The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

Renee Murphy, Marc Massar
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Technology

A podcast exploring the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now.

  1. S2E25 - The Box That Ate the Living Room

    16h ago

    S2E25 - The Box That Ate the Living Room

    Renee and Marc grew up in a prime time for television. School House Rock. Newhart. Saturday Morning. Must See TV.  Somewhere in the twentieth century, a box arrived and everyone in the house started facing the same direction. For a few decades, half a billion people could watch the same moment at the same instant. Then the box multiplied. We cover the story of how TV changed the culture. This isn't a typical TV story though. Because we're us, we jump into the details of the tech as well as the impact to 20th century culture. And talk about an unsung hero - Philo Farnsworth. Who's he? Come have a listen to find out.  We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    1h 1m
  2. S2E25 Bonus - Snap Back

    1d ago ·  Bonus

    S2E25 Bonus - Snap Back

    Tune in tomorrow for a very special episode of the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast. All about Television. But the nerdy science-y television stuff.  So, we had to do a song all about the way a tube TV manages to keep the image in sync. Snaps, triggers, latch, return. It was just begging to be a snappy, poppy, funky song.  Lyrics below: [Verse 1] Picture starts to drift Rolling on the glass That beam won't fire on time Vertical hold is slack Phase is off the mark Every sixty-three, we're gonna Bring this picture round [Pre-Chorus] On my count On my mark Every sixty-three Now [Chorus] Snap back (snap back) Fire the pulse Latch on (latch on) Trigger the return Snap back (snap back) Every line, every field Snap back (snap back) Do what you're told [Verse 2] Picture's still on the run Frame rate's coming down Subcarrier drifts to blue Fringe on every edge Sync pulse coming late Every sixty-three, we're gonna Bring this picture round [Pre-Chorus] On my count On my mark Every sixty-three Now [Chorus] Snap back (snap back) Fire the pulse Latch on (latch on) Trigger the return Snap back (snap back) Every line, every field Snap back (snap back) Do what you're told [Bridge] Locked to the line (locked to the line) Locked to the field Sync pulse coming in on time Phase clean, no drift Snap Fire Latch Return Every sixty-three Picture's back on track [Final Chorus] Snap back (snap back) Fire the pulse Latch on (latch on) Trigger the return Snap back (snap back) Every line, every field Snap back (snap back) Locked in the frame [Outro - vocal fading] Snap back (snap back) Snap back (snap back) Every sixty-three We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    3 min
  3. S2E34 - Jell-O, America's Most Unsettled Triumph

    Jul 2

    S2E34 - Jell-O, America's Most Unsettled Triumph

    Shout out to Bruce, from Australia for contacting Renee! Feel free to contact us any time.  A perfect moulded jelly used to be a way to show you had money. Someone spent a full day boiling bones and clarifying stock so you could set a shivering centrepiece on the table and let the room see what you could afford. Then it came in a box for pennies, and everyone could have the shape. This week one wobbling dessert travels from aristocratic showpiece to grocery aisle novelty, and we ask what gets lost when you take the work out of something. We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    1h 13m
  4. S2E24 Bonus - Ninety-Five

    Jun 27 ·  Bonus

    S2E24 Bonus - Ninety-Five

    Have you ever witnessed Jell-O reach that special temperature and just...melt away. Too long in the sun and a once solid, but wiggly, dessert turns liquid once again.  That special temperature is a just a bit below average body temperature. Right around Ninety-Five degrees F. So, that's our song this week.  Sorry we're running a bit behind. Schedules and production issues collaborated to keep us a bit late. Enjoy the song and the episode when it comes out. Lyrics below.  [Verse 1] I hold my shape in the chill set in the dark, sitting still firm on the shelf, sealed and sound cold is the thing keeps me round [Pre-Chorus] then the room warms up real slow and the cold finally lets me go [Chorus] Ninety-five (ninety-five) just ninety-five That’s when I come alive keep me cold and I keep my shape When it’s warm, I just escape [Verse 2] they brought me out into the sun picnic day, the warm had won left too long in open air ain’t nothing holding there [Bridge] I keep my whole life on ice steady, careful, cold, precise then they left the ice box wide and now ain’t no more me inside [Final Chorus] Ninety-five (ninety-five) just ninety-five That’s when I come alive keep me cold and I keep my shape When it’s warm, I just escape [Outro - vocal fading] ninety-five warm it up, I'm gone Gone Just melt away We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    3 min
  5. S2E23 - Come Clean

    Jun 19

    S2E23 - Come Clean

    Somewhere in your house, a machine takes a full day of work off your hands every week, and you've never once thought about how that happened. For most of history, laundry was a whole day, every week. Then we handed the day to a machine. Over a couple hundred years, the washing machine evolved and eventually gave people back a day every week. We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    59 min
  6. S2E23 Bonus - One Went Missing

    Jun 17 ·  Bonus

    S2E23 Bonus - One Went Missing

    Is the washing machine the most important domestic appliance? More important than the refrigerator? Or Renee's favourite call out, the sewing machine? There's a good case to be made for the washing machine. That's what Renee and Marc discuss tomorrow.  But you know with all that time saved from the washing machine, we also got...the missing sock. The one that got away. The sock that went missing. So, today's song is all about the one that slipped out the lint trap to freedom. Song today. Episode tomorrow. Lyrics below: [Verse 1] Warm water. One last turn. A seam in the back, a way to run. Slipped out clean and caught the breeze. Out past the trap to the open air. Left my whole life folded there. [Pre-Chorus] They'll count us tonight. And come up short. I'm nobody's pair no more. [Chorus] One went missing (one went missing) Just one. (Just one) Out past the lint trap, into the sun. Keep my other half folded in the drawer. I'm gone.  I'm nobody's pair no more. (one went missing) [Verse 2] Out the back, the world ran wide. Whole world humming on the other side. No more sorted, bleached, or paired. No more matched, no more compared. Just me. Just road. Just gone. [Pre-Chorus] Count again. Still comin' up short. [Chorus] One went missing (one went missing) Just one. (Just one) Out past the lint trap, chasing the sun. My other half folded in the drawer. I'm gone. I'm nobody's pair no more. (one went missing) [Bridge] Still miss my partner, my fuzzy friend. Toe to heel, the way we grew. But sometimes a sock has to go it alone. [Final Chorus] One went missing (one went missing) Just one. Out past the lint trap, into the sun. You'll keep my place a while, then close the drawer. I'm gone. And I don't ache for home no more. (one went missing) [Outro - vocal fading] One went missing... go it alone... Just one. We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    4 min
  7. S2E22 - Royalty for Pocket Change

    Jun 11

    S2E22 - Royalty for Pocket Change

    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/ We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    42 min
  8. S2E22 Bonus - Level Out

    Jun 10 ·  Bonus

    S2E22 Bonus - Level Out

    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... We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Renee and Marc as they discuss the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now. email us at nostalgicnerdspodcast@gmail.com Come visit us at https://www.nostalgicnerdspodcast.com/episodes or wherever you get your podcasts.

    3 min
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5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

A podcast exploring the history of technology, and what it teaches us about now.

Information

  • Creator
    Renee Murphy, Marc Massar
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    70
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast
  • Show Website
    The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

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