Gresham College

Claude Debussy Concert - Sophie Bevan (soprano) and Sebastian Wybrew (piano)

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 07:51:22 -0000

A recital of the songs of Claude Debussy, by Alumni of the Royal College of Music: Sophie Bevan (soprano) and Sebastian Wybrew (piano). Pieces performed, with the poets used for the text by Debussy, include the following:

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842--1898)
Apparition
Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
Soupir
Placet futile
Éventail

Paul Verlaine (1844--1896)
Fêtes galantes I
En sourdine
Fantoches
Clair de lune
Mandoline

Paul Bourget (1852--1935)
Deux romances
Romance
Les Cloches

Charles Baudelaire (1821--1867) from Cinq Poèmes de Ch. Baudelaire
Le Jet d'eau
Harmonie du soir

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-two

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Art and Power in the English Aristocratic House

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 02:51:22 -0000

The English Aristocracy is often seen as a rural elite concentrating its patronage of art and architecture in the countryside.

This lecture questions this view and shows how, from the sixteenth century, aristocratic families deployed their collections and commissioned their buildings in both town and country in order to further their political and dynastic ambitions.

A lecture by Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment 20 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/art-power-english-aristocratic-house

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
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Resonances of Baudelaire in Debussy's Piano Music - Roy Howat

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 21:51:22 -0000

Roy Howat considers two Debussy piano pieces, "Les sons et les parfums" of 1910 and "Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon" of 1917, whose titles come from within Baudelaire poems Debussy set in 1889 ('Le balcon' and 'Harmonie du soir'). Like 'Clair de lune' and 'La fille aux cheveux de lin' (two piano pieces that directly share their title with one of his earlier songs), they are musically quite independent of the associated songs, yet invite exploration of whatever subtler relationships they may bear to these particularly structured poems of Baudelaire's, sometimes via other Debussy works.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-one

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Brexit and the Future of Britain

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 16:51:22 -0000

At the time of writing, it appears that Britain will leave the European Union on 29th March at 11 pm British time, 12 midnight Continental time. How will Britain fare outside the European Union? And how will Brexit affect British politics? Will the Britain of 2020 become like the Britain of 1972, the year before we joined the European Community, precursor of the European Union - or has our 46 year membership of European institutions led to irreversible changes in our constitution and system of government?

A lecture by Vernon Bogdanor, Emeritus Professor of Law 13 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/brexit-future-of-britain

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Reflections on the New Edition of Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande' - Professor David Grayson

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 11:51:22 -0000

Critical editing must of necessity concern itself with facts, many thousands of them, but the edition that is its object must be based on an understanding of the work itself, an understanding that may evolve during the editorial process. In this lecture, Professor David Grayson discusses some of the insights gained from preparing a critical edition of Pelléas.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-one

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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How Will We Learn Maths in the Future?

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 06:51:22 -0000

Mathematics education is changing rapidly and a big driver for this is the use of new technology. In particular the widespread use of computers has transformed the way that we do mathematics, with computers not only able to mark exam papers, but also to do the algebra required to answer the questions.

In this talk, we will look at the modern developments of computer based teaching and learning. At the same time we examine those parts of teaching maths which require the human touch and look forward to a future of maths education where computers and human teachers work well together.

A lecture by Chris Budd OBE, Gresham Professor of Geometry 12 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/learn-maths-future

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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Debussy and the Independent Art Bookshop - Denis Herlin

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 01:51:22 -0000

In July 1893, a score for voice and piano of Debussy's La Damoiselle élue was published, with a decorative cover illustrated by Maurice Denis. The publisher of this editorial masterpiece was not, however, part of the music publishing world. It was published, in fact, by the composer and occultist Edmond Bailly, who owned a small bookshop at 11 rue de la Chaussée d'Antin in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Between 1890 and 1895, Bailly published all the authors of the Symbolist generation, including Henry de Régnier, André Gide, Pierre Louÿs, Paul Claudel, and even Oscar Wilde in the form of the French version of Salomé. The bookshop was also a place of exchange and Debussy frequented the place regularly. Poets, illustrators and musicians met there towards the end of each afternoon to discuss art. Such a convergence the arts in the unique environment that was the Librairie de l'Art indépendant could not help but permeate and deeply enrich Debussy's work. In August 1893, the composer began to write Pelléas et Mélisande. It seems, therefore, that the atmosphere of the Librairie de l'Art indépendant had a significant impact on the birth of Debussy's major masterpiece.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-one

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Politics and the Legal Profession

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:51:22 -0000

Cuts to legal aid, the concept of online justice, diversity within the legal profession and the judiciary, the independence of the Judiciary from the State, the impact the press can have on perceptions of fairness of justice: this lecture explores the controversial issue of how the politics of the day or decade can affect the way in which the Justice system functions in private and is perceived by the public.

A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 7 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/politics-and-legal-profession

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Debussy, Banville and the Problem with Fixed-Form Poems - Dr David Evans

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 15:51:22 -0000

The influence of French poet Théodore de Banville (1823-1891) on Debussy is generally thought to have been limited to the early years of the composer's development. Yet by composing his Trois Chansons de Charles d'Orléans (1908) and Trois Ballades de François Villon (1910), after setting a further two of Charles d'Orléans' Rondels in the Trois Chansons de France (1904), Debussy was quite clearly following in the footsteps of his early poetic hero. Dr David Evans offers an analysis of Debussy's Villon and Orléans settings read in relation to Banville's Trente-six Ballades à la manière de François Villon (1873) and Rondels à la manière de Charles d'Orléans (1875). For Debussy, Dr Evans suggests, these songs' inventive use of fixed form poems allowed him to explore the aesthetic tension between past and future, tradition and innovation, novelty and cliché, inviting us to reflect on where, precisely, 'genuine' music is to be heard in the early years of the twentieth century.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-two

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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The Greatest Speech of all Time: Pericles' Funeral Oration

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 10:51:22 -0000

In 431 BCE the Athenian statesman Pericles delivered one of the most influential speeches of all time, his Epitaphios or Funeral Oration. The occasion was at the funeral of the first Athenian soldiers to lose their lives in the Peloponnesian War. This lecture examines the history of this beautiful site, the momentous occasion on which Pericles spoke, and the ways in which his speech, recorded by the historian Thucydides who was present at its delivery, has informed subsequent epoch-making orations from Lincoln at Gettysburg to Kennedy and Obama.

A lecture by Edith Hall, Gresham Professor of Business 6 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/pericles-funeral-oration-cemetery

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Verlaine's poetry performed through Debussy's musical sounds: 'Spleen' in Text and Song

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 05:51:22 -0000

Dr Mylène Dubiau-Feuillerac argues that Debussy was attracted to Paul Verlaine's poems because of their innovative character and the writer's attempt at "dislocating the poetry" in a more sonorous way than the text might represent. The last melody of the Ariettes oubliées (1903), 'Spleen', is an example of this essential intertwining of idea and structure of text with musical composition.

This is a part of the conference, 'Debussy: Text and Ideas', which is available in full on the Gresham College website.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/debussy-text-and-ideas-part-two

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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The Stewardship Role of Investors

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:51:22 -0000

Poor stewardship by investors has been argued to be a cause of poor corporate governance. Moreover, when investors do engage with companies, they do so to increase short-term profit at the expense of long-run value.

This talk will critically analyse the evidence on whether shareholder activism is beneficial for long-term value and suggest policies to promote the 'good' type of shareholder engagement. It will stress that reform must extend far beyond asset managers to the entire investment industry.

