Nerd Nite St. Pete-December 8th 2026

*Nerd Nite St. Pete will be at Coastal Creative *

Food Trucks open at 6pm:

Carupano Kitchen: https://www.carupanokitchen.com/

Hangry Hungarian: https://www.hangryhungarian.com/

Learning hits different with a drink in your hand and smart people around you. Nerd Nite is a worldwide phenomenon, popping up in over a hundred cities, including right here in St. Pete.

Each month, three passionate presenters take the stage for fascinating and fun 20-minute talks on things they truly geek out about. You will get to sip cocktails, eat from local vendors, mingle, laugh, and follow curiosity wherever it wanders.

Think of it as a lecture series that ditched the podium and grabbed a beer instead.
Drink. Learn. Connect. Come for the fun facts, stay for the conversations, and leave knowing something you didn’t when you walked in.

Doors open at 6pm. Presentations begin promptly at 7pm.

Tickets are $6.91. All tickets will be sold online.
No need to print tickets: Give us your name and we will check you in.

Check out this month's speakers:

Dane Leavy

You’re Not Failing Fitness… Fitness Is Failing You

You’ve tried the workouts. The classes. The mobility routines. Maybe even that one thing Instagram swore would “fix everything.” So why do you still feel tight, beat up, or stuck? This talk unpacks why most fitness advice misses the mark, how your body is actually adapting behind the scenes, and why the real solution isn’t doing more—it’s doing what actually fits your body.

Dane Leavy, is a local Active Life Professional—and the guy people usually find after workouts stop working. I help people get out of pain, move better, and build strength that actually carries over to real life (not just looking good and doing random exercises). Instead of handing out generic programs, Dane breaks down how your body works, figure out what’s actually holding you back, and build a plan that fits you. His approach blends biomechanics, skill development, and just enough reality-check to make you rethink what you’ve been doing. If you’ve been doing all the “right” things and still feel stuck, then this talk is for you!

John Tressler

Implications of a Sunset: The Science behind an Understanding of what we are seeing from the Tiki Bar on a Florida Beach

As Scientists, we seek to explain Nature as we see it. We look at some of the discoveries that have profoundly changed our lives, and try to answer the questions we might ask when observing a Sunset. It "sets"because the Earth is round (how that was determined), spins (conservation of angular momentum - what's that?), circles the Sun (Aristarchus/Copernicus figured it out), why it looks red (and why's the sky blue and clouds are white) (rayleigh scattering). It took 7 scientists working over 23 Centuries to bring you your newfound understanding of this sunset… They changed our lives.

John has a Ph.D. in Optical Physics and worked for a number of companies on (largely classified) programs during Reagen's "Starwars" and later. He later owned a metal casting company and in a 3rd career started a company that designed and installed residential "smart house" systems. He is currently a member of ASPEC (The Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College) where he teaches some science classes and learns from other members as a "student" in a variety of interest groups. Along with his wife Kim and basset hound Cleo, he is a snowbird, spending summers in our 1884 Queen Anne Victorian in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

Dawn K Cecil

Murderous Lullabies & Guilty Pleasures: The Psychology, History, and Mild Shame of Being a True Crime Fan

Has your childhood love of bedtime stories transformed into putting on a murder podcast to fall asleep? You are not alone. People engage with murderous tales in different ways and for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at what true crime is, why it is more popular than ever, who consumes it, and what we know about the very normal, slightly embarrassing comfort we get from other people's worst moments.

Dawn is a criminology professor whose research focuses on media representations of crime and justice. She spent several years down the true crime rabbit hole in order to write Fear, Justice, and Modern True Crime (2020). Despite her critical take on the genre, from time-to-time, she still finds herself being lulled to sleep by the soothing voice of Dateline’s Keith Morrison.