Sip Smarter Vancouver
Where curious minds meet good drinks.
BC's intimate talk series — featuring top-rated professors from leading universities in Vancouver and Victoria's best venues.
Why Sip Smarter Vancouver?
You know the pull — a true crime podcast always playing, a documentary rabbit hole eating your weekend, a psychology deep-dive that started with one video. Hours gone before you notice. Same feeling as that professor whose class you never skipped, whose talk still lives in your head rent free.
But the questions outlast the episode — and the group chat doesn't want to hear about it.
Sip Smarter closes that gap: a real expert, a 45-minute talk, a drink in your hand, and a room full of people who came to think — not just listen.
The only thing better than learning is the conversation after.
45-Minute Talks
Test what you think you know — every talk includes trivia and ends in open Q&A.
Good Drinks
Intimate venues, bar service throughout the evening.
Vancouver & Victoria
Rotating venues across both cities' best neighbourhoods.
Sip Smarter — An intimate talk series in Vancouver and Victoria where professors and experts give 45-minute talks in bars around each city — so you can grab a drink, learn something new, and spend your evening with people who miss learning as much as you do.
Why does propaganda still work?
Wednesday, October 20th, 2026
Tickets are kept intentionally limited to ensure an intimate experience — don't wait.
Wednesday, October 20th, 2026
Bimini's, Kitsilano
Doors 6:30pm | Talk 7:00pm
Prof. Heidi Tworek, UBC — History & School of Public Policy and Global Affairs
Why Is Vancouver Great to Buy In But Terrible to Live In?
September 22nd, 2026
Tickets are kept intentionally limited to ensure an intimate experience — don't wait.
Vancouver has some of the priciest real estate on the continent — and some of the lowest property taxes. That's not a coincidence, and it's not free. A UBC economist breaks down how that gap actually works, why it shifts the tax burden onto renters and income earners instead of property owners, and what it means for anyone trying to build a life here.
September 22nd, 2026
Bimini's, 2010 W 4th Ave, Vancouver
Doors 6:30pm | Talk 7:00pm
A UBC economist
What's the Math Behind a Perfect Bubble?
Wednesday, September 30th, 2026
Tickets are kept intentionally limited to ensure an intimate experience — don't wait.
Soap films, optimal shapes, and the surprising math hiding in the head on your pint. Dr. Trefor Bazett — UVic mathematician and YouTube educator with over 600,000 subscribers — unpacks the geometry behind a perfect bubble, with trivia and open Q&A as always.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2026
Swans Pub, Victoria (Bucker Fields room)
Doors 6:30pm | Capacity 85
Dr. Trefor Bazett, Associate Teaching Professor of Mathematics & Statistics, UVic
Dr. Thomas Davidoff
Associate Professor, Real Estate and Strategy & Business Economics, UBC Sauder School of Business
Tom Davidoff is an Associate Professor in the Real Estate and Strategy and Business Economics groups at UBC's Sauder School of Business. Prior to joining UBC, he earned degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and MIT, and worked in real estate development in Brooklyn before teaching at UC Berkeley. While at UBC, Davidoff has advised the White House on housing and mortgage policy, worked with two startup real estate intelligence companies, and advised Canadian governments at every level on land use and tax policy. His research on aging, insurance, housing, and public policy has been published in leading finance, real estate, and economics journals, and he serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Housing Economics and the Journal of Risk and Insurance.
Dr. Trefor Bazett
Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Victoria
Dr. Trefor Bazett is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria. His math videos have earned him more than 600,000 YouTube subscribers, and his teaching has been recognized with nine awards. Whether on camera or in the classroom, he's on a mission to show that math is everywhere — including in the bubbles in your drink.
Prof. Heidi Tworek
UBC — History & School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Canada Research Chair; Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions
Heidi Tworek is a Canada Research Chair and Professor of History and Public Policy at UBC, where she directs the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Her work traces how communications technologies have shaped democracy, from the early twentieth century to the platform age.
She's the author of News from Germany: The Competition to Control World Communications, 1900–1945 (Harvard University Press), and her writing and research have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Wired, and Politico, among others. She advises governments and international bodies on digital governance and disinformation, and co-founded Digital Action, an NGO focused on democratic rights online.
Her talk asks a simple question with a complicated answer: if propaganda is this old and this well understood, why does it still work?
Past Events
Talks worth remembering.
What Do Police Helicopters Actually Do?
Dr. Rylan Simpson
Associate Professor of Criminology, SFU
August 27th, 2026
Courtside on Main, 2415 Main St, Vancouver
Is There Such a Thing as an Expert Criminal?
Dr. Eric Beauregard
School of Criminology, SFU
August 6th, 2026
Courtside on Main, Vancouver
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