A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 6 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/stewardship-role-investors

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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The Victorians: Time and Space - Professor Richard J. Evans, Gresham College

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 19:51:22 -0000

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, communication was slow, even relatively short journeys were uncertain and time-consuming, and people were dependant on the forces of nature for energy; this lecture charts the development of new modes of communication, from the railway to the radio, the telegraph to the telephone, the steamship to the motor-car and examines their efforts on perceptions of time and space.

The lecture transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-victorians-time-and-space

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/

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How Astronomy Changed our View of the Cosmos: from Gresham to the 21st Century

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 14:51:22 -0000

Thomas Gresham lived from 1519 to 1579. The first telescope was designed in 1608 in the Netherlands, and first pointed at the heavens by Galileo a year later. The greatest discoveries since the pre-telescope era have been that of the existence of many other planets around distant stars, and the vastness of the universe.

So much has happened since Gresham's era, yet many of the questions about our cosmic origins still remain.

A lecture by Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy 6 March 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/astronomy-gresham-21st-century

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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How liturgy affected the development of the organ - Richard Townend

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:51:22 -0000

When Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the church of St Margaret in Lothbury after the Great Fire, it had no organ. The George Pike organ was completed in 1801 and its pipe work, standing in its original case, forms the basis of the 1984 restoration by John Budgen. The rich sound that comes from its pipes have a clarity that has led many renowned experts to call it one of the finest classical organs in Great Britain. It was played by Mendelssohn.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/catholics-versus-protestants-how-liturgy-affected-the-development-of-the-organ

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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The Myth of the Lone Heroic Surgeon

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 04:51:22 -0000

People often think that surgery is about the skill of a single surgeon. In fact operations depend on teamwork, with nurses, surgeons, anaesthetists and technicians all playing vital roles as they work together. Experts outside medicine need similar skills and have much to teach clinicians.

This lecture introduces Rachel Warr, a leading puppeteer and dramaturg. After Rachel demonstrates how she and her colleagues bring puppets to life, we will discuss how her expertise in dexterity, team-working and preparation for performance can shed light on the world of surgery.

A lecture by Roger Kneebone, Visiting Professor of Medical Education 27 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/lone-heroic-surgeon

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Sustainability: The Problem of Time - Professor Avinash Persaud - Gresham College

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 23:51:22 -0000

Professor Avinash Persaud, Chairman, Warwich Commission on International Financial Reform, Executive Chairman, Intelligence Capital Limited and Emeritus Gresham Professor of Commerce.
Introduced by Alderman Alison Gowman and Professor Michael Mainelli.

This was the keynote address from the September 2010 Long Finance event at the Guidhall in the City of London.
The Long Finance initiative to establish a World Centre of Thinking on Long-Term Finance began in 2007 with a question, "When would we know our financial system is working?" which challenges a system that can't provide today's 20 year olds with a reliable financial retirement structure. The aim of the Long Finance Institute is "to improve society's understanding and use of finance over the long-term." The research project proposals range from theory versus practice or fiscal versus monetary to sustainability versus robustness. The iconic project for Long Finance is the Eternal Coin, with the objective of starting a global debate about society's values over the long-term.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/sustainability-root-problems-in-finance

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Zombie Ants and Fearless Mice: Parasites and the Brain

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:51:22 -0000

Parasites can dramatically change the behaviour of their hosts. A parasitic worm turns a tropical ant berry-red and causes it to climb high, attractive prey for birds, the worm's next host. A mouse infected by toxoplasma gondii no longer fears cats - making it easier for the parasite to be eaten by its next host, a cat. A jewel wasp precisely injects neurotoxins into its cockroach prey's brain. These parasite manipulations can tell us how brains, including our own, work normally.

A lecture by Dr Tristram Wyatt, Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford 26 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/parasites-controlling-behaviour-brain

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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British Prime Ministers from Attlee to Blair - Professor Vernon Bogdanor

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 13:51:22 -0000

A lecture to mark the publication of Vernon Bogdanor's book based on the series of lectures delivered at Gresham College during 2006 and 2007, 'Leadership and Change: Prime Ministers in the Post-War World'.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/british-prime-ministers-from-attlee-to-blair

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/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taking London to the World: Robert Paul Shows his Native City in Motion

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 08:51:22 -0000

Britain's pioneer filmmaker, born 150 years ago in North London, vividly portrayed the variety of life in 'the imperial metropolis' at the end of the 19th century, conscious of its historic appeal but also emphasising the modernity of which he was a part.

A lecture by Ian Christie, Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media 25 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/robert-paul-native-london

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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A "Sing In" with Gilbert and Sullivan - Robin Wilson and Others

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 03:51:22 -0000

What is it about Gilbert and Sullivan that has made their works so enormously popular for so many generations? It is, among other things, their perfect marriage between words and music that gives endless pleasure to singers and audiences alike. Gilbert's wonderful wit and Sullivan's irresistible tunefulness magically combine to provide entertainment on the highest level, of the sort which has so magnificently stood the test of time and will surely continue to do so. Professor Wilson's lecture could well provide an opportunity for audience participation!

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-%E2%80%9Csing-in%E2%80%9D-with-gilbert-and-sullivan

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Volcanoes and Society

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 22:51:22 -0000

There are an estimated 800 million people living close enough to active volcanoes to be affected when they erupt. As well as casualties from volcanic eruptions there can be major economic losses and societal disruption, especially when communities have to be evacuated. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland in April-May 2010 did not kill anyone but disrupted the travel of millions of people and cost the airline industry billions of dollars. This highlighted the increasing vulnerability of modern globalised societies.

New approaches to volcanic hazard assessment and risk management are emerging as more information is required to respond to volcanic emergencies - illustrated by approaches to some recent eruptions, such as the Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat.

A lecture by Sir Stephen Sparks, Visiting Professor of Geology 20 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/volcanoes-society

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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The Role of the Media in Post-Conflict Societies: Northern Ireland - Carrie Porter

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 17:51:22 -0000

Since Northern Ireland's sectarian politics turned to power-sharing in 1998, the country has struggled to define itself within its "peace process". The media serves as a barometer of this progress as it re-defines its own purpose within the newly formed society. Caroline Porter will look specifically at the role of different media outlets, with particular emphasis on the most popular radio shows, to see how the media becomes a player in the contemporary peace process of Northern Ireland.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-role-of-the-media-in-post-conflict-societies-a-contemporary-look-at-northern

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Psychosis: Making and Inhabiting a Different Reality

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:51:22 -0000

One of the most mysterious experiences that we come across in psychiatry is 'Psychosis', which refers to a loss of contact with reality. It has many causes and manifestations and it poses major challenges to our understanding.

Professor Fletcher proposes that it can be understood in terms of the normal functioning of the mind, which seeks to construct a working model of reality even though it has very little direct contact with that reality.

A lecture by Paul Fletcher, Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at University of Cambridge 19 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/inhabiting-different-reality

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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The History of British Cartoons and Caricature - The Rt Hon Lord Baker

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:51:22 -0000

Political, satirical, comic and incendiary: from Hogarth's images of London life, through the Golden Age of Punch Magazine, to the present day; the eclectic and vibrant tradition of representing ones life and times in cartoons continues to hold its place in modern Britain in print, in film and now through the internet.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-history-of-british-cartoons-and-caricature

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Infections of the Lung and Heart

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:51:22 -0000

The lung has a large surface area, is open to the outside world and is the site for some of the most common serious infections, in particular pneumonia. Several bacteria, viruses and some less common lung infections including tuberculosis and fungal disease can damage the lung, and some occupations and pastimes increase this risk.

The heart is less susceptible to infection but infections of the heart valves or structures around the heart, and heart muscle inflammation can be severe. Some lung infections are becoming less common due to vaccination, whilst others are likely to increase globally. Infections via the respiratory route are often the most difficult to combat via public health measures.

