Oct 23, 2025
This episode will help you start to understand how to embrace
your emotional ghosts and transform them into catalysts for healing
and growth.
Her third appearance with Randall Kenneth Jones, B. A. Crisp
is a strategist at Crisp Concepts, Inc., in Herndon, VA. Her
professional portfolio ranges from psychiatric assessment
specialist to adviser with the Department of Homeland Security’s
Science & Technology Directorate, where she collaborated on
anti-human trafficking research. She also lent her expertise to
Homeland Security Investigations on Illicit Finance Crimes and
Gangs.
In 2015, she was nominated for the Homeland Security
Director’s Service Award, meeting mandates of both the White House
and Congress in the battle against human trafficking.
As if that weren’t enough, Crisp is a bestselling author too.
She wrote The Quanta Chronicles trilogy, a psychological thriller,
along with three non-fiction titles: “Loosen Your Lotus,” “How to
Hug a Ghost,” and “A Cosmic Conspiracy”—the latter named a 2025 top
new release in Science Essays and Commentary on Amazon.
Academically, Crisp earned her B.A. in psychology from
Ursuline College, graduating Summa cum Laude. She went on to earn
her M.S. from George Washington University’s Graduate School of
Political Management, finishing as valedictorian. Her studies also
took her across the Atlantic to Exeter College, University of
Oxford, and the London School of Journalism. She’s never met a
library she didn’t like but she can’t say the same about a few
people.
Crisp married her best friend, David Crisp Jr., and while her
résumé is stacked, she feels that her most significant contribution
to society is her phenomenal children.
Podcast Highlights:
• B.A. Crisp was not wearing pants during the interview.
Regretably, Randy was.
• This is a highly unique spin on a Halloween Episode.
• B.A. and Randy talk about “who are you when you take away
all the perks and the title?”—an indictment on the overuse of
labels.
• B.A. informs Randy he is “not old” he is “growing in
power.”
• Randy’s preferred B.A. Crisp bio from BACrisp.com: “When
she's crafting a work in progress, Crisp typically stares at walls,
curses more than Anthony Bourdain ever did, and talks to imaginary
friends. Moreover, she enjoys covert misadventures, which, she
assures, are mostly in her mind. She requests that both the CIA and
the NSA not take her internet research history too seriously.
Similarly, Crisp writes like Albert Einstein moonlighting as a
mystic—equal parts quantum mechanics, consciousness, and chaos
theory, with just enough caffeine to bend spacetime. And if Sigmund
Freud, Nikola Tesla, and Forrest Gump ever had a love child, her
name would probably be B.A. Crisp.”
• B.A. and discuss their comparsions with Forrest Gump.
• B.A. explains that her definition of a ghost, which can be
good or bad, but for today’s purpose, ghosts are things that haunt
you. The majority of the discussion explores how you can embrace
their existence and use them as a launchpad for a better life.
As
B.A. whimsically said, these ghosts are “like gas…they pass.”
• B.A. describes a stunning example of kindness at a Tim Tebow
event.
• B.A. explains interdependence.
Best Quotes (from the book and the podcast episode):
• B.A. Crisp: “Put simply, the supernatural is science we
don’t yet understand.”
• B.A. Crisp: “Deep-diving into nothingness can be a valuable
approach in certain situations.”
• B.A. Crisp: “Normal doesn’t exist. Conformity is rampant.
Authenticity is exceptional.”
• B.A. Crisp: “What a miracle it is to be born! Think of all
the events that had to conspire to bring you here, and the
infinitesimally small probability that the exact you in this Now,
on this timeline, on this planet, exists.”
• B.A. Crisp: “I have always been cautious of individuals who
claim to be "experts" in any field, as it implies that they have
reached the pinnacle of knowledge and have nothing more to
learn.”
• B.A. Crisp: “Just be.”
• B.A. Crisp: “Nothing will get in your way faster than your
own ego.”
• B.A. Crisp: “Every single one of us has a superpower but we
allow fear to hold us back. We allow ghoasts to hold us back and
keep us chained.”
ON THE KNOWS is produced and edited by Kevin Randall
Jones.
B.A. Crisp: www.BACrisp.com
Randall Kenneth Jones: www.RandallKennethJones.com
Susan Bennett: www.SusanCBennett.com
Kevin Randall Jones: www.KevinRandallJones.com