[music] This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. [music] Let's get into it. All right, guys. We're keeping the endofear awards show theme going. We are going over the best podcasts of 2025. But before we get to that, I just want to express my gratitude for all of our donors. Again, we talk about this all the time, but I want to continue to express this gratitude because we cannot pull off anything that we do at Undaunted Life, right? We can't pull off these solo shows. We can't pull off the forging table. We can't pull off some of the things that we have to travel to do without guys just like you because we are a donationbased ministry. Undaunted.life/donate. and anything that you guys can give. Again, end ofear giving is going on right now. So on dauntton.life/donate, you can check out some of the stuff we sent out about the daily blade. End of year giving. Sneak in some of that end of year giving. But we've got the award show. We've done some different things with the award shows. We've talked about some stuff. We're going to do our year-end wrap up before too long. But basically what we're going to do is we're going to talk about other shows. So basically the entire podcast world. And then we're going to do some awards for my show. Okay. So, some of the the best things, I guess. So, for the other shows, we're going to be looking at my favorite new podcast of 2025, the best podcast show overall of 2025, and the best podcast episode overall of 2025. And then with Undaunted Life of Man's podcast, I'm going to go through my hardest interview to prepare of the year, hardest episode to prepare, most offensive episode, most talked about interview, most talked about episode, the interview I was most nervous about, the episode I was most nervous about, the audience's favorite interview, the audience's favorite episode, and then my favorite interview, and then my favorite episode. So hopefully you all kind of understand. So I've got my interview episodes, but then I've got like my normal solo episodes where I do kind of a big thing and then a quick hitter. So we're going to be going over all that. But before we get to all of that, I just want to kind of give you guys an idea of how you can consume more content. I talk about this every year and the thing is guys are like, "Okay, I want to listen to more podcasts. Like, how do I get those in? Like, how do I avoid wasting time?" The very first thing, and this is the easiest thing, and some of you are going to immediately reject it. And I'm telling you, it's the number one thing. You have to listen at two times speed. Okay? So, if you're listening to this on Apple Podcast or Spotify or something like that, there is a way to where you can bump it up. Now, some people are like, "Well, I can do 1.25 25 or I can do 1.5. I just can't do two times speed. I promise you, you can. I promise you. The first time you bump up the podcast to two times speed, you're going to be like, "This is insane. There's absolutely no way." And after like 3 or 4 days, your brain's going to be like, "Oh, okay. So, this is how we have to consume content now." And this is how I always explain it because I normally talk really fast. But if I were to talk like a normal person, I would talk kind of at this cadence. It's kind of at this speed. So, you can hear every single word that I'm saying. Da da da da da. But if I bumped it up to two times speed and I talked a little bit faster, you're still hearing everything that I'm saying, but your brain's basically attaching itself to the things that you need to get as opposed to all the words. Kind of see what I'm saying? It's kind of the difference between reading every single word of a book and taking your time with every single page and every single da da da versus skimming something. Your brain is going to tune on to the things that you need to hear. And again, if it's an hourong podcast, if it's at two times speed, that's only a half hour. So you can literally double the amount of podcasting you're getting in. Also, don't listen to crappy podcasts. Uh, I mean that like literally like if there are podcasts where it's like, man, I've listened to three or four of these episodes and I don't think I've gotten anything out of it. I don't think I've learned anything. I don't think I've been entertained. Just skip those. Also, there are some podcasts. So, think of a show where you have the person where they're not going over a bunch of different topics. They're going over one topic and you feel like you get the point. Even maybe some interviews. Once you feel like you get the point, just move on. Because some podcasts can be really long. I mean, you may be listening to two, three hour long interviews and maybe about an hour in you're like, "Okay, I I pretty much think I got the sense of what's going on here." And yeah, there's something you might miss in that last 17 minutes of the podcast or something like that. But it's probably just better that you should move on. And also do it every chance you can. So obviously don't be listening to podcasts while you're hanging out with your family. That's kind of weird every time you're having to like pause, you know, to to listen to your family. But if you're doing work around the house, if you're doing work in the yard, if you're working in the shop, on your way, like while you're driving in the car, those things basically, I almost never listen to music. Like while I'm lifting in my garage, it's podcast. While I'm driving on the road, it's podcast. While I'm mowing the lawn, it's podcast. So that's how you can take care of that. Now, also, I'm going to give you my lineup of podcasts. Now, I'm not going to put links to these shows in the show notes. I used to do that in previous years, but you know, everybody listens on different platforms and all that, and so it kind of gets a little bit crazy. And also, if I mention the show, if I mention a particular podcast, cuz I'm about to mention a bunch of them, you could see that consider that as an endorsement of that podcast specifically from me, but obviously that doesn't mean I support every single second of the content that is put out on that show. There are going to be some shows that I would not like agree with or people that I would say you probably shouldn't be listening to. But if I do mention them, I do at least in some way endorse them. So, two new podcasts that I've added this year uh