Bufnagle: the Podcast

"The benefit of a bigger pizza is you can share it with more friends." Zach and Rafe carry on a grand and free-wheeling romp through all sorts of topics related in general to nutrition and lifestyle.   Starting out with simple descriptions of food diets and how to eat healthier, the Bufnaglers roll into discussions of grocery store strategies, how to stay balanced in the middle of the ro...

Zach finally does the solo episode Rafe has been taunting him about. Zach shares stories about a former friend, teammate, and family member who was always positive, kind, and full of grace. Zach mentions the importance of carrying on how they did to preserve their memory and being kind to those around us, showing our friends we care and love for them and why we love and grieve deeply at loss and d...

In the early 1200s Genghis Khan's armies rose out of the eastern steppe and built the world's largest empire, stretching from China in the East almost all the way to Vienna.  The West made repeated forays into the East to seek out the Khan and his successors.  Meanwhile, the Mongolian Empire was growing and bringing everyone within reach into their grasp.  The conquered civilizations wer...

With so much talk in pop culture today around superheroes, Zach and Rafe dig into what the phenomenon is all about.   From The Batman Question (Is he hero or vigilante?), to the metaphor of Ironman's Heart, to Nietzsche's Ubermensch, to Spider Pig, Apollo, Bo Jackson, LeBron, Thor, Loki, Logan, and Shane, the Buf touches on all the aspects of heroes, both regular and super, to get to big...

Rafe and Harry discuss learning to fly and becoming an FAA licensed pilot.  They cover lessons learned, both the easy way and the hard way, when getting a private pilot's license  from getting started,  to communicating with the tower,  to understanding different airspaces,  to understanding what those numbers on the runway mean,  to the perils of trying to land on the wrong runway,  to midai...

Starting with understanding the lessons from Episode 44 ("Wisdom From the Prarie"), guest co-host Bob Luzenski (aka, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist) joins Rafe to discuss how those lessons apply to some of the human problems with a Mars mission. Along the way, the Buf hosts discuss the Earth's unique protective ionosphere and magnetosphere, the aurora borealis, Apollo barb...

From sharing a rural no-plumbing and no-central-heat farmhouse with eight siblings and his parents, Dr. Parnell Donahue made his way to college and medical school and then on to a successful career in medicine.  Along the way he has written numerous articles and books and today he publishes a blog and regular column on parenting and shares his eight-plus decades of wisdom with listeners of his rad...

Harry joins The Buf as co-host, filling in for a vacationing Zach, and he and Rafe discuss the physical, emotional, and spiritual transformations wrought by a new baby.  The first chapter of Genesis reveals God to be a creator and also to be Good .  We also learn that Man is made in God's image and likeness, Imago Dei ; thus, Man is made to be Good and to create.  Parenthood gives us that hon...

We think of the greatness of the Greek civilization and then the greatness of Rome.  But almost everything that Rome did was an attempted copy of Greece.  All roads may lead to Rome, but in Rome, all roads lead to Greece. The free peoples of Greece, in their small, geographically-isolated, independent city-states, were incubators of the fundamentals of Western thought.  While Rome first conquered...

And there's no one there to raise them, if you did. Zach and Rafe welcome back Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist, to continue the discussion of missions to Mars.  They tackle the details of making fuel from water and any carbon dioxide that might be lying around, the timing of such a trip, and the insane brutality of Mars' harsh climate and how Venus is even worse. I...

"You don't have enough talent to win on talent alone."  This quote from Herb Brooks in the 2004 movie Miracle is used as a motivator to encourage the 1980 US Olympic Men's Hockey Team to play more as a team, as the other teams they were going to face were certainly more talented than they were. But this is also a lesson for all of us: talent is never going to be enough to produ...

We are facing new ways of doing things: new business meetings, new school environments, new newspapers, new entertainment, new reference materials.  And the "new" is almost always centered on the computer or smartphone.  But new isn't always better. Our new technology enables us to create the appearance of polish and sophistication but our content suffers.  We need to work harder to...

US Army Tank Commander CPT Peary Cox talks about being a leader and the lessons he's learned by insisting on getting the smartest people into the room.   From West Point to Fort Hood to Germany to Iraq and then back again, humility rises again and again as one of the most valuable traits of a leader.  Recognizing that you do not know is essential to team cohesion and effectiveness, whether yo...

