Episode 55: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a classic film by Stanley Kubrick set in the distant future of 2001, when humankind finally evolves into spacefaring starbabies with no help from the AI they designed to help them. But the first act is set at the dawn of humanity, which means we get to review it on our prehistoric podcast!

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Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

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Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Watch the 2001: A Space Odyssey dubstep remix

• Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson:

• Darren Naish on tapir attacks

• The earliest evidence of stone tool use

• Chimpanzees hunt with spears

• The Savannah Hypothesis

• The earliest bipedal hominins

• The Turing Test

• Eliza Chatbot

• ChatGPT

• Lunar regolith

• Space grip shoes

• Walking is really just falling and catching yourself

Episode 54: Chrono-Perambulator (1999)

Chrono-Perambulator (1999) is an Irish short film in which an archaeologist and mad scientist travel back in time to solve an archaeological mystery. At under eleven minutes, this is by far the shortest film we’ve reviewed, but that didn’t stop us from talking about it for almost an hour!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Watch Chrono-Perambulator on YouTube

• The London Hammer

• The Antikythera Mechanism

• The Kabwe Skull – a 300kya bullet wound?

• Edison’s Conquest of Mars by Garret P. Serviss

• Yes, Elon Musk fanfiction exists

• Roman penis graffiti

• The Cat Came Back

• Canada Vignettes - Woolly Mammoth

• All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein (pdf)

Episode 53: Eegah (1962)

Today we’re watching Eegah (1962), the story of a filmmaker nearly bankrupting himself to finance a vehicle for his nepo baby son’s music career. Oh, and there’s a caveman... or a biblical giant. It’s unclear. This movie regularly shows up on lists of the worst movies of all time, but is it really that bad? Find out!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Watch Eegah on YouTube

• Watch Eegah on Mystery Science Theater 3000

• The Anga people of Papua New Guinea preserve their dead relatives

• The Office – Erin shaves Michael

• Gila monster

• Greater short-horned lizard (aka horned toad)

• Arch Hall Jr. and the Archers

• Carson City, Nevada, “giant” footprints

• Who Were the Nephilim, the Bible's Mysterious Race of Giants?

• Why are giants/cave men depicted wielding clubs?

Episode 52: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

On this episode we’re reviewing the quintessential archaeology movie: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). We had to get to it eventually, even though there isn’t really any archaeology in it, and there isn’t really anything new we can say about it that hasn’t already been said. Ross and Kim think it’s a perfect movie, but Josh plays devil’s advocate and tries to convince them that it is overrated.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Does Indy actually affect the plot?

• The real city of Tanis

• The Horton Ho 229

• West Kennet Long Barrow

• Marion was 15 when she and Indy had their “affair”

• Sexual harassment in archaeology

• Did Belloq (actor Paul Freeman) eat a fly?

• The Antikythera Mechanism on the Pseudoarchaeology Podcast

Episode 51: Time Trap (2017)

Today we’re reviewing Time Trap (2017), a movie that features an archaeologist, his students, cavemen, hippies, cowboys, spacemen, Spanish conquistadors, Native Americans, and children, for some reason. It actually makes more sense than you’d expect!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• How will humans evolve in space?

• Sexual selection for human height

• Kris Kristofferson in Millennium (1989)

• Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth

• Andrew Wilson as Beef Supreme in Idiocracy

50th Episode Special: SotSA Tier List!

Today we’ve reached a milestone: 50 episodes! To celebrate, we’re looking back on every movie we’ve watched and giving each one a definitive rating, tier-list style. If you’re a regular listener, you’ll enjoy reminiscing about our best and worst episodes with us, and if you’re new this episode will be a preview to the type of content you’ll find on this podcast.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

Episode 49: The Man from Earth (2007) w/ Dr. Predrag Radović

On this episode, Dr. Predrag (Pedja) Radović joins us to talk about The Man from Earth (2007), the story of an academic who tries to convince his colleagues that he is 14,000 years old. This low budget movie was filmed on camcorders and takes place in a single room, and yet it’s somehow one of the better movies we’ve seen!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Watch The Man from Earth on YouTube

