Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Call zone media. Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast about the very worst people in all of history. And if you're listening to this, we've had a heavy start to the year doing four episodes on some of the new releases in the Epstein files. It's been dark. And whenever things get dark, I like to go back to like a lighter kind of fair, you know, something a little more fun.
Now, since this is still a podcast about the worst people in history, we're still going to be talking about horrible things. But Yeah, this is all a preamble to say we're talking about a kooky psychic today. You're welcome, everybody. I know these are a lot of people's favorite episodes. And to hear about this person, we've got a great guest for you this week. Cal Penn. Cal, welcome to the show.
Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, obviously people, I'm sure most people listening are very well aware of you for your career in film and television and your time in the Obama White House. But you are now a podcaster. You've gotten dragged into the podcasting trenches. Your life has been upgraded, some might say. Yeah.
Yeah, there weren't enough podcasts until I had one, too. That's right. It was a real problem. We were all worried about it. But thankfully, you've filled the gap. You want to talk about the show you're doing before we get into our episode? I do. Thank you. Thanks for the shameless plug opportunity.
It's a podcast called Here We Go Again that looks at the past, present, and future of things in pop culture. So we've had Bill Nye, the science guy, to talk about things like The space race had on Mehdi Hassan to talk about the lack of trust in mainstream news.
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Chapter 2: Who is Sylvia Browne and why is she controversial?
Even like one of my favorites, right after he was done being transportation secretary, we had Pete Buttigieg on. And technically I was supposed to talk about infrastructure, but I really wanted to understand why when your flight is early, there's not a gate available. Like it's almost never early, but if it's early, what's the problem here? Yeah. They always say they didn't know we were coming.
Yes, they did. That's how it works. How do you not? So now that I have a podcast, I get to ask all of those. That rocks. All of those kinds of questions. Yeah, transportation secretary seems like one of those, like every time I'm in an airport, I'm like, oh, if I had that power, the things I'd change.
And then the second I leave the airport, it's like, oh, I can't imagine wanting to think about airports for another second when I'm not in one. Totally agree. Yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series.
Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the underexplored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years.
Listen to No Grip on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl. This podcast is all about going deeper with the women's shaping culture right now. Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations, and the real work behind it all.
As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated. So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are and your integrity. You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, it's Jill Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And today I'm talking with my dear friend, Krista Williams. It can change you in the best way possible. Dance with the change, dance with the breakdowns. The embodiment of Pisces intuition with Capricorn power moves.
So I'm like delusionally proud of my chart. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Our iHeartRadio Music Awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th, live on Fox.
Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you loved listening to all year long on your favorite iHeartRadio station and the iHeartRadio app. Hosted by Ludacris. Icon Award recipient, John Mellencamp. Innovator Award recipient, Miley Cyrus. With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue.
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Chapter 3: What role did Sylvia Browne play in high-profile missing persons cases?
Sylvia herself actually gets pissed at her spirit guide, Francine, a few years later when her grandmother gets sick because Francine refuses to fix the illness. She just keeps telling Sylvia everything will work out as it's meant to work out. So she kind of will go dark on Francine for periods of time as a kid when she gets angry at her.
She, in general, doesn't seem to have had a super happy, like, early childhood. She doesn't like living at home. She doesn't get along with her sister because she thinks her mom programmed her sister into being sick and introverted. Maybe she just had a different personality than you, Sylvia. So at age 16, she decides to free herself from her family via a foolproof plan.
She's going to get married. Wow. Wow. Wow. Sylvia graduates and gets accepted to St. Teresa's College in Kansas City. She majors in education and theology, and it's at around this time that her grandma takes a final turn for the worst and passes on in the hospital.
Francine assures Sylvia everything's fine, but she doesn't believe her spirit guide until she and her boyfriend are driving home, and her boyfriend sees grandma's spirit in the car, which convinces her that not only is everything fine, but that her psychic gifts are definitely real. So she comes into adulthood, she goes to college, and she's training to be a teacher.
She's never wanted to do anything but teach. Her spirit guide tells her she's there to be a teacher. Her grandma says she's there to be a teacher. And she takes that very literally, that she's meant to, like, teach kids in a school. Um... So she's on her own now.
She knows she wants to be a teacher, but she doesn't really know what kind of... She thinks she wants to be a school teacher is the thing that she's supposed to be. But her grandmother had always told her that she needs to use her gifts to speak to large groups of people. And she's not sure... which direction to go in.
And you might say, wouldn't a real psychic know what the future held in store for her? But Sylvia has come up with a workaround to that. As Francine informed her, none of us is allowed to read our own charts while we're here on Earth, which is why there's not a psychic on Earth who's psychic about themselves, which is an extremely convenient way to work this out. Yeah.
