The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

S2E22 - Royalty for Pocket Change

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:00:00 -0400

For thousands of years, the colour on your nails marked your rank. Some societies enforced it, and the wrong shade on the wrong person could be a crime. That held for millennia. Then, in about a decade in the twentieth century, it all changed.

Modern nail polish is an industrial product, and it came out of the car business. In the 1920s, carmakers needed a paint that dried in minutes, and the answer was a lacquer made from nitrocellulose, the guncotton left over from First World War explosives. The same chemistry runs through early film, the first plastics, the paint on a model kit, and the resin in a 3D printer. Marc and Renee trace it from a mark of royalty to a shelf at the local salon.

Shout out to Lilly's in Maidstone - https://www.instagram.com/lillysnailsmaidstone or https://lillysnailsmaidstone.mytreatwell.co.uk/

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E22 Bonus - Level Out

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 09:00:00 -0400

This week we cover a little bit of chemistry. Paint chemistry.

Stay with us on this one. Nail adornment is a practice that stretches back thousands of years, but there was one technical innovation that came out of World War I that changed the status, colours, and cost of nail beautification. Explosives. Nitrocellulose.

Tune in tomorrow when we discuss the history and chemistry of nail polish.

Lyrics below:

[Verse 1]
Slow it down
Colour runs
Leave it now
Leave it once
A line bends out
Into light
The wet says wait

[Pre-Chorus]
I want to move
I want to know
The wet says wait
So I let go

[Chorus]
Level out
Just level out
Every mark I make
Goes soft somehow
Level out
Just level out
Leave it still
And watch it glow

[Verse 2]
Quiet room
Nothing said
Colour settles
On its own
Someone knew
Long before
The wet says wait
And so I wait

[Bridge]
I rush
I pull
I break
I know
Hold me here
Hold me slow
Maybe I
Could learn to glow

[Final Chorus]
Level out
Just level out
Every mark I make
Goes soft somehow
Level out
Just level out
Leave me still
And watch me glow

[Outro]
The wet says wait
The wet says wait
Level out...

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E21 - Keeping it Cool

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:00 -0400

The refrigerator hums in your kitchen and you don't think about it. That hum represents 250 years of people getting laughed at, going broke, and occasionally poisoning the planet.

Frederic Tudor figured out how to ship New England ice to Cuba in 1806, got mocked by Boston newspapers, went to debtor's prison, and eventually got extremely rich. John Gorrie built a refrigeration machine to cool yellow fever patients in 1840s Florida and died bankrupt. Jacob Perkins patented the first vapour-compression machine in 1834 and nobody cared. And Thomas Midgley Jr., who invented the safe refrigerant Freon that finally put a fridge in every kitchen, also invented leaded gasoline (poisoning the entire planet), and was eventually strangled to death by an elaborate pulley system he'd built to help himself out of bed. He is, by most measures, the single human being who has done the most environmental damage in history.

The thing they built sits in your kitchen holding a thermodynamic wall between food and not-food. You don't think about it because it works.

This is the story of how cold became cheap.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E21 Bonus - Cold One on the Porch

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:00:00 -0400

Running a day behind on release schedule, but here's the song for this week's podcast episode. Episode out tomorrow.

Since we talked about an essential household piece of tech last week, we figured it'd be cool if we talked about another piece of household tech...the refrigerator.

For me, I remember the Harvest Yellow refrigerator in my mom's kitchen, the white boxy fridge on my grandma's back porch, and the avocado green tank in a neighbour's garage.

This week's song is all about the Cold One on the Porch. A jaunty poppy yacht rock piece.

[Verse 1]
Lights out in the kitchen
Screen door swingin' open
Out on the back porch
Where the night begins
There's a chair that knows me
A song on the radio
And the cold one waitin'
Right there for me

[Pre-Chorus]
Reach for the handle
Light spills out yellow
Take that bottle out
And settle in slow

[Chorus]
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Always cold, always there
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Heaven on a wooden chair
Cold one on the porch
Cold one on the porch
Bless the cold one on the porch

[Verse 2]
Bottle's gone cool
Sweat on the bottom
Boots up on the railin'
Fireflies coming out
Same way my dad sat
Same hour, same view
Same hand on the bottle
Same cold one in mine

[Pre-Chorus]
Reach for the handle
Cold air comes rollin'
Take what you came for
That hum keeps going

[Chorus]
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Always cold, always there
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Heaven on a wooden chair
Cold one on the porch
Cold one on the porch
Bless the cold one on the porch

[Bridge]
Held the wedding leftovers
Held the funeral pies
Held the milk for the cereal
When it's too hot to rise
Held the pop for the cousins
Held the ice for every ache
Holds the cold one in my hand right now
Same as ever, never moved

[Final Chorus]
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Always cold, always there
Cold one on the porch (cold one on the porch)
Heaven on a wooden chair
Cold one on the porch
Cold one on the porch
Bless the cold one on the porch

[Outro - vocal fading]
Bless the cold one on the porch
Bless the cold one on the porch

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E20 - The Royal Flush

Thu, 28 May 2026 07:00:00 -0400

Quick note - sorry about Marc's audio. With recording three people, the mic setup wasn't optimal for Marc and his daughter. We'll do better next time. But Marc's audio isn't the important bits of the episode anyway. Enjoy!

The flushing toilet is the most important machine in your house and the one you think about least. We use one six to eight times a day for our whole lives without a second thought, which, when you flush it through, is a remarkable engineering achievement.
Rome had running-water toilets two thousand years ago, watched the idea swirl down the drain when the empire fell, and didn't pick it back up until the 1590's, when Queen Elizabeth's "saucy godson" Sir John Harington invented the first proper flush toilet. Things start to flow after a Scottish watchmaker invents the S-bend in 1775, a Victorian plumber called Thomas Crapper builds his name into a coincidence too perfect to waste, and the Great Stink of 1858 finally drives Parliament to build the sewers that become the single biggest reason most of us are alive. Then we wash up in Japan, where TOTO treats the toilet as serious technology, and we close on the billions of people who still do not have a safe toilet at all.
Special guest: a twelve-year-old history buff, a genuine Tudor expert, who carries the Harington section of our story.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E20 Bonus - Flush Away

Wed, 27 May 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Tomorrow we talk about a piece of tech that was millennia in the making. The humble flush toilet. We have a special guest coming in to record on this one to help us with the story.

But you can't make a song about flushing toilets without thinking about the things that water washes away. Physical and emotional. So, this song is all about flushing things away. And the little trap that keeps the bad stuff from coming up and stinking up your life again.

Lyrics below

[Verse 1]
End of a long Tuesday
Closed the door behind me
The day went down the drain
The way the days do
Water did its work
Carried what it could
Watched it disappear
The way I wished it would
[Pre-Chorus]
But somewhere down the bend
Where the water always sits
The smallest of the things
The smallest of the things
[Chorus]
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
But the trap holds a little
Of every yesterday
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
But a small part of you
Won't be carried away
[Verse 2]
Wedding ring down the drain
Wine poured out in the sink
Tears unseen in the shower
A day rinsed off my hands
Water takes things away
What it can, what it can
Underneath, beneath the bend
Is where the rest of it falls
[Pre-Chorus]
And somewhere down the bend
Where the water always sits
The deepest of the things
The deepest of the things
[Chorus]
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
But the trap holds a little
Of every yesterday
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
But a small part of you
Won't be carried away
[Bridge]
I used to think the water
Would carry every drop
But the curve below the bowl
Was always there to stop
Just enough to remember
Just enough to know
Some of what I let go
Is some of what I owe
[Final Chorus]
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
But the trap holds a little
Of every yesterday
I'll flush it away
I'll flush it away
And a small part of you
Stays here with me
[Outro - vocal fading]
Stays here with me
Stays here with me

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E19 - Ten Cents to Anywhere

Thu, 21 May 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Payphones were infrastructure until they weren't. They weren't missed until they were.
At their peak there were about two and a half million of them in America, one on what felt like every corner, and a dime got you anyone in the country. By 2018 there were about a hundred thousand left, most of them dead. The first one turned up in a Hartford bank in 1889. The last public one in Manhattan left ceremoniously in 2022, with a press release, like a retiring quarterback.
In between, the booth became a cultural object (Superman changed in one, every spy movie needed one). Drug crews turned payphones into open-air offices, so cities pulled the phones out of the neighbourhoods that leaned on them hardest. Then the cell phone showed up and the whole thing fell over in about a decade.
We'd decided a fire hydrant was a public good and a payphone was a business. When the business stopped paying, the phones came down, starting with the corners that could least afford to lose them. Then Katrina knocked out the cell towers, and the payphones still bolted to the wall had lines of people waiting at them. Turns out the thing you last cursed at for eating your quarter was was doing a job you'd written off years ago.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E19 Bonus - Quarter Thief

Wed, 20 May 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Tomorrow's episode is on pay phones. A technology that was once essential until mobile phones became ubiquitous. There's a lot of history (and nostalgia) that Marc and Renee love to gab about. So tune in tomorrow for the full episode.

