That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs
Christian author and speaker Annie F. Downs shares with you some of her favorite things: new books, faith conversations, restaurants, travel stories, musicians not to miss, interviews with friends. Pretty much, if it sounds fun to Annie, you're gonna hear about it.
Episodes
December 5, 2024 • 53 mins
Today on the show, I get to talk with the king of whimsy himself, Bob Goff. This is his third time back to That Sounds Fun and he’s always a good friend to us and a really wise voice we can learn from. His new book Catching Whimsy is a 365 day devotional challenging us to intentionally live a life full of kindness and wonder and, of course, some whimsy too. He shares stories of visiting prisons in a Santa Claus suit, building a gir...
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December 2, 2024 • 69 mins
Today on the show, I get to talk with my long-time friend Lanier Ivester.
I’ve known her for 30 years and I don’t think I’ve talked publicly much about my grandmother’s book store, but Lanier worked there growing up, so this conversation was so sacred to me—to relive some of those memories, to get to talk about my grandmother AND THEN get to talk about the Advent & Christmastide season, which y’all know is sacred to me too.
Lanier’...
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December 1, 2024 • 12 mins
Today, December 1st, kicks off Advent, and you know how I feel about ADVENT! I have absolutely zero chill that we finally get to start our Advent series with a ton of you today. We truly have been talking about this one and planning for this one for a long time.
Today is the only day we’re going to share our Advent series here on the That Sounds Fun feed, but if you listen along and decide you want to join us for this series, you ...
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November 28, 2024 • 66 mins
Name a better way to spend Thanksgiving than listening to a conversation with our pal Eddie Kaufolz. We’ve been recapping each year of the past 10 years with Eddie and can you believe we’ve made it to recapping 2023? LAST year?! Except we barely mention it... we mainly just catch up, talk Thanksgiving traditions and food, invent the term "travel robes" LOL, and you don't want to miss where you can potentially see Eddie TODAY on TV....
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November 25, 2024 • 58 mins
Sadie Robertson Huff and I talk about what it looks like to figure out a next step forward when you feel stuck, Her lifestyle devotional called, The Next Step, released last week and y’all are going to love it!
This would be such a great gift for a girl in your life who’s trying to navigate a “next thing,” whether that be a new semester at school, figuring a job change, or taking steps towards something they’ve been dreaming about....
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November 23, 2024 • 66 mins
Today is the official birthday of That Sounds Fun. Ten years ago today, the first episode released. Yes, of course we’ve been celebrating all year, but I couldn’t let the actual day of the start come and go without pausing and giving thanks, for you and with you.
This podcast also opened the door for my first ever show at the Ryman Auditorium- truly a dream come true. Over 2,000 of you were in the room with us, but that’s just a f...
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November 21, 2024 • 65 mins
A Little Women’s Christmas is a contemporary retelling of the beloved classic novel, and it follows the lives and loves of the March sisters in a small Tennessee town at Christmas. It was filmed here in Franklin, TN and your girl AFD got a small cameo in it! I can’t for you to see. Today, we’re sitting down with 3 of the cast members: Laura Osnes who plays Beth March, Julia Reilly who plays Amy March, and Jesse Hutch who plays John...
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November 18, 2024 • 62 mins
Strahan Coleman is a teacher at Practicing the Way, founder of the ministry Commoners Communion, AND he’s an award-winning musician. He lives in New Zealand with his wife and three young boys and in his latest book, Thirsting, Strahan poetically explores how to rediscover and fulfill our deepest desire through communion with God. We talk about how his chronic illness and losing his ability to sing lead him into a deeper friendship ...
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November 14, 2024 • 65 mins
Lisa Bevere is one of those wise, mothering voices we all can learn from—strong and full of wisdom—and today we’re talking about being empowered women running after God. Her latest book The Fight for Female is out now so you’re going to hear all about it and hear why this was the book that was needed for our generation of women right now, in 2024.
. . . .
Other topics include miscarriage and infant loss, Heaven, mothering voices, ...
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November 11, 2024 • 71 mins
Y’all get ready, because today I get to talk with my friend, Ellen Skrmetti—one of my favorite follows on Instagram. I bet you love her too…she makes those “Hey Jesus, it’s me,” videos…and she’s just as funny in person as she is online.
