Annie F. Downs: What’s Really Holding You Back?

Have you ever noticed how differently your life feels when your identity is tied to your work instead of to God? Candace opens Season 18 with her friend Annie F. Downs, best-selling author and host of the podcast That Sounds Fun, talking through her new book, Don't Let That Hold You Back. Annie shares the story behind her first book, the string of rejections that led her to step away from writing for two years, and what she learned about separating her identity from her career. She and Candace walk through the difference between what has been stolen, killed, and destroyed in a person's life, a distinction Annie draws from the writer of John's account of the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. They talk honestly about fear, including the whispers of fear neither of them has ever fully outrun. Candace also opens up about a business meltdown and the call she made to Annie in the middle of it. The episode closes with two listener questions: how to stop being afraid of hearing God's voice, and what each of them would do differently if they could go back. You can find a free quiz from Annie's book at candace.com, where you can also sign up for email and text updates and ask questions for future episodes. Join the Together community at candace.com/together for Bible studies and a prayer chain. Life is like a rollercoaster, but it's better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace Bure and Annie F. Downs. Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Annie on IG/ TIKTOK: https://www.instagram.com/annieFDowns/ Annie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa-tPvY6HODihpmzjDV_KxA Sponsors For This Episode 316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure CrowdHealth joincrowdhealth.com CODE Candace IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Kiaora Kiaora.com/candace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever caught yourself talking to your own body like it’s your enemy instead of your friend? In this Greatest Hits episode, Candace revisits her Season 9 conversations with her daughter, Natasha, and Allie Schnacky from the series Girls Under Pressure. Together, they talk honestly about the pressures young women face today, starting with dating: the family rule that kept Allie from dating until she was 18, the sports car analogy her dad used to motivate her, and why Natasha never wanted to call someone her boyfriend until she saw a real future with him. From there, the conversation turns to body image—the comparisons both women trace back to elementary school, the way beauty standards keep shifting, and why moving your body is so important for your mind. Candace shares a dream she had while working through some hard things in therapy and gets vulnerable about the way she has treated her body throughout her career. Candace also answers a new listener question from Susan, who asks about nutrition for someone in her 50s who already works out and leads a pretty active lifestyle. You can hear the full Season 9 conversations with Natasha and Allie Schnacky wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. For weekly show notes and encouragement, sign up at Candace.com. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together. Connect with Candace, Natasha, and Allie Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Follow Natasha and Allie on IG/ TIKTOK: @natashaperry @allieschnacky Subscribe to Allie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbDhjYocBWYPTqoUONCPRA Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Kiaora Kiaora.com/candace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wanted something so badly that losing it felt like losing yourself? This month Candace is sharing her Greatest Hits, and this week she revisits her Season 8 conversations with Priscilla Shirer. Priscilla remembers the college relationship that ended and left her crying on the side of the road, and what she felt God impress on her there: he does not want you, but you want him this badly, so why won't you just be with me? Candace opens up about the year Full House ended, meeting Val at 18, and learning who she was apart from her career. They talk about Anne Graham Lotz, who crossed a hotel lobby to guide a 23-year-old Priscilla to find her purpose. From there the conversation moves to desire: why God wants more for us then just obedienace, and how Priscilla prayed for years for her own appetite for God to grow. Candace shares praying the same way over motherhood. At the end, she answers a new listener question from a wife who feels like a roommate and is tired of carrying the spiritual weight in her marriage. For more, join Candace's email list at candace.com. You can hear the full Season 8 with Priscilla Shirer wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. Life is like a rollercoaster, but it's better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace and Priscilla! Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Follow Priscilla on IG/ TIKTOK: @priscillashirer Subscribe to Priscilla Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoingBeyondMinistries Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Kiaora https://www.kiaora.com/candace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Greatest Hits episode, Candace revisits her Season 7 parenting conversations with Dr. Josh and Christi Straub, joined by her husband, Val, and her son, Max. Val and Candace talk about the years of showing up: sitting in a cold hockey rink, keeping phones out of the car and off the table, and staying present when a teenager says something that stings. The days are long, they admit, but the years are short—and the time you invest is what your kids carry with them long after the games are over. Max also opens up about a harder question: finding his purpose. After building his life around hockey, he began questioning who he was without it. Candace and Josh walk through identity, a smoothie shop conversation that shifted something in him, and a simple prayer Josh returns to when he needs to hear from God. A new listener question closes the episode from a 36-year-old wondering whether she’s ready to become a mom. For more from Candace, sign up for email updates at candace.com. You can listen to the full Season 7 with Dr. Josh and Christi Straub wherever you get your podcasts and find more of their work at Famous at Home. