A Fiercer Delight with Matt Gordon
The world can feel heavy, full of pain that outpaces our joy. A Fiercer Delight is Matt Gordon’s search for something brighter - conversations with coworkers, business leaders, neighbors, and friends who are chasing goodness, truth, and wisdom in their real, messy lives.
Each episode explores the human experience - failures, turning points, small delights, and big transformations - to uncover how we might live with more light, more hope, and more joy. Starting with local voices and expanding nationally, A Fiercer Delight invites you to sit in on candid, thoughtful, sometimes funny talks that just might leave you inspired to find a fiercer delight of your own.
Episodes
33 episodes
Lindsay Butcher: Jazzercise, Achilles, and Practicing Joy
What happens when the movement you love disappears in one step across a Walgreens parking lot? Lindsay Butcher teaches Jazzercise, loves to run, and spent seven months relearning how to live without either.Lindsay started Jazzercise as a...
Ronnie & Liz Lea: House Parties, Mahjong, and 23 Years
What does 23 years of marriage still look like when you catch each other smiling from across the room? Ronnie and Liz Lee sit down together, a rare double guest on the show, to talk about what makes their partnership work.They met as fri...
Angie Sanders: Buckets, Housewives, and Staying Regulated
What if the smile you give the world could finally match the one you feel inside? That's the question a middle school journal entry planted in Angie Sanders long before she had words for it.Angie talks with Matt about the children's book...
Brandon Hoops: Wendell Berry, Farms, and a Fiercer Life
What does it look like to live a full, unhurried life, and to keep planting trees you will never sit under the shade of? Wendell Berry, the farmer, novelist, and poet, died this year at 92, and Matt brings back returning guest Brandon Hoops for...
Cole Stoecklein: Wendy's, Golf, and the Joy Gallery
What does it take to find real joy in a Wendy's parking lot in Lebanon, Missouri? For Cole Stoecklein, it started as a lucky ritual on drives to Mizzou and turned into something closer to superstition.Cole talks about growing up between ...
Nissi Kunjummen: Kerala, Screen Time, and the Jury Box
What do you do when you realize you have lost eight or ten hours to your phone in a single day? Nissi Kunjummen found out at a picnic table with friends, and the number staring back at her started something she is still working through.N...
Joe Ferling: Curiosity, Kobe Bryant, and Daily Disciplines
What if happiness wasn't a mood but a routine? Joe Ferling joins Matt to unpack the six daily disciplines that keep him grounded, and why joy only shows up for people who practice noticing it.Joe walks through his morning routine: journa...
Nate Johnson: Fly Fishing, Puzzles, and the Joy of Process
Is it possible to spend hours fly fishing and catch nothing, and still call it one of the best days you've had? Nate Johnson thinks so, and he explains why the process matters more than the outcome.Nate grew up in Cupertino during the ea...
Sara Kraus: Mini Horses, Zero-Turns, and Simple Joy
What happens when a farm kid grows up, gets an office job, and still can't sit still? Sara Kraus found a way to keep both worlds close.Sara grew up driving a combine and crossing the highway in a pickup at age six, and now raises her own...
Natasha Rader: Jump Scares, Slip and Slides, and No Regrets
What would you do differently if you knew you'd regret not doing it? Natasha Rader has built her whole life around that question, and the answer involves more backflips, belly laughs, and jump scares than you might expect.Natasha tells M...
Matt Landis: 104 Miles, a Bluff Prayer, and a Son Named True
What do you do when the thing you have chased for four years keeps coming back as a bunch of nothing? For Matt Landis, the answer found him on a bluff in the fall of 2022, mid run, worn down and crying, finally praying.He and his wife, A...
Jess Vomund: Hummingbirds, Saying the Thing, and Everyday Wonder
What if the happiest people aren't the lucky ones, but the ones who choose it on purpose? Jess greets the hallway with hey, hi, hi while everyone else ducks eye contact, and she means it.She and her husband Eddie met over a Memorial Day ...
Rachel Douglas: Karaoke, Canoes, and More Is More
What happens when the extrovert who lights up every room realizes her battery is empty halfway through a service trip in Jamaica?Rachel Douglas grew up floating rivers in St. James, Missouri, and now trains people at Veterans United in C...
Levi Lenon: Saving Adin, Losing Dad, and Joyful Work
What do you do when you watch a 19-year-old die in a wreck, drive away thinking you failed, and learn months later he's alive?On Halloween 2025, Levi was taking his daughter to a soccer game when he came up on a vehicle ripped in half. H...
Sierra Michaelis: Marathons, Medals, and Finding Faith in the Quiet
What does it look like to chase joy when you're wired to compete, perform, and be the funniest person in the room? Sierra Michaelis joins Matt to talk about running marathons (with and without training), growing up on a cattle farm in Jackson, ...
Heather Cox: Memory Care, Bonus Kids, and the Windbreaker of Faith
What do you do when the wind picks up? Heather Cox joins the show in a literal windbreaker on a rainy day to talk about fighting for joy through memory care, bonus kids, and a faith that doesn't always break the wind but does something quieter ...
Brandon Hoops: Mentors, Golf, and the Wilderness Garden
Where do you go to remember who you are? Brandon Hoops joins the show to talk about mentors, mud-built memories, and a piece of family wisdom called the wilderness garden.We get into how Brandon picked up his nickname, why he flips garag...
Walt Walton: The Spinout, Ecclesiastes, and a Song for Mom
What does it take to break a generational chain? Walt Walton joins the show to talk about the spinout that almost killed him, the verses that turned him around, and the song he wrote for the mom he lost.We get into how Alex became Walt f...
Kelley Frink: Big Medicine, Lemonade Trucks, and Walking the Creek
What if joy is just a thing you have to walk to the creek for? Kelley Frink joins the show to talk about big medicine in the Wyoming wilderness, the lemonade truck that's worth pausing a meeting for, and the parents who named her Kelley because...
Larissa Wollard: A Middle Name Called Joy and Letting Laundry Wait
What does it look like to live up to your middle name? Larissa Wollard joins the show to talk about the dad who named her Joy, the unrealistic expectations she puts on herself, and the laundry she absolutely does not need to fold tonight.
Stephon Austin: Buc-ee's, Snack Wagers, and Letting the Weekend Come
What does it cost to slow down? Stephon Austin joins the show to talk about Buc-ee's pilgrimages, why his cousins are still his weekend plans at 37, and the dad wisdom he drops every Friday: just let the weekend come to you.We get into S...
Lauren Steinhoff: Find the Nerds at the Bottom of the Cup
Lauren Steinhoff joins Matt for a wide-ranging, funny conversation about chasing joy in everyday life, even when your palms are sweaty and the microphone is on.They get into what actually fills Lauren’s cup: deep friendships over shallow...
Brock Bondurant: Slow Down, Make Real Coffee, and Waste Time with People
In this episode of A Fiercer Delight, Damon sits down with Brock Bondurant to talk about chasing joy in real life and real coffee. From walking on at Mizzou as a quarterback to life as a husband and dad of two girls, this conversation ...
Hannah Mayse: A Life with Something to Look Forward To
Hannah Mayse is the kind of person who keeps joy on the calendar. In this episode, Matt and Hannah talk about why she needs something to look forward to, and how that “why not?” mindset has shaped the way she lives.They hit the fun stuff...
Zach Mast: People, Faith, and the Joy of Getting a Second Story
Matt runs into our old friend Zach Mast at a coffee shop and turns it into an unplanned episode. The result is a funny, surprisingly honest conversation about where joy actually comes from when you are wired for connection.Zach shares wh...