The Nerd Nites of yore, compiled here for posterity. For more, see our videos and past events on Facebook.
Nerd Nite Tokyo: STAYIN’ ALIVE [live video]
January 15, 2021 (Friday) on YouTube
- Andy Houwen — Ezra Pound and the Last Samurai [video]
- Sarah Crites — In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream: Narrow Escapes & Miraculous Saves in Space Exploration (April 2018) [video]
- Ryosuke Iritani — Economics of the Sexes in Nature: How Organisms Play Games [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo: STAR POWER [live video]
December 4, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Kathryn Elmer — Species Recovery After Collapse [video]
- Saida Caballero-Nieves — Arecibo: The Telescope of Enchantment [video]
- Don Warren — Wherever You Go, There You Are: From the Scilly Seas to GPS [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo: HIVE MINDS [live video]
November 13, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Karamoon — Only Deep Hypertext Can Save The World [video]
- Johanna Rotko — Colorful Microbial Images with Yeasts and Fungi [video]
- Kyogo Kawaguchi — Chirality and Topology in Your Hands [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo: DAGGERS & DROPPINGS [live video]
October 16, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Alex Watson — The Footnote: A Defense [video]
- Hiroyuki Tajima — Projectiles, Pressure and the Stinky Math of Penguin Poo [video]
- Rumpa Pal — Sigma Meets Pi: How Molecules Interact in Quantum Crystallography [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo: EVOLUTION OR EXTINCTION? [live video]
September 25, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Yuri Kimura — YOKOSO! Tour of the National Museum of Nature and Science [video]
- Emi Do — De-commodifying Real Estate: the Co-op Dream that Doesn’t Require Roommates [video]
- Robert Smith? — What can Zombies and Mathematics Teach Us about COVID-19? [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo: BELLY OF THE BEAST [live video]
July 17, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Christine Houser — Fuji-san: The Forces Driving Japan’s Most Iconic Volcano [video]
- Fahrettin Haczeyni — Foie Gras: Protecting the Liver from a Silent Disease (October 2019) [video]
- Martin Skrodzki — Seeing and Recognizing: Two Very Different Animals for Robots [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo 4th Birthday: WATCHWORDS [live video]
June 26, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- John A. Baumlin Jr. — Digital Tools for Democracy [video]
- Steve Marshall — The Psychology of Magic (September 2016) [video]
- Joan Chen — Password Protected? Myths and Risks in Cybersecurity [video]
Nerd Nite ALL-JAPAN EDITION [live video]
May 22, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Otis Brunner — Mining the Deep Sea: A Literal Race to the Bottom [video]
- Chrissie Shears-Ozeki — Solving Mysteries from Traces of Ancient Life [video]
- Catherine Beauchemin — What is a Virophysicist and What Do They Do During a Pandemic? [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #41.5.1b: THE BUG FIX [live video]
April 22, 2020 (Wednesday) on YouTube
- Don Warren — First Stars, Furthest Stars: The End of the Cosmic Dark Age [video]
- Miriam Stadje — The Missing Link: Why Humans Talk and Apes Do Not (February 2019) [video]
- Matt Richardson — Rocket Science: A Risk-Free, Earth-Based, Libation-Fueled Crash Course (September 2019) [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #41.5: RERUN [video]
March 27, 2020 (Friday) on YouTube
- Yuri Kimura — The Dinosaur Hunter under a Lucky Star (June 2019) [video]
- Chelsea Hostetter — A Journey Into the Uncanny Valley of Dolls (March 2019) [video]
- Corey Myers — CO2 Removal: Pumping the Earth’s Stomach (December 2019) [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #41: PIE IN THE SKY
February 7, 2020 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Stefano Di Carlo — After Rescue: the Next Steps in the Life of a Migrant
- Harriet Ocharo — Cloud Computing: You Can’t Live Without It
- Judith Pascoe — On the Bullet Train with Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights in Japan
Nerd Nite Tokyo #40: 20+20
January 10, 2020 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Syrielle Montariol — Neural Networks: Deep Versus Green
- Xiaochen Su — Seeing Sino-Russian Relations at the Grassroots Level
- Anna Murray — “You Mean it’s Just Sounds?”: Randomness and Live Music
Nerd Nite Tokyo #39: FEEDBACK
December 5, 2019 (Thursday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Kristiina Jokinen — Boundary Crossing Robots
- Bektur Ryskeldiev — Everywhere but Here: How Extended Reality is Changing the Ways We Communicate Online and Offline
- Corey Myers — CO2 Removal: Pumping the Earth’s Stomach [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #38: RISK & REWARD
