Our Mission

I'm Going to Break the Fourth Wall: Hey, this is Matt, the organizer! I drink very rarely myself! You should still come out, learn something, and make some new friends. Most of our venues will have non-alcoholic options, food, etc.

We hold these discussions at any willing and open venue in the Triangle! Cafes, bars, breweries, museums, universities, etc. If you're interested in recommending a venue or are a venue owner that would like to host a talk, please reach out to us through our Contact page!

Its simple! First 30 minutes people get checked in, grab some food and drink, and mingle. The lecturer will then begin and will present for about an hour. We then wrap up with a 15 minute audience Q&A. That's it! We hope though that you'll stick around to talk about what you learned!

Lecture Lounge is a spin-off of the Triangle Heterodox Club, a bookclub that became a larger volunteer, social, and intellectual discussion group. We are believers in the value of local community ties and connections, putting academia in discourse with the larger public, and the need to promote openness to ideas and civil discourse. Feel free to check out the Triangle Heterodox Club Meetup, where our bookclub is still running!

Lecturers are given a dedicated percentage of the proceeds for their talk. We focus on bringing out adjunct professors, researchers, artists, and others who don't always receive full recognition and valuation for their work. Help us give them a chance to get their passion out there! The more people we have attend, the more our lecturers make too!

We are always looking for presenters. Although we target professors, postdocs, and other credential experts, you don't have to have an advanced degree to give a talk! As long as you have developed expertise or mastery on a topic, skill, or element of life, we would like to talk with you. Please use our Contact page to inquire about being a presenter.

We are always looking for venues! We will hold events at any open venue that is able to accommodate a space where our lecturers can reasonably present on a screen or projector to your patrons. This is our greatest limitation and would love to find partners that can work with us on staging!

We realize that one of the major problems for venues in the area can be the slower crowds on weeknights. Our events are targeted to help activate and bring in a wide range of patrons on weeknights to help establish an identity for your space as part of both the Lecture Lounge network and a place that encourages people to get to meet each other on a weeknight. Note: We are not able to provide any split of the tickets to venues. A significant proportion of the ticket sales goes to lecturers to compensate them. Remaining proceeds are needed to make this a sustainable business on our end.

Presenters receive a percentage of the ticket sales for their talk.