The Turbulent Brain: Rhythms and Waves - Alain Goriely

Gresham College Lectures

#Gresham College #Science #Podcasting Education #History

40:22

There’s only so much you can do in a week – or, according to Oliver Burkeman, in the roughly 4,000 weeks the average human lives. Oliver is a journalist and author of the books Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Meditations for Mortals, and the newsletter “The Imperfectionist.” Chris and Oliver discuss the paradox of why change can only occur once we accept that we might not be able to change. Oliver also shares how life’s mishaps can become our most treasured memories and why sharing your imperfections is an act of generosity. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch . Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links: TEDNext: ted.com/futureyou Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

about a year ago 56:21

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Despite its quiet appearance, the brain is the seat of complicated wave dynamics. Indeed, cognitive processes are carried out through communications between neurons, leading to synchronisation and oscillations at different frequencies that can be recorded. Together, these oscillations also create waves that propagate through different regions. Apart from this electrical activity, the brain is also the siege of slow chemical waves that can cause migraine and mechanical waves arising from trauma. In this lecture, we will study the influence of all these waves on brain function.
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 18th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry.
He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/turbulent-brain-rhythms-and-waves
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
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Gresham College Lectures

The Turbulent Brain: Rhythms and Waves - Alain Goriely

Gresham College Lectures

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published about a year ago

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#Gresham College #Science #Podcasting Education #History

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Gresham College Lectures

1
Outsmart the System: How Psychology Hacks Your Money Decisions - Raghavendra Rau 1:03:03

3 days ago1:03:03

1:03:03

Ever feel like the financial world works against you? This lecture discusses "behavioral finance" – how our brains get tricked by money matters. We will explore how to use these insights to your advantage, navigate conflicts of interest with financial "experts," and make smarter decisions for yourself and your investments. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on the 16th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/outsmart-system-how-psychology-hacks-your-money-decisions Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Democracy and International Criminal Justice in the Fragile World of the Rule of Law - Howard Morrison 46:53

6 days ago46:53

46:53

The lecture will examine the pros and cons of democracy in today's world, focusing on the importance of domestic and international rule of law to maintain democratic ideals, which are fragile in times of conflict. There will be examples given, highlighting the current War in Ukraine and the political situation in the United States, the influence of other players and the legacy of the Cold War. Lastly, there will be an observation on the ways that the principal judicial organs operate, their challenges, and a prediction of their future. Sir Howard Morrison will provide some suggestions as to how things might be contained by means of persuasive soft power. This lecture was recorded by Howard Morrison on the 9th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Sir Howard Morrison KC was called to the Bar by Grays Inn in 1977. He is now a Master of the Bench. He was commissioned as a TAVR infantry officer. He practised on the Midland and Oxford Circuit until 1986 when he went to Fiji as a Resident Magistrate , later promoted Chief Magistrate and Senior Magistrate of Tuvalu. Appointed OBE for services to the judiciary following military coups. He then served as Attorney General for Anguilla before returning to UK practice at 1 King's Bench Walk. He was appointed Recorder sitting in crime, civil and family and defended at the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague and the Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha in Tanzania before taking Silk in 2001 and was subsequently appointment to the Circuit Bench in 2004. In 2005 he was seconded to advise the judges of the Iraqi Higher Tribunal trying Saddam Hussein, spending a year in Baghdad after which he was appointed CBE. In 2009 he was appointed as the UK Judge for the Special Tribunal for the Lebanon and then as the UK Judge for the Yugoslavia Tribunal where he was a trial judge in the seminal case of Radovan Karadzic. In 2011 he was elected as the UK Judge at the International Criminal Court until 2021 where he served two terms as President of the Appeals Chamber being appointed KCMG in 2016. He is a Senior Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre of Cambridge University and a visiting professor at the universities of Leicester ( appointed Hon LLD), Warwick and Northumbria. He has lectured in international criminal and humanitarian law at some 25 universities worldwide. He is currently an associate tenant at Doughty Strert chambers, the UK Independent Advisor to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, President of the Court of Appeal of the British Indian Ocean Territories and trains counter-terrorism judges and prosecutors in Iraq. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-25 Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Future of Health - Chris Whitty 51:34

