You’re not going to believe it when we tell you, but we’re approaching our final Nerd Nite of 2025. Yes, 2025 still sounds like living in the future, but it’s soon to be the past, and you delightful nerds SURELY don’t want to miss the lineup of Nerd Nite All-Stars on deck! Indeed, we have three fabulous repeat speakers (with ALL-NEW topics!) just waiting to share their nerdy passions! Join us on Thursday, November 13 at LIVE (102 S First St.) at 7pm (doors at 6:30). Because after that, you won’t see us until 2026!!!

Here at Nerd Nite, we love having our experts talk about super niche topics. But sometimes, it’s nice to go back to the basics. In the spirit of cold and flu season, Nathalie Catchings will be Going Viral with an introduction to viruses, so you can finally understand why you should not take antibiotics when you have a cold!

Nathalie is a DNA scientist by training, having worked for large biotech companies, forensic labs, and academic labs. Really, she loves nerdy stuff and telling people about science, so Nerd Nite is a perfect fit. She’s also looking for work projects around scientific communication, find her after her talk if you have something in mind!

Then it’s time to sit criss-cross applesauce while librarian Sara Wedell tells us the story of Margaret Wise Brown & the Runaway Bestseller that Ruined One Kid’s Life. Once upon a time there was a free-spirited genius named Margaret Wise Brown. She lived, she loved, she traveled, and she died when she was far too young. She also wrote children’s books that completely redefined the genre. This is the story of Margaret Wise Brown, how she helped to free kid’s books from the dungeon of fairy tales, and how Goodnight Moon ruined a kid’s life.

Sara is a librarian who loves the story behind the stories – she is currently reading The Power Broker by Robert Caro and she can’t shut up about it. Ask her about Al Smith!

Liked the diseases from the first talk and the history of the second talk? Well, Kara Gavin will pull it all together with The Two Sides of Polio at U-M. Seventy years ago, U-M was in the world spotlight because of polio vaccine news. But polio history at U-M extends back more than 100 years – and continues to today. Can we use this history to fight vaccine hesitancy?

Kara is a science writer at Michigan Medicine with an interest in medical history.