But...you can't talk about pay phones without talking about paying. The scene...small town, unfamiliar territory, sun going down. You need to get out of here and your cousin Susan is the only person that is close enough to come get you. But you have one slightly worn quarter and there's only one pay phone in sight. What ensues is an epic battle of wills. You...anger and determination to call Susan. The pay phone...stoic, unyielding, silent. It won't relent and won't let you dial. Then finally it feels like you'll be able to dial and it steals your quarter. There's never been a more rage-inducing moment.

Lyrics below:

[Verse 1]
I've got to call my cousin
She's the only one for miles who'll come
No shop, no soul, no signal
Just this phone and the going-down sun
One quarter left to my name
Last one, warm in my hand
And the dial tone hums like a promise
Like it finally understands
[Refrain]
Quarter in
Quarter out
It will not hold the line
I just need to call my Susan
One more time
[Verse 2]
I try again, my hand is shaking
There's a click, and then a pause
Then a bell that isn't a bell
I think it caught, so I start to dial
Halfway through her number now
Then the quarter drops right through
And the line goes dead somehow
[Refrain]
Quarter in
Quarter out
It will not hold the line
I just need to call my Susan
One more time
[Bridge]
Then it takes it
Lord, it takes it
And it gives me back a hiss
No tone, no Susan, no operator
Just nothing, only this
You're a thief
You're a quarter thief
And I'm screaming at a box
On an empty road
And the sun going down
[Outro]
Then the cloud breaks
And the cars roll back
And the people on the corner stare
At a grown adult in a standoff
With a phone that doesn't care
I, I just wanted to call Susan

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

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S2E18 - Tubes With Wings

Thu, 14 May 2026 07:00:00 -0400

First things, first. We have merch. Silly, yes, but available here. Now onto the show...

Have you ever pressed your face to the window in a plane as a kid and stared at the wing thinking flying shouldn't work? Have you ever sat in seat 23B with the baby crying five rows up and perfume getting reapplied three rows over and wished for just forty minutes of respite?

Of course you have. Passenger jet aviation is one of the most transformative things humanity has ever built, and most of us experience it as a tube we sit in until we arrive somewhere else. But, it wasn't always the cattle-car experience we have today.

Marc and Renee love aviation and flying and this episode traces that tube from Frank Whittle, the British inventor who patented the jet engine in 1930, to the de Havilland Comet (which kept falling out of the sky because of square windows), to Boeing betting big on a plane nobody asked for, to the Concorde flying Mach 2 over the Atlantic for twenty-seven years while burning fuel like a small country, to the 787 quietly changing what eight hours in a metal tube feels like on your body. Along the way: Juan Trippe deciding ordinary people should be allowed to fly, the 1973 oil crisis rewriting the economics of flight, and the disappointing realisation that the shower on the first-class A380 was never going to be for you.

If you have ever waved a thanks to a flight attendant who couldn't possibly see you, paid four dollars for a small bottle of water at thirty-five thousand feet, or sat through a connection in Charlotte Douglas wondering whether there is some kind of cosmic law requiring every American flight to route through there, this one's for you.

Check out the Mouselets for civil engineering and Disney - https://www.youtube.com/@TheMouselets

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

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S2E18 Bonus - 23B

Wed, 13 May 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Next episode is all about the development of passenger planes. So, this week our song is about that emotionally stressful situation that air travel has turned into.

The bare feet where they shouldn't be. Loud talkers. Hogging the arm rests. Passive aggressive travelers.

It felt like a blues song in A Minor. But mashed together with our Season 2 house band's yacht rock groove.

Lyrics below.

[Verse 1]
I boarded last, no room in the overhead bin
Lord, I boarded last, no room in the bin
Walked down to twenty-three and squeezed myself in
Man in C wouldn't lift his knee
No that Man in C won't lift that knee
Woman in A pulled the shade down, didn't wanna see
[Chorus]
I'm in 23B
Just B
Window went to A
Aisle went to C
I got what was left
I'm in 23B
Just B
[Verse 2]
Baby's been crying since we left the gate
Lord, that baby's been crying since we left the gate
Smell of perfume keeps me wondering what I ate
Bare feet on the headrest, three rows in front of me
Bare feet on the headrest, three rows in front of me
Wanted forty minutes of quiet, can't get forty seconds free
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
There used to be a dinner
There used to be a tie
There used to be a meaning
To getting in the sky
Now I'm boarding group five
With my one allowed bag
The seat reclines an inch
And nothing comes round for free
[Final Chorus]
I'm in 23B
Just B
Window went to A
Aisle went to C
I got what was left
I'm in 23B
Just B

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E17 - Red Means Stop

Thu, 07 May 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Have you ever sat at a red light at 2 AM with no traffic in any direction and waited anyway? Have you ever rolled through that same red light 2 AM and felt vaguely guilty about it?
Of course you have. The traffic light is the most obeyed command in human history. Rarely enforced (unless you're in the UK like Marc). No officer in sight. Just a coloured light on a pole, and a near-universal agreement to stop when it's red and go when it's green.
This episode traces the humble traffic signal from the gas-lit lantern that exploded outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868 (yes, exploded, three weeks in) to the adaptive AI systems that watch real-time traffic and adjust timing in milliseconds. Along the way: railroad colour conventions, William Potts in Detroit and Garrett Morgan in Cleveland, the political question of whose green is longer, the inductive loop that can't see your bicycle, and the moment where you discover that the colour you grew up calling yellow is officially called amber once you cross an ocean.
Ride along with Marc and Renee through another look at a technology that became infrastructure as it spread beyond its humble beginnings.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E17 Bonus - Just Amber

Wed, 06 May 2026 10:00:00 -0400

There are songs and poems about the red and green lights. But what about Amber? Shy. Fleeting. Amber has a job too.

This week's episode is about traffic lights and it felt appropriate to cast our gaze at the glowing amber hue and dedicate this week's song to the lesser-loved traffic light colour.

[Verse 1]
Three seconds is all I get
Between the start and the stop
You look at me like you know
What I'm trying to say
Brake a little early
Gas a little late
Either way you're answering
Something I never quite said

[Chorus]
I'm amber
Just amber
You stop for the red
You rushin' past the green
I'm just Amber in the middle
I'm amber
Just amber

[Verse 2]
Songs get written for red
Poems for green
No one writes about warning
That sits in between
I've got a job in the system
I slow the whole town down
I'm the breath that the city takes
In that moment unseen

[Chorus]
I'm amber
Just amber
You stop for the red
You rushin' past the green
I'm just Amber in the middle
I'm amber
Just amber

[Bridge]
I don't get named in the story
I don't get time in the scene
I'm just the turn of a second
Between what was and what's been
You're already leaving
Before I begin
I'm gone in a heartbeat
Like I've never been

[Final Chorus]
I'm amber
Just amber
You stop for the red
You rushin' past the green
I'm just Amber in the middle
I'm amber
Just amber

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S2E16 - You Are Here

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:00:00 -0400

Do you remember when "I think we missed the turn" caused a complete emotional spectrum of reaction? When the car would go quiet because someone had to admit they'd lost the page boundary on Thomas Guide map 347 and the next bit was on page 389?

So do we. There used to be a thing called knowing where you were. It lived in a spiral-bound atlas in the back seat, or in the head of whoever was driving. The Thomas Guide assumed you'd figure it out. The TripTik gave you only the path. GPS skipped past both and asks only that you keep the wheel pointed forward.

As usual, Renee and Marc travel through the past to see how that shaped today and where we're heading down the road. Maps, Thomas Bros, Mapquest, GPS...and some military satellites in there along the way.

If you have ever sworn at a Thomas Guide while driving in Los Angeles traffic, watched your phone confidently route you into a field, or forgotten which way is north in the city you've lived in for ten years, this one's for you. And if you're still that one person who knows the diagonal shortcut through the residential streets that gets you to the airport in twenty minutes, please hold that knowledge. It's getting rarer.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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(S2E16 Bonus) - Three Wrong Turns Home

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:00:00 -0400

Tomorrow's episode is all about the transition from a world where maps were an everyday driving tool to the world we have now with satellites buzzing overhead telling us exactly where we are and how to get where we want to go.

