Crystal Paine Show

Join Jesse and I for this episode as we discuss all things regarding my recent very first half marathon! This was truly an experience that turned out to be even more memorable than I ever expected! From the nerves leading up to race day to the unexpected friendships I made along the way, there were plenty of lessons, surprises, and moments that I will never, ever forget!

Listen in as I walk you through how I prepared for the race, including my training taper, carb loading, hydration, and fueling strategy, and share what it was like to...

I am so thrilled to have frequent guest Sissy Goff back on the show today to talk about how to help kids cope with loss and recover from grief. The last few times I've had her in the studio, she has had David Thomas with her, but as much as I love David, it’s really nice to have her all to myself. She draws from her book Helping Kids Through Grief: A Parent's Guide for Making Sense of Death, Processing Loss, and Finding Hope, Sissy helps me tackle this topic and discusses how grief is one of those th...

We are doing something a little bit different for this episode of The Crystal Paine Show because Jesse is actually interviewing me! It is, after all, launch day for my sixth book, The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women, and we are spending this episode talking about the book itself, why I wrote it, and what I hope that it will do for women who want to feel more confident about their finances!

I’ll be perfectly honest in that this was probably the book I struggled with the most. Even though I have spent more than two de...

Have you ever walked into your house and felt overwhelmed by all the stuff staring back at you or felt guilty about the books that you haven’t read, the hobbies that you haven’t pursued, or the projects that you haven’t finished? If so, then this conversation is for you!

I am so excited to have today’s guest in the studio again, especially since she was actually my first ever guest on this podcast! Listen in as I welcome Myquillyn Smith to The Crystal Paine Show. She is the author of House Hushing: The Simple M...

Listen in to this episode of The Crystal Paine Show as Jesse and I talk about something that I have been working on for a long time: my sixth book, The 7 Habits of Financially Healthy Women, which comes out very soon on October 27th! The release date was originally September 15th, so having it pushed back six weeks at the last minute has made for an interesting fall. Between running our business during its busiest season and suddenly having all these podcast interviews lined up, I have had plenty to keep me on my toes but I am so...

I am honestly truly honored to have Lysa TerKeurst joining me for this conversation! Lysa has been such a meaningful mentor in my life for many years, and in her new book, Making Peace With What I Can’t Control, she tackles something that I think so many of us wrestle with: the exhausting desire to fix, manage, and control the people and circumstances that we love.

This conversation with Lysa helped me see control in a way that I hadn’t really considered before – sometimes, our struggle with control doesn’t come from wanting power; it comes fr...

This episode of The Crystal Paine Show is honestly a little bit of everything - from chaotic travel stories to some really meaningful reflections from my recent trip to Focus on the Family, but I have to start off by telling you all about my travel adventures because I am apparently incapable of taking a trip without something happening. My flight to Focus on the Family was surprisingly uneventful, but another recent trip involved traffic, completely full airport parking garages, a frantic search for a parking spot, a shuttle bus, and me running through the airport trying to make...

Author of the brand new book This Moment Matters: 100 Ways to Cultivate a Grace-Laced Life, Ruth Chou Simons comes back on the podcast, and I am so excited to have her back! The last time that we tried to record together, I was such a hot mess that we ended up doing an Instagram story and Facebook Live instead, so when she agreed to come back, I was thrilled, and this time, we actually have a podcast episode!

I truly love Ruth's new book. There is so much practical wisdom in its pages and so many moments...

Tune in this week as Jesse and I talk all about my recent trip to Guatemala! I have alluded to this trip to Guatemala in a few earlier episodes, but I am so excited to finally sit down with Jesse and share more of the story. This was truly a bucket list trip for me. Ever since we adopted David, I have wanted to visit Guatemala to learn more about his culture and history and to better understand what his mom experienced growing up there. I never imagined the opportunity would just fall into my lap the way that...

For this episode of The Crystal Paine Show,I am joined by the author of the book More Than You Can Imagine: What Goes Does When You Trust Him - Susie Larson! In our conversation, she shares some of the most powerful stories of trusting God through seasons when nothing seemed to make sense. Her aforementioned new book isn’t just something she wrote; it’s something she has lived. She opens up about the years when serious health challenges, medical bills, financial pressure, and fear left her family wondering how they were going to make it, yet, right in t...

