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, and the families desperate for answers. In this episode he unpacks the true meaning of tough love, the boundaries that protect without abandoning, the reasons churches often struggle to welcome people in recovery, and the "sin snobbery" that keeps many of us from extending the grace we've received ourselves. Alongside stories of heartbreaking loss, Brett offers real accounts of restoration that continue to fuel his conviction that no one is beyond reach.

Brett Knight’s Website

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.

Michelle now helps others do the same through her journal, Untangling Your Story, a tool designed to bridge the gap between everyday struggle and formal counselling. In this episode, she talks candidly about the role of community and empathetic listeners in healing, why digging up the past isn't about blaming those who hurt us, and how her Christian faith has shaped her understanding of forgiveness, grace and self-compassion. It's a conversation about patterns, permission, and the freedom that comes from finally telling ourselves the truer version of our story.

Michelle Konson’s Website

Michelle Konson on Instagram

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 as the author of Build Before the Storm and as a developer of faith-based technology tools helping churches stay connected with their people. In this conversation, he unpacks his five-pillar framework for facing life's inevitable hardships, from the simple but often ignored step of awareness, through to building daily habits with his "5-5-5" system, and the non-negotiable role of mentors and support in genuine growth. It's a candid, practical conversation for anyone who knows a storm is coming, even if they don't yet know what shape it will take.

Build Before the Storm

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.

Jodi also opens up about the years she spent working across the world, the cross-cultural insights that reshaped how she reads Scripture, and the gruelling four-year process of adopting her daughter in Istanbul, including a literal sprint through the airport as their visa came down to the wire. She reflects on the vulnerability of putting her story into print in her memoir, Then Came Joy, and on the gratitude and grief she's learned to hold together through recent family health scares. It's a rich, honest conversation about faith that's been tested and found good.

Jodi Cowles' Website

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, and what each of those seasons taught her about putting God first rather than her own plans.

This conversation moves through some deeply personal territory, from the vulnerability of writing about her own shortcomings to the surprising readers whose lives have been shaped by her work. Moriah reflects on what it means to build an identity that doesn't shift with marriage, career or circumstance, and why she believes that foundation has to be established now, in whatever season you're in. It's a warm, grounded conversation about faith, creativity and the slow work of staying aligned with God through both the good years and the hard ones.

Hagelbooks

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 Turn Right: The Pursuit of Noble Things, Matthew shares how grace met him in his lowest moments and how he's since made amends with the people he hurt along the way. This conversation is a powerful reminder that no one is ever too far gone, and that character isn't built in a single decision but refined daily, one obedient step at a time.

WEBLINKS

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 service, the difference between relief and development work, and why he stepped away from the Free Burma Rangers to found the Jungle Discipleship School, training young Burmese leaders scarred by war. He reflects on courage, grace, the fatherhood of God, and what it really means to show up for people in their darkest moments, whether that's in a jungle war zone or on a neighbour's doorstep.

WEBLINKS

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 Compassion office as a rock smashed through a large window, to a tense evacuation through a slum where they wondered if they would get out alive. Along the way, they reflect on an answered prayer felt an ocean apart, a small child's joy found amid chaos, and how the experience ultimately reshaped both of their lives and callings.

WEBLINKS

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, why deconstruction doesn't have to mean walking away from faith altogether, and how Christians can hold firm convictions while still extending grace to those who see things differently. From college campuses to kitchen tables, Sheila offers practical, hard-won wisdom for anyone who wants to know not just what they believe, but why.

WEBLINKS

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, relentless bullying and a fractured image of God, and how that led him first to atheism and then briefly into witchcraft before encountering Jesus at 25. He explains the crucial difference between being transparent and being translucent, why his PTSD diagnosis doesn't define him, and what he's learned interviewing entrepreneurs and high achievers about burnout, insecurity and fear. For anyone who feels like a lost cause, Jim offers a simple, grounded place to start.

WEBLINKS