in terms of what I listen to. So, the Daily Blade, so obviously that was a big one for us releasing the Daily Blade. That's Joby and I's new show that we launched on January 1st. So, it's u 5 minutes a day daily devotional content. We have some guests that have come on as well. I guess this year we had Matt Chandler, Derwin, Gray, Shane and Shane, and Josh Howton, which leads to the next new podcast that I added to the rotation this year. Lakeoint Church with Josh Howton. So that Josh Howton is a mentee of Joby Martin and you kind of kind of tell that whenever you listen to his sermons and things like that. He he's picked up a lot of things from Joby. But I've added those two for this year. Now here's a list of the podcasts that I do not miss. These are podcasts that I don't miss. I listen to each episode. The Briefing with Albert Mohler, the Ben Shapiro show, The Matt Wall Show, Morning Wire, Prageru FiveMinute Videos, Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, even though he releases like one episode a year, and then Deep In with Pastor Joby Martin, and then here is a list of ones that I listen to consistently, so I catch almost every episode. So, Church of 11:22 and The Village Church. So, that's Joby Martins and Matt Chandler's sermons. Now, if Joby has a guest preacher or if Matt has a guest preacher, I just skip those. It's not I'm not hating. I'm not throwing shade on those guys, but with all the podcasts I got to listen to and I've always got a backlog. If it's someone else and I don't know who they are, even if I know who they are, it's like, ah, I don't really want to take a chance on it, I just listen to Joby and Matt. Then I have Cooper Stuff with John Cooper, the Jordan B. Peterson podcast, and obviously we should be praying for Jordan Peterson that he recovers and that he uh gets back to full health because his show basically cut off about halfway through the year because he was having some some health issues. Also, I listened to Good Guy Bad Guy with Daniel Cormier and Chel Sonnen. That is my MMA fix podcast and then fireside chat with Dennis Prager. But he [clears throat] had a bit I guess as far as I understand because I don't think they posted a single episode this year. I think Dennis Prager last year had a pretty bad fall, pretty bad spinal cord injury and he has not been back to public life, not been back to his podcast, not been back to his Prageru duty. So just like with Jordan Peterson, we should be praying for the great Dennis Prager. Now here are the podcasts I listen to here and there. I'll just pick up episodes randomly. The Joe Rogan Experience, The Shawn Ryan Show, Unashamed with Phil Jason Al Robertson, The Way I Heard It with Mike Row, The Art of Manliness by Britt McKay, Huberman Lab, The Mark Driscoll Podcast, and The Mountain Tough Podcast. So, if I'm missing any that I need to have in my rotation, not something that's like, oh, this one's okay, or this one's kind of whatever. If there's any that I'm missing, please let me know. But here we go. We're going to go to the awards season now. We're going to talk about other shows first and then we'll get into my show. So, favorite new podcast of 2025. You should probably already know this. It's the Daily Blade, okay? And so, yeah, I'm biased because it was my idea and Joby and I are the ones that pull it off, but I get so excited to listen to the Daily Blade every morning because if it's my week that I'm doing the Daily Blade, I've probably recorded that weeks if not months in advance. And so, I'm excited to hear what did I say? Like, what did I have to say? And even if it's me talking, it's a rehash of the scripture that I'm wanting, you know, that I wrote to get into y'all's brains, but it's good for me as well. And the same thing if it's Joby or another one of the guests, you're getting Bible every single day. Because some guys, I understand you're busy and you probably make way too many excuses that aren't actually valid as to why you can't do a, you know, Bible study or read the Bible every day, but if you're listening to the Daily Blade, Monday through Friday, you're getting some Bible. And it's basically we're trying to wet your whistle. You know what I mean? We're trying to get you um we want your appetite to be pointed in the way of scripture to where you're like, man, I'm getting, you know, some of this on the way to the gym or on the way to the job site or, you know, while I'm doing some sort of errand or something like that, but I need to get more. Again, we want the more uh we want more of the sword of the spirit in your life. And so, if you're not listening to the Daily Blade, you absolutely should. My favorite new podcast of 2025, the Daily Blade. Now, the best podcast show overall of 2025 as I and I'll kind of give you a sense of how I look at this because in previous years, I've done uh the Church of 1122 Sermons. I think that was my uh best podcast show overall for last year. Joby was on another heater this year. I've done the Jordan B. Peterson podcast. I've done some some other people. But I'm basically looking at the body of work for the entire year of our particular podcast and seeing how important that work is to the overall cultural narrative. perhaps helping uh with conservatism or Christianity or whatever those things are. And so when I look at the entire year, obviously with the murder of Charlie Kirk and you know, we'll talk more about that certainly here in a second, there were a lot of think pieces and a lot of places where people were going for their content and I felt like people had lost the thread on capital T truth in a lot of ways. And so for me, the best podcast show overall of 2025 is the Ben Shapiro show. And so that's going to give a little bit of uh you know, I guess some some gasoline to the fire for some of you people out there that think I'm just like getting checks from the Jews every time I criticize Candace Owens or something like that. It's just you absolute moronic fools. But the thing about this show is I think Ben Shapiro helped draw a line in the sand this year as it pertains to capital C conservatism. Okay? Because in the conservative space, you have a lot of different actors and there are some positive actors and there are some nefarious actors and then there is just some flatout grifters. So you have someone like Candace Owens who is profiting off the death of Charlie Kirk, right? And I've talked about