Matt had the pleasure of being a guest on Real Presence Radio out in the Midwest, on a show hosted by none other than our most recent special guest Fr. Richard Kunst, to talk about the origins of The Popecast and his own personal favorite popes and papal history stories, among other things. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / In…

Today’s pope is certainly one for the record books. Even though he was only in office a couple short years, he’s memorable for one major papal staple that we take completely for granted these days. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: matt@thepopecast.fm NEWSLETTER: https://popes.substack.com Sponso…

Today’s episode is one we’ve been very excited to bring you all for a long time. Our guest, Fr. Richard Kunst, is the curator of the world's largest collection of papal memorabilia and artifacts outside of the Vatican. Our conversation covers everything from how Fr. Rich’s collection came to be, some of the coolest and strangest articles he’s seen,…

Our man this episode is altogether unique – and not just because he’s the only Successor of Peter with this particular name. No, he’s actually most famous for something he had no control over at all – because he was dead. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc@gmail.com NEWSLETTER: https://…

This episode is about another one of those popes who you’ve probably never heard of, but is definitely one to remember. He was saintly from an early age, and despite desiring a life of anonymity in his service to Christendom, was plucked by the emperor from obscurity to become pope and, ultimately, usher in one of the biggest reform movements in Ca…

We kept trying to find a good Christmas-themed papal bio for this week, and then we ran across this Urbi et Orbi address of Pope Benedict XVI's from 2010. It's an absolutely excellent address (as usual from him), especially with the Choir of King's College singing O Holy Night in the background, as they are at the end of the episode. Enjoy – and Me…

This week it's a special episode of the show – professor, historian, and author Dr. Michael Breidenbach joins the show to talk about his new book, Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America (https://amzn.to/3e0RDAM) Especially for those in America, the story Dr. Breidenbach tells in his book and on the podcast – ho…

Today’s episode is about a pope who’s probably easy to overlook. He only reigned for a short time, we don’t know all that much about him, and he isn’t remembered as a saint – a canonized one anyway. And yet, he dabbled in plenty of important things and did alright. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAI…

Today’s episode is about a pope who lived...and died...during the last and worst of Rome’s persecutions of the Christian people, that of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. But just how that living and dying went is still up for discussion. 1700 years later. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc…

Here's a pope who kept his head down and worked tirelessly for the good of Christendom. But in an age where secular rulers used the papacy as their plaything, he refused to be anyone’s puppet, and ended up paying the ultimate price. And what’s more, everyone though he was a bad pope until not all that long ago. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopec…

This episode we're joined by JD Flynn and Michelle La Rosa from The PIllar to tackle one of the saltiest and most recent papal conspiracy theories – one of the doozies in pretty much the whole history of the Catholic Church. A half-century ago a pope reigned for a mere 33 days. Was it all just a strange coincidence, or was there something more nefa…

This week's episode is a very special one indeed. Our pope today needs no introduction, being one of the finest men to ever grace the Chair of St. Peter, but he does need a long episode to tell the whole tale of his long and eventful life. October 22 – the day that this episode is being released – is this man’s feast day and the anniversary of the …

This pope is a guy who rose from the lowest rungs of society to become the leader of a burgeoning but still illegal faith. And yet, it wasn’t the Romans who gave him the most grief. It was one of his fellow Christians. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc@gmail.com NEWSLETTER: https://pop…

Today’s episode is a Popecast Redux about a pope who may well have single-handedly kept the known world from a very, very different future. In fact, 2021 marks the 450th anniversary of his masterstroke – a convening of both corporeal and a spiritual armies to lead the Catholic Christian West to victory in one of the greatest sea battles ever fought…

Our pope this week was in the Chair of Peter for barely a moment in the great lifespan of Catholic history, but his humble heart and joyful demeanor has influenced each of the three popes who followed him and put him firmly among the most memorable and beloved pontiffs of the last several centuries. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twi…

Our pope this week was a pontiff in exile – the whole Roman Curia was in those days – who everyone thought would be near death, but he ended up sticking around for 10 years and set about cleaning up the clerical riff-raff, leaving us with one of the greatest hymns ever written, and hiring a bloodhound in a red hat to prowl around Italy and gain bac…

Joining the show this week is special guest Eduard Habsburg, the Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, sharing the incredible story of Pope St. Gregory the Great, the "Pope Who Founded Western Civilization" PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc@gmai…

