Nerds of Albuquerque: Join us for Nerd Nite #12 on Thursday, April 3rd at 7pm.
Spring has sprung, the cottonwoods are flowering, and we’ve got a great set of talks lined up for you all.
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture series that takes place in bars in 100+ cities around the world. And this is our local Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink!
Our talks:
Title: How to Get a Therapist 101
Blurb: Do you know someone who needs a therapist? Better yet, do you need a therapist? This talk will dive into the ins and outs of getting a therapist in 2025 — all you need to know about the process and helpful recs from a therapist herself. 🫡
Bio: Dr Natalee Price is a clinical psychologist who specializes in researching child emotional development, providing trauma focused therapy services to children and families, and implementing community based grant projects. She has been both a therapist and a client over the years and believes the process should be accessible to all.
=======================
Title: Évariste Galois: The Most Badass Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of
Blurb: Évariste Galois made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of mathematics during a pivotal period in math’s history: 19th Century France. Unfortunately, Galois was way ahead of his time (not to mention a political dissident), so the importance of his work was not fully understood until well after his violent death at the age of 20. In those 20 years, Galois accomplished more than most of us will accomplish in a lifetime, both in and out of the classroom.
Bio: Chris Alires is a math educator who has worked at colleges, universities, high schools, and libraries. Chris has a passion for making math education more accessible, both conceptually and logistically. For more talks about the intersection of math and politics, look for “xhris_a” on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@xhris_a)
=======================
(One More To Come!)
=======================
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and to meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque!
And, as always, if you’re interested in giving a talk of your own, hit us up at https://tiny.cc/nnabq-speaker . Nerd Nite happens because of nerds like you!
Nerds of Albuquerque: Join us for Nerd Nite #11 on March 6th!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture series that takes place in bars in 100+ cities around the world. And this is our local Albuquerque chapter!
This will be a special “Birthday Edition”, celebrating the official one year anniversary of the founding of the Albuquerque Chapter. There may be an Excel Sheet sheet cake. And party hats.
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, March 6, at 7:00pm — this month back at Green Jeans!
Our talks:
Title: Micro and Nanoplastics: Don’t Let your Brain Be the Last to Know!
Blurb: As global levels of micro and nanoplastics rise, so do concerns about their impact on human health. Recent studies have confirmed the alarming presence of these tiny particles in vital organs like the kidney, liver, and brain. Surprisingly, brain tissues show higher concentrations of plastics, often in the form of nanoscale shard-like fragments. These findings raise critical questions about how plastics accumulate in our bodies and, more importantly, what they are doing to our brains. Join us for a discussion on how these micro and nano invaders may be linked to different health conditions and what we can do to better understand and tackle their growing presence in our tissues.
Bio: Dr. Marcus Garcia is a native New Mexican, born and raised in Las Vegas, NM. He is currently a PhRMA Foundation Fellow at the University of New Mexico’s College of Pharmacy, specializing in toxicology. His research primarily focuses on the environmental and health implications of micro and nanoplastics, investigating their effects on human tissues, reproduction, and development. Dr. Garcia has been working on innovative techniques to quantify micro and nanoplastics in biological samples, aiming to better understand the potential risks these pollutants pose to human health. With a PharmD from UNM and extensive research experience, he is committed to advancing clinical and translational toxicology to better inform public health decisions and foster sustainable solutions.
Title: The Newsboys Strike of 1899
Blurb: Popularized by the 1992 Disney musical, “Newsies,” The Newsboys’ Strike of 1899 was a youth-led movement that saw the newsboys of New York demanding liveable wages from the two largest publishers of the time, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. Though it took place at the turn of the 20th century, the themes of the strike– mobilization, resistance, and triumph over greed– are very much relevant to the struggles workers face today.
Bio: Leyna Inberg is a nurse practitioner, writer and educator. She specializes in treating mood disorders, ADHD, and PTSD, and teaches in the Oak Street Nurse Practitioner and Behavioral Health Fellowship programs. This is her second Nerd Night.
Title: Secret Lights AI : The Science of Fiction, Or how a short story keeps me awake.