that a lot, but she's propagating a bunch of conspiracy theories and providing no evidence for them. She's providing no receipts. She's making these fantastical claims without providing any data because you don't have to match a fantastical claim with fantastical evidence and data. But she's providing essentially nothing. It's all innuendo. She's not actually saying directly what she means, but she is certainly heavily implying that Erica Kirk, TPUSA, the Trump administration, and the Jews all colluded together in this evil cabal to kill Charlie Kirk. For what reason? Oh, no one can really explain. And then you also have what Tucker Carlson has done, which, you know, I used to listen to, my wife and I would listen to the Tucker Carlson show every night, you know, basically when he was on Fox News, but you're just seeing him go over to Russia and kind of like talk about how great things are because he had a good experience at a at a Russian grocery store and at a train station. You have him doing these interviews with people like Nick Fuentes, who is an absolute enemy of conservatism and of Christianity, not ask him any hard questions. He has on these pseudo historians that you know basically say things like Winston Churchill was the actual evil villain of World War II. He has uh gone on and he seems to be very soft towards Islam all of a sudden. He used to talk about Sharia law and Islam as like what it is which is probably the biggest and most dangerous evil thing on this planet. And now he kind of like tutts it a little bit. And then you hear about the amount of money that he's gotten from investors and the country of Qatar and then it's like ah gez like it it seems like to me there have been so many people that have been compromised and I feel like Ben Shapiro has been the stalwart guy that's right down the middle and he did a specific episode where he basically went after Tucker Carlson and he said hey I like Tucker personally every time Tucker and I are in the same place uh we're always you know having a good time and it's very polite but he's basically like the things that Tucker Carlson is doing especially the way that he treated Nick Fuentes on his show where he basically like, you know, he tried to evviscerate Ted Cruz when they did an interview earlier this year and used a bunch of kind of uh underhanded tactics to do so. But Nick Fuentes, a Nazi white supremacist, this is a guy he basically couldn't find a follow-up question in his brain to push him on some of his ideology. Now, I don't mean that that Tucker Carlson that makes Tucker Carlson a Nazi or white supremacist, but you know, people have asked me before, hey, would you have Nick Quintos on your show? And it's like, well, of course I would. And he wouldn't enjoy it very much. he would probably get off the interview very quickly because I would basically hold up a mirror to him and be like, "Is this what you actually believe?" Like, you know, I'm going to repeat back to you what you've said. But I think Ben Shapiro is one of those voices that I think historically when people look back on this period of conservatism that they will say he did not bend. Okay, maybe he likes Israel more than you do. Maybe he goes far on some issues that you don't think are that important. But he is the one that is trying to stand up for true conservative principles and for capital T truth. Of course, he will editorialize. Of course, he has his own opinions. But when he's presenting truth, he's showing truth. And whenever he's presenting opinions, he's giving you a very good argument for why those opinions are there. And so, I think for conservatives moving forward, I know everyone's kind of got their own preferences. Maybe you're a Glen Beck guy, maybe you like, you know, Steve De, maybe you like, you know, pick somebody Chad Pther, who knows, like kind of the person you're into. But if you're looking for truth and help with your conservative principles and foundations overall, I think Ben Shapiro is the man. Best podcast show overall of 2025, the Ben Shapiro show. Now, let's talk about the best podcast episode of 2025. And again, I listened to well over a thousand individual episodes for the year. But for my money, it is the Joe Rogan Experience episode 2252 with Wes Huff. So, the thing about this is I've talked about this in a lot of detail, but in that moment when Wes Huff after the Billy Carson stuff went down and he went viral for that, when he went on the Joe Rogan Experience, the moment he was done, he became the most popular and most well-known Christian apologist in human history. Now that may seem incredibly grandiose and hyperbolic because you might be thinking of, you know, any number of Christian apologists, but because of the gravitational pool that Joe Rogan has, because probably 15 to 20 million people listen to or watch the episode on podcast feed or YouTube, but then it's the tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of clips that have been made from the time on that show at that moment. He became the most widely known and widely broadcasted Christian apologist ever. Which also means that when he presented the gospel clearly on episode 2252 of the Joe Rogan Experience, which I think he did, some people question that, but I think he clearly gave a clear gospel presentation, that was the largest gospel spread conversation and gospel presentation in the entirety of human history in terms of sheer numbers. Okay? And Wesley Huff did a spectacular job during that entire interview with Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan's attitude and his countenance was very accepting of Wesley Huff being there because I think he knew he was there with somebody that was serious. This was not just some religious zealot. This was somebody that had answers to a lot of questions that Joe Rogan had wondered aloud or bandied about, you know, in in those particular topics. But I just thought it was an absolutely spectacular thing. And here's the other thing. because he was on the Joe Rogan experience, it substantiated him a little bit to where he was able to go on other huge shows u with some secular groups, mainly secular groups. He was able to do these enormous podcasts. Uh he was on with Patrick Bet David. He was on with uh what is it? Andrew Schultz. Uh he was on with a lot of folks like that. So people with these huge audiences. It was because he went on Joe Rogan first. So, a lot of great episodes this year, but the best podcast episode of 2025, JRE 2252 with Wesley Huff. 