Happy Weekend!

I regularly speak at Nerdnite, a hilarious series of talks that span everything from Road House (the movie) the road houses (the history of dive bars in America.) Last time I talked about AI but now I’m going to be talking about my new book on psychedelics. I’d love to see you there!

Buy Tickets

Some more information:

Nerd Nite NYC returns to Caveat NYC with with three fun-yet-informative presentations about magic mushrooms, the Flintstones Christmas Carol, and secrets about money that economists never told us, especially ones about Beanie Babies. Shhhh! Don’t tell anyone. Wait, I mean tell everyone! Tickets here.

Nerd Nite NYC
Saturday December 14, 2024 at 7pm
Caveat NYC (Lower East Side) 21A Clinton Street, NYC, NY 10002
$21 by Dec 14, 2024 | $26 at the door
Tickets here: https://www.caveat.nyc/events/nerd-nite-12-14-2024

*Find here info and tickets for our January 10, 2025 show with trivia, Matt, and more: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nerd-nite-nyc-tickets-1097351540999?aff=oddtdtcreator

Back to the Lectures At-Hand
*Presentation #1
The Bizarre Multiverse Timeline of “A Flintstones Christmas Carol”
by Stephen Pitalo

Description: How can one reconcile the prehistoric & the anachronistic? How can one be out of time before time? In A Flintstones Christmas Carol, the iconic cartoon characters somehow manage to not just celebrate Christmas long before the existence of Christ, but also perform Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol onstage centuries before the written word. We go down the rabbit hole to explore how this modern Stone Age family defies the limits of their pre-history while further twisting their already warped continuity across a multiverse timeline that also includes the Jetsons, John Goodman, the Honeymooners, and breakfast cereal. Yabba Dabba Do not miss this as we unpack the impossibilities of a world where history and logic collide to create a phenomenon that could never be “a page right out of history.”

Bio: Stephen Pitalo has worked as an entertainment journalist for more than 35 years and he previously wrote the Golden Age of Music Video blog from 2010 to 2021. He is the managing editor of Music Video Time Machine magazine, which gives inside stories from artists and music video directors from the early days of MTV. Pitalo also currently gives presentations about the evolution of music video at conventions, colleges and festivals, and most recently moderated the MTV 40th Anniversary Panel at New York Comic Con. Stephen has previously spoken at Nerd Nite about music video history, as well as how Russian X-rays were used to illegally produce Rock & Roll records, as well as the unsung acting legacy of comedian Andrew Dice Clay.

*Presentation #2
Econ 101: Beanie Babies & Beyond
by Luke Strathmann

Description: Luke Strathmann lost everything in the great Beanie Babies market crash of 2000, and has since spent his life studying economics to figure out what the hell happened. Luke will unveil the secrets that economists have been holding from us since God created money. He will address some of the greatest economic questions of our time: Where does money come from? Why are movies so expensive? How on earth did someone sell a Beanie Baby for seven million dollars? Why was that person not him?

Bio: Luke is a comedian and writer and runs the communications team at Yale’s Department of Economics.

*Presentation #3
The History of Magic Mushrooms in America
by John Biggs

Description: Magic mushrooms aren’t technically magical, but how did we first come to know about their magical properties and how have consumption, sales, and politics evolved in-kind? Let’s take a trip through the history of shrooms in the good ol’ US of A.

Bio: John Biggs is a tech writer, former Editor-in-Chief of Gizmodo, and an overall smart, fun-guy. Get it?