The Popecast: A History of the Papacy

By The Popecast

The unvarnished, non-boring history of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church – told in a way to remind us that the world and the Church’s problems today have happened plenty of times before.

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· History

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FAQs about The Popecast: A History of the Papacy:

How many episodes does The Popecast: A History of the Papacy have?

The podcast currently has 117 episodes available.

The Popecast: A History of the Papacy episodes:

November 19, 2025The Pope Who Put a Corpse on Trial (Stephen VI)
Imagine: A corpse that’s nine months dead is propped on a throne in full papal vestments, and placed on trial for various alleged offenses. A teenage deacon is assigned to answer questions on its behalf. And the present pope is screaming at the body. Well that’s our pontiff for today’s episode. The man who lost his mind, his papacy, and eventually his life over a dead guy.

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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]

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POPECAST MERCH: https://the-popecast-store.creator-spring.com
...more
14min
November 06, 2025 When the Normans Defeated the Pope at Civitate | w/ Memory Medieval
Special guest Michael Lentz of Memory Medieval joins the show this week to discuss the landmark Norman victory over papal forces at the Battle of Civitate in 1053.

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MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE
- Norman Documentary: https://youtu.be/cNzyHW6c_ME?si=xJ5KR1oAubtqquH-
- [BOOK] Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England - https://amzn.to/4qMEKhP
- [BOOK] The Normans: From Raiders to Kings - https://amzn.to/4oPyjbY
- [BOOK] Empires of the Normans: Conquerors of Europe - https://amzn.to/4oPyCDE
- [BOOK] Normans in the South - https://amzn.to/4okwO5M

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Where to find Memory Medieval
- SUBSTACK: substack.com/@memorymedieval
- YOUTUBE: @MemoryMedieval
- X/TWITTER: https://x.com/MemoryMedieval

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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
--
POPECAST MERCH: https://the-popecast-store.creator-spring.com
...more
1h 3min
October 29, 2025 Charlemagne's Pope (St. Leo III)
Our pope this week bears a familiar name to us in the present day, was one half of a powerful alliance between a pope and one of the greatest Western kings to ever live, and even had something in common with the current United States president. Stay tuned to the end to find out what it is.
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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
24min
September 29, 2025 A Front Row Seat to the Papal Funeral and Conclave (feat. Anthony Johnson of EWTN)
FROM THE EPISODE:
- Apply to the EWTN Summer Academy
- Anthony's website: https://www.anthonyspqr.com
- Follow Anthony on Instagram @anthonyspqr.com
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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
1h 20min
August 07, 2025 Bringing Ancient Texts Back to Life (w/ Dr. D.P. Curtin, Founder of the Scriptorium Project)
This one is easily one of the most unique topics we’ve covered on the show thus far. Our guest is Dr. D.P. Curtin, and he is the founder and editor of The Scriptorium Project, an initiative of collecting, preserving, and translating the body of surviving documents from Christian antiquity, and making them available for the wider world to read and digest for themselves.
To date, the project’s releases have pulled from the Greek, Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Nubian, Frankish, Visigothic, Punic, Nordic, German, Roman, Celtic, Ethiopian, and Coptic traditions of Christianity, and have been pulled from all sorts of local traditions and languages

FROM THE EPISODE:
- Check out The Scriptorium Project: https://thescriptoriumproject.com
- Order from Dr. D.P. Curtin on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3J5oPtF
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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
56min
May 31, 2025 The Pope Who Predicted the Future (Pope St. Paul VI)
The guy we’re covering this week was nothing short of a prophet. He called out society’s future ills decades before they actually happened, and reigned as pope through the assassination of an American President, the sexual revolution, and a sweeping reform in the Catholic Church.

FROM THE EPISODE:
- Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler - https://amzn.to/3Hmn8XV
- Humanae Vitae (full text): https://www.papalencyclicals.net/paul06/p6humana.htm
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Where to find The Popecast:
PAID SUPPORT + NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
23min
May 19, 2025 The Original Pope Leo (St. Leo the Great)
Since there's a Pope Leo in the Vatican for the first time in over a century, we thought it might be nice to learn about the ORIGINAL Leo, who came to power at one of Catholicism’s first major turning points – the collapse of the Roman Empire and the simultaneous rise of the Church as the caretaker of civilization. Spiritual and corporeal danger alike were brewing beyond the walls of the Eternal City, but this GREAT pontiff was up to the task.

Read the Tome of Leo here: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3604028.htm
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Where to find The Popecast:
TODAY IN PAPAL HISTORY: ⁠⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
18min
May 09, 2025 Pope Leo XIV: The American Pope
HABEMUS PAPAM! The cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, OSA on the evening of Thursday, May 8, after which the new pontiff took the regnal name of Pope Leo XIV.
Here's our armchair reflections on the election, his first appearance to the world from St. Peter's Basilica, and what to be thinking about in the weeks and months ahead.
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Where to find The Popecast:
NEWSLETTER: ⁠⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
42min
May 02, 2025 How the Conclave REALLY Works (w/ Donald Paul Maddox)
Although the papal election process has over the centuries, since 1996 the Catholic Church's rules governing conclaves have stemmed from a document from Pope St. John Paul II entitled Universi Dominici Gregis.
On today's episode, we're joined by Donald Paul Maddox, author of the excellent publication In Defense of Theology on Substack and co-host of the Saints in the Parish podcast, to take a deep dive into how the upcoming conclave to elect the next Successor of St. Peter will REALLY work.

- Subscribe to In Defense of Theology: https://indefenseoftheology.substack.com/
- Listen to Saints in the Parish podcast: https://www.stlawrencefairhope.com/parish-podcast.html
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Where to find The Popecast:
NEWSLETTER: ⁠https://popes.substack.com⁠
YOUTUBE: https://youtube.com/@therealpopecast
FB / Twitter / Instagram: ⁠@thepopecast⁠
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
1h 18min
April 28, 2025 When Kings Could Overrule Cardinals: The Papal Veto (w/ Fr. Richard Kunst)
Friend of the show and renowned papal memorabilia collector Fr. Richard Kunst rejoins The Popecast to talk about the Conclave of 1903 and the last instance of "jus exclusivae" – the right assumed by Catholic monarchs for centuries to veto a pick for the next pope (through their cardinal primate) if they found a particular candidate objectionable – along with various papal historical intricacies and speculations about the upcoming conclave to replace Pope Francis.

Fr. Rich's website: papalartifacts.com

NEWSLETTER: https://popes.substack.com
FB / Twitter / Instagram: @thepopecast
EMAIL: [email protected]
...more
47min

FAQs about The Popecast: A History of the Papacy:

How many episodes does The Popecast: A History of the Papacy have?

The podcast currently has 117 episodes available.

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