Bufnagle: the Podcast

Rafe is joined by writer, speaker, husband, father, and Big Brain Smart Head™ Matthew Giambrone, editor and publisher of Hearth & Field , a cultural and literary journal focused on traditional Good things, a "quarterly journal for people seeking a richer, more stable, more thoughtful life, away from the noise and the screens". Matthew discusses his background in the world of high tec...

In this Buf Classic Re-drop from 2025, Rafe discusses where you suffering comes from and how your perception of it can change what it does to you. Is this certainty of life due to punishment?  Temptation?  Testing? or simple Consequence? Rafe looks at each one of these and comes to the conclusion that it's not divine punishment; it's probably a combination of simple consequence of living...

Once numbering billions of trees in eastern North America, the once-dominant American Chestnut has been nearly destroyed in the last 120 years by a blight.  The stems and branches die off, leaving only the roots that regenerate new shoots that climb into the sky but then also fall victim to the blight before they can generate seeds. A number of scientists and foundations and wood-workers and all m...

America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ and Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski joins Rafe to discuss the very recent (yesterday!) Starship Superheavy flight, this one complete with an achieved orbit, payload deployment, de-orbiting, and an entertaining splashdown. Bob discusses the nuances of the launch and all the parts of the flight and tells us why this one is important in the grand scheme of...

Rafe discusses equinoxes and how they are defined, specifically, how to determine when they occur and how long they last. The conclusion: you can legitimately celebrate the 2026 Autumnal Equinox for over 32 hours, enough to take two days off from work! #bufnagle #vacationdays #equinox #astronomy #algebra #timezones #autumn ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As yo...

Rafe talks about a lesson learned during an ordinary baptism during an ordinary mass on an ordinary Sunday at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in downtown Indianapolis. Sacraments and their Rites offer us a portal to another realm.  They are transformational events fills with sign and wonder, things earthly and things of heaven. #baptism #sacraments #basilica #indianapolis #grace #rejectSatan...

Rafe discusses cabinet furniture design, joinery tricks, and what planing wood by hand can teach you. #bufnagle #furnituredesign #cabinetry #woodglue #drawborejoints #tenons #mortises #DIY #patience #handplane #jointer #seekthegood  ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running...

Following last week's Ozymandias poem and the lesson concerning avoiding hubris, Rafe walks the Buf listeners through John Henry Cardinal Newman's 1827 poem "Snapdragon". In it we learn to bloom where you are planted, to be gracious for the opportunity to reveal the glory of God, even if you are just a small flower serendipitously planted in a crack in a stone wall.  Greatness...

Rafe takes the Buf listeners through Shelley's poem Ozymandias , a sonnet that lays out the futility of seeking worldly gain.  Today's glory will be tomorrow's despair; even great civilizations fall, eventually we are left simply with "Boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away." Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return. So, what to do?  Well...

Rafe discusses two entries from the book "The Gospel In Dostoyevsky", a collection of entries from Dostoyevsky's works that touch on gospel themes.  The two entries were both from The Brothers Karamazov, a Russian classic. One story retells a Russian folk story of an evil woman whose only good deed in life was once giving an onion to a beggar.  The other story tells of Alyosha'...

America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ and Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski joins Rafe to discuss the current state of things rocket-related.  Bob updates us on what happens (and is happening) to various jettisoned rockets parts, how to build a spacecraft to rescue another spacecraft and how to do it when the first try is met with some issues, and, of course, where we are with regard to the b...

In this Buf Classic Re-drop from 2023, Harry and Rafe discuss Millet's 1859 painting The Angelus , a copy of which fortuitously once hung in Rafe's elementary school library. Of course, this podcast being what it is, the conversation wends its way through all sorts of topics (other paintings,  Daylight Saving Time, drone delivery vehicles, Calvin and Hobbes, etc) but generally addresses...

Rafe tells the bittersweet story of the three walnut trees in his yard, three trees that he saved during construction in 2023... #trees #bufnagle #lumber #woodworking #walnut #juglansnigra #juglone #treelifecycle #selfpruning #auxin #USnavy #ussconstitution #oldironsides #mulch #firewood #furniture ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this is an indepe...

