This version of The Weekly Leo covers material released in the last week, from 26 July 2026 to 6 August 2026.

Angelus

• 2 August 2026 – Angelus

General Audiences

• 5 August 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 5. The prayer of the Church

Messages

• 26 July 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the Halleluya Festival 2026 [Fortaleza (Brazil), 22–26 July 2026]
• 1 August 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father to Participants in National Youth Day in Peru [Chulucunas, 30 July–2nd August 2026]
• 2 August 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the Mass marking the conclusion of the Seventh National Youth Day, on the theme’ ‘Take courage! I have overcome the world’ [Ibarra, Ecuador] (2 Augu
• 4 August 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father to participants in the 144th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus [Denver, 4–6 August 2026]

Prayers

• 31 July 2026 – Video Message ‘Pray with the Pope’ – August’ For evangelization in the city (2. August 2026)

Speeches

• 6 August 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Assisi’ Meeting of the Holy Father with the Young People taking part in the ‘Go! Franciscan Youth Meeting 2026’ (Piazza Santa Maria degli Angeli)

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

A derelict starship weaponizes its rescuers’ worst fears, and Strange New Worlds S4E2 flatly refuses to explain any of it. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler ask whether an unsolved mystery makes better television.

https://youtu.be/TypusVXqrxQ

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A monk who sold his soul to write a book in one night, the naked man fleeing Jesus’ arrest, and whether Jesus was just an alien with good technology: Jimmy Akin takes on eleven listener weird questions with Cy Kellett and Dom Bettinelli.

https://youtu.be/50cmT42i5pA

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:

• 0:00:00 – MYS428
• 0:00:13 – Intro
• 0:00:40 – Today’s weird questions preview
• 0:02:17 – Jimmy’s new book: Evidence for Christ
• 0:04:28 – The Devil’s Bible (Codex Gigas)
• 0:11:16 – The young man who ran away naked (Mark 14)
• 0:19:40 – Genesis 1 and the order of creation
• 0:25:18 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:25:49 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 0:26:24 – Sponsorship opportunities
• 0:28:30 – Meteorology vs. astrology
• 0:41:33 – Can souls in purgatory pray?
• 0:49:35 – The bathhouse ghost story (Gregory the Great)
• 0:55:20 – Communion on Ash Wednesday and fasting
• 1:01:00 – Next Monday: The Ascension (Jimmy Akin podcast)
• 1:02:27 – Psychic powers in the resurrection
• 1:13:45 – Was Jesus an alien?
• 1:27:18 – Why Rome is the "first" church
• 1:31:02 – Did dinosaurs have cancer before the Fall?
• 1:36:40 – What happens to pets after the rapture?
• 1:42:05 – Mysterious Feedback: #284 The Questing Beast
• 1:44:23 – Mysterious Feedback: #417 Crisis Apparitions
• 1:48:45 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:49:20 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:49:24 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:50:37 – Next Time: Shared Death Experiences
• 1:50:42 – Share the show, write a review
• 1:50:53 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:51:01 – Show notes
• 1:51:08 – Become a Patron
• 1:51:16 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:51:38 – 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.

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 25 July 2026 to 29 July 2026.

Angelus

• 26 July 2026 – Angelus

Messages

• 25 July 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father to the young people of the Prelature of Chota and Cutervo in Peru
• 25 July 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father to the 12th Plenary Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences [Jakarta, 20–26 July 2026]
• 25 July 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father on the occasion of the 2nd ‘Rejoice’ Meeting – National Youth Day [Lamego (Portugal), 24–26 July 2026]

Speeches

• 29 July 2026 – ‘Cantico di pace’ Prayer and Fellowship Gathering

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

This August, I’m teaching a four-week course for the Rhine Education Center on Psi and Christianity. We’ll look at telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, mind over matter, and the survival of the soul after death. For 2,000 years, Christians have been wrestling with the very phenomena that parapsychologists study today. Audit it or take it for a grade. Tuition $119 ($109 for Rhine members). Visit RhineEdu.org to register.

Direct Link to the Episode.

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Sixty-five million years in the past, Pike can save a planet or keep his own future — not both. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler take on Strange New Worlds S4E1: dinosaurs, Martians, and the ethics of time travel.

https://youtu.be/JXuutDo372g

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Dozens of unrelated children said shining, winged figures stood over them as an EF5 tornado destroyed Joplin. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli weigh cryptids, trauma, folklore, and guardian angels behind the butterfly people.

https://youtu.be/k_6kqDpNXIQ

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:

• Butterflies at the Window: A Story of Butterfly People and Miracles in the Storm by Sandi McReynolds
• 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado by Randy Turner and John Hacker
• “The Butterfly People” (2023 documentary), directed by Greg Fish
• “The Butterfly People of Joplin,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• The Butterfly People (Trailer)
• 2011 Joplin EF5 Tornado – Unedited broadcast beginning 9 minutes before historic disaster
• First Person video of Joplin MO tornado 5-22-11
• Joplin 2011 EF5 Tornado – Weather Channel On Air Coverage
• NWS Service Assessment, Joplin, Missouri, Tornado, May 22, 2011
• Butterfly Garden and Overlook (Nature Sacred)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church §§328–336
• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, q. 113
• “Inside the Mysterious ‘Butterfly People’” (All That’s Interesting)

• 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:

