Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Penn Badgley has spent most of his life being watched — the star of two of the more successful TV shows in recent history: Gossip Girl and You.
And in these last five years, You became a cultural phenomenon. People fell in love with Joe Goldberg, and before that, Dan Humphrey. But what few knew what was happening in Penn’s real life while all of this was going on.
Behind the scenes, he was going through an existential crisis that forced him to step back and look at his life in a completely different way. And that shift touched everything: his relationships, how he thought about love, how he understood himself.
The more we chatted with Penn in the week’s episode of the Mighty Pursuit Podcast, the more we realized that this wasn’t just his story— it was actually a mirror for our own. The questions driving his crisis are the ones that define all of our lives.
Over the course of two hours, we go everywhere — relationships, body image, childhood wounds, Joe Goldberg and the spiritual questions that have been forming underneath it all.
What struck us most is Penn’s depth — the honesty and emotional intelligence he brings to each part of this story. You’ll quickly realize that this is one of his most-in depth conversations yet.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:17 - The Stairs Incident
21:49 - Relationship Patterns & Ideas About Love
48:59 - Struggles with Self-Criticism
59:46 - The Existential Crisis
1:37:22 - Being at War with Joe Goldberg
Mighty Pursuit Links:
Website: mightypursuit.com
Instagram: instagram.com/mightypursuit
TikTok: tiktok.com/@mightypursuit
X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Penn Badgley Links:
Instagram: instagram.com/pennbadgley
TikTok: tiktok.com/@iampennbadgley
Crushmore (new book): amzn.to/48sGBjk
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com
Penn Badgley has spent most of his life being watched — the star of two of the more successful TV shows in recent history: Gossip Girl and You.
And in these last five years, You became a cultural phenomenon. People fell in love with Joe Goldberg, and before that, Dan Humphrey. But what few knew what was happening in Penn’s real life while all of this was going on.
Behind the scenes, he was going through an existential crisis that forced him to step back and look at his life in a completely different way. And that shift touched everything: his relationships, how he thought about love, how he understood himself.
The more we chatted with Penn in the week’s episode of the Mighty Pursuit Podcast, the more we realized that this wasn’t just his story— it was actually a mirror for our own. The questions driving his crisis are the ones that define all of our lives.
Over the course of two hours, we go everywhere — relationships, body image, childhood wounds, Joe Goldberg and the spiritual questions that have been forming underneath it all.
What struck us most is Penn’s depth — the honesty and emotional intelligence he brings to each part of this story. You’ll quickly realize that this is one of his most-in depth conversations yet.
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:17 - The Stairs Incident
21:49 - Relationship Patterns & Ideas About Love
48:59 - Struggles with Self-Criticism
59:46 - The Existential Crisis
1:37:22 - Being at War with Joe Goldberg
Mighty Pursuit Links:
Website: mightypursuit.com
Instagram: instagram.com/mightypursuit
TikTok: tiktok.com/@mightypursuit
X: https://x.com/MightyPursuit
Penn Badgley Links:
Instagram: instagram.com/pennbadgley
TikTok: tiktok.com/@iampennbadgley
Crushmore (new book): amzn.to/48sGBjk
For business inquiries: hello@mightypursuit.com
