Date: Wednesday, April 9th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Join us for our last Nerd Nite before summer break!

First is Manushi Vatani with “Martin Shkreli: The Man, The Meme, The Menace”. Manushi says “Join me for the wild story of how a smug hedge fund kid became the most hated man in America—raising drug prices, feuding with Wu-Tang Clan, and somehow still thinking he was the hero. From his meteoric rise to his inevitable downfall, this is the ultimate guide to the internet’s favorite pharma bro.”

Our second speaker is Ken Fager, sharing “A Nerdy Intro to 3D Printing”. It is getting even easier to make just about anything with a 3D printer. Local artist Ken Fager will print a Mini WI live during an introduction to the highs and lows of this creative technology.

Last for the night is Addison Smith: “Castles: The Aircraft Carriers of the Middle Ages”. Anchors aweigh, my knights! These two apparently dissimilar structures fill essentially the same niche in their respective strategic contexts. I’ll be taking you on a whirlwind tour of medieval military history, and modern military/naval history (WWI-present), to make the case that they’re far more similar than they seem. If you still aren’t convinced, feel free to use the Q&A period to poke holes in my theory, as long as you can phrase your objection in the form of a question.

Date: Wednesday, March 12th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Our first presenter is Julie Larson-Guenette with “The heart burns with love and longing in World War II letters”: This presentation introduces a transatlantic public humanities project involving a few thousand letters written in German between 1938 and 1946. I will focus on one particular passionate letter exchange. Excerpts will be translated into English, but you might just happen to learn a bit of German along the way!

Up next is veteran presenter Tyler Wintermute with “In Cod We Trust: A Fish Fry Story”. Friday night, a local supper club. The patrons are gabbing, the old fashioneds are flowing, and you are bewildered. What do I get, you ask? Everyone seems to know their order but you. Fear not, land-dwelling friends! In this talk, I will deconstruct the Wisconsin Fish Fry, with a bit of history, a bit of local fry knowledge, and enough data to fill an oversized relish tray. You’ll leave more confident in your next beer-battered order and perhaps be so enlightened you want to go to every fish fry in town. Or you might just order those boring milquetoast chicken fingers again. It’s your choice!

Last for the evening is Julia Janson, presenting “Zooming in on Wildlife”. Cameras, satellites, and radios have become integral tools in our daily lives. In the twenty-first century, where environmental issues like climate change, development, and pollution have compounded habitat loss, these tools will become critical for monitoring populations of critically endangered wildlife. During this presentation, I will cover some of the basics of remote sensing technology and demonstrate how it can be a powerful tool for supporting wildlife conservation.

Date: Wednesday, February 19th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Our first speaker is Bartje Wakker presenting “Treasure Amongst the Trees: The Beginner’s Guide to Foraging Wild Mushrooms in Southern Wisconsin”. If you’ve eaten mushrooms at the grocery store, you’ve probably only experienced a few varieties, but there’s so many more delicious and fascinating fungi out there! If you want to adventure through the wilds, try new healthy and delicious foods, get a head start on the upcoming and coveted morel season or just find these strange organisms and admire their beauty, then come and listen as I explain everything you need to know to get started, and details on the most common, delicious, and even dangerous fungi to watch out for around the Madison area – maybe even in your own backyard.

Up next is Anu Devkota with “Party like a Mugwump: A Brief History of the 1884 Presidential Election”: Some say that politics used to be a noble activity, where facts mattered and people cared about real issues. But long before our current ridiculous political era, the Gilded Age served up one of the wildest elections in US history. Come learn about a sex scandal, railroad bribery, religious sectarianism, and other tawdry matters related to the election of 1884!

Last but not least is Manushi Vatani, sharing “Lyrics, Law, and Percs: The Young Thug RICO Case”. “Join me for a deep dive into one of the wildest trials in hip-hop history—Young Thug’s RICO case. We’ll break down what RICO actually is, the facts of the case, and the most ridiculous courtroom moments (yes, including the infamous ‘pass me a Perc’ incident). Whether you’re a legal expert or just here for the chaos, this presentation will have you questioning both the justice system and your playlist.

Date: Wednesday, January 22nd
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

First is Lucas McGranahan with “Dark Side of Your Mom: What Freud Got Right”: Sigmund Freud revolutionized modern thought, but his thinking is often caricatured or dismissed. I will defend Freud’s best ideas, no matter how much cocaine he was doing when he thought of them.

