The Gospel of St. Matthew records a peculiar event: a star marking the place of Jesus' birth. As the story goes, this phenomenon inspired "magi" from the East to journey to find the Christ child. But is there a way to know what the Christmas Star really was? Using various multi-disciplinary threads of information, astrophysicist Grant Mathews has developed a theory to explain what the Christmas Star may have been. He walks us through the research in this re-play of an episode from Season 1 of Notre Dame Stories.

What do you do when the officers who are supposed to protect and serve the public are the ones torturing their suspects? Not in a third-world country, but in the city of Chicago. If you're a civil rights attorney, you stand up and defend the rights of those being abused — regardless of whether the fight takes three decades, the tortured have been jailed as long as you've been alive, or you're a recent Notre Dame Law School graduate drawn to the effort.

The final episode of the Proving Innocence series focuses on Jackie Wilson, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 36 years after his brother killed two Chicago police officers in 1982. Wilson and others were beaten, suffocated and shocked in a systematic torture scandal that was hidden for decades until it was exposed by civil rights crusaders who are inspiring the next generation. Wilson spoke to the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic in September.

Tour guides have been answering questions about it for years. There's a large gold crown in a case, situated by the elevators in Notre Dame's Main Building (aka, the "Golden Dome"). A plaque inside the case offers some explanation, but there's much more to know. Turns out, this crown may not be the most famous piece of royal headwear the University has received. Our story is about two crowns, one crime, and one unsolved mystery.

It's one of the biggest news stories of the month: social media and the spread of misinformation. While Facebook garnered much attention over the past several weeks, the problem of misinformation goes back far longer and is far broader than many people realize.

In this episode, we chat with Tim Weninger, Frank M. Friemann Associate Prof. of Engineering. His work in this area goes back to the dawn of ISIS in the Middle East and continues today through the development of a suite of forensics tools to help fight coordinated misinformation campaigns.

Ronnie and Alex Mansour chose Notre Dame over a traditional music conservatory because the University’s music program allowed them the flexibility to do it, as Sinatra would say, their way. In this episode, Brendan O'Shaughnessy tells the story of the siblings who charted their own creative path at the University.

In this episode, Rev. Edward Malloy, C.S.C., reflects on the events of 9/11 and what followed for the campus community and himself.

Iris Seabolt was convicted of felony murder in 2004 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors did not accuse her of killing restaurant owner A.J. Williams, but claim she was the female lure in an intended robbery that ended in murder. The police presented no physical evidence at all in her trial. Instead, a series of witnesses claimed they heard Seabolt admit her guilt. Seabolt lost hope, so she took a plea deal. All those witnesses have since recanted, saying they were coerced into lying by a corrupt and disgraced police officer.

In the fifth installment of the Proving Innocence series, Mary Rofaeil guides us through the case as the students race to exonerate Seabolt before her prison term ends next year.

In the fourth installment of the Proving Innocence series, Notre Dame law students take on the case of Leon Tyson. He was convicted of a 2015 murder in Elkhart and sentenced to 63 years in prison. The Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic believes he is innocent. The case took a turn when the students and professor placed a call to the mother of a man who was also there during the crime. Her revelations intrigued the students, but the case may turn on the question of hair — witnesses said the shooter had dreadlocks, but Tyson has long had alopecia, a condition that makes him bald. Tyson team leader Mackenna Krohn guides listeners through the twists and tangles of this case.

*Edited description July 21, 2021.

In the final episode of the season, we sit down with Madeline Owen, the valedictorian of the class of 2021. Madeline discusses her Notre Dame journey, and what it meant to finish that journey here, on campus.

In this episode, we look at the history of St. Joseph's Farm, a place where religious brothers cultivated land to provide fuel for the University. Today, the farm is being used to produce another kind of fuel: solar power.