Something happens at the moment of death. Sometimes the living sense it from miles away — a vision, a voice, a presence, a sudden inexplicable certainty that someone they love is gone. These are **crisis apparitions**, and they’ve been documented in the scientific literature since 1882.

**Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** trace the full history of crisis apparition research, from the founding of the **Society for Psychical Research** and its landmark Census of Hallucinations — a survey of more than 17,000 people — through modern studies on deathbed phenomena and altered states of consciousness. Along the way, they examine the cases that shaped how researchers think about these experiences: a soldier’s wife who sees her husband’s figure and notices a wound on his right temple, later confirmed; a man who perceives his brother at the exact moment of death; collective apparitions witnessed by multiple people simultaneously.

The SPR defined a strict “crisis window” — within 12 hours of a death or serious physical crisis — and documented six distinct categories of crisis impressions: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, emotional, and dreams. When analyzed statistically, the rate of crisis coincidences was far beyond what chance alone would predict.

The word **”telepathy”** was coined specifically to explain these experiences. Researchers needed new vocabulary because nothing existing fit what they were documenting. That line of inquiry eventually fed into the development of the **EEG** — one of the unexpected downstream effects of taking these phenomena seriously as a scientific question.

Jimmy and Dom also work through the skeptical objections: coincidence, selective memory, the tendency to remember the hits and forget the misses. They walk through what the evidence actually supports and what it doesn’t.

And they look at what the **Catholic tradition** says. The Church has never found crisis apparitions troubling. The soul’s journey after death isn’t instantaneous, and Catholic tradition has always left room for mystery at the threshold between this life and the next.

140 years of data. Still no clean answer. But the evidence is stranger — and more compelling — than most people realize.

https://youtu.be/Bgh-LeZDTYI

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Daniel Bourke’s book Apparitions at the Moment of Death
• Phantasms of the Living, vol. 1
• Phantasms of the Living, vol. 2
• Proceedings of the SPR (1st Literary Committee report)
• Census of Hallucinations
• Pearson, Mossbridge, and Beischel’s paper Crisis Impressions: A Historical and Conceptual Review
• Phenomena Related to Danger, Death, and Bereavement (Psi Encyclopedia)
• Society for Psychical Research (Psi Encyclopedia)
• Hans Berger (Grokipedia)

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00 – MYS417
• 0:13 – Intro
• 1:28 – What is a crisis apparition?
• 5:26 – Reorts of crisis apparitions
• 10:02 – Mrs. Birkbeck
• 13:31 – Captain Colt
• 17:43 – J.G. Keulemans
• 21:30 – Sarah Jardine
• 23:18 – Multiple percipients
• 23:48 – C. Colchester
• 26:06 – Liston and Creigh
• 28:51 – Silence in apparitions
• 29:18 – Miss H.
• 32:46 – Apparitions without death
• 33:27 – Bishop Wilberforce
• 34:49 – Auditory apparitions
• 35:05 – R. Fryer
• 37:08 – Frederick Corder
• 44:13 – Apparitions in dreams
• 45:03 – Dr. A
• 48:44 – Origin of telepathy
• 51:21 – Census of Hallucinations
• 53:33 – Hans Berger
• 58:01 – Thank you to Patrons
• 58:30 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
• 59:24 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 59:41 – Reason Perspective
• 1:00:14 – Crisis impressions
• 1:02:35 – How common?
• 1:06:51 – Six categories
• 1:07:51 – Visual or auditory hallucinations
• 1:13:07 – Dreams or borderland visions
• 1:14:38 – Mental impressions
• 1:19:59 – Physical impressions
• 1:22:03 – Deathbed visions
• 1:23:36 – Sensed-presence experiences
• 1:24:59 – Components of crisis impressions
• 1:25:50 – Genders of the agents and the experients
• 1:27:23 – Relationship between experient and agent
• 1:31:07 – State of consciousness of experient
• 1:33:08 – Geographic occurrence
• 1:34:47 – Frequency of experience
• 1:35:48 – Telepathy? Paranormal?
• 1:38:27 – Faith Perspective
• 1:44:40 – Bottom Line
• 1:45:28 – Further Resources
• 1:46:34 – Mysterious Feedback: #406 Exposing the Myth of the Zodiac Killer
• 1:52:31 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:53:12 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:53:16 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:53:58 – Next Time: Skeleton Lake
• 1:54:09 – Share the show
• 1:54:18 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:54:26 – Show notes
• 1:54:33 – Become a Patron
• 1:54:42 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:55:05 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
• 1:55:53 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroupInc.com.

