Episodes

  • 5th Anniversary Update

    5th Anniversary Update
    Jun 29 2025
    TRANSCRIPT: Good evening folks, Happy 5 years of podcasting to me! At least officially. Sure, the first thing on this feed came out on April 27th 2020, but longtime listeners will recall that the show celebrated its official launch on June 29th 2020, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and so has accordingly celebrated its official anniversary on that date annually. Whether you’ve been listening for 5 years or 5 seconds, thank you and I hope you’ve been enjoying it, and maybe picked up some cool tidbits along the way. Unfortunately, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, this isn’t the Q&A episode I had planned for the occasion. As you know if you’ve heard me give any of these admin updates before, with 5 kids under 12, Vice-Pope Mrs. Popeular History and I are in an extremely busy season of life. Even in that usually busy context we’ve been unusually busy the last few weeks, honestly, primarily with fun stuff like dream job, family vacation, and sports–congratulations in particular to Catherine the 8U softball champion and her team–but bottom line I’m not remotely where I had hoped to be on podcast things at this stage, and frankly the next few months aren’t looking great either. And yet, I am determined to keep my commitment and very gently get back to producing regular content for you. So, in addition to seeing that Q&A episode, and all my lingering Sede Vacante content appearing on this feed in the next few months, sometime in July you’ll also be treated to the first episode of the long-awaited new rexypod: Habemus Pointsam, ranking all the Papal Transitions from from Peter to Linus to from Francis to Leo XIV. Now, because seriously, two podcast feeds? In this economy? No. That show will live on this feed, and it’s going to be a monthly release moving forward. So yes, regular content is returning! Nor, of course, will I stop there, as Cardinal Numbers will be coming back as well. Hopefully this year, though I offer no guarantees at this stage. I think my mental goal is to have it ready to resume by the time Pope Leo creates his first new batch of Cardinals, whenever that may be. Speaking of Pope Leo, he confirmed earlier today that his ecumenical hopes match my own, telling a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarch: “I assure you of my desire to persevere in the effort to restore full visible communion between our Churches”. So we’ll see what comes of that, with the stage being better set for a lasting reconciliation than, well honestly, than any other point I can think of in the last millennium. Which is not to say there aren’t challenges, there will always be challenges to Christian unity. Anyways, you can also *eventually* expect the completion of my Catholic worldbuilding series, though I will decline to hazard a guess as to a target date on that for now. Let’s get some regular content going with Habemus Pointsam in July, and then Cardinal Numbers, and then we’ll layer on the worldbuilding after that. Now, the biggest difference you will start to see–err, hear–is ads. Rather than get a second job which would make all the future plans I just outlined completely untenable–quality content takes a LOT of time, folks, I’m instead opting to turn my recently increased listener base into a modest revenue stream that will help keep the lights on around here moving forward. From hosting fees to research costs to sweat equity, this has production costs, which ads will help cover. The good news is you don’t have to listen to the ads if you don’t want to. There will be a free ad-free feed, because I’m a big softie and a librarian who believes in making good information as easy to access as possible. And so, moving forward, while this feed will have ads by default if you go to patreon.com/popeular you’ll be able to click a handy button labelled “Join for free” and boom presto, with just a name and an email address you’ll have access to an ad-free feed as a free Patreon member. Once that rolls out, let me know if you have any issues by emailing popeularhistory@gmail.com and I’ll help you get things worked out. Or, you know, even if you don’t have any problems and you just wanna say hi: I love hearing from you guys. I don’t like paywalls, and I don’t want to make you listen to ads, so this is the compromise, a free registration to keep getting ad-free content, and those who are zoning out right now, or those who think of it as a roundabout donation, well, they can support the show simply by tolerating ads on this feed. Of course, *another* option to support the show is to take the next step and become a *paid* Patreon subscriber, but seriously, I get it, don’t sweat it if that’s not where you’re at. The free option has your name all over it, go for it and thank you for listening! Spread the word! I’ll see you all in July. Thank you for listening, God bless you all. Thanks, Joe!
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    6 mins
  • Admin Special and Leo XIV Early Notes and Speculations

