jeremybernstein last time I checked the latest node.js version available from the debian repo was 0.12, so as Giulio says I compiled the current version from source. There shouldn't be a problem if you want to do the same to upgrade node again, though I'm not sure that would fix your issue. Are you trying to install superspawn via npm? If so, the problem is may be that npm is too old rather than node.
I find connecting the BeagleBone to the internet to be quite a hassle, so when I want to install a new npm module I usually use npm to install it on my host computer, scp the node_modules folder across to the BBB and then run npm rebuild.
superspawn looks like a useful module though, thanks for pointing that out! I wish I'd heard of it before...