Father Roderick Vonhögen (5 April 1968), a Roman Catholic priest from Amersfoort in the Netherlands, hosts the Catholic Insider podcast.[1] Vonhögen has started other podcasts including Secrets of Harry Potter, Secrets of the Pirates of the Caribbean, Catholic Minute, the Daily Breakfast, and more recently the Secrets of Indiana Jones.
In April 2005, Vonhögen created a podcast to report on the health of the ailing Pope John Paul II;[2] thus was born the Catholic Insider podcast. Vonhögen later told CNN that the Vatican supported his initial podcasting during John Paul II's illness, and that his goal with his variety of podcasts is to "share something of [his] enthusiasm".[3] Catholic Insider won the 2005 People's Choice Podcast Award for religion inspiration and the 2006 award for best mobile podcast.[4][5]
The Daily Breakfast arose from Vonhögen's desire to produce something requiring less post-production than but with similar value to Catholic Insider. CastBlaster, developed by acquaintance Mike Versteeg, allowed for the creation of a more regular podcast requiring minimal post-production. Daily Breakfast won the 2006, 2007 and 2008 People's Choice Podcast Awards for religion inspiration.[5][6][7]
Vonhögen is founder and chief executive officer of what is now the Star Quest Production Network (SQPN), "specializing in the production of audio and video programs faithful to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church".[8][9] SQPN includes other podcasters' work in addition to Vonhögen's. SQPN's team is trying to reach a greater audience much the same as Mother Angelica did with the Eternal Word Television Network.