Stuff You Should Know - How the Papacy Works

Episode Date: March 1, 2013

In February 2013, Pope Benedict said he would become the first pope to retire in 600 years. Check out this episode of Stuff You Should Know to find out just what the pope does and the process of choosing a new one. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and what I call the New Survivors' Movement. It's a movement that centers healing and speaks truth to power. Listen to Survivors' Heal, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and you put the two of us together at our new editor Casey. Yeah. And you have Stuff You Should Know. Yeah. Guest editor is not Matt this time. No, it's Casey. It's Casey. Yeah, welcome Casey. And we are in what looks like the room of a serial killer. Yeah, Buffalo Bills. Yeah, this is the fourth room now we've been shuffled to in this office and this is a brand new to us

and it definitely very much looks like there might be a head floating in a jar behind you somewhere. Yeah, all of the windows are blacked out with foam. It's creepy. There's one single bulb light in the middle of the table. There's stuff stacked around all over the place like some hoarder serial killer is living here. It's not a good place. Like I don't feel good right now. Yeah, like temporarily living here. Like a serial killer wouldn't even live in here. This is just where they go to like take evidence. This is where they keep the victim. Yeah. And that's where recording from today. Yeah, we want to set the mental stage. All right. We can do this. I mean the mental environment, it has a pronounced effect on the mind. Yeah. Like where we are.

Yes. Yeah, but no one cares. Remember, they're always just like, go just put Joe Chuck in the hallway and they'll they're fine. Yeah. It's yeah. And apparently, someone's listening to their voicemail just outside of chicken. It's great. So the Pope. Yes. So you know, Joseph Ratzinger. John Ratzenberger? No. No, Cliff Clavin. Yeah. No, this guy is totally different. I thought that was who the Pope was. You know, the Pope, you would be more familiar with Pope Benedict II. Yeah. But his birth name was Joseph Ratzinger and following what is a very, very long tradition as we'll see, he changed his name when he became Pope. Well, I don't know if you know this or not, even though you selected this article.

But on February 11th, he announced he's going to retire. Yeah. On the, I think 28th, this is like, I guess I gave two weeks because roughly two weeks later is going to be his last day. And I felt, I'm not Catholic and I don't know much about the Catholic religion because I grew up in the South and especially, you know, there are a ton of Catholics in the South compared to other parts of the country. Yeah. It's a very northeastern Midwest. Yeah. I felt bad for the guy though, because people like call them Pope scary and stuff because he sort of looked kind of creepy. Yeah. And I just remember thinking, that's not nice. He did. He was also drafted into the German military during World War II, which is, you know, kind of something. And he abandoned, didn't he?

He deserted, yes. He deserted. I was sensibly before he fired a shot at anybody. I think it was during basic training that he was like, I'm out of here. I might want to be a Pope one day. Right, exactly. And I can't have that down there. Plus also, he followed in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II, arguably the most lovable Pope of all time. Yeah. I mean, he was 78 to 2005. That's a nice chunk of time in the modern era. So he was a huge traveler. Yeah. He was credited with helping to bring about the end of the Cold War. Yeah, to some degree. Sure. He was beloved by all, even people who weren't Catholic love Pope John Paul II. Yeah. He's probably the most impersonated Pope, you know, the one guy, or maybe it wasn't just one guy that looked... Was it Naked Gun?

Well, yeah, and others. That's the one I always associate. Look, just like him. John Paul II. Yeah. JP. And they would do that smile in like the weird way with the hand. Very lovable Pope. He learned from Queen Elizabeth. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. Benedict said, hey, I'm very tired. I'm going to retire. And the whole world said, well, I don't know if you can do that. Can a Pope retire? He said, oh, yes, you can. As a matter of fact, the last Pope to retire was Gregory the 12th. Yeah. Just go back like 600 years for president. Yeah. 598 to be exact. Yeah. Where he basically retired to end what was called the Great Schism at the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Apparently, there was a 70 year period where the papacy, which is the governance by the Pope, left Rome

and moved to Avignon, France. Okay. And I guess Gregory the 11th said, you know what? We're going to take it back to Rome. And that created the Great Schism, which, depending on who you ask, made Pope Benedict either the 265th or the 266th Pope, because during this Great Schism, there was a Pope in Rome and there was a Pope in Avignon, France. So then Pope Gregory the 12th comes to power and says, you know what? I'm just going to retire. Right. It's going to end the Great Schism. He's the last Pope and I believe the first Pope ever to retire. So Benedict. So there's only been two. Benedict II is the second. As far as I know. Did you see Saturday Night Live this week? No. I don't watch SNL these days. It's the head. Christoph Waltz was on. Did you see the little