A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 13 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-lung-heart

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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The Victorians: Art and Culture - Professor Richard J. Evans

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:51:22 -0000

The Victorian age began as an age of realism, in literature and art, and of nationalism and romanticism in music and culture. By the end of the century, however, the high noon of Victorian culture was starting to give way to more disturbing developments - the disintegration of musical tonality, the emergence of abstract art, the eruption of the 'primitive' into cultural styles and the arrival of modernism onto the artistic scene. This lecture examines the characteristics of Victorian culture and the reasons for its decline.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-victorians-art-and-culture

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/

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Maths in the City: Future Cities

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:51:22 -0000

The world's population is rapidly expanding and the majority of this population will live in large city conurbations. What will out future cities look like? How will transport system work, how will people move around, and how will we supply them with energy and remove their waste? What sort of houses will people live in in the future and what will our communities look like? The lecture will show how mathematical models can help us understand how cities work and how they might evolve in the future.

A lecture by Chris Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry 12 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-future-cities

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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Maths with Pictures - Professor John D. Barrow

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:51:22 -0000

How pictures have been used in mathematics. The use of illustrations in ancient mathematics books, the invention of the first graphs and the representation of probabilities, sets and formulae by pictures. We look at the role played by computers in exploring and displaying the behaviour of extremely large and complicated problems. This has changed the culture of applied mathematics and science and influences the way research is done and the forms in which it is presented.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/maths-with-pictures

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Music Made of Listening: John Cage and 4'33"

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:51:22 -0000

Musicians make sounds - that much, you'd have thought, is obvious! Yet more than the sounds they make, it's the choices that musicians are making about how and when to play that really matter - choices that are made through listening.

John Cage is a composer who revolutionised 20th century music through the choices he has made. This lecture will explore Cage's music, focusing on his most famous piece 4'33". This will be then followed by an interview with pianist and composer Rolf Hind.

A lecture by Professor Tom Service, Gresham Professor of Music 11 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/communities-listeners-string-quartet-jazz-band-orchestra

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

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The German Revolution in English Organ Technology - Robert Quinney

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:51:22 -0000

'Pedalling ahead with Mendelssohn: The German revolution in English organ technology'
by Robert Quinney, Sub-Organist, Westminster Abbey with Robert Smith, Organist, St Mary-at-Hill

Gresham Professors Sir Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke supervised the rebuilding of St Mary's which still reflects their gracious and spacious vision for their first post-Great Fire church. In the early 16th century the choir, which included Thomas Tallis and William Munday, sang elaborate daily services. St Mary-at-Hill boasts what has been described as one of the ten most important organs in the history of British organ building, built by William Hill in 1848 and restored by Mander Organs.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-german-revolution-in-english-organ-technology

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Bubbles, Manias and Market Failures: The Unintended Consequences of Regulatory Responses

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 20:51:22 -0000

Although financial bubbles are in some sense banal and a feature of financial capitalism, the seeds of the next bubble are often sown by regulatory responses to previous ones. This has been the case since the South Sea Bubble and Mississippi Scheme, and has recurred at regular intervals in the intervening 300 years.

This lecture explores how regulators try to prevent what will hopefully be the 'last' bubble and suggests that the most effective regulatory frameworks were developed during the normal operation of markets, not in response to crises.

A lecture by Professor D'Maris Coffman, Professor of Economics and Finance of the Built Environment, UCL 7 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/bubbles-market-failures-regulatory-responses

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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The Character of Twentieth Century Britain - Professor Vernon Bogdanor

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 15:51:22 -0000

During the 20th century, Britain underwent a major transformation. A country in which a law-abiding individual would hardly notice the existence of the state had become one in which, from the cradle to the grave, no one could avoid it. An empire controlling the destiny of one-quarter of the human race, having no allies because she needed none, had become an offshore island with an ambiguous relationship towards the Continent. How did this come about and what were its consequences?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-progress-and-decline-the-character-of-twentieth

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/

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The Varieties of Forgiveness

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:51:22 -0000

Forgiveness is often discussed as if it were a single, straightforward, phenomenon. The reality, however, is not so simple. For instance, we can identify three different types of forgiveness: inter-personal forgiveness, God's forgiveness, and self- forgiveness. Moreover there is variety within each of these main types, and connections between them.

In this lecture the varieties of forgiveness will be presented and the integrity, value and limits of each type explored.

A lecture by The Revd Dr Stephen Cherry, Dean at King's College Cambridge 7 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/forgiveness

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Satire, Print Shops and Comic Illustration in 18th and 19th Century London - Mark Bills

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 05:51:22 -0000

This lecture tells the story of visual satire in London, a city in which caricature flourished like no other. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the people of London have been both amused and outraged by the thousands of social and political satires in paint, paint and engravings which have variously and humorously described London and its people. The enormous body of cartoon images range from the specific to the general: from caricature portraits of leading figures to the London 'types' recognized by all Londoners; from specific events and political debacles to the state of a typical London street. The array of approaches of artists, both 'high' and 'low', amateur and professional, is equally wide and extends from light-hearted mocking to vitriolic and libellous attacks. This lecture leads us through the various ages of the production of cartoons in London, from the independent print publisher to the editor of a comic journal, providing us with a rare perspective on the life of the city through its contemporary satirical images.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/satire-print-shops-and-comic-illustration-in-late-eighteenth-and-nineteenth

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Gresham's World: Global Traffic, Trade, and the Metamorphosis of England

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:51:22 -0000

Global trade and traffic, many of Gresham's contemporaries would say, had altered sixteenth-century England beyond recognition, from its food, fashion, and language, to the look and feel of its cities and neighbourhoods. How did its subjects respond to this transformation?

Using contemporary print and theatre, this lecture will discuss how England and Englishness was defined, even as the boundaries between the home and the world became increasingly diffuse.

A lecture by Nandini Das, Professor of English Literature, University of Liverpool 6 February 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/gresham-global-traffic-trade-england

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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The 30th Anniversary of The Children Act 1989: Is It Still Fit For Purpose?

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 14:51:22 -0000

The Children Act 1989 embodied a change in philosophy by making the child's welfare the courts 'paramount' concern, moving away from the concept of parental rights towards the right of the child. It embraced the idea of shared parental rights and responsibilities and that children are best cared for within their families but not at the expense of suffering avoidable significant harm.

Has the Act done right by children since 1989? Has it adapted to the challenges of childhood and society?

A lecture by Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law 31 January 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/30-anniversary-children-act-1989

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Fun with Visual Illusions - Professor William Ayliffe

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:51:22 -0000

Visual illusions entertain and astonish us. How and why they occur is due to the way our visual system processes information. The study of visual illusions leads to many surprising and counterintuitive conclusions about vision. How illusions occur will be illustrated with many beautiful, well-known examples from art history as well as novel images. Following this talk the world out there will seem to be a very different place.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/fun-with-visual-illusions

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Evolution since Sir Thomas Gresham: How Changes Over The Past Five Centuries Have Moulded Evolution

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 04:51:22 -0000

In celebrating 500 years since the birth of Sir Thomas Gresham, Professor Jones will examine how changes since the sixteenth century have affected the evolution of human beings and that of the animals and plants around us.

Professor Jones will deal with the accelerating shifts in plants, animals and humans as they cope with human activities, from gold-mining to global warming, and will speculate about where life might be on Gresham's six- hundredth anniversary.

A lecture by Steve Jones, Visiting Professor of Genetics 29 January 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evolution-gresham-five-centuries

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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How to be a Shakespearean Atheist

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 18:51:22 -0000

Villainous atheists were, like witches, stock figures of the European imagination in the Renaissance. But when Shakespeare and his contemporaries put them on the stage, 'atheists' could be uncomfortably compelling.