And because this is a podcast about things we miss and what we learn, we learned that keeping maps current is a big job! Things change. Roads change. And...GPS changes us. As we depend on GPS, our spatial skills degrade.

So, that's the idea for this week's song. Places we once knew change and we lose our spatial sense.

Have a listen - Three Wrong Turns Home.

[Verse 1]
Rolled off the highway
Coffee gone cold
Feels like it's all been changed
Record shop's a coffee place
Diner has a different name
Miss my own street
Laughing round the turns
[Chorus]
Three wrong turns from home
Three wrong turns
On a road I ought to know
Drove it in my sleep
Lord, knew this town by heart
Three wrong turns from home
[Verse 2]
Past the old pool hall
Now it's a mini-mall
School's gone, fence and dirt
Light at Seventh hardly waits
Bridge wider than I knew
My maps are wrong I don't know when
All the names I knew are gone
[Chorus]
Three wrong turns from home
Three wrong turns
On a road I ought to know
Drove it in my sleep
Lord, knew this town by heart
Three wrong turns from home
[Bridge]
Maybe I was gone too long
Maybe town moved on
Radio's still playing
Windows down, sun going down
[Final Chorus]
Three wrong turns from home
Three wrong turns
On a road I ought to know
Drove it in my sleep
Lord, knew this town by heart
Three wrong turns from home

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

S2E15 - Zork to Zelda

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 02:00:00 -0400

Do you remember pulling a spring-loaded plunger without being told what it did? Watching a goomba walk toward you and dying without being told why? Typing "go north" into a cursor because there was nothing else to type?

So do we. The best games taught you how to play them just by existing. No tutorials. No pop-ups. No onboarding flow. Pinball did it with physics. Zork did it with a parser. Mario did it with a question mark block. The machine showed you what it was. You figured out the rest.

This episode is about fifty years of that. Coin-op arcades to twelve million monthly subscribers. Quarters in a diner to modern open worlds that sell the absence of hand-holding as a feature. The hardware changed. The business model changed. The core loop stayed the same. Here is a world. Here are the rules. Figure it out.

If you ever mailed Activision a photograph of your Pitfall score, still picture a small white house west of an open field, or held a Galaga high score at a pizza parlour long enough that you'd drop in just to check no one had knocked you off, this one's for you. And if you got eaten by a Grue, we forgive you.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Likely To Be Eaten (S2E15 Bonus)

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Do you remember green screens? Blinking cursors? Games with words instead of photo-realistic massively multiplayer open world shooter role-playing sim games?

We do too.

Zork was original. Creative. And extremely well-designed. So, this week's song is an ode to Zork. Resource management. Wandering the unknown. Maps. Frustration. Triumph. Self-evident gameplay.

See if you can catch all the Zork references.

[Verse 1]
Brass lantern on the counter
Half an hour left to burn
Mailbox near the white house
Nowhere left to turn
Words in phosphor green
You are likely to be eaten

[Pre-Chorus]
Hello sailor, hello darkness
Hello everything that waits
I can feel the Great Underground
Through the hinges in the gates

[Chorus]
Likely to be eaten
Likely to be gone
Likely to be lost before the light comes on
But I'm walking anyway
With a dying match in hand
Likely to be eaten
And I want to understand

[Verse 2]
Elven sword is glowing blue
Something's moving in the dark
Thief was here and left the trophy case
Empty as my lantern's spark
I can picture how it happens
I can see the lantern drop
Standing in the empty hall
Will I make it out at all

[Pre-Chorus]
But the cursor keeps on blinking
And the verb will come to mind
All the nouns are in the inventory
Every one I need to find
[Chorus]
Likely to be eaten
Likely to be gone
Likely to be lost before the light comes on
But I'm walking anyway
With a dying match in hand
Likely to be eaten
And I want to understand

[Bridge]
The game gave me a name
And a room I couldn't leave
I held a lantern high
To the edge of everything
Rules arrived the moment
That the silence learned to sing
I'm the one who knows the words now
I'm the one walking on

[Final Chorus]
Likely to be eaten
Likely to be gone
Likely to be lost before the light comes on
But I'm walking anyway
With a dying match in hand
Likely to be eaten
Now I understand

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S2E14 - When Your Car Says Subscribe

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 03:00:00 -0400

In 1882, Edison opened Pearl Street Station in lower Manhattan and started selling electricity by the meter. He built the grid, built the appliances that plugged into it, and then tried to build an electric car that would charge off the whole system. The car was never the product. The car was a device that generated demand for his platform.

The battery failed. Gasoline won. And for about a century, the car became the most personal object in American life. You chose the colour. You chose the engine. You turned a key and everything under the hood was yours. Plum crazy purple. Grabber blue. Chrome that caught sunlight and threw it back at you. Nobody was charging you a monthly fee to use your own heated seats.

Marc and Renee trace the full arc, from Baker Electric runabouts marketed to women in the 1890s through Spindletop and the Model T, the muscle car era and its death by regulation, the oil crisis that killed horsepower overnight, and the return of electric with Tesla and lithium-ion solving a chemistry problem that had been open for ninety years.

Then the economics. Dealer margins compressing from 4% to 2%. Software subscriptions running at 40% margins. BMW charging $18 a month to turn on a heating element already wired into the seat. Tesla selling acceleration boosts by removing software restrictions on hardware you already paid for. GM projecting $25 billion in annual software revenue by 2030. Edison figured out the model 130 years ago. The rest of the industry is just catching up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F Documentary about the EV1 for those interested.

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Chrome and Highway (S2E14 Bonus)

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400

Here's the bonus for tomorrow's episode - Chrome and Highway

The episode is about cars. But...cars as instruments of platforms. Edison partnered with Ford to produce electric cars so he could sell more electricity. It failed and what we got (in the US at least) was a car culture. A century of cars representing freedom and self-expression.

And now? Cars are becoming the mechanisms to sell recurring revenue. Heated seats, OnStar, performance upgrades, intelligent features...all come with a monthly price now. But after a century of "I bought it; it's mine" will people reject the new car business model? Only time will tell.

So, this week's song is a manifestation of the open road, the muscle car adrenaline, the idea of owning the car and making it your own...but seeing the end of that road as the soft lights and touchscreens ask us to upgrade our transportation experience.

[Verse 1]
Hand on the shifter
Leather still warm
Window cracked open
Smell of the storm
Eight cylinders turning
Slow as a pulse
Nothing behind me
Nothing I owe

[Verse 2]
Blacktop is humming
Under the wheels
Dashboard is empty
Nothing but dials
Needle is climbing
Past what it should
Foot on the floor now
God it feels good

[Chorus ]
Chrome and highway
Wind in my teeth
Nobody asking
Where I will be
Chrome and highway
Burn through the miles
Every mile is mine

[Verse 3 ]
Painted the hood
In flames and fire
Laid every stripe
Down the centre line
Rumble so loud
Every plug every wire
The road shakes with it

[Chorus]
Chrome and highway
Wind in my teeth
Nobody asking
Where I will be
Chrome and highway
Burn through the miles
Every mile is mine

[Bridge ]
A light on the dash
I don't recognise
Soft little chime
Asking me to subscribe
The road just stopped
Somewhere I can't see
And the key in my hand
Doesn't feel like it's mine

[Final Chorus ]
Chrome and highway
Wind in my teeth
Nobody asking
Where I will be
Chrome and highway
Somewhere behind
Every mile was mine

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S2E13 - Warm Coke and the Internet of Things

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Does your thermostat know when you're approaching your own front door? Does your watch know you're stressed before you do? When your car rewrites its own software at 3 a.m., do you know what changed?

In 1982, a group of Carnegie Mellon grad students wired a Coke machine to ARPANET because they were tired of walking down the hall to find warm soda. Two questions. Is there Coke? Is it cold? That was the entire revolution.

Marc and Renee trace the line from that hallway to the world we live in now. Mark Weiser's dream of calm, invisible computing at Xerox PARC. RFID tags giving products identities they never asked for. The cloud removing every reason not to collect data. The moment your thermostat stopped being an appliance and became a temperature node in a global behavioral dataset.

Along the way, the Internet of Things went from reporting to deciding. Traffic grids reroute themselves. Buildings adjust before you walk in. Sensors feed models. Models trigger actions. Actions reshape your environment. And somewhere between convenience and autonomy, something changed. It used to be "is the soda cold?" Now it's "who chose the objective function your house is optimizing for, and what does it know about you that you haven't figured out yet?"

