Date: Wednesday, Aug 28
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon (map)

The order of the night’s line-up will be announced on the Facebook event the day of the show.

Climate Change is the Grinch: Using winter ecophysiology to predict the fate of our favorite Christmas tree species

Summary: Our summers are getting hotter, but what about the often-forgotten winter? The Christmas tree farming industry depends on the survival of wild tree populations, which live through extreme winters that dictate success in the growing season and beyond. When those soul-sucking subzero temperatures come calling, these overwintering trees must act creatively to survive. But will creativity be enough in a future of warm, unpredictable winters? Learn why winter is Russian roulette for trees, what polar vortices and midwinter heat waves can do, and how climate change is turning some species against themselves. Most importantly, come find out why Christmas trees deserve way more clout for the hard work they do all winter- and what the future might look like for our boys in green.

Rachel Jordan

Presenter Bio: Rachel is from the southern Appalachian region and refuses to leave its trees alone. Realizing that she hadn’t suffered enough during the winter in North Carolina, she moved to Wisconsin last year to start a PhD in Botany, where she continues to study the physiology of her beloved conifers. When not proselytizing about trees to innocent passersby, she enjoys backpacking, fighting people about the pronunciation of “Appalachia,” and disappointing her mother.

Of Possums and Primates: Digitally Reconstructing a Phalangeroid Masticatory Apparatus to Shed Light on the Trophic Structure of the First Primate During a Period of Diffuse Co-Evolution of the Early Tertiary

Summary:Ever wonder about the parallel evolution of phalangeroid marsupials of Australia and the Strepsirrhine primates of Madagascar and how we could use the former species to understand the ecological context surrounding the appearance of the first primate approximately 66 million years ago?

Of course you didn’t!

But despite this extremely esoteric topic, you’ll come away with a little insight as to how our understanding of primate evolution, and hence, we humans, is revealed through two taxa separated by over 160 million years of divergence.

Nicholas Reback

Presenter Bio: Nick is a medical illustrator, animator, and designer currently working for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in downtown Chicago, IL. There he creates visual media to educate patients, research scientists and other medical practitioners on contemporary topics in clinical medical research and discovery. He also owns and operates a freelance medical illustration company, Reback Biomedical Media.

Nicholas received his BFA in product design from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2002. He left his career in design in 2013 to follow his true passion, medical illustration, and received his Master of Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2017. Through his work he seeks to improve the understanding of medical and biological science for a wide range of audiences.

Tycho Brahe: He lived like a sage and died like a fool

Summary: Tycho Brahe was a Danish nobleman. Unlike super rich people today he was an astronomer and actually contributed to our understanding of the universe. He’s got a story that involves SCIENCE!, a fake nose, scandal and intrigue, and a drunken moose.

Jamie Holzhuter

Presenter Bio: Jamie’s one of Madison’s cobosses. He’s talked about a lot of things on this stage before, including the movie Serendipity and vexilollogy. This will be his first time drinking a White Claw on stage.