Lectures

From Gresham College — Lectures

All other public lectures from Gresham College.

Episodes

What is the Purpose of Yoga: Transcendence or Transformation? - Jim Mallinson 2026-11-03
This lecture was recorded by Professor Sir Jim Mallinson on 5th of October 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London. Jim Mallinson is the Boden Professor…
Rethinking Deterrence for a Disrupted World - Martin Connell 2026-10-30
The unipolar world of American military dominance, which characterised the relatively stable 35-year post-Cold War period, is now well and truly…
Shakespearean England and Views of the Irish Language - Mícheál Ó Mainnín 2026-10-27
The Irish language has been associated with politicisation and conflict, particularly in the context of contemporary Northern Ireland identity…
Women of Bath and Willesden: Ordinary Women in English Literature - Marion Turner 2026-10-22
In this lecture, Professor Marion Turner explores ‘ordinary women’ in English literature, arguing that Chaucer’s 14th-century Wife of Bath was the…
AI as Therapist? Intimacy Without Understanding - Matt Jones 2026-10-16
AI systems are increasingly positioned as supports for anxiety, loneliness, and distress. This lecture examines large language models trained to…
Where is Queer Love in the Shoah History? - Anna Hájková 2026-10-13
Where are the stories of great queer love in the Shoah? There are almost none. Anna Hájková explains why the history of same-sex desire in the…
Carbon: Our Flexible Friend that Built the Natural World - Helen Czerski 2026-10-09
Carbon used to be something that was only mentioned in school chemistry classes, but now it seems to be everywhere: on the news, in political…
The Future of Creativity - Daniel Susskind 2026-10-02
This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 23nd of September 2026 Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of…
The Myth and Promise of the U.K. Jury Trial - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-09-29
The Lammy plan to eliminate half of U.K. criminal jury trials has provoked a rebellion among many lawmakers. Recent Palestine Action cases highlight…
Is the HIV pandemic over? - Matt Higgins 2026-09-25
A stark advert picturing a gravestone chiselled with ‘AIDS: DON’T DIE OF IGNORANCE’ captured the horror of this disease in the 1980s. Now, for…
Cracking the Whip: Strings, Chains and Dinosaurs - Alain Goriely 2026-09-22
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 15th of September 2026 Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical…
Cello - In Search of a Voice - Kate Kennedy 2026-09-15
How do we tell stories of past voices through a cello, the voice of its player? This lecture explores what it means to be separated from your voice,…
Why Do We Need Empathy? - Jane Shaw 2026-09-11
This lecture was recorded by Jane Shaw on Monday, 07 Sep 2026. Professor Jane Shaw is Provost of Gresham College and Professor of the History of…
On the Nature of Time According to Modern Physics - Jim Al-Khalili 2026-09-04
This is the Annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture. What does modern physics have to say about the meaning of time? Is it a fundamental feature of…
There Must be a Better Way: Thoughts on the Future of Family Law - Sir Andrew McFarlane 2026-08-04
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…
Education - And Its Limits - Daniel Susskind 2026-07-31
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…
The White Knight: Ice - Helen Czerski 2026-07-28
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…
Cicero In and On Political Crises - Melissa Lane 2026-07-24
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…
Forging Better Futures for You and AI - Matt Jones 2026-07-21
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…
Current Challenges to the US Constitution - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-07-17
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…
Shock of the Nude: Pioneering Women Artists and the Cultural Politics of Modern China - Di Wang 2026-07-14
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…
Plato to Polybius on Constitutional Change - Melissa Lane 2026-07-03
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…
Going Global: Chinese Independent Documentary - Luke Robinson 2026-06-30
This lecture will focus on independently produced Chinese documentary cinema as it has entered the Anglophone industry market. Using “Plastic China”…
Society and Survival During the Holocaust - Mary Fulbrook 2026-06-19
This lecture focuses on experiences of hiding and help during the Holocaust across Europe, including the German Reich itself, to highlight the…
The Pill and the Planet - Ian Mudway 2026-06-12
Modern medicine's success in extending lifespans comes at an environmental cost. This lecture explores the pollution from single-use plastics,…
How Hard is too Hard? An Introduction to Complexity - Colva Roney-Dougal 2026-06-09
This lecture was recorded by Colva Roney-Dougal on the 11th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Colva Mary Roney-Dougal OBE is a British…
Making Memory Visible Through Photograph - Julia Winckler 2026-06-05
With an academic background in social, cultural anthropology and photography, I have spent the last twenty-five years working on projects that have…
A Living Planet - Helen Czerski 2026-05-29
Earth is a living planet. But how much life is there, and what is it doing? We will discuss the distribution of biomass on Earth, and compare the…
Music, Death and Afterlife - Mieko Kanno 2026-05-29
This lecture was recorded by Mieko Kanno on the 5th May 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London Mieko Kanno is a violinist and an academic, active in…