Join Jesse and me this week as we talk about something that scared Jesse: doing his first CrossFit competition! Hear about how, a few months before the competition, he told me that he wanted to compete, and while I could tell that he truly wanted to do it, I could also tell just how much fear was standing in his way. He had movements that he wasn’t sure he could do, weights that he had never lifted, and the very real possibility of doing all of this in front of a bunch of people. Honestly, I wasn’t conv...

What does it really mean for the church to be a family? In this episode of The Crystal Paine Show, I am joined by my friend Dr. JJ Jones, co-author of Reimagining Church as Family, for a conversation to help us think differently about how to help others feels seen, welcomed, and truly included in our churches!

Listen in as JJ shares how years of research and ministry experience led him and his co-author Rich Griffith to rethink some of the traditional approaches to family ministry. Too often, as he discusses, our programs, language, and even the...

The podcast has been MIA for a bit, but I am so happy to be back to share a story I have been excited to share on the show!

Earlier this year, my daughter Kathrynne asked if I wanted to run a 10K with her, but there was one minor problem: I wasn’t a runner. I had never run more than a couple of miles without stopping, and running had never really clicked for me. In fact, I had spent years believing I simply wasn’t capable of running, but I said yes to her before I re...

Today’s topic is a bit emotionally heavy and difficult, but it’s nonetheless incredibly important. I am joined by Jodi Snowdon, author of Depth: Growing Through Heartbreak to Strength, and she joins me for a very vulnerable conversation to reflect on how grief shows up in many forms of life - miscarriage, divorce, loss of loved ones - and how often people feel unsure of how to support someone in those moments. Listen in as she shares her own experiences of devastating loss and how they helped reshape her faith, emotional resilience, and understanding of God’s presence in suf...

Jesse and I welcome you this week as we reflect on our recent glamping trip, an anniversary trip that Jesse had secretly planned and that nearly didn’t happen! Hear all about how, after finally figuring out childcare for the kids, we were ready to leave when everything unraveled all at once: sore throats, emergency doctor appointments, positive strep tests, and even an unexpected COVID diagnosis.

We suddenly found ourselves trying to decide whether to cancel a trip we had been looking forward to for months while also making sure everyone at home would be okay. Thankfully, th...

This episode's guests might take the cake for most frequent guests on the podcasts – Sissy Goff and David Thomas! Throughout this insightful conversation with them, there is a question that I keep coming back to - are we protecting our kids or are we accidentally preventing them from becoming capable? That is the primary focus of not only our conversation today but also of their book – Capable: How to Teach Your Kids the Strengths, Skills, and Strategies to Build Resilience!

Listen in as we unpack why so many loving, thoughtful parents are exhausted from carrying responsibilities their chil...

Funnily enough, this episode of The Crystal Paine Show was originally supposed to be about my 22-hour getaway with Jesse and then naturally became much more an episode about running and how I have been training for a 10k! Listen in as Jesse and I share how a two-week break from the podcast turned into a reflection on just how full life has been lately! From the chaos of baseball season to the unexpected intensity of my 10K training, things have truly been hectic. Between juggling travel ball schedules and long practices with Jesse and Silas, I have also...

I am truly so excited for this episode because, honestly, it felt like a little therapy session for me, and I really hope that it gives you some aha moments too! I am talking with Jason VanRuler about his book Discovering Your Communication Type: The Five Paths to Deeper Connections and Stronger Relationships, and right from the start as I read it, I was hooked. I could see how the insights would help me with my husband, my kids, and my friendships because it’s practical, relatable, and so surprisingly accessible - like someone finally saying, “Here’s how this a...

Listen in this week as Jesse and I share five exciting updates from the Paine house as of late! Some of our updates are more practical, some are deeply personal, and a few honestly caught me completely off guard, and Jesse comes into the conversation without knowing what I am going to share, which makes it even more fun as we walk through what’s been happening behind the scenes in our world!

I start off with something that might sound minor but honestly felt pretty significant to me - a recent dentist visit that went surprisingly we...

I am so thrilled to have today’s guest on the show because not only does she have brilliant insights to share, she is also a very dear friend as well as my acquisitions editor! Jennifer Dukes Lee is the author of the book How to Love Your Morning: Faith-Filled Habits to Build a Life of Joy and Purpose One Day at a Time, and she joins me for this episode to talk about just that - how to love your morning!

Jennifer offers a truly refreshing perspective that mornings aren’t about the time on the cloc...

