Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations about Howler Monkey Testicles & the Bee Gees, Breastfeeding Through the Ages and Pythagoras Meets Pink Panther! We hear from Dr. Ramesh Laungani, Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Marist College, Julie Kling, a humor, health, and parenting writer and Yvonne Caruthers, a 35 year career cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, D.C. Friday February 21st at 7:30pm at The Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY.
With fun music, libations and guaranteed good company: Doors at 7pm.
THE SPEAKERS
Yvonne Caruthers Science and Music: from Pythagoras to the Pink Panther
You see a flash of lightning and immediately start to count: one thousand one, one thousand two….based on a snippet of science you learned as a wee child. Science underpins everything we love about music, from the instruments we play to our favorite soundtracks. Yvonne Caruthers plays her cello to blend scientific principles with musical excerpts…as well as a pop quiz!
Before Yvonne Caruthers moved to Beacon in 2021, she had a 35 year career as a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, D.C. In addition to made-for-TV specials, and foreign tours, in the early ‘90’s, the NSO began a series of state residencies, and it was then that Ms. Caruthers realized a need for programs connecting music to the standard school curriculum. Tonight she presents a short version of “Science and Music,” borne out of those experiences.She began studying the violin at 8 in her local public school, switched to the cello at 9 and never looked back. She has three adult children and three grandchildren.
Julie Kling It’s Udderly Fascinating! A Look at (Mostly Human) Breastfeeding Through the Ages
Raise your glass/bottle and prepare for a milk-drenched romp through the wild history of nursing! Did you know the Milky Way got its name from the Greek myth of Hera accidentally spraying a whole bunch of breast milk across the sky while trying (and failing) to nurse baby Hercules? Or that medieval aristocrats hired wet nurses so they could get back to partying and making more heirs? From Victorian-era doctors warning that “overindulgent” breastfeeding could spoil a child’s character to modern debates over formula, public nursing, and breast pump technology, we’ll explore how feeding babies has always been both essential and (for some reason) controversial.
Julie Kling is a humor, health, and parenting writer based in a New York suburb that is not as cool as Beacon. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Scary Mommy, and on-stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Sign up for her free and sporadic newsletter Mom Rage(r): Turning Your Mom Rage Into Raging Fun! @ juliekling.com
Dr. Ramesh Laungani Howler Monkey Testicles: Should Barry Gibb have Sung the Theme Song to Shaft?
What do howler monkey testicles, Barry Gibb’s falsetto, and the “Shaft” theme song have in common? More than you think. From Barry Gibb’s high notes to Shaft’s swagger, this talk unravels the wild connections between one of nature’s loudest voices and well… their packages, revealing one nature’s quirkiest trade-offs. Come for the Bee Gees and Shaft and learn a little biology along the way.
Dr. Ramesh Laungani is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Marist College. Before Marist, Ramesh was a professor of Biology for +10 years at Doane University in Nebraska. Dr. Laungani’s background is in plant ecology and climate change and has given many Nerd Nite talks back in Lincoln, NE and even a few in Brooklyn before moving up to the Hudson Valley. He also used to co-host a podcast about climate change called Warm Regards with Dr. Jacquelyn Gill from the University of Maine.
Friday January 10th at 7:30pm at The Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY! Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations about our music pathology, Man vs. Machine and Rabbit holes. We hear from Dr. Táhirih Motazedian, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Vassar College, Kevin Maher, Host of Kevin Geeks Out, a long-running variety show, and Emily Menez, Slackjaw Editor and Writer for CBS, Funny or Die, McSweeney’s and The New Yorker.
With fun music, libations and guaranteed good company: Doors at 7pm.
THE SPEAKERS
Táhirih Motazedian Your Generation’s Music is The Worst: The NeverEnding Story of Music Pathology
Táhirih Motazedian is an Associate Professor of Music at Vassar College. Her book, Key Constellations: Interpreting Tonality in Film (University of California Press, 2023) explores how key and pitch relationships in film soundtracks tell a story. Before her career in music theory, Táhirih was a planetary scientist at NASA.
Kevin Maher Now is the Winter of our Cheap Content: Creating Art in the Time of A.I.
Kevin is a writer, filmmaker, comedian and producer who has worked at over 100 jobs: creating everything from award-winning poetry and guided meditations to kids’ TV shows, theme park rides and fast-food commercials. He’s the host of Kevin Geeks Out, a long-running variety show/ spiritual sibling to Nerd Nite. www.LoveKevin.com
Emily Menez Rabbit Holes!
Emily Menez has written for The New Yorker, CBS, Funny or Die, Nike, and McSweeney’s, amongst others. Her original plays and sketch shows have been performed throughout NYC, including “Slackjaw: LIVE” and “Screen to Sketch Comedy,” which both ran at Caveat.
Join us for a screening of the 1997 Jodie Foster film CONTACT. Based on Carl Sagan’s 1987 book, we speak with Reverend Amanda Wagner and Professor Clara Sousa-Silva, a quantum astrochemist and molecular astrophysicist and then go on Robert Zemeckis’ epic journey of science & faith (with popcorn & beer)
Welcome to Nerd Nite Hudson Valley! We’re New Yorkers who appreciate the outdoors, a good local brew and learning a thing or two. We are Nerd Nite (like TED Talks but better). It’s casual, wacky, entertaining and educational. Grab a libation, listen to some good tunes, sit back and chat with fellow nerds as we talk tech, space, science, weird history, film and more.
Nerd Nite Hudson Valley premieres Friday November 15th at 7:30pm at The Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY! Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations about our modern grammar, hijacking airplanes and amphibian migrations. With fun music, libations and guaranteed good company: Doors at 7pm.
THE SPEAKERS Caroline Eisner For All Intensive Purposes, I Could Care Less…English Grammar: When It’s So Bad, It’s Good
Tables are for eating customers only. Pinned to the wall, Rudy read the note. And the note said that no grammar is incorrect. Getting academic, the Rhetorical Triangle, along with grammatical choices, syntactic flexibility, and rhetorical effects, will be discussed.
Brendan Koerner Havana Here We Come: An Introduction to the Golden Age of Hijacking
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, airplane hijackings were astonishingly routine in the United States. Once a week or more, some desperate soul armed with a revolver, stick of dynamite, or jar of acid would commandeer a commercial jet and turn their fellow passengers into hostages. We’ll explore the skyjackers’ motives and techniques, the airlines’ bewildering decision to accept regular hijackings as a mere cost of doing business, and the reasons why this bizarre criminal epidemic finally came to an end.
Nadia Azizi & Marjorie Lewit Real Life Frogger
An “indicator species,” frogs are going extinct at an alarming rate. Here’s what you can do to help.
