Nostalgium Arcanum
A Repository For The Pop Culture That Made Us Who We Are
Episodes
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Songs of 2001
August 11th, 2025 | 2 hrs 54 mins
00s, 2000s, alternative, hip hop, hiphop, metal, music, pop, pop music, rap, rock, songwriting
2001 was nothing like what Stanley Kubrick promised, but the music of that year continued to expand into a wide variety of different directions. Guests Ami Lief, musician Kyle Lieberman, and comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) join us to roundtable our top ten songs of 2001.
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Ninja Gaiden
August 4th, 2025 | 1 hr 20 mins
game, gamer, gamers, games, gaming, nes, ninja, nintendo, nintendo entertainment system, retrogame, retrogamer, retrogamers, retrogames, retrogaming, video game, video gamer, video games, video gaming
1988's Ninja Gaiden was a leap forward in video game storytelling, featuring splashy cut scenes, a propulsive soundtrack, and notorious difficulty. Ryu Hayabusa faces off against military goons, relentless wildlife, and otherworldly grotesque demons in his quest to keep Jaquio and the forces of darkness at bay. Guest comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) joins us to give this unforgiving landmark game the Nintendo seal of quality.
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Billy Joel
July 28th, 2025 | 2 hrs 9 mins
1970s, 1980s, 70s, 8os, billy joel, movin' out, music, new york, piano, piano man, pop, rock, rock and roll, songwriting
For the longest time Billy Joel's music has thrilled generations. Guests podcaster Matt Storm a.k.a. Stormageddon ("Fun" and Games, Reignite) and comedian / musician Dylan Ris (www.lostmoonradio.com, www.themoonunits.com) are in the mood for a melody, and this episode will have you feeling alright.
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Destroy All Monsters
July 21st, 2025 | 1 hr 8 mins
1960s, 60s, alien, aliens, ghidora, godzilla, horror, japan, japanese, kaiju, monster, monsters, mothra, rodan, science fiction, scifi, toho
It's mosnters versus aliens as Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and company find themselves at the mercy of an extraterrestrial menace in 1968's "Destroy All Monsters". Why have one kaiju when you can have them all? We don rubber suits and stomp on model cities with guest Joe Mastropiero aka Joedecahedron of the Dice Training podcast to celebrate a franchise that literally left an enormous footprint on cinema.
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The Princess Bride
July 14th, 2025 | 2 hrs 21 mins
1980s, 80s, andre the giant, billy crystal, carol kane, cary elwes, chris sarandon, christopher guest, comedy, fairy tale, fantasy, fred savage, mandy patinkin, peter falk, rob reiner, robin wright, wallace shawn
You asked for something special for our 150th episode so all we can say is "as you wish." The Princess Bride is inconceivably perfect. The film has everything - fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and a superlative cast and script to bring it all together. Guest comedian and filmmaker Tarik Davis (@tarikrdavis, tarikrdavis.com) joins us to revisit a storybook story that demands to be told over and over.
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Songs of 1998
July 7th, 2025 | 3 hrs 3 mins
1990s, 90s, alternative, country, hip hop, indie, metal, music, pop, pop music, rap, rock, rock and roll
By 1998 the grunge and gangsta rap of the early 1990s had petered out. Ska came and went. Musical tastes had begun to drift, and our year-review reflects these tectonic shifts with mainstream pop ascendant and indie artists beginning to peek through. Guests Ami Lief, musician Kyle Lieberman, and comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) join us to roundtable our top ten songs of this year.
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Back to the Future
June 30th, 2025 | 2 hrs 33 mins
1950s, 1980s, 80s, christopher lloyd, comedy, delorean, huey lewis, michael j. fox, physics, robert zemeckis, sci-fi, science, science fiction, scifi, steven spielberg, time machine, time travel
What is a nostalgia podcast if not a time machine? We're firing up the flux capacitor and setting the time circuits to Back to the Future for the 40th anniversary of this seminal temporal comedy. We're joined by guest Darren Lanning (darrenlanning.com) to celebrate a film so heavy that its success was practically density.
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WarGames
June 23rd, 2025 | 1 hr 56 mins
1980s, 80s, ai, ally sheedy, artificial intelligence, computer, computers, matthew broderick, politics, software, ussr, war games
Shall we play a game? 1983's WarGames presciently predicts the dangers of both human intelligence and artificial intelligence that we still wrestle with today. In this classic Matthew Broderick accidentally nearly sets World War III into motion by seemingly innocently challenging an AI to a game with potentially apocalyptic consequences. We're joined by returning guest B.T. Moorer to discuss the fallout from this thermonuclear film.
