Staying Close When Beliefs Change: A Conversation with Tucker Boyle

Staying Close When Beliefs Change: A Conversation with Tucker Boyle

From Midlife with Brooke by Brooke Oniki

April 27, 2026 · 54 min · Season 1 · Episode 51

About this episode

Brooke Oniki and Tucker Boyle discuss navigating faith changes and maintaining connections with loved ones during faith crises.

In this episode, I’m joined by Tucker Boyle for a beautiful and honest conversation about faith journeys, faith crisis, and how to stay connected to the people we love when their beliefs begin to shift. Tucker shares his own experience of moving through a difficult faith crisis while serving as a seminary teacher and church leader, and how that journey helped him understand faith, questions, nervous system regulation, and Jesus in a deeper way. We talk about what often happens inside parents when a child shares doubts or steps away from the faith tradition they were raised in. Fear can rise quickly, and when our nervous system goes into fight, flight, or shutdown, it becomes much harder to respond with curiosity, compassion, and love. Tucker offers such wise insight on how to create safety in these conversations, how to repair when we respond from fear, and why our relationship with our children does not have to be dependent on believing the same things. We also talk about: How faith can change and mature over time Why questions are not a threat to God What young adults often need when they share a faith struggle How parents can regulate their own fear before responding Why “at…

People in this episode

Host: Brooke Oniki

Guest: Tucker Boyle

Topics covered

  • faith journeys
  • faith crisis
  • parent-child relationships
  • nervous system regulation
  • communication
  • compassion

Keywords

  • faith
  • beliefs
  • communication
  • nervous system
  • parenting
  • compassion
  • questions

More episodes of Midlife with Brooke

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Midlife with Brooke podcast page.