Nerd Nite SF

Congratulations! You have happened upon our website, where you’ll find information on all our future and past events (going back to 2010!). We are Nerd Nite SF, a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series where people from all walks of life give presentations on everything from video game design to historic shipwrecks. We’ve hosted mimes, musicians and everyone in between, with the goal of being entertaining, silly, and most of all, educational. Come learn a new fact, make a new friend, or try a new drink! Rickshaw Stop creates a special drink based on the month’s presentations!

It’s the SpoOOOOOokiest month of the year and we’ve got some tricks and treats up our sleeves! Zombies, aliens, LEGOs, and radioactivity – there’s something for everyone at our show on October 23rd at 7pm at the Rickshaw Stop.

Featuring Friends of the Show:

Beats by DJ&Jelly

Tarot by Beneficent Coach

The SF Public Library

The heat is rising in San Francisco, and you know what that means: late summer has finally arrived, and back-to-school season is finally upon us. This time around we’re focusing on the fun parts of academia, so whether you want to learn about the science of psychedelics, how to study geysers (and not get blown up), or just how to learn better, we’ve got something for you!

Your favorite monthly lectures are September 18th at 7pm at the Rickshaw Stop. Tickets $15

Imran Khan was appointed Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics in 2022, and now serves as an adviser to the organization. He’s been working at the intersection of science and society for most of his career, with previous roles including being CEO of the British Science Association, and Executive Director of the UK’s Campaign for Science and Engineering. Born and raised in Manchester, England, he now lives in a floating home in Sausalito, California. He loves trail running, gaming, bothering his dog, and trying to make the perfect daal.

Marc “Zeke” Kossover was an Albert Einstein Distinguished Education Fellow and 21-year veteran teacher before dying and going to teacher heaven becoming an educator at the Exploratorium.

Mara Reed made the questionable financial decision to shoehorn her geyser obsession into PhD study at UC Berkeley. When not watching water boil or trying to graduate, she likes to rappel down strange holes in the ground to pursue cave photography. Her favorite place to be is asleep in bed.

Friends of the Show:

Beats by DJ&Jelly

Tarot by Beneficent Coach

The SF Public Library

Answers to these questions – and more – will be at our August 21st show!

From cars and dishwashers to phones and all things AI, semiconductors are everywhere in most of modern society, and their relationship with the climate is extremely complicated. In 2021, the semiconductor industry accounted for an estimated 500 Megatonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, the same as over 100 million gas cars on the road. But there is potential for positive change and impact. Join Joe Palazzo on his lifelong journey to unpack and share his hope for the complicated relationship between semiconductors and the environment.

Joe Palazzo is a Technical Program Manager at Google and a former semiconductor process engineer who left the factory to pursue sustainability. That detour led him to earn a PhD in Environmental Science & Management from UC Santa Barbara, where he was hand trained in industrial carbon impact modeling by Professor Roland Geyer. This unique background led to a career at the center of semiconductor industry decarbonization. In his time at Apple and Google, Joe helped conceive and shape the Sustainable Semiconductor Technologies & Systems program at Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, widely considered the world’s most advanced effort to tackle the climate impact of semiconductor production.

Do you ever think about how we got here? Do those thoughts ever span back to the very first microseconds of the universe after the Big Bang? Before matter formed atoms, and atoms formed stars, and star dust formed planets, and on at least one planet, life evolved enough for you to read these words, some of the antimatter created during the Big Bang must have disappeared. Without this missing antimatter, there would be no stars or planets, and no you – making matter-antimatter asymmetry the ultimate existential problem. Join us on the journeys of scientists trying to figure out the fate of this missing antimatter, spanning from deep underground caverns to the depths of outer space.

Tessa’s PhD research centered around searching for exotic phenomena in double beta decay, which means she spent a lot of time in a mine babysitting a capricious particle detector. One of the exotic phenomena she was searching for would help resolve the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem. They never found it. She then did a postdoc searching for dark matter.  They never found that either. Tessa decided she was tired of searching for elusive exotic phenomena and moved to San Francisco to work in tech. She spends her free time singing in a cover band called Lady and the Tramps.

Symbiotic Restoration partners with beavers to create healthy habitat, fire resilience, and naturally draw down carbon out of the atmosphere. We’ll dive into the ins and outs of process based restoration and see how humans can have a powerful effect in rebuilding critical ecosystems

Samuel has worked in the climate sector for a decade, with experience spanning ecological restoration, entrepreneurship, education, activism/policy advocacy, and wildlife tracking. He also sings, plays banjo and upright bass.