This lecture will explore how the sixteenth century found ways of distancing itself from religion - like Christopher Marlowe, who raged against its moral constraints, or Michel de Montaigne, a devout Catholic who cloistered his faith in one honoured corner of his life where it would not be disturbed.

A lecture by Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 24 January 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespearean-atheist

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Asylum seekers and ambivalence in contemporary Britain - Andrew Keefe

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 13:51:22 -0000

Psychoanalytic theory illuminates the polarised nature of the asylum debate and the powerful feelings for and against refugees. Historic, literary and clinical examples reveal migration as part of human nature and the unconscious forces revolving around the concept of exile.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/why-do-we-hate-why-do-we-help-asylum-seekers-and-ambivalence-in-contemporary

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Reforming Corporate Governance

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 08:51:22 -0000

The UK is considered a world leader in corporate governance, but governance failures are blamed for the loss of trust in business.

This talk will discuss rigorous evidence on what optimal governance should look like - including issues such as boardroom diversity, independence of directors, employee representation, and whether directors' fiduciary duty should be to shareholders or all of society. It will conclude that reform is indeed necessary, but on different issues to what is typically argued.

A lecture by Alex Edmans, Gresham Professor of Business 23 January 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reforming-corporate-governance

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Infections and the Nerves

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 22:51:22 -0000

Certain infections have a particular impact on the peripheral nerves as part of their normal disease process. Some infectious effects are predominately on the motor nerves such as polio (currently heading for eradication); these can cause weakness or paralysis. Other infections affect or invade the sensory nerves including leprosy and the common viral infection herpes zoster which initially presents as chickenpox. Some bacteria produce toxins which have powerful effects on the nerves including tetanus, diphtheria and botulinum.

This lecture will cover how infections can interfere with peripheral nerves and recent progress made against these debilitating diseases.

A lecture by Chris Whitty, Gresham Professor of Physic 16 January 2019

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/infections-nerves

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation)

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Words and Pictures: Mixed Encounters - Dr Jenny Uglow

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 17:51:22 -0000

This beautifully illustrated lecture explores the connections and interactions between British writers and artists.
As children, learning to read, we look first at the pictures in books - they tell the tale in their own way. With great writers, this power endures: artists connect with words in different ways. This lecture will explore fascinating examples of the relationships between artists and writers, from those that work independently from one another, such as Wordsworth and Thomas Bewick, to those that work very closely throughout the creative process, such as Dickens and Phiz.
This lecture touches on a peculiarly British tradition of community and defiance of authority, unmasking pretension and celebrating energy and warmth, linking daily life to the universal and the sublime.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/words-and-pictures-mixed-encounters

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Current Challenges to the US Constitution - Clive Stafford Smith

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 12:51:22 -0000

0:00 // Introduction — Trump versus the Constitution after 16 months
1:27 // The five worst Supreme Court decisions of all time
3:13 // Dred Scott 1857 — the case that helped start a civil war
5:33 // Plessy v Ferguson 1896 — separate but equal and Angola prison
8:38 // Buck v Bell 1927 — eugenics, sterilisation and echoes in the present
10:43 // Korematsu 1944 — Japanese internment and the road to Guantanamo
13:39 // Bowers v Hardwick — criminalising sodomy and how Stafford Smith fought it
18:00 // Lawrence v Texas — how the Supreme Court finally overruled Bowers
19:18 // The current court — immunity for presidents and the 22 unanimous decisions
21:38 // Roberts versus Clarence Thomas — two very different conservatives
23:44 // The biggest decision of this term — Trump's tariffs struck down 6 to 3
26:19 // Why Britain needs a constitution — prisoners' votes and Cameron's contempt
27:43 // Criminal cases — death row, mental disability and the court doing its job
31:20 // First Amendment cases — conversion therapy, gender and street preaching
35:38 // Louisiana v Calais — gerrymandering, affirmative action and why it will backfire
42:13 // Conclusion — the Constitution is surviving, but Britain has no such protection

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/EYtlT4N0z28

The Americans are very proud of their written constitution. During the first 3/8 of President Trump’s second term of office, the constitution has been severely tested. Where has the Constitution succeeded in providing legal safeguards, clarity and stability, and where has it failed? How will the remainder of this presidency look? And what is coming after Trump?

This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 4th of June 2026

Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates.
He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984.
He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 87 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 15. In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed.
He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.
Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/current-challenges-us-constitution

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Black Holes: No need to be afraid! - Professor Ian Morison

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 07:51:22 -0000

Black Holes seem to have a bad press that is largely undeserved. The lecture will explain what Black Holes are, how we can discover them even through they cannot be seen and how Stephen Hawking has shown that they are not totally black!

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/black-holes-no-need-to-be-afraid

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/

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Shock of the Nude: Pioneering Women Artists and the Cultural Politics of Modern China - Di Wang

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:51:22 -0000

00:00 | Introducing Dr. Wang: Art, Science and the Body
01:22 | Setting the Scene: Modernity Fought Through the Body
02:35 | 1919: Nude Models Arrive at Shanghai Art Academy
05:11 | The New Cultural Movement and Coeducation
06:32 | 1925: The Warlord Government Bans Nude Models
08:03 | "The Nude Doesn't Belong in China": One Critic's Case
09:09 | Brushwork as the True Essence of Modern Art
11:14 | The Counter-Case: The Nude as Scientific Truth
11:44 | 1851: A Pioneering Anatomical Treatise in Chinese
13:29 | Anatomy, Evangelization and Scientific Racism
14:31 | The Body as a Site of Empire: "Sick Men of Asia"
15:08 | 1892: Medicine First Undresses the Female Body
16:56 | Eugenics and the Politics of Women's Health
18:24 | The Nude Goes Global: Transnational Print Networks
19:20 | The Young Companion: Venus Meets Chinese Beauty
20:47 | 1927: Breast Binding Bans and the Cult of Curves
23:48 | March 1927: The Wuhan Women's Emancipation Parade
27:32 | Pan Yuliang: From Brothel to First Female Professor
30:20 | War, Exile and the 1941 Paris Salon Attack
33:45 | Legacy: The Nude Debate Resurfaces in 1979 Beijing

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/gmlQqetDMlk

The bare, naked, nude, and tradition-defying body constituted one of the most radical sites of cultural transformations in China’s pivotal historical transition from the last imperial dynasty to a new Republic. This lecture reveals how the female nude – at the intersection of art, medicine, and science – became deeply entwined with the cultural politics of nationalism and modernisation, structured new racial, gender, and class relations, and simultaneously, shaped the genesis of modern art and visual culture in China.

This lecture was recorded by Dr Di Wang on the 8th of June 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

Dr Di Wang is an art historian and curator. Her work focuses on art and culture of East Asia from the late-nineteenth century to the present.

