A family best known for producing one of England's most famous queen consorts started out owning substantial estates in Norfolk before buying, and inheriting, a series of major houses close to London. These mansions became the stage for the tragedy of Ann's life and death. New research allows us to understand the role of property owning at the heart of the story of the Boleyn family. A lecture by Simon Thurley CBE 16 September The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available...
Sep 16, 2020•56 min
The story of the Mayflower is usually presented as a tale of persecuted Pilgrims crossing the Atlantic in circumstances of grave adversity to inhabit a desolate wilderness. There is another perspective. This lecture asks not where did they go to, but where did they come from? Who paid the piper? Who called the tune? Who hosted and protected them for years before the voyage, and who taught them the tolerant values that 17th century Puritans usually lacked? A lecture by Graham Taylor 18 September ...
Sep 15, 2020•38 min
How has lockdown affected the Family Court? Gresham Law Professor Jo Delahunty QC chairs a panel of senior lawyers and journalists discussing the issues faced by family courts and by families during lockdown. How has COVID-19 affected child protection? How have lawyers maintained professional and family links under lockdown? Have vulnerable clients been locked out from Court and their lawyers? Have families lost face to face contact with babies and children in foster care under social isolation ...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 22 min
The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating. But one silver lining has been the tremendous responses from businesses and individual citizens, as we've realised how even small actions can have a substantial effect on society. A second is that the crisis has caused us to step back, focus on what is truly important rather than merely urgent, and appreciate gifts we normally take for granted. This lecture will draw leadership lessons from the crisis that we can apply to life post-pandemic. A lecture ...
Jun 24, 2020•51 min
Lord Carlile will discuss the effect of Covid-19 on counter terrorism policy, including suggestions that terrorist organisations have taken advantage of the pandemic to increase their influence. He will discuss whether UK counter-extremism policies and programmes are adequate, and what changes are needed. He is likely to be critical of the design and effect of such programmes in prison. He will make suggestions for the improvement and better performance of Prevent. A lecture by Lord Carlile 18 J...
Jun 18, 2020•45 min
THE 2020 ANNUAL PROVOST'S LECTURE What is the history of populism? Has it ever been a force for good? In this lecture, Sir Richard Evans, Provost of Gresham College, discusses the different varieties of populism, asks why it has become such a prominent feature of contemporary political life, and considers how far it is a threat to liberal democracy. A lecture by Richard Evans 16 June The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://w...
Jun 16, 2020•46 min
Like James I, King William III was fundamentally unhappy with the stuffy formality of England's vast crumbling royal estate. But unlike James, who virtually abandoned Edinburgh, William maintained a second court, and a parallel suite of royal houses, in the Netherlands. Mostly ignored by English historians, these houses are the key to understanding the style that we now know as William and Mary, and its impact on England. A lecture by Simon Thurley 10 June The transcript and downloadable version...
Jun 10, 2020•58 min
It is commonplace for governments to complain that the cost of healthcare is rising. Various reasons are put forward: some claim that modern medicine is inevitably more expensive; some claim that the ageing population is the cause of the problem; others opine that the only option is rationing. But what are the opportunities for using Information Technology to reduce the cost of healthcare? And what might our healthcare system look like in 10 years time if we make judicious investments in technol...
Jun 04, 2020•1 hr 16 min
This talk will explore the "growth mindset", the evidence-based view that talents are developed rather than genetic. It provides practical tips on how to develop new skills with limited time, and highlights the importance of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone. The talk will also discuss the "abundance mentality", that serving others grows the pie for all, rather than increasing others' slice at your expense. It examines how to serve effectively, in a disciplined way that does not lead to...
Jun 03, 2020•58 min
The birth of rational medicine contributed to the scientific revolution which occurred amongst eastern Greek communities in the 7th-to-5th centuries BCE. Medical professionals still take the oath of the ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates of Kos, preserved along with his medical treatises. They are a consummation of many decades of medical practice and empirical observation, showing methods similar to the eastern Aegean natural scientists in seeking physical causes rather than supernatural explanat...
May 28, 2020•47 min
Money may well make world go round but cash is surely an encumbrance we can do without. What does a cashless society look like? What is the technology behind the digital economy and the new forms of currency and money? Your bank doubtless provides an app for accessing your account but, in the future will it provide an API so you can write your own payment algorithms? A lecture by Richard Harvey 26 May The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College ...
