The Circle falls, but the price is one hero’s life. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler close the DS9 opening trilogy: duty vs. family, a holosuite trap, and the politics that end a coup.

https://youtu.be/4QMNmlF5o7M

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

There’s a lake in the Indian Himalayas, more than 3 miles above sea level, that holds between 300 and 800 human skeletons.

**Roopkund** sits in the high peaks of Uttarakhand, in the sacred territory of Nanda Devi. Once a year, thousands of pilgrims walk the ancient **Nanda Devi Raj Jat** route, a 280 km trek through the mountains that passes directly by the lake. According to local legend, the skeletons are the remains of a royal court that defiled the goddess’s sacred ground. She sent a hailstorm. Nobody survived.

**Jimmy Akin** and **Dom Bettinelli** work through every theory: divine wrath, a Japanese army from World War II, an ancient military force, epidemic disease, catastrophic hailstorm (an 1888 storm in Moradabad killed 246 people with hailstones the size of cricket balls), and the findings of a sweeping 2019 DNA study that changed what researchers thought they knew about the site.

The physical evidence doesn’t fit a single clean answer. The DNA results are stranger than the legend. And what archaeologists and geneticists have found raises questions that still don’t have resolutions.

Can an oral tradition preserve a real historical event across centuries? And what does it mean when ancient accounts of divine judgment turn out to have something real behind them?

https://youtu.be/91CCOG1-bDs

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:

• Wikipedia article on Roopkund
• Grokipedia: Roopkund
• “Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India” (Harney et al., Nature Communications, August 2019)
• BBC: “The mystery of India’s ‘lake of skeletons'”
• National Geographic: “DNA study deepens mystery of lake full of skeletons”
• Max Planck Institute: “Biomolecular analyses of Roopkund skeletons show Mediterranean migrants in Indian Himalayas”
• The New Yorker: “The Skeletons at the Lake” (Douglas Preston)
• Pew Research on Indian beliefs about God
• Vatican II document Nostra Aetate

• 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 – MYS418
• 0:12 – Intro
• 2:26 – Roopkund
• 5:39 – Cultural Significance: Nanda Devi
• 9:00 – Discovery of the Skeletons
• 12:09 – The Wrath of Nanda Devi
• 15:33 – 1940s British rediscovery
• 16:38 – Skeleton Lake today
• 18:57 – Thank you to Patrons
• 19:28 – Sponsor: The Secret of the Goldfish
• 20:22 – Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 20:39 – Theories
• 21:34 – Reason Perspective: Divine wrath?
• 23:02 – Japanese soldiers?
• 25:35 – Ancient army?
• 28:30 – Epidemic?
• 32:02 – Catastrophic hailstorm?
• 36:40 – 2019 DNA study
• 41:29 – Multi-event theory
• 44:28 – Weaknesses and open questions
• 47:39 – Oral tradition and mythic memory
• 49:07 – Faith Perspective
• 59:13 – Bottom Line
• 1:00:37 – Further Resources
• 1:01:22 – Mysterious Feedback: #407 The Library of Alexandria
• 1:05:47 – Your mysterious feedback
• 1:06:28 – Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:06:34 – Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• 1:07:01 – Next Time: Zombie Marriage, Holy Roman Emperors, Jesus’s DNA, and More Weird Questions
• 1:08:00 – Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:08:16 – Show notes
• 1:08:23 – Become a Patron
• 1:08:31 – Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:08:54 – Sponsor: The Lord Is A Warrior
• 1:09:42 – 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 19 February 2026 to 20 May 2026.

General Audiences

• 20 May 2026 – General Audience – Catechesis. The Documents of the Second Vatican Council. III. Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium. 1. The liturgy in the mystery of the Church

Homilies

• 15 May 2026 – Papal Mass for the Funeral Rites of Cardinal Emil Paul Tscherrig

Letters

• 4 May 2026 – Letter of the Holy Father to His Holiness Tawadros II for the Day of Coptic-Catholic Friendship [10 May 2026]

Messages

• 19 February 2026 – Message of the Holy Father to the community of the Bolivian ‘San Pablo’ University, on the occasion of the 60thanniversary of its foundation [14 May 2026]
• 14 May 2026 – Video Message of the Holy Father for ‘Thy Kingdom Come 2026’

Regina Caeli

• 17 May 2026 – Regina Caeli

Speeches

• 14 May 2026 – Pastoral Visit to Sapienza University in Rome’ Meeting with Professors and Students
• 15 May 2026 – To Participants in the Interparliamentary Conference on Combating Organized Crime in the OSCE Region
• 16 May 2026 – To Executives and Employees of various Italian Banking Institutions
• 16 May 2026 – To Confirmation Candidates of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Genoa
• 18 May 2026 – To a Delegation of the Catholic Extension Society
• 18 May 2026 – To His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy See of Cilicia (Lebanon), and Entourage

Social Media

• x/Pontifex
• instagram/Pontifex

The coup is underway on Bajor, and **Minister Jaro’s** face is finally on it. Dom Bettinelli, Jimmy Akin, and Fr. Jason Tyler break down Part 2 of Deep Space Nine’s season-opening trilogy — the episode that turns the political intrigue of “The Homecoming” into something darker.

The panel opens with what might be the episode’s best scene: the crew’s chaotic goodbye to **Major Kira** in her quarters, shot in one continuous take modeled on the Marx Brothers. It’s loose, comedic, overlapping — and it quietly reveals how much **Odo** and Kira mean to each other, even if neither will say it.

At **Vedek Bareil’s** monastery, Kira gets the orb experience she’s dreamed of all her life. The vision is strange — ministers, a naked encounter with Bareil, a Kai’s robe on Dax that becomes **Vedek Winn’s** face. The panel works through what it might mean, landing on a possible symbolic reading: Bareil as a stand-in for Jaro, Kira for Winn — both pairs a political-religious alliance reaching for power.

**Louise Fletcher’s** Vedek Winn gets her showcase scene here, ambushing Kira and Bareil on a monastery bridge with suffocating passive-aggression. “Feel free to stay as many days as you like. A week, if necessary.” The panel agrees: almost no actor could play that role this well.

Meanwhile, Odo recruits Quark — by force. “You’re either my deputy or my prisoner.” Quark, as always, chooses survival. He tracks the Circle’s weapons supply to the **Kressari**, who turn out to be Cardassian middlemen. The Circle thinks it’s fighting for Bajoran independence; it’s being manipulated into handing the planet back to the people who enslaved it.

The panel also flags structural problems: **Li Nalas** as Kira’s replacement is undercut the moment Sisko promises her he’s getting her back. The show signals the outcome too early, and Li Nalas never gets room to establish himself as a viable alternative. Jimmy corrects a detail from last week — **Richard Beymer**, who plays Li Nalas, is Benjamin Horne in *Twin Peaks*, not Sheriff Harry S. Truman.

The episode closes on a coup underway, all channels to Bajor blocked, and Sisko deliberately slow-walking an evacuation order he can’t refuse. Two armed ships are on their way to DS9. Part 3 is “The Siege.”

https://youtu.be/T2veXPp_974

Direct Link to the Episode.

Subscribe on iTunes. | Other Ways to Subscribe.

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

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• 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

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