Nostalgium Arcanum
A Repository For The Pop Culture That Made Us Who We Are
Displaying Episode 1 - 10 of 49 in total of Nostalgium Arcanum with the tag “1980s”.
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The Thing
October 6th, 2025 | 1 hr 51 mins
1980s, 80s, alien, aliens, body horror, halloween, horror, john carpenter, kurt russell, lovecraft, lovecraftian, movie, movies, scifi
Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens? 1982's "The Thing" was a critical and commercial failure, until its insidious genius began an infection that has spread to its complete takeover as a horror landmark. Comedian Rich Baker (@richbakercoaching) joins us to examine this brilliant, grotesque, and paranoia-inducing film.
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The Running Man
September 1st, 2025 | 2 hrs 31 mins
1980s, 80s, action, arnold schwarzenegger, dystopia, dystopian, game show, gameshow, hunger games, schwarzenegger, scifi, stephen king
It's time to start running! Cheesy, gratuitous, and satirically biting, The Running Man showcases everything that makes 80s movies great, and why no one can anchor a film and deliver one, two, and three-liners like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We're joined by a full panel to stalk this classic including comedian Rich Baker (@ricbakercoaching), filmmaker Alex Sosin ("The Canyon"), and podcaster Jala Prendes (Jala-Chan's Place, Duckfeed.tv's The Level). We pack in everything, so we hope you left enough room for our fist.
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Tango & Cash
August 18th, 2025 | 2 hrs 37 mins
1980s, 80s, action, buddy cop, comedy, cop, cops, kurt russell, movies, police, stallone, sylvester stallone
Tango & Cash typifies 1980s action excess and buddy-cop odd-couple comedy as Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell play the titular loose cannons with a complete disregard for police procedure and the laws of physics. We're joined by guest podcasters Josh Covel (Still Loading) and Dan Oster (A Podcast, But Evil) to settle scores and spew one-liners.
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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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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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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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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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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.
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The Police
March 24th, 2025 | 1 hr 54 mins
1970s, 1980s, 70s, 80s, andy summers, music, new wave, outlandos, punk, regatta, reggae, rock, rock and roll, stewart copeland, sting, synchronicity, synth, zenyatta
Screaming "Roxanne" into the night, The Police's compact but impactful career featured incredible melodies, driving rock, keening vocals, and sophisticated musicianship. The trio fused punk with reggae, and later burgeoning synth with ease, and made it seem like every little thing they did was magic. We're once again joined by musical experts Dylan Ris (www.lostmoonradio.com, The Moon Units) and Kyle Lieberman to send out an S.O.S. about this incredible band and compare top ten lists of our favorite songs by Sting and company.