• Doggerland

• Magdalenian Culture

• Magdalenian artifacts

• Why Call Them Back From Heaven? By Clifford Simak

• Panspermia

• Alfred Russel Wallace’s battle with flat-earthers

• D’Errico et al. (2001). An engraved bone fragment from c. 70,000-year-old Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origin of symbolism and language: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00060968

• McBrearty and Brooks (2000). The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behaviour: https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2000.0435

• Neanderthals and modern humans share the same FOXP2 “language” gene

• QAnon supporters though JFK Jr. would return

• The Nxivm Cult

Episode 48: Bones S8E11 The Archaeologist in the Cocoon (2013) w/ Prof. Mirjana Roksandic

Prof. Mirjana Roksandic joins us again, this time to discuss an episode of Bones. We’re watching the Season 8 episode The Archaeologist in the Cocoon, in which the eponymous forensic anthropologist procrastinates on her real job to solve a Palaeolithic murder mystery left behind by their archaeologist victim. Mirjana explains to us why everything Bones says is wrong, and warns us about the dangers of over-interpretation in forensic investigation.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• The Lagar Velho Child

• Green et al. (2010). A Draft sequence of the Neanderthal Genome: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1188021

• Fu et al. (2015). An early modern human from Romania with a recent Neanderthal ancestor: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14558

• Slon et al. (2018). The genome of the offspring of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0455-x

• Hajdinjak et al. (2021). Initial Upper Palaeolithic humans in Europe had recent Neanderthal ancestry: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03335-3

• Greenstick fractures

• Linear Enamel Hypoplasia

• Forensic pathologist Dr. Charles Smith’s testimony helped lock up innocent people for decades

Episode 47: 2012 (2009) with Dr. Andrew Kinkella

In this episode Dr. Andrew Kinkella joins us to discuss 2012 (2009), a summer blockbuster from Roland Emmerich based on Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods and a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar. We get into the truth about the Maya, mutating neutrinos, pseudoarchaeology, and Roland Emmerich’s love of conspiracy theories.

Follow Dr. Andrew Kinkella:

Kinkella Teaches Archaeology on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KinkellaTeachesArchaeology

The Pseudoarchaeology Podcast: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo

The CRM Archaeology Podcast: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/crmarchpodcast

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• The Maya Calendar explained

• The Piri Reis Map – Pseudoarchaeology podcast Ep101

• Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by Charles Hapgood

• Earth Crust Displacement Theory

• Andy Samberg’s new series Digman

• The Genius Factory by David Plotz

• Roland Emmerich is adapting the novel Maya Lord

Episode 46: The People that Time Forgot (1977)

The People that Time Forgot (1977) answers the question: what if Star Wars had dinosaurs? and was also terrible? This is the sequel to 1974’s The Land that Time Forgot. The original had some thoughtful philosophical musings on human nature; this one has a lot of cleavage.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Listen to our review of The Land that Time Forgot

• The history of the “cinnamon bun” hairstyle

• Primitive Technology on Youtube

• Poecilotheria fasciata

• This article on 54,000-year-old bows and arrows came out after we recorded this episode

• Skull Tower in Niš, Serbia

• Sedlec Ossuary in Czech Republic

• Portugal’s chapel of bones

Episode 45: A.R.O.G: A Prehistoric Film (2008)

A.R.O.G (2008), the sequel to G.O.R.A (2004), is the story of a Turkish rug salesman who is sent a million years back in time by an old intergalactic foe, and must help his newfound stone-age friends progress through the technological ages to… eventually invent a time machine to return? That, or win a football match… The logic of it is unclear, but it is very funny and certainly film-literate (if not science-literate).

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Watch A.R.O.G on YouTube

• Is bee venom acidic and wasp venom basic? Truth vs. Myths

• Just in case the Zoomers don’t know what a Betamax is

• Miller et al. (2006) Public Acceptance of Evolution

• The Atlas of Creation (pdf warning)

• A fly fishing lure was mistakenly published as a real insect in an early edition of The Atlas of Creation

• Turkey stopped teaching evolution in schools in 2017

• How can we date cave paintings?

• Radiocarbon dating and bomb carbon

Episode 44: Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) with Fredrik Trusohamn

We’re diving into the depths of pseudoarchaeology this week with Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). Ross is away but we’re joined by Fredrik Trusohamn, host of Digging Up Ancient Aliens, who helps us navigate the history of the mythological city. Fredrik came prepared with sources, so if you haven’t had enough of Atlantis by the end of the episode, check the links below for further reading!

