bad kisser, later offers to “take her virginity” to “help her out.”
  • “He said, ‘I’d let you play your music, but it probably sucks,’ before abruptly grabbing my face and plunging his tongue into my mouth.” (41:31)
  • “After the date, he told everyone I was a bad kisser and then texted me… offering to take my virginity.” (42:04)
  • “If men have one thing, it’s the audacity.” —Sophie (42:53)
  • “Can you imagine texting someone to be like, ‘I’ll do it. I’ll take your virginity.’” —Nava (42:48)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “That was the most uncomfortable experience of my life. I’m not going to do it again.”
  —Nava, after silent billionaire date (10:11)

• “If someone threw up on me, all my gentle nature would go out the window.”
  —Sophie, on the movie vomit date (11:34)

• “Just because Penn isn’t here, we figured we’d take the opportunity to do a little ribbing... many, many men are wonderful. It just so happens we asked for worst date stories, and that’s what we got.”
  —Sophie (43:56)

• “Setting a time limit before a first date—so you’re not stuck.”
  —Nava, on best practices for avoiding long bad dates (33:13)

• On men and audacity:
  —“There was a riddle going around… A very popular answer was ‘audacity.’” —Nava (43:44)

Listener Advice & Episode Themes

• Expectations vs. Reality: Hype builds up worst dates, makes come-downs rough (04:13)
• Safety & Support: “Always press charges,” or at least think about your privacy on dating apps (28:55)
• Boundaries & Self-Worth: Stand up for yourself when uncomfortable or insulted in dating situations (numerous stories)
• Honest Communication: When in doubt, kindness and clarity save you (hosts’ commentary)
• It Gets Better: Hosts close with warmth and encouragement for future, better dates

Conclusion & Call-to-Action

The episode is a tapestry of laughter, commiseration, cringe, personal confessions, and hard-earned wisdom—reminding listeners that bad dates happen to everyone and that good friends (and stories) can turn them into something valuable. Sophie and Nava encourage more listener participation for future themed episodes.

• “That was really fun. Maybe we’ll do another reaction episode one day… let us know what you’d want the theme to be.” —Sophie & Nava (44:23)

[End of Summary]