Lectures

From Gresham College — Lectures

All other public lectures from Gresham College.

Episodes

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…
Earth – Our Planetary Life Support System - Professor Helen Czerski 2025-09-23
Planet Earth is an intricate and interconnected system, with some fundamental rules that we usually ignore. But we are part of our planet, not…
Automation Anxiety - Daniel Susskind 2025-09-19
Ever since modern economic growth began three centuries ago, people have suffered from periodic bursts of anxiety about the technologies of the time…
Galileo’s Journey to the Underworld: The Case for Interdisciplinary Thinking - Sarah Hart 2025-08-22
ttps://x.com/GreshamCollege Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/tv554JY9TPU In 1588, the young Galileo delivered some lectures that…
A World Remade by Decolonization? - Martin Thomas 2025-08-19
The lecture shares perspectives from global history, comparative politics, and international relations to revaluate whether the twentieth-century…
Oil, Decolonisation, and the Future of the Climate Emergency - Adam Hanieh 2025-08-15
Decolonisation movements sought to win sovereignty and control over national resources, especially oil. This lecture explores oil’s influence on…
Shanawdithit: A Woman at the End of the World - Julia Laite 2025-08-12
Shanawdithit was a woman who bore witness to the death of her world in the early nineteenth century, creating the only first-hand account we have of…
Outsmart the System: How Psychology Hacks Your Money Decisions - Raghavendra Rau 2025-08-08
Ever feel like the financial world works against you? This lecture discusses "behavioral finance" – how our brains get tricked by money…
Democracy and International Criminal Justice in the Fragile World of the Rule of Law - Howard Morrison 2025-08-05
The lecture will examine the pros and cons of democracy in today's world, focusing on the importance of domestic and international rule of law…
The Future of Health - Chris Whitty 2025-08-01
Health over the last 150 years in the UK and internationally has been transformed and this rapid rate of change will continue. Improvements in…
Sum Stories: Equations and their Origins - Robin Wilson 2025-07-29
How long is the coastline of Britain? What is a rhombicuboctahedron? Which US president proved Pythagoras’s theorem? These and many other intriguing…
The Deceived Brain: Coding and Illusion - Alain Goriely 2025-07-25
We perceive the world through the processing of information given by our senses. Sometimes, this processing is faulty leading to illusions: shapes…
Architecture of Enslavement, Colonialism and Independence: The Story of James Fort in Accra - Elsie Owusu 2025-07-15
Accra’s James Fort is an iconic monument for Ghana and modern Africa. This lecture explores the fort's evolution -from its role as a trading…
The Operatic Showstopper: ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh 2025-07-11
This lecture considers ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from Carousel (1945). Perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most operatic song, it was originally…
Carbon Takeback: How We Will Stop Fossil Fuels from Causing Global Warming - Myles Allen 2025-07-08
We have to stop fossil fuels from causing global warming – before the world stops using fossil fuels. There’s only one solution: safe and permanent…
Lawgivers in Modern Revolutions - Melissa Lane 2025-06-27
How have lawgivers featured in modern revolutions? This lecture considers key moments in revolutions, including seventeenth-century Britain,…
Taking the Constitution into the Classroom - Clive Stafford Smith 2025-06-24
The U.S. Constitution had to be formed through debate before it could be ratified. Mirroring this, a British constitution must emerge through…
Blind Spots & Bad Decisions: Why We Fall for Financial Traps - Raghavendra Rau 2025-06-17
Why do smart people make dumb financial choices? This lecture explores the surprising link between our psychology and money mistakes. We will see…
The Moral Case for Stealing Data - Victoria Baines 2025-06-13
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/hLBfAVyeMBs Throughout history, authorities have struggled to manage individuals’ urges to speak…
From Machiavelli to Nietzsche: How Modern Thinkers Saw Ancient Lawgivers - Melissa Lane 2025-06-03
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/VOGzTymAYno For many modern thinkers, the lawgiver has been important as a founder or re-founder of…
The Troubled Brain: Ageing and Dementia - Alain Goriely 2025-05-30
Diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are devastating neurological conditions that typically occur at old age and lead to systematic dementia…
Divine Law, Human Prophet: Moses in Hebrew and Greek - Melissa Lane 2025-05-28
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 6th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric.…