Following her doctorate at the University of Oxford, she has taught as a departmental lecturer and research associate at the Department of History of Art at Oxford. Her first book project reveals the surprising entanglement of medicine, science, and revolutionary politics in the genesis of a socially engaged modern art and visual culture in China, offering the first inter-disciplinary history on how science and medicine shaped the contours of avant-garde thinking in China during the modern period.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/nude-china

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
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Extinction or Evolution: The Future for Offshore Centres - The Hon Anne Craine

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:51:22 -0000

From the unique position as Europe's oldest continuous democracy, Anne Craine, Treasury Minister of the Isle of Man, will explore what the future holds for offshore centres; how they can survive, even prosper; how they need to adapt and why they serve a valid, even useful role in international finance.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/extinction-or-evolution-the-future-for-offshore-centres

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Pluto Isn’t a Planet - Chris Lintott

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:51:22 -0000

00:00 // Introduction: Why Pluto Isn't a Planet
03:28 // Discovery of Uranus and a Mysterious Orbit
05:49 // How Neptune Was Found Through Math
08:16 // Percival Lowell's Hunt for "Planet X"
09:49 // Clyde Tombaugh Discovers Pluto (1930)
14:09 // A Brief History of Counting the Planets
18:02 // Pluto's Odd Orbit Raises Early Doubts
22:21 // The Kuiper Belt Theory Takes Shape
26:09 // Discovering Pluto's Moon, Charon
30:12 // Eris and the Rise of the Trans-Neptunian Objects
34:27 // The IAU's Chaotic 2006 Vote
42:43 // New Horizons: Pluto Up Close at Last
47:38 // The Verdict — Why Pluto Isn't a Planet

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/k73e3lnz3pg

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union adopted a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to just one of what is likely hundreds of dwarf planets in our Solar System. Exploring the remote Kuiper Belt, this lecture challenges us to think about what kinds of scientific questions are worth our attention, what it means to name something – and why Pluto is worth caring about anyway.

This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of June 2026

Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.

Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.

Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/pluto-planet

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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English Architecture: Making England in the Shadow of Rome, 410-1130 - Simon Thurley

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:51:22 -0000

When the English nation rose out of the ruins of the Roman Province of Britannia, people remained obsessed with their Roman past. Seismic social and political change in 1066 barely upset the vision of patrons and architects and Rome remained England's cultural capital driving the imagination of its architects.

This is a part if the series of lectures, 'God, Caesar and Robin Hood: How the Middle Ages were Built':
The English Middle Ages saw the construction of some of the world's greatest buildings, structures that still shape our towns, cities and countryside and mould our national identity. These four lectures give a controversial new view of how medieval England was built starting with the departure of the Romans and ending with the Reformation.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/making-england-the-shadow-of-rome-410-1130

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/

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Plato to Polybius on Constitutional Change - Melissa Lane

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 06:51:22 -0000

00:00 | Polybius's Question: How Did Rome Conquer the World?
00:39 | Polybius: Hostage, Historian and Tutor to Scipio
02:05 | The Fall of Corinth and the Greek Cause
02:52 | Why Constitutional Stability Matters: Avoiding Stasis
03:31 | Plato's Circle: The Image of Stability
04:48 | Adding Growth: Rome's Second Question
06:23 | Stability vs Growth: Sparta and Rome Compared
09:30 | Lecture Roadmap: From Greece to Rome
10:01 | Polybius on Why Constitutions Matter
11:31 | Herodotus's Three Simple Constitutions
12:56 | Aristotle's Six-Fold Scheme: Good and Bad Rule
14:11 | Mixing Constitutions to Avoid Decline
15:10 | Three Modes of Mixing: Blending, Co-Presence, Counterbalancing
19:39 | Sparta's Mixed Constitution: Kings, Elders and Assembly
21:17 | Plato and Aristotle on Sparta's Flaws
27:42 | Polybius's Active Counterbalancing and the Rust Metaphor
32:11 | Polybius on Rome's Mixed Constitution
35:30 | Rome's Elements: Consuls, Senate and Assembly
40:02 | Polybius's Cycle of Constitutions
44:45 | Legacy: Adams, Hobbes and the Case for Mixed Government

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/-18jnBqpQxQ

Plato in the fourth century BCE penned an indelible sequence of constitutional decline ending in tyranny, as well as a more complex set of possibilities for mixing different constitutional kinds. Two centuries later, Polybius portrayed constitutional change as cyclical, with an eventual collapse of democracy into ‘ochlocracy’ (mob rule) and then reversion to monarchy. These and other ancient authors proposed that a mixed constitution might prevent unwanted political change – an idea that would influence many later generations of political thinkers.

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 28th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

Melissa Lane is 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.

She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.

Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/plato-polybius

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
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Mathematical History: Triangular Relationships - Professor Patricia Fara

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:51:22 -0000

"And first, the fair PARABOLA behold,
Her timid arms with virgin blush unfold!..."

Mathematical poetry may seem an unlikely form of satire, but 'The Loves of the Triangles' (1798) was not only a clever parody of Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) but also a powerful political commentary expressing contemporary fears of revolution and evolution.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/triangular-relationships

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Going Global: Chinese Independent Documentary - Luke Robinson

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 20:51:22 -0000

0:00 // Introduction — Chinese independent documentary and the question of going global
3:28 // The Sundance-K'Nex workshops — training Chinese filmmakers for overseas markets
7:40 // Story as commodity — character-driven narrative and the three-act structure
10:07 // The humanitarian industrial logic — NGOs, storytelling and the Open Society Foundation
14:12 // Plastic China — the film, its subjects and its international success
16:01 // How the film works — two families, a child's right to education and formal choices
23:03 // The narrowing of focus — from structural critique to personal story
28:12 // What the format does — harmonising contradiction rather than confronting it
31:02 // Screening Plastic China in the UK — what audiences actually felt
33:21 // Audience responses — moving, shocking, overwhelming
36:10 // What viewers said they would do next — individual action over structural change
38:02 // Political mimesis and its limits — affect that short-circuits critique
40:16 // Worrying about China — liberal frameworks and the problem of difference
43:14 // Conclusion — the compromises Chinese independent documentary makes to go global

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/QJMOYmf0CmQ

This lecture will focus on independently produced Chinese documentary cinema as it has entered the Anglophone industry market. Using “Plastic China” by the award-winning director Wang Jiuliang as a case study, I will explore what the implications of cross-border collaborations are for documentary form and content, and how this may encourage a particular set of viewer responses. This will allow me to locate the documentary form in relation to broader liberal arguments over China’s place in the world system and assess the limitations of this approach to “going global” for independent Chinese documentary.

This lecture was recorded by Luke Robinson on the 27th of May 2026

Luke Robinson is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Film Studies in the Faculty of Media, Arts, and Humanitiies, University of Sussex.
He is the author of Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street, and the co-editor of two further collections on Chinese film culture: (with Chris Berry) Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation and (with Chris Berry, Lydia Wu and Sabrina Yu) Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and a Questionable Future.
His writing has appeared in books and journals including DV-made China, The New Chinese Documentary Movement, Vocal Projections, Screening China’s Soft Power, positions: Asia cultures critique, Film Studies, Screen, and Journal of Chinese Cinemas.
Between 2019 and 2025 he was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project, “Independent Cinema in China: State, Market, and Film Culture”. One of the outcomes of this grant was the establishment of the Chinese Independent Film Archive, located at Newcastle University.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/chinese-documentary

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
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The Past is a Foreign Country - Christopher Hogwood

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:51:22 -0000

In its passage from manuscript composition to audible performance, a musical work passes through the hands of editors, teachers, interpreters, recording engineers and many others, all of whom make decisions, often based on personal choices, and have to satisfy the tastes and needs of a changing public. With over a century of recorded sound as evidence, we can now assess the options and expectations of the modern performer, and measure these against the evidence available to the interpreter today, and the range of choices to be made.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-past-is-a-foreign-country

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Should We Manipulate People’s Emotions? - Robin May

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:51:22 -0000

00:07 | Introduction: Can We Manipulate Human Emotions?
00:52 | You've Already Done It — Since Birth
01:57 | Personal Space as Emotional Manipulation
03:04 | Lyndon Johnson and the Proximity Effect
04:28 | Stress on the Tube: New York Subway Study
06:45 | Smells and Mood: The Bakery Experiment
08:46 | The Case For Emotional Manipulation: Hate Crime and Mental Health
10:25 | The Case Against: Dictators, Abuse and Macbeth
11:50 | Mood Stabilizers: Lithium and Lamotrigine
13:47 | Antidepressants: How SSRIs Work
18:22 | Psychoactive Drugs: MDMA, Ecstasy and Risk
20:24 | Psilocybin and PTSD: Promising Clinical Trials
21:56 | Military Use and Ethical Minefields
23:32 | Cordyceps: The Fungus That Controls Ants
25:58 | Rabies: A Virus That Lowers Serotonin
27:47 | Toxoplasma Gondii: The Parasite in 1 in 3 of Us
31:09 | Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neuralink
34:52 | The Easiest Mood Hack: Your Diet
36:01 | The Gut-Brain Axis and the Human Microbiome
42:48 | Is Your Personality Really Yours — Or Your Bacteria's?

