Sean Carroll

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the June 2026 Ask Me Anything edition of the Mindscape podcast.

I'm your host, Sean Carroll.

So I don't know whether this is percling into other parts of the world.

Probably it is.

But here in the United States, one of the many, many news stories going on, it's a news rich environment these days.

You have to at least say that.

One of the many stories is that senior officials, senior elite officials,

Members of our governing classes, both literally in government and in industry, have been picking fights with the Pope, with our new Pope, Pope Leo XIV.

He's an American Pope from Chicago.

First ever American pope.

But he's liberal in various of his inclinations.

Not 100% so.

Like, you know, there's always going to be the case that the pope is Catholic, right?

The pope is going to agree with a lot of parts of doctrine that the Catholic Church likes to promulgate.

And some of those will not quite count as liberal.

Some will.

It's all very confusing.

And it's all constructed by human beings, not actually given by God.

But so be it.