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Episode 6's bonus track. When we started recording the episode about News tech, Renee called for a moment of silence for Dan Rather. And I found it sort of funny and silly at the time. Which was fine. But when it came time to write the lyrics and music for the song for the episode, I knew it had to be about Dan Rather. Or maybe, about the time in which Dan Rather was present in the minds of America.

This is a call back to the 80's and to Dan Rather as a human. His famous "Courage" sign off was ridiculed when he said it earlier in his career, but he meant it. People believed it. They took it to heart. And when he ended his run on the news he said it again at a time when people needed to hear it.

It is sad that words like his are drowned out by the vitriol and virality of engagement fodder. I think we need more reminders of the strength of the human spirit.

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.

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In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, S2E6 – Who Controls the News?, Renee and Marc examine the machinery behind the headlines.

There was a time when the news arrived at a predictable hour, delivered by a familiar face, framed by a studio camera and a glowing red light. It felt intentional and limited. Today, information moves constantly, personalised, accelerated, filtered, and optimised.

So what changed?

It wasn’t simply ideology or journalistic standards. It was infrastructure.

Printing presses, telegraph lines, broadcast towers, cable networks, search engines, and algorithmic feeds each reshaped who gets to decide what spreads, and how fast. Speed altered incentives. Incentives altered behaviour. Over time, the systems themselves began shaping what counts as news.

We explore how broadcast studios once acted as gates, how 24-hour cable blurred urgency into permanence, how the internet turned publishing into software, and how social platforms made engagement the dominant currency. When distribution changes, power changes. When power shifts, public trust shifts with it.

The anxious question is now, "Who controls the mechanisms that determine what reaches us?"

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.

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In this episode of The Nostalgic Nerds Podcast, Tape: Tough, Tested, Tenacious, Renee and Marc explore the humble roll that holds the modern world together.

What starts with a strip of Deltec Purple in an art project turns into a deep dive into adhesive history. From early gummed paper and Depression-era Scotch tape to duct tape in wartime garages, tape quietly proliferates through the 20th century, evolving from simple packaging fix to engineered material.

Along the way, they unpack how tape actually works (backing materials, pressure-sensitive adhesives, shear vs peel), why 3M’s Richard Drew mattered, and how tape went from desk drawer convenience to something specified in CAD models.

Modern tape isn’t just sticky; it’s structural. From high-strength acrylic bonding systems like VHB that replace rivets and welds, to tunable adhesion used in semiconductor manufacturing, tape has become an engineered solution to tension, vibration, heat, and time.

It’s temporary and permanent. Disposable and structural. Invisible and essential.

All on a roll.

Featuring the Nostalgic Nerds Podcast Players' song "(Tape) A Sticky Saviour

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.