Rafe walks us through the fourth chapter of Genesis, the story of Cain and Abel.   This story reveals more about the Nature of Man, the Nature of God, and the relationship between Man and God.   A very short story, the story of Cain and Abel reveals incredible insight into brotherly relationships, envy, and how to do right.  You are called to lift yourself up by "acting rightly", not to...

Rafe looks into the question of Whatever happened to all the land that France used to hold in North America? In 1750, France held massive quantities of land in what is now the USA and Canada.  From the Gulf to the Great Lakes, from the Appalacians to the Rockies, and from throughout the St Lawrence River, the French flag had laid claim to approximately a third of North America.  And less than 35 y...

Rafe reviews the USA's foundational document: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, the fledgling nation's statement justifying the USA's dissolution of political bands with Great Britain. Along the way, we will discuss structure and nature of this document, what is says and what it means, why these things were (and still are) important, and what it means today. #bufnagle #d...

Rafe discusses all things surrounding donating blood.  This episode has it all: from understanding your blood and what is in it, to how it moves around your body, to the history of blood donation, to how it is carried out at present, to how wonderful nurses are, to how all this demonstrates the power of human touch. #bufnagle #blood #erythrocytes #leukocytes #thrombocytes #plasma #redcross #willia...

Rafe finally gets around to tackling the third chapter of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The serpent is a dastardly character, using his cunning to trip up the child-like and unassuming Eve and Adam.  They get tricked by his chicanery and violate one of God's first assignments: they eat the forbidden fruit. While Adam's and Eve's sins ar...

Rafe sits down for a conversation with Big Brain Smart Head™ Roland Warren, president and CEO of Care Net, to discuss healing the culture.  In a world filled with material abundance, more people than ever are suffering and despairing, the widows and orphans are being left behind, and we are mired in a culture that produces anything but flourishing.   With Father's Day just around the corner,...

In this redrop of a classic episode from nearly four years ago, Rafe and Harry tackle the question of "Why is the US so  reluctant to embrace the metric system?" To answer this question, they go back to the basics of where the metric system comes from ("There were five definitions of the meter???"), where Imperial units come from ("The Romans did what???"), and how th...

Rafe is fully enjoying the arrival of summer, in particular all the plants producing flowers and leaves and, soon, fruit.  What follows is a discussion of angiosperms (plants that produce flowers and seeds enclosed in fruit) and their wondrously rich variety, which leads to a discussion of the 1981 film Time Bandits in which the Evil One mocks God for producing "43 species of parrots" wh...

With Summer looming, so are summer things like weddings!  In this re-drop of a classic Buf episode from way back in 2023, Rafe, heroically fighting a cold, talks of a wedding he attended in Iowa and the lessons that were learned, most importantly how children and grandchildren are the greatest blessings one can receive and how they fulfill our duty as Imago Dei . #bufnagle #weddings #imagodei #iow...

Rafe discusses thoughts around some snarky twitter posts, some cultural issues plaguing us, lament for old times, the understanding that one cannot go back, the situation with Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Heinrich Heine, the definitions of belief and conviction, modernist Man's terrible predicament, and what to convict yourself of in order to do your part to turn things around. #bufnagle #pa...

Rafe talks about the coming of summer from solstices and equinoxes to cross-quarter days to Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Learn why 2026 is a special summer that comes around (on average) only once every (approximately) seven years! #bufnagle #calendar #summer #equinox #solstice #quarreterdays #crossquarterdays #memorialday #laborday #threedayweekend #theaverageisnotadatum #microsoftcopilot #ai #ar...

Rafe updates things from last week, in particular, how did the waiting go?  Did God make Good from Bad?  Did the baby arrive?  And have you made any mathematical advances in that time? Spoiler: the waiting went well.  God made Good (as usual); the baby came out just fine (as usual); and I discovered something I probably learned long ago but forgot. #bufnagle #seekthegood #waiting #patience #update...