Bufnagle: the Podcast
Join us for an entertaining and enlightening discussion of eclectic adventures in the pursuit of all things Good. Gain a better understanding of technology and science, history and philosophy, and leadership and success, all presented in a positive and affirming conversational framework. Big Brain SmartHead™ guests occasionally join the pair to bring actual expert knowledge to the conversation.
Episodes
241 episodes
Ep 238: "Preparation for the Antagonist World" — A Most Pleasant Conversation with Big Brain Smart Head™ Annie Holmquist
Rafe is joined by author and Big Brain Smart Head™ Annie Holmquist to discuss her learnings from Russell Kirk about four principles for childhood success: happy family, extended family interactions, regular reading exposure, and the freedom to ...
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Season 1
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Episode 238
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36:56
Ep 237: Bufnagle Classic Re-drop: Lessons From the Passion; Power, Corruption, Truth, and Progress
Re-dropping a classic episode from Lent 2023, Rafe takes a short solo episode to discuss the Passion and how it is the oldest and most common story in history: power is threatened by Truth so Truth gets killed. But Truth has that odd litt...
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Season 1
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Episode 237
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19:32
Ep 236: Suffering, Death, Sin, and Falling Rocks — How Ought We Think About Avoiding These?
Harry and Rafe discuss three things that people seek to avoid: suffering, death, and sin and where we ought to put our priorities. And along the way, we come to understand the nature of sinning and why it is the worst of these three thing...
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Season 1
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Episode 236
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37:33
Ep 235: Time Zones, Daylight Time, and Busybodies — What Time It Is Where and When
Rafe goes after time zones and daylight time and how things are so complicated and goofy that it defies belief. We start with understanding Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), address the sun moving at 15 degrees per hour, and then d...
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Season 1
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Episode 235
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38:08
Ep 234: Snowflake Bentley — The Breathtaking 100-year-old Snowflake Photographs Done by W.H. Bentley
Rafe discusses Wilson Bentley and how he developed a method to take photomicrographs of snowflakes and make snow, one of the grand beauties of our universe, even more beautiful.
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Season 1
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Episode 234
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31:41
Ep 233: Spinning Goat Hair and Seeking the Garden of Eden
Rafe talks about his daughter Olivia's substack and a post from a different blog about seeking the Garden of Eden in things that are simple, beautiful, soft, and comfortable.Olivia's substack can be found at
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Season 1
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Episode 233
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15:51
Ep 232: Backyard Radio — The Story of Radio Station WEPB-LP FM with Big Brain Smart Head™ Mickey Guffey
After the release of Episode 229 in which the Buf discusses a unique low-power radio station in Noblesville, Indiana, Rafe goes on the hunt to make contact, somehow, with the people at the station.Following some internet leads, he eventu...
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Season 1
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Episode 232
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37:43
Ep 231: "Gravity is Lumpy and Athena Has Better Legs" — A Rocket Update with Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™
Rafe is joined by the Buf's most frequent guest, Big Brain Smart Head™ Bob Luzenski, America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™, to discuss what is happening in the world of Bob and the world of rockets: winter, flowers and bulbs of Spring, model tra...
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Season 1
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Episode 231
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48:03
Ep 230: Bufnagle Classic Re-drop: Shrove Tuesday — How Pancakes and Mob Football Lead You to Fasting and Lent
Re-dropping a classic episode from Lent 2023, Harry and Rafe discuss wild, wonderful, and wacky Shrove Tuesday traditions and how they bring us to understanding the balance between feasting and fasting and staying in the the middle of the highw...
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Season 1
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Episode 230
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38:19
Ep 229: Interesting Connections — Serendipity, Rediscovering Old Things, and Proof By Contradiction
An chance encounter on a 100-watt radio station leads to learning all sorts of new things and discovering some things that Rafe never could have imagined.
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Season 1
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Episode 229
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32:10
Ep 228: Aphrodite and Meaning — How the True Nature of Meaning is Missing from AI
Rafe starts with a Shelley poem about the Birth of Aphrodite and wanders into backgammon, Christmas, AI images, mimesis, regression, aviation, and then emerges with the understanding that AI might be a fun toy but it's not possessing understand...