Modern comic books and cartoon shows take their characters from famous Italian renaissance artists?  Yes; it's true! Zach and Rafe this week discuss the four famous artists who are namesakes to the slightly less famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello.  Join them as they discuss the accomplishments of these great men and how their works ins...

Big Brain Smart Head, world traveler, and self-proclaimed sociologist Julianna Greene joins Bufnagle: the Podcast to discuss her adventures in the UK and other places in Europe.   From Memphis, TN to Birmingham, AL to London and Paris and Lisbon and all sorts of places in between, Juju brings a joyful energy and infectious enthusiasm with her as she recounts tales of her exploits across the pond. ...

The Bufnaglers are joined once again by Big Brain Smart Head and United States Naval Aviator LT Brock “Cinder” Friedman to further discuss his story of being a Naval Aviator. Cinder discusses leadership, teaching helicopter pilots, staying a step ahead of the students and the aircraft, seeking the Good in brotherhood, trust, and teamwork, our old friend Ferdinand Magellan, practice making perfect,...

Life's path for us is rarely the path we would have chosen looking forward but looking back few of us would change the path that got us to where we are. Virginia Horan joins the Bufnaglers this week to shares her Adventure of Life from Long Island to Dayton to Manhattan to the classroom via tea, potato skins, job interviews, babies, and all the serendipities that life throws at us.   Ginny, a...

"Energy makes it go."  By managing our own energy we can go further and accomplish more. Zach and Rafe return to Zach's Bet on Yourself Series to discuss personal energy.  Energy allows you to do everything you do.  But you only have a finite amount of it at any given time.  Thus, be careful with it.  Spend it wisely.  Don't waste it on tasks or people that don't help you...

We are joined again by Big Brain Smart Head Bob, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist, and we discuss the very hard problem of getting to Mars.  Along the way, Zach and Rafe learn about lunar resources and gravity wells, develop a plan for a new energy drink (Lunar electric water!), and discover a whole new respect for the field of Botany. Remember, if you have a question for Bob about going t...

Notre Dame.  Submarines.  Flight school.  Swim week.  Helicopters in swimming pools.  Magic fairy flight dust.  Vectors, rotor pitch, collectives, and flight forces.  Torpedoes.  Chasing foreign subs.  Night vision and cinder blocks.  This episode has it all! Zach and Rafe are joined by Big Brain Smart Head and United States Naval Aviator LT Brock “Cinder” Friedman to discuss his story of becoming...

People watch sports all the time  — they watch on TV, they watch in person, they watch highlights on the internet.  People have watched spectator sports for entertainment for millennia.  Any time people compete at the highest levels, other people have wanted to watch. Video games, it turns out, are no different.  Esports are not the grand Pac-man tournaments you may have heard about in the 1980s;...

Zach and Rafe welcome this week's Big Brain Smart Head, Georgia Tech Senior Biomedical Engineer and Published Poetry Author Brady Bove , to the show to discuss how Poetry and Engineering are related as they are both expressions of Truth.  We'll discuss Brady's book,  A Day of Humanity , her biomedical engineering training, and how they all fit together in an integrated and  holistic...

April Fools Day has hit The Buf!  In this special April 1st episode, Zach and Rafe have been replaced by Olivia and Bob (America's Favorite Rocket Scientist) --- join in the conversation as they meander through the wonderous world of flowers and bulbs and learn why we plant flowers in the first place.   "Something you started out doing just for yourself ends up being a gift to others.&qu...

After spending the Winter at Port St Julian, the Armada continues south to the Strait. After the loss of (another!) ship within the Strait itself, the Armada travels 7,000 miles to cross the Pacific, fighting starvation and scurvy along the way. Interactions with various peoples in the islands of the Pacific and hostile interactions with the pursuing Portuguese results in only one ship returning t...

Zach and Rafe are back to discuss more details of Zach's Bet on Yourself Series. This week the pair discusses the importance of knowing what your role is on a team or group and using that to better yourself and those around you. From discussing how leaders and coaches can use this concept to Zach's own personal stories with embracing a role, learning the role, and understanding the role...