The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast

S2E19 - Ten Cents to Anywhere

Payphones were infrastructure until they weren't. They weren't missed until they were. At their peak there were about two and a half million of them in America, one on what felt like every corner, and a dime got you anyone in the country. By 2018 there were about a hundred thousand left, most of them dead. The first one turned up in a Hartford bank in 1889. The last public one in Manhattan left ceremoniously in 2022, with a press release, like a retiring quarterback. In between, the booth became a cultural object (Superman changed in one, every spy movie needed one). Drug crews turned payphones into open-air offices, so cities pulled the phones out of the neighbourhoods that leaned on them hardest. Then the cell phone showed up and the whole thing fell over in about a decade. We'd decided a fire hydrant was a public good and a payphone was a business. When the business stopped paying, the phones came down, starting with the corners that could least afford to lose them. Then Katrina knocked out the cell towers, and the payphones still bolted to the wall had lines of people waiting at them. Turns out the thing you last cursed at for eating your quarter was was doing a job you'd written off years ago. 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 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.

S2E19 Bonus - Quarter Thief

Tomorrow's episode is on pay phones. A technology that was once essential until mobile phones became ubiquitous. There's a lot of history (and nostalgia) that Marc and Renee love to gab about. So tune in tomorrow for the full episode. But...you can't talk about pay phones without talking about paying. The scene...small town, unfamiliar territory, sun going down. You need to get out of here and your cousin Susan is the only person that is close enough to come get you. But you have one slightly worn quarter and there's only one pay phone in sight. What ensues is an epic battle of wills. You...anger and determination to call Susan. The pay phone...stoic, unyielding, silent. It won't relent and won't let you dial. Then finally it feels like you'll be able to dial and it steals your quarter. There's never been a more rage-inducing moment. Lyrics below: [Verse 1] I've got to call my cousin She's the only one for miles who'll come No shop, no soul, no signal Just this phone and the going-down sun One quarter left to my name Last one, warm in my hand And the dial tone hums like a promise Like it finally understands [Refrain] Quarter in Quarter out It will not hold the line I just need to call my Susan One more time [Verse 2] I try again, my hand is shaking There's a click, and then a pause Then a bell that isn't a bell I think it caught, so I start to dial Halfway through her number now Then the quarter drops right through And the line goes dead somehow [Refrain] Quarter in Quarter out It will not hold the line I just need to call my Susan One more time [Bridge] Then it takes it Lord, it takes it And it gives me back a hiss No tone, no Susan, no operator Just nothing, only this You're a thief You're a quarter thief And I'm screaming at a box On an empty road And the sun going down [Outro] Then the cloud breaks And the cars roll back And the people on the corner stare At a grown adult in a standoff With a phone that doesn't care I, I just wanted to call Susan 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 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.

S2E18 - Tubes With Wings

First things, first. We have merch. Silly, yes, but available here [https://nostalgic-nerds-podcast-shop.fourthwall.com/]. Now onto the show... Have you ever pressed your face to the window in a plane as a kid and stared at the wing thinking flying shouldn't work? Have you ever sat in seat 23B with the baby crying five rows up and perfume getting reapplied three rows over and wished for just forty minutes of respite? Of course you have. Passenger jet aviation is one of the most transformative things humanity has ever built, and most of us experience it as a tube we sit in until we arrive somewhere else. But, it wasn't always the cattle-car experience we have today. Marc and Renee love aviation and flying and this episode traces that tube from Frank Whittle, the British inventor who patented the jet engine in 1930, to the de Havilland Comet (which kept falling out of the sky because of square windows), to Boeing betting big on a plane nobody asked for, to the Concorde flying Mach 2 over the Atlantic for twenty-seven years while burning fuel like a small country, to the 787 quietly changing what eight hours in a metal tube feels like on your body. Along the way: Juan Trippe deciding ordinary people should be allowed to fly, the 1973 oil crisis rewriting the economics of flight, and the disappointing realisation that the shower on the first-class A380 was never going to be for you. If you have ever waved a thanks to a flight attendant who couldn't possibly see you, paid four dollars for a small bottle of water at thirty-five thousand feet, or sat through a connection in Charlotte Douglas wondering whether there is some kind of cosmic law requiring every American flight to route through there, this one's for you. Check out the Mouselets for civil engineering and Disney - https://www.youtube.com/@TheMouselets 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 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.

S2E18 Bonus - 23B

Next episode is all about the development of passenger planes. So, this week our song is about that emotionally stressful situation that air travel has turned into.  The bare feet where they shouldn't be. Loud talkers. Hogging the arm rests. Passive aggressive travelers.  It felt like a blues song in A Minor. But mashed together with our Season 2 house band's yacht rock groove. Lyrics below.  [Verse 1] I boarded last, no room in the overhead bin Lord, I boarded last, no room in the bin Walked down to twenty-three and squeezed myself in Man in C wouldn't lift his knee No that Man in C won't lift that knee Woman in A pulled the shade down, didn't wanna see [Chorus] I'm in 23B Just B Window went to A Aisle went to C I got what was left I'm in 23B Just B [Verse 2] Baby's been crying since we left the gate Lord, that baby's been crying since we left the gate Smell of perfume keeps me wondering what I ate Bare feet on the headrest, three rows in front of me Bare feet on the headrest, three rows in front of me Wanted forty minutes of quiet, can't get forty seconds free [Chorus] [Bridge] There used to be a dinner There used to be a tie There used to be a meaning To getting in the sky Now I'm boarding group five With my one allowed bag The seat reclines an inch And nothing comes round for free [Final Chorus] I'm in 23B Just B Window went to A Aisle went to C I got what was left I'm in 23B Just B 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 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.

S2E17 - Red Means Stop

Have you ever sat at a red light at 2 AM with no traffic in any direction and waited anyway? Have you ever rolled through that same red light 2 AM and felt vaguely guilty about it? Of course you have. The traffic light is the most obeyed command in human history. Rarely enforced (unless you're in the UK like Marc). No officer in sight. Just a coloured light on a pole, and a near-universal agreement to stop when it's red and go when it's green.  This episode traces the humble traffic signal from the gas-lit lantern that exploded outside the Houses of Parliament in 1868 (yes, exploded, three weeks in) to the adaptive AI systems that watch real-time traffic and adjust timing in milliseconds. Along the way: railroad colour conventions, William Potts in Detroit and Garrett Morgan in Cleveland, the political question of whose green is longer, the inductive loop that can't see your bicycle, and the moment where you discover that the colour you grew up calling yellow is officially called amber once you cross an ocean. Ride along with Marc and Renee through another look at a technology that became infrastructure as it spread beyond its humble beginnings. 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 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.