Pope retiring commercial? No. It was pretty funny. They did like the typical like, you know, financial retirement, commercial spoof of the Pope retiring and getting all the financial ducks in a row. Nice. It was pretty funny. I think my favorite SNL commercial is the one with Sam Waterston from Law and Order, Jack McCoy. Which one was that? Where he talks about he's selling insurance to the elderly to protect against robots who want to come into their home and eat their medication because that's what they that's what they're fueled by and robots are going to come to your home unless you have this insurance. They're fueled with like pacemaker meds. It's really a great commercial. You put him in anything and yeah, it's going to feel like that kind of

commercial. He managed to do it the straight face too. Of course he did. This guy's a class act. So okay, so Benedict II announces he retires and you choose how the papacy works and I think we should point out we're talking about the papacy which is this position in the world, this world leader figurehead, the head of the Catholic Church, papa, vicar of Christ, the Holy Father, the Bishop of Rome. They're all synonymous with the big kahuna, the pope, and what the pope does is the papacy. Yes. So that's what we're talking about is the papacy. It's like what the pope's expected to do, how you get a new pope. Well, there's a lot of papal questions. Yeah, and this one is especially relevant, you know, because a lot of this is going to deal with

the really interesting I found process for selecting and electing. And of course, because it's religion A and Catholic religion B, it's not just we get around and we talk about it and we like raise our hands. It's, you know, it's like very, I don't know, it's kind of a cool process, I think. It is. It's arcane. And it's happening right now. No, it can't happen yet. No, no, no. It's the process has begun. They're trying to, it's, March 15th is the vote, but they're trying to get it pushed forward even because they are because I thought it can't happen sooner than 15 days after the pope retires after a pope dies. Oh, really? Yeah. So they're going to push it forward because he's retired because there's no reason not to basically. Oh, yeah, because they don't have

to celebrate the funeral rights or have a body on their hands. You're brilliant, Brian. Oh, it's not me. It's people. Yeah. But you noticed that detail. Yeah. People saying, you know, if we can go ahead and push this forward a little bit, but at the very, we know it's going to happen on the 15th or earlier. Cool. And they're already talking about maybe the first African pope? I know. I'm excited about that one. Guy from Ghana or a guy from Brazil. Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty psyched about that. They're throwing their mitre in the ring, I guess. Apparently, it's going to be a very conservative pope still because Pope Benedict canonized or elected to Cardinal 56% of the electorate. Well, and John Paul was the other 44%. So you're going to get a pope who

shares the same views as Benedict, most likely. Probably, but that hasn't stopped people from writing endless op-eds already saying, hey, the majority of Catholics believe X, Y, and Z now. Can we get a pope that represents a modern, the modern Catholic? And they're saying, it's probably not going to happen. Wishful thinking, but it's probably not going to happen. But maybe they'll be from Latin America or Africa, which would be, you know, it's a pretty big jump forward. First non-European and like a thousand years, I think. Yeah. Well, we don't know yet. Well, possibly. Yeah. Let's see. I'm excited. Let's talk about this. Chuck, how long have we had popes? Well, we have had, depending on who you ask, St. Peter possibly is the first pope, even though

he never, like they didn't have the office of pope at the time, but he's widely considered to be the first pope because Jesus himself sort of handed over the reins and said, you know what, when I ascend to heaven, I'd like you to kind of run the show for me. Right, Pete, if you don't mind. And biblical scholars love, love, love interpreting stuff that Jesus said. Yeah. And he said something in Matthew 16, 18 that they take to say Peter was the first pope. Peter was the person that Jesus said, it's up to you to run the church. Yeah. That verse is, and I say also under the thou, that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And that is the Petrine or Petrine guarantee. Yeah. And theologians believe