10 days ago51:34

51:34

Health over the last 150 years in the UK and internationally has been transformed and this rapid rate of change will continue. Improvements in public health and the shifting demographic structure are altering the trajectory and frequency of disease. Advances in science including new drug classes, diagnostics and AI are changing what is possible in diagnosis and treatment. This lecture will consider the possible, and likely, direction of health over the next decades. This Annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture was recorded by Sir Chris Whitty on 23rd June 2025 at Conway Hall, Holborn, London Chris was Gresham Professor of Physic at Gresham College from 2018 to 2022, and Visiting Professor of Public Health 2015-2018 and again since 2022. He is the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England and the UK Government's Chief Medical Adviser. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-health-25 Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://gresham.ac.uk/support/ Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Sum Stories: Equations and their Origins - Robin Wilson 54:42

13 days ago54:42

54:42

How long is the coastline of Britain? What is a rhombicuboctahedron? Which US president proved Pythagoras’s theorem? These and many other intriguing questions will be addressed in this lecture on renowned mathematical equations and their history. The selected equations span various areas of mathematics and cover a timeline of 4000 years, from early geometry to fractal art. This lecture was recorded by Robin Wilson on the 4th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Professor Robin Wilson is Emeritus Gresham Professor of Geometry, Emeritus Professor of Pure Mathematics at the Open University, and a former Fellow of Keble College, Oxford University. He has also regularly taught as a guest Professor at The Colorado College, USA, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in mathematics in 2023. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sum-stories Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Deceived Brain: Coding and Illusion - Alain Goriely 51:29

17 days ago51:29

51:29

We perceive the world through the processing of information given by our senses. Sometimes, this processing is faulty leading to illusions: shapes or sounds that we perceive differently from their physical reality. These illusions have delighted children and scientists alike for centuries. This lecture reveals how simple geometric illusions can be modelled mathematically, based on our understanding on how visual signals are coded and decoded by the brain, leading to a better understanding of how we process information. This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 17th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/deceived-brain Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Future of Immunity - Robin May 51:28

20 days ago51:28

51:28

Our understanding of the human immune system today is vastly different from that of 50 years ago. This knowledge has led to immune-based therapies that would have seemed like science fiction to our grandparents: monoclonal antibodies, T-cell therapies, anti-cancer vaccines, precision immune suppression – the list is endless. In this lecture, we look to the future and ask, “What next for immunity?” This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 11th of June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic. He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/future-immunity Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Maths of Music (and the Music of Maths) - Milton Mermikides and Sarah Hart 43:44

24 days ago43:44

43:44

This is the fourth lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025 Professors Sarah Hart and Milton Mermikides reveal the deep connections between music and mathematics. Whether that’s the Euclidean rhythms that shape funky grooves, the set theory that maps every possible chord, or a live rendering of the geometric elegance of Gresham Professor Iannis Xenakis’s algorithmic compositions, this event will reveal how maths can help explain – and even inspire – the richness of musical experience. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Sarah Hart on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Sarah Hart was the first woman Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, and Acting Provost between March and October 2025. She is also Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Birkbeck, University of London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/maths-music-and-music-maths Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamColleg e Facebook: h ttps://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcolleg e Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: h ttps://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcolleg e Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Evolution of Music - Milton Mermikides and Robin May 49:57

24 days ago49:57

49:57

This is the first lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025 Musical instruments have been found in the archaeological record from at least 40,000 years ago and despite the diversity of human civilization, we are yet to find a culture which lacks music. Other species also make ‘music’ – from a grasshopper’s chirp to a nightingale’s song – but is human music simply an extension of that evolutionary heritage? What can modern studies of genetics and anthropology tell us about the evolution of human musicality? Can neuroscience explain why music evokes such strong emotions? And what happens when the ‘biology of music’ goes wrong? This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Robin May on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic. He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/evolution-music Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: h ttps://x.com/GreshamColleg e Facebook: h ttps://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: h ttps://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Climbing Mount Groove: Music and Dance in the Brain - Milton Mermikides and Morten Kringelbach 43:03