    Admin Special and Leo XIV Early Notes and Speculations
    May 25 2025
    NOTE: SHOW LINKS FOR ALL THE MENTIONED PODCASTERS WILL BE ADDED SOON (AND WILL ALSO BE IN THE NOTES FOR NEXT EPISODE TO ENSURE THEY GET SEEN), FOR NOW GETTING THIS OUT WHILE I CAN! TRANSCRIPT: Good Evening Everyone, Welcome to Popeular History. My name is Gregg, and this is another admin update I’ll try to keep from being too boring, in part by offering some observations and speculations about the new Papacy interspersed throughout. First, some personal updates. I was very tired by the end of last week, thank you for asking. I got some rest and then made sure Vice-Pope Mrs. Popeular History’s primary Mother’s Day present was rest. I am immeasurably grateful for her support, but the reality is even if she weren’t so supportive of this passion project of mine and the fairly unhinged extremes I took it to in the last few weeks, I would still be immeasurably grateful to her for a million other things. She’s the best partner I could have ever hoped to have for so many reasons, and all of you are welcome to be jealous. I’d also like to thank my children for being malleable enough that I can pass on my love of the faith in general and also my nerdiness to them. Patrick, Catherine, Joseph, William, Gabriel, I love you all and thank you for sharing me with the internet a bit more lately. I try to shield my children from my more concentrated geekery so they can have somewhat normal childhoods, much like I try to spare my Vice Pope so she can have a somewhat normal marriage, but I will admit I felt a special sense of pride when I heard footsteps after I had invited any of my children interested in appearing on one of my livestreams to come on down to the studio. Those footsteps were from Catherine, who was by that point a good hour and a half into a livestream of the Pope’s funeral that had began at 4am our time. To be clear, the kids aren’t usually up at that time–I mean, neither am I–but wanting to be on the livestream she had asked to be awakened when it began, so I woke her and set her up with a watching station before kicking things off. Days later, she still excitedly references things from it. Just one of many special times from the last couple weeks. My thanks go not only to my immediate household, but to my family beyond as well, in particular my father, who came over at another particularly uncivil hour and summoned black smoke basically as soon as he arrived so I could go rest, as well as my in-laws, who bore with me through a packed weekend of a wedding and a papal funeral. And again, Vice Pope-Mrs Popeular history through it all. Thanks are due as well to the lovely and supportive folks at work. I wouldn’t want to name anyone who would rather I not name them, so I will be general when I say the atmosphere there has been lovely, and in particular I appreciate those who knew I was their best local source for answers to questions about Popes and Cardinals and conclaves and such. I lead a charmed life these days, and work, from my team to my coworkers to those above me and those supporting me, is full of amazing people I could not appreciate more. Before I thank even more people, including you the listeners, let’s talk about the New Pope, Leo XIV, specifically, his status as an American. And please, I beg you, don’t be one of the contrarians who have been trying to make “United Statesian” a thing, it’s fine to call Leo XIV the First American Pope. Of course you’re welcome to use the opportunity to draw attention to the fact that Pope Francis is also from “the Americas”, but “American” is the demonym for a person from the United States and there is nothing wrong with using that word in that sense, so stop trying to make fetch happen. Anyways, Pope Leo was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. The date is memorable for Catholics as the Triumph of the Cross, one of the more venerable feasts of the Church, commemorating Emperor Constantine’s mother Saint Helena’s apparently successful expedition to the Holy Land in search of the Cross Christ was crucified on, AKA the True Cross. Of course, many of my listeners are more captivated by the Chicago aspect, so let’s hone in on that. First, to get this out of the way, yes, he was raised in Dolton, a community just *outside* Chicago, but contrarians should brace for more disappointment as it remains technically correct to describe Robert Francis Prevost as being “from Chicago”, having been born at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side. In a way, it would be somewhat surprising if Pope Leo *weren’t* from the midwest, considering 80% of the 10 American Cardinals who participated in the conclave are midwesterners by birth. But also that number should actually closer to 90%, considering that’s including the Irish-born Kevin Cardinal Farrell under the American tally, and by that logic the future Leo XIV should probably count as Peruvian. But I’m not gonna ...
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    37 mins
  • 2nd Helping: Conclave Time (Ft. Meredith from The Alexander Standard)

    2nd Helping: Conclave Time (Ft. Meredith from The Alexander Standard)
    May 17 2025

    Interview one of three of "second helping" conclave interviews. The Alexander Standard podcast: https://alexanderstandardpod.weebly.com/
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    47 mins
  • Chat with Benjamin Jacobs (Wittenberg to Westphalia podcast episode 100)

    Chat with Benjamin Jacobs (Wittenberg to Westphalia podcast episode 100)
    May 14 2025

    Wittenberg to Westphalia: The Wars of the Reformation: https://wittenbergtowestphaliapodcast.weebly.com/

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    1 hr and 32 mins
  • Habemus Papam! Introducing Leo XIV w/Pontifacts

    Habemus Papam! Introducing Leo XIV w/Pontifacts
    May 9 2025

    Before I give the extra omnes to everyone that isn't my pillow, I wanted to put something out about the new Pope that wasn't just his life prior to being a Cardinal (which has quickly become our most popular episode, thank you to all who shared it and keep in mind I will almost certainly have an episode on the NEXT Pope ready when the time comes, hopefully decades from now).

