Rodney Olsen hosts inspirational Christians who are kicking against the darkness until it bleeds daylight. Hear from people who are making this world a better place.
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Brett Knight has spent his career standing in the space between justice and grace. A former criminal defence attorney who later became an ordained pastor and author, Brett has watched the drug epidemic up close from both sides of the courtroom. In this conversation with Rodney Olsen, he traces his own faith journey from head knowledge to a genuine relationship with Christ, and shares the pivotal moment as a prosecutor when he asked God to let him see addiction the way God sees it. Brett’s book, From the Gavel to Grace, grew out of hundreds of real encounters with people trapped in addiction, a
Michelle Konson built what looked like a picture-perfect life: a career as a corporate attorney in South Africa, a loving marriage, and four children. But underneath the surface, she was quietly unravelling, using survival strategies she’d developed as a child to try to control a world that no longer responded to control. In this honest conversation, Michelle traces her path from unrecognised childhood patterns to a genuine reckoning with her story, and shares how that journey eventually led her into trauma-informed training, group therapy, and years of untangling the fragments of her own past
Garvin Antoine grew up in Trinidad in a home marked by poverty, an alcoholic father and very little guidance about what life ahead would demand of him. It wasn’t until he was much older that he learned his father had been thrust onto the streets at just ten years of age, a discovery that dissolved years of bitterness in a single conversation. Around the same time, Garvin discovered he had twin brothers he’d never known existed, a revelation that eventually drew his whole family, including his once-resistant mother, back into faith and church community. Those experiences now shape Garvin’s work
Jodi Cowles has lived more than half her adult life outside her homeland, working across seven countries and three continents as an author, publisher and entrepreneur. In this episode of Bleeding Daylight, she talks candidly about growing up with what she calls a ”flannel graph” version of Jesus, a one-dimensional God who couldn’t hold up against grief, doubt and real life questions. Jodi shares how the death of her young brother, a crisis of faith at Bible college and a furious, typewritten confession to God eventually led her to a far bigger and more trustworthy understanding of who He is. J
Moriah Hagel is an author, speaker and co-founder of the Seasons Young Adults Conference. Her journey into writing began not with a plan of her own but with a Bible study on a college campus where she felt anything but settled. In this episode, she traces the path from that first unplanned teaching moment through to her three books, First and Forever: Singleness in Ephesians, Alignment: God’s Will or Mine, and her latest release, To Live: Finding the Mind of Christ. Along the way she talks honestly about singleness, the disruption of 2020, and the loss of her nephew, who lived just 49 days, an
Matthew Wingo left a high-flying corporate career to pour his life into helping men find freedom from the patterns that once controlled him. In this episode, he takes us through the shattering of two marriages, the ”hidden orchard” of secrets he tended in the dark, and the moment a 12-step recovery programme helped him finally connect the dots of his own story. With honesty and humour, Matthew talks about shame, obedience, and the daily choice to walk in the light rather than hide behind a smile. Now the founder of Turnright Ministry, a men’s 12-step leader, worship guitarist and author of Tur
David Small’s life reads like a movie script. He grew up dreaming of coaching ice hockey, worked as director of hockey operations for Team Canada West, and scouted for the Los Angeles Kings, before spending over a decade with the Free Burma Rangers in one of the world’s most forgotten wars. He’s walked through minefields, been bombed and mortared, and written a bestselling book, Nameless Faceless People: Ten Years with the Free Burma Rangers, about what he found on the other side of fear. In this conversation, David talks candidly about how six months of volunteering turned into a decade of se
In 2008, host Rodney Olsen travelled to Haiti with a group of Australian radio presenters, including Az Hamilton, on a trip organised through Compassion Australia to witness their work releasing children from poverty. What began as an eye-opening visit to local projects quickly turned into a fight for survival as food riots erupted across Port-au-Prince, trapping the group between barricades, armed mobs and gunfire-like explosions of shattering glass. In this revisited and re-edited episode, Az and Rodney share their side-by-side memories of that harrowing 24 hours, from sheltering in a Compas