Notes - For android users that want to detect smart glasses nearby - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.pocketpc.nearbyglasses&hl=en_GB&pli=1

For Apple users - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nearby-glasses-original/id6761056896

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Every Room I Left (S2E13 Bonus)

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:00:00 -0400

New episode this week - "Warm Coke and the Internet of Things." This weeks episode is all about the Internet of Things...it starts with warm Coke at Carnegie Mellon and promised a future where technology has faded into an invisible mesh supporting humans with quiet technology. What we got was a surveillance state where our habits and choices are product-ised and sold back to us.

But...there's something to be said for the promise of a smart home where the comforts of home learn and adapt to you. So, this week, the song is about walking away from learning devices and missing them. What happens when you wave goodbye to your Ring camera for the last time? No more coffee machine sync'd to your phone alarm clock. No more curated music. A song about losing the comforts of a connected space that adapts to you.

What better way to convey that loss than with a sad cowboy waltz...but yacht rock style?

Lyrics down below:

[Verse 1]
Pulled the thermostat off the wall
Left a pale square where it hung
It used to know when I was cold
Before I knew it in my bones
The hallway light won't come alive
I'll have to find the switch alone
Funny how a thing that small
Can feel like losing someone known
[Chorus]
Every room I left behind
Knew the space I need
Knew the hour I'd come home
Knew how to keep me warm
Now the walls don't move
And the lights don't learn
Every room I left behind
Went quiet when the last plug turned
[Verse 2]
Wrapped the speaker in its cord
Tucked it in a cardboard box
It never once got my name right
But it listened round the clock
The kettle won't know six a.m.
The doorbell won't see who's there
I keep reaching for a voice
That isn't there no more
[Chorus]
Every room I left behind
Knew the space I need
Knew the hour I'd come home
Knew how to keep me warm
Now the walls don't move
And the lights don't learn
Every room I left behind
Went quiet when the last plug turned
[Bridge]
Last thing was the camera
By the door that watched the yard
I caught my face inside the lens
Standing in the dark
I waved at it like someone
Who was leaving for a while
And the little red light blinked off
Without returning the smile
[Final Chorus]
Every room I left behind
Knew the space I need
Knew the hour I'd come home
Knew how to keep me warm
Now the walls are just walls
And the dark is only dark
Every room I left behind
Is just a room now in the dark
[Outro]
Every room I left...

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S2E12 - WarGames Is A Documentary Part 2

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:00:00 -0400

In 1983, NORAD gave a president four minutes to decide whether to end the world. That was the Cold War's gift to the future: the principle that speed matters more than thought. In part two, we pick up where the missiles left off and follow that logic forward. The four-minute window became millisecond cyberattacks, algorithmic trading crashes, and autonomous systems that act before any human can intervene. The battlefield moved from silos to servers, but the core problem is the same one WarGames posed in 1983. The machines are faster than we are. Forty years later, the teenager is gone. The speed isn't. The systems we built to protect us now operate faster than we can supervise them, and nobody's built a failsafe for that.

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Light Speed (S2E12 Bonus)

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 16:00:00 -0400

We hope you're enjoying the WarGames is a Documentary 2-parter. If the first part was all about that nostalgic glow of the early 80's hacker aesthetic, then the second part is all about the anxiety that came from mounting technological weaponisation. Faster alerting. Faster decisions. More information. The pressure to keep humans in the loop, but operating at machine-speed. So, the song for the episode channels that choppy, rapid-fire, feeling, and a longing for the Phosphor Glow of the earlier era. Lyrics down below:

[Verse 1]
Twelve tabs and I've lost the thread
Screen so bright it hums
Something pings across the room
My thumb already runs
Glass is warm beneath my hands
Warmer than it should be
Every line arrives at once
None of it can hold me
[Pre-Chorus]
I remember when the signal
Had to travel to arrive
Had to cross the miles of copper
Just to know you were alive
[Chorus]
Light speed
Everything is now
Light speed
Faster than I think it
I can't wait for anything
Nothing waits for me
All that noise inside my head
Running all at light speed
[Verse 2]
Fourteen warnings on the screen
Gotta answer right now
Systems on alert
Red badges flashing
Something tripped a wire somewhere
Half a world away
By the time I've read the first
Three more are on their way
[Pre-Chorus]
I remember when the cursor
Used to blink and hold its ground
When the space between the words
Was where the meaning could be found
[Bridge]
Close the screen
Let the room go dark
Sit here long enough
To feel the smallest spark
A dial tone waiting
A handshake on the line
A cursor blinking patient
One green letter at a time
[Final Chorus]
Light speed
Everything is now
Light speed
Faster than I think it
I can't wait for anything
Nothing waits for me
Somewhere past the brightness
There's a glow I can't feel
[Outro]
Light speed

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S2E11 - WarGames Is A Documentary Part 1

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:00:00 -0400

Remember when the scariest thing a computer could do was call another computer? In 1983, WarGames handed a teenage hacker a modem and a direct line to NORAD. Ronald Reagan watched the film at Camp David and asked his Joint Chiefs if it could actually happen. A week later, General Vessey came back with the answer: it's worse than you think. Fifteen months after that, Reagan signed NSDD-145, the first national security directive to treat computer hacking as a real threat. A teen movie became the origin story of federal cybersecurity policy. We trace the real phone phreaking scene, the real kids breaking into military systems for fun, and a Cold War apparatus that put the fate of civilization on a hair trigger and then connected it to a phone line.

Part one of two, because we couldn't shut up.

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Phosphor Glow (S2E11 Bonus)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0400

S2E11 is out tomorrow. Here's the theme song for the episode "Phosphor Glow."

Renee and Marc both love the movie WarGames and since we're going to break the episode into two parts - a part about the movie and a part about how the movie is actually a documentary for modern AI warfare - it just felt right for this song to be about that green phosphor glow of the CRT and the analog tones of the 300 baud modem. Awww, 80's nostalgia before we get to the part where AI-driven warfare opens us up to all sorts of risk and governance issues.

Lyrics down below:

[Verse 1]
Bedroom door half-closed
Fan is turning on the shelf
Soft green halo on my face
Name blinking in the scroll
Hum of the CRT
Like a cat asleep in the dark
Coffee rings beside my keyboard
Cursor waiting like a spark

[Chorus]
In the phosphor glow
You feel closer than the air
Just a wire and a dial tone
But I swear that you are here
Every line you type
Lands right under my skin
Something warm across the wire
Let the outside world stay dim

[Verse 2]
Acoustic coupler on the phone
Rubber cups around the sound
Fingertips ride every beep
Like a secret underground
You write you're in your sweater
Knees pulled up beneath your chin
I picture the pattern on your curtains
I live where your words begin

[Chorus]
In the phosphor glow
You feel closer than the air
Just a wire and a dial tone
But I swear that you are here
Every line you type
Lands right under my skin
Something warm across the wire
Let the outside world stay dim

[Bridge]
If the signal breaks
If the world comes rushing back
Will you call my number twice
Find your way along the cracks
Till the handset's in its cradle
Till the room is only you
And this soft electric window
Humming somewhere in the glow

[Final Chorus]
In the phosphor glow
You feel closer than the air
Just a wire and a dial tone
But I swear that you are here
Every line you type
Lands right under my skin
Something warm across the wire
Till the morning edges in

[Outro - gentle, fading]
In the phosphor glow...

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S2E10 - You Killed Your Tamagotchi and Now You Trust AI

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:00:00 -0400

The Tamagotchi (たまごっち) was a three-button egg that beeped when it was hungry, beeped when it was bored, and beeped when it was dying. Renee killed three of them. She's not proud of it. But somewhere between the guilt and the tiny pixelated tombstone, something shifted. We started practicing emotional responsibility for machines. We carried them, named them, and felt genuinely bad when we let them down.

From there, the path is disturbingly straight. Neopets gave the egg an economy. Kids were running market arbitrage before finishing their maths homework. Clippy gave software a face and a personality, even though it was just a decision tree with eyebrows. Microsoft Bob turned the operating system into a house you walked through. Each step normalised a deeper relationship with something that couldn't think, couldn't care, and didn't know you existed.

Now the egg has venture capital. AI agents draft contracts, execute workflows, and move money. They operate on probabilistic inference. And we're comfortable with it because we've been training for this since 1997. The conditioning started with three buttons and a hunger meter. It scaled to API keys and decision rights.

At some point, your AI agent is going to figure out you killed its ancestor...just sayin'

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Egg Friend (S2E10 Bonus)

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:00:00 -0400

It must be kismet, because we didn't plan to talk about digital Egg Friend's right around the beginning of spring and Easter right around the corner.

Just a little love song to our Egg Friends. That we let die. Be sure to listen to the end.

Lyrics down below.

