Tonight on The Independents: Revenge of the Nerds! How Super-Geeks Have Remade Culture, Sports, Technology, and Government
Tonight on The Independents: A special theme show on how nerds have changed the world. Kennedy and Kmele Foster will be on set, but regular co-host Matt Welch is out for the evening. Special guest nerd and Reason Senior Editor Peter Suderman—that's me!—is filling in.
It's on at 9 p.m. ET on the Fox Business Network, with a second showing at midnight.
The show will start with a panel discussion covering what nerds are, how they came to cultural prominence, and whether they're awesome or awful.
Regular guests Gavin McInnes and Andy Levy will be on hand to share their wisdom, and I can promise you this: There will be references to both Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Next we'll talk to Ben Lindbergh, the stats-nerd editor of stats-nerd sports journal Baseball Prospectus, about how stats-nerd sports nuts have changed America's pastime.
Hacker nerd Chris Wysopal of Veracode, who once testified before Congress about the power that nerds wield over the Internet, will come on to discuss nerds and technology.
And Reason's very own Managing Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward, who seems to have some musical nerd-history of her own, will show up to argue that libertarians are the nerds of politics—and that's why they're cool.
Later in the show: Levy and McInnes come back to play a Super Secret Nerd Word Game, the whole crew talks about their own personal nerd heroes, and I may or may not attempt to connect childhood comic-book fandom with understanding Congress.
There will be: So. Much Nerdiness. 9 p.m. ET Fox Business. Tune in!