Nerd Nite Los Angeles - December 2024

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.

https://linktr.ee/nerdnitela

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: How To Slap A Nametag on A Giant: Discovering the Pando Clone Forest 

By Brad Einstein

Summary: Somewhere between the middle of central Utah and the center of middle Utah, there grows a unique arboreal being of bewildering size: The Pando Clone Forest, the largest organism on earth (*by dry weight mass, for all you nasty lil' measurement freaks out there). Join federally-recognized forest comedian Brad Einstein as he explores the biological marvels of this fascinating flora, and recounts the tale of how three wrong turns and a loose mule deer spine led to the installation of first-ever educational signage at this underrated wonder of the natural world. 

Bio: Brad Einstein is a 2x National Park Service Artist-In-Residence, a National Forest Service Voice of the Wilderness, and a "Brilliant Comedy Mastermind" according to some very kind exaggerators at Time Out New York. His work, focusing on comedy nature documentaries and climate communications, has been featured in The LA Times, Rolling Stone, Atlas Obscura, and more. He's a Webby Award-winning adventure doc producer, the winner of the 2021 Climate Comedy Cohort, and the writer of The Climate Variety Show, hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Jason Sudeikis. 


PRESENTATION #2: Dreaming of the Internet: How Film Showcased Our Changing Views of the Internet

By Jessie Gender

Summary: From its creation in the late 20th century, the internet has been at the forefront of how human beings have imagined the future. Yet, that vision for the future has continued to shift and change throughout the last few decades - from a vast technological expanse to a hot bed of corporate control and political division. These changing dreams of our imagined future and how we feel about it have been central to how the internet has been depicted in films throughout the decades. So, from Videodrome to Hackers to The Matrix Resurrections, let's look at how movies have depicted the internet and what it says about how we think about the future.

Bio: Jessie Earl is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker known to over 250k YouTube subscribers as “Jessie Gender,” where she breaks down science fiction and pop culture through a political and social lens. Jessie's work has appeared on Gamespot, Microsoft, Out Magazine, The Advocate, Inverse, and Skybound Entertainment. She has also recently released her film IDENTITEAZE, a scifi thriller film starring John de Lancie (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION), Abigail Thorn (STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE/HOUSE OF THE DRAGON) and Jasika Nicole (FRINGE), on the streaming service Nebula that she is currently working to pitch as a TV series.


PRESENTATION #3: The Mineralogy of Everyday Things: Episode – Salt

By Michelle Vanegas

Summary: Minerals play an important role in our everyday lives. We use them in technology, cosmetics, medicine, and even our bodies. Halite is the mineral name for rock salt, and it is the only mineral that we eat. Although it’s commonplace now, that wasn’t always the case. Salt was once so hard to come by that it was worth its weight in gold, and there’s a reason why it was so coveted—it’s a biological necessity. Join science educator and Nerd Nite alum Michelle Vanegas and delve into the fascinating science and cultural significance of this humble mineral with an incredible history.

Bio: Born and raised in Southern California, Michelle Vanegas (she/her) first discovered her love for geology at Pasadena City College, where she decided to pursue a career in science education. She spent a decade working as an educator at the California Science Center, the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, and the La Brea Tar Pits, and taught Earth & Space in the Natural Science Program at Cal State L.A. for the last 5 years. She has a bachelor’s degree in natural science with an emphasis in geology, and in May 2024 she went from studying rocks to studying rockfish and became a master of science in environmental science after discovering a new species.