That Sounds Fun with Annie F. Downs

The one. The only. Santa Claus HIMSELF is back in the studio to chat with us about gifts, looking for love, outsourcing, and one of our favorite dudes, Dave Barnes and his new album Featherbrained Wealth Motel. As always, I learned so much today...what a gift to get to visit with Santa a week before the big day! Listen to all our episodes with Santa HERE. And watch Santa dancing away HERE. . . . ....

Y'all know we love to talk about cooking, decorating, and gift giving every Christmas season. So I reached out to my new friend Sabrina Chazen and boy did she not disappoint! I love that today we are getting to talk to one of our Jewish friends about her celebration of Hanukkah, Christmas, and her experience of the world right now. I think you're going to love getting to know Sabrina. Go give her...

Today on the show is a guest y'all have been asking for for a long time…Matt Maher! This is such an incredible conversation that I think you're going to love. We talk all about Matt's Catholic faith, the structure of the Church, Advent, and so much more! This is FOR SURE a note-taking episode. I learned so much!! If you’re looking for another Christmas song to add to your playlist, you’ve also got...

We have a fun announcement just for the miniBFFs in your life! Annie’s miniBFF Podcast will be back with brand new episodes in 2024! Starting on Monday, January 8th, we’ll be sharing stories from the gospels as depicted in some of our favorite storybook Bibles from our friends at Zonderkidz.  We can’t wait to learn more about Jesus with all our miniBFFs (and their grownups too) in the new year! ....

Today on the show are my New York City besties: Ginna Claire Mason Moffett, Mary Kate Morrissey Blake, and Meredith Toering! We all sat down a few days before I left New York just to recap my two months of living there. Yes, I loved it and yes, I cried. These friends were the catalyst behind me even thinking about moving to New York for a little while so this was so fun (and sad too) to just rehas...

The time has come. It's the final episode of AFD in NYC and I'm officially headed back to Nashville! I’m going to go ahead and spoil the ending here: I don’t have a bow to tie on this experience. I don’t have my top ten takeaways. I don’t have big announcements or proclamations. But I do have a story to tell you... I'd love for you to share your questions or thoughts for more episodes like this wi...

Oh friends, you know I love when we get to talk about the Gospels and today is one of those days! Kristi McLelland is one of my favorite Bible teachers. She’s also an incredible resource when it comes to learning more about Israel. I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation. We chat all about reading the Bible through a Western lens, pursuing a calling while taking care of our family a...

Subscribe to Let's Read the Gospels with Annie F. Downs HERE. . . . .  Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your December Reading Plan or Let’s Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cue the Christmas music. Let's GOOOOO!! Chris Brown from Elevation Worship is here to talk about their debut Christmas album, Echo the Angels, the complicated nature of serving the church globally while you're serving locally, and the wonder of Christmas. Y'all. I'm so glad Chris is our new friend of the show!! He's just the best. Make sure to add Echo the Angels to your Christmas playlist and let...

Y’all, you’re going to love my new friend, Anh Lin! I need you to head over to her social media and go see her beautiful DIY styling and design videos. They are so fun! And listen, if decorating for Christmas is on your to-do list this weekend, maybe her videos and this conversation will inspire some ideas! Anh is also the author of Forever Home which is all about Anh's story and experiencing the...

I know y’all love my dear friend, Lisa Harper, and CAN YOU BELIEVE she hasn’t been on the show since 2017?! Y’all. We were clearly long overdue to catch up over microphones and talk about my favorite subject. Jesus. What are some of the characteristics of Jesus? Can we love our Bibles TOO much? And does God really call us to contentment? Lisa's newest devotional: Jesus: A Scandously Devoted, Consp...

Gosh, this conversation is one of those thought-provoking, note-taking, mind-blown kind of conversations. My friend, Faith Eury Cho, just released her debut book called Experiencing Friendship with God. This book is beautiful and I think you're really going to love getting to know Faith and learn from her. We get to talk about feeling tired in our lives and our walk with Jesus, how to know when th...