    Given my current energy levels, I am simply posting (with permission) the same version that went up on the Pontifacts feed a few minutes ago, right down to the plug for this show at the end. Very meta. If you somehow *haven't* checked out Pontifacts, perhaps if you're new from the exposure yesterday, they're well worth a listen, and I'm not just saying that because I edit their show, though I do.
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    29 mins
  • Cardinal PREVOST is now Pope Leo XIV, so here's his episode from 2023!

    Cardinal PREVOST is now Pope Leo XIV, so here's his episode from 2023!
    May 8 2025

    HABEMUS PAPAM! IF YOU WANT THE SHOW TO GROW, SHOW WHAT I KNOW WITH THE WORLD! THANK YOU!
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    7 mins
  • ֎First Judgment IV: Quarter Court (Ft. John from Prime Time)

    ֎First Judgment IV: Quarter Court (Ft. John from Prime Time)
    May 8 2025

    John is from Prime Time!

    https://shows.acast.com/prime-time

    (I'll fill this out more soon, for now making sure it goes out before habemus papam)
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    37 mins
  • ֎Kurt Cardinal KOCH (elevated 2010)

    ֎Kurt Cardinal KOCH (elevated 2010)
    May 8 2025
    IMAGE CREDIT Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons - cc-by-sa-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons LINKS Vatican bio of Cardinal Kurt KOCH: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_koch_k.html Kurt KOCH on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvador Miranda): https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2010.htm#Koch Cardinal Kurt KOCH on Gcatholic.org: https://gcatholic.org/p/4021 Cardinal Kurt KOCH on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bkoch.html Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on Gcatholic.org: https://gcatholic.org/dioceses/romancuria/d16.htm Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity on Catholic-Hierarchy.org: https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dxpcu.html Basel Cathedral website discussing the canons: https://www.bistum-basel.ch/news/drei-neue-domherren-eingesetzt La Repubblica 1995 article on Bishop Vogel’s resignation and son: https://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1995/06/03/il-vescovo-si-dimette-aspetto-un.html Nostra Aetate: https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html 2012 Catholic News Service overview of Cardinal Koch's comments on conservative Catholics and Judaism (archived via Library of Congress Web Archives): https://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20121205205921/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1202023.htm Thank you for listening, and thank my family and friends for putting up with the time investment and for helping me out as needed. As always, feel free to email the show at Popeularhistory@gmail.com If you would like to financially support Popeular history, go to www.patreon.com/Popeular. If you don't have any money to spare but still want to give back, pray and tell others– prayers and listeners are worth more than gold! TRANSCRIPT Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights. Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript. Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes. Kurt KOCH was born on March 15, 1950, Emmenbrücke a town just north of the middle of Switzerland, in the Canton of Lucerne. Cardinal Koch is the second Swiss-born Cardinal we've met after Cardinal Tscherrig, the Nuncio’s Nuncio we met last summer. But at the time we had dozens of countries involved, because, well, nuncio's nuncio, and didn't get a chance to just talk Switzerland. These days Switzerland is famous for their neutrality, staying out of pretty much every conflict they can avoid. Perhaps that’s in part due to the fact that it used to be a battleground, especially in the rolling conflicts between the Popes in Italy and the Holy Roman Emperors in Germany. When the Reformation came, Switzerland was again divided in loyalty between largely Catholic southern Europe and largely Protestant northern Europe. One of the fruits of conflict, for better or for worse, is military skill, which is how the Swiss Guard that still protects the Vatican today came about. Fortunately, like I mentioned, the Swiss came to embrace neutrality, including in religion, with laws allowing for freedom of conscience–first just among Christian denominations and then more broadly. Keep this context of conflict to resolution in the back of your mind as we go. Kurt Koch studied Theology at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland, then went to Munich Germany to study more theology, getting a diploma in theology in 1975. He served as a research assistant at the University of Lucerne from ‘76 to ‘81, presumably while studying even More theology, and soon after he was ordained a priest for his home Diocese of Basel in 1982. This is actually the first time I've seen someone ordained apparently without any specific philosophy training, going pure theology isn't as normal as one might expect. After a period of chaplaincy, his theology studies continued, and in 1987 he wound up with a doctorate in, you guessed it, theology. I expected he’d stop there, or perhaps get another doctorate, but apparently in Kurt's neck of the woods there's another step you can go beyond a simple doctorate, the Habilitation, which basically works out to full professorship. The most surprising thing about this to me is that this is the first time I'm realizing it, it's extremely possible- I would say likely- that he actually isn't our first Cardinal to achieve this level, I just didn't flag it before and my sources described it differently this time. Part of why I love doing this is it lets me learn something every day. Anyways, after obtaining his habilitation, Father Koch became Professor of dogmatics, liturgy and ecumenical theology at the Theological Faculty of the University of Lucerne from 1989, ...
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    9 mins