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 in 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 the way again. Go to mtntuff. That's mountain.com, promo code kyle. All right, now let's get into the awards for Undaunted Life of Man's podcast. First one we're going to do is the hardest interview to prepare for 2025. That's episode 771 with Chris Zervie. So, if you go back to that episode, Chris Zervie and I grew up together. We went, I think we were from middle school all the way through high school. We were good buddies through school. But, as we talked about on this particular podcast, his son was killed. And so he was one of my first instudio interviews after we got, you know, a new table and kind of the new the new setup here in the studio. And I was nervous about this interview for weeks, for weeks because he and I have talked a lot about his uh relationships. We talked a lot about his son. We've talked a lot about his grief, how he's dealt with his son's killer. And I was just like, I'm going to fall to pieces, right? cuz you know, as of the recording of that podcast, I've got a 5-year-old and a three-year-old son of my own. I can't imagine losing one of them. And so, for me, preparing for that, I was just like doing my absolute best. Now, Chris was a, you know, an oak whenever he was here at the table, like he didn't crack, he didn't break, you know, talking about his son. You in a lot of ways, I feel like I got more upset, but again, he's had to live in those feelings for a very long time. And so I thought it was a very um a god-honoring conversation. I [clears throat] thought it was very honoring to John, his son. Excuse me. And um yeah, it was uh it was a great interview how it turned out. But I will say it was the hardest one to prepare for of 2025. So episode 771 with Chris Zerby. And guys, I'm not going to be putting links to all these in the show notes. Obviously, wherever you're listening to this podcast or watching this podcast, you can just scroll back. Episode 771. Now, the hardest episode to prepare of 2025 is clearly episode 817, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. So, the reason why it was so difficult is because a lot of you know this now if you've listened to the show for any length of time. I was flying to Church of 1122 in Jacksonville to go do some ministry work with Joby on Wednesday, September the 10th. And when I land, I get off the air airplane and I open my phone and it's just boom boom boom boom boom message after message after message. And I click on a message from my buddy Sam and boom, there's the video of Charlie Kirk being murdered. You know, did not look like a survivable wound. And you know, we let it kind of a day go by, but it was just kind of hanging in the air. So Joby and I did a reaction episode. It's actually the first unn unnumbered episode in the history of this podcast. But then I was going to take another two or three weeks, which is what I like to do with these big topics, to really gather my thoughts, gather opinions from around the world from people that I respect and even some people that I don't respect. and I will just take notes on my phone. And so I'll have a note and I'll just kind of run the notes and if I have a thought I'll just speak it into my phone real quick or write it in there real quick. And it was probably one of if not the longest notes that I've ever had for a future episode. And so just by virtue of the the breadth of notes that I had and thoughts that I had, it was very difficult to kind of piece that together because again I want to take you guys on a ride. I want to I want to have some sort of a narrative arc to what I'm doing in the particular podcast episode. And so just preparing my notes was incredibly difficult because again I wanted to strike a chord and I wanted to culminate with something because it's one thing to just say, "All right, well I'm going to hit record and I'll just give you my opinion for an hour." It's another thing to basically lead it somewhere to to really dig into what does this mean? What does the world look like now? So very hard episode to prepare, but if you go back and listen to it, I think you'll you'll see that, you know, we we did, you know, strike the cord that we wanted to. So hardest episode to prepare of 2025, episode 817, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. Now, let's talk about my most offensive episode of 2025, cuz I don't know if you guys know this about me, but every now and then I have a tend tendency to be abrasive or talk about really, really difficult topics. But all kidding aside, there are topics that I'm going to go into that most Christians, most conservatives don't want to go into because it's going to offend way too many people and they don't want, you know, people to leave their audience. They don't want to make anyone mad. But I just don't really care about any of that because it's too important to deal with the issues that I'm dealing with on the show. But the most offensive episode of this year is probably episode 720. IVF kills more people than Planned Parenthood. So, [clears throat] I've gone on record talking about in vitro fertilization. Um, uh, for years I just thought it was a net positive. I didn't think there were any moral implications of it because I was ignorant about the IVF process. And it was only whenever I was disabused of that notion by the guys that wrote uh, the 40 40 Days for Life guys that wrote a book and then listening to Al Mohler talking about it and then Llaya Rose of Live Action and some other people, I was like, "Wait a minute. Guess there are some tremendously uh you know evil and and bad moral implications of IVF because 95% roughly of human beings that are created via IVF will never live outside the womb. They will either be abandoned, thrown away, sold for scientific research, implanted in the in the uterus of their mother. But then if too many babies at one time take, they will do what's called a selective reduction, which is basically a euphemism for abortion because maybe four babies take. Mom doesn't want to carry four babies, so they just, you know, execute two of them real quick. So mom can just have twins. And the thing about it is I've been very clear about the IVF process where if you have a baby that's alive today, if you have a