Zach and Rafe discuss the modern card games, in particular Flesh and Blood, and how their in-person manifestations foster the most important of human endeavors: building community.  As complicated or bizarre or esoteric as these or other card games may be, at their heart they are opportunities to build and strengthen communities.  

Today's conversation wends through all the interesting particulars of belonging to a card playing community, from rare cards to low-stress tournaments to crazy rules to Calvinball to  Cheetos and Cheerwine, probability and statistics, and everything in between.

 

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As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

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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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

Rafe shares with Zach experiences at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the last day of practice and qualifying for the 2022 Indy 500.  The discussion zips through topics around engineering and perfection, teamwork and triumph, and cultural events and pursuing the virtue of excellence in all sorts of endeavors.

“You will know when you go.”

 "You can get a lot of stuff done if you don't care who gets the credit."

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As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

The Buf tackles the question of what should be the intent of youth activities: sports, theatre, music, arts.

 Starting with the mindset that the purpose of youth sports is to provide a safe place for children to learn to deal with failure, Zach and Rafe discuss how to direct childhood passions into lifetime virtues instead of just a collection of participation trophies that eventually get stashed in the attic.

 All these activities should be focused on growth and improvement and winning the day at hand.  The rare few who will become professional athletes or actors or musicians or artists will benefit from being around those who will not make it that far if all the participants recognize the value of developing themselves within the dignity of Imago Dei.  Parents, teachers, coaches all must be role models: modeling what that dignified role looks like.

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As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

The Buf team turns its attention to communication and, in particular, thoughts and tips regarding good presentations.  The team stresses humility and graciousness and presents some tips for assisting in sharing your insights with others.  Using good teaching techniques like particular-general-particular, providing written handouts, and finishing early are all discussed.

Of course, this is Bufnagle: The Podcast, so tangents are taken for things like rugby broadcasts and bike rides, but everyone is sure to take away some nuggets for putting your best foot forward when sharing your story with others.

(And Zach's rugby broadcasts are currently slated to begin the weekend of May 14-15 online at https://www.twitch.tv/illiteratelawyer )

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

The Buf Team takes on the topic of challenging yourself and achieving the growth you were created to achieve.  Take the risk, seek excellence.  Keep trying.  Don't let early failures stunt your growth.

Setting goals that are a stretch but within reach is essential.  Challenges too high produce unjustified failure; challenges too low are easily obtained don't create growth.  Stretch and grow.  Parenting, coaches, and mentors take heed: your job to create growth in the human person in your charge.

Take dance lessons.  Try your hand at drawing.  Take the chance to become the most excellent version of yourself that you can be.  Don't ever stop reaching.

Don't be afraid to suck at something.  

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

Zach is on break so Rafe goes solo and discusses how the passage of time, and its subsequent change in perspective, changes our understanding of the story of our past and our outlook for the story of our future.  

Our perspective of where we are now can change dramatically when future events bring us understanding.  For the small band of followers of Jesus, the Saturday after the crucifixion meant only sadness, fear, and despair.  Easter Sunday morning brought confusion, as the body was missing.  By Sunday evening, their understanding of their pasts had been completely rewritten as Christ revealed to them a new understanding of what they had experienced.  And now, 2000 years later, we carry that Hope forward; Easter has changed everything.

“All shall be well.”

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

Zach is on break and that means Rafe invites America's Favorite Rocket Scientist™  and Big Brain SmartHead™ Bob Luzenski to join the show.

Recently retired, Bob shares his Four Phases of Retirement and the Joy it has brought him.  Along the way, Bob and Rafe discuss periodicity of the academic life and 2022's late Spring.  In general, concerning retirement, Bob concludes that "I absolutely would wish this for everybody."

The second half of the conversation centers on the current status of commercial space flight and the successes of SpaceX.  From Falcons and Dragons to the secrets of reusing space equipment, wise R&D, and Dream Chasers, Bob fills us in on the present wonders of commercial space flight.

(And apparently Zach has infiltrated the editing booth and paid off the editor to modify the show's outgoing trailer...)

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

After talking about talking about time travel in way too many previous episodes, the Buf team finally addresses the topic head on.

Many of your favorites are presented, everything from Sisyphus, to Jules Verne, to Back to the Future, to Groundhog Day and Live, Die, Repeat, to Primer, and Terminator, and everything in between.

Zach leads us in the end to the conclusion that time travel in fiction is just another literary device as a tension to induce a character to change, grow, adapt, and improve.

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

The Buf is honored to welcome Big Brain SmartHead™ Fr. James L. Heft, S.M., to the show to discuss his lifelong effort to practice what Christ teaches: to love God, to love yourself, and to love other people.

Fr. Jim recounts stories of his Adventure of Life, from growing up in a farming family in Ohio in the 1940s, to joining the Marianists, to all sorts of schooling in Dayton, Washington, DC, and Toronto, to being ordained without attending seminary (!), and to preaching, teaching, and witnessing at the University of Dayton and the University of Southern California. 

Along the way, Zach and Rafe elicit from Fr. Jim pearls of wisdom regarding salvation and the Church, listening to Truth no matter who speaks it, being a light, recognizing your brokenness, the power of humility, rocket science (!), the power of using your talents for others first, and the value of community.

He also tackles the issue of the sacrament of Penance and reveals how it is "a magnificent encounter" since "both the confessor and the penitent are broken sinners on a journey toward Christ" and how to Seek the Good by leading with what Jesus teaches: love your God, love yourself, love your neighbor.

 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!

Zach and Rafe welcome back a former Big Brain SmartHead™ guest to the show: Dr. Brian Donahue, MD, PhD joins the Buf to pick up on some ham radio topics that we didn't get to way, way, way back in Episode 7, and also shares insights into the joys and travails of pediatric cardiac anesthesia and fixing the hearts of some itty-bitty little babies!

Along the way we learn something about culture of amateur radio, some things about anesthesiology, and even some things about time travel! 

*****

As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]

*****

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 us on Buy Me a Coffee:

https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagle

On this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that. Any little bit really helps! Thank you in advance!!!