In a move sending shockwaves through the podcast world, Catholic Answers has announced that Trent Horn’s popular show The Counsel of Trent will be going back to its creative roots: the theology, politics, and culture of sixteenth-century Europe.
“The worst thing any podcast can do is get stale,” said Horn. “And although I have enjoyed pushing the boundaries of contemporary subjects like atheism, sexual morality, and Zionism, and connecting the Faith with pop culture in ironic but thought-provoking ways, I realized that the creative well was starting to run dry.”
While preparing recently for a Friday episode on whether Marvel or D.C. was more Catholic, Horn says, he decided to take a break by dipping into his well-thumbed copy of Bellarmine’s De controversiis. That turned out to be an epiphany.
“It was then I realized,” he said, “it’s like ‘Counsel of Trent’ doesn’t even mean anything anymore. This,” he added, tapping a first-class reliquary of St. Edmund Campion, “is why I got into this business. And that’s why I know I can only be truly authentic if I talk about topics that are roughly 450 years old.”
Catholic Answers president Christopher Check gave his wholehearted support to the new direction of his apostolate’s top-rated podcast. “At first I was a little surprised by Trent’s decision to cancel his livestream debate with a transgender communist in order to stage a dramatic reenactment of the Diet of Worms,” he said, “but I fully respect his artistic choices.
“Besides, he added, “all the best music is from the [15]70’s.”
Critics, however, are already taking Horn to task on social media. John Calvinball, a Protestant X account with over 200,000 followers, tweeted,
Omaha-based Aristenotidenidesemenosenitosides, an influential voice among today’s breed of aggressive young Eastern Orthodox apologists, was similarly dismissive of Horn’s new Reformation-era focus:
Other critics are suspicious of Horn’s bona fides. In a video response to the news, traditionalist YouTuber LefebvreAndLetDie said that Horn’s nod to the past was “a typical modernist trick,” and suggested it was only a matter of time before he was “back to his usual M.O. of promoting usury, Israel, and women going to college.”
Horn insists that his intentions are genuinely retrograde, but is quick to shoot down any claims that this is an artistic step backward. “I’m not just rehashing my ‘early stuff,’” he promises. “Sure, I won’t be deviating from the time period in which my namesake ecumenical council took place, but this will allow me exciting new creative directions: exploring the pros and cons of Erasmian pedagogy, rating the best and worst geocentrist theories, and testing out the hottest new methods for turning base metals into gold.”
Horn also said that his signature Free-For-All-Friday episodes would continue, though now only tackling pop-culture references dating roughly from the last voyage of Columbus to the Edict of Nantes. “Next Friday we’ll debate doublets vs jerkins once you turn 30,” Horn teased, “and we’ll make a list of which Shakespeare plays were definitely written by Francis Bacon. Number three is insane! Don’t forget to drop your suggestions in the comments!”