child that's alive today because of the IVF process, because you uh and your spouse couldn't uh go about it the natural way because of some sort of an issue, that is a blessing from the Lord that you have that child here, but no one seems to talk about that child's siblings that are in cryogenically frozen in arrested development somewhere, right? And there are a lot of people that fully intend to do something with those embryos, but the reality is is that they just don't. And in that particular episode as well, I didn't get into this. We got into this with a conversation I had with Joby later on in the year. You know, the question that was asked of me was, okay, well, what if what if we can make it one for one? Okay. So, one IVF process, like one embryo made, transferred to a woman's uterus. Like, it's it's her egg. It's his sperm. It's a one for one. It's it's financially viable for them. They're not going to have to take out a loan or or steal from a grandparent or something like that. [clears throat] What if then is IVF okay? And the answer is still no. morally speaking because God's design for procreation is inside the conjugal union of one man and one woman for life inside the covenant of marriage. And so when you start creating life outside of God's design, I think you are doing something that God would say is inappropriate. And I think we have a word for that and that's sin. And I know Al Mohler even recently uh he wouldn't go as far to say that doing IVF is a sin, but I I would say that that's where I land. And so a lot of people again are just like me. Even people that have gone through the IVF process, they've never thought about the moral implications of the process. But it's just not neutral, guys. And now this technology has led to where these horrific things can happen where gay couples can make a designer baby, right? They get an egg from, you know, an athletic woman with, you know, green eyes and long brown hair and an athletic build and then they take one of their they they both jerk off into a cup and then they basically, you know, will do a swirl of their sperm and then they'll just take out one sperm, right? So, we don't know who's the daddy really. And then they put it with that egg and they make a one-sellled zygote. And in that moment, new life has been created. And those gay men will put that in the rented womb of a woman who they will 9 months from now steal the baby from but pay her you know a little convenience fee or inconvenience fee if you will. All that is possible because of IVF technology. Okay. And so IVF is not pro-life, even though it seems like it is, because again, for every one baby that is made and is living outside the womb, now we're talking 10 to 12 babies that will never live outside the womb, right? It's a very, very rough thing. And again, every time I talk about it, I get angry emails and I get, you know, people that will not listen to my show. But people can't just stop subscribing to my show. they have to like flame and scream on the way out, which is like how narcissistic can you be? If you don't want to listen to someone show anymore, just get the hell out, right? You know, I have to leave a one-star review in all caps or whatever. But, um, every time I talk about it, which, you know, I don't feel like I need to talk about that much anymore. It's just when it comes up, you know, we have to be realistic. And I think again, if you don't believe me, go to the great Al Mohler and hear what he has to say. Go to the great Laya Rose, hear what she has to say. the the guys from 40 Days for Life. There are a lot of people. Katie Fast is another one. She came on my show this year and she talked about that a little bit. It's you may like the process. It may be viable and you know it may be good for you and maybe you just haven't really thought through the moral implications. But now once you've been given the moral arguments against it, you have to reckon with it. So most offensive episode of 2025, episode 720. IVF kills more people than plan planned parenthood. All right. All right. Now, let's talk about the most talked about interview of 2025. And I would say that that's episode 752 with Brad Glenn. So, Brad Glenn came to my podcast studio. And [clears throat] the reason why this was the most talked about podcast is cuz, you know, yeah, the guy's a custom boot maker and a cowboy out of, you know, West Texas and all the different things, but the guy was an absolute derelict, an absolute loser, in and out of prison. But about an hour into the podcast, he told this story where in and out of prison, lots of drug use, and he realizes, "My life's over. I'm just going to go ahead and end it." So, he writes out a bunch of suicide notes to people basically like, "Hey, I love you. It's not your fault." That kind of thing. And then he takes a revolver that has six cylinders in it, and he puts one round in the revolver. He puts the revolver to his head, pulls the trigger eight times. eight times on a six shooter. Gun doesn't go off. Police get to him, you know, they they're they calm him down, all that. There's nothing they can arrest him for. They can't confiscate the weapon because a crime hasn't been committed. But hey, you know, let's go. Let's go get you to the families or family you can stay with tonight. I can watch over you. Yeah, sure. Okay. They take him to this, you know, husband and wife's house. The police hand the revolver to the husband of the house they're staying at. A round goes off and shoots into the woods. So when Brad Glenn was trying to blow his head off, the revolver was not functional. But the moment the revolver was out of his hands, it became functional and even shot around off, you know, into the woods. Okay. So that kind of set the tone for the entire interview. But I've been asked about that interview a bunch because Brad Glenn's just very open and honest. Like he talked about struggles in his marriage. He talked about his substance abuse. He's talked about his subsequent ministry he's been able to do because of his past with substance abuse. And so, excuse [clears throat] me, a little flimid today, guys. