Bufnagle: the Podcast

Rafe quotes a recent twitter post about how to re-enchant the world, starting with simple things like elegant dinner parties.  Harry joins in to discuss ways to bring about more Truth, Beauty, and Goodness to what you do on a daily basis by fully embracing enchantment and delight. ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this is an independent podcast so y...

Harry and Rafe continue the discussion around coming to understand the nature of light.  In this episode they discuss the concepts of Einstein's Special Relativity, the basic concept that ALL laws of physics must be consistent in any inertial reference frame. The outcome of this statement is that the measurement of the speed of light (c=3x10^8 m/s) is the same for ANY observer, at any time in...

Rafe surprises Harry with an ad lib topic: let's talk about Independence Day.   While the conversation could have been a scripted lesson in the history of the holiday and the American founding, instead the hosts meander through a broad range of topics, all inspired by the July 4th Independence Day holiday in the USA. Along the way, the Bufnaglers discuss other countries' independences, v...

Harry and Rafe roll out a warm welcome to Fr. Elliot Zak, Associate Pastor at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carmel, IN. Displaying remarkable poise under the intensely complicated theological questions posed by our hosts, Fr. Zak walks them through a classic Bufnaglian wandering of topics, from sacraments in the age of  telecommunication, to the perfection of Christ's sacrifice, to the problem...

Harry and Rafe continue the discussion around coming to understand the nature of light.  In this episode they discuss the properties of waves (interferences and such) and how the nature of light is like the nature of sound except for the fact that light waves seem to be able to travel without any medium to support them.  In the end, our friend Albert Michelson will again show up to finally put the...

Rafe is joined by Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™, to discuss recent launches of SpaceX' Starship Superheavy and Boeing's Starliner, just one day apart. A review of the flights and what went wrong and what went right ensues; the team is joined late by Harry who dropped by unexpectedly; Rafe goes off on a tangent about helium; and a question a...

Big Brain Smart Head™ and past co-host Zach Donahue returns to the show (he was never really gone) to discuss the state of men's mental health and strategies to help you get to where you need to go. More Zach can be found at his substack at https://zachdonahue.substack.com or you can reach him by email at zach@zachdonahue.com . ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com *...

Harry and Rafe continue the discussion around coming to understand the nature of light.  In this episode they discuss Fizeau, Foucault, and Michelson and how they used the technologies of the 18th and 19th centuries to zero in on the universal speed limit. Along the way we run into some characters we have seen before and stumble across some serendipity that is just too good not to mention. ***** A...

Harry and Rafe present the first part of a series on the  the speed of light and special relativity. In this episode, they discuss basic Galilean relativity and discuss how the speed of light was actually measured prior to the year 1700 using eclipses of the moons of Jupiter. ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this is an independent podcast so your h...

Harry and Rafe welcome Big Brain Smart Head™ Matthew Donahue, a current PhD student studying one of the Buf's favorite insect friends: bees! Matthew holds up supremely well under the heat of unrelenting questioning at the Buf and educates our hosts on all sorts of bee things. Remember to buy local honey!!! ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this...

Harry and Rafe respond to some listener questions about the Buf in general, about Harry's time in the army, and about why Rafe is going to Europe this summer. As usual it probably turns out exactly as you might imagine, which means it's not going to be what you think. ***** As always, you can reach the Buf at bufnagle@bufnagle.com ***** As you know, this is an independent podcast so your...

A simple observation from a photo on the interwebs leads to a question, and then lots of Bufnagely discussion, about space and orbits and rockets and garage projects, marketing, and much, much more! Harry and Rafe are joined by not one but TWO (!) Big Brain Smart Heads™:  Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™, and Dr Brian Donahue, America's Favorite Time-Traveling Ham Radio...

Harry and Rafe discuss summer school and other summer activities and finish with a big announcement from Rafe about this coming summer and what it means to the Buf! ***** 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 this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out....

Rafe tackles the question of how to save the world using a little help from from a four-year-old with a wagon full of rocks. ***** 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 this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support...

Rafe talks to Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™, and Dr Brian Donahue, a Time Traveling Ham Radio Anesthesiologist™, about the total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 as viewed from Bufnagle Global Headquarters in Westfield, IN. ***** 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 expen...

Harry and Rafe work through a rare unscripted episode based loosely around the question of "How do you do what you need to do for yourself while also doing what you need to do for others?" What results is a random walk through a plethora of topics including, but not limited to, eclipses, celestial transits, the transitivity of  transitivity, show prep processes, changing one's clock...

Rafe does a solo episode that ties together all sorts of Springtime shenanigans from colored dust to "seven sins" to evading the Angel of Death to announcing the arrival of Truth Incarnate and lots in-between.  Join us to celebrate Spring! ***** 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 exp...

The Buf is honored to again be joined by Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™, to discuss all the fun things that happened surrounding the March 14th test launch of SpaceX' Starship. Bob leads Rafe through all the interesting things that happened last week surrounding Starship and occasionally entertains with interesting side notes around Pez candy, loose objects in spacecr...

Rafe and Harry look at wind and water and how these fundamental elements are used by God to make new things.  Take a deeper look at the Genesis creation story, Noah's ark (How many animals did he take onto the ark?), Moses, and other stories to see the roles of water and wind, and learn how to see that He who "makes all things new" does this for you everyday and in all manner of thi...

Harry hosts Rafe's discussion of a trip to Paris. Along the way, we learn about Haussman's Paris, Notre Dame, Eglise St Etienne du Mont (and Owen Wilson!), Eiffel's Tower, US monuments in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, the Louvre, and much much more! Like the entire trip to Europe, the best part was the warm and hospitable people that were met along the w...

Harry hosts Rafe's discussion of a weekend train trip to the town of Assisi, birthplace and final resting place of St. Francis of Assisi. Rafe tells stories of train travel, the life and times of St. Francis and the circuitous route to his final resting place, the quaint and cozy town of Assisi in January, a castle on the hill above the town protecting it from invaders, and plenty of other ti...

The Buf team welcomes Big Brain Smart Head™ author, editor, podcaster, commentator, wife, and stay-at-home mom Faith Moore to the show to discuss her books and podcast. Faith discusses her book "Saving Cinderella — What Feminists Get Wrong About Disney Princesses And How To Set It Right", a scholarly look into a consistent and helpful way to understand the Disney Princess fairy tails, he...

The Buf team is joined by Big Brain Smart Head™ and America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™ Bob Luzenski to discuss, of course, big rockets and the upcoming April 8th total solar eclipse. Bob and the team discuss new information surrounding the Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly of Starship on November 18, 2023 and upcoming plans, hurdles, and whatnot for the return of Man to the moon. "Make sur...

Harry hosts Rafe's discussion of a visit to Florence, Italy and a tour of the First Church of the Renaissance, Florence's Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Rafe tells the story of his tour of the Cathedral's massive dome and all the fun things found there inside, including spiraling secret passageways, Dante's Inferno, a wonderful ancient clock with only one hand, and an obsc...

Rafe goes solo, discussing wagering on sports situations, namely the NCAA tournament and going for 2 and going for it on fourth down in football. After some considerations he concludes that the things we really need in sports betting models are Hope and Despair, two of the many things that the we cannot measure and that the materialists refuse to entertain. ***** As always, you can reach the Buf a...