Nerd Nite SF #164: Freaky Animal Reproduction, How Air Pollution Makes Us Sick, and Being Funny in a 2nd Language

The cool autumn air draws near and the leaves begin to change ??" alas, summer is winding down. But as the Spooky Season draws near, we’ve got one last blast of hot summer content for you: sweet sizzling nerdery! Three bold speakers will share stories about strange animal sex strategies, how air pollution makes us sick, and how you can be funny in a non-native language. Join us!

Can You Be Funny in Your Second Language? My Adventures in Taiwan’s Stand-Up Comedy Scene

Speaker: Carter Helschien, Roblox

After graduating from Yale, Carter (a white American whose only connection to Chinese culture was getting takeout on Christmas) moved to Taiwan to become a Mandarin-speaking stand-up comedian. He arrived just as Taiwan’s Mandarin comedy scene was beginning to break into the mainstream, forcing him to learn not only a new language on the fly, but also the invisible rules of making another culture laugh. Through jokes that landed, jokes that died, and near-daily public embarrassment, Carter explores how grammar, culture, and comedy change across languages??"and how he eventually found success in places he never expected.

The Freaky Ins and Outs of Animal Reproduction

Speaker: Tokay Alberts, San Francisco State University

Beyond the birds and bees, animals of all kinds have been getting freaky around the world. Time to learn the ins and outs (and back in and back out) of how animals get it on.

The Atmosphere is a Slow Flame: An Introduction to Air Pollution and Human Health

Speaker: Becca Wernis, Picarro

Sure, there’s a lot of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, but the trace gases (present at parts per million, billion, or even trillion) are where the action is really at. We’ll explore the complex interactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and free radicals, the impacts of air pollution on human health, and the techniques we use to quantify and understand which chemicals are airborne and how they got there.