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/PWoDmVOSTTA

We think of emotions as being central to our characters and our sense of self. But emotions are the product of brain chemistry and, like most biological processes, are malleable. Thus far, our ability to artificially manipulate emotions has been extremely rudimentary, but we are on the cusp of a revolution in neuroscience that will open the door to powerful emotional manipulation. How can we navigate the ethical minefield that this will uncover, and what will it mean for our understanding of who we really are?

This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 20th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/peoples-emotions

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
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Britain in the 20th Century: Responses to Decline, 1895-1914 - Professor Vernon Bogdanor

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:51:22 -0000

It was during these years that British statesmen first came to appreciate that her international and economic position was under threat. The growth of German and American economic power exposed the fragility of Britain's hitherto unquestioned pre-eminence. Imperialism was the first response to decline, social reform the second. It was these years that saw the first stirrings of a new collectivism in the 'New Liberalism'.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-responses-to-decline-1895-1914

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/

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Forging Better Futures for You and AI - Matt Jones

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:51:22 -0000

00:00 // AI as an Environment
00:34 // Coronation Choir Experiment: How Music Shapes Attention
02:27 // Reframing Artificial Intelligence: From Tool to Living Environment
03:41 // Old AI Fears: Faster, Smarter and Assimilating Us
04:17 // Humanoid Robots, AI Coworkers and AI Companion Pets
05:28 // Why AI Isn't Human: Mumbai, the Pope and a New Yorker Poem
09:16 // Three Kinds of Power: Generative, Instrumental and Environmental
10:38 // Michelangelo and the Power of Material Tools
11:25 // How Cities, Buffets and Digital Design Shape Behaviour
12:52 // AI as Agent vs AI as Instrument
13:26 // Learning AI Like a Violin: How to Avoid "AI Slop"
14:45 // Extended Cognition: Skateboards, Scalpels and the Crutch Story
17:38 // Memory, the Google Effect and Prompting Claude AI Properly
22:59 // Co-Creating with AI: Sketch-to-Image Research
26:26 // Negroponte vs Weiser: The 1992 AI Debate That Predicted Today
30:49 // Two AI Futures: Personal Butler vs Calm Technology
33:19 // Cities, Music and the Neuroscience of Anticipation
39:52 // Desirable Difficulty and the Risk of AI Knowledge Collapse
44:24 // Critical Thinking, Attention and Tristan Harris on Big Tech
48:14 // Designing Better AI: Alignment, Nudges and Key Takeaways

Watch the Q and A here: https://youtu.be/FX7ZwIzgz-I

In this last lecture, I will work to wake us from the AI as Overlord spell. We will explore other possible futures, looking first look at the potential of AI fitting in with us: things we can chat to; humanoid robots; or even devices that draw on understandings of pets to make them more palatable and pleasing. Secondly, I’ll suggest a way to weave AI into everyday life: as a “simple” instrument to enable our souls to sing.

This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 2nd of June 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London

Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things, mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.

Much of his work has been driven by intense and sustained engagements with “low resource” communities from informal settlements in India, South Africa, and Kenya. Through their generous and gracious participation, these extra-ordinary users with the fresh and diverse perspectives have stimulated insights into the future of digital technologies for everyone, globally. In all this work, Matt works as part of a long-standing collaborative team with Jen Pearson, Simon Robinson and Thomas Reitmaier (from Swansea) and colleagues in India (including Dani Raju) and South Africa (including Minah Radebe).

His work has been supported by the UK’s science funders (EPSRC and UKRI). Currently, this funding includes a Fellowship to explore the future of interactive AI and leadership roles in responsible AI and inclusive digital technologies. This funding has led to a series of impactful publications, talks and influences on people, policies, and practices.

Matt has collaborated with private, public and third sector organisations, including Microsoft, the NHS, Google, IIT-B, the BBC and IBM. He is a member of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office’s Research Advisory Group and Welsh Government’s AI reviews.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-futures

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 h

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"Made in America": Christian Fundamentalism - Dr John A Dick

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:51:22 -0000

We are increasingly aware that fundamentalism is not a monolith. It has political, cultural, social and religious implications which at times are extremely grave. Its characteristics and impact are often defined by the culture of the place in which it develops.
This is an attempt to define and clarify the 21st century form of Christian fundamentalism in both academic and practical terms as found in North America.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the full conference are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/a-swift-survey-of-fundamentalism

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/

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What did eighteenth-century men want? - Professor Amanda Vickery

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:51:22 -0000

Such is the gloom that surrounds settling down today and the glamour that attaches to mature bachelor freedom, it is hard to imagine that there was a time when marriage represented the summit of a young man's hopes.

Forty years after the sexual liberalization of the 1970s, it is easy to forget that only marriage promised true sexual fulfillment for Christians, turning furtive or frustrated boys into fully-realized men. Marriage was the only acceptable framework for children, through whom men made a claim on the future, but also confirmed their potency. Virility was one of the most celebrated masculine qualities. The father who led a handsome family into church radiated both an air of commanding respectability and a glow of unmistakable sexual success.

Marriage promised physical excitement. Two days before his marriage in January 1754, 33 year old Josiah Wedgwood positively frothed with anticipation of 'the blissful day! When she will reward all my faithful services and take me to her arms! To her Nuptial bed! To - Pleasures which I am yet ignorant of'. He took the precaution of working over-time the week before his wedding to clear time to enjoy his bride uninterrupted. Marriage was a sexy prospect.

In the 17th and 18th century, bachelorhood was a temporary and unprestigious state best solved by marriage. The Batchelor's Directory of 1694 was unequivocal - 'Matrimony - what can better agree with man and more exactly relate to his necessities?' Even men who felt no attraction to the opposite sex had to marry to gain the full benefits of adulthood.

There were even proposals to levy a tax on mature bachelors as a deterrent and a punishment for their evasion of the burden of domestic government and social provision. Perpetual bachelors were the 'vermin of the State' pronounced the Women's Advocate stonily. 'They enjoy the benefit of society, but Contribute not to its Charge and Spunge upon the publick, without making the least return'.

We associate the history of home and private life with women, but what did house and domesticity mean to men? More than you might think argues Professor Amanda Vickery.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-did-eighteenth-century-men-want

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Cicero In and On Political Crises - Melissa Lane

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:51:22 -0000

00:00 // Introduction: Meet Professor Melissa Lane
00:15 // Cicero's Dilemma: A Letter on Tyranny
03:07 // Who Was Cicero? Rise of a "New Man"
05:36 // Philosopher and Statesman of Rome
09:44 // Five Crises That Defined Cicero's Life
12:27 // Crisis One: The Gracchi and Land Reform
18:39 // Crisis Two: Sulla's Dictatorship and Civil War
23:16 // Crisis Three: The Catiline Conspiracy
27:13 // Crisis Four: Caesar's Tyranny and Assassination
31:45 // Crisis Five: Cicero's War Against Mark Antony
38:09 // Conclusion: Hero of the Republic, or Its Undoing?

