That Sounds Fun With Annie F. Downs

It’s time to talk about fasting. Lisa Bevere is a spiritual mom to a lot of us and was the exact right person to help us kick off this conversation. What I love about this conversation is how Lisa reframes fasting not as punishment or performance — but as invitation. As a way of intentionally making space for God to move in us and through us. We talk about what fasting actually is — and what it isn’t. We talk about motives, about hunger (the physical and the spiritual kind), and about how fasting, when paired with prayer, can sharpen our awareness of God’s presence in everyday life. It’s practical and deeply spiritual at the same time. If fasting is something you’ve been curious about but never tried, we talk about some simple ways to start. Head over to spirituallystronger.com after you listen as we process this together and give some questions to think through this week. Remember, this year we’re saying give us one hour a week listening to this episode and 10 minutes a day going through the Substack ques

My friend Jen Lilley is joining us today. She’s an actress, producer, storyteller, and just a total delight of a human. You may know her from Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, or Hallmark and Great American Family movies. But here’s what I really love about her: behind the film sets is a woman with a deep, vibrant, anchored faith. So, while we thought we were taking a break from our theme this week, what you’ll hear is a friend who is indeed Spiritually Strong. Jen has written a 365-day devotional called Wake Up Your Faith that you absolutely want a copy of and in this conversation we get to beautifully usher in next week’s introduction to our next spiritual discipline: fasting. Join us on Substack at spirituallystronger.com!  Find the show notes here . . . .  Thank you to our sponsors! AG1: Go to drinkag1.com/SOUNDSFUN to get an AG1 Flavor Sampler and a bottle of Vitamin D3+K2 for FREE in your AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1subscription order! This show is sponsored by BetterHelp: Sign u

Matt Smallbone is the pastor of Church of the City’s downtown campus here in Nashville, and we’re continuing with a bit of a theme today as we talk again this week about The Lord’s Prayer. Every time we talk about it during this prayer series though, I feel like there’s something new to see and something deeper to understand. It’s wild how a prayer so familiar, so memorized, so repeated, can still surprise us. Matt has written a brand new book called The Prayer Experiment that comes out in April and you’re going to love. We're unpacking all of this over on spirituallystronger.com too, so please come join us as we process together over there! Find the show notes here . . . .   Thank you to our sponsors! This show is sponsored by BetterHelp: Sign up and my friends get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/thatsoundsfun. Our Place:  Visit fromourplace.com/TSF and use code TSF for 10% off sitewide. With a hundred-day risk-free trial, free shipping and returns, you can experience this game-changing cookware wit

Today Eddie and I get to keep talking about how much is going on in the world right now and just how hard it is for all of us to wrestle with it. We also talk about my ceiling falling in during the ice storm in Nashville! Our "7 minutes of serious" turned into closer to 47! But don’t worry, we of course had to wrap things up by chatting for a bit about Oscar nominations, Zootopia 2, and the first movie we ever remember seeing. Also... THE BUDDIES TOUR DATES AND CITIES HAVE NOW BEEN ANNOUNCED! We’re coming to: Keller (Fort Worth), Texas on Friday, May 15th Colorado Springs, Colorado on Saturday, May 16th Charlotte, North Carolina on Friday, June 5th Trussville (Birmingham), Alabama on Friday, June 12th And maybe more…stay tuned! You can find the dates and details at thebuddiestour.com and because you’re a podcast listener you get pre-sale access to tickets TODAY!!! Just use the code BUDDIES and get your tickets at thebuddiestour.com. We cannot wait to see you there! . . . . . Find the sho

If you’ve ever felt stuck and don’t have the words to pray, or you’ve felt so discouraged or disoriented that you don’t know where to start, this conversation is for you. Brad Gray and Brad Nelson are both with the organization Walking the Text, where they help people understand the original meaning and context of Scripture. They’ve been friends for 25 years and have now gotten to work on a documentary, TV series, and book all around The Lord’s Prayer. Their depth of knowledge around Scripture is incredible and they’re helping us figure out how to use the Lord’s prayer in our daily rhythms with God. There are some really practical ways to do this that we talk about at the end and I think you’re going to want to get your note-taking pages ready. We’re unpacking all of this over on spirituallystronger.com too, so please come join us! Go grab your copy of Bringing Heaven Here and go watch The Lord’s Prayer! We have a free link: angel.com/annie OR you can find all of their resources at thelordsprayer.com. Find

