Dear Nerds and Friends of Nerds,

Nerd Nite NYC’s annual one-off show in conjunction with Hudson River Park’s Ask A Scientist program is on Thursday August 7, 2025. This special show will feature two fun-yet-informative presentations about the iconic water towers that dazzle the NYC skyline and also about why everyone wants to be a pirate. Y’arr! Tickets here.

Nerd Nite NYC

Thursday August 7, 2025 at 6:30pm (doors at 6:10pm)

at Hudson River Park WetLab at Pier 40 (353 West Street, Manhattan)

Tickets $10 here: https://events.humanitix.com/ask-a-scientist-at-the-pier-40-wetlab-august-7th

Back to the Lectures At-Hand

*Presentation #1

Under Pressure: The Gravity and The History of New York’s Water Towers

by Deborah Wolfson

Description: What do the New York skyline, “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This” from the movie of Sweet Charity, and your morning shower all have in common? The humble yet iconic roof tank water tower. Easy to overlook yet instantly recognizably, get to know the 19th-century technology that let 20th century New York first climb toward the sky.

Bio: Deborah Wolfson is a native New Yorker and a student of New York history, just in life but also literally at the CUNY Graduate Center where she is pursuing a masters degree in New York Studies and Public Scholarship. She writes the New York history newsletter Leaves of Glass and strongly believes the collective noun for water towers should be a pressure.

*Presentation #2

The Yarr-niversal Appeal of the Pirate or Why Everyone Wants Their Timbers Shivered

by Matt Tiemstra

Description: In the 18th century, pirates were the scum of the sea, yet they have remained popularrr for the past 300 years, with a near constant presence in fiction, from novels to films, to tv shows, to video games! Why have these swashbuckling brigands maintained the hold on our collective imagination? In short: Why does everyone want to be a pirate?

Bio: Matthew Tiemstra is a writer and actor from Oakland, California. He and his twin sibling Rob spent much of their youth pretending to be pirates, dressing up, sword-fighting, inventing stories that often incorporated these rogues… as well as knights and wizards of course. Now they are both in the arts, and Matthew met his wife working at a Renaissance Faire. It seems obvious now, but it was more surprising at the time.

Fun!

Matt