The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

S2E20 - The Royal Flush

35 min · 28 de may de 2026
Portada del episodio S2E20 - The Royal Flush

Descripción

Quick note - sorry about Marc's audio. With recording three people, the mic setup wasn't optimal for Marc and his daughter. We'll do better next time. But Marc's audio isn't the important bits of the episode anyway. Enjoy! The flushing toilet is the most important machine in your house and the one you think about least. We use one six to eight times a day for our whole lives without a second thought, which, when you flush it through, is a remarkable engineering achievement. Rome had running-water toilets two thousand years ago, watched the idea swirl down the drain when the empire fell, and didn't pick it back up until the 1590's, when Queen Elizabeth's "saucy godson" Sir John Harington invented the first proper flush toilet. Things start to flow after a Scottish watchmaker invents the S-bend in 1775, a Victorian plumber called Thomas Crapper builds his name into a coincidence too perfect to waste, and the Great Stink of 1858 finally drives Parliament to build the sewers that  become the single biggest reason most of us are alive. Then we wash up in Japan, where TOTO treats the toilet as serious  technology, and we close on the billions of people who still do not have a safe toilet at all. Special guest: a twelve-year-old history buff, a genuine Tudor expert, who carries the Harington section of our story. We'd love to hear from you. Click here to give us ideas on new episodes. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521622/fan_mail/new] 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.

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67 episodios

Portada del episodio S2E24 Bonus - Ninety-Five

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. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521622/fan_mail/new] 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.

Ayer3 min
Portada del episodio S2E23 Bonus - One Went Missing

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. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521622/fan_mail/new] 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.

17 de jun de 20263 min
Portada del episodio S2E22 - Royalty for Pocket Change

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. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521622/fan_mail/new] 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.

11 de jun de 202642 min
Portada del episodio S2E22 Bonus - Level Out

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. [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2521622/fan_mail/new] 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.

10 de jun de 20263 min