Y'all are going to LOVE this episode with my old friend Tim Timmons and my new friend, Milo Ventimiglia. You may know Milo from Gilmore Girls or This is Us, but he’s playing Tim Timmons in the brand new movie, I Can Only Imagine 2, which comes out TOMORROW! Go get your tickets, you’ve got to see this movie.  Tim toured with Bart Millard and MercyMe, and this movie tells the story of how Tim unknowingly brought renewed gratitude to Bart’s life through their friendship—and the powerful lessons of grief and gratitude we learn through Tim’s journey with terminal cancer. You’re also going to hear the incredible new but lifelong friendship that’s been created between Milo and Tim as Milo researched his life and got to know him in order to play this role. It’s really incredible to see. Tim also has a book coming out on March 3 called Waking Up Again, so preorder your copy so you have it the day it comes out! Find the show notes here . . . . Thank you to our sponsors! Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-p

Lauren Tomlin is a PRAYER WARRIOR which is why I called her for this series, because I wanted a friend to sit down with me and really talk about how to pray.  If you’ve ever wondered if God actually hears you when you pray or if you can trust what you hear from God when you pray, this conversation is for you. If you feel overwhelmed by all of the hard happening around us, we’re going to talk about how to pray. If you’ve wondered how to discern what God’s telling you, we’re going there too. And if you just need a minute to sit with God, Lauren’s going to lead us through a guided prayer at the very end. I don’t want you to miss it.  . . . . Thank you to our sponsors! ELIC: Visit elic.org/thatsoundsfun to learn more. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp: Sign up and my friends get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/thatsoundsfun. CreaTone: Let me get you started with 20% off your first order. Visit TONETODAY.com, promo code TSF.  Brodo: Head to Brodo.com/THATSOUNDSFUN for 20% off your first subscript

Here is PART 2 of our episode with Lauren and Thomas Rhett Akins. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to part 1, go back and do that first before you listen to this episode. I want you to get the full story of what God’s been doing in their lives over the last year. They continue the story of moving their family to Uganda for 6 weeks. They were obedient in saying yes to God, and yet it was not the perfect trip tied up with a bow. There are still questions they have for God they may never get answers to, but I hope you’ll listen for the thread of God’s nearness through it all. You may not be sent to Africa for 6 weeks, but where do you see God continuing to ask you to trust Him even when it doesn’t make sense? Where have you experienced His nearness when everything around you felt hard? Don’t miss the conversation and processing we’re going over on Substack this week either. I think the questions we’re asking each day this week will really help you look for the places God’s asking for obedience in your own

You may know Thomas Rhett from his incredible country music career or Lauren from her beloved Live in Love podcast or book, but I want you to get to know (and hear) their deep faith today. When they called me and said, “We want to tell the story of what God did in our lives last year,” I knew we had to share it. As we talk about prayer this month, I want you to hear what perseverance and obedience in prayer looked like in their lives through this story.  Last year, they spent 6 weeks living in Uganda after sensing God telling them that’s what they were supposed to do, and it wasn’t the trip they imagined. At all. You’re going to hear the entire story along with their journey over the last couple years of trying to figure out if they should grow their family (spoiler alert: Lauren is due any minute with their 5th!).  In these two episodes, you'll hear the power of prayer, the way God speaks when we make space to listen for His voice, the reminder that we’re never alone, and the reality that obedience to Go

You may remember Pete Greig when he was on our last prayer series here on That Sounds Fun. He’s an author and founder of the 24/7 prayer movement, and y’all have heard me reference the daily devotional Lectio365 so many times- he's the co-host of that! I LOVE it. Today we’re talking about Pete’s recent 3 month sabbatical, how time with God and prayer shifted for him and his wife during those months, what they learned from it, and how prayer impacts our relationship with God. I also got to ask him what we do when God doesn’t answer our prayers.. and I think Pete’s wisdom in his response is SO helpful.  I can’t wait for you to hear this, and I would love for you to keep talking to us about this episode over on Substack! You can find today’s post and questions over at spirituallystronger.com! Find the show notes here  . . . . Thank you to our sponsors! This show is sponsored by BetterHelp: Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com/thatsoundsfun. Tovala: Save up to $300 on the Tovala smart oven when

