[music] This is Undaunted [music] Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. All right, everybody. Here we are. We're towards the end of the year. near the end of 2025 and as you know at the end of the year we do a bunch of top lists. So we do like best podcast of the year, today's best books of the year, then we'll wrap up the year with some other shows. So I changed it up a little bit last year with my list from 2024. So I did I used to do categories and different awards and different things like that. But this year what I decided to do is I just decided to do what I did last year which is a top 10 list. So we are going to go from 10 to one and these are in order. And this is very hard to do. Okay. One thing I will tell you is I can't really read books that aren't the Bible outside of the podcast. Uh the ones that are the people coming on the show, the interviews. And so these are going to be books that I read because of the podcast cuz there were several books that came out this year that I wanted to read that I just didn't have the person on the show. So I just didn't have the capacity to read. But I do have some breaking news for 2025 before we get to the list. For the first time ever, because I think I've been doing best books of the year for I don't know, six, seven years in a row. I will not be having a worst book of the year or a most disappointing book of the year or you know biggest letdown. I just don't have one. Every book I read this year depending upon the circumstance I could recommend to somebody to read cuz in past years there have been accidentally some stinkers. And so now that you know I'm kind of vetting the podcast because now I mean since the men's conference at church 1122 I'm probably getting 35 or 40 pitches for people to come on the show to talk about their book or their podcast or their ministry or their business or their you know documentary or whatever. So it's 35 to 40 requests for every one that I could have on the show. And so I have to be incredibly incredibly stingy about who comes on the show. And so I'm really vetting the author, the publisher that they're coming from and all those types of things. So we are not doing a worst book of the year, so you don't have to look forward to that. [clears throat] But I do want to give you some honorable mentions before we get to the stuff. I've got three honorable mentions. These were books that were not released in 2025, okay? But these are books that should be on all of your lists, okay? The first two would probably have been in my top five had they been for this year, but all three are fantastic. So, one is Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement by Katie Faust that was released in 2022. She was on episode 761 of this podcast. She is an absolute firecracker. That book is so important and it has helped me kind of solidify a lot of my views that I already had, but again, as a children's rights advocate, that's not really something that you normally hear about, but she really elucidates a lot of the arguments of things that I've talked about on the show. So, that book is well worth your time. Then we have The Sin of Empathy, Compassion, and Its Counterfeits by Joe Riggney. That was released in 2024. Don't listen to Amazon, okay? They said it was released in February 2025. Nope. You open up the front cover of that book and it came out in 2024. He was on episode 801 of this podcast. Very short book, very short read, but it's dense. And I will say you, you just look at the title, you're like, "Wait, the sin of empathy? That doesn't sound very nice." And that's actually part of the problem, right? He actually elucidates that throughout the text, which is we have this idea now that in order to be good Christians that we have to be empathetic. But sometimes when people say empathy, they actually mean sympathy. And so at the end of the day, it's just something that I think people should really spend some time with. So check that book out. And then also Doug Wilson's latest book, which was released in 2024, Keep Your Kids: How to Raise Strong Kids in an Age of Therapeutic Sentimentalism. He was on SE episode 731 to talk about that. So another great book for you guys to check out. But now we need to go ahead and get into our top 10 list. I'll try to make this episode uh shorter than some of the normal episodes just so you guys can maybe go research some of these books. Every book that I've talked about, including the ones that I just said were honorable mentions. All those are in the show notes. You can check them out on Amazon. But number 10, Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis by Scott Payne. So that was episode 734 of this podcast. So it's literally right there in the title. This guy went undercover. He exposed America's Nazis, some other white supremacist groups. He got into some biker gangs. He was actually taken down in a basement at one point and, you know, he had a wire on him at the time and they made him strip naked and he somehow didn't get the wire. You know, they didn't find the wire or whatever, but he thought he was going to get killed there in this basement of this uh you know, this biker gang bar or whatever. But [clears throat] it's it's kind of a nailbiter. It's one of those things where you're like, gosh, I know the guy's alive cuz here he is writing the book. But it's really crazy. So number 10, Code Name: Pale Horse by Scott Payne. Then we got number nine, seeing the supernatural, investigating angels, demons, mystical dreams, near-death encounters, and other mysteries of the unseen world by Lee Strobble. So, everyone knows Lee Strobble by Case for Christ, but