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Marc once again drags Renee into a museum. This time the “Hall of Money." Five thousand years of humans trying (and mostly failing) to automate trust. From clay tablets that doubled as IOUs to Renaissance double-entry bookkeeping, colonial funny-money, credit cards born of embarrassment, and machines that now pay each other while we sleep, this episode follows money’s long journey.

Along the way: Marc confesses his favourite room at the British Museum, Renee recounts the chaos of American “Continentals,” and both realise the future isn’t about moving money at all, it’s about answering the underlying questions of trust.

Couple of notes from Marc - This is a bit longer, but breaking it up didn't feel right. The thread of trust stitches the past, present, and future together and I didn't want to lose that. It's a good listen in any case.

Check out Planet Money - https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510289/planet-money/
Jacob Goldstein, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358103-money
David Birch, Identity is the New Money - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22227908-identity-is-the-new-money?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_25

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

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Warning up front - we discuss some ethical conundrums and situations with tech. There's one mention of suicide and we talk about the Manhattan Project. We're respectful, but we just wanted to put it out there.

Every breakthrough in technology brings the same old question: just because we can, should we? In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Marc and Renee are joined by tech ethicist, Chris McClean, for a time-traveling look at innovation’s moral blind spots...from Gutenberg’s press and the Luddite rebellion to nuclear power, the internet, and the AI boom. Together they unpack why humans seem incapable of debating ethics before the damage is done and why Big Tech isn’t likely to break the cycle. Along the way, they ask what responsibility inventors, executives, and even end-users really carry as we keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Ethical challenges will always echo throughout the ages and tech just makes those echoes louder.

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

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Printers used to be the villains of the office...loud, cranky, and prone to eating your best work right before a deadline. But somewhere between the screech of a dot matrix and the hiss of a resin vat, something changed. Printing got interesting. Really interesting.

In this episode, we trace the unlikely glow-up of one of tech’s most unloved inventions. From the early days of line feeds and perforated paper to the high-precision world of additive manufacturing, we explore how the humble printer became a platform for creation.

Renee and Marc dive into the science, the utility, and the sheer weirdness of turning digital files into physical objects. Along the way, they ask: when a printer can make a jet engine, a human ear, or a house, is it even a printer anymore? Or has “printing” quietly become the most transformative technology of them all?

Because somewhere between ink and imagination, the printer stopped copying—and started inventing. One layer, one atom, one organ at a time.

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