Nerd Nite v62: Springtails, Monopoly, and Psychedelics

What do microscopic soil creatures, psychedelic therapy, and Monopoly have in common?

This is classic Nerd Nite territory, where you, us, even the speakers have no idea until we arrive in the confines of the Fox Cabaret, our nerd herd den.

We enter the first of two for our Fall series to end the year so get in here!

As usual proceeds from this event go to a local charity, and this month they are going to Rainbow Refugee which promotes safe, equitable migration and fosters communities of belonging for individuals fleeing persecution related to their Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) or HIV status.

Guerric Haché - Springtails

Macro photography of tiny plants, animals, and mushrooms is growing in popularity, offering a glimpse into a once-hidden world tucked into the corners of our own. Springtails are curious little animals that make their home in these tiny places. They play a critical role in decomposition, soil health, food webs, and ecological regeneration; they are abundant across the planet and easy to find once you start looking; and they can be good pets, or even inspire national pride! Vancouver’s springtails can be found from the mossy depths of Stanley Park all the way to the undersides of back alley wooden pallets, yet to many of us humans, springtails are complete strangers. Guerric Haché is here to introduce you to your tiny neighbours, and to a whole new way of experiencing wildlife.

Bio: Guerric Haché is a video game developer, political organizer, nature photographer, and designer. They are drawn to complex and dynamic systems, which has naturally made ecology one of their core areas of interest. They are a prolific contributor to iNaturalist, a citizen science platform for documenting biodiversity across the world, and also volunteer as an iNaturalist ambassador to educate and raise awareness about the platform. Their specialty is macro photography, which has allowed them to uncover and explore the strange and diverse world of microfauna and microflora, and also helped them fall in love with springtails.

Graham Nelson-Zutter: Psychedelic Prep
Psychedelics don't work the same way as antidepressants. They act more like non-specific amplifiers: they do not so much add new content as intensify whatever is already present in the person. That single fact should reorganise how we think about preparation. If ordinary psychotherapy is hiking through a landscape alongside your therapist, psychedelic-assisted therapy is closer to power-assisted paragliding; and what preparation buys you is a good take-off. So the question becomes: what exactly gets amplified? My research argues it is not diagnosis-specific material but something more fundamental, the person's relationship to four existential givens: the capacity to be here, to value one's life, to be oneself, and to find meaning. If those are what the medicine magnifies, then the most consequential preparation is not procedural but existential. Over the next half hour I want to show you the evidence for that claim, drawn from the testimony of people who have been through it, and then the framework it supports: four preparation sessions I call GROW.
Bio: Graham Nelson-Zutter is a counselling therapist based in Vancouver and an MSc student in the Existential Analysis programme at the University of Salzburg. Graham's master's thesis is titled, GROW: Applying Existential Analysis to Preparation in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. Graham is a trained psychedelic facilitator with a graduate certificate from Vancouver Island University. He works at the intersection of existential-analytic practice and psychedelic-assisted therapy. His research analysed the published testimony of PAT participants against Längle's four Fundamental Motivations, producing GROW: a four-session existential preparation protocol with accompanying guided meditations. Graham also has a background in tech where he builds and operates VoIP networks and works with LLMs to understand human speech.

Riley Gibbs: How to Finish (and Win) a Game of Monopoly

Ever wondered which properties you should collect in Monopoly? We can use some mathematical models like a Markov Chain to help answer that question! The answer is usually orange or green or sometimes yellow. We'll learn how to calculate how often properties are landed on, expected rates of return from your assets, and most importantly how to land your friends in crushing debt.

Riley is a software developer and former high school math and computer science teacher. He used to co-boss Nerd Nite LA where he and his fellow nerds also started the Drinking & Dragons event series, for which he was the Dungeon Master until he moved to Vancouver. He holds a BA in Mathematics, an MA in Teaching, and an MS in Computer Science.