Asheville is a delight for the senses and a place for strong community, but it also has created a habitat for some pretty nasty bugs. This month, we’re learning about the 13 (?!) senses you use to interact with our environment, how to make public speaking feel like a fresh summer breeze, and the icky ticks and other bugs you should watch out for while enjoying the nature of WNC.
June 11th, 2026 doors 6pm, show 7pm at River Arts District Brewing Co.
Pre-sale tickets $10, door $15 (cash or Venmo). Get your pre-sale tickets here: https://events.humanitix.com/nerd-nite-asheville-june-2026
This month’s lineup:
Natalie Wolfe
The 13 Senses
We all are familiar with the five senses and how humans experience the world differently through sight, sound or taste. We even talk about a sixth sense, but often which sense is the sixth sense is debated. What if there were more than six senses? How about as many as 13 (or more!)? Natalie will go through the human sensory experience, one sense at a time, as she defines what our physical senses are computing and how to possibly get to know yourself better by tuning into each one. She hopes to equip you with new insight of how these senses gather information and organize it into how we uniquely perceive the world around us.
Natalie Wolfe, LCMHC is an Asheville native who provides mental health counseling to all ages of the neurodivergent community. She is obsessed with asking “why”, and feels grateful and privileged to engage with those questions about the human brain, the way it works and how we can better connect as humans in her work as a therapist at Out of the Woods Therapy.
Dr. David O. Freedman
Infections from Summertime Bugs in WNC
Ticks and Mosquitos are out in full force already. This month, David will talk about insects and other arthropods native to the local ecosystem in WNC and the infectious that they can transmit to humans. Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, West Nile, and Lacrosse Encephalitis are most prevalent. Scrub typhus and Chaga’s (“kissing bug disease”) have emerged recently. Manifestations of illness, diagnosis, and treatment will be covered. Warning: some photos may be very gross!
David O. Freedman, MD, is a retired Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He has spent his career traveling around the world in search of new infectious diseases organisms and how travelers spread them. He was also Medical Director of a leading Clinical Decision Support provider supporting employees and dependents of multinational corporate, diplomatic, USG, and military entities operating globally. He continues as a contracted advisor to CDC and WHO. https://www.cdc.gov/yellow-book/hcp/travelers-with-additional-considerations/immunocompromised-travelers.html
Katie Phillips
You’re Better At Public Speaking Than You Think
Whether you run excitedly up to the stage or puke before leading a Teams Call, we’ve got all a stance on public speaking. It’s as personal as it is public, and while it ends in delivery, it starts as an inside job. Maybe you hate presenting because you think you’re bad it, or because it’s a miserable experience for you.
But what if you’re wrong? What if it could be not just easier, but actually fun?
By providing verbal and non-verbal tools, stories of personal and professional speaking experience, a passionate tirade on the virtue of vocal fillers, and questions to raise your self-awareness, public speaking coach Katie Phillips is here to minimize the suffering and increase the fun that comes with speaking and convince you that you are way better at public speaking than you think.
Katie Phillips loves people, stories, and solving problems. For 10 years and counting she has professionally united those passions as a Presentation Coach, where she helps clients and teams solve their unique (yet also universal) problems with organizing and telling stories, interviewing and being interviewed, presenting, and communicating with others and themselves. She is a TEDx speaker and TEDx coach, a facilitator, and the current President of Asheville Toastmasters 8215 (Speechcrafters). She holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies, a Masters of Education in Training & Development, and a Completion of the Art in Taboada Balintawak Eskrima. The only thing she loves more than a good haunted house book is her family, including her handsome husband, feral children, and many, many creatures. http://www.abracommunication.com/
With your host, Von
This month’s Star Trek mini-feature: The Gay Klingon (aka “What are conservative Star Trek haters upset about this time?”)
The latest new Star Trek series to launch is Starfleet Academy, which features–in an *extremely* minor way–an openly gay Klingon who wears a skirt as part of his school uniform. Predictably, a certain demographic of men who claim to like Star Trek have lost their minds about it. This Pride month, we’ll have a look at Jay-Den and all the [checks notes] seconds of his gay romance that has homophobes crying about diversity being shoved down their throats. Because when Gene Roddenberry talked about embracing diversity in all its forms, surely he didn’t mean a singular male Klingon liking other boys, right???
Von claims this show for the Romulan Empire. (IG: @nerdniteAVL)