Second we have Ania Bialic with “All I Want for Christmas is Warp Technology”! For decades, Star Trek has captured the imagination of nerds and non-nerds alike, with technology that once seemed like pure science fiction—until now. Instant translators, Bluetooth, tablets, and holograms are already part of our daily lives. But what about the real juicy stuff? Transporters, warp drives, photon torpedoes, and food synthesizers—how close are we to turning Federation dreams into reality? Join us for a deep dive into the physics of Star Trek (with a few Picard memes sprinkled in) to explore how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to boldly go.

Our last speaker of the night is Connor Ciecko, presenting “POLISCI1977: A Brief Overview on the Political Happenings of Star Wars”! We all know about the blasters and lightsabers and Han Solo shooting first, but the foundation of why the stars were in a war is a little less clear. We’ll start with the Phantom Menace and work our way to Return of the Jedi and outline the political context underneath each movie in an attempt to explain the unrest in the galaxy. Is Jar Jar Binks the mastermind behind the largest conflict we’ve ever seen on the silver screen? Probably not, but he is the reason why the second Death Star blows up.

Date: Wednesday, December 4th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Our first speaker is Ben Rush with “Unused CT scan data for individual and public health”: CT scans are incredibly valuable for diagnosing medical conditions, but their usefulness does not end with a single diagnosis! Abdominal CT scans contain rich information about the health of our entire bodies, but this information about our muscle, bone, fat, liver, and other organs is rarely used. We will take a tour of how CT scans can be used beyond one diagnosis to inform us about our overall health, shape public health, and potentially redefine aging.

Next to the stage is Erica Christensen, presenting “One Brick at a Time: A Brief History of Lego”. This is one woman’s exploration of the history and cultural impact of her favorite childhood past time.

Last but certainly not least is Michael Yu, sharing his talk “Leave Room for GPT: AI’s Say in Your Dating Life”: Another cuffing season is here, but this time it wants to open up the relationship. Come speed date the newest member of your polycule—artificial intelligence (AI). Learn about its hobbies, interests, and how a $621.19 billion industry is influencing your love life from AI-driven Tinder matches to the people marrying AI (if you want this to be raunchier, you can replace “the people marrying AI” with “AI-powered sex robots”).

Date: Wednesday, November 6th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Join us for an incredible celebration of knowledge and nerdom with the amazing Madison Nerd Nite community!

In addition to our line up of 3 speaker, we will be celebrating with Nerd Nite branded swag for the first 50 attendees, cake, book sales hosted by Lake City Books, and more!

First is Lu Lu with “100 Trillion Neutrinos Through You Each Second: Why They Matter”: Neutrinos, often called “ghostly particles”, can pass through walls, the Earth, and even entire galaxies without interacting. In this talk, Lu will discuss how we have captured neutrinos that originate from supermassive black holes, using detectors located deep in the ice of Antarctica.

Our second speaker is Andrew Park, presenting “Gleaning the Cube”: Dive deep into the wild world of twisty puzzles! From the inception of the Rubik’s Cube to solving in the internet age, learn as much about this silly little toy as twenty minutes will allow. **FREE NERD NITE-BRANDED RUBIK’S CUBES FOR THE FIRST FIFTY PEOPLE TO ARRIVE AT THE EVENT**

Last is returning presenter Rob Lumley with “The Rise and Fall of Erotic Thrillers”: In 1987, Fatal Attraction was the third biggest movie of the year. This was a result of Erotic Thrillers flooding the theater (and video stores) peaking with Basic Instinct in 1992. From 1980’s Dressed to Kill through 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut, let’s look at what caused the rise and fall of this strange genre.

Date: Wednesday, October 2nd
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

It’s our last Nerd Nite in the double digits, and it is a wild one! We are doing an arts/culture heavy evening this time around with three exciting talks!

First is DJ Shotski with “Why polka music is poised for its 100-year comeback (and what that has to do with the 90s swing dance revival)”: Polka became Wisconsin’s official state dance in 1994. Soon another dance craze was about to sweep the nation. Like the swing dance revival of the late 90s, polka is poised to make a comeback. Learn why it’s time to learn how to polka.

