Wrapping up a phenomenal year of learning, our December 4th show is bringing more Asheville lore, more birds, and—if you’re nasty—Miss Janet Jackson. Join us for our last show of the year and decorate your brain with knowledge.
December 4th, 2025 doors 6pm, show 7pm at River Arts District Brewing Co.
Pre-sale tickets $10, door $15 (cash preferred, Venmo etc. available). Get your pre-sale tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/nerd-nite-asheville-december-2025
This month’s lineup:
Elizabeth Steere
Asheville’s 150-Year-Old Influencer Campaign
Asheville has been using the slogan “Land of the Sky” since 1875, when a novel with that title was published. So, who was its pseudonymous author and how did a forgotten nineteenth-century rom-com become our city’s entire personality? We’ll follow its characters as they explore western North Carolina via stagecoach, horseback, and on foot, visiting familiar landmarks (Mount Mitchell! Bridal Veil Falls!) as well as some unexpected detours (throwing an all-night rager at an unsuspecting family’s home in Marshall!). We’ll see what Asheville looked like before the advent of the railroad or Biltmore, and discover why this book that was credited with launching Asheville’s tourism industry has now–perhaps rightfully–been forgotten.
Elizabeth has a PhD in Victorian literature and has lived in WNC for the past decade. She passes a “Welcome to Asheville: Land of the Sky” sign every time she goes to the Woodfin Y and finally got curious about it. She was surprised to find that our namesake novel The Land of the Sky had never been digitized, so this summer she worked to transcribe the novel and get it up on Project Gutenberg, where you can now read it for free: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76690
Danny Raleigh
California Condors Are Back from the Brink
The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is the largest land bird of North America that once ranged over broad swaths of the continent during the Pleistocene. Various pressures reduced their range and numbers until only a few dozen individuals remained in the 1980s. Captive breeding programs have allowed these birds to free-range again across the American Southwest with the assistance of government and nonprofit organizations that monitor and maintain their health, habits, and breeding success. Danny will share personal experiences, observations, and photos from his time monitoring this species while he volunteered in California in the early 2010s.
Danny is a nerd who has been fascinated with birds from a young age. As an adult, he has tracked and monitored avian fauna around the country for various organizations and agencies, adventuring from Alaska to Texas and Nova Scotia to Hawaii. His journey has led him this year to Asheville, and he has been exploring the Blue Ridge hoping to find any bird that will sit still for a photograph.
Nex Millen
Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814
Rhythm Nation 1814 takes center stage in this exploration of the 1989 album that reshaped pop, music videos, and social commentary forever. Nex will blend behind-the-scenes details of the album’s creation with the cultural forces that fueled its message, revealing how Janet’s producers and cutting edge studio technology forged its iconic sound, along with the innovations, risks, and breakthroughs that propelled it. Rhythm Nation 1814 was a masterpiece that proved world-class pop music and social justice could share the same beat.
Nex is a Hip Hop artist, scholar, and cultural curator. He moved to Asheville eleven years ago thinking it would be a great place to raise his daughter while taking nature hikes and practicing yoga. Instead, he became an intricate part of the Black community, teaching after-school workshops on financial literacy, serving on the YMI Cultural Center Board of Directors, and dismantling racism one conversation at a time as a facilitator for Building Bridges of Asheville. IG: @NexMillen @OGSynergy
With your host, Von
This month’s Star Trek mini-feature: A Very Merry Starfleet
Do you have any idea how many holiday Star Trek edits there are on the internet? Von didn’t either, until going down the merriest, nerdiest wormhole of sci-fi holiday cheer. (Don’t worry–Worf is still not a merry man.)
Von claims this show for the Romulan Empire. (IG: @nerdniteAVL)