The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

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 gi...

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 w...

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 s...

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...

The first thing ever scanned at a supermarket checkout was a 67-cent pack of Juicy Fruit, in Troy, Ohio, in 1974. Now barcodes get scanned ten billion times a day, the price sticker is long gone, and the price on the shelf may soon depend on who's buying. Renee and Marc cover freight-car grime, grease pencils, the mark of the beast, and the smart cart that still wants you to hold everything up to the light. We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. Join Re...