Today on the show I get to talk with my friend Natalie Grant. Y’all LOVE her and so do I! She is no stranger around here and her brand new album, Seasons, is out now and Y’ALL. Have you listened to it yet!?! IT'S SO GOOD! Okay...I could not have loved this conversation more and y'all just aren't even prepared for Natalie's story about Dolly Parton! Not only did we talk about all the amazing collab...

I’m so excited to have my friend Jana Kramer here! And y’all. I’m so proud of the way she shares her story with such honesty and vulnerability in this conversation and in her latest book, The Next Chapter. Today we’re talking about what her life has looked like post-divorce, her journey with motherhood, the questions she’s asking God, and what she’s learning about freedom and redemption. Because w...

Here’s what feels true: almost every part of me is thriving in NYC. Thriving. I did not want these two months in New York City to upend my Nashville life, but I think they are going to. I think they have. So what am I supposed to do? I don't know. But I do know that I love to glow. I'd love for you to share your questions or thoughts for more episodes like this with me over on @thatsoundsfunpodcas...

I know you’re not surprised how much I love the Church Calendar and Advent OR how much I love these friends! Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible Williams from She Reads Truth are back to talk all things Advent, why they’re the very first entry in the Hall of Fun, and what waiting for Jesus can look like in our lives. I learned some new prayers (mind blown emoji!) and just loved getting to have this con...

This Advent season, we want to invite you to be part of the 2023 That Sounds Fun Advent series. This was SUCH a joy to do last year, mattered so much to me and many of y’all, and we are excited to offer it again with an updated and expanded Advent Guidebook. Whether you joined us last year and want to go through the season with us with another year's worth of experiences or you didn’t get to be a...

Brooke Ligertwood is truly one of my very favorite guests and friends, and man, I'm so grateful that she sat down with us to talk about why worship here on earth matters, cultivating an awareness of God's presence, and experiencing spiritual warfare in the midst of ministry. Brooke's newest album EIGHT is SUCH a good album that I know you're going to love just as much as I do. Every conversation I...

Anticipation is actually one of the gifts of my personality type--I love the days before an awesome thing often as much as I love the thing. But it really works against me in seasons like this. Where I feel the time, the days, the experience, slipping through my fingers. Time moves fast sometimes. I’m feeling that here. I cannot slow time. But I can savor the minutes, days, weeks, months I have he...

Y'all. I have NO CHILL about this episode. Today on the show I get to talk to my friends Nate Henry and Luke Rodgers who are the hosts of the Blurry Creatures podcast. Their podcast is truly one of my favorites and I've been dying to share it with you guys. Today's conversation is all about how they started the podcast, their experience talking about blurry creatures and spiritual warfare, and of...

Subscribe to Let's Read the Gospels with Annie F. Downs HERE. . . . .  Go to https://anniefdowns.com/gospels to purchase your November Reading Plan or Let’s Read the Gospels Guidebook. . . . . Follow Let's Read the Gospels on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on the show we finish up our Build Your Board series with Devin and Hunter Cordle. As we’ve talked about making sure you’re choosing who is influencing you in a world of influencers, we couldn’t wrap up this series without talking about social media. When we’re thinking about building our board, what role does social media get to play? It includes a lot of voices, so how do we figure out the...

As we wrap up this week, we are coming to a close on our coaching conversations. And gosh, this week has been SO. GOOD. Y’all LOVED Janice Gaines when she was on the pod during our Summer Lovin' Series. So of course we had to have her back! And this time, her husband EJ Gaines, joined us as well to help us figure out if our relationships need a coach. Whether you’re married, dating, engaged, or si...

Y'all. I'm having the BEST time this week talking about all the different kinds of coaching. Today's conversation is with my friend, Christy Wright. Christy is a certified business coach and personal development expert, and today we’re talking all about life coaching. What does a life coach even do? And how might one be able to benefit us? We talk about life balance and expectations, feeling disco...

One of my best friends, Rachel Cruze, is BACK on the show and I’m just having the best time talking to ALL my friends this week about coaching. Rachel loves to help people start winning with money and create a life they’ll love, and today she’s helping us figure out if we actually need a financial coach in our lives, how to be our most generous selves, and how to look at our finances from a place...