The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

Renee Murphy, Marc Massar

5.0 (1)
Technology
Weekly

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

5d ago

S3E11 - Counted as Cast

Today is Election Day in the US. It feels like this mid-term election carries more weight than other years, so exercise your rights. Thomas Edison’s first invention was a machine for counting votes, and a committee turned it down because it would have ended their slow roll calls for votes. Societies have trusted votes to pottery, liquorice, gears, punch cards and touchscreens. Marc and Renee follow that one special step no voter ever gets to see, their ballot being counted the way they cast it, and work out why the best answer anyone has found is a piece of paper you can count again. If you’re in the US, go vote. 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
6d ago · Bonus

S3E11 Bonus - The Lever

US Election Day is tomorrow. Marc and Renee voted. Have you? We're going to publish a day early this week so the episode will release on Election Day and you get the brand new dance craze "The Lever" today. Go vote! Lyrics below. [Verse 1] Step up and give 'em your name Find you a booth for the game Reach for the handle, pull down Curtain is shut, it's your town Mark all the names that you choose Pull it on back, it goes through [Chorus] Everybody, do the lever! Step ahead Raise your arm Pull it down Spin around Side to side Make your mark Arm again Pull it back Step on out Spin around Now let's do it again! [Verse 2] Pick up a pencil and go Fill in the ovals in a row Slide it on in, hear it beep Sticker on, out on the street Wave to the folks in the line Tell 'em it's their turn this time [Chorus] Everybody, do the lever! Step ahead Raise your arm Pull it down Spin around Side to side Make your mark Arm again Pull it back Step on out Spin around Now let's do it again! [Verse 3] Far away over the sea Click and it's home in a breeze Mail it or drop it in town Any way, baby, get down [Final Chorus] Everybody, do the lever! Step ahead Raise your arm Pull it down Spin around Side to side Make your mark Arm again Pull it back Step on out Spin around Now let's do it again! [Outro] Now let's do it again! Now let's do it again! 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 29

S3E10 - House Rules

A Roman die hollowed out and filled with mercury, a slot machine that paid out in beer, and a casino floor that turned out to be a data centre. Every time gambling gets new technology it uses it to take more, faster, from more people, and every time the regulators arrive they set a limit on the house edge without getting rid of it. Marc and Renee go from Pascal’s arithmetic to near misses that are legal as long as they land just off the line, the first wearable computer, phone games that know what you’ll pay, and a sports bet relabelled as a financial contract. Come on...really? How can prediction markets be anything but gambling?!? Seriously, someone needs to explain that 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 28 · Bonus

S3E10 Bonus - Same Seat

This week, the nerds talk gambling tech. Which reminded Marc of a time he was walking to work in Japan and passed a man in a pachinko parlor feeding the machine and smoking his cigarette. Eight hours later...same seat, same man, and a whole lot more cigarettes. Our song is about that man. Here's to you chain-smoking pachinko parlor gambling man. [Verse 1] Shutters rattle up at nine I'm the first one through the door There you are, old friend of mine Waitin' like the day before [Pre-Chorus] Folks rush by, they got no clue They don't know you like I do [Chorus] I'm still here (still here) By your side, old friend Nowhere else to be You and me until the end I'm still here (still here) [Verse 2] Ashtray's filling up by two Lunch crowd's gone around the bend All my silver goes to you That's the way you treat a friend [Chorus] I'm still here (still here) By your side, old friend Nowhere else to be You and me until the end I'm still here (still here) [Bridge] Ain't no gamblin', just a game All I win's a little prize Diff'rent window, diff'rent name Turns to cash, and no surprise [Verse 3] Same folks walkin' home at eight Phone's been ringin' half the day Let it ring, they'll have to wait You and me, we're here to stay [Final Chorus] Lord, I'm still here (still here) By your side, old friend Nowhere else I'd go You and me until the end I'm still here (still here) 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 22

S3E09 - Scope Creep

In 1608 a Dutch spectacle maker put two lenses in a tube to spot enemy ships, and the government wouldn’t even give him a patent. Four hundred years later the same idea is a ten-billion-dollar gold mirror a million miles from home, catching light older than the Earth. Renee and Marc follow the glass from Galileo to Webb: telescopes held up with string, a mirror polished perfectly to the wrong shape, and Renee’s forty-year grudge against a smudge. 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 21 · Bonus

