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Nerd Nite SF Be There and Be Square Past Events T-Shirts Posters Contact Nerds Nerd Nite Global Cities Videos Sponsorships Nerd Nite SF Past Events T-Shirts Posters Contact Nerds Nerd Nite Global Cities Videos Sponsorships Welcome to , 3rd Wednesdays at Rickshaw Stop! 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 , 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! Nerd Nite #142: Time, Tentacles, and Most Delicious Poison Wednesday, May 22nd 7pm Doors Tickets: $15 Why time might be circular: A Linguistic Investigation” By: Stepy Kamei Using the text of Alice in Wonderland as a reference point, follow Stepy down the rabbit hole to investigate the very real possibility that time might actually be happening all at once. However, we can only perceive it as going forwards or backwards because of linguistic constraints. But … what would happen if we broke free from the constraints of language? Stepy Kamei is a writer and podcast host who is equally passionate about three things: poetry, linguistics, and educating everyone within earshot about both of those things. Octopathos or, How to Draw an Octopus” By: Sam Julian Octopus bodies are about as far from human biology as it’s possible to be, and yet people still find them cute. How does this happen, and how can it be exploited to get people to care about ocean conservation? Cartoonist Sam Santos Julian will share his experience designing cartoon octopuses in his graphic novel Octopolis, how the principles of cartooning influence empathy in the reader, and —of course— how to draw an octopus. Sam Santos Julian is a cartoonist and the creator of Octopolis, a graphic novel that he self-published this year. Sam studied Creative Writing at Stanford, and has worked as a game and product designer. Originally from San Diego, Sam now lives in Daly City with his partner and dog. He volunteers as a SCUBA diver at the SF Aquarium of the Bay, where he gets to feed the wolf eels, giant sea bass, and of course, the octopus. Most Delicious Poison” By: Noah Whiteman Scratch beneath the surface of a coffee bean, a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a mold spore, a foxglove leaf, a magic-mushroom cap, a marijuana bud, or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), titillate our tongues (capsaicin), recover from surgery (opioids), cure infections (penicillin), mend our hearts (digoxin), bend our minds (psilocybin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them? Noah Whiteman is an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is Professor of Integrative Biology and of Molecular and Cell Biology. At Berkeley, he is also affiliated with the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, Center for Computational Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Jepson and University Herbaria, and Essig Museum of Entomology. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 to write Most Delicious Poison. We Are Delighted to Welcome Back Friends of the Show: Beats by DJ and Jelly SF Public Library Self-help Tarot with Ben Grandis NERD NITE SF #141: Changing Clothes, Climates, and… Birds? Spring is in the air and with the changing of the seasons come deeper questions about what it means to change.” Change can be as mundane as putting on new clothes – or as complex as getting into an elaborate cosplay. Change can be as world-spanning as human-made climate shifts or as subtle as evolutionary adjustments to the shape of a finch’s beak. Join us for a night of fascinating fun; to learn about how people, laws, and animals change and how you can be a change-maker too! April 17th at the Rickshaw Stop Doors at 7pm / Show at 8pm Tickets Here! $10 Online / $15 Door Foxy McQueen – A Glimpse Into The World of Cosplay!” A peek into the world of cosplay and all that goes into bringing your favorite characters to life! The word cosplay” comes from a blend of two words: costume” and play.” Cosplayers buy or make their own costumes to pay tribute to their favorite characters (from anime, movies, video games, comics, etc) and wear them to conventions, movie premieres, and so much more! Some cosplayers use their craft as a profession, while most do it out of passion as a hobby. Come catch a glimpse of what it’s like to be a cosplayer! Speaker Bio: Foxy McQueen ( @foxyscreamqueen ) is a local California cosplayer and published model. She began cosplaying locally in 2017. Since then, Foxy has cosplayed as over 20 different characters from various different fandoms and has attended conventions all over California and occasionally out of state. She uses a combination of purchased items and crafting pieces to make her costumes. To Foxy, cosplay is more than just a hobby; it’s a lifestyle. Check her out on IG to follow her cosplay journey! Sonja Chen – Can Grazin’ Goats Solve California’s Climate Crisis?” We’ve all heard that goat grazing helps fight California wildfires, but how feasible is the idea really? Behind those cute goats monching on the side of the road lies a complex economic and legal scheme that spans from the backcountry of the Sierra Nevadas to the mountains of Peru. We will explore the ways in which the structure of California’s goat grazing industry obstructs the state’s efforts to address climate change by restricting the growth of a sustainable vegetation management industry. You will never look at grazin’ goats the same way! Speaker Bio: Sonja Chen is a law student at UC Law San Francisco concentrating in social justice and dispute resolution. Spurred by unending curiosity, her wide range of hobbies and interests include urban farming, painting, reading creative nonfiction, swimming, and enjoying nature. She currently owns a boutique events business and an orange cat named Rory. Her favorite mathematical experience is the Fibonacci sequence and her favorite English word is juxtaposition. She is a Gemini and a Wood Dog. Adan Deeb – If You Give a Bird a French Fry: Urbanization’s Effects on Beaks of Darwin’s Finches” We see birds eating things they shouldn’t eat almost daily. This quirky behavior of theirs is commonplace (and kind of cute). But what really happens when birds eat french fries, eggs, or tortillas instead of bugs and seeds? In this talk, we will try to understand one way that urban civilization affects how animals interact with their environment, and how that drives evolutionary change. Speaker Bio: Adan is a biologist passionate about environmental justice and equitable scientific education. She is an unapologetic nerd and spends her free time birding, reading, and consuming her body weight in coffee. We are delighted to welcome our Friends of the Show : Beats by DJ and Jelly SF Public Library Self-help Tarot with Ben Grandis NERD NITE SF #140: Mind n’ Melodies March Wednesday, March 20th Rickshaw Stop – 1155 Fell St, San Francisco, CA 94102 Doors at 7 Tickets $10 presale / $15 door – Available Here ! They say that music soothes even the savage beast, and while we can’t vouch for any beast-related benefits, we are excited to welcome the brain-tingling Dan McCalley and Shell Space to the stage for this month’s Nerd Nite! Dan McCalley – A New Era in Mental Healthcare: Brain Stimulation Therapy for Addiction and Beyond” A (brief) history of alcohol and drug use throughout human society, a look at our previous (not-so-great) attempts to treat addiction, and a final pitch for how...