Screens of the Stone Age

They keep making them, so we keep reviewing them! In the Blink of an Eye (2026) tells the tragic tale of an adorably precocious child’s radicalization and eventual transformation into a billionaire tech bro who destroys the earth. It’s a triptych of past, present, and future, taking us from an endearing mixed race Neanderthal family, to Rashida Jones’ groundbreaking PhD research, to a genetically engineered sci-fi Kate McKinnon’s quest to find the next planet to destroy. It’s alright, I guess.

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In this episode:

Longevity-obsessed tech billionaires: https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/11/health/kara-swisher-longevity-wellness

Kepler 16b: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-16b

The ichnology of White Sands (New Mexico): Linear traces and human footprints, evidence of transport technology? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qsa.2025.100274

RNA World: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world

Hairdos in prehistory: https://richlyadorned.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/hairdos-in-prehistoric-europe/

How to order authors in scientific papers: https://wordvice.com/blog/journal-article-author-order/

How to format genus/species names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d_5jDJvYwY

Berger and Trinkaus (1995) Patterns of Trauma among the Neandertals: https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(95)90013-6

The Divje Babe Flute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHXV07YCGKY

Lawnmower RC Airplane: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SuZLxMIsN6k

Neanderthals and ancient DNA: https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/ancient-dna-and-neanderthals

Ehh, what’s up, doc? But in this case the “doc” is a PhD. Get it? Because we’re... Never mind, we’re back with more classic cartoons! As we move into the second half of the Twentieth Century the characters become more recognizable: Porky Pig, Mighty Mouse, Pink Panther, Woody Woodpecker – we ruin the fun of all these characters by trying to assess what species they are! (Oh wait, I should have said “what’s up, post-doc?”. I’ll keep workshopping it) (Part 2 of 2).

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Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

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Cartoons featured in this episode:

Springtime in the Rock Age (1940): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivk88NXvc_k

Way Back When Women had their Weigh (1940): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUcPMfEGfeI

Prehistoric Porky (1940): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK6quxW5pc0

Mighty Mouse – Prehistoric Perils (1952): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdUiP_giPY

Peabody's Improbable History S3E17 "The First Caveman" (1961): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1r5SZElTzQ

Pink Panther – Prehistoric Pink (1968): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io5oqdC_1co

Pink Panther – Extinct Pink (1969): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y3lt2oWh_0

Prehistoric Super Salesman (1969): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8imjrh

Other Links:

Meganeura: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meganeura

Snail tape measure: https://yarn-fun.com/products/snail-tape-measure

Black Panthers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther

King Cheetah: https://www.reddit.com/r/Awwducational/comments/ga8css/king_cheetahs_are_variety_of_cheetahs_with_a_rare/

What’s Opera, Doc? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9doSQ1cHAw

Bjorn Kurten’s Pleistocene Mammals of Europe: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315126470

Which big cats like catnip? https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8td7ut/does_catnip_affect_wild_felines_the_same_way_it/

Do big cats like catnip? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEdpDl1hSz4

Oldest bows and arrows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_and_arrow#History

Strawberry leopard: https://nypost.com/2019/08/20/rare-strawberry-leopard-photographed-in-south-africa/

Woody is an Ivory Billed Woodpecker: https://ivory-billedwoodpecker1.blogspot.com/2012/03/woody-woodpecker.html

Today we’re digging deep into the Stone Age of cinema and reviewing classic cartoons about prehistoric people. From the world’s first animated dinosaur to the advent of colour film, we watched cartoons featuring Felix the Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Daffy Duck, a seriously copyright-infringing couple of mice, and a disturbing amount of sexual violence. (Part 1 of 2)

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Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

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Cartoons featured in this episode:

Gertie the Dinosaur (1914): https://youtu.be/32pzHWUTcPc

Why they love cavemen (1921): https://youtu.be/5ikoWsHLicA

Felix in the Bone Age (1922): https://youtu.be/97V_6O3iHbE

Stone Age Stunts (1930): https://youtu.be/Ojdjl3VEnn4

The Stone Age – Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1931): https://youtu.be/wqayvsVPnlo

Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939): https://youtu.be/X2tgbncOoMk

Other topics:

Mr. DNA’s Science Lesson – Jurassic Park: https://youtu.be/1Uq5WSzUaTQ

Microraptor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microraptor

The Invention of Prehistory (2024) by Stefanos Geroulanos: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324091455/

Anas rubripes, the American Black Duck: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_duck

Black Swedish duck: https://livestockconservancy.org/swedish-duck/

Sinclair Oil: https://www.sinclairoil.com/dino-history

Primal (2019-) is an animated series by Gendy Tartakovsky set in an alternate prehistory in which Neanderthals and dinosaurs coexist. Setting aside the anachronisms, this series has received critical acclaim for its emotional depth and unique visual storytelling format. Kim doesn’t care about that—she was too traumatized by the first episode to watch any further.

Get in touch with us!

Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

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Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

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In this episode:

Watch Gendy Tartakovsky’s Primal on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/primal-s-2-e-10/Primal+S1E1.mp4

Listen to our episode on Ironmaster (1983): https://screensofthestoneage.com/podcast/episode-58-ironmaster-1983/

Platt et al. (2026) Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aea6774

Weaver and Hublin (2009) Neandertal birth canal shape and the evolution of human childbirth: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0812554106

Ceratosaurus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratosaurus

Giganotosaurus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giganotosaurus

Dinosaur colouration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_coloration

Darwin's Acid - Baba Brinkman - Rap Guide to Evolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apICqy01jo4

Neanderthal fishing: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106731

Trinkaus and Villotte (2017) External auditory exostoses and hearing loss in the Shanidar 1 Neandertal: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186684

Megalania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalania

Voay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voay

Mekosuchus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekosuchus

Today we’re yelling at all you young whippersnappers to get off our lawn! That’s right, your favourite elder millennial academics are reviewing AI generated caveman slop. It’s a world of polydactyl chad-panzees and GIGO-chads, when men were apes and women were dirty supermodels. Are we witnessing the extinction of human creativity, or are we just stuck in the stone age and refusing to evolve?

Get in touch with us!

Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

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

Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com

Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

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In this episode:

You can see the complete list of images and videos we reviewed in this episode in this document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U5q3NPTsoZxdTIjlesyLd39PhDNxQcIL/view?usp=sharing

Neanderthal skull characteristics: https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/3-s2.0-B9780123786326000173-f17-26-9780123786326.jpg

Magnani and Clindaniel (2025) Artificial Intelligence and the Interpretation of the Past: https://www.doi.org/10.1017/aap.2025.10110

Why does AI screw up at hands and fingers? https://www.britannica.com/topic/Why-does-AI-art-screw-up-hands-and-fingers-2230501

People prefer human generated content over AI: https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/people-still-largely-prefer-humans-create-content-not-ai

George Jetson and Rosie the robot: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/116/293/343/488/042/214/original/d947ba2b674951c1.webp

Microsoft’s “Tay” chatbot became a Nazi in 16 hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot)

"Walk My Walk" by Breaking Rust topped the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart in 2025: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Rust

Neanderthal fingerprint: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0g9jv707yo

Neanderthal high-pitched voices: https://www.discovermagazine.com/if-neanderthals-were-able-to-speak-they-may-have-had-high-pitched-voices-46297

Neanderthals boiled water with stones: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/neanderthals-had-houses-hot-water-180956438/

Neanderthals distilled birch tar: https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-uncover-hearth-neanderthals-may-have-used-make-tar

Cue Scratch.WAV by Racche - License: Attribution 3.0: https://freesound.org/s/160907/