StarQuest Podcasts

Locked in a freezing Italian quarantine house with a dying husband, a young widow named Elizabeth started asking questions about the Eucharist. Dom Bettinelli traces her path from teenage despair to America's first native-born saint.

Why would Tolkien trust the fate of Middle-earth to people who mostly want second breakfast? Jeff Haecker, Rob Story, Patrick Mason, Fr. Bryan Shackett and Rob Leonardi on unlikely heroes, courage, and the Ring.

Vulcan biology gets its first real explanation, and it nearly kills Spock. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler break down TOS S2E1 "Amok Time" — the salute, the fight music, and two plot holes nobody ever patched.

The key to a twelfth-century chapel hangs on a signpost in an empty Shropshire field. Alix Murray walks Kathryn Laffrey through Heath Chapel's carved Norman arch, its Reformation-scarred wall paintings, and a saint named before reading a word.

Can science show the soul survives death? Jimmy Akin announces two fall courses for the Rhine Education Center: one on near-death experiences and reincarnation-type cases, and Introduction to Parapsychology.

Not all roads led to Rome. Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle look at new research built on Itiner-e, the biggest map of Roman roads ever made, and the three myths it busts. Plus listeners share their citizen-science stories.

Two warriors who can't stand each other, a station billed as unhackable, and the day the Wraith almost walked onto Earth. Victor Lams, Jeff Haecker and Lisa Jones take on Stargate Atlantis S4E17, "Midway."

Does a blessing survive the water cycle? Could uplifted animals have souls? Jimmy Akin and Cy Kellett take on tickling, Hitler's parents, Revelation's scorpion-tailed locusts and baptism before birth, with Dom Bettinelli.

Would you let an AI agent buy a jacket just because you looked at it? Meta's Muse wants to. Dom Bettinelli, Pat Scott, and Fr. Andrew Kinstetter size up Meta's new VR and AI glasses and ask whether Meta deserves that trust.

The silos weren't built after the world ended — they were built by a trillionaire who decided it would. Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Alix Murray unpack Silo S3E8's gray goo reveal and the one thing its founders refused to save.

A cannonball ended his career at 30. Stuck in bed with a ruined leg, Iñigo López de Loyola noticed which daydreams left him empty and which left him happy. Dom Bettinelli traces how that one habit of attention built the Jesuits.

Juro is gone and Nawaam is unmasked. In Season 1, Episode 4 of The Ninth Jedi, Thomas Salerno, Jeff Haecker, and Kathryn Laffrey ask whether a man who uses the dark side for others can still be called a Jedi.

Two Uhuras, a year apart, and a Scotty who died in one timeline: the Strange New Worlds Season 4 finale (Episode 10) plays like a pilot for Kirk's Year One. Dom Bettinelli and Jimmy Akin weigh its heart against its physics.

Not all roads led to Rome, and salt water doesn't turn fresh. Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle read Ezekiel's impossible river for the Season of Creation, then take apart what everyone thinks they know about Roman roads.

Three people, one collapsing Genii mine, no way up. Lisa Jones, Jeff Haecker and Victor Lams dig into Stargate Atlantis S4E16 "Trio" — the tilting cube set, eight stunt gags, and a McKay who panics hardest right before he saves everyone.

Can one human being possess another? MKUltra tried. Jimmy Akin answers that and seven more listener questions — purgatory when the world ends, fallen guardian angels, brain swaps, and whether lizards were once dragons.

Google built an Android laptop to take on the MacBook Air, but who actually wants one? Dom Bettinelli, Tom Grelinger, and Fr. Joseph Sund weigh the Googlebook's price, Gemini features, and app gap, plus the EU's age check app.

Pixar gave Bonnie a tablet and then refused to make it the bad guy. Jeff Haecker, Tom Grelinger, and Patrick Mason dig into Toy Story 5's screen-time message, Jessie's promotion to lead, and the sleepover scene every parent will recognize.

A drone attack cuts off a mission mid-crossing, and Camille learns the water's laced with a memory-erasing drug. In Silo S3E7, Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Alix Murray weigh a trillionaire's hubris against a thousand-life choice.

He couldn't stand the sight of a leper. The smell made him physically sick. Then one afternoon he got down off his horse and kissed one, and that was the day Francis of Assisi became a saint. Dom Bettinelli tells the story without the birdbath.

Tolkien wrote books of elven genealogy, then waved a hand at where hobbits came from. On Hobbit Day, the panel takes up the three kindreds, the Shire's missing economy, and a calendar with a day belonging to no week.

A shadow self is the part you hide, not the evil twin, which gives Season 4, Episode 9 away a mile off. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler on the fairy tale, the Rukiya payoff that never lands, and whether Pike commands like a captain.

Beeswax, a wick, and a flame you can share without losing any of it. Alix Murray and Kathryn Laffrey take the Paschal candle apart, then paint their own: transfer paper, underpainting, and a paring knife that fixes almost anything.

Smile at your dog, and its brain may register a reward. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant, and Lino Saubolle unpack a new brain-scan study showing dogs' brains separate happy faces from sad, fearful, and angry ones.

A Replicator that can't replicate is loose on Earth, and Atlantis S4E15 spends the hour at a funeral instead. Jeff Haecker, Lisa Jones, and Victor Lams argue whether backstory without consequence earns its keep.