Sheila Krygsheld has spent years helping everyday Christians move from simply believing to truly understanding why they believe. A former college religion professor, wife, mum and grandmother of six, Sheila is the author of What Makes You Say That? How to Study What You Believe So You Can Share It with Others. Her journey into apologetics began not in a classroom, but in crisis, when her daughter’s traumatic brain injury forced her to confront what she actually believed about God, suffering and healing. In this conversation, Sheila unpacks the balance between head knowledge and heart knowledge
Jim Burgoon is a speaker, author, certified leadership coach, military veteran, former pastor and host of the Unshakeable Life podcast. Behind those titles is a man who has lived through childhood trauma, complex PTSD, chronic illness and devastating loss, including the deaths of his mother and sister within six months of each other and his wife’s suicide attempt soon after. In this conversation, Jim shares how he moved from believing the lies trauma had taught him to telling a far better, truer story about who he really is. Jim talks candidly about growing up with an abusive father, relentles
Robert Ruesch has been putting words to paper since the mid-1960s, but nothing prepared him for the story he’d one day write with his daughter. Growing up at the world’s largest YMCA resort in the Colorado Rockies, surrounded by college professors, world travellers and breathtaking mountain views, Robert’s love of storytelling took root early, sparked by a school bully and a creative writing class years later. He went on to become an award-winning author, speaker and humourist, but it’s his most personal work, The Long Road Home, that forms the heart of this conversation. Co-written with his d
We live in the most connected era in human history, yet loneliness has become a defining crisis of our time. In this episode, Rodney sits down with Keith Spurgin, international speaker, church planter, and author of Unknown: Finding Connection in a Disconnected World, to get to the heart of why genuine community is so hard to find and even harder to build. Keith traces his own story from a childhood encounter with Jesus on a farm, through the distractions of his teenage years, to a radical re-commitment to faith in college that sparked a movement in his own apartment and eventually led to 27 y
Gary Janzen grew up in a construction family with an expected future mapped out for him, but God had very different plans. From managing a sporting goods store to pastoring youth, taking teenagers to Mexico for eleven summers, and eventually ministering in Rwandan orphanages still raw from the wounds of genocide, Gary’s journey is marked by a willingness to say yes to God at every turn. He shares how a young Rwandan man named Jackson, a genocide survivor who came to live with Gary and his wife, became the unexpected connection that drew them deep into ministry across that remarkable country. T
Dr Mike Ayers grew up without a present or affirming father, but instead of repeating that cycle, he dedicated decades of his life to understanding what intentional fatherhood actually looks like. Drawing on his background as a researcher, a pastor of 25 years, and a dad of three, Mike shares the framework behind his upcoming book Father Friend, a research-backed guide built around seven core competencies to help dads show up well at every stage of their child’s life. This is a conversation full of both honesty and genuine encouragement for dads who want to do better. From the critical 7-to-12
Bill Nienhuis, President of Childcare Worldwide, joins Rodney Olsen for a conversation about what it really means to make disciples, not just decisions. Drawing on his own formation as a young believer shaped by Sunday school teachers, choir directors, and a Bible-reading grandmother, Bill reflects on how God used decades of seemingly unrelated experience, including 25 years in the Bible software industry, to prepare him for his true life’s work amongst children in Kenya, Uganda, Peru, and India. Through Childcare Worldwide’s Life Center model, local churches come alongside children for up to
Wesley Farnsworth grew up in a pastor’s home with a deep faith, a desire to fit in, and a set of expectations he placed entirely on himself. A chance online search as a teenager opened a door to addiction that he would quietly battle for the next 20 years, all while building an impressive career as a US Air Force photographer, capturing everything from war zones to presidential inaugurations. In this honest and moving conversation, Wesley shares how shame kept him locked in silence, what finally pushed him to walk through the doors of a Celebrate Recovery meeting, and the extraordinary moment
In this episode of Bleeding Daylight, Rodney Olsen sits down with Doug Moore, a man whose 30 years across three wildly different worlds, wilderness trail guiding, youth ministry, and nursing as a registered sexual assault nurse examiner, have uniquely equipped him to speak into one of the most urgent crises facing families today. Doug is the author of The Vanguard Project: Equipping Fathers to Fight for Their Sons, a practical field manual for dads who want to lead their boys through the minefield of digital addiction, pornography, and a culture that is quietly numbing the next generation to t
