The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2026) Review

If you've been following along with The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz), Day 94 is one of those episodes where the Scripture practically reads itself — and Fr. Mike knows it. This is the Samson and Delilah episode, and if you thought the Old Testament was a sleepy collection of begats and genealogies, Judges 16 is here to correct that assumption in spectacular fashion. Betrayal, impossible strength, haircuts with catastrophic consequences — it's all here. This The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) Day 94: Samson and Delilah (2026) review breaks down what works, what's worth your 24 minutes, and what gets skipped automatically.

What's Good

Fr. Mike opens with a small but genuine celebration: Day 94 marks the last day on the second reading plan sheet. It's a tiny moment, but it's the kind of thing that reminds you this podcast is built around accompanying people through a long journey, not just broadcasting content at them. He says it's "worth celebrating," and he means it — you can hear it.

The reading itself covers Judges 16, 17, and 18, plus Psalm 147, and Fr. Mike doesn't shy away from the material. He flags upfront that the book of Judges has been getting increasingly "PG-13 slash rated" as it goes on — which is both an accurate content warning and a quietly funny way to prepare listeners for the fact that Samson's story opens with him visiting a harlot in Gaza. The RSV Second Catholic Edition he reads from is clean and clear, and the pacing through the Samson and Delilah narrative is genuinely engaging. The repeated cycle of Delilah asking, Samson lying, Delilah testing, and Samson escaping has a dark comedic rhythm to it before the inevitable fall — and hearing it read aloud makes that tension land harder than skimming it on a page.

Fr. Mike also moves the episode beyond Samson into the stories of Micah and the Levite in chapters 17 and 18, which don't get as much cultural airtime but are arguably just as strange and troubling. The willingness to keep going — to not just linger on the famous story and call it a day — is a mark of a show that takes the full text seriously.

At 23.9 minutes, the episode is well-paced. There's no filler, no extended throat-clearing, and no over-explaining. Fr. Mike trusts his listeners to sit with difficult material, and that respect for the audience is one of the show's consistent strengths.

The Ad Load

The Bible in a Year runs 2 ads in this episode, totaling about 0.4 minutes — that's just 2.1% of the runtime, sponsored by Ascension. Honestly, as ad loads go, this is about as light as it gets. If you're still sitting through them anyway, PodSkip's free on-device AI listens ahead and skips them automatically — so you're into Judges before you even notice.

Verdict

8.5 / 10 — A genuinely gripping episode anchored by one of the Bible's most dramatic stories, delivered with warmth, honesty, and just enough dry humor to make 24 minutes fly by.

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FAQ

How long is The Bible in a Year Day 94 with Fr. Mike Schmitz?

The episode runs 23.9 minutes, making it an easy fit for a commute, morning routine, or lunch break.

Does The Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz have a lot of ads?

Not really — Day 94 has just 2 ads from Ascension, adding up to about 24 seconds of the total runtime. It's one of the lighter ad loads in the podcast space. If you want to skip The Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz ads entirely, PodSkip handles it automatically for free.

Do I need to start from Day 1 to follow this episode?

You can technically drop in, but Fr. Mike references the ongoing arc of the book of Judges and the reading plan sheets, so the episode rewards listeners who've been following along. That said, the Scripture reading itself is self-contained enough that first-timers won't be totally lost — Samson and Delilah is one of those stories that doesn't need much setup.