Listen to Fredrik’s podcast, Digging Up Ancient Aliens: https://diggingupancientaliens.com/

Check out his website: https://www.ancientapocalypse.net/

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Edgar Cayce

• Pseudoarchaeology and Racism

• Hyperdiffusionism

• Stefan Milo on Ancient Apocalypse

• The Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate

• Banana: the atheist’s worst nightmare

• Annelise Baer on TikTok

• The Coelacanth

Fredrik’s Sources:

• Blavatsky, H. (1888). The secret doctrine: the synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy: https://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/secretdoctrine.html

• Card, J. (2019a). America Before as a Paranormal Charter: http://onlinedigeditions.com/article/America+Before+as+a+Paranormal+Charter/3531896/634462/article.html

• Card, J. (2019b). Spooky Archaeology: Myth and the Science of the Past: https://www.unmpress.com/9780826359148/spooky-archaeology/

• Card, J. and Anderson, D.S. eds., (2016). Lost City, Found Pyramid: Understanding Alternative Archaeologies and Pseudoscientific Practices: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/46406

• Cicirello, C. and Curry, T. (2022). The Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit: https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Unified-Theory-Bullshit/dp/B09TDW7RSR

• de Camp, L.S. (1975). Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme in History, Science, and Literature: https://store.doverpublications.com/0486147924.html

• Donnelly, I. (1882) Atlantis: The Antediluvian World: https://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/ataw/

• Donnelly, I. (1887) Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel: https://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/rag/index.htm

• Feder, K.L. (2010). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology from Atlantis to the Walam Olum: https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofdu0000fede

• Feder, K.L. (2020). Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/frauds-myths-and-mysteries-9780190096410

• Jordan, P. (2001). The Atlantis Syndrome: https://archive.org/details/atlantissyndrome00jord/page/n1/mode/2up

• López de Gómara, F. (1922). Historia general de las indias: https://archive.org/details/historigeneralde02lprich/page/248/mode/2up

• Roding, C.B. ed., (2019). Editor’s Corner: The SAA Archaeological Record: http://onlinedigeditions.com/publication/?i=634462

• Sarmiento de Gamboa, P. (1907). History of the Incas: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/20218/pg20218.html

• Staudenmaier, P. (2010) Between Occultism and Fascism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race and Nation in Germany and Italy, 1900-1945: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/17662/Staudenmaier%2C%20Peter.pdf

• Steiner, R. (2021). Cosmic Memory (1959): https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA011/English/RSPI1959/GA011_index.html

• Stevenson, D.C. ed., (2009a). Critias by Plato: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/critias.html

• Stevenson, D.C. ed., (2009b). Timaeus by Plato: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

Episode 43: Horror Express (1972)

Horror Express (1972) tells the tale of an anthropologist who discovers a frozen hominin in China which, unbeknownst to him, is possessed by a telepathic extraterrestrial life form. It’s basically The Thing on a train. Ross was so excited when he discovered this one that he couldn’t wait until Halloween.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

Optography - How Forensic Scientists Once Tried to “See” a Dead Person’s Last Sight

Early calculations of the age of Earth

How the human brain gets its wrinkles

Dmanisi – the first humans outside Africa

The history of human origin studies (Including Java Man, the Piltdown hoax, and the Taung Child)

Episode 42: Troll (2022)

To kick of 2023 we’re reviewing Troll (2022), a Norwegian movie in which the government enlists the help of a paleontologist to stop a rampaging troll. We dig into mythology, tooth ontogeny, and sexual dimorphism, and determine that taxonomically trolls are monkeys.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

The Myth and Mystery behind Norwegian Trolls

Iceland diverts roads around elf homes

The Square-Cube Law

Primate tooth eruption

Primate skeletal traits

Hypsodonty

Orangutan sexual dimorphism

Neanderthals, Scandinavian Trolls, and Troglodytes

The Smith and the Devil

Theodor Kittelsen’s trolls

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Episode 41: A Flintstone Christmas (1977)

