Screens of the Stone Age

Palaeoanthropological Society of Canada (PASC-SCPA)
Screens of the Stone Age

The podcast where scientists review movies about prehistoric people.

  1. APR 27

    Episode 102: Dire Wolf (2009)

    Big news! An American biotech company announced this week that they have brought the dire wolf back from extinction! We’ve honoured this great achievement by watching the prophetic film Dire Wolf (2009), a gory werewolf movie in which an American biotech company brought back the dire wolf from extinction... to create a military bioweapon! We’ve got our eyes on you, Colossal Biosciences... Visit our new website! https://screensofthestoneage.com Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch Dire Wolf (2009) on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/641656/dire-wolf The Dire Wolf (Aenocyon dirus): https://tarpits.org/stories/our-evolving-understanding-dire-wolves Bone Clones Dire Wolf Skull: https://boneclones.com/product/dire-wolf-skull-tarpit-finish-BC-020T Colossal Biosciences: https://colossal.com/ Colossal’s Dire Wolf preprint on BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.09.647074v1.abstract Perri et al. (2021) Dire wolves were the last of an ancient New World canid lineage: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03082-x Janczewski et al. (1992) Molecular phylogenetic inference from saber-toothed cat fossils of Rancho La Brea: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.89.20.9769 Hank Green – They Didn’t Make Dire Wolves, They Made Something...Else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar0zgedLyTw Beth Shapiro (2020) How to Clone a Mammoth: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691209005/how-to-clone-a-mammoth

    1 hr
  2. APR 13

    Episode 101: The Simpsons S09E08 Lisa the Skeptic (1997)

    Today we’re reviewing Lisa the Skeptic, a classic episode of The Simpsons in which Lisa discovers an apparent angel skeleton at an archaeological dig. In this episode we dig into hoaxes, the use of AI in academic writing, and the work of Stephen J. Gould. But in a larger sense, this episode will settle the age-old question of Science vs. Religion (spoiler alert: Capitalism wins). Visit our new website! https://screensofthestoneage.com Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: The Burgess Shale: https://www.burgess-shale.bc.ca/ Stephen J. Gould: https://achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/ The Cardiff Giant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant AI in academic writing: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/generative-ai-in-academic-writing/ Operation Flagship: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnd0p192kn2o Operation Flagship on Stuff You Should Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYcGopqLvEs The Prophecy (1995): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7PSZ7NDEgU Kenneth Copeland is evil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20y2Alkbc30 Christian Science reading rooms: https://apnews.com/article/christian-science-reading-rooms-religion-65a68fb88b7db958aa1c939e0d69719d Anomalocaris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalocaris Billy Beer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Beer

    1h 2m
  3. MAR 16

    Episode 99: Mistress of the Apes (1979)

    Mistress of the Apes (1979) tells the harrowing tale of Susan, an anthropologist who lost her pregnancy and learned of her husband’s murder in Congo Kenya in the same week. But she remained strong, without showing any visible signs of emotion whatsoever, until she learned to love again, in the arms of a Homo habilis her husband had discovered prior to his death (his murder was unrelated). Content warning: this movie contains multiple scenes involving sexual assault. Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch Mistress of the Apes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o9bYwBLBiU Homo habilis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_habilis Australopithecus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus Koko banga saka: https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&text=koko%20banga%20saka&op=translate African Genesis (1961) by Robert Ardrey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Genesis Congolian Rainforest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congolian_rainforests Jimmy Kimmel – Can you name a country? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRh1zXFKC_o Rick Mercer – Talking to Americans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHUWas-yQSw Timbits: https://company.timhortons.com/ca/en/menu/timbits.php Writing systems: https://www.britannica.com/topic/writing/Types-of-writing-systems Ape sign language was a bunch of babbling nonsense: https://bigthink.com/life/ape-sign-language/

    58 min
  4. MAR 2

    Episode 98: Curious George (2006)