that Peter is the rock because Jesus spoke Aramaic and Peter's original name was Simon, and Christ named him Peter, named him Cephas, which is Aramaic for rock. So they're saying, not to be confused with both Cephas or Hank Williams, Hank Williams, Jr. Yeah. Yeah. That's so yeah. So people saying theologians mainly say, you know what, that's the rock that he's talking about. The rock is Peter. And further evidence is when he also says to Peter, feed my sheep. But I worry you have to imagine his said in a certain tone. I know, but I worry just like, hey, feed my sheep. That's what I worry about. Yeah. So he's like, buddy, I'm going to heaven. Would you mind feeding my sheep while I'm gone? Which is funny because there's sheep that actually

died because Peter was like, he means I know what he means. I know what he means. He doesn't Peter. I'm not a Bible literalist. He's got people to feed his other sheep. And then he would never ask me to feed his sheep. He wants me to lead his people. He knows how to feel about wool. Well, okay. So Peter's the first pope. That's that's part of church dogma. Yeah. That's the Petrine Guarantee. Even though it wasn't like the popes came after Peter. Right. And they came after Peter. Well, Peter went to Rome late in his life to say, Hey, Jesus is just all right with me. And he was killed for it by Nero. He persecuted the early church, which at the time was basically just Peter. Yeah. And Peter became a martyr. No, Nero didn't fiddle. So Peter becomes a martyr.

He's buried on Vatican Hill. And the Basilica of St. Peter is built over him. And from that point on to honor Peter as the first pope, all other popes that fell into line behind him are are considered to be the direct successor of Peter. Yeah. So if you look at the papal family tree, there's Peter at the top and then there's one other line and it's all the popes coming directly from Peter. Yeah. So whoever follows on this next one isn't descended from John Ratzenberger. Peter. He's descended from Peter. Right. He's following Peter's direct rule. Right. And as such, the pope is considered to be carrying on directly the bestowment of power conferred by Jesus on to Peter. Yeah. And I kind of like that. I guess that sort of signifies it's the office and not

the person. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like it puts the importance on the office itself and not like, hey, you're following this guy. Right. Well, you know, like you're following the original. The OG. I was going to say that, but that's disrespectful. And then I thought I've called the pope John Ratzenberger four times already. I think you got that covered. Okay. And then so that you've got the idea that the pope is a direct successor of Peter, which gives him tons of power. Basically, he's one degree separated from Jesus conferring the powers on to Peter. Yeah. And then the the bunch of bishops got together to create the first Vatican Council in 1870 and said, you know what? Not only that, we have thought about it. We're theologians. And

we've decided that the pope is infallible in matters of spirituality and religion. That was a big deal because it basically means you can't question anything that comes out of his mouth. If he lays down some doctrine, then that's the final word. Right. Because Jesus conferred these powers on to Peter and these people are direct successors of Peter. And by by proxy have the same power. Jesus was infallible ex post facto. So is the pope. That's what they said. And everybody said, okay, we were listening to him anyway, but thank you for making it official. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that's the pope. That's the power of the pope. And again, this is the the most powerful figurehead of any religion. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the

world. But there's not a living figurehead of that of the of Islam. Yeah, with Catholicism, there's 1.2 billion. And there's one guy who's the head of it all. And that's the pope. The war on drugs impacts everyone whether or not you take America's public enemy. Number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table without any drugs. Yes, they can do that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, y'all. This is Dr. Joy Horton Bradford, host of the award-winning weekly podcast Therapy for Black Girls. Our incredible community of sisters has been building the Therapy for Black Girls podcast for five years running. And over that time, we've published over 250 episodes and gained over 18 million podcast downloads. During this time, we've tackled the stigma

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So let's say Benedict hadn't retired. Let's say he stayed Pope until he died. Yeah. What happens? What happens when a pope dies? Well, there's an authority called the Cardinal Carmelingo. I like that name. Yeah, it too. Or Chamberlain, it's another name, and that's the Secretary of State of the Vatican. And Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world. It's 100 and change acres right in the middle of Rome. And I think I've told my story at the time about walking around it, because I was trying to find the way in. Yeah. And there's no way in unless you go in the front. Were you trying to sneak in the back door of Vatican City? No, I just thought like surely you can get in this way. So they'll let me in. But there was