November 8, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Deron Marquez — Casinos Are Coming: What Japan Can Learn from American Tribal Gaming
- Julia Marino — Kumano Kodo for a Cure: A Journey of Hope and Healing in Japan
- Don Warren — Interstellar Memes
Nerd Nite Tokyo #37: COSMIC COUPLING
October 11, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Evan Fallenberg — Sex on the Page: How Writers Deal with Writing the Sex Scene
- Fahrettin Haczeyni — Foie Gras: Protecting the Liver from a Silent Disease [video]
- Sarah Naimi — We Are Stardust: A Nuclear Physicist Explains What It Really Means
Nerd Nite Tokyo #36: CYBER⚡️SPACE
September 6, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
- Michah Dowbak — Mad Dog Jones: All Dreams Simultaneously
- Chris Gerpheide — Models All the Way Down: Making a Programming Language
- Matt Richardson — Rocket Science: A Risk-Free, Earth-Based, Libation-Fueled Crash Course [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo x Stand Up Tokyo: Test Tube
July 20, 2019 (Saturday), The Millennials Shibuya, doors open 19:00, start 19:30. ¥2000 incl. 1 drink
▶️ Facebook event | Photos
Nerd Nite Tokyo #35: EXPRESS YOURSELF
July 12, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Margo Brennan — VDay Osaka: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls
- Tom Kelly — Single Cells: A Revolution in Biology, Medicine and Beyond
- Matt Kaemmerer — Modes and Moods: How Musical Scales Create Emotion [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #34: DRONES N’ BONES
June 14, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Yuri Kimura — The Dinosaur Hunter under a Lucky Star [video]
- Jan Jaap van Assen — Seeing Goop
- James Reynolds — Disasters and Drones: Capturing Nature’s Exceptional Events
Nerd Nite Tokyo #33: GENERATION FLY
May 10, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Ryo Kawamoto — Grubs Love Garbage: Flies are the Future of Food Recycling
- Kumi Yokoe — Trending: The Millennial Generation and Global Change
- John Livingston — Discovering Planets is, Like, so 2018
Nerd Nite Tokyo #32: LOOSE SCREWS
April 12, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Emilie Kristine Bagge — Mitochondria in the Depressive Mind
- Yasutomo Takano — Paper Digest: Summarizing Science using AI
- Kipp Cannon — E-Mottainai: Breathing Life into Scrap Electronics in Tokyo [video]
Nerd Nite Tokyo #31: BIG IN JAPAN
March 8, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Jonathan McDonald — Being a Gaijin “Talent” in Japan
- Chelsea Hostetter — A Journey Into the Uncanny Valley of Dolls [video]
- Max Frenzel — Next-Level Art: Becoming More Creative with AI
Nerd Nite Tokyo #30: TALKING TRASH [live video]
February 8, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Shinya Fujii — Whiplash: the Secret of the World’s Fastest Drumming
- Miriam Stadje — The Missing Link: Why Humans Talk and Apes Do Not [video]
- Tim Hornyak — Swimming in Tokyo Bay and Other Environmental Reporting Tales
Nerd Nite Tokyo #29: LEARNING TO FLY [live video]
January 11, 2019 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Peter Mears — Falling into Shadows
- Katie Mack — Everything You Wanted to Know About Dark Matter but Were Afraid to Ask
- Jens Wilkinson — Conlanging Across the Universe
Nerd Nite Tokyo #28: EYE CANDY [live video]
December 7, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Anne McKnight — Butterflies and Smog: A Short History of the Japanese Science Film (科学映画)
- Tsubasa Kondo — Dapps: Distributed, Decentralized, and Dank
- James Welker — “Boys Love” in Japan: Manga and So Much More
Nerd Nite Tokyo #27: GREEN ZETA BOSON [live video]
November 9, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Daniel Jeans — The Next Frontier of Physics with the International Linear Collider
- Thomas Chater — Lights, Camera, Calcium: Watching Neurons Communicate
- Ade Irma Suriajaya — When Infinity Becomes Finite
Nerd Nite Tokyo #26: SNAPS, BURSTS & SLAMS [live video]
October 12, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Jordan A. Y. Smith — Tokyo Poetics: Ads, Mags, Slams, Jams & Ciphers
- Don Warren — Fast Radio Bursts
- Nadia Boudjella — North Korea in Pantone®: The Color Chart of a Hidden Country
Nerd Nite #25: GLOW
September 20, 2018 (Thursday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Louis Consoletti — Traditional Japanese Animation: A Close Look at a Dying Art
- Shayna Magnuson — Mixed Martial Arts (MMA): What It Is and What It Isn’t [video]
- Marc Abrahams — Improbable Research and the Ig Nobel Prizes
Nerd Nite #24: TO THE EXTREME
July 13, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Farnaz Khatibi — The Science of Death
- Yusuke Murakami — Everyday Life on Mars
- Alisa Freedman — Emoji and Cultural Literacy [video]
Nerd Nite #23: (nerd nite)² [live video]
June 8, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Chiaki — How the Recession Changed Japan’s Sex Industry
- Jean-Pierre Bellier — How Does an Octopus Arm Think?
