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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s TED Talks over beer. And wings. And pizza, with a side of science.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Pints of Science, the brainchild of New World Brewery owner Nancy Bird, who fuses short lectures with the casual atmosphere of the music and event space attached to her bar and biergarten. Each month, Bird lines up two or three speakers for 15- to 20-minute talks on subjects ranging from astronomy to mental health while the audience eats, drinks and, often, laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes those in the audience are there to support a friend or family member,\u201d said Bird, who worked as a nurse at Tampa General Hospital for 37 years before opening the brewery. \u201cBut more often than not, people come to hear about a certain subject. I try not to have topics that are too similar each month, because then people would get bored.\u201d<\/p>\n
A typical lineup might pair astronomy with vultures and shoreline ecology, with mental health thrown in to broaden the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of those people, like me, didn\u2019t know they wanted to know anything about vultures,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they\u2019re glad they stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bird embraces the TED Talk comparison, especially since she books speakers who know how to hold a room. Some make their presentations interactive.<\/p>\n
At the May 13 event, Caleb Quaid, founder of Regenerative Shift, delivered two talks. The first covered the science of sound and music, framed around the body as \u201ca human instrument.\u201d For the second, he passed out ukuleles to every attendee and led a playing lesson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love about Pints of Science is that people are very quiet during the talks \u2014 you can hear a pin drop,\u201d Bird said. \u201cThen we take a 10-minute break between speakers, and people are talking to each other about what they just learned. I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Lining up speakers, she said, is the easy part. After a few years of running the series, most come to her. But Bird vets every pitch, researching credentials and subject expertise before booking anyone \u2014 whether it\u2019s a University of South Florida master\u2019s student like Jordan Kleinschmidt Dilena, who spoke on squid and the effects of Tampa Bay\u2019s changing environment, or a guitar-playing Ph.D.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to have something like Ripley\u2019s Believe It or Not,\u201d Bird said. The topics can be unusual, she added, but the goal is education. \u201cWe\u2019re not here to shock anyone. It\u2019s not someone going up there riffing or doing a stand-up set.\u201d<\/p>\n
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No topic is off-limits, though, as long as it meets her standards. The strangest subject so far, she said: transgender gods.<\/p>\n
Ryan T. Cragun, a religion instructor at the University of Tampa, gave that talk in July 2024. \u201cIt\u2019s not like he didn\u2019t know how to back it up,\u201d Bird said.<\/p>\n
She also builds themed months when the calendar calls for it \u2014 climate experts during hurricane season, for instance, including one who argued the Atlantic could eventually produce a Category 6 storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bird does her own recruiting, too, within reason.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m probably not going to ask Neil deGrasse Tyson,\u201d she said. \u201cBut whoever we have, we always get a good turnout or a sellout. That\u2019s why I\u2019m expanding Pints of Science to Safety Harbor soon. People just love these TED Talks over a beer and a meal.\u201d<\/p>\n Pints of Science<\/p>\n When: Second Wednesday of every month<\/p>\n Where: New World Brewery, 810 E. Skagway Ave., Tampa<\/p>\n