just big tall walls. Yeah. And it's a long walk around the Vatican. 100 acres is kind of a walk. Yeah, things like 110 or 100. That's, I think, dead on a country mile. Yeah. As the bird flies. Yeah. All right. So where were we? So the Secretary of State assumes the non theological responsibilities of the pope immediately. And it's sort of like if the president passes on, the vice president takes over. Right. You know, in the interim. Running Vatican City. Yeah, actually not interim for the president. They're permanent. Well, until the next election, right? Yeah. Yeah. Permanent meaning it's not an interim position. Unfortunately. Yeah. So they have to confirm that the pope is dead. And they call the pope's name

three times. There is no by name, I think. And there's a myth that I had a hard time tracking down that they would hit tap the pope on the head with a silver hammer. No way. Three times. And apparently that is something that they did until the 1960s. And that went the way of the dodo. I can imagine because all the popes had little bruises. Yeah. I think it was a tap and not like a postmortem bruising from a hammer. But I think they do use that same hammer to destroy the ring of the fishermen, which they remove once the pope is passed. Right. Every pope has worn this for like 800 years. Yeah. Some version of it's like it's a seal with Peter on a fishing boat fishing. And then the name of that pope, then they destroy the same one. But did you see whether

they used the same gold to make a new ring? I don't know. For missing gold. 85 percent of gold is recycled. That's true. But apparently they use that silver hammer to destroy the ring and the seals. And the body lies there and repose for nine days consecutive. Right. They celebrate the funeral rites. There are no photos allowed. Because of the bruising. Because of the bruising. But once they have put the pope in his vestments and the mitre, I guess, although I don't know, you're probably not buried in the mitre. Which one's the mitre? The tall one. The hat? Yeah. I don't recall seeing John Paul in snow. He had his little skull cap on. Yeah. Which has a specific name too. I can't think of it right now. Yarmulke. No, I think it's different for Catholic popes.

Then you are allowed, if so deemed, you are allowed to take a postmortem photo, like an official photo for documenting the situation. But you can't go in there with your cameras. And if the pope is sick on his deathbed, you can't go in there and film that kind of stuff. Gotcha. It's untoward. It is. Then they bury him? Yeah. They bury him in like a little matroshka doll in three coffins, one in case of another, in case than another. So it's a cypress elm and then lead. Yeah. And like who's working with lead these days? I don't know. I guess Roman coffin makers. That's scary. Yeah. Like how do you prevent any kind of lead poisoning when you're making a lead coffin? I don't know. I mean, lead's still used, right? It's not like... Yeah, I think it's fairly

discontinued in most cases. Yeah. You should read this. There's a Mother Jones article called The Real Criminal Element Lead. It is awesome. Yeah. Basically, they tied crime rates and the decline of crime rates across American cities with the decline of leaded gasoline. Oh, interesting. Yeah. It's really interesting. And they do it pretty convincingly. They should have called it Get the Lead Out. I thought so. Like there's a bunch of different ponds they could have made. Sure. They chose one. All right. So now we have to elect a new pope. Right. Whether Benedict was dead or not, this is the same thing that's going to happen. Yeah. And like you said, they're trying to move it up because he's not dead. They don't have to carry out the funeral,

right? So why wait? Exactly. And the first thing that happens is the College of Cardinals, the guys who are going to serve as the electors. Not the University Louisville, no, but the College of Cardinals. They get together and they enter what is called conclave, which means with key, which means that they are basically sequestered from the rest of the world until they can come to a two-thirds agreement. A two-thirds plus one. No, I think that's a simple majority is half plus one. This is like straight up two-thirds. Oh, really? I believe so. Well, you need to change this then. Well, no, you can, after 12 or 13 days, go to a simple majority. Yeah, but you want to be two-thirds plus one is the first go. And then if that doesn't work,

then you get a simple majority. Well, then you're probably right. Because I think I was wrong. This was, I don't know, man. We'll call them out. I think it might have been Tom Harris. We'll go with Tom. So it's probably, we'll go with two-thirds plus one in this case. So basically the Cardinals get together. They are sequestered. They basically there's, I think, 120 of them tops. Yeah, there's 117 right now. No. They haven't picked the other three yet? I don't think there are another three. Well, so there's a hundred, between 117 and 120 electors. Okay. Cardinals who are going to vote for Pope, right? I think it's no more than 120. That's the maximum number. Gotcha. There's also

an age limit. If you turned 80 before the day the Pope dies or retires, you're out. You're old news and you can't vote. You can't be a Cardinal in the electorate. Even though the Benedict was like 78 when he was elected Pope. Right. Well, that doesn't cover Pope. That covers whoever's electing the Pope. Yeah, no, but I just find it interesting that two years later, you can't even vote. Right. Yet they would put someone in as, you know, the highest office. Yeah. I don't know. Well, he was the oldest Pope ever elected. Yeah, that's true. You know, these guys can't even tweet and you may laugh, but there are nine active tweet Twitterers in the College of Cardinals. Well, the Pope has a Twitter account,