24 days ago43:03

43:03

This is the second lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025 Why does a rhythm make us tap our feet—or even get up and dance? In conversation with Professor Milton Mermikides, neuroscientist Professor Morten Kringelbach reveals how the brain finds pleasure, meaning, and movement in music. Drawing on extensive brain imaging, analysis and real-world studies, the talk explores how music and dance engage our brain’s predictive systems—where just the right balance of familiarity and surprise creates joy. From funk to fugues, bossa to the Beatles – the talk will offer insights into why groove feels so good, and how rhythm links brain, body and culture. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Morten Kringelbach on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Professor Kringelbach is the founding director of the "Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing" at Linacre College, University of Oxford which convenes and fosters an interdisciplinary team of scientists and artists. He is also Professor of Neuroscience and co-founder of "Center for Music in Brain", Aarhus University, Denmark. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/climbing-mount-groove-music-and-dance-brain Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Virtues of Music - Milton Mermikides and Melissa Lane 41:27

24 days ago41:27

41:27

This is the third lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025 This dialogue presents the what and why of Ancient Greek music, and its profound role in philosophy, society and the individual. Education without music was an impossibility in ancient Greece; virtue without music, equally so. One scholar (writing in the late twentieth century) compared the pervasive social presence and impact of the medium of mousikē in Ancient Greece to that of television. But with its participatory motor training and habituation, mousikē, was also a primary mode of acculturation: a way to shape the perceptual attunement and overall outlook of the members of a political community. Engagement with poetry and music pervaded all aspects of Ancient Greek life, and because musical education was the core of Greek education, it was also the core of Greek citizenship and of the virtues. Different musical modes were even thought to impart distinct virtues; for Plato, training in musicality could harmonise the soul, while changes in musical styles and genres could dislocate the entire polity. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Melissa Lane on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/virtues-music Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: h ttps://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: h ttps://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Remixing the Music of the Spheres - Milton Mermikides and Chris Lintott 43:16

24 days ago43:16

43:16

This is the fifth and final lecture from the Gresham Festival of Musical Ideas. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/series/musical-ideas-2025 Professors Lintott and Mermikides present and discuss historical and contemporary musical representations of astronomical data including Pythagoras’s parallelism of tuning purity and celestial movement, Plato’s cosmic harmony in Timaeus, Kepler’s representations of orbital eccentricity as musical scales, Herschel’s blending of music and cosmology, and the tendency of stable planetary systems to ‘find’ harmonic ratios. The contemporary field of astro-sonification – using sound to represent, search and communicate to a diverse audience, astronomical patterns from black hole radiation to exoplanetary systems – is demonstrated with original examples. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides and Chris Lintott on 29th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy. He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music.He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/remixing-music-spheres Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: h ttps://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: h ttps://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Architecture of Enslavement, Colonialism and Independence: The Story of James Fort in Accra - Elsie Owusu 46:15

27 days ago46:15

46:15

Accra’s James Fort is an iconic monument for Ghana and modern Africa. This lecture explores the fort's evolution -from its role as a trading post in the early European-African encounters, through its significance during the trans-Atlantic trade and enslavement, to its later use as a modern colonial prison in the post-independence era. It also explores its connection to Ghana's liberation movement, particularly its role in imprisoning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other political leaders during their resistance to British rule. Today, this monument represents the resilience, talent and creative potential of a sustainable future for Ghana and its youthful population. This lecture was recorded by Elsie Owusu on the 27th of March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Elsie Owusu OBE is a Ghanaian-British architect and urban designer. She is principal of Elsie Owusu Architects, with projects in UK, Nigeria and Ghana. With an extensive portfolio of international projects, from transport and infrastructure and master planning, Elsie is a specialist conservation architect. She is currently designing rural community-led zero-carbon schemes and conservation projects in Ghana and developing eco-homes in Sussex. When a partner at Feilden+Mawson, she was co-lead architect for the UK Supreme Court and London’s Green Park Station. Born in Ghana, Elsie was the founding chair of the Society of Black Architects. She is a trustee of UK Supreme Court Arts Trust and former member of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Council. Previous roles include the Founding Vice-Chair of the London School of Architecture, the London Mayor’s Panel of Design Advocates and Board Member of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum. Elsie is a director of JustGhana Ltd which promotes education, architecture, arts and creative industries in Ghana and the UK. In 2003, she was honoured by The Queen for services to architecture. She was the runner-up for the Presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2018. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/james-fort Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Operatic Showstopper: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh 47:49

4 weeks ago47:49

47:49

This lecture considers ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from Carousel (1945). Perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most operatic song, it was originally written for Metropolitan Opera star Christine Johnson but has gone on to be recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley and Marcus Mumford and sung at both the Last Night of the Proms and Liverpool Football Club. This lecture will include live performances by international soprano and Grammy Award winner Rebecca Evans CBE. This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 2nd of May 2025 at Conway Hall, London. Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music. He is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is a graduate of King's College London. His scholarship focuses on the American musical on stage and screen, and he has published eight books including Loverly: The Life and Times of 'My Fair Lady' (OUP, 2012), The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (2022). He is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America. He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/operatic-showstopper Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Carbon Takeback: How We Will Stop Fossil Fuels from Causing Global Warming - Myles Allen 48:56

5 weeks ago48:56

48:56

We have to stop fossil fuels from causing global warming – before the world stops using fossil fuels. There’s only one solution: safe and permanent disposal of one tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne still generated by burning fossil fuels. But how do we achieve this without overheating the planet or stoking political conflicts? This lecture presents a simple answer: make carbon dioxide disposal a licensing condition of the sale and use of fossil fuels. This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 10th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment. Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbon-takeback-how-we-will-stop-fossil-fuels-causing-global-warming Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Do Computers Get Sick? How Humans and Computers Fight Viruses - Robin May & Victoria Baines 50:20

5 weeks ago50:20

50:20

Whether you are human or computer, viruses can ruin your day, so taking steps to avoid them is important. This lecture will ask whether there are similarities between human immunity and computer immunity? Can we use discoveries in one system to help protect against infections in the other? Might we one day take our laptops for regular vaccinations, or run a ‘software update’ on our own immune systems to avoid an emerging pathogen? This lecture was recorded by Robin May & Victoria Baines on 7th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic. He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology. Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/do-computers-get-sick-how-humans-and-computers-fight-viruses Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Illuminating the Dark Side of the Moon - Milton Mermikides 52:12

6 weeks ago52:12

52:12

Now over 50 years old, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon remains the perfect example of a concept album. Blending cyclical forms, jazz and modal harmony, experimental electronics, multi-layered guitars, studio techniques and haunting lyrics, this lecture will examine why this album has retained its popularity, critical success, and enduring influence. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 12th June 2025 at Rich Mix, London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/illuminating-dark-side-moon Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Lawgivers in Modern Revolutions - Melissa Lane 50:13

6 weeks ago50:13

50:13

How have lawgivers featured in modern revolutions? This lecture considers key moments in revolutions, including seventeenth-century Britain, eighteenth-century France and (what would become) the United States, and twentieth-century Iran. The appeal to lawgivers (including ancient ones from many cultures) in revolutionary visions and in consolidating new constitutions is a striking feature of modern politics. This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 5th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lawgivers-modern-revolutions Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Taking the Constitution into the Classroom - Clive Stafford Smith 37:23

7 weeks ago37:23

37:23

The U.S. Constitution had to be formed through debate before it could be ratified. Mirroring this, a British constitution must emerge through debates held by the next generation. This lecture indicates schools are a good environment to foster this. For students, there are many contentious issues that tap into discussions at the heart of writing a constitution. Students being punished for swearing raises questions of limits to free speech. Students wishing to intervene when an unpopular peer is bullied would be empowered by constitutional duty obliging them to do so. Schools tend to be authoritarian institutions, benevolent or otherwise, and can either provoke students to develop ideas on power structures and recognise the need for their own rights and duties, or condition them to accept of the status quo. This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 22nd May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/taking-constitution-classroom Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
A New Sky - Chris Lintott 44:17

7 weeks ago44:17

44:17

The JWST is the most expensive and powerful telescope astronomers have ever constructed. Its launch in 2021 started a new phase in our exploration of the cosmos, with the observatory's golden mirrors producing instantly iconic images of the Solar System's giant planets, nearby star-forming regions and galaxies, and our distant universe. The lecture includes the latest news from its studies of the early universe, a place lit up by what appears to have been a much more spectacular burst of activity than anyone expected. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 28th May 2025 at Conway Hall, London Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy. He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/new-sky Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Blind Spots & Bad Decisions: Why We Fall for Financial Traps - Raghavendra Rau 1:08:09

