Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 02/01/21

2020, a year that will live in infamy, is over. We’re just about a month into 2021. So, are we having fun yet? Podcasting host and entrepreneur Annie F. Downs certainly hopes so. But then, despite its challenges, she was having fun in 2020. In fact, the host of the That Sounds Fun podcast and founder of the Nashville-based That Sounds Fun Network (currently featuring seven lighthearted podcasts, including her own) contends that maintaining a God-given sense of fun is the key to getting through tough times. Downs, whose previous bestselling books include 100 Days to Brave and Remember God, expands on her podcast theme with her latest work titled That Sounds Fun: The Joys of Being an Amateur, the Power of Falling in Love, and Why You Need a Hobby due out Tuesday (2/4).

JWK: The book is an outgrowth of your podcast, correct?

Annie F. Downs: Yes. What happened is I started the podcast about six years ago, almost seven years ago now. We’re in our seventh year. It’s called That Sounds Fun.  At the end of every episode, I (say to) people “Okay, so tell me what sounds fun to you” and they give all these different answers… They’d end up coming up to me at restaurants, at hotels, at airports, at church – wherever we ran into each other. -They’d say “Annie, I want to tell you what sounds fun to me.” And I started hearing all these different answers…So, I started thinking “Why is this? Why do people want to talk about fun?”…I started just doing a little research about the power of fun in our lives…So, really, that’s where this book came from. It’s a growth out of what the people on the other side of my work were saying they wanted me to talk about and what I wanted to figure out too – especially in a year where we went through a pandemic where a lot of people’s fun plans were cancelled or changed. I had to figure out how do we still have fun if we’re not flying to other cities, going to big weddings or eating at restaurants every weekend. How do we still have fun when our lives have been shut down in a lot of ways?

JWK: How did the podcast begin?

AFD: This is a great story. A friend of mine reached out to me who works for a novelist and she said “Hey, would you want to interview him?” And I thought “Well, yeah, sure.”  I had done some interviewing and hosting on stage – at conferences and stuff – and said “Sure, how do you want to release it?” He goes “Well, we don’t really have a place to release it, do you?” At the time, I only had a blog and a couple of social media things. I didn’t have a podcast.  And she said “Have you thought about starting a podcast?” I literally said to her “Well, that sounds fun.” So, I went home and I googled it and it didn’t exist yet. So, that’s really how the podcast started.

JWK: Did the podcast take off quickly?

AFD: Probably the first six months or so, I didn’t have any rule or any kind of standard by which to judge whether the podcast was successful or not. All I knew was that I was having a great time. I was enjoying making the episodes and there were people listening on the other side. I was doing all the editing by myself and I was terrible at it. Once we got about a year in, I thought “Okay, if I really want to give this a go, I need to hire an editor and get someone to help me with this part of the show.” Once that happened, we started getting more listeners – and then we started getting in the thousands and I thought “Okay, this is getting to be a real thing.”

Now, we’re two episodes a week. Lots of people listen every week. We get to have some really fun guests. So, it’s grown into a really beautiful thing over the last six or seven years.

JWK: How’d you get yourself distributed as a podcast?

AFD: I just signed up at one of the distribution channels…and then I would just share on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter (accounts)…At the time, I was already an author, I was already speaking at conferences, events, churches and retreats. So, I had some following and some friends that had been keeping up with my work. My first book came out in 2012. So, it had already been a couple of years.

JWK: How did the idea for the book based on the podcast come about?

AFD: I really was just a combination of listening to what my audience was talking about – and that’s what everybody was talking to me about, was fun – so that was the name of the show. And then really paying attention to what was going on in the world. Then, I went to my publisher and said “Hey, I think this is the next book.” This is my seventh or eighth book, I think. I’m always kind of thinking “What’s the next thing I want to write about?” and I’m figuring that out base on culture and what’s going on in the lives of the people around me. Writing about fun and making space for that in your life was definitely the right next thing.

JWK: At a time when so much of the media seems to be so anger-focused, you’re kinda going against the grain – but maybe hitting on something that people are looking for.

AFD: That’s our hope – and that’s our plan. Can we put a story out there, a message out there to anyone who’d be willing to read or listen, that in the midst of what you’re experiencing there is also fun to be had. It doesn’t have to be big and it doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be small and cheap but really important – not only in your physical life and your emotional life but also in your spiritual life.

