welcome
Welcome to Nerd Nite Los Angeles!
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 presentations across all disciplines – while the audience drinks along. It’s like TED Talks…but with beer.
We want YOU to give a presentation at Nerd Nite! Anyone interested in sharing their research, passion, or obsession, email la@nerdnite.com with your pitch!
Upcoming events:
SEPTEMBER 12th: Nerd Nite at Busby’s East — GET TICKETS HERE.
Informal, insightful, and accessible lectures at a bar.
Speakers and presentation topics for September’s Nerd Nite:
PRESENTATION #1: Paranormal Ops: The CIA, the NSA, and Your ESP
by Andy Deemer
Summary: The government’s research into brainwashing, mind-control, and LSD — much of it codenamed MK-ULTRA — is well-known. Less so are the government explorations into the paranormal, with CIA and DIA agents trained to read minds, bend spoons, and astrally spy on the communists. Andy explores, and tries, some of his favorite military exercises into the weird.
Bio: Andy Deemer is a media strategist and former government propagandist, and briefly ran “the Uber for Psychics.” His decades of experience improving everyday products for Apple, CBS, and The New York Times Company helped inform his later, more insidious campaigns. He’s also a cult filmmaker, a young-adult novelist, and a sponsor of new religious movements. Andy is a member of both The Global League of Magicians & Mentalists and The Academy of Magical Arts, and is simultaneously a dead-eyed sceptic and a wide-eyed sucker.
PRESENTATION #2: Behavioral Economics, Part 2: This Too Shall Pass
by Tom Chang
Summary: Using examples from research in psychology, economics and neuroscience, USC Professor Tom Chang will explain the science behind why you make so many bad decisions. He doesn’t really think this will help make fewer bad decisions, but hopes you will feel a little better about yourself knowing that you are not alone in being irrational, biased, and easily manipulated.
Bio: Tom Y. Chang is an associate professor of Finance and Business Economics at the USC Marshall School of Business, a research fellow at the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, and a CESR fellow at the Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research. Previously he has worked as a pear packer, house painter, assistant videographer, translator, software manual writer, vet tech, and wedding musician. He holds a B.S. in physics and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, where he was best known for his Ms. Pacman skills and once going a week without food to win a bet. His research has been covered by outlets like The Today Show, The Tonight Show, The Daily Show, NOVA, Planet Money, FT, and The Economist.
PRESENTATION #3: Aaron Burr, Conspiracy, and Treason(?) in the Pre-American West.
by Pooja Nair
Summary: After he was indicted for murder for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, Aaron Burr headed west in search of better prospects. Once there, he linked up with Colonel James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory. Burr and Wilkinson came up with a plot to take over the west and start their own separate country. The conspiracy failed and Burr was ultimately tried for treason, in a trial of the century that defined Burr’s legacy and established how we think about treason, executive power, and the role of the judiciary.
Bio: Pooja is a partner at the law firm TroyGould in Century City, where she practices food and beverage law and business litigation. She will be featured on an upcoming Travel Channel show, Lost Secrets of the American West, and spends her spare time thinking about legal history and Alexander Hamilton.
Nerd Nite takes place at:
Busby’s East
5364 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Busby’s East is a 21+ venue.
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Stay in touch through the links below.