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace, Josh, and Christie! Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Follow Josh and Christie on IG/ TIKTOK: @christistraub @joshua.straub Subscribe to Josh and Christie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0_Wyfa-hCkQp46d3cLTDpw Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Nello https://drinknello.com/pages/podcast-candace-cameron-bure code CANDACE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever felt sad, and then immediately judged yourself for feeling that way? This month, Candace is revisiting some of her favorite conversations. In this Season 6 episode with Jennie Allen, they explore what we actually do with our emotions—and why we don’t have to hide the hard ones. Candace opens up about growing up on set, where she learned to cry on cue and then turn on a smile just as quickly. Over time, that “suck it up and put the tears back” mentality followed her into real life. Jennie explains the three ways many of us respond to difficult emotions: we control them, cope with them, or conceal them. Together, she and Candace talk about grief, our tendency to rush through pain, and the comfort of knowing that God doesn’t pull away when we bring Him our sadness, anger, or disappointment. Candace also shares why she tries to turn to God first, and the trusted people she leans on when life feels especially heavy. Candace speaks honestly about her own seasons of depression, including times when she couldn’t get out of bed and the shame that told her she should be stronger. Jennie points to the brokenness that entered the world in Genesis and reminds us that even Jesus wept with Mary before raising Lazarus. Plus, a listener named Dana asks how to begin moving forward when her body feels completely drained. For more conversations with Jennie Allen, search for Season 6 of The Candace Cameron Bure Podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. To receive email updates or submit a question of your own, visit Candace.com. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace Bure and Jennie Allen Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Follow Jennie on IG/ TIKTOK: @jennieallen Subscribe to Jennie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRqDkJvtPqNIYrSEhK-fRMg Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Nello drinknello.com code CANDACE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Candace has a mom confession: there were days she wanted to quit. Not to stop loving her kids, but to run back and hide in the work where someone actually said, “Good job,” because diapers, meals, and homeschooling rarely come with applause. Bianca Juarez Olthoff can relate, and hopefully you can too. Wanting to quit is normal. The question is what we do next. As Val once told Candace, “You can quit. It’s just not going to be today!” In this greatest hits episode, Bianca explains neuroplasticity through the picture of a path worn across a front lawn, the negativity bias that makes hard words stick like Velcro, and the childhood taunt she still hears in dressing rooms. Candace shares how a television show quietly reopened an old eating disorder script and how she recognized it and turned it off. This episode replay is about wholeness: heart, mind, soul, and body as the four legs of one table, along with the honest work of knowing your value. Bianca answers a listener’s question about humility, and Candace answers a new question from River, 18, about finding joy in a season that doesn’t feel joyful. To join Candace on tour, visit candace.com/tour. You can find all of Season 4 with Bianca in the playlists on Candace’s YouTube channel. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together. Connect with Candace Bure and Bianca  Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Follow Bianca on IG/ TIKTOK: biancajuarezofficial Subscribe to Bianca on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BiancaJuarezOfficial Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu Kiaora Kiaora.com/candace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when you read the whole Bible and walk away not liking God? Candace opens Season 17, the first of six “greatest hits” episodes, with her friend Tara-Leigh Cobble from the very first season of the show. This special recap episode closes with a new question from a listener named Kirby, who is grieving the loss of her dog, Bear. Tara-Leigh shares the moment she finished reading Scripture cover to cover while in full-time ministry and realized she did not like the God she had just read about. Then a pastor friend gave her one piece of advice: Read it again, and this time, stop looking for yourself and start looking for God. Along the way, they share how they each came to faith—Candace at twelve and Tara-Leigh at four—and dig into who God actually is. Tara-Leigh unpacks the difference between God the Creator and God the Father, and why the name He chose for Himself is the relational one. He was Father before He was Creator. They also talk about what it means to be a child of God and why His “no” is often His kindest answer. For email updates and to submit a question for a future episode, visit candace.com. All of Season 1 with Tara-Leigh is available wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube! Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace Bure and Tara-Leigh Cobble  Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast TLC on IG/ TIKTOK: @taraleighcobble  TLC on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBibleRecap Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure IFCJ ifcj.com  NOCD Visit https://www.treatmyocd.com/ to book a free call  GCU gcu.edu Kiaora Kiaora.com/candace Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever gotten close to something you had been chasing, only to lose it in a single moment? Jason Jackson Jr. is back with Candace to wrap up this season. He shares the story of the night he tore his ACL just two plays into the game that was supposed to move him up to varsity. What felt like the end of a dream became a season on the sidelines. Candace and Jason talk about facing new technology without fear and why he maintains clear boundaries around AI, including doing his own writing, studying and wrestling with Scripture. They also discuss popularity and what it costs a generation willing to trade almost anything for a few seconds of being seen. They explore what real friendship looks like when life falls apart and how quickly you discover who your people are. Jason also answers listener questions, including one from an 18-year-old asking whether she can earn God’s love. As Jason says, “God made us human beings, not human doings.” For more from Candace, sign up for email updates at candace.com. Jason’s brand-new video series, Unfiltered Faith, is available at candace.com/together. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together. Connect with Candace Bure and Jason Jackson Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Jason on IG/ TIKTOK: @thejasonjacksonjr Jason on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@JasonJacksonJr. Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  Crowdhealth joincrowdhealth.com code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  TwoPages https://twopagescurtains.com/?ref=mmvujcfg  with code CANDACE 316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure GCU gcu.edu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever stayed somewhere too long? A habit you meant to break, a grudge you meant to set down, a version of yourself you meant to leave behind? Candace sits down with Jason Jackson Jr. for the fifth conversation of the season, and it opens with the story that changed his life: hearing Sadie Robertson tell the parable of the prodigal son on a college campus in 2019, right after he had walked through something that felt exactly like it. Jason opens up about the sibling rivalry that once had him dipping his fries in mustard just to be different from his brother—and how that same pride has shown up later in life. Pride keeps us in the pit, he says, and repentance is the only way out. He and Candace talk about how easy it is to drift, how much effort it takes to stay anchored, and why turning around is always the hardest first step. The listener questions this week reach across seasons of life. Ronnie wants to build a Bible-reading habit and doesn’t know where to start. Georgia is tired of being hurt by friends and wonders whether people are naturally good. Martha asks how to let her adult children make their own decisions. How will Candace and Jason answer each one? For more from Candace, go to candace.com and sign up for email updates. This season’s exclusive video series, Unfiltered Faith, is where Jason walks through the questions Christians are sometimes afraid to ask. You can find it at candace.com/together. Life is like a roller coaster, but it’s better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace Bure and Jason Jackson Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Jason on IG/ TIKTOK: @thejasonjacksonjr Jason on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@JasonJacksonJr. Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  PHD myphdweightloss.com and call #864-644-1900 and mention CANDACE. Crowdhealth joincrowdhealth.com code CANDACE GCU gcu.edu 316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure IFCJ ifcj.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever done everything you believed God asked of you and still heard nothing back? That’s where Jason Jackson Jr. sat in early 2025, pulling in millions of views on his content and still unable to cover rent or keep food in the fridge. This week Candace and Jason talk about the weight of waiting, and what it takes to keep going when the answer is not coming on your timeline. Jason walks through the fasting he committed to and the moment when everything shifted. He and Candace talk about why how you see yourself decides how long you stay in the wilderness, and why your current situation is not your final conclusion. They also answer three listener questions: Courtney is learning to sit in church beside a friend who walked away. Lily, who is 18, is fighting the lies of perfectionism and performance. Catherine wants to know how to find friends who keep her honest. Candace reminds Lily that God has never asked any of us to be perfect, only to come as we are! For email updates and more from Candace, head to candace.com. Candace is going on a live tour this September; find your city and get tickets at candace.com/tour. You can find Jason’s exclusive video series, Unfiltered Faith, at candace.com/together, along with the Together Community app. Life is like a rollercoaster, but it’s better when we go through it together! Connect with Candace Bure and Jason Jackson Candace on Instagram @candacecbure  Follow the Podcast on Instagram @candacecameronburepodcast  Follow the Podcast on TikTok @ccbpodcast Jason on IG/ TIKTOK: @thejasonjacksonjr Jason on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@JasonJacksonJr. Sponsors For This Episode Candace.com/tour  Crowdhealth joincrowdhealth.com code CANDACE IFCJ ifcj.com  GCU gcu.edu 316 Financial https://bank316.com/candace-cameron-bure PHD myphdweightloss.com and call #864-644-1900 and mention CANDACE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices