Nerd Nite back in Bloomington: Crowd packs The Bishop to learn about old time radio, bug sex, monster flicks

This past Thursday (July 23), around 100 people packed into the back room of The Bishop Bar in downtown Bloomington to hear three 15-minute talks—about old-time radio, queer bugs, and a couple of South Korean filmmakers who were kidnapped to North Korea and forced to direct movies there.

What linked the three talks wasn’t the topics, but a shared trait among the presenters—each had a kind of deep, joyful obsession about a subject that had turned their passing interest into expertise.

Yes, they were nerds. And based on their energetic reception, the audience was filled with nerds, too.

It’s probably not newsworthy that a bunch of nerds showed up to an event called Nerd Nite. But it is worth logging in the local archives, because it means that Bloomington is once again part of the international Nerd Nite franchise, now active in 120 cities across the globe. And it’s not just a one-off event.

The next Bloomington Nerd Nite will take place in the fall, but the date has not yet been dialed in, local organizer Melissa Blundell-Osorio told Thursday’s crowd. Thursday’s event was the third in this stretch of Bloomington’s Nerd Nites—the first one was held last October, followed by the second one in March this year.

On Thursday, Jim Inman played clips from the infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast that panicked listeners, and the commentary from Herb Morrison on the 1937 Hindenburg disaster that is now synonymous with the event: “Oh, the humanity!”

Inman credited his grandparents with his interest in radio: “They got me into this when I was a kid, and I have just enjoyed it for years.” He added, “It’s at times when life’s a little bit rough, you turn one of these on and you listen to it when you fall asleep.” Inman called radio “the theater of the mind” because when listening, you experience only what’s in your mind, not what’s on a screen, like in a movie.

Movies, specifically Japanese-style monster movies, are Beth Bredlau’s speciality. She gave Thursday’s crowd a primer on the 1985 film “Pulgasari.” The movie, which features a metal-eating monster that joins a peasant rebellion against a tyrannical king, was directed by Shin Sang-ok, who had been kidnapped by North Korean agents in 1978 and forced to make such films until he escaped in 1986.

Bredlau’s credentials as a monster-movie nerd are solid—she organized Godzilla Weekend at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in June, which included a proclamation from Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson declaring June 27 “Godzilla Day” in Bloomington.

Kylie Dannatt introduced their presentation on same-sex activity in bugs by saying it “goes out to anybody who’s ever been told that being queer goes against nature, because, as you’re about to find out in this presentation, nature and specifically bugs are queer as hell!”

Dannatt’s talk included a bug (Opaluma rupaul) that has been named after RuPaul, the drag performer, because it “has a rainbow exoskeleton and legs for days.” During question time after her talk, Dannatt was asked if she discovered a new insect, what would she name it: “I would probably name it after myself!” Dannatt replied.

Organizer Blundell-Osorio told the crowd that she had been asking Dannatt “for months” to give a Nerd Nite presentation. She quipped that Dannet had perhaps agreed to do it, just to get her to stop asking.

Blundell-Osorio told The B Square that she doesn’t force potential presenters to audition. But she does have a screening process of sorts where she asks them about their public speaking experience and how they approach making a subject fun and understandable for an audience.

Based on the big turnout for the first three Nerd Nights nights, Blundell-Osorio has already started to think about a bigger venue than The Bishop, but hasn’t yet found one that fits the basic Nerd Nite requirements. A key ingredient to the Nerd Nite concept is drinking.

The connection between Nerd Nite and the consumption of alcohol was evident in the origin story recited by Blundell-Osorio on Thursday. The whole thing started in 2003 when Chris Balakrishan, at the time a doctoral student in evolutionary biology, would frequent Midway Cafe in Boston and tell his drinking companions about his research on the indigo bird, which he described as “an asshole” for its habit of laying eggs in the nests of other birds. The bartenders grew tired of hearing the same “asshole bird” stories told to different people, and suggested he tell the stories all at one time to everyone he knew, sparking the idea for Nerd Nite.

Blundell-Osario told The B Square she had heard that there had been a previous incarnation of Nerd Nite in Bloomington—held at the library. But the library as a venue doesn’t fit the basic premise of Nerd Nite.

A bit of rummaging in the Monroe County Public Library’s archives of the Herald-Times turned up four editions of the paper where there’s a mention of Nerd Nite, in 2018 and 2019. The idea that the event was held at the library probably stems from the fact that Nerd Nite in those years was sponsored by the library, even if Nerd Nite itself was held at The Bishop or Switchyard Brewing.

In February of 2019, the H-T reported that Nerd Nite at Switchyard would feature: Paula Tarankow: Finding Animals in American History; Jim Seaver: BOOMington or How Indiana University Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb; and Jeremy Shere: Back to the (Audio) Future.

Blundell-Osario told The B Square that Reddit has proven to be a useful way of publicizing Nerd Nite. She’s never been a big Redditor, but said, “To be honest, I have found that the Bloomington subreddit seems to be pretty active and seems to be a place where people share a lot of information and upcoming events.” Erica, who sat next to The B Square on Thursday, said she found out about Nerd Nite from Reddit—for the March event as well as the one on Thursday.

Blundell-Osario co-founded the Nerd Nite series in Miami, and it has continued, because she arranged to pass along the work to someone else. That’s likely what she’ll do when she eventually leaves Bloomington, she said.

Nerd Nite Bloomington: July 23, 2025