Nerd Nite NYC holds its annual collaborative water-themed event with Hudson River Park on Thursday August 7, 2025. Join us at the fun WetLab at Pier 40 in Manhattan for 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. Tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/ask-a-scientist-at-the-pier-40-wetlab-august-7th
Then we officially kick-off our 20th year on Friday September 5, 2025 at Littlefield as our 2025-2026 season begins. Tickets for our Season Premiere show are already available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nerd-nite-nyc-tickets-1389817474479?aff=oddtdtcreator
Nerd Nite NYC + Hudson River Park
Thursday August 7, 2025 at 6:30pm (doors at 6:10pm)
Hudson River Park’s River Project Wetlab, Pier 40 at Hudson River Park
353 West St, New York, NY 10014, USA
Tickets 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.
Tickets here