Episode 48: Brandon Nappi

Recipe
Written By Ailey Jolie

01/15/2026

What if your body isn’t a barrier to spirituality, but the place where the sacred actually meets you. This is the heart of the conversation with spiritual teacher and retreat leader Brandon Nappi, whose work weaves together Christian mysticism, Zen practice, and somatic healing.

Together, we explore a spirituality that is grounded, honest, and lived through the body. Brandon shares how his understanding of faith was transformed through contemplative practice and relationship, learning to hold both insight and belovedness at once. We name the ways body and spirit have been divided through history, and we also remember the quieter traditions that insisted on an embodied faith.

This episode offers a practical, compassionate invitation to begin where sensation and breath are available, to build capacity through daily practice, and to meet discomfort without bypassing it. For anyone engaged in leadership, healing, or inner work, this conversation is a reminder that the body can be a place of refuge, devotion, and return.

About In This Body: Conversations with leading experts about the importance of embodiment in living an authentic life. In This Body asks the important questions: How does connecting to your body change your life? How will connecting to your body allow you to love better and live more authentically? And how does connecting to your body change the trajectory of our shared world?

In this episode:

0:00 – Welcome And Embodiment Framing

3:26 – Body As Home: Defining Embodiment 

11:11 –  Meeting Buddhism And Somatics

16:43 – Practice Grounding: Zazen And Breath

22:24 – How The Body Was Split From Spirit

29:27 – Slow Repair: Somatics And Unlearning

32:42 – Men’s Work: From Fragility To Feeling

39:34 – Why Spirit Still Matters In Somatics

46:00 – The Bandage Story: Sitting With Pain

Find the Full Transcript Here

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Ailey Jolie

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Episode 49: Megan Campbell
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Episode 47: Dr. Ingrid Clayton