It’s Hot Nerd Summer and we’re playing the hits! We’re bringing the traditional trifecta of “sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll” into the modern age with sexuality in video games, re-matriation of psychedelics, and the real life inspiration behind the darkly comedic film “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” It’s going to be a wild ride, and where else would you rather beat the summer heat?

Tickets Here!

“The Warrior Monk Revisited”
By: Dave Wegbreit

A look at Jim Channon, the U.S. Army lieutenant who inspired the film Men Who Stare at Goats, his attempts to bring the New Age into the United States army, and the lessons we can learn from the last hundred years on how to do better together.

Dave Wegbreit contains nerdy multitudes. These days he helps teams develop business software and obsesses over processes and frameworks. In the past he has produced video games, covered the school bus industry as a journalist, and written and directed a take on Vagina Monologues about classic movie monsters.

Come one, come all to our Juneteenth show on (when else?) Wednesday, June 19th at the Rickshaw Stop! We’ll be celebrating Black nerds in the Bay Area and their brilliant talks about the ecological chaos caused by domestic cats, the Blackness of birds, and the incredible legacy of the movie FernGully. Join us!

Tickets Here!

Tyus Williams – “Claws & Consequences: How Feline Frenemies Shape the East Bay Ecology”

Join Tyus at Nerd Nite’s Juneteenth show for a purrfectly quirky exploration into the ecological havoc wreaked by our beloved yet mischievous domestic cats in the East Bay. From prowling predators to cuddly companions, discover the untold tales of feline folly and their impact on local wildlife. Prepare for a whisker-twitching adventure filled with humor, insights, and a few surprise guests (no, not your cat)! Let’s unravel the mysteries of our furry friends and their pawprints on the environment. 

Tyus Williams is a third-year PhD candidate and NSF Fellow at UC Berkeley in the Schell and Brashares labs studying carnivore and spatial ecology. Currently, his work is on how the ecological impacts from free-roaming domestic cats in the East Bay might be facilitated by urban environments. Tyus is interested in how human-dominated landscapes may indirectly mediate collision within wildlife communities. He is the author of one of Kirkus Review’s ‘Best Picture Books of 2022 for Animal Lovers,’ A Day in the Life: Big Cats. Tyus is also a passionate science communicator, committed to engaging the public with inclusive efforts.*

Julian Nesbitt – “The Blackest of Birds: Waiting for the Moment to Arise”

About a decade ago, renowned Black birder and professor, J. Drew Lanham wrote ‘9 Rules for the Black Birdwatcher.’ The rule that stuck out to Julian Nesbitt the most was #5: “Black birds — any black birds — are your birds…They’re largely ignored because of their ubiquity and often persecuted because of stereotypes and misunderstanding. Sounds like profiling to me.” This got Julian thinking, in what other ways can black birds, from red-winged blackbirds and others from the actual blackbird family, to corvids like crows and ravens, to nearly all species of penguin, relate to the Black human experience?  And what other birds can we claim as well? Come to Juneteenth Nerd Nite to find out.

In 2006, a young boy watched Animal Planet for the first time and discovered his passion for singing, and the rest was history. Nearly two decades later, Julian is showing no signs of recovering from the nature-lover bug that bit him. Between nature and the arts, an ecologist by day and performer by night, Julian has had plenty of opportunities to nerd out on these two areas of life. Julian, a Birding for Everyone Fellow in the Golden Gate Birding Alliance, has found a way to combine his Blackness with his passions and showcase his knowledge and talents while representing his roots. From classrooms at school, to hangouts with friends, even overseas and now here at Nerd Nite.*

Chelsea Connor – “For Our Children’s Children: The History, Natural History and Legacy of FernGully”

When FernGully: The Last Rainforest was released in 1992, it did what few other animated movies of its time did. It inspired young naturalists and conservationists. A departure from the Disneyfication of wildlife, with real world concerns and inspirations, FernGully is a cult classic. Join Chelsea on a journey through the rainforests of Australia, cataloging the creatures, themes, impact and Burlesque skeletons from a well woven tale that wants to help us save our planet.

Chelsea Connor is an award winning wildlife biologist who does it all. Drawing, painting, sculpting and writing (but not her thesis) to name a few. She is currently a graduate student at San Francisco State University and a Birding for Everyone Fellow through the Golden Gate Birding Alliance. When she is not co-hosting Nerd Nite, you can find Chelsea on social media, procrastinating, making funny birding videos and writing 20 tweet long threads at 4AM about her current hyperfixations.

Our speaker Stepy Kamei will not be able to make it for this month’s show due to unforeseen circumstances; HOWEVER, the brilliant and generous Sahil Bansal will be stepping in to give a talk about SPACE, the celestial objects in it, and the people who have pursued them throughout history: