Tampa, FL · Live Podcast Lecture Series

Brilliant minds.
Your favorite
local spot.

The Lecture Lounge brings world-class academic research out of the ivory tower and into Tampa's pubs and breweries. Deep dives, craft beer, and the kind of conversation you'll be repeating at your next dinner party.

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5 flagship events · 25–35 attendees per session · USF · UT speakers

Lifelong Learning ✦ Live Podcast Energy ✦ Taproom Classroom ✦ Brilliant Minds ✦ Tampa, FL ✦

Curiosity doesn't end at graduation.

The Mission

Specialized expertise is too often locked away in sterile classrooms — accessible only to those willing to pay tuition or sit through a lecture hall on a Tuesday morning. We believe a hunger for knowledge doesn't end with a diploma. It just gets harder to feed.

The Lecture Lounge reclaims the art of the deep dive. We pair pioneers in science, technology, and the arts with the kind of evening setting where ideas actually land — over a craft beer, a cocktail, or a glass of wine. Professional enough for a PhD to trust. Social enough for a Friday night.

Upcoming · Lecture 06

The hurricane scale is broken.

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Sun, Aug 30 · Coppertail Brewing Co.

Beyond Wind: Is It Time to Adopt a New Hurricane Scale?

For 50+ years, the National Hurricane Center has communicated risk to the public through the Saffir-Simpson scale — the "Category 1 through 5" system you've seen your entire life. Dr. Jennifer Collins, Professor at USF Geosciences and one of the most decorated hurricane researchers in the country, says it's broken.

She and her international team have proposed a new scale — one that includes storm surge and flood risk, not just wind, and potentially adds a Category 6. She's making the case (in Forbes, Fox Weather, and Tampa Bay Times) that the current system is quietly putting people at greater risk. We close with practical guidance for the next storm.

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Date

Sun, Aug 30

Time

6:00–8:00pm

Venue

Coppertail Brewing

Format

Talk + Live Q&A

The Vibe

The ivory tower meets the local taproom.

Three things shape every Lecture Lounge night — and why it doesn't feel like anywhere else you've been.

Live podcast, not lecture hall.

Microphones, audience, real-time questions, and the unguarded honesty of a great podcast. Speakers come prepared to be challenged, not to read from slides.

Taproom as classroom.

We partner with Tampa's best venues — Coppertail, Strandhill Public, and others — to set the room. A pint loosens the tongue. A cocktail sharpens the question.

Built for the curious.

Twenty-something professionals. Grad students. Local entrepreneurs. Retired veterans. Anyone allergic to small talk and hungry for the kind of conversation that makes the next morning interesting.

5 flagship

Lectures hosted

25–35

Avg. attendees / night

PhDs & D.Sc.

Caliber of speakers

USF · UT

Academic partners

The Archive

Five nights, five deep dives.

See full archive

Dr. Brandon Dulisse presenting on crypto crime at The Lecture Lounge

Wrench?

Lecture 05 Crypto Crime

From Keyboards to Kidnappings

The new face of crypto crime — industrial scams, wrench attacks, and how the digital underworld stopped being digital.

Dr. Brandon Dulisse University of Tampa

Dr. Dawn Cecil presenting on the psychology of true crime at The Lecture Lounge

Guilty?

Lecture 04 Criminology

The Psychology of Our True Crime Obsession

Why our brains can't look away — and whether liking true crime is fine, actually.

Dr. Dawn Cecil University of South Florida

Dr. Razvan Teodorescu, University of South Florida

∞

Lecture 03 Physics

Gravity & Reality

Black holes, time, and what science actually says about alternate timelines — with Interstellar as our pop-culture lens.

Dr. Razvan Teodorescu University of South Florida

Build with us

Two doors. Both lead to a great night.

For Academics

Speak the Lounge.

Bring your specialty out of the lecture hall and into a room of curious adults who chose to be there. We handle venue, audience, promotion, and AV. You bring the deep dive. Every speaker so far has called it the most fun outreach of their career.

Pitch a topic

For Venues

Host the Lounge.

We bring 25–35 engaged, drink-buying attendees and a credentialed speaker to your taproom on a typically slower night — plus the social-media halo of being Tampa's living room for ideas. We build the room around your space, not the other way around.

Open your taproom