this was his latest book where he looked at a bunch of different things. We talked about episode 784 of this podcast. So, Lee, he just has one of those magnetic personalities cuz he's so happy. He's so positive. But if you go back to the interview I did with him, that's not how he used to be. He was an alcoholic. He was angry. uh an angry drunk if you will. And so to see how much he's how far he's come in the sanctific sanctification process has been fairly spectacular. But yeah, this book I I'll admit it's a little bit weird because, you know, with angels, demons, near-death experiences and all these different things for me, it's like I just I really like to see the evidence. I like to see it for myself. I don't like reading a, you know, rendering of a story that came from a second source or something like that. But he provides a bunch of primary sources in this book. I think it's well worth your time. Number nine, seeing the supernatural by Lee Stroel. Now, number eight, experience Jesus Really, finding refuge, strength, and wonder through everyday encounters with God by the great John Eldridge. He was on episode 725 of this podcast. I think that was his fifth or sixth appearance on the show. But this book kind of talks about mysticism and Christian mysticism. And John tries to provide like a lane where Christians that are normally like, "Ah, mysticism, I don't want to deal with that. Sounds funny." can give them a road map to understand mysticism ha as it pertains to how we experience God in our everyday lives. And it's John Eldridge. He's one of the goats. So I think you should spend some time with his work. Number eight, experience Jesus really by John Eldridge. Now number seven, Running to the Fire, helping in Jesus's name by Ken Isaac. So, this is actually going to be a future episode. So, you guys haven't seen this yet, but I recorded the interview the day that I'm recording this podcast, and it's set to release in January. But, man, it's one of the most impactful, one of the most powerful interviews that we've maybe ever done on this podcast. Some of his stories talking about his role because he works for Samaritan's Purse. He has since the 1980s. And seeing what he saw in Kosovo, in Afghanistan, in Bosnia. He was on the ground during the genocide in Rwanda. He was taken hostage really in Zire, Africa, and he didn't think he was going to make it out. And so he talks about all those different topics and all those different things in the book. So I think you guys should check that one out before he comes on and before you see the interview in January. Number seven, Running to the Fire by Ken Isaac. Now we need number six here. This is called The Tech Exit, a practical guide to freeing kids and teens from Smartphones by Claire Morell. She was on episode 845 of this podcast, so not that long ago. And so, a lot of people are kind of in this space now. You know, Jonathan Height probably owns the space, but it's okay. Tech is not neutral. [clears throat] Social media companies are not neutral. Uh, these social media companies don't actually want your kids not to use them. They It's kind of part of their plan and part of their business plan to make sure that they use them and use them maybe even more than you. That they're molded by it. the morality of the people that are, you know, coding behind everything and the algorithms are not neutral. And Claire Morell does a really good, it's a really pract I mean, it says it in the title, it's a practical guide to help families take their kids away from these devices, get them outside, make them touch grass, how do we get a gang of families to basically do the same thing. So, the weird ones are actually the parents who give their kids the smartphone. So, number six, The Tech Exit by Claire Morell. All right, let's get into the top five. Number five, Stand Firm and Act Like Men: Becoming the Man You Were Created to Be instead of Who the World Says You Are by Joby Martin and Charles Martin. So, Joby obviously great uh great friend of the show. Talked to him on episode 823 specifically about the book. So he comes on every month to do the Ask a Pastor and we've done some other things here and there. But we did I think it was an hour and a half maybe a little bit longer sit down in Jacksonville when I was there for Saturated episode 823. And so I get pitched maybe more than any other kind of book I get pitched Christian manhood books. And there's maybe for where I'm at now in terms of the Christian manhood space no more annoying book to be pitched than a Christian manhood book because they're basically all the same. They're basically all the same. They they use the same talking points. They use the same examples from scripture. They just kind of switch up the anecdotes. And so I that's one of the easiest things for me to say no to actually are Christian manhood books just because it's it's just kind of vapid. Everyone's trying to be John Eldridge, but they're not. And so the thing that I like about this book is that Joby and Charles are actually not trying to rewrite Wild at Heart. They're trying to make their own lane. Because again, Job's, as he says, he's just a Bible guy. So he's going to open up the Bible. He's going to read it and he's just going to try to understand what it's saying and then just do what it says. Okay? And so it's a very practical guide, right? Because for some people, Wild to Heart can be a little bit poetic. I mean, I think you should spend time reckoning with it because it's the goat of all Christian manhood books, but some people it just kind of misses them. Some of the examples and maybe John Style misses them a little bit. So, if