This pope was far more renowned for his life BEFORE the papacy than he was after. And that was a bummer, because he kinda gets a bad rap for it. But it certainly didn’t help that he avoided accepting his election like the plague. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc@gmail.com NEWSLETTER: …

Our pope this week was startlingly good for a Renaissance pontiff – he didn’t use his power to elevate all of his greedy nephews, he began as a monk and never really forgot it, and he worked so hard and so much that he could have coined the phrase “I can sleep when I’m dead.” PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepo…

This guy was an able pontiff who brought much-needed respect back to the papacy at its lowest point in history. And on the family front, he was a real diamond in the rough. A lone bright spot amidst a group of relatives that would make the Kardashians blush. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: pope…

This pope wasn’t long for this world once he made it to the Chair of St. Peter and was a compromise pick from the beginning, to boot. Apparently it had something to do with being just another pretty face, but history is silent on whether or not he was a ...barbarian. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EM…

Our pope this week hit a lot of firsts – first Latin-writing pope, first African pope, and the first papal hothead. Good thing he had the humility to match it. PATREON: https://patreon.com/thepopecast FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast EMAIL: popecastmc@gmail.com NEWSLETTER: https://popes.substack.com Support The Popecast: A History of the Papa…

Our pope this week voted in literally one million papal elections before it was finally his turn. At least it probably seemed like that to him. He was a child of the nobility who served the Church from an early age, but there was just one small thing left to do after he got elected as the new Bishop of Rome... Support the Popecast at patreon.com/th…

He was one of the last solid pontiffs before perhaps the darkest time in the history of the papacy. He held off the Muslim Army as long as he could, spent way too long looking for new emperors, was a patron of one of the Church’s greatest evangelists, and sadly was the first Bishop of Rome in history to meet a certain kind of sordid end. Sponsored …

Our pope this week was only in office a short time, but still managed to leave a mark that’s resounded through the ages in battling one of early Christianity’s most monumental heresies. He’s also one of just three pontiffs in history to have a name that starts with the letter Z. Support The Popecast: A History of the Papacy Links: Become a Patron o…

Our man this week was a mentor to one of the greatest popes to ever live, he spent far too much time trying to drum up an army from the emperor to protect Rome from destruction, and met his earthly end as a deadly disease swept brutally through late 6th-Century Rome. Sponsored By: Catholic Balm Co.: Fans of The Popecast get 10% off their entire ord…

This week is an extra special a CROSSOVER episode with the excellent podcast The Quizzical Papist – Your “extraordinary form” bar trivia with Fr. Brad and Grace. If you’ve ever been to bar trivia – or if you can even remember what that’s like after the long winter of 2020, that’s the exact structure of their show and, as a result, this crossover. G…

Our first episode of 2021 is a very special one indeed. This week we’re joined by JD Flynn & Ed Condon, co-founders of The Pillar, the brand new Catholic media project focused on smart, faithful, and serious journalism, from committed and informed Catholics who love the Church, which you can find and sign up for at pillarcatholic.com. Special Guest…

Our special guest this week is Fr. Harrison from Clerically Speaking – not only is Fr. Harrison a huge fan of Pope Benedict XVI, he's writing his doctoral thesis on the guy! But don't worry, this episode isn't super heady or academic as much as it is simply Matt & Fr. Harrison nerding out on their shared love for Pope Benedict XVI and why he's just…

An exclusive audio recording of Patris Corde, the new apostolic letter from Pope Francis on St. Joseph, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Joseph being named Patron of the Universal Church and announcing a "Year of St. Joseph" starting December 8, 2020. Support The Popecast: A History of the Papacy Links: (Patreon Alternative) Join The Popecast o…

This episode is a bit unique. It’s early December, so our Catholic listeners will know that there are two mega huge feast days celebrating Mary in the first half of this month – the Immaculate Conception on December 8 and Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12. So we thought it might be fitting to break from the usual format and talk about the Mother…

Our pope this week had the fun job of wrangling a bunch of Alphas and convincing them to work as a team for the sake of Christendom, and in the meantime tried not to lose everything the papacy had accumulated up to that point in history. Oh, and his nephew would later end up being one of the most powerful popes in history. Sponsored By: Catholic Ba…