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The Sandlot
June 16th, 2025 | 2 hrs 7 mins
1990s, 90s, 90s movies, babe ruth, baseball, denis leary, james earl jones, nostalgia, sandlot, sports, sports movies, the sandlot
The Sandlot is a perfect distillation of childhood dreams, fantasy, fears, and legends that will live on forever... forEVER... FOREVER!!! Guests sultan of swat Randy Allain and king of crash Kris Ingersoll of the Media/Lit podcast join the team to relive endless summers played one base at a time.
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
June 9th, 2025 | 2 hrs 44 mins
adventure, archaeology, disney, george lucas, harrison ford, indiana jones, john williams, movie, movies, spielberg, steven spielberg
If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones. The first film in the franchise pits archaeology against the Third Reich as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams, and of course, Harrison Ford unearth an icon. We're joined by "top men" comedian Dan Oster (MadTV, A Podcast But Evil) and filmmaker Alex Sosin (The Canyon) to excavate the origins of a cinematic legend, whip cracking dialogue, and just plain whip cracking.
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Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
June 2nd, 2025 | 1 hr 18 mins
arcade, boxing, game, gamer, gamers, games, gaming, mike tyson, nes, nintendo, retrogame, retrogamer, retrogamers, retrogames, retrogaming, sports, video game, video gamer, video games, video gaming
We get in the ring with Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (later known as just Punch-Out!!). This NES classic cleverly disguises puzzles and pattern recognition within its colorful cast of memorable pugilists. Comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) joins us to put the smackdown on one of the most beloved titles in Nintendo's library. TKO!
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Ghost
May 26th, 2025 | 2 hrs 3 mins
afterlife, demi moore, ghost, ghosts, love story, patrick swayze, pottery, righteous brothers, romance, spirit, spirits, unchained melody, whoopi goldberg
For our final episode of Patrick MAYze, we're covering perhaps his most eternal film. Ghost is comedic, inventive, suspenseful, and most of all, a moving story of love transcending death, a long lonely time. We're joined by guests Ami Lief and Ryan Merlo to sing Unchained Melody and the praises of Swayze, Demi Moore, and Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg. We'd say we love this film, but instead, we'll just say "ditto".
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Road House
May 19th, 2025 | 1 hr 50 mins
1980s, 80s, action, ben gazzara, bouncer, movie, movies, nightclub, patrick swayze, sam elliott
Our month of Patrick Swayze movies continues with 1989's Road House. The Double Deuce is in double trouble and only one man with beautiful hair and Buddhist philosophy can clean it up. Guest comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) gives a full-throated endorsement to this ripping good time of a movie.
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Donnie Darko
May 12th, 2025 | 2 hrs 18 mins
drew barrymore, high school, jake gyllenhaal, maggie gyllenhaal, patrick swayze, scifi, seth rogen, teen
It's the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine. Donnie Darko's convoluted sci-fi narrative is beside the point, as it's the emotional core of Richard Kelly's film about how our lives interweave and that we are not truly as alone as we may suspect that makes this an enduring classic. Guest podcaster and possible imaginary rabbit Case Aiken (Another Pass, Men of Steel) joins us to discuss this mad world, why it still haunts us, and why it deserves to be part of our Patrick MAYze month of movies.
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Point Break
May 5th, 2025 | 2 hrs 4 mins
1990s, 90s, action, entertainment, heist, keanu reeves, lori petty, movie, movies, patrick swayze, surf, surfing
For Cinco de Mayo it's "vaya con Dios" as we revisit surfing and bank robbing classic "Point Break". We start our Patrick MAYze month by hanging ten with Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) and Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) for a radical ride that never lets up. We're joined by superfan Tania Newton to give this tubular movie two guns fired in the air, way up.
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Blockbuster Video
April 28th, 2025 | 1 hr 21 mins
1980s, 1990s, 80s, 90s, blockbuster, dvd, entertainment, film, films, games, gaming, genesis, movie, movies, nes, nintendo, sega, snes, super nintendo, vhs, video, video game, video games
It's time to be kind and rewind back to the days when home media rental was a pillar of daily life. Whether it was Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, or your local mom-and-pop shop, renting movies and games was a ritual of living in the 80s an 90s that is now lost to the dominance of streaming. We're joined by Chris Coplien of the Retro Hangover podcast to rack up a few very late fees in service to the lost world of video rental.