you miss that, this is going to be the book for you. It's kind of bottom shelf stuff, but there's still enough meat there to be, you know, sustainable for you as you're trying to go down the road of Christian manhood. So, number five, Stand Firm and Act Like Men by Joby and Charles Martin. No relation. All right. Number four, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity: Why America's Christian Leaders Are Failing and What We Can Do About It by John West. He came on episode 808 of this podcast. So that might be one where you're like because John West maybe doesn't have the profile that some of the other people on the list do. Maybe you never heard of him before. But if you actually dig into that content, it it is like deep and it's incredibly practical because one thing that we've gotten in especially in the capital C conservative space is a lot of people that are pointing at the problem saying [clears throat] this is a problem. I'm going to define the problem and I'm going to give you examples of the problem being a problem. And then you're like getting all excited. You're like, "All right, so what about the solution?" And they're just like solution. Oh, I'm sorry. There's not a solution section to this book. And so, it's kind of the the thing like don't just oppose propose. Like, if you're a good manager and one of your underlings comes to you, and I don't know if you should call them underlings, but I will. One of the underlings comes to you and they present a problem to you. You are well within your rights as a good manager to say, "Don't just bring me problems. Bring me solutions." Right? I'm doing what I'm doing to basically get rid of problems. So, if you bring me something, all you're doing is slowing me down because you're just giving me another problem to solve. And so, I think John West did a great job in the book elucidating some of the issues, but then giving us practical ways to push back in a Christian way. So, number four, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity by John West. Hey guys, real quick. I know a lot of you train for very specific things. So, maybe you've got a mud race coming up, a mountain hunt, a 5K, or maybe you just want to keep up with your kids, or you just don't want to let the old man in. But for a lot of you guys, whether you're working out at the globo gym, or even your garage gym, you get there and you just don't know exactly what to do. 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That is six weeks free on the best-in-class physical and mental training app in the world. So stop wasting time. It's time to get real fitness results. Let my friends at Mountain Tough guide the way. Again, go to mtntuff. That's mountain.com. Promo code Kyle. Top three time. Let's get after. Let's get into it. Number three, Son of Southtown, My Life Between Two Worlds by Sunny Sandaval. So Sunny Sandaval is a lead singer of POD. And I'll just be real honest with you from the beginning here. This is probably in my top three almost assuredly because of nostalgia. Okay. I had Sunny Sandaval on the show uh on 722, episode 722, but I was a big POD fan in like middle school and high school and I've still listened to some of their stuff that they've released since then. Saw them in concert again here recently this year and got spend some time with Sunny there as well. And so just getting be the behind the scenes of POD, Sunny's life, what led him to music, what led the band to come together, when the band broke up, what happened when they replaced the guitarist, what happened when they went on tour with corn and everyone's like, "Oh, you're, you know, selling out for the devil and all those different things like what happened." And so I actually want to read my favorite quote from this book because it may give you some more reason as to why I liked it. Here's the quote here. When we arrived at the festival, we found more of the same. It opened our eyes that not only were a lot of bands out there like us, but there were a lot of Christians that had the same mentality. They too were loudly and at times aggressively glorifying God. It was validating. It let us know that we weren't just lone rebels against the buttoned up Christian traditions, but we were part of a valid subculture within the true church. If people didn't like it, they were more than welcome to go sing their hymns up in the sanctuary. We'd keep praising God our our way down in the basement. So, I remember this, right? The underground metal, underground hardcore, you know, acid rock, the the different things like the different genres there in. I was part of that scene uh in the underground scene, right? And so, in middle school and high school, those were the shows that I went to. And I remember that chip on our shoulders, too. Like, oh, you know, we're up in the sanctuary and we don't really understand that music, but we understand our music down here. And I would say as well, you know, talking about raising hands in worship or different things like that. I think one of the first times I ever raised my hands to praise God at a concert of any kind was at a POD concert. It was at Kane's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, right? And so there was nobody watching. Nobody like, "Oh, I wonder if the podcast guy is going to raise his hands during worship. If not, I'm going to make fun of him." Or it wasn't anything like that. It was just people praising God to heavy music. And I I I definitely think we need more of that. So let's get some more of that going. So that's number three, Son of Southtown by Sunny Sandal. All right, number two. The number two book of the year, The Two Swords