Blurb: A meta narrative of how AI is catching up with science fiction.
Bio: Taylor Cheek is a writer and multimedia artist known mostly for his live performances in comedy and music. In 2019 he developed the concept for a comic book called Secret Lights. In this talk he covers the story and how the world changed around it.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and to meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque!
And, as always, if you’re interested in giving a talk of your own, hit us up at https://tiny.cc/nnabq-speaker . Nerd Nite happens because of nerds like you!
Nerds of Albuquerque: Join us for a Valentines Day edition Nerd Nite #10 on February 13th, 2025! As always, our events are free to attend.
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture series that takes place in bars in 100+ cities around the world. And we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, February 13, at 7:00pm at the back of the downstairs bar area of the Tin Can Alley Food Hall.
Notes this month: 1. After last month’s successful event, we’re back at Tin Can Alley! Join us in the back room on the bottom floor. 2. Note that this is technically the *second* Thursday in February (a departure from our usual first Thursdays) – We’ll be back after this on our regular first Thursday schedule with our March 6 event!
Our talks:
Title: Patently in Love
Blurb: Have you ever wondered why the legal system never tells us how to live, laugh, and love? It merely tells us what not to do. Enter patent law… the legal construct that describes inventions that change the world. Surely, patent law has something to say about love. Maybe, maybe not. Come chat about the intersection of love and patents, learn a bit about intellectual property law, and bring your questions (*insert boilerplate language that this is not legal advice and we are not in an attorney-client relationship).
Bio: Dr. Helen Baca loves all things related to science, art, and obscure intersections therebetween. She has been/is an attorney, scientist, artist, teacher, and/or enthusiast of patents, chemistry, sculpture, baking, and/or puzzles. Helen has a Ph.D. in Chemistry, a J.D. with a certificate in Intellectual Property Law, and aspires to get another terminal degree in a non-adjacent field.
Title: Lust In Translation: Debunking Sexual Desire and Arousal
Blurb: Think you know the ins and outs of sexual desire and arousal? Well, it’s time to go deeper because odds are, we’re not hitting the important spots. Turns out Hollywood, porn and locker room talk have all given us a massive load of unfortunate falsities so join me for a sexy and science-y romp through the realities of arousal and desire. We’ll be discussing the types of sexual desire, the fallacy of the sex drive, and this little thing called “arousal non-concordance”…to name a few. So grab your beer, get comfy because we’re about to tickle those brain boners…
Bio: Lindsay Thorsen, a Doctor of Physical Therapy specializing in pelvic floor physical therapy (think PT for your private parts), is a lifelong “sex nerd” and a returning Nerd Nite speaker. She is “edging” her career toward blending her expertise in pelvic health with sex educating and is currently *deep* in pursuing a national certification to solidify her street cred. Lindsay’s mission is to improve the sexual literacy and health of her community, making conversations about sex as comfortable and natural as chatting about the weather.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque!
And, as always, if you’re interested in giving a talk of your own, hit us up at https://tiny.cc/nnabq-speaker — Nerd Nite happens because of nerds like you!
Nerds of Albuquerque: Join us for Nerd Nite #9 on January 9th!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture series that takes place in bars in 100+ cities around the world. And we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, January 9, at 7:00pm at the back of the downstairs bar area of the Tin Can Alley Food Hall.
Please note two important changes! 1. Date!!: This event will be on January 9th, the second Thursday in January, as opposed to our usual first Thursday of the month. Given it’s the day after New Years day, we wanted to give folks a bit of a break . 2. Location!!: Due to the cold, we will be trialing hosting this event at Tin Can Alley, located at 6110 Alameda Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113 . We’ll see how it goes at this new location, and may consider hosting there throughout the winter months, with a return to the outdoor space at Green Jeans when the weather warms up
Title: Structural Health Monitoring, AKA The Bridge Doctor
Blurb: We are experiencing a nationwide infrastructure crisis. In recent decades, infrastructure decay challenges, human and social behavior, urban and rural environmental changes, and natural disasters have increased in number, complexity, and frequency. Infrastructure designers and stakeholders need to understand, assess, and manage infrastructure more accurately, and faster. This nerd talk summarizes new research on Human-Infrastructure Interfaces (HII) advancing new bi-directional interfaces between human, machines, data, and infrastructure.