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school? 

This new mystery series presents 10-year-old Gloria Treddle, a bloodhound with glasses and sneakers who’s always getting the bottom of the latest mystery at St. Anthony School. Faith and family lie at the center of Gloria’s world and the adults in her life, though imperfect, strive to pass on their values. Each Gloria Treadle Mystery is centered on one of the eight beatitudes.

Dive into the first engrossing story with The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, now available from Our Sunday Visitor wherever books are sold. To find out more and download free Free Mini-Mysteries that you and your kids can solve at home, visit GloriaBook.com/Mysterious

The Lord is A Warrior, by Michael Regal. If you enjoy exploring the intersection of faith and history, you will be be interested in “The Lord is a Warrior: True Accounts of Divine Intervention in War” by Michael Regal. 

Through dramatized retellings of biblical and historical battles alongside reflections drawn from Catholic tradition, it blends storytelling with spiritual themes like divine providence, trust in God, and the role of prayer in times of crisis.   If you’ve ever wondered what happened at Lepanto, what really drove the Crusaders at Las Navas de Tolosa, or why the Japanese Catholic community responded to the bomb the way they did, this is the book for you. Available now on Amazon in ebook and paperback.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 21 September 2025 to 13 May 2026.

General Audiences

• 13 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 9. The Virgin Mary, model of the Church

Homilies

• 21 September 2025 – Holy Mass (Parish of Saint Anne in the Vatican)
• 5 October 2025 – Holy Mass for the Gendarmerie Corps of the Vatican City State
• 8 May 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Pompei’ Holy Mass and Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii in Piazza Bartolo Longo

Regina Caeli

• 10 May 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

• 25 September 2025 – To the Community of authors of the Journal ‘La Civiltà Cattolica’
• 6 May 2026 – Oath of the Pontifical Swiss Guards
• 7 May 2026 – To the Pontifical Swiss Guards
• 7 May 2026 – To Members of the Editorial Offices of the Vatican Publishing House
• 8 May 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Pompeii’ Meeting with the ‘Tempio della Carità’ (Temple of Charity) in the ‘Luisa Trapani’ Hall
• 8 May 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Pompeii’ Meeting with some ill people and people with disabilities
• 8 May 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Naples’ Meeting with the Clergy and Consecrated Persons in Naples Cathedral
• 9 May 2026 – To Executives and Players of the Italian ‘Inter’ Football Team
• 9 May 2026 – To Members of the Edith-Haberland-Wagner Foundation and of the Augustiner Brewery
• 9 May 2026 – To Members of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel
• 9 May 2026 – To Members of the Italian Association for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (AISLA)
• 9 May 2026 – To a Delegation of Leaders and Representatives of the Muslim Community of Senegal
• 11 May 2026 – To Participants in the Colloquium promoted by the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies
• 11 May 2026 – To Members of the Board of the Vatican Observatory Foundation

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

A legend built on a lie. Or is it?

DS9’s second season opens with “The Homecoming,” the first episode of Star Trek’s first real three-parter, and a story that could only exist on Deep Space Nine. **Dom Bettinelli**, **Jimmy Akin**, and **Fr. Jason Tyler** break it all down.

**Major Kira** learns that **Li Nalas**, the legendary Bajoran resistance hero, is alive and imprisoned on Cardassia IV. She borrows a runabout, brings Chief O’Brien along for the ride, and pulls off a brazen rescue involving an improvised infiltration ruse that immediately raises questions about their prior experience together. Li Nalas arrives back on DS9 to a hero’s welcome, and almost immediately tries to flee on a freight ship.