- Nick Friedman — Island Song: Monitoring Okinawa’s Soundscape to Understand its Biodiversity
Nerd Nite #22: REMEMBER THE SINE [live video]
May 11, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Catherine Beauchemin — Lack of Math: Side Effects Include Dizziness and Distrust
- Patrick Savage — The Science of the World’s Music
- Roland Haller — Memory: Through the Looking Glass of the Hippocampus
Nerd Nite #21: SIR FIX-A-LOT [live video]
April 13, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Logan Fulcher — Visual DJing and the Gestalt Artwork: Collage
- Albéric Derible — Are Honorifics Always About Being Polite?
- Sarah Crites — In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream: Narrow Escapes & Miraculous Saves in Space Exploration [video]
Nerd Nite #20: IN WITH THE NEW?
March 9, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Emi Do — Platform Co-operatives: Democratization of our Digital Economy
- Ken Wong — Measuring the Expansion of the Universe with Gravitational Lensing
- Michael Penn — Facebook and the Impoverishment of the News Media Industry
Nerd Nite #19: ANALOG [live video]
February 9, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Ayako Ono — Space Art and Space Tourism: Sights and Sounds Inspired by the Cosmos
- Mark Holmes — Hot Dots: Controlling Light at the Quantum Level
- Danielle DeLatte — Space Analogs: Blasting Off Without Leaving Earth
Nerd Nite #18: CRYPTO [live video]
January 12, 2018 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Rod Van Meter — #QuantumNative: Online Quantum Computing for the Algorithmically Uneducated
- Morgane Rosendale — How Jellyfish, Corals and Algae Help us Break the Neural Code
- Eli K.P. William — Narrative Frames and Technological Discovery: Or How Trapping My Protagonist in an Elevator Gave Birth to a Crypto-Privacy Protection Agency
Nerd Nite #17: HEAVENLY BODIES [live video]
December 15, 2017 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Olaf Witkowski — Befriending the Alien: the Expansion of Intelligence in the Universe
- tarinainanika — How Bodies Think and Thoughts Act: the Art of Corporeal Mime
- Aurora Simionescu — Chasing Shadows: Photos from the Great American Eclipse
Nerd Nite #16: LIVING ON THE EDGE [live video]
November 17, 2017 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Sakyasingha Dasgupta — Smart Things Everywhere: Learning Deep and Winning Big with Coin-Sized Compute Power
- Rafaela Libano — Becoming a Cyborg Through Disability: Building Prosthetic Limbs
- Will Donovan — Bubble Baths and the Bendiness of Spacetime
Nerd Nite #15: CROWDMAPPING, CORES & CHIRPS [live video]
October 20, 2017 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Sean Bonner — Open Data & Monitoring: Better Than A Bag Of Bricks
- Marine Lasbleis — Journey to the Center of the Earth: What’s Up with the Planet Core?
- Kipp Cannon — Gravitational Radiation or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Black Hole Collisions
- Live drawing by Chiyun Yeh (Yo)
Nerd Nite #14: THINKING OUT LOUD
September 22, 2017 (Friday), Nagatacho GRID, doors open 19:30, start 20:00. ¥1000
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- E. McCready — Understanding Expressive Adjectives: the Meaning of “Fucking”
- Maggi Brisbin — Oki Coral Watchers: Citizen Science in Okinawa
- Sadhvi Saxena — The Unspeakable Brain
Nerd Nite #13: PEERING INTO THE UNKNOWN
July 14, 2017 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Bryan Tran — Tsunami Evacuations: What Does Transportation Planning Have To Do With It?
- Helen Petrakou — Behind the Scenes at the LHC: From Collisions to Discovery
- Elizabeth Tasker — Earth 2.0: Have We Really Found A Planet Like Our Own?