Bio: Dr. Fernando Moreu is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at UNM. Fernando Moreu is a professional engineer since 2010 and has participated in the design and construction of over thirty bridges in seven states in the Midwest. Fernando founded in 2015 the Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab). SMILab advances new interfaces between humans, structures, and data across time and space using control, Augmented Reality, and AI.
Title: Critical Success: What D&D Can Teach Us About Strategic Planning
Blurb: Discover how planning and playing Dungeons & Dragons can enhance personal and professional growth. This talk explores goal setting, problem-solving, and collaboration through the lens of D&D, offering practical tools for success. Perfect for professionals and creatives, it’s a fresh take on using imagination to tackle real-world challenges.
Bio: Hayley Weir is a materials scientist, nuclear chemist, and wildlife ecologist who serves as operations chief for the Air Force Wildlife Management Team. A patented researcher and avid Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, she merges military strategy, scientific expertise, and creative storytelling to help others achieve their goals. Drawing from her unique career journey, she bridges the worlds of strategy, facilitation, and imagination, offering innovative tools for personal and professional success. Through her talks, Hayley inspires audiences to think creatively and approach challenges with precision, adaptability, and a storyteller’s vision.
Title: Make a connection with possibility.
Blurb: Join the Quest Master on an adventure that bridges imagination and reality! Consider how games and quests could be used to solve real-world problems and elevate human consciousness. Dive into a paradigm where fun, creativity, and purpose come together.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Mastering the Atom: Nuclear Physics á la Bill Nye
Blurb: Consider the following: one gram of Uranium-235, which would fit in a cube smaller than your pinky nail, creates enough fission energy to power your home for 2 years! So why is only 20% of the US power nuclear? How does fission work in the first place? What is radiation? Does uranium glow green? What’s the deal with nuclear waste? Can nuclear really help the climate? Discover all this and more as we journey through the quantum realm in homage to your favorite geeky scientist you watched in high school!
Bio: Dr Robert J Olesen earned his PhD in nuclear engineering in Dayton, Ohio, where he patented a novel radiation camera and developed a neural network-based radiation image processor. He has a passion for community, a love of hosting karaoke, and a drive to explore, learn, and share everyone’s unique expertise!
Title: Futures: From Speculation to Reality (or Not)
Blurb: From “Minority Report” demonstrating a cool but unsustainable computer interface to a US president changing foreign policy after watching “Wargames”, possible futures and their designs have been persuasive when experienced in action. Here we’ll huddle over scenarios played out and dive into design fictions.
Bio: Susan Wilhite has collected a couple formal degrees in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, one from UNM. Her professional expertise is in describing evidence-based speculative futures among emerging technology ecosystems for Big Tech firms. She owns Shimoshi NM, a futures think tank, and is a 2024 Sustainable Urban Growth Fellow in Santa Fe. Fun Fact: Susan is noted for her performance of a 5.4 Moment Magnitude scale earthquake.
Title: AI for Humans: Because Robots Wouldn’t Get the Jokes
Blurb: “Holy Sh!t, AI is amazing! Wait… what is it doing? Spoiler: please don’t trust AI with anything too important (said every expert ever).” In this talk, I’ll take you on a rollercoaster ride of my personal discoveries with AI—what it is, what it isn’t, and all the unexpected, often hilarious, missteps along the way. No tech background required! We’ll dive into real-world examples of AI in action (and occasionally inaction), break down the basics of how it works, and explore how the industry went from hype to… well, wherever we are now. Expect sarcasm, simplicity, and maybe even a few surprises about our so-called robot overlords.