Today on the show, I get to keep talking with our buddy Eddie Kaufholz. A new year and new us… we’re talking about mice, the Winter Olympics, The Golden Globes, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Will Arnett...and then a **special announcement** I think you’re absolutely going to love! You don't want to miss this one!  . . . . . On a related note... TheBuddiesTour.com Find the show notes here Want to watch this episode? Watch on your Spotify App, or head on over to our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe!  We have a Substack now! Find it at spirituallystronger.com. Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests! . . . . . Thank you to our sponsors! Shopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at Shopify.com/soundsfun⁠. Boll and Branch: Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at BollAndBranch.com/THATSOUNDSFUN and use code THATSOUNDSFUN. NYTimes bestselling Christian author, speaker, and host of popular

We are going to spend the next 5 weeks talking about prayer, and Christine Caine is here to help us kick off that conversation. If we’re going to be spiritually stronger in a world we cannot control, we have got to get serious about prayer. Chris is going to fire you up today about your prayer life! We talk about her prayer life as an activist, her turning 60 this year and continuing to run her race harder, olive trees, and what Jesus tells the disciples to pray for in Matthew 9. You don't want to miss this one!  She also has a new book coming out  on February 10th called The Faith to Flourish which is perfect for what we’re talking about right now. You’re going to want to preorder your copy today!  We want our miniBFFs to learn about prayer today too, so parents, there’s a brand new episode for them today over on the miniBFF podcast. We also will continue this conversation and I’ll tell you some of my over on our Substack. You can find that at spirituallystronger.com. Find the show notes here  . . . .

This is Kevin Queen's 10th time on That Sound Fun which basically means he just lapped Hall of Fun status twice!! Today he’s helping pastor us as we get started on this journey to become spiritually stronger. We talk about one of the tensions you might face as we get started talking about spiritual disciples and rhythms. We don’t want any of this to feel like things you need to check off in order to earn something from God, and Kevin has a really helpful way for us to keep that in check. Then we’re going to talk about journaling. If we’re going to spend 18 months talking about ways to get spiritually stronger, what if we document what God’s doing all the way through? Kevin’s a big journaler (I am too), so we talk about his process, how he spends his time with God, and the journaling system that works for him. Remember, none of this is meant to be prescriptive. We’re not asking you to adopt the same plan that every guest uses or that I use. These are descriptive, so you get an idea and take it to God to deci

Today on the show, I get to talk to my friend—and one of our spiritual mothers and mentors—Beth Moore. We talk about her experience with her surgeries and recoveries last year and learning how to 100% lean on the Lord, and what it looks like to grow with God and sit with Him everyday. Plus, we got to talk about her new study: Walking with God. She’s created this study to help us understand what it looked like to walk with God in different eras of Scripture. It’s fascinating. I think this conversation is SO helpful as we start talking about the small, daily habits we can lean into this year to increase our spiritual strength. . . . . . In case you missed it, we have a brand new Substack! If you’re not familiar with what that is, it’s like a blog… so if you’ve been around THAT long, you may remember the ole’ AnnieBlogs days. Over on the substack, after every episode, you’ll find a deeper dive from me and the team where we’re talking more about that episode, offering some encouragement as you process, and giv

Last year we spent the entire year talking about the seasons—how they impact us both physically and spiritually—and how our life seasons change so often without warning. We see it all around us. Things are changing SO quickly. So much feels unpredictable, a little unsteady, often hard to understand. And I just keep coming back to this reality: in a world we can’t control, we can be spiritually stronger. That’s why our theme on That Sounds Fun for the next 18 months is exactly that—Spiritually Stronger. We’re going to lean in together. Not with pressure or perfection, just with intention. We’re going to talk about the spiritual disciplines: prayer, fasting, reading scripture, worship, and celebration. And after you listen to each episode, we’re going to give you a way to go a little bit deeper every single day. We’re launching the Spiritually Stronger Substack, where you’ll be able to find a way to reflect on the topic for the week, things to pray through, and resources to help you apply what you’ve heard.