of Christ, Five Centuries of War Between Islam and the Warrior Monks of Christendom by Raymond Ibrahim. So his episode about this book is going to be releasing in 2026 as well. So this is the third book in a killer three-part series. So uh the first book was sword and scimitar 14 centuries of war between Islam and the west and that was uh released in 2018. The second book was defenders of the west the Christian heroes who stood against Islam that was released in 2022 and then this latest book here the two swords of Christ that was released here in 2025. I actually want to read the description of the book here. The definitive account of the warrior monks who stood as Christianom shield against centuries of relentless Islamic aggression and a superlative example of muscular Christian Christianity for an era marred by a feat and epheminized forms of the faith. [clears throat] In this magisterial history, Raymond Ibrahim chronicles the long and brutal conflict between Islam and the west through the eyes and lives of Christendom's original commando forces, the knights of the temple and hospital. Those warrior monks whose unprecedented fusion of piety and militancy remains unmatched to this day played a pivotal role played a pivotal though overlooked if not suppressed role in defending Christian civilization against the onslaught of Islamic forces during the Crusades and beyond. Drawing on an exhaustive study of primary sources and infused with his signature blend of rigorous scholarship and compelling storytelling, Ibraim's groundbreaking work far transcends the typical constraints of modern academic retellings, debunks widely held myths such as the persistent claim that the Templars evolved into the Freemasons and uncovers the theological foundation that gave rise to and provided justification for these military orders. in line with Christ's now ignored directive that two swords are enough. Luke 22:38, "These two brotherhoods wielded both spiritual and marshall power to safeguard the faith." Warning: brimming with epic battles, stunning heroism, and self-sacrificial martyrdom against the savage hordes of Islam, The Two Swords of Christ, the third installment of Ibrahim's trilogy, stands as the fiercest and most violent narrative to date. So, that kind of gives you a little taste of it. So, I'm actually in the middle of reading this right now. I mean, it's a tome. It's about 500 pages. But this is my favorite quote from the two swords of Christ. Okay, so here we go. Take Jesus's talk of swords. He tells his disciples that he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. They responded, "Lord, behold, here are two swords." To which Christ concludes, it is enough. Luke 22 36 and 38 in the King James version. Whereas most modern-day Christians allegorize this verse into meaninglessness, for most preodern and especially medieval Christians, it mean its meaning was clear. Christians are to fight two sorts of evil with two sorts of swords. A spiritual sword against spiritual enemies and a physical sword against physical enemies. Taken together, these two swords were and are enough. Guys, this book is epic. If you like history at all, it's incredible. If you're confused about the Crusades and the the war between, you know, Islam and Christianity and what what things happened therein, you've really got to get all three of these books, Sword and Scitar and Defenders of the West, and then The Two Swords of Christ. But, you know, you get one of them, it'll be fine. I started with Defenders of the West. I'm having to go back to Sword and Scitar. But again, number two book of 2025, The Two Swords of Christ by Raymond Ibrahim. And so, I guess this is our drum roll time. This is everybody get excited. Everybody get on your feet. This is the number one book for my money for 2025 and it is Happy Lies: How a Movement You Probably Never Heard of Shaped Our Self-Oss World by Melissa Doherty. So, you can go back to episode 758 of this podcast where I talked to her in detail about this book. And the thing that I found interesting about this book, because I can't remember when I did that interview, what was that? I don't know, April, May, June, something like that. As I was reading the book, it felt just like last year when I read the late great Vodie Bacham's latest book, It's Not Like Being Black. Because last year when I was reading that book, about halfway through, I'm like, "This is going to be the book of the year." I could just tell, right? I knew it immediately. And then when I finished it, I was like, "Yeah, it's going to take a colossal book to overtake this book." I felt the exact same way about Happy Lies by Doherty. The exact same way. Got about halfway through the book, maybe about a third of the way through the book, and I'm like, "This is going to be the book of the year. And we'll actually get to the description of the book and then we'll talk more about it. In this groundbreaking book, popular apologist Melissa Doherty helps us understand how our society got to be so toxically subjective, why endless positivity is inherently destructive, and how we can live with faithful truth and genuine love in these self-obsessed times. Melissa Dhert's skillful diagnosis or skillfully diagnoses the issues and provides the cure, the authentic and life-giving truth of the Christian worldview. That's according to Wesley Huff. Have you ever wondered how we ended up in a world where personal feelings could become the authority for reality? Or why so many of us are on a relentless pursuit of happiness yet somehow feel more exhausted and sadder than ever? You're not alone. Melissa deafly traces the roots of today's social