eX-skeptic

What does it cost to build a life without God?

For Anh Le, it meant carrying everything - his identity, purpose, success, and morality, alone. Raised without religious commitment and shaped by a worldview rooted in self-reliance, Anh believed meaning and fulfillment was something you created and earned.

And for a while, it seemed to work...

What if the biggest barrier between you and God are the quiet lies you’ve believed about Him your entire life?

Jeremy Gronau carried those lies for years, formed through trauma, loss, and a lifetime of trying to prove his worth. After growing up without a clear understanding of the gospel, Jeremy built his identity on achievement, strength, and performance, ultima...

What if being brilliant, successful, and disciplined still isn’t enough to save you from fear, obsession, and self-destruction?

From the outside, Lisa’s life looked enviable—PhD, postdoctoral research at a leading medical school, and a rising career in behavioral health. But beneath the surface, she was unraveling: anxiety, eating disorders, addiction,...

What happens when atheism is taken seriously all the way to its logical conclusions?

For Luke Thornton, raised in a deeply secular culture in the UK, honesty about those implications led not to certainty but to discomfort and eventually to an argument he couldn’t ignore.

Luke Thornton grew up in northern England in a culture where ...

What if the worldview you trusted most began to crumble under its own weight?Chris Wright grew up in a deeply Christian home, surrounded by Scripture, church life, and belief. But as he moved into adolescence, competing ideas like evolutionary theory, cultural pressure, and hidden personal struggles pulled him steadily away from the faith he knew.

By the time he reached...

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What if denying Christianity felt like freedom—but that path slowly revealed itself to be hollow?

In this episode of eX-skeptic, Jana Harmon sits down with Grenville Kent, an Australian theologian, filmmaker, and former...

What if the questions that once pulled you away from faith could be the very questions that lead you back?

That’s exactly what happened to Matt Schmidt. As a naturally inquisitive kid, Matt felt the weight of questions that no one around him could answer — questions about science, origins, morality, and whether the Bible could be trusted. With no guidance or...

🎙️ Love the show? Support the mission and explore eX-skeptic merch here: https://ex-skeptic-shop.fourthwall.com/

Before she became one of today’s leading Christian thinkers, Nancy Pearcey walked away from Christianity. Disillusioned by shallow answers and a painful home life, she turned instead to atheism, relativism, and Eastern spirituality in search of somethi...

What happens when faith feels like pretending, and you can’t live with the disconnect anymore?

Erika Diaz-Castro, a wife, mom, and Bible teacher who once lived a double life—publicly religious but privately wrestling with doubt, shame, and the pull of self-fulfillment. Her story traces a winding path through skepticism, identity confusion, new-age spirituali...

Have you ever tried to find peace by walking away from God or from the judgment and expectations that once made faith feel heavy?

Heather Sewell shares her story of running from faith and searching for peace. Raised as a pastor’s daughter, Heather learned early how to wear masks and manage secrets. As her family’s struggles deepened, so did her confusion abo...

What if you’re content with life, confident in science, and still quietly curious?

Dr. Jim Small, MD, PhD, pathologist, professor, and lifelong scientist was raised without faith and felt no need for God. Science explained the world well enough. But through marriage, community, and simply showing up at church, curiosity began to stir, not from crisis or doubt, but...

What happens when a brilliant researcher, once convinced God was nothing more than a cultural artifact, decides to take a second look?

In this episode of eX-skeptic, Dr. Lee Holcombe shares his remarkable journey from faith in childhood, through skepticism and intellectual dismissal of Christianity, to a surprising return to Christ. With a career spanning electrical eng...

What if faith isn’t blind, but freeing?

For much of her life, Megan Carroll believed she didn’t need God. A self-reliant achiever who valued reason and control, she dismissed Christianity as something to accept “without evidence.” But when life unraveled—through illness, heartbreak, and uncertainty—Megan found herself face-to-face wit...

What if belief in God isn’t opposed to reason, but demanded by it?

Olivier Bonnassies, co-author of God, the Science, the Evidence: The Dawn of a Revolution, was once convinced that Christianity was irrational and that science explained everything, but he began to question his assumptions about reality, truth, and the origins of the universe. Through years of stud...

Where do we find real love, the kind that fills our souls and heals our brokenness? Is it through politics, psychology, or self-help? Or is it found in a Person? 

British journalist Heather Tomlinson shares her remarkable journey from a secular liberal worldview to a life transformed by Jesus Christ. Once convinced that human progress and political reform could hea...

Few questions weigh heavier on the human heart than death. Is there anything beyond this life? How do we face death without fear?

Dr. Stephen Iacoboni has wrestled with these questions every day for more than forty years as a medical oncologist. Once a committed scientific atheist, he sought answers in medicine, science, and humanism—only to find them insufficient...

Over more than 130 episodes, we’ve listened to former atheists and skeptics share how they came to believe in Jesus Christ. This week marks a milestone: five years since eX-skeptic first launched (originally as Side B Stories). Scientists, philosophers, artists, and everyday people from around the world have opened their lives to show how the search for truth and meaning led them home to God.&nbs...

What happens when the “certainty” of atheism collides with evidence pointing to something more?

Caleb Ball’s (YouTube’s Aspiring Christian Channel) story begins in small-town Pennsylvania, where childhood faith gave way to mocking Christianity and embracing naturalism. For six years, he lived as a convinced atheist, creating YouTube content ridic...

Jason Holloway grew up in a small, conservative church where faith seemed simple—until his honest questions about suffering, contradictions, and the Bible met unsatisfying answers. At 18, a conversation with a trusted professor left him believing he lacked “enough faith,” prompting him to walk away from Christianity for the next 25 years.

In that time,...