After more than two decades as a pastor, Timothy Stobbe stepped away from Waypoint Church without a clear plan for what would come next, just a deep sense that the time had arrived for something new. In this warm and searching conversation, Timothy shares the journey that brought him to that moment, from a childhood faith sparked in a truck on a rainy Wednesday evening, to a campfire calling at sixteen, to the slow-burn discernment that eventually led him out of the only professional world he’d known. He talks honestly about what he misses from pastoral life, what he’s discovering in the space
Valerie Carter is the founder and director of RRT Ministries, Rescued, Redeemed, Transformed, a global Christ-centred ministry walking alongside survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and complex trauma. Growing up in Oakland, California, Valerie experienced profound abuse from a very young age, but also an extraordinary encounter with heaven that gave her both the promise of healing and a clear assignment for her life. In this conversation she speaks with remarkable honesty about the fear that gripped her for decades, the moment repentance broke it completely, and the cancer dia
Rhame Neubauer grew up surrounded by church, but it wasn’t until a camp counsellor sat down with a 12-year-old girl and explained the gospel that everything changed. That encounter ignited a faith so alive that by 17, Rhame felt God clearly calling her to a life of missionary work. But the road ahead looked nothing like she’d imagined. What followed were 12 years she describes as her dark years, a period marked by abuse, chronic illness, and a shame so deep that she couldn’t bring herself to let God into the places that hurt the most, even as she continued to believe in Him. This is a conversa
Doreen Virtue was once one of the most recognised names in the New Age world, a bestselling author, a psychotherapist, a regular guest on Oprah and CNN, and a global spiritual teacher whose books were translated into 38 languages. Raised in a Christian Science household that blended biblical language with New Thought philosophy, she spent decades teaching angel spirituality, psychic development, and divination before a series of encounters with Scripture brought her face to face with the real Jesus. In 2017, while reading Deuteronomy 18, she was so profoundly convicted that she fell off her ch
Mark Osborne spent decades in the background, playing rhythm guitar on the worship team, raising his kids, and going to church, while quietly living without real purpose, spiritual depth, or a genuine connection with God. A mild heart attack at 48 nudged him toward healthier habits, but it was the day he sat alone on his birthday with a bowl of Captain Crunch and asked God why he wasn’t happy that something finally cracked open. What followed was a fitness journey that spiralled into ego, social media obsession, a marriage pushed to its breaking point, and ultimately, a moment on his knees tha
Dr. James Torkildson brings more than four decades of clinical experience to a conversation that covers far more than mental health. From a dramatic conversion experience in an army chapel in Germany to a career spent helping thousands of people understand the roots of their pain, James speaks with the kind of quiet authority that only comes from having lived through both the darkness and the light. He unpacks why he sees psychology and faith as complementary rather than competing, and why most of what psychology gets right can be traced directly back to scripture. His book, Awaken! Exposing t
John Finkelde led a Perth church through three decades of growth before handing over the reins at 58, not because he was done, but because he’d been planning well ahead. In this warm and wide-ranging conversation, John shares how a moment behind the wheel watching a sunset shifted his entire perspective on ageing, and why he’s traded the word ”retirement” for something far more life-giving: redesign. From taking 72 flights in his first year of consultancy to inviting pastors to sit with him for a beachside sunset, John’s journey is a masterclass in pivoting with purpose and grace. Whether you’
After 25 years in pastoral ministry, spanning student ministry, worship, lead pastor, and church planting , Dustin Kleinschmidt found himself stepping into what he thought would be a redemptive season, only to discover it would become the hardest of his life. In this deeply honest conversation, Dustin walks us through the perfect storm of circumstances that led to his burnout: the relentless pressures of rebuilding a fractured church in the wake of pastoral moral failure, a global pandemic, and years of accumulated exhaustion. He shares how a chance encounter at a new church brought hidden wou