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Season 1
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Episode 228
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26:38
Ep 227: "A Robot Can't Do That" — Nicholas Cage, Plato, Steampunk, and AI
Rafe discusses Nicholas Cage's lament over the coming of AI to film-making and along with it traces a history of Man's model for viewing Man as the hot technology of the times. Along the way we learn that Man is not a chariot, nor a wind-...
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Season 1
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Episode 227
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33:08
Ep 226: Cancel Buttons, Electronic Timers, and Wattage — Why This Ain't Your Grandfather's Toaster
Rafe finally gets an answer to why his toast takes so much longer to cook than it did when he was a kid, and it's not just an issue of nostalgia.
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Season 1
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Episode 226
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29:36
Ep 225: Times and Seasons — Free Yourself By Conceding to the Inherent Cycles of Nature
Harry and Rafe discuss the Nature of Time and how one conforms one's life to it. Do we live in harmony with seasons and cycles and rhythms of life or do we fight against them to control the world around us? Is what you are doing bri...
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Season 1
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Episode 225
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31:03
Ep 224: "Happiness is a drawer full of warm socks." — Shoveling Snow, Leisure, Work, and Efficiency
Harry and Rafe discuss shoveling snow as a lead-in to a discussion of work, leisure, and riding both sides of the road, as Chesterton would suggest, and doing both the working and playing very well.Along the way they discuss all manners...
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Season 1
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Episode 224
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41:07
Ep 223: Age and Wisdom — Reflecting on the Close of the Sixth Decade
Rafe discusses turning 60 (!) and a lifetime pursuit of Wisdom. Job's Poem on Wisdom provides some insight.
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Season 1
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Episode 223
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21:51
Ep 222: Books, Books, Books
Harry and Rafe discuss books from 2024 and ones they hope to consume in 2025.
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Season 1
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Episode 222
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41:04
Ep 221: Bufnagle Classic Re-drop: Luke's Christmas Story — "Be Not Afraid"
Redropping an episode from Advent 2022, Rafe goes solo to discuss the first two chapters of Luke's gospel, the backstory and the story of the Nativity.Along the way we cover the concept of quarter-year days and their bank holidays and t...
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Season 1
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Episode 221
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42:50
Ep 220: "A Thrill of Hope / A Weary World Rejoices" — Bleak Midwinter, Rabbit Holes, and Christmas Carols
Harry and Rafe start with the idea of a bleak midwinter, dart down some rabbit holes and tell some stories of old shenanigans, and end up on Christmas carols, in particular Sleigh Ride, O Holy Night, Cradle in Bethlehem
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Season 1
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Episode 220
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47:46
Ep 219: Bufnagle Classic Re-drop: Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe Change the World
In an episode originally dropped in December 2023, Harry and Rafe discuss the appearance of the Virgin Mary to Juan Diego in 1531. A decade after the fall of the Aztec empire, Diego, a peasant convert in present-day Mexico, is visited fou...
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Season 1
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Episode 219
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34:48
Ep 218: Heroic Virtue, Rat Poison, and Wrestling with God — Big Brain Smart Head™ Fr. Elliot Zak Answers Hard-hitting Questions from the Buf
Rafe and Harry welcome back Fr. Zak to again answer the questions that you have always had but have been afraid to ask!
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Season 1
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Episode 218
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37:57
Ep 217: Vanilla, Garlic, St. Nicholas, and Irish Bars — A Conversation with Big Brain Smart Heads™ Sarah Schutte and Zach Donahue
Rafe welcomes BBSHs Sarah and Zach back on the show to discuss holiday traditions related to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Advent, and a whole bunch of other things.
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Season 1
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Episode 217
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44:17
Ep 216: It's Always All About Children
Rafe recounts a collection of recent interweb findings that spur him to think of the Joys that are children — in fact, they are really the only reason for doing anything. So, get going: get married and have some kids.
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Season 1
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Episode 216
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25:12
Ep 215: "An Episode That Triggers a New Way of Seeing" — A Conversation with Big Brain Smart Head™ Italian architect Ricardo Buratti
Rafe welcomes Big Brain Smart Head™ Italian architect Ricardo Buratti to discuss the nature of doing difficult things, being digestible to other people, being unforecastable, destiny, and putting yourself in positions to learn new ways of seein...
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Season 1
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Episode 215
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49:07