8 weeks ago1:08:09

1:08:09

Why do smart people make dumb financial choices? This lecture explores the surprising link between our psychology and money mistakes. We will see how fear, overconfidence, and even our desire to be liked can cloud our judgment, especially when dealing with financial "experts". Learn how these psychological blind spots worsen conflicts of interest, and how to make smarter financial decisions, free from emotional influence. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 2nd June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/blind-spots-bad-decisions-why-we-fall-financial-traps Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: h ttps://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Moral Case for Stealing Data - Victoria Baines 51:53

8 weeks ago51:53

51:53

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/hLBfAVyeMBs Throughout history, authorities have struggled to manage individuals’ urges to speak out against injustice and malpractice. IT has given us new means to obtain and publish data that others may wish to protect or even conceal. To some, those who hack and leak are heroes. To others, they are criminals. In an era of mass leaks and high-profile whistleblowing, who decides whether data thieves and hackers are to be protected or prosecuted? And are the old rules still fit for purpose in the digital age? This lecture will discuss these questions and will consider the moral case for stealing data. This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 20th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology. Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/moral-case-stealing-data Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
From Thin Air: Minimalist and process music from Africa to Arvo Pärt - Milton Mermikides 52:28

9 weeks ago52:28

52:28

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/3ntebbsM4Hw This lecture delves into musical forms which rely on the most economical of materials and concepts. From Steve Reich’s adoption of rhythmic cycles and phasing in Ewe drumming to the expressive power of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music, we explore how profound effect can emerge from such apparent simplicity. This lecture unpacks the processes behind celebrated minimalist works and reveals the quiet and elegant mechanisms underpinning their musical power. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 1st May 2025 at Rich Mix, London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/minimalist-process Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: h ttps://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Modern Pagan Witchcraft - Ronald Hutton 44:33

9 weeks ago44:33

44:33

This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 14th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity. He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-pagan-witchcraft Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
From Machiavelli to Nietzsche: How Modern Thinkers Saw Ancient Lawgivers - Melissa Lane 43:55

10 weeks ago43:55

43:55

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/VOGzTymAYno For many modern thinkers, the lawgiver has been important as a founder or re-founder of civic identity and cultural values. From Machiavelli on Moses; to Rousseau on Solon, Lycurgus, and the need for a lawgiver to make a true social contract possible; to Nietzsche and his followers seeking a lawgiver who can be also poet and prophet, this lecture will explore the figure of the lawgiver and how it has been a center of debate in modern political philosophy. This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 29th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/machiavelli-nietzsche-how-modern-thinkers-saw-ancient-lawgivers Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Troubled Brain: Ageing and Dementia - Alain Goriely 58:53

10 weeks ago58:53

58:53

Diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are devastating neurological conditions that typically occur at old age and lead to systematic dementia and debilitating symptoms. The underlying mechanisms of these diseases are poorly understood. Yet, a striking feature of these conditions is the characteristic pattern of invasion throughout the brain, leading to well-codified disease stages associated with various cognitive deficits and pathologies. This lecture shows how mathematical modelling can be used to predict dementia’s progression by unravelling some of its universal features. This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 13th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/troubled-brain-ageing-and-dementia Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Divine Law, Human Prophet: Moses in Hebrew and Greek - Melissa Lane 44:32

11 weeks ago44:32

44:32

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 6th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford, she will be Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas in the Faculties of Philosophy and History at Oxford University, and a Visiting Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term 2024. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/divine-law-human-prophet-moses-hebrew-and-greek Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Does Net Zero Mean the End of Livestock Agriculture? - Myles Allen 51:06

11 weeks ago51:06

51:06

This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 29th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment. Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/does-net-zero-mean-end-livestock-agriculture Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The 2025 Annual Lord Mayor's Event - Alastair King 57:14