Although we inadvertently took a few weeks off from the podcast, we are back, and overall, the most accurate way to describe life lately is “full.” Between spring breaks, kids popping in and out of the house, and multiple trips layered on top of one another, quiet moments have been pretty rare around here.

Listen in this week as Jesse and I do something we hadn’t actually had time to do yet: sit down and process everything that’s happened over the past few weeks. We talk about the whirlwind of travel – his father-son ski trip to Utah with...

I am so excited to be bringing this conversation with repeat guest Addison Bevere to you! Addison is the author of the book Words with God: Trading Boring, Empty Prayer for Real Connection, and his work has really stayed with me since our last discussion. I have, in fact, told so many people about how his heart for faith feels grounded, honest, and alive, and, in this new episode, we talk about his new prayer journal that accompanies his book which is designed as a 40-day invitation to build a more real rhythm with God rather than trying to...

Just as a forewarning, this week's episode might be a little bit TMI, but I did mention it coming up in a recent episode – my recent colonoscopy! While I don't get into the especially gritty details, I talk openly with Jesse about my experience because I really wanted to share the full story. I kept hearing from people who were scared of the procedure or avoided it because of what they’d heard about the prep, and I was nervous too, especially after reading all the horror stories online, but I found that preparation and good guidance made a bigg...

I have been eagerly looking forward to doing this episode ever since I got my hands on Dr. Lee Warren’s new book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery. The title alone had Jesse asking, “Wait… self-brain surgery?” Honestly, I actually had the same thought, but what Lee shares in this conversation completely blew me away. He is a brain surgeon, and he has discovered that the same principles he uses in the operating room can be applied by each of us to literally change our own brains - via our thoughts!

Most of what runs through our mind...

This week on The Crystal Paine Show, I want to talk about something that has unexpectedly changed my life this year - what I jokingly call my “grandma hobbies era.” When I first shared that phrase online, it stirred up more feelings than I ever expected. Some people really loved it, but some were really bothered by it. For me, it’s a playful way to describe something deeply meaningful: choosing activities that slow me down, calm my body, and help me feel present again!

Two years ago, if I had heard myself talking about puzzles, watercoloring, baking...

Several years ago, Lindsey Maestas challenged me to see Jesse not as another task on my never-ending list but rather as a person again - a moment that stuck with me, and in this season of raising a big family and carrying a lot of weight, I realized how easily my marriage had slipped to the back burner. So for this episode, I invited Lindsey on to talk about what it really looks like to choose your marriage when life is busy or you are tired, hurting, or feeling like life is difficult.

Using her book Don’t...

Join me and Jesse this week as I share what it has actually been like wearing a continuous glucose monitor as a non-diabetic, why I decided to try it, and what I’ve learned about my body in the process. It all starts in the middle of a very real “snowpocalypse” with canceled plans, sick kids, and a scrapped anniversary trip, which somehow turned into the perfect time to slow down, rest, and pay closer attention to my health!

I walk you through the basics of what a continuous glucose monitor is, how the non-medical versions work, and wh...

Trust me, you are not going to want to miss this episode’s honest and vulnerable conversation with Stephen McWhirter, author of the memoir Radically Restored: How Knowing Jesus Heals Our Brokenness. I have really been looking forward to sharing this episode because his story is raw, unsettling at times, and deeply hopeful, and it challenged me in ways that I couldn't have expected. Listen as Stephen opens up about growing up in a home where faith was loudly preached in public but painfully contradicted in private. We talk about what it does to a child when the person wh...

Welcome to another episode of The Crystal Paine Show! This one is a follow-up to the episode where I shared why I’m not setting goals for 2026, and if you haven’t listened to that one yet, I recommend you do so first because it gives some important context for everything I’m sharing here. Today, Jesse and I give you a peek into my “fun list” - the low-pressure, no-fail, creatively inspired approach I’m taking this year instead of traditional goals, and I am sharing how it’s already reshaping my life just eight days into 2026 (as of when we rec...

Welcome to 2026, everyone! To kick off the new year, I am joined in the studio today by Sherri Hughes-Gragg, an author whose writing has truly changed the way that I read scripture and experience God. Her Advent devotional stopped me in my tracks this December, and her newest book, The Compassionate Christ, feels like exactly what many of us need as we head into a new year!

Listen in as Sherri shares her story of growing up in a deeply legalistic Christian environment where rules mattered more than relationship, and doubt wasn’t just unwelcome but was da...