This holiday season we’re traveling back to the town of Bedrock for A Flintstone Christmas (1977), a slapdash holiday special featuring everyone’s favourite modern Stone Age family. In this episode we ask hard-hitting questions, like why or how does this pre-Christian society know about Christmas, and why does Santa exist in the Stone Age with 1970s technology? But in the end, this special left us with more questions than answers.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• The world’s oldest shoes – Fort Rock Cave sandals

• Trinkaus and Shang, 2008, Anatomical evidence for the antiquity of human footwear: Tianyuan and Sunghir

• Kevin Can F**k Himself trailer

• Fun reindeer facts

• Reindeer see in ultraviolet light

• A beginner’s guide to Amanita muscaria mushrooms

• No, Santa wasn’t a mushroom-tripping shaman

Episode 40: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) is the story of a badass woman archaeologist from Belle Époque France. Well, she’s really more of a journalist and grave robber, misappropriating ancient knowledge for personal reasons. Still, it’s the only movie I know of that has resurrected Egyptian mummies, pterodactyls, and nuclear-physics-based telekinesis!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Based on a graphic novel

• Pterodactyls and Pteranodons and Pterosaurs, oh my!

• The Jurassic period is named after the Jura Mountains in France

• Canopic Jars

• Before the Breathalyzer There Was the Drunkometer

• Graham Hancock’s “Ancient Apocalypse” is the most dangerous show on Netflix

• Guillotine facts

Episode 39: Ammonite (2020)

Ammonite (2020) is a fictional historical love story based on the lives of two real Victorian paleontologists, Mary Anning and Charlotte Murchison. Kim has a bee in her bonnet about this movie: too much hot sex and not enough paleontology! We’re definitely earning our “explicit” tag on this episode!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Stone Girl Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning by Laurence Anholt

• Lyell, Hutton, uniformitarianism, and catastrophism

• Forgotten women of paleontology: Charlotte Murchison

• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

• Curiosity by Joan Thomas

• Dr. James Manby Gully’s “Water Cure”

• The Victorians were not sexually repressed

• Anne Lister’s coded lesbian diary

Episode 38: Mammoth (2006)

Mammoth (2006) is a made-for-TV Sci-Fi Channel original in which a frozen mammoth becomes possessed by an extraterrestrial being, and the Men in Black enlist the help of a local paleontologist to save the town from total annihilation. This movie asks many important questions, like: How do mammoths behave in the wild? Do they attack? And were they really wiped out by a “pathogon”? The answers to these questions and more on this episode of Screens of the Stone Age!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Did a “pathogon” kill the mammoths? Ross MacPhee thinks so

• Deinotherium – the “terrible beast”

• Mammoth was filmed at the Grigore Antipa Natural History Museum, Bucharest

• Mammoth behaviour

• Museum galleries only show a small fraction of their collections

• Most museum fossils on display are casts

• What is the difference between x-rays and CT scans?

• CT scanners have apertures less than 1 meter – not big enough for a mammoth

• How many species of mammoths were there? (and other mammoth facts)

Episode 37: The Thaw (2009)

Today we’re getting into the Halloween spirit with The Thaw (2009), a climate change horror movie in which a parasitic plague is unleashed from a thawed mammoth. In this episode we talk climate change, virus evolution, and glacial archaeology, and since we are all pandemic veterans by now, we are thoroughly unimpressed by these scientists’ quarantining skills.

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Ross MacPhee thinks that a disease drove the Pleistocene megafauna to extinction

• Frogs freeze solid while hibernating

• How viruses evolve

• Climate change and the mountain pine beetle

• Follow Secrets of the Ice on Twitter @breakeologi

• Join the Paleontological Association

Episode 36: Trog (1970)

We’re getting into the spooky season with Trog (1970), a British horror movie about a thawed caveman who goes on a murderous rampage, and an anthropologist who wants to study him for reasons which are not always clear. Is this a B-movie classic or does it take itself too seriously to be campy? Find out what we think in this episode!

Get in touch with us!

Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

• Joan Crawford’s final film

• “Troglodyte” just means “cave dweller”

• Trog’s costume was recycled from 2001: A Space Odyssey

• The way you see colour depends on which language you speak

• All apes see the same colour spectrum as humans

• Neander-Jin has a 7.7 on IMDB; go watch it and then rate it accordingly!