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about that. But yeah, Brad Glenn is just a tremendous guy. He's been a tremendous friend to me. He and I have talked quite a bit off air. And that interview we've done has just had such a positive impact on so many people. And so, uh, certainly the most talked about interview, and that is 752 with Brad Glenn. And so, now let's talk about the most talked about episode of 2025. So, we went from the most talked about interview to the most talked about episode. [clears throat] And sorry, we're also doing this live. My wife just texted me if I wanted a burrito. And the answer is yes, by the way. So, there you go. We're doing it live. Most talked about episode of 2025 is episode 699. The top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025. So, every year I do an episode like that. The number changes, but it's the top reasons or the top ways rather to avoid being a crappy man in that year. And the reason why I say those that's the most talked about episode of the year is because I will get reminded about stuff on my list. So every single year of the podcast it's, you know, don't be late. That's one of the things that you can do to avoid being a crappy man. And so if I'm ever late to something, not only do I let people know, right? But if I'm, for whatever reason something came up, hey, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be on the call about 3 or 4 minutes late. I'll be reminded, well, hey, if you don't want to be a crappy man anymore, Kyle, how about you do this? And so typically the reason why it's the most talked about episode is because they just throw it in my face. they just throw my own things in my face. But that is perfect and that's exactly how that should be used. And you guys can get excited because in the not too distant future, we're going to have the top ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2026, which I'm sure a lot of you will be talking about. So that is the most talked about episode of 20 2025, episode 699. Top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025. Now, let's talk about the interview I was most nervous about for 2025. That was episode 722 with Sunny Sandaval of POD. The reason why I was nervous about that is because the entire time I was preparing for it, I was back in eighth grade [clears throat] when I had, you know, was uh brought into the world of of metal and Christian underground and that type of thing. And POD is one of the first bands I started listening to. The album The Fundamental Elements of Southtown. It was such an important album for me. It still is an important album for me. It means so much to me. and Sunny and I and I had been kind of talking and me and his manager had been talking for like three or four years trying to like figure out how are we going to get him on the show and they just kind of stopped it wasn't really working out but he released a book Son of Southtown this year which was you know on our top books list as well and the thing about Sunny is he's such a relaxed guy such a chill guy and you could even tell in the interview he kind of started warming up when he realized I was like hey I I didn't just read your book and no I actually followed your career But I was nervous going into that. But it was just mainly like because I was so excited to talk to Sunny Sandoval [clears throat] because I don't really get nervous to to talk to anybody really. It's just like they're people. They're fallible. They use the bathroom. They put their pants on one leg at a time. And so I try to keep that in mind. But man, I was giddy. I was flat out giddy. And when those dreads popped up on my screen and we started the interview, I was just like, "All right, let's go." But I was nervous. I was a little bit nervous beforehand, but I think it was just a little nervous excitement. But the interview I was most nervous about of 2025, episode 722 with Sunny Sandal. Now, let's talk about the episode I was most nervous about at 2025, and that's episode 698, introducing the Daily Blade. So, a lot of you guys have heard the story, so I'll give you the short version of it just in case you haven't. But like last September, so this would be September of 2024 or so, I was looking for like a daily podcast for a man that was like a devotional podcast, but short form, like 5 minutes. And I just, you know, let's get some Bible, let's get some practical application and let's just move on with our day. And I tried a few out. But they were real breathy, real European, real, like, you know, music and harps and crap in the background. I was like, I don't need any of that. Just give me some Bible and let's go. And I just couldn't find it. And so out of frustration, I called Joby and I'm like, Joby, what if you and I did a podcast? I don't know what we would call it, but [clears throat] just five minutes a day where we're just doing some Bible talk, doing some devotional, and it's just like locker room style. We've got like real dudes in mind, like dudes with tattoos and cauliflower ear, and maybe they're on their way to the job site or on their way to the gym or driving back from jiu-jitsu or just like, you know, doing some sort of errand in the shop or whatever. What if we did something like that? And his answer was immediate. He goes, "Yeah, let's do it." I was like, "Oh crap, now I got to come up with like a name. All right, now we got to come up with a logo or how are we going to do the intro outro and you know so things had to happen like really really fast like boom boom boom boom boom but then it's like okay well Joby we're just going to do Monday through Friday you'll do a week I'll do a week you'll do a week I'll do a week well hey what if we had some guests you think we could add some guests that okay yeah okay let's do like one guest per quarter okay boom boom boom and then it came the day to introduce it to the world so [clears throat] January 1st of 2025 was the first episode of the Daily Blade and so the reason why I was most nervous about that episode cuz I was like, man, this ain't going to work. You I was just in my head I'm so pessimistic to where I'm like, oh, you know, the day came and I'm like, oh god, the the name's dumb because the Daily Blade, the sort of the spirit, right? Blade, you need it every day. The Daily Blade, right? So, I thought it was an okay title, but the day I'm releasing, I'm like, oh no, the title's stupid. I hate the logo. No one's going to listen to this. Like, I don't know what I'm going to say. Like, all those different things. And so you just have all those thoughts and those agreements you make with God where you're just like kind of getting in your own head. But then we