His secret: the legend isn’t real. He killed an unarmed, embarrassed Cardassian who was bathing in a stream, and never corrected the story that grew up around it. His friends built a myth; the myth built a movement. Sisko tells him it doesn’t matter. Bajor needs a symbol, not a man. The panel notes the episode’s one missed beat: Sisko is the Emissary, a symbol himself. That parallel never gets drawn out loud.

Meanwhile, **the Circle** — a Bajoran supremacist group under the slogan “Bajor for the Bajorans” — escalates from graffiti to something uglier. They break into Quark’s bar and brand him on the forehead. The panel reads this clearly: it’s the equivalent of cross-burning, a targeted act meant to drive non-Bajorans out. The Circle vanishes from the series after this three-parter, which the panel considers one of DS9’s more significant missed opportunities.

A quieter moment lands the hardest. Jake’s date cancels because her father won’t allow her to date a human. Sisko walks in, asks about the evening, and Jake tells him. Sisko’s response — “I’m sorry you’ve become a victim of these things. You don’t deserve it. Nobody does” — is delivered with total restraint. The panel notes that Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton being Black adds a layer to that scene that white actors couldn’t carry in the same way.

**Frank Langella** plays Minister Jaro Essa uncredited, a favor to his Star Trek fan kids. **Richard Beymer** (Tony in West Side Story, Ben Horne in Twin Peaks) plays Li Nalas.

And for the first time in DS9’s run: Morn doesn’t appear. The panel wants to know how he gets paid for episodes he skips.

https://youtu.be/e5Ov_QE0zRU

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

Most people who read Matthew 24 or Mark 13 assume Jesus is describing the end of the world. The cosmic imagery, wars and rumors of war, the Son of Man coming on clouds — it sounds like an apocalyptic countdown. But Jesus then says “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” And the end of the world did not happen in the first century.

On this episode, **Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** take a close look at the Olivet Discourse — Jesus’ longest recorded prophecy, delivered on the Mount of Olives just before his crucifixion. Jimmy presents his full talk from the 2024 Catholic Answers Conference in San Diego, walking through the text in Matthew, Mark, and Luke to ask what Jesus was actually predicting.

The key is in the disciples’ question. In all three Synoptic Gospels, the discourse begins the same way: Jesus tells his disciples the Temple will be destroyed stone by stone. They want to know when, and what sign will precede it. That’s the question the Olivet Discourse answers — not a question about the Second Coming.

Jimmy examines the chiastic structure of Mark’s version, identifies the Abomination of Desolation as the centerpiece, and explains how Luke translates that sign for Gentile readers unfamiliar with Daniel. He also takes on the cosmic cataclysm language — the sun going dark, the stars falling — showing it’s a recurring Old Testament pattern applied to warfare and conquest, not the literal end of everything.

There are also important implications for when the Synoptic Gospels were written. The evangelists loved recording fulfilled prophecies — Matthew especially has a formula for it. They don’t use it here. That silence is evidence, and it points to an early date for all three Gospels.

Also on this episode: Feedback with a substantial listener critique of Episode 96 (“David Koresh, the Sinful Messiah”) that prompts Jimmy to walk through his approach to covering government and law enforcement across the show’s history. Plus listener observations on Episode 405 (“The Myth of the Zodiac Killer”).

https://youtu.be/Bdip26rA-RA

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00 – MYS416
• 0:12 – Intro
• 8:35 – Thank you to Patrons
• 9:10 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
• 10:04 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 10:20 – The Conference talk
• 11:25 – The Temple prediction and the disciples’ questions
• 14:35 – “This generation will not pass away”: the problem with futurist readings
• 18:28 – Reading the text: Mark’s chiasmus structure
• 27:52 – The Abomination of Desolation
• 31:59 – Luke’s version for Gentile readers
• 37:04 – Flee: how to respond when the sign appears
• 43:13 – “The Son of Man coming on clouds” (Daniel 7 and the Ascension)
• 47:16 – “No one knows the day or hour”: what it actually means
• 49:49 – Matthew’s extended version: first century and end-of-world material
• 54:52 – The silence of the evangelists as evidence for early dating
• 57:48 – Bottom Line
• 58:43 – Mysterious Feedback: #96 David Koresh, Sinful Messiah
• 1:10:13 – Mysterious Feedback: #405 The Myth of the Zodiac Killer
• 1:12:30 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:13:07 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:13:13 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:13:44 – Next Time: Crisis apparitions
• 1:14:21 – Follow the show
• 1:14:35 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:14:43 – Show notes
• 1:14:52 – Become a Patron
• 1:15:00 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:15:24 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
• 1:16:12 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroupInc.com.