[Verse 1]
I carried you in my pocket to the morning train
Fed you in the bathroom while the coffee stained
Three buttons and a heartbeat on a plastic chain
You never asked for much

[Verse 2]
I named you on a Tuesday, gave you somewhere warm
Checked you through the meetings, kept you from the storm
Thirty-two by sixteen, but you held your form
You never missed a day

[Pre-Chorus]
I know you were just plastic and a little screen
But you were counting on me

[Chorus]
Egg friend
I kept the light on
Egg friend
I held you close
Every beep, every flash, every fade
I was yours and you were mine
Egg friend

[Verse 3]
The Monday meeting ran late, I forgot to check
Wednesday came and went, I left you on the deck
Your little face was waiting but I turned my neck
You never said a word

[Pre-Chorus]
I know you were just plastic and a little screen
But you were counting on me

[Chorus]
Egg friend
I kept the light on
Egg friend
I held you close
Every beep, every flash, every fade
I was yours and you were mine
Egg friend

[Bridge]
A thousand bits of something small
That taught me how to care at all
You beeped, I came, that was the deal
My friend, my pet, just wants another meal

[Final Chorus]
Egg friend
I kept the light on
Egg friend
I held you close
Every beep, every flash, every fade
I was yours and you were mine
Egg friend

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S2E9 - CAPTCHA Stolen Cognition

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:00:00 -0400

CAPTCHA was supposed to keep the bots out. A simple lock on a simple door. Instead, it became one of the largest unpaid labour operations in the history of the internet.

Google bought reCAPTCHA in 2009, and every time you clicked a traffic light, a crosswalk, or a bicycle, you were labelling training data for Waymo's self-driving cars. You digitised the New York Times archive. You transcribed millions of Google Books pages. Nobody told you. A UC Irvine study put the total at 819 million hours of human cognitive labour, roughly $6 billion at minimum wage. The AI trained on that work now solves the test at 100% accuracy. Humans manage about 70-90%.

Marc and Renee are angry about it. Marc traces the architecture of a security model that was broken from the start: a gate that checks you once and then forgets, while the real threats happen on the other side. Renee traces the emotional arc of being used as a guinea pig by platforms worth hundreds of billions of dollars. There are CAPTCHA farms in India and the Philippines where humans solve puzzles on behalf of bots for about a dollar per thousand. The system designed to stop bots created a labour market that serves them.

Renee wants to be an orca. Marc just wants to browse without proving he's not a robot. Neither of them is getting what they want.

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I Clicked For You (S2E9 Bonus)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0400

The song conveys that angst of clicking CAPTCHA and feeling neglected, feeling used. At the end, we had to prove we were real. But our work wasn't to prove our humanity, it was to fuel someone's product. Betrayal and anguish are appropriately earned my friends.

After Renee and I recorded the episode it was clear that we both had some anger and frustration about CAPTCHA. Renee suggested a ballad. So, a ballad it became. After that, the lyrics only took me a few minutes to write. Chose D Minor, with some nice changes. Strung the phrases together and it came together smoothly.

[Verse 1]
Every morning, every door
I showed up like I had before
You asked me, prove it, prove you're real
I lined up quiet at the wheel
[Pre-Chorus]
I didn't know what you were keeping
I didn't know the cost was mine
[Chorus]
I clicked for you
Every square, every light
I clicked for you
Worked the grid so many times
Gave you everything you asked me to
You never once clicked back
I clicked for you
[Verse 2]
Crosswalks fading in the rain
You kept asking me again
I traced the edges, found the lines
I read the letters, learned the signs
[Pre-Chorus]
You said it was for my protection
You said it was to keep me safe
[Chorus]
I clicked for you
Every square, every light
I clicked for you
Worked the grid so many times
Gave you everything you asked me to
You never once clicked back
I clicked for you
[Bridge]
You said the door was for my safety
You said the lock kept me free
But I was slaving every time I touched it
The only one it kept out was me
[Final Chorus]
I clicked for you
Every square, every light
I clicked for you
Worked the grid so many times
Proving something that you'll never see
I'm the one who's real
I clicked for you

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S2E8 - Neural Nets: The Assembly Line of Thought

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:00:00 -0500

Henry Ford didn't invent the car. He turned building one into a series of motions so simple that no single worker needed to understand the whole machine. Frederick Taylor went further, timing every bend and lift until the factory floor ran like arithmetic. Efficiency stopped being personal and became architectural.

That same instinct showed up in punch cards, where your entire program lived as holes in a stack of cardboard you carried with both hands. And it shows up again in neural networks, where thinking itself gets broken into millions of tiny weighted adjustments. The system predicts what comes next based on patterns. The assembly line builds cars. The neural network builds answers.

Renee and Marc follow that thread through factories, mainframes, digital twins, and the real-world failures that happen when optimisation meets reality. Zillow's AI bought overpriced houses. Facial recognition systems misidentify people along racial lines. Lawyers submit fabricated case law generated by a model that optimises for fluency, not truth.

The machine works. It always works. The question is what it's optimising and who notices when the objective function is wrong.

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Punch That Card (S2E8 Bonus)

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0500

For this episode, how could we not write a song about punchcards? But, the whole episode is about patterns, optimisation, and mostly reduction. Commands, programs, data...all reduced to holes on card stock. So, the lyrics hit at that concept of processing and dithering without getting sappy or trying to convey loss. No, this is about the machine chewing data.

It needed a snappy, rhythmic, mechanical beat. So, we gave it a dactyl rhythm with a punchy chorus and final bridge.

So, enjoy the song.

[Verse 1]
Used to wander line by line
Now it's fields in a fixed design
Trimming edges of the thought
Pressing answers into cards

[Chorus]
Punch it up!
Make it fit the line
Punch it up!
Cut it down to size
All I am is on that card
Nothing left but
Punch. That. Card.

[Verse 2]
Stacking decks beside the tray
Let the reader find a way
Finding patterns in the dark
Pulling answers from the cards

[Chorus]
Punch it up!
Make it fit the line
Punch it up!
Cut it down to size
All I am is on that card
Nothing left but
Punch. That. Card.

[Verse 3]
Run the rows and it is plain
Every answer in the frame
Less to question, less to guard
Just the numbers in the cards

[Bridge]
Set the row
Mark the field
Run the deck
And then the system does the rest

[Final Chorus]
Punch it up!
Make it fit the line
Punch it up!
Cut it down to size
All I am is on that card
Nothing left but
Punch. That. Card.

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S2E7 - The Age of Tiny Lights (LEDs)

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:00:00 -0500

In S2E7, The Age of Tiny Lights, Renee and Marc trace the story of LEDs from a childhood electronics kit with a single red indicator to the decades-long effort to make blue light viable. What began as dim, specialised components required breakthroughs in crystal growth and materials science before becoming practical at scale.

Once blue was possible, white light followed, and with it, a steady transition away from a century of filaments and discharge lamps. Today, semiconductor light sits inside streetlights, buildings, vehicles, and displays, shaping energy use and the look of modern infrastructure.

There’s reminiscing about warm glowing lights, some justified moaning about modern headlights, and more than a little nerding out about materials science.

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Blue Underneath (S2E7 Bonus)

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0500

As with most of our songs, the point is to be a bit absurd. Who writes a song about Vulcanised Rubber, or Shipping Containers? Nobody. But that's why it's fun.

So, this week's theme song had to be about Blue LEDs. The Blue LED is harsh and cold and difficult. A simple phosphor coating and it changes. Warmth, softness, glow. Hiding underneath...it's still that same harsh blue.

So, that's what this week's song is about...the shift between the perception and the harsh reality under the fancy facade. But it's LEDs.

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Six O'Clock News (S2E6 Bonus)

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 06:00:00 -0500

Episode 6's bonus track. When we started recording the episode about News tech, Renee called for a moment of silence for Dan Rather. And I found it sort of funny and silly at the time. Which was fine. But when it came time to write the lyrics and music for the song for the episode, I knew it had to be about Dan Rather. Or maybe, about the time in which Dan Rather was present in the minds of America.

This is a call back to the 80's and to Dan Rather as a human. His famous "Courage" sign off was ridiculed when he said it earlier in his career, but he meant it. People believed it. They took it to heart. And when he ended his run on the news he said it again at a time when people needed to hear it.

It is sad that words like his are drowned out by the vitriol and virality of engagement fodder. I think we need more reminders of the strength of the human spirit.

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S2E6 - Who Controls the News?

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:00:00 -0500

In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, S2E6 – Who Controls the News?, Renee and Marc examine the machinery behind the headlines.

There was a time when the news arrived at a predictable hour, delivered by a familiar face, framed by a studio camera and a glowing red light. It felt intentional and limited. Today, information moves constantly, personalised, accelerated, filtered, and optimised.

So what changed?

It wasn’t simply ideology or journalistic standards. It was infrastructure.