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/QLC154lRXZ0

An enthusiast of the Roman mixed constitution, Cicero was elected consul and in that role dramatically curbed the tyrannical ambitions of Catiline. He would later become fatally embroiled in the shifting politics of later generations of ambitious strongmen, while also writing his own theories of constitutional change. This lecture explores Cicero’s life and death as a way to articulate the crises of the late republic.

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 11th of June 2026

Melissa Lane is 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.

She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.

Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and was published in a paperback edition with modifications in 2025.

Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cicero

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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Changing Money: Communities, Longer Term Finance and You - Ian Harris

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 04:51:22 -0000

In a world where technologies enable our communities to be at once local and global, the very essence of money is changing. We are living longer, yet our financial infrastructures are inherently short term. Young people seeking responsibly to plan their futures and their retirements find the conventional world of finance baffling and mostly inappropriate. This lecture explores these trends and looks to the future of money as a unit of account, a medium of exchange and as a store of longer-term value.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/changing-money-communities-longer-term-finance-and-you

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Continued Fractions - Professor John Barrow

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 23:51:22 -0000

What are continued fractions? How can they tell us what is the most irrational number? What are they good for and what unexpected properties do they possess? How did Ramanujan make good use of their odd features to make striking discoveries? We will look at how they have played a role in the study of numbers, chaos, gears and astronomical motions.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/continued-fractions

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/

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Philanthropy Then, Philanthropy Now - Julia Unwin (Chief Executive, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 18:51:22 -0000

This lecture outlines the challenges of modern-day society and how they affect a charity's ability to deliver its purpose, and discusses how a 'Good Society' could be built through the individual, community, market and state.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/philanthropy-then-philanthropy-now

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Jesus in Art - The Rt Hon Lord Richard Harries

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 13:51:22 -0000

Early Christian carvings depict Jesus as a beardless Roman youth. Yet the image with which we are familiar is very different. This lecture will explore the dominant imagery associated with Jesus in different ages and cultures.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/christian-themes-in-art-jesus-in-art

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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Correction of Optical Defects: From Spectacles to Lasers - Professor William Ayliffe

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:51:22 -0000

Despite sophisticated techniques; Laser, intraocular surgery and contact lenses; spectacles remain the most popular method for correcting optical defects of the eye. Roger Bacon (1266) proposed that convex lenses could be used for elderly people with failing sight, replacing crystals used for magnification. Printing exploded the need for spectacles and by the close of the 20th century amazing advances in surgery corrected vision defects.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/correction-of-optical-defects-from-spectacles-to-lasers

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk

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There Must be a Better Way: Thoughts on the Future of Family Law - Sir Andrew McFarlane

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 03:51:22 -0000

0:00 // Introduction — there must be a better way, and why Parliament has finally moved
6:38 // Four decades of change — Children Act, Domestic Abuse Act and transparency
9:57 // The June 2025 consultation — reforming financial remedies on divorce
13:33 // Codification plus — capturing judge-led change in statute
14:42 // Prenuptial agreements — making qualifying agreements legally binding
16:22 // Cohabitation — 3.5 million couples and the common law marriage myth
20:27 // Why should a child's financial support depend on whether parents were married?
24:10 // Private law and separating parents — keeping families out of court
29:47 // Child focused courts — social work reports before any hearing, £82 million rollout
32:28 // Adoption at 100 — a model built for babies that now serves three-year-olds
35:05 // Lifelong links — maintaining relationships for children in care and care leavers
36:03 // Enduring relationships policy — the government's new ambition for children in care
39:17 // Surrogacy — a law unchanged for 30 years and a growing commercial problem
43:13 // Foreign surrogacy — two women in their 60s, Northern Cyprus and four years in limbo
49:26 // The commercial elephant in the room — and what Parliament must address
51:30 // Conclusion — family law has never stood still, and the future will be digital

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/XjH-XlyLcMI

This is the Annual Gray's Inn Reading 2026.
The lecture was delivered within three months of Sir Andrew McFarlane’s retirement after 21 years on the Family Bench. Whilst the phrase ‘un-plugged’ may not be appropriate, it is anticipated that the lecturer will no longer feel restrained by judicial caution when commenting upon the future development of Family Justice. In addition to a focus on the future of adoption law and the need for significant reform in relation to the financial rights of cohabitants, the lecturer will use a perspective gained from 8 years as the judicial Head of Family Justice to offer suggestions for reform of the system itself.

This lecture was recorded by The Rt Hon Sir Andrew McFarlane on the 15th of June 2026

Andrew McFarlane was called to the Bar in 1977 and practiced in chambers in Birmingham until 1993 when he moved to specialist family law chambers in London. He appeared at all levels of court including the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights. He was appointed as a QC in 1998. In April 2005 he was appointed to the High Court, Family Division and was for 5 years the Family Division Liaison Judge for the Midland Circuit. He was the legal member of the Government ‘Family Justice Review’ Panel. In July 2011 he was appointed to be a Lord Justice of Appeal sitting full time in the Court of Appeal. On the 28th July 2018 Sir Andrew succeeded Sir James Munby as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice; he is due to retire as President at Easter 2026.
Together with the late David Hershman he is the co-author of a loose-leaf legal text book entitled “Children: Law and Practice”. In addition, he has contributed to other publications and lectured throughout the UK and abroad.
Sir Andrew has been a trustee of YoungMinds (the national young person’s mental health charity) and is Patron of HOPE Family Centre (Bromyard) and of a prisoner support charity ‘Not Beyond Redemption’. In addition to being Chancellor of the Diocese of Exeter, Sir Andrew was Chairman of the Church of England Clergy Discipline Commission and President of Clergy Discipline Tribunals for 5 years until 2019. He has been a native of Herefordshire and Worcestershire for over 35 years and is a lay canon of Hereford Cathedral.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/grays-inn-26

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosit

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The Morrigan: The Nightmare Queen - Ronald Hutton

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 22:51:22 -0000

00:00 | Introduction: Hutton's Final Lecture as Gresham Professor
00:42 | The Morrigan: Bridget's Dark Alter Ego
01:26 | A Modern Icon: Global Fame and Worship
02:34 | Pop Culture: Madonna, Villains and Modern Devotees
03:53 | What Does "The Morrigan" Mean? A Name in Dispute
05:35 | Nightmare Queen: Tracing Her Terrifying Etymology
06:13 | Decades of Scholarly Disagreement Over Her Identity
07:58 | Building Blocks, Never a Structure: The Lecture's Thesis
14:15 | Battle Spirits: Generic Terrors and Named Goddesses
18:02 | Meet the Big Five War Goddesses
21:44 | Magic as a Neutral Cosmic Power
27:09 | Macha's Three Contradictory Origin Stories
31:17 | The Badb: Crow Spirit and Doom-Prophet
36:45 | At Last, The Morrigan: What Makes Her Distinct
37:59 | Three Distinguishing Features and Cosmic Prophecy
40:18 | Propositioning Cú Chulainn: Rejection and Revenge
41:20 | Global Parallels: Athena, Ishtar and Gilgamesh
43:18 | The Death of Cú Chulainn and the Raven on the Shoulder
48:00 | What She Is: A War Goddess of Love and Combat
51:32 | Reclaiming The Morrigan: Freedom in Reinterpretation

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/Yb15EWQL59M

The Morrigan functions today largely as the supreme dark Celtic goddess, associated with violence, sex, shape-shifting and sorcery: the scary side of female power. This talk is designed to search for her in her medieval Irish roots, in order to explain her modern reputation and also to see if she was once a rather different and more complex figure. It locates her as originally one of five different Irish war goddesses, each with their own distinctive characteristics, of whom she was the most unusual. By doing so it also shows why she has survived as a modern celebrity while the others have been forgotten, but also how those others have contributed to her modern image.

