Fr. Mike Schmitz's Bible in a Year: 1 Recording, 5 Releases

Key Takeaways:

Fr. Mike Schmitz recorded The Bible in a Year day by day through 2021. It went to number one on Apple Podcasts within weeks of launching on January 1, 2021
This morning, Ascension released "Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah" for the fifth September in a row. The public feed lists the file at 26,406,596 bytes and 27 minutes 21 seconds in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
The same publisher now runs three "in a Year" podcasts and the Ascension: Catholic Bible app, which had 90,599 ratings at 4.9 stars on September 29, 2026, and sells full access at $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year
The podcasts stay free. The app charges for what a listener uses beside the episode: transcripts, study plans and answers to questions the episode raises

At 3:15 a.m. Eastern this morning, three podcast episodes titled "Day 272" appeared in Apple Podcasts. One was from The Bible in a Year, one from The Catechism in a Year, and one from The Rosary in a Year. None of them was new. Each file matches one Ascension had already published on the same calendar day in an earlier year, down to the byte. That's the most useful fact in podcasting for a creator who wants a business that doesn't depend on posting every day. It comes from a Catholic priest in Duluth, Minnesota.

Who Is Fr. Mike Schmitz?

Fr. Mike Schmitz is a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and the host of The Bible in a Year, a daily podcast produced by Ascension that reached number one on Apple Podcasts in January 2021. Wikipedia lists him as the diocese's director of youth and young adult ministry and the Newman Center chaplain at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Most people know him from video. The Ascension Presents YouTube channel, where many of his videos run, shows 1.34 million subscribers, 2,235 videos and 251,945,056 views as of this morning. He also hosts a Sunday homilies podcast and a general Catholic podcast for Ascension. The Bible in a Year was his idea. The National Catholic Register reported on January 20, 2021 that he brought the concept to Ascension, which answered that it had "been talking about something like this for years." The same piece counted more than 6 million cumulative downloads and over two weeks at number one on the Apple chart.

What Happened at 3:15 This Morning?

Every podcast feed is public. The Bible in a Year feed lists 1,826 items today, and each daily episode carries its year in the title. Here is Day 272 across the five years the feed still shows:

Feed title	Released	Length	File size
Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2022)	Sep 29, 2022	27:21	26,406,596 bytes
Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2023)	Sep 29, 2023	27:21	26,406,596 bytes
Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2024)	Sep 28, 2024	27:21	26,406,596 bytes
Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2025)	Sep 29, 2025	27:21	26,406,596 bytes
Day 272: The Call of Nehemiah (2026)	Sep 29, 2026	27:21	26,406,596 bytes

The 2024 date is a day earlier because 2024 was a leap year. The size is the same all five times. Wikipedia describes the show as "created and recorded daily throughout 2021," and nothing in the feed suggests it has been re-recorded. Ascension has been releasing that 2021 work every year since. It isn't the only one. The Catechism in a Year Day 272 file is 24,602,954 bytes in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The Rosary in a Year, hosted by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, has released the same Day 272 file in 2025 and 2026.

Why Did a Rerun Top the Charts Again?

A rerun of a dated plan works because the audience's position resets every January 1. A listener who starts in 2026 is on Day 1 of the plan, regardless of when it was recorded, so the recording can be released again every year. A weekly talk show recorded in 2021 would be out of date. A plan that says "Day 1" doesn't age that way. The first rerun proved it. On January 3, 2022, National Review ran the headline "The Bible in a Year Tops the U.S. Podcast Charts Again." The recording had topped the chart once as new content, then topped it again as a replay. Most creators treat their back catalog as a pile sorted by date. Ascension treats its catalog as a year-long program with a start date, and that's why it can be released again. Ryan Holiday's Daily Stoic works the same way. So does the marathon plan in our Hal Higdon profile, where the product only works if runners follow the days in order.

What Does the Ascension App Charge For?

The Ascension app is free to download and sells full access for $8.99 a month or $59.99 a year in the US App Store. The Bible text, the Catechism, daily Mass readings, the Rosary recordings and most Ascension podcasts stay free. The subscription covers study plans, podcast companions such as transcripts, and a library of Bible answers. That's how the App Store listing and Ascension's own app page split it. Ascension's page says more than 1 million Catholics have downloaded the app. The app is sold by Ascension Publishing Group, LLC. It launched on June 25, 2023, two and a half years after the podcast, and its first screenshot promises the Bible "from the team who brought you The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)."

The sort is worth copying. Ascension doesn't charge for the episode, and it can't really, since the same show is free in Apple Podcasts and on Hallow, where Hallow lists it as permanently free content. It charges for the things a listener wants while working through Day 272: the transcript on screen, a study plan for the book they're in, and an answer when a passage raises a question. The App Store description lists more than 80 study plans, and the Bible Answers screenshot promises answers to nearly 1,000 questions. The annual price is 6.7 times the monthly one. Our guide to annual versus monthly pricing puts that inside the range most creator apps use. For a program that literally lasts a year, the annual plan fits.

The episode is free. The app sells what people need while they listen.

Built by Foundry builds the product that goes next to the work your audience already follows, ships it in about three weeks, and runs it after launch. $0 upfront, revenue share, and you own the business.

See What We’d Build You →

The January Test

Ask one question of your catalog: if a new follower found you on January 1, is there an order you'd want them to go through your work? If there is, you have a program, and it can be released again. Numbering it, dating it and putting it on a calendar is editing, not new filming. Every year after that, the same work picks up a new group of people starting at Day 1, while you spend your time on the next program. Ascension added a second program in 2023 and a third in 2025, and the first one kept releasing the whole time. If there isn't an order, a rerun won't help. A news show, a reaction channel or a weekly Q&A goes out of date. The test is useful because it tells you which of your shows can compound and which can't. Podcasters have a head start here. Our guide to turning a podcast into a subscription app covers what to charge for, and our Sam Harris profile shows another teacher whose free talks led to a paid app built around a sequence of lessons.

If Your Best Work Has a Day 1

This applies to fitness challenges, language courses, 30-day writing prompts, recovery plans, Lent devotionals, study-for-the-exam series, and any teacher whose audience asks "where do I start?" in the comments. If you have 50,000 people or more who'd go through your material in order, you have a plan that can restart every year. What's usually missing is the product next to the plan. That means somewhere to track the day, read along, ask a question and pick up where you left off. Ascension's app arrived two and a half years after its podcast. Built by Foundry builds that product for creators in about three weeks at no upfront cost, then runs it on a revenue share. Fr. Mike recorded Day 272 once. As of this morning it has gone out five times, and on January 1, 2027, Day 1 starts again.

See What We’d Build You →

Fr. Mike Schmitz's Bible in a Year: 1 Recording, 5 Releases

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Who Is Fr. Mike Schmitz?

What Happened at 3:15 This Morning?

Why Did a Rerun Top the Charts Again?

What Does the Ascension App Charge For?

The January Test

If Your Best Work Has a Day 1

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