12 weeks ago57:14

57:14

This lecture was recorded by Alderman Alastair King on 14th April 2025 at Guildhall, London. Alastair King is the 696th Lord Mayor of the City of London His civic responsibilities began when he was first elected as Common Councillor for Queenhithe Ward in 1999 – giving him over 24 years’ uninterrupted service; he was appointed Deputy for the Ward in 2006and elected Alderman in 2016 – serving as Aldermanic Sheriff 2022-23. He sits on the Governing Bodies of the Bridewell Royal Hospital, the Samuel Wilson Loans Trust, Morden College and Emanuel Hospital. A Liveryman of 11 City Livery Companies, Alastair also serves as Chairman of The British Liver Trust and Chairman of Onside Youth Zone,Haringey Project. Early in his career, Alastair was a lawyer and practiced as a solicitor at leading international law firm Baker & McKenzie in the City and in Asia. Alastair later held senior positions at SPARK Ventures (formally NewMedia SPARK PLC) a pioneering technology venture capital company in London, and was Managing Director at Galahad Capital Plc. He is the founder and Chairman of Naisbitt King Asset Management Limited (NKAML), an FCA-authorised asset management company, specialising in managing segregated portfolios of investment grade fixed income securities. NKAML constructs bespoke portfolios, often with special reference to Environmental, Social and Governance characteristics. It also has experience with sukuk/Shariah-compliant investments and publishes the Naisbitt King Bond Market Update every month. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/2025-annual-lord-mayors-event Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
What Rights and Duties are Missing from the U.S. Constitution? - Clive Stafford Smith 45:56

12 weeks ago45:56

45:56

This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 10th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/what-rights-and-duties-are-missing-us-constitution Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
How Does Surveillance Work? - Victoria Baines 50:33

13 weeks ago50:33

50:33

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Y9JR7El863k Our alert systems for identifying safety and security threats have evolved over time. As the threat from wild animals diminished, the perceived threat from other humans increased. To defend our territories and our livelihoods, we began to gather intelligence on our enemies, in the hope that being forewarned would give us an advantage. This lecture explores our use of technologies that have allowed us to keep a closer watch, and the ingenious methods that have been used to counter them. This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 8th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology. Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-surveillance-works Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Why Are Cities Going Bankrupt? - Martin Daunton 1:00:13

13 weeks ago1:00:13

1:00:13

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/G_SpC_BV4jA In the late nineteenth century, Joseph Chamberlain transformed Birmingham with municipal enterprise and urban improvement, but in the last few years, local authorities have been facing serious financial difficulties, and some of the largest, such as Birmingham, have faced the equivalent of bankruptcy. This lecture will ask why British cities have lost the confident civic pride of the Victorian era and are now struggling to provide basic services from a limited financial base. Most importantly: What can be done to regenerate British towns and cities? This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 24th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Professor Martin Daunton is Visiting Gresham Professor of Economic History. He is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge. He has written two books on the history of taxation in Britain – Trusting Leviathan and Just Taxes, and co-edited with colleagues in Berlin a volume of essays on the political economy of public finance in leading OECD countries since the 1970s. His book The Economic Government of the World, 1933 to 2023 was published by Allen Lane in 2023. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cities-bankrupt Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Modern Druids - Ronald Hutton 54:41

14 weeks ago54:41

54:41

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/qz9a4zXIFz0 The ancient Druids have long represented some of the most striking and controversial figures in ancient and medieval literature. In this lecture, we will look at the many different ways in which the modern imagination has been inspired by them, both as heroic ancestors and as demonic villains against whom civilisation can be defined. It traces the appearance of different kinds of Druidry as a part of Paganism, and suggests what the particular contribution of that Druidry to modern culture may be. This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 2nd April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity. He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-druids Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
How Do Vaccines Work? - Robin May 50:18

14 weeks ago50:18

50:18

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/PcNoOjT30VY Vaccination has changed the world, saving millions of lives and enabling us to eradicate a lethal disease for the first time in human history – not to mention their critical role in ending the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture explores how a vaccine actually works, why mRNA vaccines are truly groundbreaking and why we can’t simply vaccinate against everything. This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 26th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic. He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-do-vaccines-work Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: h ttps://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Asteroid Adventures - Chris Lintott 47:25

15 weeks ago47:25

47:25

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/H8nG29pO_y4 Asteroids were for years considered 'celestial vermin' - objects which got in the way of more interesting fodder for astronomers. Now, they are central to our Solar System's story, representing the building blocks from which planets are made, and capable of telling us the history of the last five billion years. This lecture considers two missions - Lucy, which flies past asteroid Donald Johnson in April 2025, and OSIRIS-ReX, which recently returned from threatening near-Earth asteroid Bennu bearing samples of this unusual world. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 23rd April 2025 at Conway Hall, London Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy. He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/asteroid-adventures Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The LGBT+ Showstopper: ‘I Am What I Am’ - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh 44:32

15 weeks ago44:32

44:32

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/-TsWDdeQK34 Composed by Jerry Herman of Hello, Dolly! fame, ‘I Am What I Am’ first appeared in the Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles (1983). As well as gaining importance as a gay anthem during the AIDS crisis, the song has gone on to become a hit for several Black divas including Gloria Gaynor and Shirley Bassey. This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 3rd of April 2025 at Conway Hall, London. Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gresham Visiting Professor of Film and Theatre Music. He is also Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield and is a graduate of King's College London. His scholarship focuses on the American musical on stage and screen, and he has published eight books including Loverly: The Life and Times of 'My Fair Lady' (OUP, 2012), The Letters of Cole Porter (Yale, 2019) and The Oxford Handbook of the Hollywood Musical (2022). He is Associate Producer of the PBS documentary Meredith Willson: America's Music Man and has appeared on all the main BBC television and radio stations as well as NPR in America. He has given talks and lectures at the Sydney Opera House, New York City Center, the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Sadler's Wells, and Lincoln Center, among many others. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/lgbt-showstopper-i-am-what-i-am Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: h ttps://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: h ttps://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Documentary Photography in Apartheid South Africa - Tamar Garb 58:39

16 weeks ago58:39

58:39

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/9tcRtGh7hkM This lecture looks at debates and dialogues that characterise realist photography in Apartheid South Africa (1948-1994) examining the tensions between advocacy, propaganda and the ‘struggle’ on the one hand and the poetics of everyday life on the other. Figures from Ernest Cole and David Goldblatt to Zanele Muholi and Lebohang Kganye will be examined. This lecture was recorded by Tamar Garb on 25th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Tamar Garb is Durning Lawrence Professor in the History of Art. Her research interests have focused on questions of gender and sexuality in European art as well as on post-apartheid culture, contemporary art, and the history of lens-based practices in Africa. Key publications include Sisters of the Brush: Women’s Artistic practices in Late Nineteenth Century Paris (1992), Bodies of Modernity: Figure and Flesh in Fin de Siecle France (1996) and,The Painted Face: Portraits of Women in France, 18145-1914 (2007). Her Africa related curatorial projects include: Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography (V&A, 2011); Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive (Walther Collection, 2015); William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: A Conversation in Letters and Lines (Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016) and, Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt (Walther Collection 2023) The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/documentary-photography-apartheid-south-africa Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Just Ask The Axis: Jimi Hendrix unpicked - Milton Mermikides 49:51

16 weeks ago49:51

49:51

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/rKoYL4yrNsg Despite being cited as one of the most creative and influential guitarists of all time, and his tragically short life, Jimi Hendrix’s playing and composing are yet to be fully analysed. This lecture will demystify his diverse influences and reveal the full range of his extraordinary invention in terms of sonic sculpting, rhythmic feel, fretboard navigation, harmony, and composition. We explore this dazzling creativity from his early playing as a sideman to the Isley Brothers, the Experience albums, the iconic Band of Gypsys project, to the tantalising promise of his ‘Electric Church’ musical vision. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 20th March 2025 at Rich Mix, London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/just-ask-axis-jimi-hendrix-unpicked Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Case for Basic Income - Guy Standing 34:41

17 weeks ago34:41

34:41

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/cjJSWgvHZKw This lecture puts forth the ethical and economic case for a basic income, enabling financial security and therefore a better quality of life for all. Financial insecurity affects one’s ability to make rational decisions – studies show it even lowers short-term IQ – making it even harder to improve one’s circumstances in the long run. Furthermore, unlike means-tested social assistance schemes like Universal Credit, a basic income does not involve a severe ‘poverty trap’ and thus, contrary to critics, increases the incentive to take low-paying jobs. This lecture includes findings from a series of BI pilots across the world which Dr Standing has been involved in. This lecture was recorded by Guy Standing on 19th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Guy Standing is a Professorial Research Associate and former Professor of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. From August 2006 until January 2013, he was Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath in the UK. Between April 2006 and February 2009, he was also Professor of Labour Economics at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He has written and edited books on labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies, social protection policy, rentier capitalism and its predations, and the need to revive the commons. His most recent books are The Politics of Time: Gaining Control in the Age of Uncertainty (2023), The Blue Commons: Rescuing the Economy of the Sea (2022), Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now (2020) and Plunder of the Commons: A Manifesto for Sharing Public Wealth (2019). The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/case-basic-income Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: h ttps://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: h ttps://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: h ttps://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Turbulent Brain: Rhythms and Waves - Alain Goriely 56:21

