StarQuest Podcasts

Early Christians read it in church beside the Gospels; a fourth-century Bible bound it in after Revelation. Then it vanished. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli open the Shepherd of Hermas — a tower, a beast, and a question about forgiveness.

Struggle has value, and the internet just rediscovered it. Friction-maxxing means making your tech deliberately harder to use — and Dom Bettinelli, Fr. Joseph Sund, and Pat Scott find that the monks got there about seventeen centuries first.

Some films don't just entertain — they get wired into who you become. For episode 200, Dom Bettinelli, Thomas Salerno, Kathryn Laffrey, and Alix Murray trace the movies that shaped their tastes, fears, faith, and futures.

Stop taking the vitamins and the memories come back — along with everything the Silo buried. Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Alix Murray take on Silo S3E3, "A Dark Web," and an AI that knows Camille better than she knows herself.

Two archetypes walk you through the lives of Tolkien and Lewis and never once say their own names. Thomas Salerno and the panel on why *The Mythmakers* is not the kids' book its cover promises — and why its ending earns the tears.

Is Star Trek's puppet episode genius or a cop-out? Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler split over whether Strange New Worlds S4E5's dream-ending twist earns its plot holes, plus a hidden Lucille Ball reference few will catch.

A Magnificat bookmark turns into a full rabbit hole back into the Ghent Altarpiece. Kathryn Laffrey and Alix Murray zoom into Van Eyck's endless blue horizon and the restoration secrets it just gave up.

Scientists can't be everywhere. Volunteers with smartphones are catching invasive species, rescuing 19th-century weather logs, and flagging new objects in the night sky. Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle on becoming a citizen scientist.

Atlantis aims Earth ships, Wraith hives, and Traveler vessels at the same planet in Stargate Atlantis S4E11. Victor Lams, Jeff Haecker, and Lisa Jones on the biggest battle the franchise ever staged, and the face in that last shot.

A nomadic human fleet, an Aurora-class battleship, and a character study gone wrong. Victor Lams, Lisa Jones, and Jeff Haecker weigh the best idea in SGA S4E5 "Travelers" against writing that can't make Larrin (Jill Wagner) land.

The U.S. government holds real patents for putting voices in people's heads — and thousands say it's happening to them. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli separate the real physics from psychiatry, internet lore, and outright fraud.

Your monitor is the last computer upgrade that's still genuinely affordable, and the tech has quietly gotten great. Dom Bettinelli, Pat Scott, and Fr. Andrew Kinstetter decode the specs that matter, then hit two Sony stories about owning what you buy.

A funeral becomes the turning point of an entire season, forcing grief, guilt, and a Cold War-style reckoning over Titans onto every character. Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Patrick Mason break down Monarch S2E6, "Requiem."

When Klingons destroy the conference she was headed to, Kira ends up teaching guerrilla tactics to a demoted Dukat. Dom Bettinelli and Jimmy Akin unpack DS9 S4E14's moral complexity, Damar's debut, and whether Dukat is tragic or just evil.

Never accept a label in place of a story. Lindsay Sant brings notes from Melbourne's Proclaim 26 evangelization conference, Caroline Knight reports on 59,000-year-old Neanderthal dentistry, and Lino Saubolle weighs in.

A crystal entity turns Sheppard into every crew member's nightmare in SGA S4E4 "Doppelganger." Lisa Jones, Jeff Haecker, and Victor Lams tackle fear-feeding aliens, Heightmeyer's death, and what Robert C. Cooper called his "Nightmare on Atlantis Street."

A Liverpool merchant spent 30 years tunneling beneath his own neighborhood and never said why. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli weigh seven theories about Joseph Williamson and his mysterious underground labyrinth.

Laptop prices are up and RAM is scarce — so how much computer does a college freshman really need? Dom Bettinelli, Fr. Joseph Sund, and Tom Grelinger map Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook picks to every major.

The presidential speech was written in five minutes as a placeholder. Nobody replaced it. Yet people are still quoting it three decades later. Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Rob Leonardi trace its roots — Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas — on Independence Day at 30.

No character is safe in *Monarch* S2E5 "Furusato." A character's death reshapes the Randa family. Dom Bettinelli and Jeff Haecker discuss identity, a Japanese lullaby, and what Apex's overconfidence cost.

Is Rings of Power Peter Jackson fanfiction or genuine Tolkien? Patrick Mason asks Rob Leonardi, Robert Story, and honorary "Rob" Fr. Bryan Shackett to give their takes on Seasons 1 and 2 — and cautious hope for Season 3.

A separatist leader kidnaps Beverly Crusher and makes arguments the Enterprise crew can't quite answer. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler on TNG's toughest terrorism episode: "The High Ground" (S3E12).

Sixty thousand years before modern dentistry, a Neanderthal endured a 35-minute stone-tool drilling procedure — no anesthesia — and survived. Caroline Knight explains what a 59,000-year-old infected molar reveals about prehistoric medicine.

Built without a single nail, carved with dragons, and still standing 800 years later. Kathryn Laffrey and Alix Murray trace the history, theology, and Catholic heritage of Norway's medieval stave churches — and their surprising American descendants.

A bottomless pit in central Washington, 80,000 feet deep and impossible to fill. In 1997, one phone call to Art Bell turned a piece of local folklore into a national mystery. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli investigate Mel's Hole.