{"podcast":{"title":"Ancient Geeks","slug":"ancient-geeks-7192842","podcast_index_feed_id":7192842,"rss_url":"https://feed.podbean.com/ancientgeeks/feed.xml","website_url":"https://ancientgeeks.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/20028807/LogoWithText1.png","author":"Ancient Geeks","episode_count":85,"summary":"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, UFOs, conventions, Zork, Ultima...What was it like to experience these for the first time? Why did we love them? And how do we feel about them, decades later?","last_synced_at":"2026-09-08T02:20:23.854693+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-geeks-7192842"},"episode":{"title":"Ancient Geeks episode 73: Raiders Of The Lost Ark","slug":"ancient-geeks-episode-73-raiders-of-the-lost-ark","published_at":"2026-06-29T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-geeks-7192842/ancient-geeks-episode-73-raiders-of-the-lost-ark","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-geeks-7192842","url":"https://ancientgeeks.podbean.com/e/ancient-geeks-episode-73-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/9n69jihmvxji4dva/AGEp73.mp3","summary":"You can hear the soundtrack start to play in your head already... No history of early geekery would be complete without Raiders Of The Lost Ark. In this episode, we talk about the roots of this movie in serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, in the pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Argosy, and in radio dramas like The Shadow and Suspense. And of course, we talk about the movie. What did we expect, when we heard that a high adventure movie was coming soon, from both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg? What was it like to see it for the first time, in the theaters, along with everyone else? What lasting impact did it have, not only on young geeks like ourselves, but in that intersection between geek culture and popular culture? And why were the imitators so reliably inferior to the original? Snakes! Nazis! Questionable academic practices! Fantastic filmmaking! And is this more of a Spielberg or a Lucas movie? Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic! For feedback, contact someancientgeeks@gmail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Reddit, and Bluesky. Also, check out the Ancient Geeks blog on Substack! And if you like what you hear, please tell a friend. Also, we always appreciate a review on the podcast platform of your choice. © 2026 Tom Grant and Steven Taylor","meta_description":"You can hear the soundtrack start to play in your head already... No history of early geekery would be complete without Raiders Of The Lost Ark. In this e…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5021,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/ancient-geeks-7192842/episodes/ancient-geeks-episode-73-raiders-of-the-lost-ark/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/ancient-geeks-7192842/ancient-geeks-episode-73-raiders-of-the-lost-ark.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}