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school? 

This new mystery series presents 10-year-old Gloria Treddle, a bloodhound with glasses and sneakers who’s always getting the bottom of the latest mystery at St. Anthony School. Faith and family lie at the center of Gloria’s world and the adults in her life, though imperfect, strive to pass on their values. Each Gloria Treadle Mystery is centered on one of the eight beatitudes.

Dive into the first engrossing story with The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, now available from Our Sunday Visitor wherever books are sold. To find out more and download free Free Mini-Mysteries that you and your kids can solve at home, visit GloriaBook.com/Mysterious

The Lord is A Warrior, by Michael Regal. If you enjoy exploring the intersection of faith and history, you will be be interested in “The Lord is a Warrior: True Accounts of Divine Intervention in War” by Michael Regal. 

Through dramatized retellings of biblical and historical battles alongside reflections drawn from Catholic tradition, it blends storytelling with spiritual themes like divine providence, trust in God, and the role of prayer in times of crisis.   If you’ve ever wondered what happened at Lepanto, what really drove the Crusaders at Las Navas de Tolosa, or why the Japanese Catholic community responded to the bomb the way they did, this is the book for you. Available now on Amazon in ebook and paperback.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 8 April 2026 to 6 May 2026.

General Audiences

• 6 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. II. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium. 8. The Church, pilgrim in history towards the heavenly homeland

Letters

• 24 April 2026 – Letter of the Holy Father for the Granting of theEcclesiastica Communioto the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans

Messages

• 8 April 2026 – Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the IV ‘Fiesta de la Resurrección’ [Madrid, 11 April 2026]

Prayers

• 30 April 2026 – Video message ‘Pray with the Pope’’ –- May’ That everyone might have food

Regina Caeli

• 3 May 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

• 10 April 2026 – To Directors and Staff of the Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS)
• 30 April 2026 – To a delegation of the ‘Weltkirche & Dialog’ of the Archdiocese of Cologne
• 2 May 2026 – To Employees of the Italian Episcopal Conference, with their Families
• 2 May 2026 – To Members of the ‘Papal Foundation’
• 4 May 2026 – To members of the Board of Directors of Catholic Charities USA

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

When Admiral Quinn dispatches the sharp-elbowed Lt. Cdr. Dexter Remmick to investigate the Enterprise crew, every conversation becomes an interrogation — and Captain Picard’s fitness for command comes under the most personal scrutiny he’s faced yet. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler dig into “Coming of Age,” a first-season TNG episode that quietly plants the seeds of a major conspiracy while putting both Wesley Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard through entirely different kinds of tests.

On the A-plot, Wesley Crusher travels to a Starfleet Academy testing facility competing against three other exceptional candidates — including a Benzite named Mordock, author of the Mordock Strategy. The panel takes apart the episode’s baffling selection process: only one candidate per regional pool can advance, despite the competition being stacked with super-geniuses. Wesley outperforms Mordock on every visible metric — the 1:1 matter-antimatter intermix ratio problem, the Zaldan cultural encounter, the rotating matrix test, and the psych evaluation. Yet Mordock wins. There’s a leaderboard the audience never sees, and points that don’t matter until they suddenly do.

Wesley’s psych test hits close to home: forced to choose which person to save in a simulated accident, he must make the same kind of life-or-death call that shaped his entire childhood. Worf, of all people, offers him the episode’s most useful advice beforehand — don’t waste energy on what you can’t control — a moment that hints at the character Worf will eventually become.

The B-plot belongs to Remmick, who manages to get under the skin of nearly every senior officer aboard. Riker folds immediately. Beverly Crusher delivers the episode’s sharpest rebuke. And when Remmick asks Worf if he likes him, Worf’s reply is perfect: “Is it required?” It’s also the first on-screen appearance of the Riker Maneuver, as Riker steps over a chair to physically impose himself on his interrogator.