Pontefex. But nine of the Cardinals tweet themselves and they have specifically been forbidden from tweeting during this time period. I could see that. Oh, it's part of, you know, being under key in conclave. I wonder if they ever thought they would have to cover that, though. Hey, the world's changing. What else? Tweeting Cardinals. Okay. So there's two ballots a day for a total of four to two possible in the morning, two in the afternoon. And then after 12 or 13 days, if there's still no Pope, they can say, you know what, to heck with this, where it's going to go with a simple majority. Right. Which I think is 50% plus one. Yeah. And then we'll elect the new Pope. That's right.

And while they're doing this, there's like some, there's, there's some details that, you know, have to be followed to vote for a new Pope. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Like, you know, this information has always been out there, but now in today's age, it's really out there. So I think up until this election, a lot of people probably didn't understand like exactly what's going on. Well, Pope John Paul published the guidelines. Yeah. Said, Hey, everybody, we're just being transparent here. Here's what we're doing. Here's how it's done. So they're rectangular ballots. And this is all very important. I imagine they probably don't vary from this process. I wouldn't be like, you know, I'm going to do a round ballot just to mix things

up. Yeah. Use cocktail napkin. Yeah. At the top of the words, Latin words, illegal in summum pontifism, I elect a supreme pontiff. So it's basically saying like, this is the official ballot. But and then below that, the each cardinal is going to write down the name in pen of the Pope. Yeah. Hand in their little paper, like it's elementary school student body elections. They fold it twice. No, I thought someone else. Oh, no, they, yeah, they fold it twice. Right. And then they put it on a plate. Yeah. And then they use the plate to dump it into the ballot box. Yeah. Well, and they, they have to say out loud, I call as my witness, Christ the Lord, who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one who before God, I think should be elected,

which is saying like, I'm not, I'm not bending the popularity. This is in a popularity contest. Yeah. This is who I genuinely think God is my witness should be Pope. And they have to carry it in the air. And I guess all of this is just sort of like why they put it on a plate and hold it in the air. It's just like, look, nothing's happening. I wrote it down. This is the same piece of paper. Well, it also makes so so Cardinals while they're electing is a little known fact that actually float down the aisle toward the ballot box. And so holding the ballot up in the air makes the whole thing look even cooler. Cool. So you've got some guys who are charged with counting the ballots and basically tallying who's going to be Pope. Of course, they're called

scrutineers. Yeah, that's going to be my next band name. And then three scrutineers, just the scrutineers. Okay. Yeah, because there's four of us. Well, I was going to say it'd be kind of cool if it was a three scrutineers, but there was four really, really freak out the crowd, man. Yeah. So you've got the three scrutineers and two of them. They, they, well, okay, so you have one sitting who takes the ballot out of the ballot box, writes down the name of the Pope, or the person voted for Pope, hands us to the next person, the first two write it down. And then the third scrutineer reads the name out loud. And the other two, no, they say, yep, that's the one I have here that I wrote down. And then they take it and pierce it through the, the ELEGO with the needle

and move it along a line of thread. And then you have ultimately all the ballots tallyed. That's right. And if they don't elect the Pope, they'd burn them. That's right. And a very important step before that they tie the end of it. So it's a sealed circle with the ballots hanging from it. Okay. Because if it's not tied shut, that means the vote is still open. Right. Yeah. Okay. So then they burn them. And if it's, if they haven't elected a Pope through that ballot, they add some chemical that makes the smoke black. Yeah. And they blow it out of the Vatican palace to let everybody know no Pope yet. When they do elect the Pope, they just let it be white smoke, right? Yeah. It used to be, they used to use like wet straw and stuff, but there was confusion