Bio: William Tarkington has over 30 years of experience in security, with a specialized focus on the ever-evolving field of AI security—or, as he likes to call it, “the lack thereof.” A seasoned expert in navigating the intricacies of both traditional and emerging technologies, William combines deep technical knowledge with a healthy dose of skepticism. Whether he’s addressing cybersecurity threats or exploring the quirks of AI, William brings a unique perspective shaped by decades of firsthand experience and a passion for making complex topics accessible (and entertaining) to all.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, September 5th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Albuquerque’s Wild Past
Blurb: Albuquerque has a weird and whacky past, from the governor lying about it being founded in 1706 to a later mayor getting the word “ain’t” in the dictionary, and all the buffoonery in between. Joe Hall-Patton recounts several of these stories that lend the city its unique character.
Speaker: Joseph Hall-Patton is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico and a public historian. He specializes in southwestern American violence during the frontier period, having written a dissertation called “‘Great Excitement’: Violent Incorporations of the American Southwest.” He runs the Cynical Historian, which is most prominent on YouTube, where he publishes regular video essays about historical topics.
Title: Deep in your Genes
Blurb: Intergenerational trauma. What is it? How does it affect you, without your even knowing? How can you understand and overcome it, and how can you become a cycle breaker?
Speaker: Rebecca Sonnenberg is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of New Mexico. Rebecca has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Minor in Psychology. She also obtained a Masters Degree in Social Work. Rebecca is certified in trauma focused therapy as well as various other certifications. Rebecca owns Waves Behavioral Health and has a non profit The Lotus Affect. She also co-produces the podcast What in the Actual Mental Health.
Title: From to : The Secret Lives of Emoji
Blurb: Whether we’re dropping a , a , or a , we use emoji every day. But do you really know where these little “picture characters” come from? Spoiler alert: it’s much weirder than you think! Join us on a wild ride through the cultural quirks, historical twists, and oddly technical committee debates that brought us the emojiverse. Discover the eyebrow-raising origins of your favorite emoji (looking at you, MAN IN SUIT LEVITATING ), the hours-long meetings that decided the fate of ANGRY PILE OF POO , and one determined woman’s quest to give the world the DUMPLING emoji. We’ll end with a call to action: how we can get the HOT AIR BALLOON emoji we so sorely need here in Albuquerque.
Speaker: By night, Nat Baca is a co-boss of Nerd Nite Albuquerque, but by day, he works as a director of engineering for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind Wikipedia. In addition to being a current delegate to the Unicode Consortium (the standards body that governs emoji), Nat was an engineer on the team at Apple that introduced the emoji keyboard. He enjoys internet lore, learning languages, and gratuitous emoji tableaux.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, August 8th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Aging – A curable disease?
Blurb: The quest for immortality has been one that humans have long sought after with few results. Recently, critical scientific discoveries have shown that aging can be altered both genetically and pharmaceutically. What could this mean for human lifespan?
Speaker: Olivia Heath, PhD canddiate studying aging in the McCormick Lab, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UNM
Title: Education Outcomes and Card Games
Blurb: Card games provide a unique avenue for reading comprehension for technical fields.
Speaker: Craig Turpin has been an informal Yugioh judge, and played Magic the Gathering for many years. He became particularly interested in the benefits after becoming a lawyer and seeing how early exposure to cards games increases reading comprehension, logic connection-making, and simple arithmetic.
Title: Beavers Will Eat Your Shorts
Blurb: North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a keystone species that can help humans deal with all kinds of environmental problems, like water supply, water pollution, drought, flooding, wildfire and wildlife habitat. This talk begins with some fiction and factoids about streams and beavers in New Mexico, then veers east all the way to Europe where beaver fur was fashioned into fancy felt hats. The story comes back to Idaho where beavers once zoomed around in helicopters and more recently McMansions jeopardized the nation’s wetlands. In New Mexico we look at how we are helping beavers thrive by planting lots of willows, constructing human-beaver coexistence structures, building faux beaver dams and putting wood back in streams.
Speaker: Karen Menetrey (she/her) is living a self-directed life and striving to reach her full potential after a career as a state employee. Following 30 years in water resource programs, she went to work for Rio Grande Return, a non-profit organization that revitalizes damaged ecosystems using low tech processed-based restoration methods. That means they build stuff with plants and sticks and rocks. Karen is an inchoate Canadian and her hobbies include bird watching, not standing up on a stand-up paddle board, talking about fly fishing, and fermenting things. Ever since she went to adult circus camp she has been practicing alternately exposing and suppressing her inner clown.