S3E09 Bonus - Farther Than the Eye

For this week's episode Marc and Renee look to the sky. Big fans of telescopes and astronomy the Nerds run through the history and future of astronomical instruments. Humble beginnings as tools for naval intelligence to instruments that peer into the very beginning of time. So, our song this week is about that longing to see farther that you can with your eye and the desire to see the heavenly bodies more clearly. Lyrics below. [Verse 1] Lay me down in the cool night grass Mama gazing way up high That one's a world just like ours Just a light up in the sky [Pre-Chorus] Only little lights Only tiny sparks Twinkle through the night Hiding in the dark [Chorus] I want to see farther (see farther) Farther than the eye I want to see clearer (see clearer) Clear across the sky [Verse 2] Held the glass up to my eye Jupiter came swimming in Four small moons were at his side Saturn wore a silver ring [Pre-Chorus] Oh, I never knew All that waited there Hiding in the blue Hanging in the air [Chorus] I want to see farther (see farther) Farther than the eye I want to see clearer (see clearer) Clear across the sky [Bridge] Every light I'm looking at Left before my mama's day Some of them burned out and gone Still they're shining down my way Lookin' back (lookin' back) A long, long way [Final Chorus - key change] I want to see farther (see farther) Farther, far away I want to see clearer (see clearer) Clear to yesterday [Outro] Farther (farther) Farther than the eye 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 15

S3E08 - Radar Love

A secret radar valve crossed the Atlantic in 1940, a candy bar melted in an engineer’s pocket, and the first microwave oven weighed 750 pounds and needed its own plumbing. Fifty years later it was a $200 box in nine out of ten kitchens. Marc and Renee get into the magnetron, a radio telescope tricked by somebody’s lunch, and a brother who set his hair on fire with a paper towel. And, after eighty years, why your leftovers are still cold in the middle. Shout out to Tom for correcting us on some pigeon facts from the storage episode. We talk about that and thank Tom at the end of the show after the outro. Here's a link to a film he worked on about microfilm. https://www.tombessoir.com/microfilm 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.
Oct 14 · Bonus

S3E08 Bonus - Cold in the Middle

Tomorrow's episode is all about the microwave...where it came from and where it's headed. But, as modern and convenient as the microwave is...sometimes it just leave your food cold in the middle. Have a listen to the episode's song and see if you can relate. The sadness, the disappointment, the frustration. The edges are too hot and the middle of that mystery burrito is still cold. Lyrics below. [Verse 1] Took it from the freezer Laid it on the plate Watched it turnin' in the light Lord, I could not wait [Verse 2] Bell rang out like Sunday Steam rose to the sky Edges hot as lava, Lord Tears came to my eye [Pre-Chorus] Then I took a bite And it wasn't right [Chorus] Cold in the middle (cold in the middle) Cold, Lord, cold Lava round the edges And the middle's just like ice They told me it was modern They told me it was fast I had it on the highest I had it on full blast [Verse 3] Mama's stove took an hour Grandma's took all day Came out warm the whole way through Now it's gone away [Pre-Chorus] Then I took a bite And it wasn't right [Chorus] Cold in the middle (cold in the middle) Cold, Lord, cold Lava round the edges And the middle's just like ice They told me it was modern They told me it was fast I had it on the highest I had it on full blast [Bridge] Two more minutes (two more minutes) Stir it round again Two more minutes (two more minutes) Lord, I don't know when Edges gettin' harder Middle still won't give Two more minutes That's the way I live [Final Chorus] Cold in the middle (cold in the middle) Cold, Lord, cold Lava round the edges And the middle's just like ice They told me it was modern They told me it was fast I had it on the highest I had it on full blast [Outro - fading] Two more minutes (two more minutes) Two more minutes (two more minutes) [beep] Still cold 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. Merch is available on the site too. It helps cover the cost of the podcast.

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

Creator

Renee Murphy, Marc Massar
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

93
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast
Show Website

The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast