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PODCAST

Ancient Geeks

Two old geeks talk about being young geeks, at a turning point in popular culture. In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, the threads of modern geek culture emerged and wove together. Science fiction, fantasy, comics, movies, TV shows, tabletop games, computer games, ad all their incarnations. The great SF&F writers, Star Trek, Star Wars, monster movies, D&D, Doctor Who, the Marvel and DC superheroes, 2001, Planet of the Apes, conventions, Zork, Ultima...What was it like to experience these for the first time

fiction science fiction

All Episodes

01:29:28

Ancient Geeks episode 13: Batman in the 80s and 90s

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/05/05

Our first real episode discussed how Batman in the 60s and 70s played a big role in our early geek lives. Now, we jump ahead to the 80s and 90s, a golden age of Batman in the comics and on the screen. In now-classic series like The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, A Death In The Family, Batman: The Cult, the writers and artists pulled out all the stops. Batman in a dystopian future! Robin dies! Batman loses his mind, repeatedly! This was an extraordinary period for both writing and art

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01:38:05

Ancient Geeks episode 12: Superhero TV shows of the 70s

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/04/28

Put on your polyester shirts and bellbottom jeans, because it's time for Steven and Tom to journey back to the 1970s, when superhero TV shows were popular. You'd think that we would have been excited to see our beloved comic book characters translated to the small screen...But the results were mixed, at best. Wonder Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Six Million Dollar Man, and even Doctor Strange -- they're all here, kinda sorta.See the world's greatest superheroes

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01:06:31

Ancient Geeks episode 11: Dungeons & Dragons

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/04/21

Dragons and beholders and owlbears, oh my! During our geek formative years, we both discovered Dungeons & Dragons, and were instantly hooked. A sandbox where we have freedom to create our own heroic fantasy characters and stories, and we get to roll really cool-looking dice as well? Sign us up! In this episode, we cover the early years of D&D, from the white box edition through the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Grab your character sheet and painted miniature and join us

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01:22:41

Ancient Geeks, episode 10: The Empire Strikes Back...

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/04/14

The Empire strikes back, and so do we! In this episode, we discuss the rest of the original Star Wars trilogy. What was it like to await another Star Wars movie after the original smash hit? How did The Empire Strikes Back exceed expectations? Why were we less impressed with Return of the Jedi?It's all here. Characters with actual arcs. High-paced excitement. Fantastic practical effects. The biggest plot twist ever. An expanding universe. Everything that made the original trilogy iconic, seen from

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01:14:54

Ancient Geeks, episode 9: Star Wars

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/04/07

Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars...Steven and Tom re-visit the very, very first Star Wars movie. When it landed in the summer of 1977, it had an asteroid side impact on our brains, popular culture, and moviemaking. Come with us to the mall theater on opening day! Hear all the great things that practically knocked us out of your seats on that first showing! Listen to us talk about what it was like to see our friends and family follow under its spell! Gasp at how many times we saw it, and why, not to

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01:17:47

Ancient Geeks, episode 8: Doctor Who

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/03/31

We were both early Doctor Who fans, back when the iconic Doctor was a British eccentric with a long scarf, a floppy hat, a pocket full of Jelly Babies, and a robot dog as a sidekick. Or was he an older gentleman wearing a puffy shirt, driving an antique roadster? Or a grumpy, grandfatherly figure who could be kind of a jerk? We discuss the first five incarnations of the Doctor, his companions, and his antagonists. This was the Doctor as he first arrived on American shores, courtesy of PBS (!).Weird

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01:21:33

Ancient Geeks, episode 7: Marvel Comics, Fantastic...

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/03/24

Make mine Marvel! In this episode, we talk about discovering Marvel Comics, what distinguished Marvel from DC comics. We focus on our first favorite characters, the Fantastic Four and Thor, which in many ways were the most over-the-top, cosmic of Marvel's stable of superheroes. From the down-to-earth family dynamics of the Fantastic Four, to the vast vistas of Asgard and outer space, it's all here. Plus, we describe how we grow to love Jack "King" Kirby, for both his wild imagination and his

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01:16:48

Ancient Geeks, episode 6: Classic science fiction...

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/03/17

Classic science fiction writers were essential parts of our early geek lives. The influential SF writers from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s were almost too many to list! Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Le Guin, Zelazny, Ellison, Bradbury, Herbert, Dick, and countless others...In novels and short stories, they filled our brains with big ideas, and left us wanting for more! In future episodes, we'll talk about many of these authors in greater depth. For now, let's take a galactic tour of classic science

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01:10:27

Ancient Geeks, episode 5: Other classic fantasy writers

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/03/10

We talked about Tolkien last episode, and now we're on a fantasy roll! We discuss the classic fantasy writers we discovered in our youth: The Arthurian legends, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Piers Anthony, Poul Anderson, Ursula Leguin, and many more. It was a time when sword and sorcery dominated the genre, but there were lots of other good fantasy stories to be read, too. Fantasy fiction in the 60s, 70s, and 80s was diverse, exciting, and fun – not just Tolkien

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01:25:28

Ancient Geeks, episode 4: J.R.R. Tolkien

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/03/03

We're talkin' Tolkien! Steven and Tom discuss J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Farmer Giles of Ham, as well as lesser-known works like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Follow us as we followed Bilbo and Frodo through these unforgettable, iconic books.Come for the spectacularly detailed world-building and epic quests! Stay for singing elves, bad animated adaptations, the good live action movies, calendars, pirate editions of the trilogy, and more. Plus, can you guess which of us made it though The

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01:22:06

Ancient Geeks, episode 3: Star Trek The Original Series

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/02/24

Space, the final frontier...These words started our lifelong love of Star Trek. In this episode, we talk about our first stage of that love affair, the original series (TOS). The optimism about the future! The exploration of the unknown! The big ideas! The thinly-veiled social commentary! The original crew! The TOS best episodes! The TOS worst episodes! William Shatner at a jeans store opening! It's all here. Star Trek was pivotal in our young geek lives, and foundational for geek culture. This is

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01:09:37

Ancient Geeks, episode 2: Superman in the 60s and 70s

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/02/17

Look! Up in the sky! It's the Superman episode! Last time, we covered the Caped Crusader in the 60s and 70s last time. This episode, we talk about Superman in the same time period, on TV and in the comics. See a man dangling from a zeppelin, in glorious black and white on The Adventures of Superman! Thrill as Superman fights Luthor, then he becomes a caveman, Jimmy turns into porcupine, and Lois demands his execution! Learn why, in spite of all these bizarre plots, Superman remained a beloved icon

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01:11:41

Ancient Geeks, episode 1: Batman in the 60s and 70s

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/02/10

WHAM! SOCK! POW!We were big fans of the Caped Crusader in the 1960s and the 1970s, starting with both the TV show and the comics. In this episode, we focus on Batman during this pivotal era, when the TV show became hugely popular, and the comics started to grow out of their early Silver Age goofiness. You'll hear about what made us Batfans, the weird process of having to schedule your time around a TV show, the jaw-dropping greatness of Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams' run on the comics, other

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01:12:10

Ancient Geeks, episode 0: Our origin stories!

Ancient Geeks ·

2025/01/15

It all starts here! Welcome to Ancient Geeks, a podcast about the birth of geek culture, from two older geeks whose younger selves were there at the beginning.In this inaugural episode, Tom Grant and Steven Taylor share their origin stories. Watching Batman, Star Trek, cartoons, and monster movies as kids. Reading classic science fiction and fantasy books by Tolkien, Burroughs, Asimov, and more. Being there at the premiere of Star Wars and Superman. Playing D&D and computer games. We were geek

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