put it out there and the response was immediate. And I think within the first week of release it the Associated Press named it like the number three or four best new show of the year. And that wasn't Christian news show new show, right? We had tons of downloads. We shot straight into the top charts, not only in the religion and spirituality category, but every category of podcasting overall. And guys, it became bigger than my show than on Donna Life, the show you're listening to right now, almost immediately, right? I mean, we've two or 3x the number of downloads that I get just for that. And it's been so encouraging, especially when I go places to speak or go to like, you know, the church 1122 men's conference this year. The number of Daily Blade listeners is substantial. And so it's kind of funny like my pessimism and my nervous anxious nature was just unfounded because guys absolutely loved it and it's something that we're just going to keep doing. So episode I was most nervous about of 2025 698 introducing the Daily Blade. Now let's talk about the audience's favorite interviews of 2025. Now there's not an exact way to do this. I'm kind of going by feel because if an episode was released in January, it's going to have more downloads than an episode that was released a week ago. So, I just go based on how many people referred to the conversation, how many questions I was asked about it, and those kinds of things. And so, in terms of what I see, the audience's favorite interviews, I'll give you my top three. Number three is my favorite conversation of the myriad of conversations that Joby and I have had recorded. That's episode 732 with Joby Martin, Skunks and Crosses. Again, [clears throat] sorry about the flame, guys. recording this real early in the morning, but we recorded this podcast after a really awesome hunting trip with our mutual buddy Heath. We were hunting in Oklahoma and Joby got a great odd dad. I got an orex. I actually called him my chemical orex because he had one of his horns was broken and in front of his face it kind of looked like emobang emo. I saw this orex like a year ago and I'm like, "Okay, if I ever see that thing again, I'm going to take it." And the funny thing is, the reason why it's called skunks, skunks and crosses is because on our way out to the hunting land, we had a long drive and for whatever reason, we saw about 10 dozen skunks dead on the side of the road. And Job's like, "What is up with all these skunks?" And then he would say, and then we'd see another skunk. And then also when you're driving through the rural uh roads and highways of Oklahoma, there's a lot of crosses on the side of the road. So we called it skunks and crosses. And we had a conversation where we polished off a bottle of Papy Van Winkle 20-year-old bourbon. So fantastic conversation. You can go back and check that out. Then the number two audience favorite is probably Brad Glenn 752. Again, I've already mentioned a bunch of people talked about that episode. Had a tremendous impact on a lot of guys, but the audience's favorite interview of 2025, I think it's got to be 723 with Wes Huff. So, obviously Wes Huff did the Joe Rogan Experience. I had to cash in a favor uh to get Wes Huff on the show because to say he was busy and really getting pulled in a billion different direction was substantial. We were actually trying to figure out how to do this interview in person and when I talked to Wes on the phone, he's like, "Well, it's going to be in person. It's going to be we're looking at like November, December 2027 at this point." I was like, "Holy cow." Okay, let's just do it digitally. And he's like, "Okay, we could do it next week." I was like, "All right, all right. Let's go ahead and make that happen." But I do think it was a tremendous conversation. I'll talk about it more in a second. But audience's favorite interview of 2025, 723 with Wes Huff. Now, let's talk about the audience's favorite episode of 2025. I'll give you my top three. number three, 729 with uh and it was called when Christians are slaughtered by Muslims. Again, it's kind of hard to put a favorite on something like that. But the [clears throat] reason why I'm talking about that one is because this is when I was talking a lot about Christians being slaughtered in Africa, which you guys have heard a lot about that in the last few months, but I've been talking about this for years. And that doesn't make me special. It just means like the world just didn't give a crap, right? You talk about Black Lives Matter, you have one derelict, criminal, worthless person. have a overdose and die in police custody in Minneapolis and we burn the world to the ground and two billion dollars worth of damage and a couple of dozen people murdered in the United States of America. But when tens of thousands of Nigerian Christians are slaughtered because they follow Christ, yeah, we don't really know that. Doesn't really make the news cycle. Okay. So, you don't hate the mainstream media enough. But a lot of people in my audience were very thankful [clears throat] to under kind of be brought into the knowledge of what was going on and to continue to be kept up to date with that. So, that's number three. Number two is episode 699, the top 18 ways to avoid being a crappy man in 2025. Again, audiences love that. It's very easily sharable. You'll be getting the new version of that here very shortly. And then the number one audience favorite episode of 2025, episode 817, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. I think a lot of guys were struggling with what to think. There was a lot of anger. There was a lot of angst and anxiety. There were a lot of people that were worried about their personal safety, the safety of their family after what happened to Charlie Kirk. And I think what Joby and I were able to do with our reaction episode, which was released in what, September the 12th or 13th or something like that, a day or two after the assassination, I think that helped a lot of guys. And then whenever I gave my fullthroatated conversation about what we should think about and what it means, I think it helped a lot of people out. So, audienc's favorite episode of 2025, episode 87, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Now, let's go to my favorite interview of 2025. So, I'll give you my honorable mentions of my favorite interviews, and then we'll get into my favorite. 