JWK: So, you see fun as playing an important role in faith?

AFD: Yeah! What really happens when you choose to do something that you think is fun is you’re releasing yourself from stress, you’re removing yourself from the pressures of your life and you’re returning to a simpler time in your heart and in your mind.

JWK: What will readers find in your book?

AFD: My hope is that they find some stories that they feel connected with, that they find some moments that are from my life that remind them of moments from their life. I hope that they experience a connection spiritually…I really hope that by the time they finish reading the book they see a way in their own lives that fun can enhance the life that they already have.

JWK: Tell me about what listeners hear on your podcast?

AFD: An episode releases every Monday and Thursday and I interview a different artist, musician, chef, author or sports person – kind of anyone who is a friend of mine or someone I wish I was friends with that has something new and interesting to talk about.

JWK: So, bottom line, why do you think fun is so important that you devote a podcast and a book to it?

AFD: The things that we get rid of first and foremost when we are stressed or busy are our hobbies…Really, what I have found in my research – as well as in my own life and in the lives of my friends – is (that) when we get rid of the fun we also lose a lot of peace, we lose a lot of kindness, we lose a lot of rest and we lose a lot of joy. So, opening up your life again to (fun) – even if it’s just a thirty-minute walk on your calendar once a week – will really walk you down a self-discovery path that helps you figure out what makes you tick.

JWK: Beyond the podcast and the book, you actually founded an entire That Sounds Fun Network. Tell me about that.

AFD: Under the network there are seven podcasts all together. We jokingly say it’s like an amusement park with a lot of different rides. All the shows are a little bit different. They’re all hosted by different people. It’s almost like when you turn on a TV station – like a Food Network – and you say “I know I like food (and) these are all different kinds of shows about food.” That’s how a podcast network works too, just like a TV network. You can go to That Sounds Fun Network.com and you can see all of our shows and all the different ways that they meet different needs of people’s lives.

JWK: How do you find your podcast hosts? Do they come to you or do you go out and recruit them?

AFD: It’s been a little bit of both. Being that I’ve been in this world for six or seven years now, I have a lot of friends who also host podcasts. So, a lot of people who are coming on the network already have established shows (and) just want some support and want to be a part of a network community. They’re friends that I’ve had for a long time.

JWK: Have you considered bringing your podcast network concept and adapting it to cable TV or streaming?

AFD: Oh, yeah. We’re dreaming of all of that. We’re dreaming of lots of different ways that this could continue to grow. I mean people love talking about fun. And, if you invite them in to talk about fun, as you continue to talk you can take your conversations deeper into other important things. We love being a bridge like that – a bridge (where) people love coming and talking about fun but then when they get to us, whether it’s through the new book That Sounds Fun or my podcast or any of the podcasts on the network, we can connect them to some other important conversations about their faith, about racial justice, about parenting, about growing in your mental health. We like to bridge from fun to some of these other topics that are really important.

JWK: How do you balance the fun theme with these more serious topics? Don’t they come to you to for, perhaps, a respite from some that other stuff?

AFD: I think it’s really important to hold both. There are times when we need to put our phones down, we need to laptops down and our iPads down and go outside and go on a walk. There are absolutely times when it is appropriate to walk away from the news and walk away from intaking new information. We need to hold that, while there is sadness and while there is pain on the planet, we can’t abandon having fun.

And we can’t abandon the serious things and the hard conversations and just go out and have fun every day. That’s not going to get anything done for the planet either. So, it’s holding both. It’s being kind enough to yourself to let yourself have fun and rest and have a good time and then also realizing that you’re on this planet at this time for a purpose and we need to go after…making a difference on the planet.

JWK: So, it’s about balance, I guess.

AFD: Absolutely.

JWK: If Jesus was walking the Earth today, would he be hosting a podcast?

AFD: Maybe. I don’t know. I think He’d find a lot of ways to get His message across. He didn’t need a lot of help the first time around, right?

I’ll tell you, one of my favorite things about Jesus is – you see this over and over in the Gospels – he loved having kids around Him and kids loved being around Him. He was always going to dinners, parties and weddings. Jesus was fun! He was a fun guy to have at a party. I love that He modeled that for us. You see over and over how often He’s invited to hang out with people and it’s because they thought He was fun.

Encourage one another and build each other up – 1 Thessalonians 5:11