Give Peace a Chance: Legal Implications of the Israel-Palestine Conflict - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-05-22
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 30th of April 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual…
The Shape of Tiles: Regular and Irregular, Hard and Soft - Alain Goriely 2026-05-19
Tiling involves filling a plane or space with repeated elements, known as tiles. This simple concept is deeply embedded in the natural world and…
The Ground We Stand On - Helen Czerski 2026-05-15
This lecture was recorded by Helen Czerski on the 19th of February 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Helen Czerski is a physicist and…
Tales from Television: Bringing the Natural World into Your Home - George McGavin 2026-05-12
New camera technology can help make stunning footage for natural history programmes but the key to success is down to a lot of hard work, planning…
Taming AI - Matt Jones 2026-05-05
Watch the Q&A session: https://youtu.be/gj4d75_Clgg In this lecture, we look at proposals to limit AI powers and impacts, so bad outcomes are…
A World Without Work - Daniel Susskind 2026-05-01
In the future, we may face ‘structural’ technological unemployment in the labour market – where there is no longer enough work to occupy the human…
The Dictionary City: Londoners and the Oxford English Dictionary - Sarah Ogilvie 2026-04-28
Londoners who helped create the world's largest English dictionary. She has unearthed a fascinating group of people across all social classes…
"Unsquaring” the Square Mile: Connecting People with Opportunity - Susan Langley 2026-04-21
Moving the conversation on social mobility out of the boardroom and into the mainstream, the Lady Mayor Dame Susan Langley will set out her ambition…
The Shape of Gravity: Why On Earth Are Planets Spherical? - Alain Goriely 2026-04-17
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 3rd of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad…
The Death of Athenian Democracy? - Melissa Lane 2026-04-14
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 12th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inna Hall, London Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of…
Guantánamo on the Euphrates? Syria in a Time of Opportunity - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-04-10
This lecture was recorded by Stafford Smith on the 19th of March 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US…
Oligarchs and Their Discontents - Melissa Lane 2026-03-31
This lecture was recorded by Professor Melissa Lane on 5th March 2026 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of…
Born Supremacy – AI as a Pale Shadow of Real Humanity - Professor Matt Jones 2026-03-24
In this lecture, we glimpse our best selves and compare that to a world where we lose everything of ourselves to AI. We are glorious creations that…
That's Not Funny: The Ethics of Satire - Judith Hawley 2026-03-20
It used to be taken for granted that satire uses nasty means to good ends: it ridicules its targets in order to bring about reform. However, in…
Work, Out of Reach - Daniel Susskind 2026-03-17
Right now, the technological challenge we are most likely to face in the labour market is ‘frictional’ technological unemployment – where there is…
Gresham College Podcast with Antony Penrose 2026-03-14
This episode of the Gresham College Podcast features an interview with Antony Penrose, hosted by Jeoffrey Sarpong. Antony Penrose is a film maker,…
Lee Miller: Why Her Photography Still Matters Today - Antony Penrose 2026-03-13
What is it that makes an image stick in our memory against our will? People find many of Lee Miller’s combat photographs have this indelible…
How Women Made the Global Economy - Dr Victoria Bateman 2026-03-06
Economic history has been written by men, for men and about men, giving the impression that – until recently – the economy was “just for men”. This…
Climate Risk and Insurance - Raghavendra Rau 2026-03-03
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Hwl0YRRaHgE Why did coastal homeowners lose insurance while UK energy bills spiked after Russia’s…
The Price of Pixels: Unmasking the Environmental Impact of Our Digital Lives - Ian Mudway 2026-02-27
Our digital world's convenience masks a heavy environmental cost. This lecture explores the destructive rare earth mineral mining powering our…
Peacebuilding through the visual Arts - Jolyon Mitchell 2026-02-24
How can the visual arts be used to promote peace? Professor Mitchell investigates how the visual arts can not only incite violence, but also bear…
The Shape of Shells: She Sells Self-Similar Spiral Seashells on the Seashore - Professor Alain Goriely 2026-02-20
This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 13th February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests…
Pictures from Afghanistan: Are we making the same mistakes? - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-02-17
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 9th of February 2026 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual…
Death Investigation: What Do Coroners Do? - Peter Thornton 2026-02-13
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/9ozYDQFkfaY When death occurs, the state has a duty to investigate. Every death must be registered…
Will You Be AI’s Pet? - Matt Jones 2026-02-06
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/fuk6LYeOCDQ I have two pet dogs; they are happy, wagging their tails and reacting well when I come…
An Ocean of Air - Helen Czerski 2026-02-03
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/_HJt1zjecCo The major environmental challenge of our time is framed in terms of what happens in our…