• 0:00:00 – MYS427
• 0:00:12 – Intro
• 0:00:47 – Cold open: The butterfly people of Joplin
• 0:01:39 – Joplin, Missouri — close to home for Jimmy
• 0:03:04 – The Enhanced Fujita scale
• 0:04:25 – The day of the storm
• 0:08:06 – The funnel touches down
• 0:09:06 – On the ground: six minutes across the city
• 0:12:35 – St. John’s Regional Medical Center
• 0:14:14 – The next morning and the death toll
• 0:16:16 – A wave of survival stories
• 0:17:09 – The children’s accounts
• 0:18:57 – Todd Frankel’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporting
• 0:21:52 – Firsthand accounts: the documentary and the trauma center
• 0:25:37 – Emily Huddleston
• 0:27:38 – The city responds: mural, memorial, and the soul as butterfly
• 0:29:43 – The stories keep circulating
• 0:30:35 – Where the account stands today: the documentary and the books
• 0:32:43 – Thank you to Patrons
• 0:33:15 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 0:33:36 – Sponsor Mysterious World
• 0:34:38 – The five theories
• 0:35:44 – Reason Perspective — Theory 1: A cryptid species
• 0:36:40 – Theory 2: The natural explanation
• 0:40:09 – Theory 3: Folklore
• 0:44:09 – Child witnesses and suggestibility
• 0:45:32 – Historical parallels and the third man factor
• 0:46:06 – Theory 4: Near-death experience
• 0:48:05 – Where reason lands
• 0:49:29 – Faith Perspective — Theory 5: Guardian angels
• 0:51:13 – Wings, light, and color: what angels look like
• 0:52:59 – The Catholic tradition and child witnesses
• 0:53:42 – The 2024 Vatican norms
• 0:55:02 – Were the butterfly people guardian angels?
• 0:56:36 – Bottom Line
• 0:58:24 – Further Resources
• 0:59:13 – Mysterious Feedback: #416 Jesus’ Most Misunderstood Prophecy
• 1:04:24 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:05:00 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:05:04 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:05:56 – Thank you to Melanie for voiceover work
• 1:05:59 – Next Time: Fifth Friday Weird Questions
• 1:07:08 – Follow the show
• 1:07:21 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:07:30 – Show notes
• 1:07:37 – Become a Patron
• 1:07:45 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:08:11 – 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.

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 16 July 2026 to 19 July 2026.

Angelus

• 19 July 2026 – Angelus

Letters

• 16 July 2026 – Letter of the Holy Father Leo XIV on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men in the United States

Speeches

• 18 July 2026 – Concert in honour of Pope Leo XIV (Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo)

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

Radiation from a black hole turns the crew into a shipful of obsessives in Enterprise S2E9, “Singularity.” Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler ask whether you can really build a whole plot on a pun.

https://youtu.be/xs8WyG6dPs0

Direct Link to the Episode.

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He spent his career debunking fake mesmerists and mediums — then dreamed his brother’s funeral weeks before it happened. Jimmy Akin and Dom Bettinelli trace Mark Twain’s strange turn toward telepathy and ask what the Catholic has to say about it.

https://youtu.be/FCpm1H55MNw

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:

• Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography
• Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (Univ. of California Press, 2010)
• Clara Clemens, My Father, Mark Twain
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Univ. of California Press, 1969)
• Upton Sinclair, Mental Radio
• Psi Encyclopedia, “Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)”
• Mark Twain, “Mental Telegraphy: A Manuscript with a History,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, December 1891
• Mark Twain, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, September 1895
• Mark Twain, “My Platonic Sweetheart,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, December 1912
• Chantel Tattoli, “Mark Twain’s Mind Waves,” Paris Review, August 25, 2020
• Troy Taylor, “Mark Twain and the Supernatural,” American Hauntings

• 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 – Intro
• 1:32 – Twain’s Early Life, the Civil War, and His Journalism Career
• 6:01 – Fame, Marriage, and the Move Into Fiction
• 9:30 – The Moral Climax of *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*
• 16:27 – Later Novels, Bankruptcy, and Family Tragedy
• 17:55 – Twain’s Formative Skeptical Experiences (Mesmerism, Phrenology, Spiritualism)
• 22:37 – Coining "Mental Telegraphy"
• 25:35 – The Harper’s Essays and Joining the SPR and ASPR
• 28:09 – The 1858 Precognitive Dream of Brother Henry’s Death
• 33:54 – Recurring Dreams and "My Platonic Sweetheart"
• 37:29 – Ghost Reports at the Hartford House
• 38:08 – The William Wright "Nevada Silver Bonanza" Letter Case
• 42:33 – Thank you to Patrons
• 43:05 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 44:27 – More Mental Telegraphy Cases: Frank Millet, Henry Morton Stanley, and the Lotos Club
• 48:37 – The Simultaneous Invention Argument
• 54:51 – An Apparition of a Living Friend in Montreal
• 57:34 – Livy’s Turn to Spiritualism and Twain’s Felt Presence After Jean’s Death
• 59:33 – The George Bernard Shaw Mental Telegraphy Case
• 1:00:28 – The Halley’s Comet Coincidence
• 1:02:34 – Reason Perspective
• 1:04:51 – Faith Perspective
• 1:06:37 – Bottom Line
• 1:07:36 – Further Resources
• 1:08:21 – Mysterious Feedback: #415 The Mattress Store Conspiracy
• 1:14:37 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:15:15 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:15:22 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:16:03 – Next Time: The Butterfly People of Joplin
• 1:16:17 – ★ – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:16:33 – ★ – Show notes
• 1:16:41 – ★ – Become a Patron
• 1:16:49 – ★ – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:17:15 – ★ – 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.

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.