StarQuest Podcasts

A stray kitten raised on rice and noodles turned out to be a brand-new wild cat species. Caroline Knight, Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle on the tilcayo of Bolivia's cloud forest and the DNA study that found five tiger cats where one was assumed.

A solar flare throws Sheppard 48,000 years ahead, and a hologram of old McKay tells him how it all went wrong. Jeff Haecker, Lisa Jones and Victor Lams take on Stargate Atlantis S4E20, "The Last Man," the season 4 finale.

Is every prayer a kind of telepathy? On Halloween, Jimmy Akin takes listener questions with Cy Kellett, from ghosts who never ask for Masses to Star Wars' religious roots, time travel, and whether Daleks have souls.

Can one $299 screen that knows every face in the kitchen serve the whole family? Dom Bettinelli and Joanne Mercier weigh Apple's new HomeView, HomePod mini, $299 Apple TV 4K and Apple Home Collection, and decide what to buy.

Can a man be reprogrammed into a killer and still be guilty? In Silo Season 3, Episode 10, "Troy," Daniel Keene wakes with no memory and a massacre to carry out. Is he a Trojan horse, or only a weapon?

Stranded on a becalmed orange boat off Sicily, a sick Anglican clergyman wrote six lines that would outlive his career. Dom traces John Henry Newman's path from Oxford star to disgraced convert to Doctor of the Church.

Kara's lightsaber turns red in Season 1, Episode 5 of The Ninth Jedi. Was it the kill or the rage? Jeff Haecker, Thomas Salerno, and Kathryn Laffrey weigh her fall against Anakin, Moses, and Nawaam.

A charged particle cloud infects the Enterprise computer and it starts pranking the crew. In TAS S2E3, Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler weigh forced 1970s gags against Star Trek's very first holodeck.

Without sacrifice, there is no love. Lindsay Sant, Caroline Knight and Lino Saubolle read the Australian bishops' call to heal social division through encounter, then meet the Tilcayo tiger cat, a new species from Bolivia.

A cloned Carson Beckett, a pregnant Teyla strapped down in Michael's lab, and a plague built from an old anti-Wraith drug. Jeff Haecker, Lisa Jones and Victor Lams take on Stargate Atlantis S4E18 and E19, "The Kindred."

Could a priest who traveled back in time say Mass before the Last Supper? Jimmy Akin takes listener questions on Catholic Answers Live with Cy Kellett, from Mary's DNA to Malachi Martin and the Michigan Melon Heads.

When the cloud goes down, does your stuff still work? Dom Bettinelli, Thomas Sanjurjo, and Leo Devick put notes apps, ebooks, photos, smart homes, and password managers through the outage test and the shutdown test.

It's a toy commercial pretending to be a movie — and somehow it works. Patrick Mason, Jeff Haecker, and Rob Story break down why Amazon's Masters of the Universe reboot earns its emotional beats, and why Idris Elba steals the whole film.

Who gave them the right to choose who lives? In Silo S3E9, "Farewell," Bernard trades his life for his friends and a nuclear blast seals the silos. Dom Bettinelli, Jeff Haecker, and Alix Murray on redemption and playing God.

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.