NPR’s Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow spent a year researching the backstory of how an altar boy from Illinois became the leader of the global Catholic Church.

To do that, they talked with more than a hundred people on six continents about Robert Prevost — from his childhood in Dolton, to seminary in Michigan and Chicago, through his time in Peru and Rome.

Their book is American Pope: Leo XIV’s Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City.