For nearly six years, David Gregory held one of the most coveted jobs in the news business: host of NBC's Meet the Press. It was the fulfillment of a dream he'd had since he was a kid, growing up here in LA.

But ratings of the show suffered, and in 2014 Gregory left the program and was replaced.

To cope with this loss, Gregory turned to another lifelong pursuit: faith. 

It's an experience he writes about in his new book titled "How's your Faith: An Unlikely Spiritual Journey."

In an interview with Take Two’s Alex Cohen, Gregory shared the roots of his spirituality.

“Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, I grew up around a lot of Jews. I grew up culturally Jewish, ethnically Jewish, but without real belief and without a strong faith,” Gregory says.

For most of his young life, Gregory met with a spiritual advisor. His journey changed dramatically after he met and married Beth Wilkinson in 2000. He says it was his wife who would push him to explore what he really believed.

“She grew up in the Methodist church as a Protestant and felt very strongly about her faith,” he says. ”When we first got together, we were talking about having kids -- she was willing to be a jewish family, and I never considered not being a Jewish family.”

Gregory says that his wife challenged him to explore his faith on a deeper level.

“She said, ‘look, if we’re going to be a Jewish family, you can’t just be culturally identified as so. I know who you are, but what is it that you believe?’”

He says this challenge set him on a course of study and self examination, eventually leading them to take on a universal path that draws from both of their cultural traditions.

Years later, Gregory would have another spiritually significant conversation -- this one, however, with former President George W. Bush.

“Notably, as I write in the book, he asks about it in 2008 when I’m getting the job at Meet The Press, and we were talking about other stuff and he’d say, ‘Gregory, how’s your faith?’”

Gregory says it was a ‘penetrating’ question.

“It’s such a deep question and such an invitation for self-examination,” he says. “I respected his own journey, the fact that faith and a relationship with God had really helped transform his life in middle age, and I was really impressed with that.”

Gregory adds, “Whatever you think of George W. Bush, he left office with his faith intact, and I respect that.”

Press the play button above to hear about how faith helped David Gregory through some of the most difficult days of his career.