- Tyrone and Felecia Freely realized that working corporates want to keep learning in their free time.
- They launched an event series called "Lectures on Tap," where professors give lectures in bars.
In a packed bar in Brooklyn, Pennsylvania State University professor Jason Wright gave a lecture titled "The Search for Alien Megastructures."
During his lecture on July 7, he discussed complex extraterrestrial theories like Dyson spheres, which are hypothetical structures that could surround a star and capture most of its solar power output.
Through his lecture, he gave the audience a brief glimpse into the world of astrophysics.
The catch: His "students" were not astrophysics students or even students at all. The lecture was part of an event series in New York City called "Lectures on Tap," which invites working adults to attend interesting lectures in bars.
"This lecture was not related to my field of study, but as someone who is always curious to learn more about our universe, I was drawn to this topic because it's something I had never learned about before," said attendee Amanda Firine, a 35-year-old who works in digital marketing.
"Lectures on Tap" is organized by married couple Tyrone and Felecia Freely, who say they realized that working adults want to keep learning, just in a fun environment with a drink in hand.
Felecia, who used to be a software engineer before pivoting to content creation, and Tyrone, a psychology and computer science student at Columbia University, are both self-proclaimed nerds.
When they lived in Washington, DC, they used to go to TED Talks and college lectures for date nights. They were particularly fond of an event series called "Profs and Pints," in which college professors gave lectures in bars.
But when they moved to New York City, they found a dearth of such bar lectures. To fill the gap, they decided to launch their own event series, which they called "Lectures on Tap."
"If we create the right environment, I would like to say that everyone likes to learn," Tyrone said. "So we're creating an unorthodox environment for them to, one, have a drink, and two, learn."
To date, the couple has hosted 16 90-minute sessions in various bars in New York, charging an entry fee of around $35 per attendee. They said that about 50 people attended each lecture.
Their lecture topics are varied, from "The Search for Alien Megastructures" to "Your Brain on Movies" and "The Cult of Wine."
The couple said that ever since they hosted their first session on June 18, they have amassed thousands of interested participants in their email list.
They said their attendees were mostly Gen Zs and millennials who were "intellectually curious." The attendees' occupations varied according to the lecture topic that day.
"We also had one lecture — your brain on movies — which was a neuroscientist who literally put people into MRI machines and studied their brains while they watched movies," Felecia said. "That lecture actually attracted a lot of film students."
Attendees also think it's a great place for platonic socializing.
"I think the value it provides is a social event that isn't primarily centered around drinking. You can enjoy the lecture with friends and choose to drink or not," said Alan Huse, who attended the event with Firine on July 7.
The couple also said that participants have told them it's an ideal place to meet a potential partner offline.
"They think 'Lectures on Tap' is the perfect place to meet a partner," she said. "If someone has chosen a particular lecture and someone else has chosen it there's already some basis of compatibility there."
"So it's a date night for us, but for others as well," Felecia added.