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Screens of the Stone Age

Screens of the Stone Age

Written by: Josh Lindal Dr. Kimberly Plomp and Dr. Ross Barnett
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Summary

 The podcast where scientists review movies about prehistoric people! From The Flintstones to The Croods, from Iceman to Encino Man, from Year One to One Million Years BC, we dig into popular movies about the ancient past and sift the facts from the fiction. Hosts with expertise in archaeology, paleoanthropology, human evolution, paleontology, and paleogenetics take you behind the scenes to learn the truth about cave people like Neanderthals and Cro Magnons, and Pleistocene Megafauna like woolly mammoths and sabretooth cats. Plus, history movies, science fiction, pseudoarchaeology, and dinosaurs!Joshua Lindal Art Nature & Ecology Science
Episodes
  • Episode 128: Caveman AI Slop

    Episode 128: Caveman AI Slop
    May 10 2026

    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

    ArchPodNet:

    APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

    APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

    APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

    APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

    Merch Store: https://archpodnet.com/shop

    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/
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Episode 127: Don Verdean (2015) w/ Dr. Andrew Kinkella

    Episode 127: Don Verdean (2015) w/ Dr. Andrew Kinkella
    Apr 26 2026
    Today we’re reviewing Don Verdean (2015), the story of a washed-up Biblical archaeologist who, under pressure from his financial backers, begins to fake his discoveries. This movie is rife with pseudoarchaeological references, so we’ve invited Dr. Andrew Kinkella back to help us break it down. As a bonus, he uses his film degree to explain why, despite being hilarious, this movie is actually terrible. Dr. Andrew Kinkella’s links: Kinkella Teaches Archaeology: https://www.youtube.com/@KinkellaTeachesArchaeology The Pseudo-Archaeology Podcast: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo CRM Archaeology Podcast: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/crmarchpodcast Get in touch with us! Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com ArchPodNet: APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet Merch Store: https://archpodnet.com/shop In this episode: The Frontonasal Suture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontonasal_suture Is carbon dating fake? Pseudo-Archaeology 180: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/pseudo/180 Ark of the Covenant in Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion#Ark_of_the_Covenant The Oak Island Mystery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island_mystery The Kensington Runestone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Runestone Moundbuilder Myths and Viking Runestones – Great Plains Archaeology Podcast 36: https://www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com/great-plains-archaeology/36 Holy Grail in America (2009): https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/223652-holy-grail-in-america Is There Archaeological Evidence That The Knights Templar Came To America? Mysteries Unearthed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpbBxUrq230 Genesis 19: Sodom and Gomorroah Destroyed: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.19.NIV 1 Samuel 17: David and Goliath: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/1SA.17.NIV Surovell et al. (2026) A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the timeline of human colonization of South America: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw9217 Dog digs up possible link to notorious 19th-century Devon murder case: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/mar/20/dog-19th-century-devon-murder-case-discovery Under the Banner of Heaven (2022): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1998372/ Johnny Jerusalem’s sarcophagus in a Utah dump: https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/8lclrc/friend_found_this_in_a_dump_yardin_utah_btw/
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Episode 126: Luggage of the Gods (1983)

    Episode 126: Luggage of the Gods (1983)
    Apr 12 2026

    Luggage of the Gods (1983) is the surprisingly unproblematic story of a relict tribe of cave people living in the uncharted central part of America who are thrust into contact with the outside world when an airliner is forced to dump its passengers’ luggage while flying overhead. This is a low budget ‘80s caveman movie, so you know what that means: we’re playing Caveman Movie Bingo!

    Get in touch with us!

    Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social

    Facebook: @SotSAPodcast

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

    Website: https://screensofthestoneage.com

    Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

    ArchPodNet:

    APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com

    APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet

    APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet

    APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet

    Merch Store: https://archpodnet.com/shop

    In this episode:

    Watch Luggage of the Gods (1983) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqujHn8_u8M

    Play Caveman Movie Bingo: https://bingobaker.com/#681e1d01d32b436e

    Oryctolagus cuniculus, the domestic rabbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_rabbit

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

    Vic Reeves singing in the style of a club singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2prE-DUyESY

    Urki from Far Cry: Primal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HkrLuV6_Rs

    The Gods Must be Crazy (1980): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080801/

    Cargo Cults: https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/cargo-cults

    QAnon as a New Religious Movement: https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/what-the-study-of-new-religious-movements-can-tell-us-about-qanon/
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    49 mins
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