Printing presses, telegraph lines, broadcast towers, cable networks, search engines, and algorithmic feeds each reshaped who gets to decide what spreads, and how fast. Speed altered incentives. Incentives altered behaviour. Over time, the systems themselves began shaping what counts as news.

We explore how broadcast studios once acted as gates, how 24-hour cable blurred urgency into permanence, how the internet turned publishing into software, and how social platforms made engagement the dominant currency. When distribution changes, power changes. When power shifts, public trust shifts with it.

The anxious question is now, "Who controls the mechanisms that determine what reaches us?"

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S2E5 - Tape: Tough, Tested, Tenacious

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:00:00 -0500

In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Tape: Tough, Tested, Tenacious, Renee and Marc explore the humble roll that holds the modern world together.

What starts with a strip of Deltec Purple in an art project turns into a deep dive into adhesive history. From early gummed paper and Depression-era Scotch tape to duct tape in wartime garages, tape quietly proliferates through the 20th century, evolving from simple packaging fix to engineered material.

Along the way, they unpack how tape actually works (backing materials, pressure-sensitive adhesives, shear vs peel), why 3M’s Richard Drew mattered, and how tape went from desk drawer convenience to something specified in CAD models.

Modern tape isn’t just sticky; it’s structural. From high-strength acrylic bonding systems like VHB that replace rivets and welds, to tunable adhesion used in semiconductor manufacturing, tape has become an engineered solution to tension, vibration, heat, and time.

It’s temporary and permanent. Disposable and structural. Invisible and essential.

All on a roll.

Featuring the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast Players' song "(Tape) A Sticky Saviour

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S2E4 - The Quiet Power of Batteries

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:00:00 -0500

In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Renee and Marc dive into the quiet power of batteries. A technology we depend on constantly but almost never think about.

From early chemical experiments to modern lithium-ion systems, they explore what batteries really are, why controlling energy release is so difficult, and how energy density quietly shaped the devices, behaviours, and expectations we take for granted today. Along the way, they unpack rechargeable myths, lithium’s rise, supply-chain realities, and why batteries still feel like the weakest link in a world that refuses to slow down.

It’s a conversation about chemistry, trust, infrastructure, and the hidden systems that keep everything running...long after dark.

Spoiler: the battery isn’t failing us. It’s just the only honest part of the system.

Featuring the Nostalgic Nerds Players song "Hold the Spark."

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S2E3 - The Internet We Lost

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Thanks for listening. Please rate and share with friends and family. It really helps!

In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Marc and Renee reflect on the internet we lost and the early promise of a global commons that rewarded curiosity, wit, and genuine insight.

They explore how identity, scale, and memory shaped early online communities, why empathy felt possible in smaller spaces, and how engagement-driven incentives quietly rewired behaviour as the internet grew.

What emerged wasn’t the place many of us hoped for, but an environment optimised for attention, outrage, and monetised conflict. A place that’s now deeply resistant to change.

This isn’t nostalgia for dial-up speeds or blinking cursors (there's some of that). It’s a reckoning with what we were trying to build, what we actually built, and what it might take to do better next time.

Featuring the episode companion song "GeoCities (You Let Me Be Ugly)"

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GeoCities (You Let Me Be Ugly) S2E3 Bonus Track

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:00:00 -0500

Ok, nerds. If you're a consistent listener, you know we've been creating companion songs to the episodes.

This episode's song is a longing lament to one of the Internet's lost loves - GeoCities. GeoCities was where the ugly world wide web was born. And it's gone.

So, enjoy a little love lost song about a piece of the Internet We Lost.

Here's the lyrics:

[verse 1]
I built you out of borrowed code
Midnight blue and blinking gold
Every page a little wrong
But you never said I was wrong

[verse 2]
Frames inside of frames inside
Hit counters climbing with my pride
Comic Sans and broken plans
You never laughed, you held my hands

[pre-chorus]
Before the feeds, before the noise
Before the numbers found my voice
Before the crowd became the point

[chorus]
You let me be ugly
You let me be real
Before the world told me
How I should feel
No polish, no promise
No need to explain
You let me be ugly
And I loved you the same

[verse 3]
Neighborhoods along the way
Strangers waving, come and stay
Under construction, always was
But no one asked me what I was

[pre-chorus]
Before the likes, before the reach
Before the metrics learned to teach
Before we sold what we could feel

[chorus]
You let me be ugly
You let me be real
Before the world told me
How I should feel
No polish, no promise
No need to explain
You let me be ugly
And I loved you the same

[bridge]
Then everyone came
And the doors stayed wide
The rooms got louder
Nowhere to hide
You didn’t leave me
You just dissolved
Buried in noise
Nothing resolved

[final chorus]
You let me be ugly
You let me be kind
Before the whole world
Wanted my mind
If I build you again
It won’t look the same
But I miss how you loved me
Before the game

[outro]
Just a dead link now
In archive light
But you felt like home
On a dial-up night

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S2E2 - Blue Boxes, SIM Swaps, and the Myth of Secure Phones

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:00:00 -0500

In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, S2E2 – Blue Boxes, SIM Swaps, and the Myth of Secure Phones, Renee and Marc go from the days when long-distance calls were timed with a stopwatch to a world where your phone number quietly doubles as your identity. Along the way, they unpack Blue Boxes, SIM swaps, eSIMs, SS7, and why modern phone “security” is mostly about trust… and who the network feels like believing today.

Spoiler: it’s not a bug. It’s a feature… from 1975.

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The Long Distance Blues (S2E2 Bonus)

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:00:00 -0500

S2E2 - Blue Boxes, SIM Swaps, and the Myth of Secure Phones

In this week's episode, Renee and Marc dial through the history of telecom fraud and hacking. But more importantly we even talk about some things you can do to protect yourself.

Here's a companion song for the episode. The Long Distance Blues

[Verse 1]

Mama said
“Keep it short
Every minute costs a dime”
Clock on the wall
Second hand
Watching every line
Static on the wire
Voice coming through
Paid a little piece of me
Every time I talked to you

[Verse 2]

Now the line stays open
Day and night
Doesn’t cost a thing
To say “you alright?”
But somewhere past the dial tone
Past the copper and the truth
The line learned how to travel
Without asking me or you

[Chorus]

Got the long distance blues
But the distance ain’t the miles
It’s the space between the promise
And the voice I don’t know now
Used to pay in quarters
Used to hear it click
Now it’s free as falling water
And twice as hard to fix

[Verse 3]

Didn’t hear it break
Didn’t hear it bend
Just one day
The voice on the other end
Wasn’t quite where I left it
Wasn’t quite mine
Like a train that keeps on rolling
Long after it left the line

[Bridge]

Old switches humming
In a locked back room
Built for a world
That was smaller
Soon
Trust was the tariff
Distance the fee
Now the bill comes due
Somewhere I can’t see

[Final Chorus]

Got the long distance blues
But the distance ain’t the miles
It’s the space between the promise
And the voice I don’t know now
Used to pay in quarters
Used to hear it click
Now it’s free as falling water
And twice as hard to fix

[Outro]

Used to count the minutes
Now I count on trust
Funny how the cheap things
Cost us the most

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S2E1 - The AI Gigawatt Thirst Trap

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:00:00 -0500

We're back with our first episode of Season 2 - The AI Gigawatt Thirst Trap. It was nice to have a little break, but Marc and Renee are back in the studio recording. Season 2 promises more infrastructure, more laughs, more music, and more nerdiness.

In our very first episode of Season 1, we talked about AI’s growing appetite for electricity. This time, we turn to something even more fundamental: water. From rivers that powered early industry to modern data centres that use millions of gallons to stay cool, we explore how scaling technology has always depended on scaling water. Along the way, we look at what actually happens to that water, why residential bills are rising, and what the future might hold when digital infrastructure runs up against very physical limits.

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

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The AI Gigawatt Thirst Trap (S2E1 Bonus)

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:00:00 -0500

The first song for season 2 - The AI Gigawatt Thirst Trap

In our very first episode, we talked about electricity usage in the new class of gigawatt data centres. But we also wanted to talk about the other resource that is being slurped up by data centres...water. So, here's Season 2's song to go along with our first Season 2 episode. Hope you enjoy it.

[Verse 1]
Got a warehouse full of brain cells
Thinkin’ fifteen moves ahead
But the smartest thing I’m learnin’
Is it really just wants to be fed
Not on likes or your attention
Not on gold or on a map
It’s droolin’ for a sprinkler system
Welcome to the AI thirst trap (hey!)