Second is returning Nerd Nite presenter Sam Hurley, sharing “Ten Facts about Final Fantasy VII (FF7) and How it Revolutionized Modern Gaming”. Released in 1997, Final Fantasy VII (FF7) was a masterpiece of video gaming. When developer Square (now Square Enix) moved development of their classic Final Fantasy series from Super Nintendo to Sony PlayStation, the Japanese Role Playing Game (JRPG) was officially ushered into the modern era of 3D gaming. Combining traditional RPG elements of fantasy and magic with modern themes of corporate greed, environmentalism, and economic inequality, FF7 builds a unique and beautiful Dieselpunk world of floating cities, high technology, guns, swords, magic, and mysterious Mako energy for the player to explore. With the recent releases of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth creating renewed interest in the series, this talk takes the opportunity to explore the original game and how it was groundbreaking for its time.

Our last talk of the night is brought to us by Matthew Daley: “The Open Gaming License (OGL): What it is, what it does, and where it came from”. Many who were on the internet in January of 2023 recall the mess around Wizards of the Coast’s attempted dissolution of the Open Gaming License (also known as the OGL), but not everyone knows about what the License is or its checkered history. Matt Daley, a game designer who has published over 50 releases under the OGL is here to give you the full story of what the license entails, what it does for the gaming industry, and what publishing game materials under a license means.

Date: Wednesday, September 4th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

School’s in session, and so is Nerd Nite! We are thrilled to bring you three more amazing presenters this month.

First up is Wil Koeb teaching us about the history of pre-film animation!
Second is Rebecca Stone with “Today’s Brain Rot Generation: How to be a Skibidi Rizzler”: Confused by all of gen alpha’s brain rot lingo? Same! But as a teacher of small brains, I have developed a comprehensive key to understating the confusing randomness of the internet. Join me, melt your brain, because nobody wants to be Ohio (that’s bad).
Last but not least is returning presenter ARJ with “Some Like it Raw: Parallelisms between Drinking Raw Milk and Unprotected Sex”. Your hosts never thought they’d have to google images of “sexy milk”, but here we are!

Date: Wednesday, August 7th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Madison Nerd Nite is back from Summer break, and we have got an awesome lineup of speakers!

David Trossman is our first speaker with his talk “The Sounds of the Oceans Between Us”: Jacques Cousteau was wrong: the ocean is not a silent world. And it’s not just because of whales and waves or even human-made sounds. You probably don’t listen to music for the science, just like you don’t listen to comedy to have jokes explained to you. But I’m going to tell you about the science that my own ocean-themed songs are about anyway. At the very least, you may hear music inspired by artists you actually like.

Next up is Chris Ott with “What is High-Speed Rail– and When Can You Ride It?”: In 2010, Wisconsin cancelled plans for a new train to Madison—but it wasn’t high-speed rail. What exactly is high-speed rail anyway? And what are the prospects for getting better American trains running, including for us in Madison?

Our last speaker of the night is Adam Spencer, explaining why we should worry about AI later and not now, but cybersecurity now and not later. AI is disruptive technology that with great potential impact – later. There are no real pathways to real disruption in the near term. Cybersecurity is having a devastating impact now, particularly economically – but in the mid-term there is reason to have hope for positive change.

Date: Wednesday, March 20th
Time: 8pm
Location: High Noon Saloon

Get ready for the final Nerd Nite ’til AUGUST! Come get your fill of nerdiness with three spectacular topics!
First, we have Max Olmsted with “The History of the Nintendo PlayStation Prototype: The Rarest Video Game Console in the World”: Imagine a world where Mario and Crash Bandicoot teamed up! That almost became a reality with the Nintendo PlayStation, a legendary console shrouded in mystery. This presentation dives into its exciting backstory – a tale of a vanished prototype, and a dramatic rediscovery. Get ready to journey into a hidden chapter of gaming history!

Next up is Bartje Wakker taking us into outer space with “Oops! All Neutrons!: The End of Lives of High Mass Stars”: Big stars burn bright and die young, but how do they die? And what happens next? And where do they come from in the first place? Understanding these and their demise can tell us where the elements come from, why there exists as an atomic nucleus the size of manhattan, and even how the strongest material in the universe is… tasty?

Our final presenter til we meet again in AUGUST is Dr. Sarah Koske, getting us ready for Derby Day! She will be presenting “Bat Ship Bray: Why Racehorses Have Crazy Names”: Have you ever wondered why racehorses have such bizarre names? Racehorse names can range from badass (Hades) to funny (Bodacious Tatas), to sentimental (Always Dreaming), so how do these athletes come to be named? Sarah will explain the various horse naming traditions and the complex system of rules that govern the naming of racehorses. We’ll also touch on the psychology behind names and how they might affect your own performance at the track.