Price: 1500 yen on the door, includes 1 drink
Nerd Nite #12: COSMIC QUANTUM BIRTHDAY
June 16, 2017 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Amanda Alvarez — Nerd Nite Retrospective: Data & Video of the Year’s Best Moments
- Nathan Shammah — Quantum Technologies: A Revolution Under Construction
- Don Warren — Cosmic Rays: Microscopic Particles, Macroscopic Energies
Price: 1500 yen on the door, includes 1 drink
Nerd Nite #11: RACE IN JAPAN, CANCER+MATHS, SUMO
May 12, 2017 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Baye McNeil — Alien Activist: Writing about Race Issues in Japan [video]
- Dave duVerle — Bioinformatics and Modern Genomics: Cancer is a Maths Problem! [video]
- Verena Hopp — Nerd Sumo with special appearance by Hakuba Takeshi [video]
- Live drawing by Chiyun Yeh (Yo)
Price: 1500 yen on the door, includes 1 drink
Nerd Nite #10: OPEN SCIENCE IN JAPAN
April 21, 2017 (Friday), Accenture Digital Hub, Akasaka
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Kazuhiro Hayashi — Opening scholarly communication: a vision and current challenges for open science [video]
- Nobuko Miyairi — ORCID: get the only flower in the world for you [video]
- Kazutsuna Yamaji — Does open science require a national-level infrastructure? [video]
- Live drawing by Chiyun Yeh (Yo)
Price: 1000 yen on the door
Nerd Nite #9: science x theatre
March 11-12, 2017 (3-show weekend), World Peace Theatre, Kawasaki
▶️ Facebook event | Photos on FB
- Sai Maddala & Mochinosha Puppet Company explore the hidden world of nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes, graphene, and millenia-old Egyptian inks [video]
- Stefania Soldini & 1740g recount the story of Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe and its dangerous journey to and from the Ryugu asteroid [video]
- Lana Sinapayen & Taran Nibakins puzzle over why it’s hard to decide if an artificial intelligence is actually intelligent or not [video]
Nerd Nite #8: RUMBLES UNDERGROUND, ALL AROUND AND IN THE CLOUDS
February 10, 2017 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Christine Houser — Earthquakes: the Pulse of a Living Planet
- Sarajean Rossitto — Non-profits in Japan: Where Do They Stand?
- Don Warren — Astrophysical Big Bangs: Supernovae, Gamma Ray Bursts, and the People Who Love Them
Price: 1500 yen on the door, includes 1 drink
Nerd Nite #7: ADVENTURES IN SPACE, MIND & JAPAN
January 27, 2017 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Anupreeta More — Space Warps: Real Science Powered by Citizen Scientists
- Sean Aubin — Debugging your Thoughts with Cognitive Behavior Therapy
- Michael Gakuran — Haikyo: Urban Exploration in Japan [video]
Price: 1500 yen on the door, includes 1 drink
Nerd Nite #6:THE MOLECULAR AND THE POLITICAL
December 16, 2016 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Sai Maddala — A History of Nanotech from Ancient Alchemy to Modern Materials
- Ana San Gabriel — Yum or Yuck? Interacting with Food Through all our Senses
- Donna Weeks — Opinion Poll Overdose: More Politics, Less Science
- Live drawing by Mariya Suzuki
How much > 1500 yen on the door, includes one drink
Nerd Nite #5: BAD FILMS, BRAINWAVES, BUSINESS IN SPACE
November 25, 2016 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
- Ken Kaba — Just the Worst: Why Do We Love Bad Movies?
- Danielle DeLatte — Emerging Space Businesses
- Tomasz Rutkowski — Decoding the Mind in Realtime
How much > 1500 yen on the door, includes one drink
NERD NITE #4: CURIOSITY, GAME ART, HUMANS
ROBOTS?
October 21, 2016 (Friday), Good Heavens bar, Shimokitazawa, doors open 19:30, start 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
Speakers:
- Matt Escobar — The Science of Curiosity
- Ceren Gunes — From Canvas to Console: The Game Art Pipeline
- Sarah Cosentino — Humans and Robots: A Complicated Love Story
How much > 1500 yen on the door, includes one drink
NERD NITE #3: MAGIC, MACBETH & THE MIRACLE MATH BEHIND GAMING
September 23, 2016 (Friday), Bar Gari Gari at Ikeno-Ue station, doors open 19:30, talks start at 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
Speakers:
- Magician Steve Marshall — The Psychology of Magic [video]
- Daniel Robson, chief editor of IGN Japan — Gaming: The Math, The Mystery, The Miracle
- Graig Russell, director of The Tragedy of Macbeth — Bard Prattle: Walking Shadows in Shakespeare
How much > 1500 yen on the door, includes one drink
Why > A triple M lineup of nerdy topics to celebrate the autumn equinox!
NERD NITE #2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
July 15, 2016 (Friday), Impact Hub Tokyo, Meguro, doors open 19:30, start 19:45
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
Speakers:
- Sakyasingha Dasgupta, IBM Research Tokyo — Get Ready, the Smart Machines Are Rising!
- Mitch Altman — The Importance of Failure
How much > 2000 yen on the door, includes two drinks
NERD NITE #1
June 3, 2016 (Friday), Bar Gari Gari at Ikeno-Ue station, doors open 19:30, talks start at 20:00
▶️ Facebook event | FB wrap-up
Speakers:
- Jay Noyes — Making Your Way in Tokyo with Sword and Axe
- Mikael Reponen — Laser Quest: One Man’s Journey Around the World to Eat Sushi and Discover the True Nature of Atoms
- Lana Sinapayen — From AI to Artificial Life and Back Again
How much > 1500 yen on the door, includes one drink