All of this functions as setup. Admiral Quinn reveals he’s investigating the crew because of whispered threats to the Federation’s stability — and he wants Picard elevated to Commandant of Starfleet Academy to protect him. Picard declines. Those who’ve seen the season finale “Conspiracy” know how this thread ends, and it gets dark. At this point, both Quinn and Remmick are still the good guys — which makes rewatching the episode a different experience entirely.

The panel also examines the episode’s clunkier moments: the shuttle rescue that collapses under basic scrutiny, Picard’s cryptic instructions to teenager Jake Kurland, and why no one on the bridge — including Data — seems to recognize what the captain is doing. Plus the Feedback segment tackles a hypothetical: if you intentionally use a neuralizer to erase the memory of your mortal sins before going to confession, is the absolution valid?

https://youtu.be/oW1OY_gRTQU

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

There are more mattress stores in America than McDonald’s franchises. They’re almost always empty. They cluster suspiciously close together — sometimes within 22 seconds of each other by car. And when **Mattress Firm** filed for bankruptcy in 2018 amid actual financial crimes, conspiracy theories about the entire industry exploded.

**Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** investigate the three leading theories about what mattress stores are really up to. The first, and most dramatic, is that they’re fronts for **money laundering** — a surprisingly compelling theory. Jimmy traces the history from Al Capone’s tax evasion downfall to **Meyer Lansky’s** innovations in laundering dirty cash, then applies the model to ask whether a mattress store would actually work as a placement vehicle for criminal money.

The second theory is more sophisticated: mattress stores aren’t in the mattress business at all — they’re quietly exploiting **real estate arbitrage**, using long-term leases in developing areas to profit when property values rise. Jimmy explains the sublease, lease-assignment, and kill-fee strategies that would make this work.

The third theory is that mattress stores are exactly what they look like. But if that’s true, how do you explain the clustering, the empty showrooms, and the remarkably low foot traffic? Jimmy digs into profit margins, industry-to-industry comparisons, and market saturation strategies — and looks hard at what Mattress Firm’s forensic accountants actually found during the bankruptcy proceedings.

The episode also covers how to save 30–60% on a mattress by skipping the traditional showroom entirely, and a faith perspective on the ethics of “showrooming” — using a store’s try-before-you-buy service when you have no intention of buying from them.

https://youtu.be/7EZ8wp-Kkvw

Help us continue to offer Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World. Won’t you make a pledge at SQPN.com/give today?

Links for this episode:

• Mattress Firm Conspiracy (Know Your Meme)
• Bloomberg Business on Mattress stores in Manhattan
• Freakonomics Radio on Mattress stores

• Please spread the word about the podcast. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
• Purchase the books and other material from this and other episodes at the Mysterious World Bookstore.
• Join the conversation at the Starquest Facebook page and the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World Facebook page.
• Be part of the StarQuest Discord community at SQPN.com/discord
• Send your feedback or comments to feedback@mysterious.fm or send a tweet to @mys_world
• You can also leave a voice message on the Mysterious Feedback Line at (619) 738-4515

Chapters:

• 0:00 – MYS415
• 0:13 – Intro
• 2:10 – A surprising number of stores
• 8:08 – The Mattress Firm element
• 9:42 – Thank you to Patrons
• 10:13 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
• 11:07 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 11:23 – Theories
• 12:13 – Reason Perspective
• 12:28 – Money laundering?
• 27:16 – Real estate arbitrage?
• 38:59 – They are what they say?
• 47:03 – How to get a mattress for less
• 55:48 – Faith Perspective
• 57:57 – Bottom Line
• 59:04 – Further Resources
• 59:30 – Mysterious Feedback: #404 The Ghosts of the Banta Inn
• 1:05:02 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:05:39 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:05:45 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:06:18 – Next Time: The Olivet Discourse
• 1:06:38 – Mysterious World store
• 1:06:46 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:06:55 – Show notes
• 1:07:02 – Become a Patron
• 1:07:11 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:07:34 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
• 1:08:22 – Outro

This Episode is Brought to You By:

Rosary Army. Featuring award-winning Catholic podcasts, Rosary resources, videos, and the School of Mary online community, prayer, and learning platform. Learn how to make them, pray them, and give them away while growing in your faith at RosaryArmy.com and SchoolOfMary.com

The Grady Group, a Catholic company bringing financial clarity to their clients across the United States. Using safe money options to produce reasonable rates of return for their clients. Learn more by visiting GradyGroupInc.com.