Constable's "The Cornfield": A Bicentenary Harvesting - Professor Malcolm Andrews 2026-01-23
Constable’s painting The Cornfield celebrates its bicentenary in 2026. How has it aged? This is a landscape that has acquired iconic status – a…
Economics and Artificial Intelligence - Daniel Susskind 2026-01-16
ChatGPT, the AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, was the fastest growing app in history. But this achievement, as sudden and remarkable as it might…
Donald Trump and the Death Penalty - Clive Stafford Smith 2026-01-06
One of the first executive orders issued by President Trump in January was EO 14164 designed to “restore the death penalty”, though actually aimed…
Life, Death and Judgement in the Art and Times of Hieronymus Bosch (d. 1516) - Sophie Oosterwijk 2025-12-30
This lecture looks at the 'surreal' art of the Early Netherlandish painter Jheronimus Bosch within its historical and cultural context.…
Where Is China Heading under Xi Jinping? - Steve Tsang 2025-12-23
In this lecture, Tsang examines the strategic goals and direction of travel China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping, has set for the country and its…
The Later Years: Organisation, Independence and Peace of Mind - Sir Peter Thornton KC 2025-12-19
How should we get organised for our later years? With just a little preparation while we are fit and healthy, we can express our wishes for more…
The Shape of Plants: Why Plants Love Mathematics and Mathematicians Love Plants - Alain Goriely 2025-12-15
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Lv5h-Pp1r6s Looking at the plant world, one discovers beautiful and fascinating structures in the…
Becoming AI – Your Journey to Assimilation? - Matt Jones 2025-12-09
Wittgenstein wrote: “If a lion could talk, we would not understand it”. That is, as lions and humans are not of the same material, they could not…
Limitarianism and Capitalism - Ingrid Robeyns 2025-12-05
Limitarianism holds that it is immoral to have personal wealth above a certain level. Is this idea compatible with capitalism? Defenders of…
Do Not Resuscitate Forms - Who’d Have One? - Mark Taubert 2025-12-02
In this lecture, Mark Taubert, who chairs the national DNACPR policy for Wales, and is a palliative care clinician, reviews current practices. He…
Minor Criminal: The Trial of the Man Who Murdered My Grandmother - Lord Daniel Finkelstein 2025-11-25
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/oQeUePfTrEQ The Royal Historical Society Colin Matthew Memorial Lecture. In April 1945, British…
China’s Economic Prospects on the Cusp - George Magnus 2025-11-21
China has important islands of technological excellence, even dominance, but these islands exist in a sea of macroeconomic imbalances and headwinds.…
Ocean: The Liquid Engine That Dominates Our Planet 2025-11-18
We often talk about living on a blue planet, but when we think we’re talking about the ocean we’re generally only discussing what’s in it: fish,…
The Economics of Work and Technology - Daniel Susskind 2025-11-11
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/v0RoRG2YA-0 Why has automation anxiety – the fear that new technologies cause mass unemployment –…
Whither War; Whither the Law of War - Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice KC 2025-11-07
How might we change the way we – and all our leaders think – so that we never go to war? The war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the conflict…
From Tyranny to Athenian Democracy - Melissa Lane 2025-11-04
When – and how – did Athenian democracy begin? There is no unambiguous answer to this question. This lecture explores one plausible origin: the…
China and Chineseness: Lessons from the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan - Steve Tsang 2025-10-31
This lecture is about the meaning of China and being Chinese. It examines critically how the Chinese state, under the control of the Communist Party…
War's Toxic Legacy - Ian Mudway 2025-10-28
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/3LrIEG26m78 War's environmental legacies disproportionately burden the civilian populations…
How Does Mathematics Last? Heritage and Heritage-making in Mathematics - Caroline Ehrhardt 2025-10-24
How is mathematical knowledge recorded and preserved across generations? Contrary to the idea that mathematics itself is somehow ‘permanent’, in…
Evoking Empathy through Animal Portraiture 2025-10-21
The natural world faces unprecedented threats, challenging historical perceptions of nature as inexhaustible. Photographer Tim Flach draws on his…
Hitler, Jesus & How to Win a Culture War - Alec Ryrie 2025-10-14
Since 1945 Hitler and the Nazis have been the Western world’s one fixed moral reference point: the way we know what evil is. But that consensus has…
AI Will Be Your Overlord: Faster, Brighter, Better Than You? 2025-10-07
“Scary”, “Worried”, “Dangerous” were some of the most frequent words to describe AI in a recent UK Government public survey. Do you fear, as many…
Shakespeare’s Musical Fairies - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh 2025-10-03
Written in the era of the founding of Gresham College, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays the hypnotic dreaminess of a fairy world in…
Lessons from Guantánamo Bay - Clive Stafford Smith 2025-09-30
This lecture looks at the evolution of Guantánamo Bay, first as a focal point of Haitian immigration in 1991 (Gitmo 1.0), to the more famous…
The Shape of Hands: Symmetry, Chirality and Handedness - Alain Goriely 2025-09-26
The reflection of my right hand in a mirror is a left hand that looks similar yet is very different from the right. Many natural structures such as…