Our pope this week you might not know, but odds are you know about something he did. I’m talking about the biggest and oldest unreinforced concrete dome IN THE WORLD. He converted it from a pagan temple into a church, which has been in constant use now for over 1400 years. Sponsored By: Catholic Balm Co.: Fans of The Popecast get 10% off their enti…

Our pope this week wasn’t around for long, but the time he did spend in office left its mark. He entered the Chair of Peter at a dicey time in Christian history and dealt with an arch nemesis from within the Church right after his election, to boot. He was eventually killed for his faith, and is now the patron saint of things like lovers and earach…

This pope was old and sick when he got elected, and wasn’t in office for all that long. But he wasn’t about to let any younger whipper snappers outdo him in energy or productivity. Oh, he also made the founder of the Jesuits a saint, and wrote the last document from a pope about when certain someones could or could not be burned at the stake. Spons…

Our pope this week is in elite company in more ways than one – he was holy when sanctity was severely lacking in the halls of the Vatican, and he’s one of only FIVE men in history from the Order of Preachers to be elevated to the Chair of St. Peter. Sponsored By: Catholic Balm Co.: Fans of The Popecast get 10% off their entire order with the promo …

The exclusive audiobook of Pope Francis' new Apostolic Letter, Lettera Apostolica Scripturae, commemorating the 1600th anniversary of the death of St. Jerome. Chapters included if you'd like to skip around. SUPPORT THE POPECAST Click here to become a regular patron of The Popecast (early access and more): https://patreon.com/thepopecast OR, if you'…

Our pope this week faced down an invading king, fought against a nasty heresy in the East, and has something in common with just FIVE other popes in all of Church history. Oh, and he’s not the St. Paul you’re probably thinking of. SUPPORT THE POPECAST Click here to become a regular patron of The Popecast (early access and more): https://patreon.com…

Welcome to my Nascar podcast. This episode is about last weekends race in Bristol and the upcoming forth in the playoffs that will be at Las Vegas motor speedway

Our pope this week was the first to hold the most popular papal name in Catholic Church history. A divisive figure in his early days, he repented of his old ways and went on to become so renowned that the emperor himself prostrated himself at this pope’s feet. It just so happens that Episode #53 is on Pope #53. We swear we didn't realize this until…

Welcome to my Nascar podcast. This episode is about last weekends race in Richmond and the upcoming third race in the playoffs that will be at Bristol motor speedway

Welcome to my Nascar podcast. This episode is about last weekends race in Darlington and the upcoming second race in the playoffs that will be at Richmond Raceway

The pope we’re talking about today had to follow the Fisherman himself. He’s a man who not only knew the Apostles, but was taught and ordained by them. Not to mention he’s one of only two popes – not counting Peter himself – to be mentioned in Sacred Scripture. SUPPORT THE POPECAST Click here to become a patron of The Popecast: patreon.com/thepopec…

Hi and welcome to the eight episode of the 2020 season of my formula 1 podcast where me and my co host talk about the previous race that was held in Italy and our thoughts about the upcoming race also held in Italy but on another track

Welcome to my Nascar podcast. This episode is about last weekends race in Daytona and the upcoming first race in the playoffs that will be at Darlington.

Hi and welcome to the eight episode of the 2020 season of my formula 1 podcast where me and my co host talk about the previous race that was held in Belgium and our thoughts about the upcoming race in Italy

This week on the Popecast we have a very special guest: Author Joe Heschmeyer. Joe is a fellow pope nerd like you and me who’s just written a great book on the papacy entitled Pope Peter: Defending the Church's Most Distinctive Doctrine in a Time of Crisis. Joe was once a litigator living in Washington DC and then was a seminarian for the Archdioce…

Welcome to my Nascar podcast. This episode is about last weekends race in Dover and the upcoming last race before the playoffs that will be at Daytona. Edit the race is the 29 of august

Hi and welcome to the seventh episode of the 2020 season of my formula 1 podcast where me and my co host talk about the previous race that was held in Great Spain and our thoughts about the upcoming Belgian GP

This time around we’re doing a little something different – a topic that’s more foundational to the very papacy itself – to celebrate the 50th episode of The Popecast. It's the only truly secret meeting left on the planet. Where all the red hats gather for a Catholic cage match, and the world waits, holding its breath, for that fateful white smoke.…