Tune in for our final episode of 2025 as Jesse and I talk about the top books we read, some major shifts in how I want to show up in life, and why I'm not setting any goals for 2026. I share my top four reads from the year - books that challenged me, inspired change, and gave me perspectives that I didn’t even know that I needed.

From Is Your Daughter Ready? by Kari Kampakis, which offers guidance on raising daughters through modern challenges, to The Fight for Us by Rebekah and Gabe Lyons, which made me fa...

Join Jesse and I this week as I unpack 25 things that I said yes to this year that I am really glad that I did because they have genuinely changed and improved my life. Some of them look small from the outside (like pajamas, fiction books, or shopping in-store again), but every single one has left an indelible mark on my life, our family, the business, and/or all three. I spent more time preparing for this episode than any other because I wanted to name these moments clearly and honestly, without rushing past what they have taught me.<...

I am so excited to welcome Amy Hughes, author of Words Like Honey, to the studio for this episode! I want you to know this isn’t just an episode for parents of little kids. What Amy shares applies to marriages, friendships, classrooms, churches - any relationship where words matter, which is pretty much all of them. I found myself convicted not just about how I speak to my kids but about how I speak to Jesse too!

Amy is a mom of nine with kids ranging from toddlers to adults, and her life is anything but qu...

As we wrap up the year with this episode that may or may not be the final episode of 2025, Jesse and I sit down and talk through something real, something I’ve been wrestling with. I’m not really the type to plan out twelve months of episode themes. I record when it’s something actually shaping my life right now, and when it comes to this conversation? It has been shaping everything!

Jesse and I thought that we knew what this episode would be about, but we definitely didn't. What it turned into was a little year-e...

I am so excited about having Nicole C. Mullen join me for The Crystal Paine Show for this episode! Nicole is the author of the book It’s Never the Wrong Time to do the Right Thing: Courageous Stories to Inspire Godly Decisions, and Nicole discusses one of the inspiring biblical stories that she explores in her book - the account of Abigail, the wife of the wealthy but foolish Nabal. As a self-proclaimed “Bible nerd,” Nicole discusses how, when Nabal insults David's men, the enraged David vows to destroy Nabal's household. Abigail quickly gathers provisions and goes to interc...

I do want to say right out of the gate that this is not an episode that you’re probably going to want to listen to while eating. (The title should give you a clue as to why.) Jesse joins me this week as I discuss having recently returned from a trip to India feeling great but then soon after developing severe gastrointestinal issues that lasted for weeks. I initially thought that it was just a stomach bug, but after my symptoms persisted, I realized that something a lot more serious was likely going on.

Listen in as...

I am so excited to present this episode to you because I sat down with Kari Kampakis, author of the new book Is Your Daughter Ready?: 10 Ways to Empower Your Girl for an Age of New Challenges. Tune in as Kari shares how she was inspired to write this book after her previous parenting books and as she recognized the unique challenges facing teenage girls today.

Kari explains that her goal with this book is to provide practical guidance for mothers who currently have girls making that transition into adulthood. She highlights and explains the importance of...

I am thrilled to welcome Elisabeth Hasselbeck for this episode of the show! Elisabeth is the author of the children’s book God’s Masterpiece: An Adventure in Discovering Your Worth, and from the very first moment she started sharing, I could feel her heart for moms, kids, and families. Her book isn’t just a storybook; it’s a reminder of something which we all need to hear again and again - that we are uniquely made with purpose and beauty woven into every part of who we are.

During our conversation, Elisabeth and I talk about wh...

I have such exciting news to share this week on the show! I recently took an international trip to India, my first time traveling overseas in six years! I was initially hesitant to go because it would mean leaving the young kids for an extended period of 13 days - the longest that I have ever been away from them, but I felt a strong calling to make the trip despite my fears and reservations.

Listen in as I share how, in Mumbai, my team and I spent some time in one of the world's largest slums, the...

This episode features an interview with Willa Kane, co-author of the Eighth Day Prayers book series, and she shares the inspiring story of how this series unexpectedly came to be during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She was spending time in Georgia when she received a text from a friend suggesting that they get friends and family to pray at 8 p.m. daily about the unfolding situation. Willa reached out to a few others, and within 24 hours, they had a website set up and 15,000 people around the world committed to join the daily prayer initiative. Even...