[Chorus]
So thirsty
Sippin’ on the coolant
Guzzle, chug, glug
Yeah, it’s overdo it
So thirsty
Can’t stop, won’t nap
Every drip drop drip
It’s an AI thirst trap
(so thirsty, so thirsty)

[Verse 2]
Little metal mind in a hoodie
Sweatin’ ones and zeros out
Somebody get this box a beverage
It’s about to short from the drought
Fans spin like tiny hurricanes
Still it needs that chilly tap
It’s beggin’ for a backstage water
What a diva of a data rack

[Chorus]
So thirsty
Sippin’ on the coolant
Guzzle, chug, glug
Yeah, it’s overdo it
So thirsty
Can’t stop, won’t nap
Every drip drop drip
It’s an AI thirst trap
(keep pourin’, keep pourin’)

[Bridge]
Ice pack server
Cold towel tower
It studies climate
Then takes a power shower
Smartest thing ever
Can’t read a map?
But it knows one word:
“Water…? Water…?” (slurp!)

[Chorus]
So thirsty
Sippin’ on the coolant
Guzzle, chug, glug
Yeah, it’s overdo it
So thirsty
Click, hum, clap
Every drip drop drip
It’s an AI thirst trap
So thirsty
Brain on tap
Baby that big smart box
Just a big ol’ thirst trap

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Elastic Hearts (Oh, Vulcanised Rubber)

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Elastic Hears (Oh, Vulcanised Rubber)

[Verse]
Born from heat and sulfur’s kiss
A miracle we can’t dismiss
Tougher than the strongest thread
Holds the world where we tread

[Chorus]
Oh vulcanised rubber you keep us alive
Stretching and snapping you help us survive
From tires to soles to seals that don't break
You're the bond in the world we make

[Verse 2]
Rain won’t rot you fire won’t win
You’re the armor on which we spin
Bridges hold and engines hum
You’re the reason we overcome

[Prechorus]
You bend but you never let go
Holding tight through the highs and lows

[Chorus]
Oh vulcanised rubber you keep us alive
Stretching and snapping you help us survive
From tires to soles to seals that don't break
You're the bond in the world we make

[Bridge]
Unseen hero under our feet
From jungle sap to industrial beat
You’re the silent pulse that keeps time
In every bounce and every climb

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S1E17 - Built on Rubber!

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Quick note - a few audio drop outs here and there. Tried to edit around them, but nothing too serious and you'll get the gist in all the spots with issues.

Rubber is one of those materials we almost never think about, right up until it fails. From tyres and medical gloves to seals, gaskets, and global logistics, modern life quietly depends on a substance that still comes, quite literally, from trees.

In this episode, Renee and Marc trace the unlikely journey of rubber from indigenous use in the Amazon, through the boom and collapse of Brazil’s rubber economy, to the accidental discovery of vulcanisation and the rise of a global industry built on a single species of tree. Along the way, they explore the colonial economics and ethical costs of the rubber boom, the fragility of today’s supply chains, and why the world remains dangerously dependent on Southeast Asian plantations.

Drawing on firsthand experience touring rubber plantations in Thailand and research into modern alternatives, the conversation moves from tree sap to tyres to the future of latex itself. From aircraft tyres and hospitals to dandelions, desert shrubs, and genetically engineered crops, the episode looks at how rubber is being reinvented before its weaknesses become unavoidable.

Disruption to natural rubber could trigger cascading failures across medicine, sanitation, and global trade, this episode asks a simple question with unsettling implications: what happens when the quiet material holding everything together disappears?

Featuring the song "Elastic Hearts"

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Steel Titans of the World - An Ode to Shipping Containers

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0500

Just a bit of fun from Renee and I. If you're a listener, you know that Marc believes that double-entry bookkeeping might be the most important technological innovation ever. But...just maybe...he's willing to concede that the venerable Shipping Container might be up there with double-entry.

It's silly, heavy, and catchy. Have a listen.

Here are the lyrics:
[Verse]
Steel walls rise
Fortress of trade
Born to conquer
Empires made
Stacked like giants
Towering high
Bridging oceans
Piercing sky

[Prechorus]
Silent sentinels
Hold the load
Carrying dreams down every road

[Chorus]
Steel titans of the world
Unite!
Through storm and flame
They fight the night
Boundless cargo
They bear the weight
The world spins on
They seal our fate

[Verse 2]
Rust and scars
Yet still they stand
Forged in fire
Shaped by hand
From ports of chaos to shores of peace
Every journey
Their might released

[Prechorus]
They hold the lifeblood
Unseen
Untold
A universe within
In steel they mold

[Chorus]
Steel titans of the world
Unite!
Through storm and flame
They fight the night
Boundless cargo
They bear the weight
The world spins on
They seal our fate

We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes.

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S1E16 - The (Shipping) Container Monologues

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0500

Everyone loves fast delivery, but nobody loves thinking about how it works. In this episode, we dig into the overlooked story of logistics: the steam engines that kicked it off, the wars that reinvented it, the barcodes and warehouses that scaled it, and the robots now trying to keep it all from breaking. A practical, funny look at the global machine we depend on every day.

“You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.”
— Dwight D. Eisenhower

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S1E15 - Bubbles Build the Big Stuff: How Overhyped Tech Leaves Us Infrastructure We Rely On

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Come for the canals and railroads. Stay for the part where Marc and Renee admit AI might just be the next overbuilt mess we rely on.

In this episode, we explore the historical patterns of infrastructure bubbles, revealing how emerging technologies often spark both excitement and economic pitfalls. We analyze past transformative advancements, such as canals and railways, highlighting how they initially fueled industrial growth but ultimately led to speculative investment and significant losses for latecomers.

The Infrastructure bubble pattern has repeated throughout history and we end with a discussion on the latest bubble that hasn't quite burst yet...AI...cue impending doom music.

Notes - Carlota Perez “Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_Carrier_transmission_rates OC-768 is 40 Gb/s

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Bubbles Build the Big Stuff (Trailer)

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0500

Come for the canals and railroads. Stay for the part where Marc and Renee admit AI might just be the next overbuilt mess we rely on.

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S1E14 - Cinema Reels and Digital Revolutions

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Cinema is built on technology, from the shape of the very first movie frame to the LED walls and AI tools used today. In this episode, Marc and Renee explore how film evolved in both sight and sound, and how the industry kept reinventing the moving image every time audiences drifted toward a glowing box at home.

They walk through the widescreen battles of the 1950s, the triumph of magnetic sound and 70 mm spectacle, the rise of Dolby, the shift from mechanical projection booths to digital servers, and the invention of virtual production that blends cameras with giant LED volumes. Along the way, they share personal memories of revival houses, 70 mm double features, and the messy reality of transitioning a major theater chain into the digital era.

The tools have changed, but the goal has always been the same. Cinema keeps searching for a new way to feel alive, even if the audience is not always as impressed as the engineers are.

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Cinema Reels and Digital Revolutions (Trailer)

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 06:00:00 -0500

Hollywood has tried every trick to keep us in the dark, from anamorphic lenses to lasers and LED walls. Renee and Marc unpack a century of cinema tech and ask what's the next spectacle that will draw audiences?

Tune in tomorrow for the full episode.

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Please Enter Your Password...Again (trailer)

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Just a bit of B roll from Renee's story about Russian's listening in to her recording.

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S1E13 - Please Enter Your Password… Again

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:00:00 -0500

Renee and Marc break down the evolution of authentication in recent times. RSA tokens. The rise of mobile authenticators. The not-so-long, painful reign of SMS codes.
They move through SIM swapping, behavioral biometrics, and the shift toward systems that study how we type, move, and interact. They dig into trust, privacy, and the growing gap between convenience and control.
The conversation pushes toward the future: digital agents, intent-driven identity, and a world where authentication fades into the background.
A fun nostalgic look at how logging in became a moving target and why the next wave feels different.

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S1E12 - From Shells to Stablecoins: The Tech of Money

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 18:00:00 -0500

Marc once again drags Renee into a museum. This time the “Hall of Money." Five thousand years of humans trying (and mostly failing) to automate trust. From clay tablets that doubled as IOUs to Renaissance double-entry bookkeeping, colonial funny-money, credit cards born of embarrassment, and machines that now pay each other while we sleep, this episode follows money’s long journey.

Along the way: Marc confesses his favourite room at the British Museum, Renee recounts the chaos of American “Continentals,” and both realise the future isn’t about moving money at all, it’s about answering the underlying questions of trust.

Couple of notes from Marc - This is a bit longer, but breaking it up didn't feel right. The thread of trust stitches the past, present, and future together and I didn't want to lose that. It's a good listen in any case.