    Curious George (2006) tells the tail of the beloved eponymous monkey (sic) and reimagines (and sanitizes) The Man in the Yellow Hat as an archaeologist. This movie sets up a thoughtful and nuanced take on archaeological ethics and neocolonialism, and then says “Fuck it, it belongs in museum after all.” But George is soooo cuuuute! Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: The History of Curious George: https://www.curiousgeorge.com/history/ Nicholas Wade (2007). In Lice, Clues to Human Origin and Attire. New York Times: https://cell2soul.typepad.com/cell2soul_blog/files/Lice.pdf Aiello and Wheeler (1995). The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis. Current Anthropology: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/204350 Richard Wrangham (2009). Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human. Profile Books: https://dn790008.ca.archive.org/0/items/pdfy-DDoNCJJ_Wt0qOH7e/Catching%20Fire%20%5BHow%20Cooking%20Made%20Us%20Human%5D.pdf Ann Nicgorski (2006). Curious George’s Bad Example. Archaeology Magazine: https://archive.archaeology.org/online/reviews/curious.html Curious George and the Looted Idol (2006). Archaeology Magazine: https://archive.archaeology.org/0605/news/insider.html Alfred Russel Wallace: https://wallacefund.myspecies.info/content/biography-wallace Kirk Wallace Johnson (2018) The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. Penguin Random House: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44153387-the-feather-thief Jim Corbett: https://www.corbettnationalpark.in/corbett-heritage.htm Clovis Culture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture

    1h 6m
  5. FEB 16

    Episode 97: Silent Films Double Feature

    Today we’re reviewing two films from a brutal, primitive time in humanity’s past, when both politics and romance were conducted through violence: the early 20th Century! His Prehistoric Past (1914) and Clubs are Trump (1917) follow suspiciously similar plots in which Silent Era stars Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Snub Pollard dream of a simpler time when they could commit violent assaults unimpeded and sexually harass women. Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch His Prehistoric Past (1914) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOVyT2rz6c Watch Clubs are Trump (1917) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJWimG0AOI Victorian Calling Cards: https://hobancards.com/blogs/thoughts-and-curiosities/calling-cards-and-visiting-cards-brief-history The Truth about “Caveman Courtship”: https://daily.jstor.org/the-truth-about-caveman-courtship/ Timeline of Human Fossil Discoveries: https://australian.museum/learn/science/human-evolution/a-timeline-of-fossil-discoveries/ Piltdown Man: https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-problem-of-piltdown-man/ Archaeoraptor fossil hoax: https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/fake-dino-bird-explained-1.274812 Cheetah fossil hoax: https://evolutionnews.org/2023/06/fossil-friday-the-oldest-cheetah-was-yet-another-fraud/ The scientific hoax that rocked Japan: https://spyscape.com/article/the-man-who-forged-ancient-artifacts The Hays Code: https://www.npr.org/2008/08/08/93301189/remembering-hollywoods-hays-code-40-years-on Winnipeg 1920 exhibit at the Manitoba Museum: https://manitobamuseum.ca/step-into-the-past-winnipeg-1920/

    50 min
  6. FEB 2

    Episode 96: Adventures in Dinosaur City (1991)

    Adventures in Dinosaur City (1991) answers the age-old question: what if Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs and Honey I Shrunk the Kids had a baby, but it was put up for adoption and raised by the Ninja Turtles and The Flintstones, until it ran away from home and turned to sex work to survive? Kim insisted she loves this movie but then she got drunk and showed up late to the recording, and, honestly, that tells you everything you need to know. Get in touch with us: Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com In this episode: Watch Adventures in Dinosaur City on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zODUA2sTtLY Judge Whitey – Theft of Money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtUfNtgawNY FATHER! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsriu6a_ukw Ceratopsian Dinosaurs: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/body-shape/ceratopsian/gallery.html Dinosaurs didn’t have a second brain in their butt: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-double-dinosaur-brain-myth-12155823/ Plural of “octopus”: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/the-many-plurals-of-octopus-octopi-octopuses-octopodes Stegosaurus/Giraffe size comparison: https://www.bipbapbop.com/images/how-tall-is-a-stegosaurus.webp Facelift for T. rex: analysis suggests teeth were covered by thin lips: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00928-y 80s kids’ movies were traumatizing: https://collider.com/traumatizing-kids-movies-80s-ranked/ Roger Rabbit shoe dip scene (click at your own risk!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYk3LvHMPWM

    50 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

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The podcast where scientists review movies about prehistoric people.

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