Throw horns for history and rush the stage* for statistics riffs at the bar show where the nerds are the rock stars and smart is punk af.
Cue it up: Three experts. Dozens of cheeky slides. A bar full of former gifted kids gone feral who love special interest deep dives. This is Nerd Nite DC.
*okay maybe just do this in spirit. Nerds are wild creatures who can be easily spooked by sudden movements.
Nerd Nite DC has been DC’s favorite irreverent lecture series since 2009.
In honor of spooky season, your Nerd Nite team is bringing you an extra-special Halloween spectacular for October’s show! Not only will we have our usual three mind-blowing speakers, audience games, and overall rowdiness, but we’re also featuring the dazzling burlesque of Aquarius Moon AND the inimitable Prudence Blowhole performing three original spicy songs from “S*x Monster” about some of our favorite monsters and their lore.
PLUS– come in costume and participate in our super-nerdy costume contest during one of our breaks, and you could go home with a nerdy prize. Will your costume require a Ph.D. to get the joke? Well, we want to see it! We’ve got tricks, treats, dance playlists, and the ultimate Halloween pregaming party!
Your host this month is legendary chaos gremlin Diva Darling, joined by our three wildly entertaining and wickedly smart speakers giving three must-see talks:
– Aquarius Moon, “The Revolution Will Be Teased: Understanding Burlesque as a Cultural Force”
From ballroom culture to modern Hollywood, from political pushback to queer nightlife, striptease has shaped more of American culture than anyone realizes. Burlesque has always been more than glitter but a true rhinestone revolt. Burlesque artist Aquarius Moon reveals how costume, character creation, sensual storytelling, and glamour have impacted social movements, representation, gender power dynamics, and even commercial entertainment.
Aquarius Moon is an award-winning burlesque artist, cultural curator, and movement educator whose work sits at the intersection of politics, pleasure, and performance. Named a “Top 50 to Watch” by 21st Century Burlesque and crowned the Queen of Sin City Burlesque, she tours nationally while teaching thousands of women how to reclaim power through sensual movement. Her work examines how striptease, ballroom, and nightlife shape American identity, from Hollywood to political culture.
– Mike Bock, “AHHH!: A History of the Jump Scare”
Join scary movie enthusiast Mike Bock for a thrilling journey from the movie palaces of the early 20th century to the viral frights of the internet age. Plus, see a live demo on how to create your very own jump scare in PowerPoint!
Mike Bock is a DC area comedian and science communicator. He has written, produced, and taught sketch comedy for over a decade, with performing credits at Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, SketchFest Seattle, DC Sketchfest, and others. He works for the Smithsonian Institution.
– Alex Hillman, “Drift, Incentives, and Control: How the Systems Around Us Fail”
Complex systems and major institutions don’t fail because people are evil (well, mostly). They fail because people are rewarding inside incentives that are completely fucking insane. And once you understand that, you stop asking “Why are people so stupid?” and you start asking the much scarier question: “What is this system rewarding?” Because whatever it’s rewarding… that’s what you’re gonna get. Every time. But don’t worry– we’re also going to talk about how to prevent those fails!
Alex Hillman is a DARPA Program Manager who allocates technology investments at the nexus of AI, Cyber, and complexity management, as well as an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 15 years of experience as a data scientist and aerospace engineer. He holds masters degrees in operations research, systems engineering, and flight test engineering, and completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aero/Astro. Fun fact: after a catastrophic scheduling error in undergrad, he is now proficient in Russian and Ukrainian.
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DOORS 6PM | 21+
Doors open at 6, show at 6:30. Talks are 15 minutes with a 5 minute Q&A, and during the breaks, you can play along in our “alternate talk titles” competition to try to win a free drink on us. It’s rowdy, interactive, and the most fun you’ll have learning something all month.
The show is on the second floor of DC9 and is mostly standing room with limited seating available on a first-come, first served basis.
Nerd Nite DC is produced by Rae Pendergrass, navi, and Diva Darling.
Throw horns for history and rush the stage* for statistics riffs at the bar show where the nerds are the rock stars and smart is punk af.
Cue it up: Three experts. Dozens of cheeky slides. A bar full of former gifted kids gone feral who love special interest deep dives. This is Nerd Nite DC.
*okay maybe just do this in spirit. Nerds are wild creatures who can be easily spooked by sudden movements.
Nerd Nite DC has been DC’s favorite irreverent lecture series since 2009.
Your host this month is Nerd Nite legend Rae Pendergrass, joined by our three wildly entertaining and wickedly smart speakers who are all postdoc fellows with the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, giving three must-see talks:
— Dr. Sarah Leventhal, “Jurassic Park-émon: Gotta Catch ‘Em All!”
Where did Pokémon developers come up with the subset of critters known as Fossil Pokémon (which are obtained by reviving their fossils)? Some, like Aerodactyl and Omanyte, are pretty similar to real-life prehistoric creatures whose fossils we’ve seen in museums. But others (Lileep, anyone??) are far less obvious. A real-life paleontologist pulls back the curtain on the inspirations for some of our favorite ‘mons!
Sarah is a paleontologist at the National Museum of Natural History! In her spare time she loves playing Pokémon games, collecting Pokémon cards, and baking cookies (that are not yet Pokémon shaped – but she’s getting there).
— Dr. James Mulqueeney, “How a Sea Creature Became a Love Symbol”
What do The Birth of Venus, medieval pilgrims, and your Valentine’s Day decorations have in common? This talk explores the surprising cultural history of the scallop, tracing how a humble shellfish became an enduring icon of love, beauty, and symbolism.
James Mulqueeney is a paleobiologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who spends his days studying evolution, extinction, and what dead marine animals can tell us about life on Earth. Somehow, this has led him to giving public talks about the romantic history of scallops.
— Dr. Kat Turk, “Earth Had a Dune Phase (Except the Worms Were Cannibals With Donut-Shaped Brains)
500 million years before David Lynch soft launched Twin Peaks in space, Earth’s apex predators were cannibalistic, goo-secreting “penis worms” that breathed through their butts and had brains wrapped around their throats. While probably not facilitators of interstellar travel, these weird worms and their hot new behaviors were potentially responsible for such important paradigm shifts as to usher in our modern “age of animals” — thus setting the stage for everything from dinosaurs to buzzsaw sharks to eight-foot-long millipedes to even, yes, you.
Dr. Kat Turk received a PhD against her will and once ran the world’s largest living colony of penis worms out of a German parking lot. Becoming a Bene Gesserit wasn’t a super feasible option in this economy so she is instead currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where she spends most of her time irradiating rocks for both business and pleasure.
DOORS 6PM | 21+
Nerd Nite DC https://dc.nerdnite.com/ https://www.facebook.com/NerdNiteDC/ https://www.instagram.com/nerdnite_dc/
Doors open at 6, show at 6:30. Talks are 15 minutes with a 5 minute Q&A, and during the breaks, you can play along in our “alternate talk titles” competition to try to win a free drink on us. It’s rowdy, interactive, and the most fun you’ll have learning something all month.
The show is on the second floor of DC9 and is mostly standing room with limited seating available on a first-come, first served basis.
Nerd Nite DC is produced by Rae Pendergrass, navi, and Diva Darling.
Throw horns for history and rush the stage* for statistics riffs at the bar show where the nerds are the rock stars and smart is punk af.
Cue it up: Three experts. Dozens of cheeky slides. A bar full of former gifted kids gone feral who love special interest deep dives. This is Nerd Nite DC.
*okay maybe just do this in spirit. Nerds are wild creatures who can be easily spooked by sudden movements.
Nerd Nite DC has been DC’s favorite irreverent lecture series since 2009.
Your host this month is the iconic navi, joined by our three wildly entertaining and wickedly smart speakers with three must-see talks that feel eerily appropriate for our dystopian times (but we promise will still make you laugh!):
– Brandon Ingram: “Everything in Your House Wants to Kill You: An Introduction to Fire Safety
Ever wonder that things in your house secretly want to kill you? Spoiler: it’s all of them. We’ll be learning about some of the most common fire dangers in the home and how you can protect yourself from them.
Brandon is a full-time fire protection engineer and part-time sketch comedian. When he’s not keeping architects from accidentally burning you alive, he’s writing/performing with Rails Comedy and running a bootleg comedy club out of his living room.
– Lindsey Dennis, “Go Jars: Financial Planning from Squirrels for Women and the Paranoid in General”
Go Jars. Mad Money. Cash Stash. Hiding money around your house for emergencies or out of paranoia is a time honored tradition – at least in a family descended from a bootlegger.
Lindsey is an attorney from the PNW from a matriarchal family of single moms. Lindsey is not a financial planner (they went to law school, do not listen to them for actual financial or life advice) but is a fan of finding things they forgot they put places and hoarding jars.
– Abby McClain, “The Meaning of Life is Death & Friendship”
Why do we drop everything for our friends when they’re going through a breakup, or seek comfort in community after a loved one dies? Humans are chemically wired to rely on friendship in times of stress, and when someone in our social network dies, that mechanism helps us compensate for the loss. Nonhuman animals rely on social bonds much like humans to help raise their young, defend from predators and the science says that social bonds help animals live longer, just like they do for us. But do animals know what death is? Or what it means for the friends to die? We’ll take you behind the scenes on the science of loss, comparative thanatology, and what we know about death in the social lives of our closest relatives.
Abby is a PhD Candidate at George Washington University studying wild chimpanzee behavior. She’s interested in how death and loss in social groups can inform what we know about social bonds in nonhuman species and does fieldwork at Gombe National Park, Tanzania.
Doors open at 6, show at 6:30. Talks are 15 minutes with a 5 minute Q&A, and during the breaks, you can play along in our “alternate talk titles” competition to try to win a free drink on us. It’s rowdy, interactive, and the most fun you’ll have learning something all month.
The show is on the second floor of DC9 and is mostly standing room with limited seating available on a first-come, first served basis.
Nerd Nite DC is produced by Rae Pendergrass, navi, and Diva Darling.