The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, a new book for middle schoolers and inquisitive minds of all ages. What if Nancy Drew went to Catholic school? 

This new mystery series presents 10-year-old Gloria Treddle, a bloodhound with glasses and sneakers who’s always getting the bottom of the latest mystery at St. Anthony School. Faith and family lie at the center of Gloria’s world and the adults in her life, though imperfect, strive to pass on their values. Each Gloria Treadle Mystery is centered on one of the eight beatitudes.

Dive into the first engrossing story with The Secret of the Goldfish, by Mark Guiney, now available from Our Sunday Visitor wherever books are sold. To find out more and download free Free Mini-Mysteries that you and your kids can solve at home, visit GloriaBook.com/Mysterious

The Lord is A Warrior, by Michael Regal. If you enjoy exploring the intersection of faith and history, you will be be interested in “The Lord is a Warrior: True Accounts of Divine Intervention in War” by Michael Regal. 

Through dramatized retellings of biblical and historical battles alongside reflections drawn from Catholic tradition, it blends storytelling with spiritual themes like divine providence, trust in God, and the role of prayer in times of crisis.   If you’ve ever wondered what happened at Lepanto, what really drove the Crusaders at Las Navas de Tolosa, or why the Japanese Catholic community responded to the bomb the way they did, this is the book for you. Available now on Amazon in ebook and paperback.

Want to Sponsor A Show?
Support StarQuest’s mission to explore the intersection of faith and pop culture by becoming a named sponsor of the show of your choice on the StarQuest network. Click to get started or find out more.

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 22 April 2026 to 29 April 2026.

General Audiences

• 29 April 2026 – General Audience – The Apostolic Journey in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea

Homilies

• 23 April 2026 – Apostolic Journey to Equatorial Guinea’ Holy Mass in Malabo Stadium
• 26 April 2026 – Holy Mass with Priestly Ordinations

Messages

• 24 April 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father to the Participants in the Commemorative Event marking the 15th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Death Penalty in the State of Illinois [DePaul University (Chicago)]

Regina Caeli

• 26 April 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

• 22 April 2026 – Apostolic Journey to Equatorial Guinea’ Meeting with Young People and Families (Bata Stadium)
• 25 April 2026 – To Participants in the National Meeting of Catholic Religion Teachers, promoted by the Italian Bishop’s Conference
• 25 April 2026 – To Members of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament
• 27 April 2026 – Visit to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy
• 27 April 2026 – Blessing of the foundation stone of the ‘Heart Center – Pope Francis’ at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome
• 27 April 2026 – To Her Grace Sarah Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

Spock is dying — and the cure is in enemy hands.

**Choriocytosis** encases copper-based blood cells so they can’t carry oxygen, and it’s 100% fatal to Vulcans. The medicine is en route aboard the **USS Huron**, a Starfleet freighter — until Orion pirates hijack it. What makes the situation worse: the Orions are a neutral power, and they’d rather blow themselves up than let the Federation prove they’ve gone rogue.

**Dom Bettinelli**, **Jimmy Akin**, and **Fr. Jason Tyler** dig into “The Pirates of Orion,” widely regarded as the best episode of *Star Trek: The Animated Series* — and the one written by **Howard Weinstein** at age 19, in a submission that almost never got read.

The discussion covers a lot of ground. McCoy finally gets to be the hero, devising the rendezvous plan before Kirk can even open his mouth. Lt. **Arex** gets real things to do for once. **James Doohan** voices the Orion captain and most of the Huron crew, demonstrating the vocal range that made him indispensable to TAS. And the Orion ship design — a pouncing, crab-like silhouette — effectively sells the menace before the mystery is revealed.