Her southern humor is just spot on in the bless-your-heart kind of way and I laughed so much during this conversation. We did a real deep dive on how her comedy career got started, church potlucks, ...
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Who else absolutely LOVED the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever growing up? It was one of my favorites and tomorrow it’s coming to the big screen, and we get to talk all about it today with Dallas Jenkins, who directed the movie, and his wife, Amanda. Y’all know them and love them already because Dallas is the director of The Chosen, but I’m telling you, I’ve cried BOTH times I’ve seen this screening of this movie. You’re going ...
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You may remember Bethany Joy Lenz from One Tree Hill (she was Haley James Scott on the show), but today she is being generous with her story of faith and freedom and identity, as she talks about the journey of finding herself in a cult, the manipulation she experienced, and the empowerment she found to break way from it all. She shares even more of this story and the destruction narcissism can cause in her brand new memoir, Dinner ...
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In case you haven’t been with us for a while, once a month we’re recapping each of the last 10 years in honor of the 10th anniversary of That Sounds Fun, so this month, we’re recapping 2022... but what we actually do is talk about anything else. Today we talk big about the World Series and (mainly Shohei Ohtani), Lin-Manuel Miranda, AI, and water because why not.
Also, let us know on Instagram what you would with 41 million dollar...
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October 28, 2024 • 71 mins
Learning how to be a person of faith in 2024 seems very challenging and the center of a lot of conversations these days. Today felt like the perfect time to talk to my friend Phil Manginelli about what's going on in the world, in the US, in our faith, and where those all meet. Phil equips churches and organizations teaching internationally on navigating the cultural landscape of a post-Christian world and following Jesus in a secul...
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We're going there today! My friend Ryan Wekenman and I talk about how to help our churches and pastors understand how to serve the single people in their church. Ryan’s a pastor at Red Rocks Austin and he’s also the author of Single Today, which came out earlier this year. We also talk about finding contentment and being present in your current season, finding community, and permission to change your mind in big life choices. No ma...
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October 21, 2024 • 70 mins
One of my BFFs, Danielle Walker, is back and this is her 5th time on That Sounds Fun, so you know what that means, right?! HALL OF FUN induction.
Her new cookbook is called Make It Easy: A Healthy Meal Prep and Menu Planning Guide and I’m telling you.. If you’re already building your Christmas wish list, put this on it. Especially those of you who like a meal prep plan. She’s got you covered. Y’all know I don’t cook much, but when...
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October 17, 2024 • 54 mins
You 90s CCM lovers are in for another treat! Michael Tait (from DC Talk) and Adam Agee (from Audio Adrenaline) are here today and share how they became apart of Newsboys. With over 10 million records sold, I know you’re no stranger to Newsboys! I think we can really learn something about faithfulness and obedience through their long careers in Christian music. Part 1 of Newsboys latest album, World Wide Revival, is out now and part...
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October 15, 2024 • 2 mins
When the Advent season rolls around every year, the theme that always leads the way is waiting with anticipation. Waiting with excitement because the birth of Christ is near. But sometimes that’s hard because Advent is ANOTHER season of waiting for a lot of us. How do we level up excitement and joy around WAITING when it feels like waiting is our whole year?
That’s why we’ve created Stay Tuned: An Advent Series For Those Already W...
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October 14, 2024 • 66 mins
Today we get to sit under the wisdom of a mothering voice who understands long obedience in the same direction. What a gift. If you don’t know her already, Darlene Zschech is a Christian music LEGEND. She's an acclaimed Australian composer, worship leader, pastor, author, and speaker who helped pioneer the modern worship movement in the Church from the 1990’s onwards.
Her new album “Testament” marks the milestone 30-year anniversar...
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October 10, 2024 • 61 mins
This is Lysa Terkeurst’s 4th time here on the podcast and she’s that friend to all of us who just isn’t afraid to talk about the real and hard things that she’s walked through and what God’s taught her through it. Her brand new book came out this week… it’s called I Want to Trust You, But I Don’t… so we’re going in on broken trust and what to do with it. After several painful friendship breakups, the death of her marriage and other...
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