17 weeks ago56:21

56:21

Despite its quiet appearance, the brain is the seat of complicated wave dynamics. Indeed, cognitive processes are carried out through communications between neurons, leading to synchronisation and oscillations at different frequencies that can be recorded. Together, these oscillations also create waves that propagate through different regions. Apart from this electrical activity, the brain is also the siege of slow chemical waves that can cause migraine and mechanical waves arising from trauma. In this lecture, we will study the influence of all these waves on brain function. This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 18th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Alain is Gresham Professor of Geometry. He is currently the Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/turbulent-brain-rhythms-and-waves Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Banned Books and Freedom of Expression - Rachel Potter 45:37

18 weeks ago45:37

45:37

The right to free expression is severely threatened in many places in the world, yet it has also never been so passionately defended. This lecture focuses on the recent history of banned literature. It considers the changing nature of literary censorship, arguments in defence of free expression, why literary writers have so frequently pushed the boundaries of the acceptable, and the impact of technology on censorship and free speech. This lecture was recorded by Rachel Potter on 12th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Rachel Potter is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of East Anglia. She writes on literature and censorship, free expression and writers organisations, modernist literature and early twentieth century culture. Rachel completed her PhD at King's College, Cambridge, where she also studied for her undergraduate degree. Prior to her PhD she took the MA in 'Critical Theory' at the University of Sussex. Before joining UEA in September, 2007, she taught for seven years at Queen Mary, University of London. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/banned-books Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Trust Issues: When Financial "Experts" Have Other Plans - Raghavendra Rau 58:14

19 weeks ago58:14

58:14

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/0jSUfa0LQAo This lecture examines agency problems in various relationships, including between investors and fund managers, and within financial intermediaries. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 3rd February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/trust-issues-when-financial-experts-have-other-plans Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk X: https://x.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Carbon Offsetting: Does It Really Work? - Myles Allen 51:53

19 weeks ago51:53

51:53

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/MB73qh4pIYM Offsets, politely called carbon credit markets, are essential to many net-zero strategies, yet remain highly controversial. They seem an efficient solution for “unavoidable” emissions – but who decides what is unavoidable? This lecture will discuss several plans to achieve our climate goals, from emission compensation schemes to tackling fossil fuels by planting trees. This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 4th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment. Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/carbon-offsetting-does-it-really-work Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: h ttps://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Is the First Amendment the greatest right of all? - Clive Stafford Smith 59:06

20 weeks ago59:06

59:06

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/W5EKhMWdjP4 In this lecture we will discuss a hierarchy of rights. Is the American First Amendment the most important of all, given its five foundational rights – no establishment of religion; free exercise of religion; freedom of speech and the press; the right peaceably to assemble; the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. How might this apply to the UK? This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 27th February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity” in 2000. He has been a member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1984. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/first-amendment Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-toda y Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
The Biggest Cosmic Map - Chris Lintott 45:12

21 weeks ago45:12

45:12

Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/TRCkgDWKTdY Mapping the stars is, perhaps, the oldest of astronomical pursuits, but it has been perfected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, which is providing an exquisitely precise map showing the positions and movements of the nearest two billion stars. Starting with a history of mapping the cosmos, this lecture describes the new and dynamic history of our Milky Way galaxy that results, and will move to explaining the dynamic and growing nature of our galaxy. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 26th February 2025 at Conway Hall, London Chris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy. He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/biggest-cosmic-map Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.uk Twitter: h ttps://twitter.com/greshamcollege Facebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: h ttps://instagram.com/greshamcollege Support Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Support the show…

Gresham College Lectures

1
Data: A Love Story for the Ages - Victoria Baines 50:21

21 weeks ago50:21