The panel also interrogates the episode’s central premise: can a neutral planet really disclaim its own pirates? A look at Somali pirates, letters of marque, and Larry Niven’s Kzinti subplot from another TAS episode all come to bear. And the transporter-defuses-the-bomb ending gets scrutinized — “molecular chain reaction” only goes so far as an explanation.

Feedback from the previous episode rounds out the show, including a listener’s detailed correction on dinosaur genus nomenclature and what it reveals about Neelix’s insult to Tom Paris.

https://youtu.be/eOeJR0-VZxk

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The apostles twice mistook Jesus for a ghost — and he corrected them without saying ghosts don’t exist. That single observation opens **Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli’s** survey of ancient Christian ghost encounters, tracing what early believers reported across four centuries and how they made sense of it.

This is the first episode in what Jimmy describes as an occasional historical series — part of his ongoing academic research into historic ghost reports. The striking finding: accounts from the 2nd through 5th centuries display the same features documented by modern parapsychology.

**Acts of Paul and Thecla (c. AD 150)** — A deceased non-Christian woman, Falconilla, appears in a dream to her mother Queen Tryphena, asking that the martyr Thecla pray for her soul’s transfer from suffering to happiness. The text reflects early church openness to the salvation of those who died outside the faith — a view the Church has since recovered.

**Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (AD 203)** — Perpetua’s prison diary, one of the oldest surviving texts written by a woman, records two visions of her unbaptized younger brother Dinocrates: first in suffering, then in joyful refreshment after Perpetua prays for him. Augustine himself praised Perpetua and Felicity to the heavens.

**St. Martin of Tours (late 4th century)** — Martin investigates a site venerated as a martyr’s grave but with no verified historical record. He prays and a ghost appears — confessing he was an executed robber, not a martyr. Martin’s companions heard the ghost’s voice but couldn’t see the apparition. Martin removes the altar.

**Bishop Evodius of Uzalis (c. AD 415)** — A complex cluster of incidents surrounds the death of a young secretary: a shared death experience at the moment he died, an after-death communication to a widow preparing his heavenly welcome, a deathbed vision of a deceased friend who came to escort him, a shared apparition witnessed by an elderly bystander, and the young man’s ghost announcing his father would soon follow — which came true within seven days.

**St. Augustine** — The early church’s notable skeptic. In *On the Care to Be Had for the Dead*, Augustine proposed that apparitions with verified information could be explained by imagination or angels impersonating the dead. Jimmy works through Augustine’s arguments — including the famous Monica argument — and finds them unconvincing. Even Augustine acknowledged that some of the dead, like the confessor Felix of Nola, can appear by God’s permission.

Across nearly five centuries, these encounters share a consistent fingerprint — verified information, psychokinetic activity, requests for prayer, confirmed predictions — aligning with what parapsychology documents today.

https://youtu.be/3jwJyzcNyFo

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Links for this episode:

• Penguin Book of the Undead
• Acts of Paul and Thecla
• The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity
• On the Life of St. Martin
• Evodius’s Letter
• Augustine’s Reply
• Augustine’s On the Care to Be Had for the Dead

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Chapters:

• 0:00 – MYS414
• 0:12 – Intro
• 7:15 – Christian belief in ghosts in the Bible
• 10:41 – 2nd century: Thecla
• 18:20 – 3rd century: St. Perpetua
• 25:30 – 4th century: St. Martin of Tours
• 29:31 – Thank you to Patrons
• 30:05 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 30:25 – 5th century: Evodius
• 43:55 – St. Augustine
• 1:02:47 – St. Germanus
• 1:08:46 – Bottom Line
• 1:10:35 – Further Resources
• 1:11:11 – Mysterious Feedback from #403 Kentucky Goblins
• 1:20:39 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:21:16 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:21:22 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:22:00 – Next Time: The Mattress Store Conspiracy?
• 1:22:17 – Share the show
• 1:22:27 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:22:35 – Show notes
• 1:22:42 – Become a Patron
• 1:22:50 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:23:15 – Outro

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