The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

Renee Murphy, Marc Massar

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TECHNOLOGY
UPDATED WEEKLY

The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, where we take a deep dive into geek culture, tech evolution, and the impact of the past on today’s digital world.

6H AGO · BONUS

Six O'Clock News (S2E6 Bonus)

Send a text 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. 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.

4 min
1D AGO

S2E6 - Who Controls the News?

Send a text 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?" 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.

1h 29m
FEB 13

S2E5 - Tape: Tough, Tested, Tenacious

Send a text 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 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.

37 min
FEB 6

S2E4 - The Quiet Power of Batteries

Send a text 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." 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.

55 min
JAN 30

S2E3 - The Internet We Lost

Send a text 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)" 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.

1h 6m
JAN 29 · BONUS

GeoCities (You Let Me Be Ugly) S2E3 Bonus Track

Send a text 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 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.

3 min
JAN 22

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

Send a text 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. 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.

51 min
JAN 22 · BONUS

The Long Distance Blues (S2E2 Bonus)

Send a text 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 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.

3 min

The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, where we take a deep dive into geek culture, tech evolution, and the impact of the past on today’s digital world.

Creator

Renee Murphy, Marc Massar
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

32
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast
Show Website

The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast