Wednesday December 2nd
Howler (7-11 Dawson Street, Brunswick)
Doors: 7 pm
Show: 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 + BF – Available Now!!
3 presenters share a topic they are NERDY about while the audience shares a drink.
We’re cleared for take-off for the last Nerd Nite Melbourne show of 2026! There’ll be sky-high stories from Aussie air traffic control, a little treat for your brain (and a tiny existential crisis), and a trip through geology and history. Three nerdy talks, one final night out, and absolutely no guarantee of a smooth landing.
Be there. Be square.
Jacob Steel
Sky Highways: Inside the High-Stakes World of Aussie ATC
Description: You’re flying home from a bender weekend interstate. The hangover is in full swing, and you’re getting closer and closer to your destination before the dreaded announcement rings over the loudspeaker: “We’ve been delayed by air traffic control.” Who actually are these people, and why are they getting in the way of the pilot landing the plane—and you getting to your couch? The truth is, despite over 60 million passengers cruising through Australian skies every year, how we get from A to B is genuinely a mystery to most. Come along to grab a pint, clear your schedule for arrival, and learn the ins and outs of Australian Air Traffic Control from someone who, five years ago, didn’t even know the job existed. It’s going to be a high-flying 15 minutes. We promise a smooth landing, but no guarantees on your hangover.
Bio: Jacob is a late-in-life aviation nerd, a long-time Nerd Nite regular, and a man with zero public speaking experience. After over three years training and working as an Air Traffic Controller, he’s quickly realised that absolutely no one has any idea what he actually does for a living. Unlike most speakers who bring awards, public profiles, or university degrees to the stage, Jacob secured his slot through the time-honoured traditions of pure nepotism and aggressive bullying by his partner, Nerd Nite Boss, Ebony!
Rohan Venkatraman
I Deserve a Little Treat (and Capitalism Knows It)
Description: Bad day? Little treat. Finished a difficult email? Little treat. Survived another Tuesday? You know what to do… From coffees to Amazon hauls to tattoos (guilty!), little treats have become our favourite way to reward ourselves for getting through the slog of everyday life (or for simply existing). But why do they feel so good? And why does that feeling never really last? In a world where everything seems to be getting faster, little treats do something magical: they give us tiny moments when time feels like it stands still. But there’s a catch. What if the same little treats that help us cope with our exhausting lives are also helping to keep the whole exhausting system running? Come for the sociology of tiny indulgences, stay for the existential crisis!
Bio: Rohan is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Deakin University, which means he spends a lot of time thinking about why and how capitalism is a problem. When he’s not doing that, he’s usually buying more books despite having nowhere to put them, contemplating his 26th tattoo, or convincing himself that both are perfectly reasonable financial decisions. His current research on little treats is doing very little to discourage this behaviour.
Socials: @wanderingdancerboy
Natasha Nagel
Who Killed the Dead Sea? (aka death, drought, and other minor inconveniences)
Description: A mysterious disappearance, increasingly inhospitable landscapes, several suspicious climate events, and a curious cast of ancient communities caught in the middle? Join Natasha as she lays out a palaeoclimate whodunnit in the Jordan Valley; piecing together the evidence, investigating the fate of past societies, and discovering why the past might indeed have a few things to say about our future. Hercule Poirot, eat your heart out.
Bio: Professional rock and bone licker, Natasha is currently looking down the barrel of finishing her PhD thesis in Geoarchaeology and spends most of her time accidentally inhaling microscopic shrimp skeletons for “research”. When not hiding from her supervisors, she’s extremely passionate about convincing people the dirt their kids track in actually has a unique purpose in understanding the past, and that geoarchaeology isn’t *just* about licking rocks (she does that for the love of the game!). You can often find her curled up with tea and a book about Faeries, or writing truly terrible (but funny?) historically based poetry.
Socials: @possibly.elsewhere