If you are new around here, we have a yearly tradition today, January 6th. Epiphany. The tradition of you and I just chatting. The last day of Christmastide. Day 12 of the 12 days of Christmas. This Epiphany episode is the only time all year that I sit in this podcast studio alone. It matters to me that y’all know this. It matters because, in part, I want today to feel like a one on one conversation, like we’re getting coffee. Except you know me, I’m drinking tea. In December, Emily P. Freeman joined us on the podcast and gave us a few leading questions for shaping our year. As I thought about this episode today, there are two questions, inspired by Emily, I want to answer for you: What are we stopping this year?  What are we starting this year?  These are not just for That Sounds Fun podcast, this are for all things AFD Inc- from my writing, to speaking, to podcasting. I want to give you a full view of what God might be up in 2026 to through the work my team and I get to do and make. . . . . . Join ou

In this final installment of 2025 we get to Keep Talking WITH ALL OF YOU-- ALL OF OUR BUDDIES! We got to do a live call-in show so a bunch of you got to pop in and ask your questions and loved every minute. It went exactly the way you thought it would. Things were unhinged for a bit… And before we started we even had a conversation about toilet seats. And Wicked. You’re in for a treat. Come tell us your thoughts over on instagram: @thatsoundsfunpodcast If you’re following along in your TSF Seasons Guidebook, you’ll find your LAST note-taking page on page 133. Have a great week, the New Years, and we’ll see you back here in 2026! We’ll be back on Tuesday (not Monday) but Tuesday, January 6th for our annual Epiphany episode. . . . . . Want to watch this episode? Watch on your Spotify App, or head on over to our YouTube Channel and be sure to like and subscribe!  . . . . . Sign up to receive the AFD Week In Review email and ask questions to future guests! #thatsoundsfunpodcast . . . . . Thank you to ou

Y’all, we have spent an entire year talking about the impact of the seasons on our spiritual, emotional, and physical lives. A whole year working through things in our TSF Seasons Guidebook. Sooo many brilliant friends have joined us to mentor us through the winter, spring, summer, and fall and now we’ve circled all the way back. It’s cold outside again. The snow is on the ground again for some of you. The days are darker outside. And we’ve made it. On December 21st, winter begins and we will have officially finished our lap through all four seasons.  Today, there was only one person who could help us end what we started and that’s the pastor that made us all so curious about what God does in seasons. If you haven’t heard Episode 851 about the season God has you in with Pastor Banning Liebscher, I would love for you to go back and listen to that. It was the conversation that started this whole year doing a deep dive about seasons. Today, we’re going to talk about what we’ve seen God do across the world this

I have absolutely no chill about today’s episode. I mean it…you might want to grab a notebook, a pen, maybe even two, because this is a full-on mind-blown episode. Rabbi Jason Sobel is a Jewish man who believes Jesus is the Messiah, and the way he connects the dots between the Old Testament and the New? Y’all… it’s like watching the story of Jesus go from regular definition to full-on high definition. We’re talking about his journey of faith, how we can better understand and connect with Jewish culture, the significance of the number eight (just wait for that part!), and he even gives us the cultural and historical context of the birth of Jesus in a way that will have you sitting there going, “How did I not know this?!” He has served as a spiritual advisor for The Chosen since its inception and you’re going to love getting to learn from him. His new book, Transformed By the Messiah, is absolutely beautiful.  In your TSF Seasons Guidebook, we’re on page 129, so get those note-taking pages ready.  Find the

If your head’s starting to spin as you think about this year as a whole and turning the page to 2026, just hang on. We’re going to help take off the pressure to figure out and reflect on the whole year by the end of this month. It’s a process and we’re going to start by answering the question, “How do I find the next right thing for next year?” Today I get to talk to my friend and America’s favorite Spiritual Director, Emily P. Freeman. This is her 5th time here on That Sounds Fun which means she’s officially a member of the Hall of Fun. Today’s she helping us figure out: How we take the pressure off of January to have our whole year solved What steps we can take (and questions we can ask) to help us figure out how to process the season  The practice of caring without carrying  And the practice of releasing something everyday As you walk through Advent, you also will love her Advent Collection. You can find that on her Quiet Collection App! You’re going to need your notes for this one, so gra