at times when it didn't burn like appropriately. So now they just add a chemical that they know was going to do the job. Nice. And so when the new Pope is elected, he, the guy comes to the, he meets with the Cardinal Deacon, Secretary of the College of Cardinals, the Cardinal Dean, the Master of Papal Liturgical Celebrations, right? That's a swinging crowd. It is. And he says, oh, please, really, really, this is great news. Thank you for, for doing this. Yeah. And the, the Dean, I think, asked him a couple of questions. Yeah. And I have a feeling it's way more official than what I would say because they say, do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff? What would you say? I would say, you want to be Pope? Are you sure you want

to be Pope? And then by what name do you wish to be called? And that, you know, that's pretty straight up. That you'd say that just like that? I'd say, you want to be Pope? What's your name? Give me the name. Yeah. And they say, who's this guy? We need to know what to put on your seal. Yeah, exactly. They do. Yeah. So the Pope accepts it. Well, you know, I guess the Pope is supposed to accept. I'm not sure if that's ever not happened. I can't imagine because you would think they would withdraw their name earlier than that, you know, right? Or if they had second thoughts, that might be pretty bad too. Right. They were like, look, I just talked about it with my wife and she's like, I don't know if we want to go into this chapter of our life. Let's, let's just retire.

Yeah. Okay. So each cardinal at that point, once the Pope has the name and has said yes, I definitely want to be Pope. They approach them, pay homage to the new Pope. Probably kiss the ring. Yeah, I would say so. I wonder if they have the ring made up already because you're supposed to have the thing on like, like that's basically like, check it out. I'm Pope. I bet they do. I would imagine. Yeah. Because the only thing that can happen is the Pope says I don't want to be Pope. Yeah. And then they just make a new ring. Yeah. You know, and they probably make the guy feel pretty bad too. Like, well, are you sure? Because we made the ring and everything already. I bet this is all spelled out in some rulebook, you know, like not often used rules of the

Catholic Church. Right. Like if they refuse. Yeah. You strike them on the head with the silver hammer. Maybe so. So then traditionally the oldest cardinal in the conclave steps that they're at St. Peter's Square there on the balcony, which we've all seen a million times, and says Habomus Papam basically says we have a new Pope. And then the Pope comes out and the crowd goes wild. Yeah. Like the Beatles. Yeah. Like it's serious stuff, man. Weeping and I know in America it's not as, I guess things have just changed a little bit. I'm sure there are people in the United States that are still that moved. But you see people from around the world like collapsing and crying. And yeah, it's pretty amazing to watch. Pope papal mania.

Papal mania. Yeah. And so in the Pope basically says, okay, let's do this. Here's my papal blessing. Good to meet you all. Let's go forth and spread Catholicism. That's right. We should do one on the Pope at some point just about the duties. I mean, they have a few in here appoints bishops and cardinals obviously spreading the good word, writing the official documents about issues like what our official stance is stuff like that. Yeah. And then like getting world leaders to go along with them. Yeah. And you know, back in the day, the Pope had a lot more sway in the non-religious sector. Like I could, they could, I could listen to me. Yeah. They could crown new emperors and like had military power and stuff like that. Yeah. Like one of the Pope's crowned

Charlemagne and started the Holy Roman Empire, right? Oh, yeah. That was something that Popes could do. Can't do that anymore. No. And we mentioned Benedict changing the name, like they ask what name do you want to go by? Yeah. There's actually an origin to this. Pope John II, he was elected in 533. Yeah. And he was the one that started it because he was born, his, his birth name was Mercur, Mercurius. Yeah. Named after Mercury, which is a pagan Roman god. Yeah. And he was like, I don't think I should have a pagan name as Pope. Yeah. So he changed his name to John II. Yep. And there you have it. That's where the tradition began. Yeah. And I think generally now they, they choose a name of a previous Pope that they admired perhaps. Or a

favorite saint. Or a favorite saint. And then they get on with the popin. Yeah. I wonder what the new one, I'm really interested, you know. I'm pulling for the guy from Ghana. Yeah. I want to know what his name is going to be too. Yeah. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss

y'all. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, y'all. This is Dr. Joy Horton Bradford, host of the award winning weekly podcast therapy for black girls. Our incredible community of sisters has been building the therapy for black girls podcast for five years running. And over that time, we've published over 250 episodes and gained over 18 million podcast downloads. During this time, we've tackled the stigma

surrounding mental health and shared conversations to help us all understand ourselves and others a little better. Hundreds of incredible licensed mental health care professionals and other experts have joined us to share tips on taking better care of ourselves. We flip through the pages of your favorite romance novels with author Tia Williams checked in with Grammy award winning artist Michelle Williams and discussed the hurdles of balancing competitive sports, motherhood and mental health with Olympic athlete Natasha Hastings five years down in many more years of work to be done. Join us now by checking out the therapy for black girls podcast on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