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, July 11th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Imagining the Future of Public Transportation in Albuquerque: Current Plans and Future Dreams
Blurb: What kind of public transportation system does Albuquerque deserve to meet the current and future needs for our community? Come hear about some short-term plans in the works, some future concepts professionals near and far are dreaming about for our region, and learn more about how you can get involved in transit decision-making and help our dreams become a reality today.
Speaker: Althea Atherton (they/them) is a public transit enthusiast and community organizer with a passion for imagining better worlds. When not daydreaming about the future of our planet, they are spending time with their one-year-old, engaging in a public meeting, or studying Geography. Althea serves on the City of Albuquerque’s Transit Advisory Board, the Victory Hills Neighborhood Association, the Strong Towns ABQ leadership team, and the District 6 Coalition.
Title: I Reread Homestuck So You Don’t Have To.
Blurb: From 2009 to 2016, during the golden years of Tumblr fandom culture, a quirky little webcomic rose to Flash animated infamy. It would be called many things: 8000 pages of steaming garbage, a revolutionary masterpiece of absurdity, just ok I guess, and the era’s most iconic piece of internet culture. But most people just called it Homestuck.
Speaker: Aidan Manning is our resident environmental science nerd and ex-Tumblr girly. They like nice smooth rocks, two thousand mile hikes, overly complex RPG rule systems, 200k word slow burn friends-to-enemies-to-lovers wizard fan fiction, and drinking 4 or 5 La Croix a day instead of going to therapy. And while they are now a pitiful little adult pawn under the grinding wheel of capitalism, they enjoy keeping with the old texts of internet fandom and preserving the noble traditions born therefrom.
Title: A short (and opinionated) history of DJ culture: from fringe to fame
Blurb: Some people call all electronic dance music “techno” and think of the DJ as the superstar in front of thousands of people at music festivals, but the origins of the global DJ and their many sub-genres of dance music are a lot more complex, and a lot more underground. The club DJ as a concept has a long and winding journey that began way back in 1943 and goes through gay clubs and illegal warehouse raves to the mainstream global events of today.
Speaker: Andy Torres is our resident co-host of Nerd Nite Albuquerque. In addition to being a local artist, he is a DJ that has played in clubs throughout the US, and Costa Rica, going by the name DJ andyredrum. He loves video games, science fiction movies, popcorn, red wine, baseball, and cats.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, May 2, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Nerd Nite #3 has the loose theme of: “Hard to Find” – things that are difficult to locate in one way or another, unless you know where to look, of course!
Talk #1: Native Americans in Comic Books Description: A discussion of common Indigenous stereotypes & misrepresentation in American comics.
Speaker: Michael Sheyahshe is an enrolled tribal member of the Caddo Nation and author of “Native Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Study”. He has created comic book illustrations in various online and physical museum displays for the Smithsonian Institution’s NMAI and has been prominently featured in AH Comics’ MOONSHOT: The Indigenous Comic Collection, volumes 1, 2, and 3, for which, Michael served as co-editor. He has created graphic novels as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime’s (OVC) Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials, which provide age-appropriate resources to support children and youth during their involvement with the justice system as a victim or witness to a crime. Michael has also served as Cultural Consultant for Darkhorse Comics.
Talk #2: There is (not enough) Water Underground: examining Aquifer Storage and Recovery in New Mexico with a little help from Talking Heads’ seminal 1984 album, Stop Making Sense Description: Let me tell you a story–New Mexico is letting the days go by without sufficient underground water storage. We will discuss how to burn down the metaphoric house of our statutory and regulatory norms and envision other potential futures for the utility of aquifer storage and recovery. There’s a million ways to get things done, join me as we think about groundwater reform in New Mexico.
Speaker: Rin Tara is interested in water both professionally and recreationally. They serve as staff attorney and water policy and governance analyst for the Utton Center at the University of New Mexico. When not sitting at a desk and writing about water, you can find them lying in the river, cycling near a river, or hiking somewhere with absolutely no water of any kind.
