Former vice presidential contender Nicole Shanahan is moving forward with her newfound faith in Jesus Christ, seeking answers to questions of faith on her podcast and talking about her own near-death experience that was part of her journey toward God.
In her "Back to the People" podcast, Shanahan traditionally explores complex topics like public health, food systems, and socio-political issues.
However, in a recent episode, she spoke with Canadian Christian apologist and theologian Wesley Huff to discuss the tenets of the faith, the history of the Bible, and early Christianity.
As CBN News reported, Shanahan converted to Judaism in 2014 because she had come to enjoy "that it brings families together" and if she was going to give her future kids something she didn't have growing up, "Judaism provides a wonderful blueprint."
"The process was long and immersive: over a year spent at Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, attending study sessions and group conversion classes several times a week. I wrote a ten-page conversion statement—one of the best pieces of writing from that chapter of my life, in hindsight. It was a deep dive into the Torah, guided by the wisdom of several teachers," she previously shared.
Over the last decade, she identified as a Jew, but recent tragic events in her life led her to discover Jesus as the Messiah.
The 39-year-old admitted to Huff that she is now on a path to really understand what it means to be a Christian.
"What I loved about Judaism was how intellectual it is and the rabbinical tradition," she said. "There's this constant interpretive relationship with the Torah, which keeps the Torah alive."
She explained that before getting saved, she thought Christianity to be "just this like bubbly soft Jesus, loving very simplistic religion," but that has since changed. She is approaching her newfound faith with awe and wonder.
"Christianity...is actually new to me," she explained. "I don't actually understand the intellectual side of Christianity very well at all. You know it was only just recently that I understood how the Bible was, like, it's a collection of stories."
The patent attorney, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, and ex-wife of Google founder Sergey Brin, is diving headfirst into understanding as much as she can.
"As someone who went from [being] secular to Jewish to Christian it's been a really interesting journey," she explained on the podcast. "I think that there's a boldness that one has to have to go from Jewish to Christian because.. it is this...next step that you know you're not sure about."
"Then, life, in my case, really stuck me in it in a way that was like Jesus died for our sins. Jesus is here as the covenant to God. Jesus protects us in ways that living without Jesus you are not protected," she declared.
"This is something that I'm understanding as almost like a form of armor in a world in which there are ongoing battles for the human soul," she continued. "That is something that I now fully believe."
Spiritual Battles and Real Demons
Shanahan previously shared that there were specific events that took place in her life that brought her to a crossroads. One was being the running mate of former presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Up until that point, she said she "never seriously considered whether demons were real."
"Honestly, my last year in politics changed that," Shanahan wrote in a post on X in February. "Learning just how far some will go to inflict atrocities on innocent Americans has shocked me awake. Other unexplainable events have also forced me to reconsider whether we are waging a war not merely with flesh and blood but with spiritual forces."
A Near-Death Experience
In addition, there were a few other significant, and even more painful, events that took place in Shanahan's life that left her to seeking the Truth.
Shanahan told Allie Beth Stuckey on the "Relatable" podcast that she was 20 weeks pregnant on the campaign trail when she suffered a miscarriage.
"[I] was pretty far along. It was really scary... I almost lost my life," she explained.
"I was at Stanford [and] at 20 weeks they take you to delivery," Shanahan recounted. "It was just not a good situation. I lost [nearly] four liters of blood, pretty much was dying, was [also] losing a baby, and it was just, it was it was very, it was a very scary experience.
The former RFK Jr. running mate told Stuckey she could feel her "life slipping" from her and was close to the brink of death.
"I was taken so close to the end," she explained.
Shanahan was rushed to surgery where she believes medical intervention spared her from dying. The road to recovery was difficult, but that is where she said Jesus met her.
"My world was so full of pain in that moment and it's still, you know, there's still pain," she expressed. "But to know that you're not alone, that Jesus's blood was shed for us humans – in this world of pure discord – that we know our souls belong to Him...and that God loves us so deeply that even in our moment of pain and death, we actually can know 100% without any doubt that we are in God's kingdom."
Shanahan told Stuckey that assurance led her off the campaign trail where she jumped into a relationship with God that has changed the trajectory of her life.
Water Baptized and Sharing the Gospel
The day before President Donald Trump's inauguration, Shanahan participated in a water baptism, publicly declaring her commitment to Christ.
In February, she shared with her more than 547,000 followers her conversion story, writing, "Jesus longed more than anything to save 'God's lost sheep.'"
Shanahan says now she knows from "moment to moment" that God loves her.
"I had to live a lot of life to understand the true significance of trusting in this covenant of Jesus," she said. "And in order to fulfill a true relationship with God it's this recognition of Jesus as the Messiah."
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