Uh, you got anything else about the Pope or the papacy, I should say? No, the Pope mobile pretty awesome car. Yeah, it is. Do you remember that? Yeah, sure. When they came out with the uh, the bulletproof, uh, like tube that he sits in. Yeah, it's pretty smart. It stands in in ways. Yeah, it's a tall tube. That's right. Uh, okay. Well, if you want to learn more about the Pope mobile, you can type the word papacy P A P A C Y in the search bar at howstuffworks.com. And um, I don't know what that'll, well papacy will bring that that article up. They won't bring anything up about the Pope mobile. I'm afraid. No, but just try try Pope mobile and see what happens. Yeah. Um, might enter a portal into another universe. Since I said Pope mobile,

that means it's time for a listener mail. I'm going to call this vet in the area, Canadian vets. What's up friends? My name is, uh, Anne Marie and I'm a super fan veterinarian from Newfoundland, Canada, almost a Connecticut. I thought you were going to say Kentucky. I discovered you in 2011 when I went on maternity leave and maternity leave here in Canada can be up to a full year. In addition to that, man, my daughter was born 10 weeks early. So I was off for 14 months. Holy cow. Creepily, you both became my support system during this time. Uh, luckily I came upon the podcast at a time where there were around 200 episodes. Uh, I would push the stroller every day for at least an hour and laugh out loud at your antics. I listened

while I cleaned, cooked and did various baby related duties. Uh, now that I'm back at work, I eagerly await new episodes and I've gone back and submitted to, uh, listening to episodes I'd dismissed previously as born. I encourage people to do that. Oh yeah. Like a population is constantly a good one to go back and check out. That's what she listened to. Did you know that? No. She said, I listened to recently and happy to report that even how population works entertain me. Uh, I even listen at work, particularly while I'm doing, uh, doggy surgery. You're a favorite while I'm doing dental surgery. Actually, last week I listened to why do men have nipples while working in a dog's mouth. Uh, thanks for getting me through some difficult teeth extractions.

Anyway, hats off to you both. I suffer from a mild case of hero worship. I wanted to say thanks for that. I don't know if I would call it suffering. My daughter and I say, woot, Josh and Chuck. And my husband says, not that podcast again. And I guess he slaps his forehead. Wah wah. Yeah. So Anne Marie, tell your husband, you got your own little silver hammer. Tap your husband on the head and say, my daughter and I are getting smarter. Tap him very, very, very lightly. Lightly on the head. Don't you think, Chuck? So whoever Anne Marie's husband is, get, get on the train, my friend. Maybe get a helmet soon. And she says awkward hugs and, and thanks to Canada. Thanks from her. Thanks to Canada.

To, I guess for that 14 month paid leave. Can't you see her? Like she's putting a dog under and she's like, one for you. One for me. One for you. One for me. Yeah. With the gas. All right. So thanks, Anne Marie. And thanks to Canada for some reason. Yep. If you want to send us an oddly worded homage or thanks or whatever, we love those. Those are the best kind. And we want to hear from you. You can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can say stuff on facebook.com slash if you should know, you can send us an email to stuffpodcast.discovery.com. And you can join us on our home on the web, our very own website with 42 inch rims. It's called stuff you should know.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

visit how stuff works.com brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. One in four Americans have reported being victims of crime. But what happens when we survive? That's what we explore in the podcast survivors heal. I invite you all to listen in as we discuss the healing side of true crime and what I call the new survivors movement. It's a movement that centers healing and speaks truth to power. Listen to survivors heal available on my iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Sonora and Michael Dura present Adelita changing the key. A podcast series about the crossover dream of a Tejano superstar. My name is Adelita pass or as some like to call me the modern day Selena starring Diane Guerrero

and Anna Ortiz. Do you have any idea how many artists have attempted to do just that? What would you do for the world of pop music to know your name? Listen to Adelita changing the key on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.