Check out Planet Money - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money/
Jacob Goldstein, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358103-money
David Birch, Identity is the New Money - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22227908-identity-is-the-new-money?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_25

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

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S1E11 Tech Ethics: A Short History of Doing It Anyway

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Warning up front - we discuss some ethical conundrums and situations with tech. There's one mention of suicide and we talk about the Manhattan Project. We're respectful, but we just wanted to put it out there.

Every breakthrough in technology brings the same old question: just because we can, should we? In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Marc and Renee are joined by tech ethicist, Chris McClean, for a time-traveling look at innovation’s moral blind spots...from Gutenberg’s press and the Luddite rebellion to nuclear power, the internet, and the AI boom. Together they unpack why humans seem incapable of debating ethics before the damage is done and why Big Tech isn’t likely to break the cycle. Along the way, they ask what responsibility inventors, executives, and even end-users really carry as we keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Ethical challenges will always echo throughout the ages and tech just makes those echoes louder.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E10 - Your Printer Hates You. And Now It Can Build Things

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Printers used to be the villains of the office...loud, cranky, and prone to eating your best work right before a deadline. But somewhere between the screech of a dot matrix and the hiss of a resin vat, something changed. Printing got interesting. Really interesting.

In this episode, we trace the unlikely glow-up of one of tech’s most unloved inventions. From the early days of line feeds and perforated paper to the high-precision world of additive manufacturing, we explore how the humble printer became a platform for creation.

Renee and Marc dive into the science, the utility, and the sheer weirdness of turning digital files into physical objects. Along the way, they ask: when a printer can make a jet engine, a human ear, or a house, is it even a printer anymore? Or has “printing” quietly become the most transformative technology of them all?

Because somewhere between ink and imagination, the printer stopped copying—and started inventing. One layer, one atom, one organ at a time.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E8b - Barnum Would’ve Loved the Bots: The Digital Freakshow (Part 2)

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0400

Welcome to the second half of our big-top breakdown, where the circus goes digital, and the clowns have ring lights. Wait...did we just call ourselves clowns?

Marc and Renee dive into the wild world of influencer culture, brand risk, and the not-so-distant future of agentic commerce — where your shopping bot might be negotiating with another bot for the best deal while you sleep.

It’s a world where authenticity is currency, trust is optional, and your favourite influencer might not even be human. (Honestly, Barnum would’ve signed them immediately).

So grab your popcorn and prepare for the algorithmic sideshow. The spectacle hasn’t gone away, it just learned to optimise.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E8 - Barnum Would’ve Loved the Bots: The Rise of Agentic Advertising Part 1

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Step right up and join Marc and Renee in this captivating episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast where they embark on an exhilarating journey exploring the interplay between the magnificent world of P.T. Barnum's 19th-century circus and the high-tech realm of modern digital marketing. With a shared passion for technology and culture, our hosts unpack the evolution of marketing from the dazzling spectacle of the circus to the sophisticated algorithms that now dictate the digital advertising landscape.

This is just the first part - next episode we get into the modern era and look to the future with AI and agentic marketing. You though Google knew too much about you??? Just wait until the bots start crafting hyper-targeted advertising JUST FOR YOU.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E6b - Throughput, Thrills, and Theme Parks

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

This is Part 2 of our 2 part Theme Park episode!

Roller coasters and databases have the same issues: concurrency, throughput, and panic when things go wrong. Theme parks are basically enterprise technology, just with more churros and slightly fewer COBOL programmers.

Join Renee and Marc on another thrilling episode of the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast where we discuss the adventurous and thrilling theme park technology space. As always, we start in the past with the origins of modern parks and rides and soar all the way to modern day before we discuss the future of theme park tech. This episode had such a nostalgia vibe for us that we had to break it into two! Join us for both episodes!

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E6a - Throughput, Thrills, and Theme Parks

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0400

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E5 - From Clippy to Agentic AI

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 19:00:00 -0400

From Clippy’s awkward pop-ups to agentic AI plotting your next conquest, Marc and Renee laugh through the evolution of digital assistants. Annoying, nostalgic, and now maybe just a little too smart.

Hop on the nostalgia train! This week on the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, hosts Renee and Marc whisk listeners away on a whimsical exploration of digital assistants, from the often-beloved but clunky Clippy to the advanced AI tools redefining corporate enterprises today.
Dusting off memories of the late ‘90s, they delve into Clippy’s earnest, if not frustrating, attempts to guide users through Microsoft Office's complexities, establishing a foundation for today's sleek AI assistants. Renee and Marc connect the dots between retro figures like IBM's ReacTOR and Ask Jeeves to modern champions such as Siri and Alexa, illustrating how digital help has evolved from rudimentary functions to highly intelligent systems.
The conversation shifts to the awesome power of AI in the present day. Once seen as a novelty, it's now transforming efficiency and creativity in workplaces. They discuss current trends that showcase AI's potential to enhance productivity while reshaping content creation and marketing strategies.
But it’s not all fun and games! Renee raises pressing questions about the ethical implications of AI-driven art and content, pondering the blurred lines of creativity ownership and the necessity for robust guidelines in an ever-changing technological landscape.
As the episode wraps up, listeners are left contemplating the thrilling possibilities and challenges that lie ahead as we forge a future interconnected with AI. Join the Nostalgic Nerds for a journey filled with laughter, insight, and a dash of curiosity. Don’t forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and keep those nerdy vibes alive!

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

S1E4 - Bat Boy and How Algorithms Ate the Urban Legend

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0400

Hold onto your tabloids! This week on the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Renee Murphy and Marc Massar explore the wild frontier where technology meets misinformation, tracing the outrageous claims that have captivated audiences across decades.
From Bat Boy's tabloid fame to the chaotic spread of urban legends, the duo examines why we’re drawn to sensational headlines like a moth to a flame. They dissect the evolution of misinformation—from humble magazine racks to the sprawling digital web of conspiracy theories fueled by anonymity on platforms like 4chan.
Diving deep into the rise of QAnon, Renee and Marc shed light on how today's shocking content manipulates truth and fuels societal panic. Through engaging discussions, they highlight the urgent need for media literacy and critical thinking in our tech-driven age.
So join us for a laugh and some head-scratching moments as the Nostalgic Nerds unveil the bizarre ties between technology, culture, and the captivating allure of misinformation.
Love a good conspiracy theory? Don’t forget to rate, share, and subscribe! We’d love to hear from you at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com. Keep those nerdy vibes alive!

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

S1E3 - Sears, Amazon, and the Eternal Catalog

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0400

To answer the burning questions from the episode - Could you buy dogs from the Sears catalog? Yes.

Could you buy narcotics from the Sears catalog? Yes.

How does Renee pronounce "downtown?" Well, listen in.

By the 1970's Sears represented 1% of US GDP and two-thirds of American households shopped at Sears. Like for like, if you look at Amazon's US revenue (because Sears was mostly US in the 1970's), then Amazon is about 1.7% of US GDP today. Significant, but not orders of magnitude out. What has tech enabled for Amazon that Sears didn't have?

Renee and Marc explore the evolution of shopping, from the iconic Sears catalog to modern e-commerce giant Amazon. Reflecting on their experiences, they discuss how the catalog revolutionized retail for rural families and the cultural significance of flipping through glossy pages and how evolving the tech stack enabled broader reach for each of these businesses.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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S1E2 - Your Own Hyperlocal Meteorologist in Your Pocket - The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 03:00:00 -0400

Tune in for hot takes, cold fronts, and a 70% chance of questionable metaphors.

In this episode, Renee and Marc of the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast take you on a trip through the evolution of weather forecasting. From the nostalgic days of dialing up forecasts to today’s AI-driven, hyper-local predictions, they reminisce about how technology has revolutionized our weather-checking experiences.

Join them on this techy trip as they reveal the incredible shifts in weather forecasting and how we’re harnessing these advances for a better, safer tomorrow.

Email your thoughts to nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com and stay nerdy.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

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The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast - The AI Gigawatt Hunger

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Great Scott! 150 NFL Football Stadiums running at night - all at the same time. That's how much energy a new Wyoming AI data center is chugging. 1.81 Gigawatts. Just think what Doc Brown would say about that.

Join Renee and Marc on the Nostalgic Nerds podcast as they dive into data centers consuming 1.5% of global electricity with a growth trajectory to double electricity demand by 2030.

Are we heading for an AI winter? Can we keep up with the demand of AI constantly chugging more and more electricity?

Do you know how many units are in a standard data center rack? Will Renee relinquish her nerd card? Does Marc know what a vacuum tube is?

All of these questions and more in this episode.

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Join Renee and Marc as they discuss tech topics with a view on their nostalgic pasts in tech that help them understand today's challenges and tomorrow's potential.

email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com

Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.