chaos back to a littleknown but very influential 1800's philosophy known as new thought. A former follower of its teachings, Melissa provides clarity and compassion mixed with a dash of loving snark as she exposes new thoughts, deceptions, and its many concerning tendrils within the church and our self-help culture. You'll be shocked, grieved, and encouraged as you learn how you can experience true freedom, hope, and peace instead of the world's counterfeits. How an anti-God ideology so easily hijacked Christian sounding ideas. Why thinking positively is entirely different from the unbiblical and burdensome positive thought movement. Why fake authenticity shortcircuits real redemption and how understanding the new thought mindset can help us share our faith more effectively. Uncover a dangerous ideology that nearly everyone has met yet few of us can name in order to better understand our culture and joyfully live faithful to the gospel that's is so much better than our world's happy lies. So, I've got several favorite quotes from this book. I'm going to share three of them with you and then we'll get you out of here. Here's one. My beliefs were based more on experience and what was culturally popular than what the Bible taught. And guys, that's indicative of a lot of people right now because how can we have these these surveys come out where like 70% of self-proclaimed evangelicals say, "Oh yeah, there's multiple ways to God, not just through Christ, right? It's because you believe your experiences and culturally popular things and not what the Bible says." Here's a second quote here. Theologically, it's spiritual chaos. People think it's spiritual freedom, but it's a false toxic freedom. Sadly, after a steady diet of this watered down, feelings-based counterfeit, even a small taste of the true gospel can taste bitter, like bondage and hate. This is the purpose of false gospels. Make evil look good and good look evil. And one more quote here from Happy Lies by Melissa Doherty. One of Satan's best tactics is working to keep Christians ignorant of the one spiritual weapon we have in our battle against him. Our Bibles, the sword of the spirit. So guys, you know this obviously with the daily blade and the sword of the spirit. I'm trying to get more Bible in your brain because you got baseball statistics, you've got lineups for fantasy football, you've got, you know, maps from, you know, Call of Duty, and you got all these different things in your brain, and then you're like, I just can't memorize scripture. It's like, bro, I could put on a 90s country song that you haven't heard since 1997, and I bet you can sing most of the first, second, and third verse in the entirety of the chorus. What are you talking about? You've got room in there. You're just not getting the Bible in there. And so, if you're not reading the Bible, I want you to be reading books like this that are going to circle you back to the scripture because it's showing you that look, if you're not scripturally literate, you're going to be able to be taken advantage of. Let's go back to Jesus in the desert being tempted for 40 days and 40 nights. What was Satan doing? He was quoting scripture to Jesus, but it was out of context and incomplete. Right? So for you, if Satan is trying to attack you in a particular way and he's using one of these doofuses that is, you know, misquing scripture or even one of these pastors that is giving you scripture out of context because, you know, they're more of a TED talk preacher. They're not actually caring about expositing the Bible to you. If you don't hear something and it go, "Wait, wait a minute. That that's not what that scripture means." Because I I've read that passage before a lot and the context that that's not what any of that means. He just pulled that out of his rear end. Most of us aren't ready or prepared to do that. And so that's why I love this book so much is because she is very open about talking about her own misgivings about true Christianity and people that actually read the Bible. She thought, "No, the pastor gets paid to read the Bible. They're trying to help me." And then you get kind of pulled into all these different directions, and Satan just absolutely loves it when Christians stay ignorant like that. So again, guys, I really, really enjoyed the book. Basically, from the beginning, I knew it was going to be the book of the year. So, the book of the year for 2025, Happy Lies: How the Movement You Probably Never Heard of Shaped Our Self-obsessed World by Melissa Doherty. So, guys, thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. We really appreciate you being here with us. Before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost at Undaunted Life. Our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. And just a reminder, we are a donation based ministry. So, if you want to see more content like this getting out to you guys around the globe, you've got to hop on board and be a donor. Undaunted.life/donate. And then I've got links to every single one of the books that I mentioned in today's podcast. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive fivestar review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undantton.life, that's info@undanton.life, follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way. Just go to www.undton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is their song Perpetual, which is off their self-titled debut album on Faceown Records. The links are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness. Keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience. Keep seeking the Lion of Judah. [music] [music]