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I’ve never been a huge fan of podcasts, but a couple of months ago, my coworker suggested that I try out this podcast called “Catholic Stuff You Should Know”.  I poked around the website a bit, but I found that I had no idea where to start.  At the time I first discovered it, the podcast had been running for about 7 years and thus, there were very many episodes.  The aim of this post is to provide a starting place for potential listeners.

A bit of background on the podcast itself: The podcast is currently hosted primarily by Fr. Nathan Goebel, Fr. John Nepil, Fr. Michael O’Loughlin, and Fr. Mike Rapp, but it hasn’t always been those four.  The first episode in the archive is hosted by (then) Deacon Mike, and (then) John who were both at seminary in Denver, Colorado. Shortly after the podcast gets going, Deacon Mike gets ordained a priest and has to move away to his Parish assignment.  To fill his place, fellow seminarian, Joe Doman, joins the podcast and stays for a long while.  Fr. Nathan is brought in as a guest star a few times and eventually becomes one of the podcast’s staples, and eventually, Fr. Rapp comes back to the show.  It’s really interesting to hear from these guys as they are going through their formation and ordinations, and as the podcast itself develops.

Now, to the podcasts.  The list below is not sorted by quality or entertainment value, but I think that it’s a good way to begin listening; the first few episodes give an idea of the style which many of the episodes have and are pretty entertaining.

1. Beer
2. Bikinis!
3. Woolos and Gladys Farfog
4. 40 Martyrs of Sabaste
5. Theology of Mountaineering

The next few give the personal histories of each host and give you a relevant perspective on their past.

• What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been (Fr. John)
• Call Waiting (Fr. Nathan)
• A History of Rapp (Fr. Mike)
• tSunami Ninja Becomes Priest (Fr. Michael)

That, I believe, is a good enough introduction to the central theme of the podcast.  At this point, you can pick episodes that interest you, or do what I did and scroll to the very beginning of the archive and listen from the start (you’ll understand more inside jokes this way).  Some of my favorite episodes include:

• Who Punched Arius?
• Quiz Show
• The Ethical Question of Marijuana
• Meat On Fridays
• Catholic Stuff and Sociology
• Liturgical Tidbits with DJ Muss
• The Never-Ending Story

I hope you’ll enjoy Catholic Stuff You Should Know as much as I do and if you come across an episode that you think should be included in this introduction, leave a comment below.

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