This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 17th of June 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London

Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.

He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/goddess-morrigan

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
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The White Knight: Ice - Helen Czerski

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 17:51:22 -0000

00:00 // Welcome to the Lecture
00:41 // Fridtjof Nansen and the Mystery of the Arctic
01:14 // Crossing Greenland: Nansen's First Expedition
01:40 // The USS Jeannette and the Trans-Arctic Current Theory
04:19 // Designing the Fram: A Ship Built Never to Be Crushed
08:57 // Why the Arctic Is a Human Place, Not Just Wilderness
09:58 // What's Coming: Physics, MOSAiC, and the Future of Ice
10:19 // The Physics of Ice: Why Isn't It White?
13:16 // Albedo: How Ice Reflects the Sun's Energy
18:08 // Why Ice Floats (and Why That's Bizarre)
19:15 // The Pink Hedgehog: How Sea Ice Makes Freshwater
25:56 // Latent Heat: Ice as Earth's Thermal Buffer
27:29 // Sea Ice vs. Glaciers vs. Icebergs: Know the Difference
30:01 // Arctic vs. Antarctic: Which Holds More Ice?
32:21 // Captain Scott and Antarctica's Moving Ice
39:30 // Modern Exploration: The MOSAiC Expedition
42:10 // What Scientists Discovered Drifting With the Ice
47:30 // How Climate Change Is Transforming the Ice
51:34 // Arctic Amplification and the New Geopolitical Frontier
55:27 // Closing Thoughts: Ice, Choice, and the Future

Watch the Q and A here: https://youtu.be/AZAi7mIdXFw

The polar regions are still some of the most inaccessible and least touched by humans, but they are deeply linked to the rest of Earth. We will cover the history of exploring them, the challenges of measuring this environment, and the current state of knowledge about the ice at both poles. We will also cover the likely future for the polar regions – the incentives driving different actions, what science suggests about the consequences, and coming events to look out for.

This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 21st of May 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London

Helen Czerski is a physicist and oceanographer with a passion for science, sport, books, creativity, hot chocolate and investigating the interesting things in life.
She is a Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London and her research focus is the physics of breaking waves and bubbles at the ocean surface. These bubbles change underwater sound and light, help transfer gases from ocean to atmosphere (helping the ocean breathe) and also eject ocean material into the air. She has spent months working on research ships in the Antarctic, the Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Arctic, and is an experienced field scientist.
Helen has been a regular science presenter on the BBC for 15 years, covering the physics of the natural world in BBC2 landmark documentaries (including ‘Orbit’, ‘Operation iceberg’ and ‘Supersenses’), and the physics of everyday life in a range of BBC4 documentaries (including ‘From ice to fire: The incredible science of temperature’, ‘Sound waves: The symphony of physics’, and ‘Colour: The spectrum of science’, along with many others). She currently co-hosts BBC Radio 4’s flagship climate and environment programme Rare Earth.
Helen's first book Storm in a Teacup won the Italian Asimov Prize and the Louis J. Battan Author prize from the American Meteorological Society. Blue Machine won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing. She was awarded the Institute of Physics Gold Medal in 2018 for her work on physics communication, and an Honorary Fellowship of the British Science Association in 2020. She has been a Trustee of Royal Museums Greenwich since 2018, and was one of the 2020 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturers, giving her Lecture on the topic of the ocean.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/white-knight

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 m

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The Death of the Roman Republic? - Melissa Lane

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 12:51:22 -0000

00:00 // Welcome and Introduction
00:16 // Ovid's Claim: "Caesar Is the Republic"
03:52 // Exile: The Danger of Writing Under Augustus
04:17 // Tonight's Question: Charting Roman Autocracy
05:30 // Tacitus and the Timeline of Roman History
07:34 // Tacitism: Tacitus's Legacy in Early Modern Europe
08:14 // Republic vs Empire: A Terminological Clarification
09:01 // When Did the Roman Republic Really End?
10:04 // Rethinking the Republic's "Fall"
11:43 // Lecture Roadmap: Three Parts
12:56 // Princeps: Augustus's Ambiguous Title
15:09 // "Making the Emergency Permanent"
20:39 // Did Augustus Really Limit His Own Power?
22:21 // The 23 BCE Conspiracy and Constitutional Change
25:33 // Autocratic Legalism: Law as a Tool of Power
26:33 // From Tiberius to Nero: Eroding the Republic
28:46 // Tacitus's Verdict on Tiberius and Nero
32:36 // Seneca, Nero, and the Choice of Exit, Voice, or Loyalty
36:29 // Tacitus as Author: Writing Truth Under Tyranny
42:25 // Agricola: Survival and Courage Under Domitian

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/BwuejjL2Lvw

Did the Roman republic die with Julius Caesar? With Cicero? With the gradual consolidation of power in the hands of Caesar’s adoptive son, who would in 27 BCE receive from the Senate the additional honorific appellation ‘Augustus’? By looking at how imperial rule preserved remnants and facades of republican language and institutions, this lecture will interrogate the ways in which a popular constitution can be undermined and gradually transmuted into a dictatorial one.

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 18th of June 2026

Melissa Lane is 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.

She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where she was a student at King’s College, supported by appointments as a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, and Mary Isabel Sibley Fellow of Phi Beta Kappa.

Professor Lane is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including being named a Guggenheim Fellow, and the Lucy Shoe Meritt Resident in Classical Studies at the American Academy in Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and most recently, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, which was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy, and was published in a paperback edition with modifications in 2025.

Professor Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle Lectures and the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the University of Oxford.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/death-rome

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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Education – And Its Limits - Daniel Susskind

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:51:22 -0000

00:00 // Introduction: What This Talk Covers
01:44 // The Remarkable Rise of Generative AI
03:18 // Why "More Education" Has Always Been the Answer
05:57 // Structural vs Frictional Technological Unemployment
07:18 // The Illusion of "Future-Proofing"
08:19 // Case Study: The UK's Mandatory Coding Curriculum
14:07 // Why Future Skills Are Impossible to Predict
16:59 // Preparing for Uncertainty, Not Resolving It
22:22 // Back to Basics and Critical Use of AI
32:49 // Rethinking How and When We Educate
43:19 // The Real Limits of Education

Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/aJHAgt1iqVk

The most popular response to the challenge of automation is ‘more education’. This lecture argues that, for now, that is our best response. But ‘more education’ must go beyond simply rethinking what skills will be valuable in the future. We must also rethink how we educate – the way we teach has not really changed for centuries. And we must also rethink when we educate – providing people with a fixed set of skills at the start of their lives is no longer enough. However, there are serious limits to education – it is not the panacea that many imagine.

This lecture was recorded by Professor Daniel Susskind on the 26th of May 2026

Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is the Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College. He is also a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University, and a Research Professor at King’s College London. He is a member of the UK Government’s Expert Panel on AI and the Future of Work.

His new book, Growth: A Reckoning (2024), was chosen by President Obama as one of his ‘Favourite Books of 2024’ and was a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2024. He is also the author of A World Without Work (2020), described by The New York Times as "required reading for any potential presidential candidate thinking about the economy of the future” and a runner-up for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year 2020, and co-author of the best-selling book, The Future of the Professions (2015). His TED Talk, on the future of work, has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

His next book, What Should My Children Do? How to Flourish in the Age of AI, will be published in 2026. And his first novel, The Basilisk Stare, will be published in 2027.

Previously he worked in various roles in the British Government – in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, in the Policy Unit in 10 Downing Street, and in the Cabinet Office. He was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/education-limits

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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