Talk #3: “O”, Really? Hitting the Spots Between Orgasm Fact and Fiction Description: Description: Orgasms…we’re told we should have one every time we have sex, and that they should happen only with penetration and that mine should happen at the exact time as my partner has theirs and that it should resemble a grand mal seizure on top of drenched sheets. That’s a whole lot of “shoulds”…and they’re all inaccurate. Join me while we thrust our way through myths and misconceptions around orgasm gaps, notions of casual sex and coregasms…to name a few.
Speaker: Lindsay Thorsen is a Doctor of Physical Therapy who specializes in pelvic floor physical therapy (think PT for your private parts). A life long “sex nerd”, she is “edging” her career to focus on all things sexual dysfunction related. Her goal in life and work is to improve the sexual literacy and health of her community.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, April 4, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall, and thereafter the first Thursday of the month.
Nerd Nite #2 is entitled: “So You Thought You Knew…”. Our talks center around things that you may know a little bit about but which hide layers of meaning and depth.
Talk #1: Who the F*$# is Tom Bombadil?!
“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow! Bright Blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow!” So we are introduced to this most mysterious and controversial character in Tolkien’s legendarium: Tom Bombadil. Theories abound as to who exactly Mr. Bombadil is, ranging from the banal to the crackpot theory that he may well be Jesus Christ. Join us as we explore them all in this Lord of the Rings investigation.
Speaker: Danny Tallon is a high school science teacher and community theater actor who just so happens to be a super-fan of Tolkien. If you don’t believe him, his license plate reads NOROLIM (which means “giddy-up!” in Elvish), and he ended his last best-man speech with an Elvish blessing that brought an “aww” to the audience. He believes that language and literature are vitally important for our culture, and he loves digging at works of fiction to see what truths are lying underneath. When he’s not over-analyzing every book he reads, he is an avid tabletop gamer, RPG game-master, and movie watcher.
Talk #2: ADHD: Mental Illness or Evolutionary Advantage?
ADHD is a many-faceted condition, and can look different in women and adolescent girls, making it harder to diagnose and understand. What is this condition exactly, and how can we know it when we see it? Hear about origins, diagnosis and fun facts about ADHD.
Speaker: Leyna Inberg works as a psychiatric consultant for Oak Street Health and is an instructor in their FNP fellowship program. She specializes in treating mood and psychotic disorders as well as ADHD in adults. Her Essay, “What It’s Like To Lose A Patient To Suicide As A Mental Health Professional” was published in the Huffington Post.
Talk #3: Bards, Bros, and Booze: A Toast to the Tang Troubadours
The bards of the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 CE) wrote some of the most enduring poetry in all of Chinese history. These poems speak to the character of humanity and the nature of reality, the ephemerality of beauty and the vicissitudes of nature and fate. But most importantly, these guys liked to party. Carouse with them as they drink alone by moonlight, wake up after a night on the town in the middle of their neighbors’ fields, and laugh with them as they lose their teeth and keep drinking, in this rice wine-fueled tour of the characters behind the greatest hits of the 10th century.
Speaker: By night, Nat Baca is a co-boss of Nerd Nite ABQ. By day, he works at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind Wikipedia. He has studied Mandarin Chinese since Kindergarten (oddly, at a public school in Ohio) and has lived and worked in China. He was a co-editor for the travel guide The Insider’s Guide to Beijing, which took him on reporting assignments from learning aerobic pole dancing to studying how to walk like a tiger in order to improve heart fitness.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
.
to 
: The Secret Lives of Emoji
, a 
, or a 
, we use emoji every day. But do you really know where these little “picture characters” come from? Spoiler alert: it’s much weirder than you think! 
Join us on a wild ride through the cultural quirks, historical twists, and oddly technical committee debates that brought us the emojiverse. Discover the eyebrow-raising origins of your favorite emoji (looking at you, 
MAN IN SUIT LEVITATING 
DUMPLING 
HOT AIR BALLOON 
