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

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: The Last Taboo: What's Too Gross For Scientists to Study?

By Kate Downey

Summary: In 2016, a medical student had an idea: what if you could use menstrual blood to perform certain blood tests, instead of extracting blood with a needle from the arm? That blood is already coming out, why not do tests on it? She told a fellow med student her idea, and he recoiled, calling it "gross" and saying he could never imagine working with menstrual blood. What did HE study? Feces. Kate Helen Downey, host of the Signal Award-winning podcast CRAMPED, takes us through the bias and stigma that has held back important research and seemingly obvious applications, and celebrates the exciting progress that's been made in the last 10 years.

Bio: Kate Helen Downey is the host and creator of CRAMPED, a podcast investigation into period pain recently named by The Atlantic and Audible as one of the 20 best podcasts of 2025. She has developed podcasts and live shows for Wondery, Pushkin, and independent creators, and is the co-founder of the science comedy venue Caveat NYC. Previously, she worked at the Public Theatre and New York City Opera, and gave renegade tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Museum Hack.

PRESENTATION #2: The History and Psychology of Foot Fetishes and Why You Should Think Twice About Selling Pics of Those Tootsies

By Melissa D'Anis

Summary: The general consensus in modern day America is that feet are gross. Men in flip flops at concerts are scorned for bringing those dogs out into the wild - and yet feet are the most searched category on adult sites. We’ve all heard about the underground market for feet pics that put Ashley through college but - why? How? Feet are simultaneously the most popular, and arguably the most stigmatized fetish. Sommelier and researcher Melissa D'Anis will walk us through how these puppies show up in history and examine why psychologists think such a large subset of the population fantasizes about them. And just in case you were thinking about quitting your office job to capitalize on these lower extremity enthusiasts, Melissa has some words of caution and some statistics that may make you think twice.

Bio: Melissa D'Anis is a college graduate who works as a sommelier and bar manager at a fancy country club in Los Angeles which doesn’t relate to this particular topic at all. What she does have is an unquenchable thirst for all things consensually taboo. Kink and fetish are her conversational bread and butter. Needless to say she wouldn’t do well at dinner with your parents but she has acquired some real insight from all her years asking questions and peeking behind the veil.

PRESENTATION #3: Alien Nation: Migration as Part of the Human Experience & the United States’ Role in Their Self-Induced Immigration “Crisis”

By Natalia Reagan

Summary: Migration is an integral part of the human experience. Since the dawn of time, humans have been on the move- Like other animals, our ancestors were nomadic to ensure access to critical resources— food and finding mates. But as humans became more sedentary and populations increased, so did the reasons for migration. Humans move to escape conflict, establish trade routes, find religious & cultural freedom, and to build a better life for themselves- these very reasons are what brought colonizers to the U.S. in the first place. So to fully understand the current U.S. immigration “crisis,” it’s important to understand its origins. From colonizing indigenous land, to destabilizing Latin American governments, to establishing bloody Banana Republics, to supplying arms to nations that use them in human rights violations against their own citizens, the United States- which is a nation of immigrants- is directly responsible for the millions of migrants that have come here to seek asylum.

Bio: Natalia Reagan is a biological anthropologist, comedian, host, professor, and occasional monkey-chaser. She was a comedy writer & correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk, an animal expert on Nat Geo Wild’s Everything You Didn’t Know About Animals, host and writer for Discovery’s DNews and Curiosity Daily, and podcast host and writer for Scientific American’s Science Quickly. And cryptid enthusiasts probably caught her hosting SpikeTV’s10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty or on History’s UnXplained and Unbelievable, and Travel Channel’s Paranormal Caught on Camera. Natalia has been producing science comedy content for herself and various platforms for fifteen years, including her live science comedy show "Survival of the Filthiest", featuring her beloved puppet Dolores the Clitoris.

Contact the host of Nerd Nite Los Angeles - February 2026

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