It's kind of a load bearing part of Sylvia's narrative that she can't read her own future. But I can read your future listeners, and it's going to send you to the advertisers of this podcast right now. Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age.
What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wagageddon change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory.
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Chapter 4: How did Sylvia Browne's early life influence her career?
Because being an It Girl isn't about the spotlight, it's about owning it. I think the negatives need to be discussed and they need to be told to people who maybe don't do this every day, just so they know what's really going on. I feel like pulling the curtain back is important. Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter podcast, where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver. The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men.
He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the is-ness of it all. If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity, and real life, this episode is a must listen.
Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Our iHeartRadio Music Awards are coming back Thursday, March 26th, live on Fox. Watch as we honor the biggest stars from all genres of music that you loved listening to all year long on your favorite iHeartRadio station and the iHeartRadio app.
Hosted by Ludacris. Icon Award recipient, John Mellencamp. Innovator Award recipient, Miley Cyrus. With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Lainey Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and En Vogue. Plus, Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year. Also, gold medal Olympian Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nicole Scherzinger, Nikki Glaser, Sombra, Weezer, and more.
Watch live on Fox Thursday, March 26th at 8, 7 central. And listen on iHeartRadio stations across America and the free iHeart app. And we're back. Back. Back again. Yeah, back again talking about Sylvia. So she falls in love and almost gets married, wants to drop out of school to get hitched with this guy, right? She's about 19 at this time.
But he tells her he wants her to move to a farm and, like, give up her career and raise children with him. And she's down to do this until she finds out that he has a wife and children back east. Oh. One of those things. And I'm kind of wondering, like, okay, you can't predict your own future, but shouldn't you have been able to psychically tell that this guy had a secret family? Yeah.
That seems... I love how often you're bringing up this flawed theory of hers. You're like, ah, girl... It's very inconsistent the way these powers are supposed to work. You can tell a guy's got liver cancer, but not that like a dude who's hitting on you has a wife and kids back home. Yeah.
So during her time in college, she becomes increasingly fascinated with the workings of the human mind, and she signs up for a class in abnormal psychology, which like, who didn't? I did. Yeah, a lot of people do this. She also starts taking classes in hypnosis.
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Chapter 5: What claims did Sylvia Browne make about her psychic abilities?
I had been offering for free for so many years, but for one thing, it was the only way I could afford to make a full-time commitment to the foundation. For another thing, as more and more people have been pointing out to me, making a living putting one's gifts to work is pretty much the definition of virtually every career you can name.
So long as I devoted my gifts to God's greatest good, I had no reason to apologize. I don't know that that is the definition of virtually every career you can name. Nope. We all like to think that that's the case, but I don't know if I think... Most of the people I know who worked as a bank teller weren't like, I'm putting my gifts to work.
They were like, well, I needed a job while I was in college. Yeah. I needed something to do. I can teach acting classes for free. Yeah. Yeah. So true to her word, though, after this point, Sylvia is not going to apologize for anything she does over the next 50 years. We have now crossed the threshold.
Yeah, and she is going to be, from this point forward, making money full-time off of her psychic research. She's going to start hiring people, bringing them in, and expanding the Nirvana Foundation. And by 1975 or so, she is a full-time psychic teaching classes in extrasensory skills like dream interpretation.
And becoming increasingly like prominent within like the kooky world of new age thought as that starts to kind of explode in the mid 70s to the early 80s. She's one of these people who's like in Southern California giving ā it's always in Southern California ā like giving classes and putting out books and pamphlets on like how the psychic world is supposed to work.
And there's very much this idea that like we're treating this like a science. And so we'll see how this science develops, Cal, in part two. How are you feeling at the end of part one about our friend Sylvia? Yeah, what do you think of Sylvia so far? I appreciate this backstory because I grew up in the 90s.
So I remember like when you were sick, home from school, like with a flu on the couch, watching just bad daytime shows. She was a fixture of a lot of them. I guess Montel especially. I don't remember what I would watch back in the day, but I remember that. And then I remember just there was like the gap, obviously, college.
Once the internet comes around, YouTube, and then obviously now social media, like these clips that circulate of her. I have that weird memory of remembering that as a kid, but then not knowing anything else about her. So all of that was very interesting. And I guess... Yeah. No. No.
No, and I think it's probably accurate to think that this doesn't ā nobody starts, or at least very few people start, you know, the way she would say mapping it out. She's not, as a 20-year-old or whatever, mapping out, and then I'm going to lie to people about their kidnapped relatives. Yeah. Right? This is a kid who ā she's got a difficult home life.
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