7:22 with Sunny Sandal, 732 with Joby Martin, 734 with Scott Payne, 752 with Brad Glenn, 758 with Melissa Dhy, 759 with Neil Mcdana, 761 with Katie Faust, 771 with Chris Durserv, 784 with Lee Strobble, 789 with Victor Marx, 793 with Wyatt Hendrickson, 798 with Max Lucco, 799 with Jeff Elbert or 809 it was the forging table episode with Matt Chandler, 827 with Drew Parker, 8:41 with Ken Isaacs, 844 with Russell Hunter, and 848 with Dallas Jenkins. But my favorite interview of 2023 is with Wes Huff. 723. That episode was so important to me because I did have to cash in a favor in order to make that happen. But Wes Huff was so good on the episode and he was so giving because I asked him this. I mean, when you say busy, like everyone's like, "I'm busy. I'm busy." No, this dude was like preposterously busy and like four kids and had to move and he's trying to finish up his doctorate. He's got he's getting pulled a billion different directions. He gave us two hours. Two hours. And he he didn't ask me what questions I was going to ask. He didn't want to like have his notes prepared or all that. It was just right off the top. Dude was just so sharp. So, I feel very fortunate that he was on the show this year and able to give us as much time as he did. But just the quality of the conversation because of how good he is at what he does is spectacular. So if you have not listened to episode 20 723 of this podcast, you are missing out big time. Episode 723, my favorite interview of 2025 with Wesley Huff. All right. Now, last section here, my favorite episodes of 2025. I'll give my honorable mentions. 698, it was introducing the Daily Blade. 699, the top ways to avoid being a crappy man of 2025. 7:14, it's time for Christians to get real about MLK. 720, IBF kills more people than Planned Parenthood. 729, When Christians are slaughtered by Muslims. 741, Andy Stanley's church instructs children's workers to affirm trans kids. 772 NT Wright is proabortion. 775, Then Why Don't You Go Back. 787, Baylor thinks they love people better than God does. 790, Chip and Joanna, double down on stupid. 802, the heresy of proabortion Christianity and reaction, the legacy of Vodie Bacham that was released on October the 10th, if I can remember correctly. But my favorite episode, individual solo episode of 2025, and we'll just give it up again, is 8:17, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. The reason why it's my favorite is because I was super nervous about it. There was so much content that I felt like needed to be go gone over. There were so many things that needed to be said. There was a lot of organization that had to take place and it was a very tender moment to try and figure out what is the chord that I'm wanting to strike with my audience. A lot of Christians, a lot of conservatives, a lot of angry people, a lot of concerned people, a lot of anxiety. How exactly do we approach this? And so the way that I've approached content on this podcast, guys, since the beginning, since episode 01 was Lord, it's very similar. I'll I I'll steal this from John Tyson, but when John Tyson, before he was a pastor, before any of that, when he was a teenager that was a butcher, he was a Christian and he would have all of his tools, all of his, you know, knives in front of him and he would have, you know, some side of beef sitting there and he would just open his hands and say, "Lord, if no one else sees my cuts today, you see them. May these be the best cuts that I am capable of. Thank you so much for giving me this ability in Jesus name. Amen." That's how I approach this podcast. Guys, there were no illusions. That's why my podcast has a dumb name. Undaunted life. That's not a cool name, right? I wanted to name it Undaunted.com, right? That's what I wanted the website to be. I wanted to name this entire thing Undaunted, but Undaunted.com is taken by some like Polaroid photographer that hasn't updated his website since like the gateway computer days. And so, it's Undaunted Life. I never thought that we would get a bunch of listeners. I certainly never thought this would eventually become the number one podcast in the world for Christian men. Like, this this was not a planned out thing, guys. I just tried to take the next right step. The next right step and to honor God as an audience of one. Lord, if no one ever listens to this show, you hear it. May this content honor you. I will give my absolute level best effort in Jesus name. Amen. And I've carried that same attitude for hundreds and hundreds of episodes. And I certainly carried that into episode 817 because I felt like it was a very important episode in that men and women that listen to the show. So that's the 95% of the guys that listen to the show and then my 5enters that they needed something that their pastors weren't going to give them because a lot of Christian pastors just avoided this topic or they made casual mention of it and then moved on. And it was like this was an opportunity for the world to hear the gospel, the world to understand what it means to be a Christian martyr and the importance of free speech and the voices that God gave us to be able to push back darkness. And so my favorite episode of this year considering all the things that went into it, episode 817, the world after Charlie Kirk's assassination. So guys, there you go. Those are my favorite podcast and the best podcast of 2025. But 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. Again, we're we're such huge fans of you guys. We don't know where you are listening to these shows. So I normally put all these links in the show notes to all these different podcasts, but you can go find it on your own. when you're smart. So, just scroll through and find all these episodes. But the links I do have for you donating to Undaunted Life again, undaunted.life/donate. And then if you want to support the Daily Blade, we worked with the New Horizons Foundation to and I've talked about this on previous episodes. So, we're we're connected with that Christian nonprofit. So, if you guys want a tax write off at the end of the year, again, we're right at the end of the year. Some of you guys are wanting to do your donations. There's a link to where you can do that as well in the show notes. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star 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@undantton.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]