The Vatican Observatory Podcast

Eclectic Astronomer - A Chat With Cliff Stoll

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Cliff Stoll - astronomer, teacher and author of the book The Cuckoo’s Egg, which tells the story of how he tracked down a group of German h

Meet The New Boss!

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Rev. Richard A. D'Souza - the incoming Director of the Vatican Observatory! He takes the reins from Br. Guy on September 19, 2025. Co

An Anthropologist at the Vatican Observatory

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Deana L. Weibel - a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses primarily on religion, especially the topics of pilgrimage, sacred space

Steeped in Science

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Dr. Michelle Francl about her book  Steeped: The Chemistry of Tea, which explores the chemistry behind different styles of tea. The book ca

Man on a Mission (or two)

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Br. Bob Macke about being a team member of two asteroid missions:  the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, and the Lucy mission to t

From Humble Beginnings

Br. Guy Consolmagno chats with Charles F. Bolden Jr. during the 30th anniversary celebration of 'first light' into the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. H

My Time at the Vatican Observatory Summer School

Matthew Pinson SJ is a young Jesuit scientist from Australia. He was one of the students at the 2023 Vatican Observatory Summer School held in Rome during June. Hear what

Roundtable with Vatican Observatory Staff

This podcast was taken from the Full Moon Meetup on Friday, January 6, 2023. To begin the year, we had a roundtable discussion with several members of the Vatican Observa

Sketcher of the Skies

What spurs an artist to start sketching celestial objects as they look in her small telescope? What thrills her the most? Is it seeing the fine details of nebulae through

From Voyager to Webb: Heidi Hammel and the Ice Giants

So, how many people do you know who have had a children’s book written about them? Dr. Heidi Hammel gained international fame in 1994 by leading the Hubble Space Telescop

Deep Roots

Have you ever met one of those people who just seems to know everyone? Our guest, Katie Steinke is one of those people. Katie and her family have been involved with Speco

From Sparkling Water to Dark Matter

The most famous product of San Pellegrino, Italy, is its sparkling water. But from this same village in the north of Italy has come a PhD scientist working on detecting t

The Stuff of Stars

Brother Bob Macke SJ is the curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory, and during his research measuring meteorite physical properties he has probably handled as m

Ambassador to the Universe

Meet Bill Higgins. By day, he's one of the scientists who keeps the Fermilab National Accelerator running safe, as it pummels the smallest particles in the universe.

On a Spiral Path to the Milky Way

When she was a young girl growing up in southern Chile, Gabriela Navarro had many dreams… from being a volleyball player to being an astronaut.  In this podcast, we&apos

The Chaotic Path of a Climate Modeler

How does a young Indonesian boy from a half Muslim, half Christian family wind up as a Jesuit scientist-priest in Arizona, modeling the tropical climates of northern Mexi

A Taste for Heavy Water

Dr. Michelle Francl puts her own twist on combinations that most people might think are impossible. In this podcast she tells Br Guy Consolmagno about how the Sisters of

How to Make an Impact: From Crater Science to Public Outreach

Prof. Dr. Christian Koeberl has had a fascinating career in planetary sciences. An expert in how planetary impacts make craters, he served for ten years as the director o

Space and the Middle-Schooler

What do kids today think about astronomy and space travel? And how do they think differently about these topics compared to kids 40 years ago?  In this episode of the Va

Black Holes

On this episode of the Vatican Observatory Podcast, a pioneer in black hole imaging, Prof. Dr. Heino Falcke joins Br. Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory