Nerd Nite Los Angeles - August 2026
Description
Nerd Nite is fun-yet-informative lectures at a bar. It's like TED Talks...but with beer.
We all know that learning is more fun when you’re drinking with friends and colleagues. Thus, Nerd Nite is a monthly event held in more than 100 cities across the globe during which several folks give 20-minute fun-yet-informative and easily accessible presentations across all disciplines – while the audience drinks along.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE BY DJ LdotAdot
FAQ's:
- Doors open at 7pm. Intro at 7:45pm. Presentations at 8pm.
- The Brewyard Beer Company is a 21+ venue.
- There is free street parking surrounding the bar, but we recommend utilizing a ride share service.
PRESENTATION LINE-UP:
PRESENTATION #1: God vs Music: Where Music and Religion Collide
By Richard Gibbs and Rev. Dr. Mary Grace Gibbs-DuPree
Summary: The prolific film composer Richard Gibbs and his sister, the Rev. Dr. Mary Grace Gibbs-DuPree, will present about their fascinating upcoming book, God vs Music. The book examines the often troubled relationship between religion and music throughout history, the effects of which are still distinctly felt to this day. The authors will discuss such topics as The Beatles, Scottish military practices, and the devil's interval dyad in their presentation - come to Nerd Nite LA to find out how they all connect!
Bio: Richard K. Gibbs is a composer of over seventy feature film scores and various television series, ranging from Say Anything, Dr. Dolittle, Battlestar Galactica, and The Simpsons to 10 Things I Hate About You and Queen of the Damned. He was the keyboard player in the seminal L.A. band Oingo Boingo and worked as a session keyboardist for hundreds of projects and artists like Tom Waits, Robert Palmer, and War. Richard toured with Chaka Khan as her music director, and went to Argentina on tour with Tom Jones. He also served as music director for all of Tracey Ullman’s series and for Muppets Tonight, for which he wrote the theme. In 2023 Richard was honored to be elected as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, otherwise known as the Oscars.
The Rev. Dr. Mary Grace Gibbs-DuPree holds an M.A. in religion from Georgia State University and a Ph.D. in the history of religion from Emory University. Her areas of research include classical and Biblical languages, monastic history, and medieval manuscript illumination as well as the early writings of Christian women. She has taught ancient and medieval history at Emory University and Anglican ecclesiology and ethics at Bexley-Seabury Seminary, but much of her current writing and speaking focuses on issues related to disability in the church and the world. She is a priest in the Episcopal Church, serving Good Shepherd Episcopal Church on the outskirts of Atlanta.
PRESENTATION #2: The Real Little Women Were Totally Badass
By Emily Rome
Summary: Little Women somehow tends to get a reputation of being domestic and twee. Anyone who’s read the book or seen a good movie adaptation knows these characters are actually badass, but did you know that the real-life women who inspired the 1868 novel are totally badass? Author Louisa May Alcott’s tenure as a Civil War nurse, youngest sister May’s boundary-breaking art career in Europe, Marmee saving her children from starvation on a commune, and the Alcott family’s activism in abolitionist and suffrage movements - former Nerd Nite LA Co-Boss Emily Rome will unpack all this and more!
Bio: A former Nerd Nite LA Co-Boss, Emily Rome ventured away from LA to earn a master’s degree at the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. Her journalism work includes bylines in Vanity Fair and the Los Angeles Times, and she is the creator of podcast Shakespeare’s Shadows. Emily now lives in the Boston area, where she is an educator and tour guide at the beloved historic house museum Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, where Alcott wrote her iconic semi-autobiographical novel — and where it feels like you’re stepping right into Little Women.
PRESENTATION #3: Why Did Disney Make “The Racist Movie: The Ride?”
By Nicholas Peters
Summary: In 1946, Walt Disney Production’s Song of the South released to near immediate controversy, and for decades lived as a racially-charged, briar-dwelling boogeyman among the company’s storied IP…
Until 1989, when they wanted you to physically ride through it!
Join Nicholas Peters, former Disney creative, as we uncover the practical path from Song of the South and Splash Mountain, to Princess and the Frog and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and reflect on the artistic legacy of a log flume adventure waterlogged with subtext.
Bio: Nicholas Peters is a producer and performer with two decades of experience: one decade of experience at The Walt Disney Company, and another decade of experience as Co-Boss for Nerd Nite Los Angeles. Specializing in legacy brands, Nicholas has worked with some of the world's top franchises, including Pokémon, Mickey Mouse, Disney Princess, Star Wars, and Marvel, and helped develop Disney’s retired Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion brand “Reimagine Tomorrow.” He’s currently Chief Regional Sales Officer at Brewyard Beer Company and develops original works for stage and screen.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
