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By Daniel Burke, Scott Detrow "Prevost, known as Pope Leo XIV, gets his first of perhaps many biographies to come, but NPR’s Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow set the bar high. . . . A fascinating portrait of a man who has already made history as the first American pope." — Town & Country From the co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered and NPR’s Senior Editor of Religion and Spirituality, a deeply reported, revelatory biography of Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV, that offers rare and exciting new insight into the life and times of the man who would come to lead the Catholic Church. On May 8, 2025, eighteen days after the death of Pope Francis, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti stepped out on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to share the name of the new leader of the Catholic Church. “Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum, Robertum Franciscum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Prevost—qui sibi nomen imposuit Leo XIV.” For the first time in its 2,000 year history, the Catholic Church would be led by an American. NPR’s Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow, who were in St. Peter’s Square that day leading the network’s coverage, were among those shocked by the selection. Growing up in the faith as kids and reporting on it as adults, they had been told it was an article of faith, a given, that the Catholic Church would never elect an American pope. And yet, there was Prevost—now Leo XIV—smiling, waving, and declaring to the crowd in Italian, “Peace be with you.” Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who grew up just outside Chicago but had spent much of his adult life in Peru, had been a dark horse candidate to say the least–an unassuming Augustinian who had only recently been promoted to the top levels of Church leadership. His elevation to the most prominent religious seat in the world prompted unprecedented enthusiasm—a surge of “Da Pope” memes and American tourists flocking to Rome with gifts of deep dish pizza and hats from Villanova (his alma mater)—but despite…