May 26, 2020•56 min
The Greeks famously identified many patterns and rhythms in the sky, deducing detailed information about eclipses and orbits that still have relevance today. The Chinese, on the other hand, made landmark discoveries of supernovae and comets - events that were unexpected (stochastic) in nature and not forming any part of any rhythm. This talk will consider how expectation plays a role in discovery and in scientific advance, and considers the challenges involved in assessing changes taking place o...
May 20, 2020•41 min
How can we deliver clean and affordable energy to even the poor, especially in rural settlements, as set out in UN Sustainable Development Goal 7? Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will examine how renewable energy systems, ranging from large-scale hydroelectric dams, solar arrays and geothermal plants, to small-scale solar micro-grids can offer immense opportunities for climate mitigation and achieving a clean energy future. She will argue that without proper social safeguards these same...
May 19, 2020•46 min
The science of feet and footprints has a long, yet often forgotten, history. In this lecture, I look at what people from the late eighteenth century to the present thought they knew about toes, arches, heels, and ankles. What makes a beautiful foot? How have ideas of foot-beauty changed over time? Size, shape, colour, smell, and even taste have been important markers in the literature, science, and sociology of feet. A lecture by Joanna Bourke 19 May The transcript and downloadable versions of t...
May 14, 2020•36 min
Medical care often frames patients as the passive 'recipients' of expert professional knowledge and skill. This lecture explores what comes into view if we reframe clinical treatment as hospitality, and patients as guests. Drawing on collaborations with leading restaurants and their chefs, this lecture explores parallels between the worlds of fine dining and medical care. In a hospital, as in a restaurant, what happens out of sight (in the operating theatre or the kitchen) must be matched by sen...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Diaghilev would often look at past art and then do the opposite. He playfully abandoned plot, elaborate costumes, emotional expression, and even meaning, but reinstating them whenever he felt like it - this was his undogmatic approach to modernism. In this final lecture, we will focus on one of the best-preserved Diaghilev productions, The Prodigal Son, a strikingly beautiful ballet by Prokofiev/Balanchine/Rouault. It could have been a new beginning, but it became Diaghilev's final word when he ...
May 12, 2020•1 hr
This lecture addresses the potential links between AI and religious belief, which include the question of whether an artificial "superintelligence", were one to arise, would be well-disposed towards us. Religious traditions historically assume that creations are well disposed to those who made them. The lecture also looks at the recent US cults claiming to be ready to worship such a "super-intelligence", if and when it emerges, as well as other futurist discourse on "Transhumanism" and its roots...
May 12, 2020•45 min
2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, one of the most extraordinary diplomatic events of the late medieval period. Although commonly regarded as a 'peace festival', the meeting might more usefully be described as a two-week long war game. The lecture will set the Field in context, examine the crucial role played by Cardinal Wolsey in organising it, and the spectacular temporary structures built to house the event. It will offer insights into the history of sixteenth...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 10 min
Some of the atrocities of the age of Europe's religious wars immediately became notorious. The execution of tens of thousands of women and men for witchcraft, by contrast, passed largely unremarked - until modern times, when this history was revived, rewritten and wildly exaggerated. This final lecture will ask why it suits each age to select, reinvent and suppress different parts of the history of religious atrocity, and why some victims, such as Anabaptist radicals, remain neglected down to th...
May 06, 2020•54 min
Robocop (1987) embodied a particular vision of an electronic crime fighter but what is the reality of electronic crime fighting? How are the police and security services using technology to trap villains? In this lecture we will examine not only the murky world of electronic crime but also how information technology can be used to solve physical crimes. A lecture by Richard Harvey 05 May The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https...
May 05, 2020•59 min
At the time of writing, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has killed many thousands worldwide, infected many more - and changed lives around the world in ways that were unimaginable just weeks ago. What is COVID-19, how has it been managed and what role will science play in combating it? Gresham Professor of Physic (and Chief Medical Officer for England) Chris Whitty, one of the key figures in the UK's fight against the disease, will explain what we know - and what we don't. A lecture by Chris...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 21 min
Recent evidence about the extent of plastics and litter in our oceans has led to grassroots rejection of single-use plastics. This lecture will draw on McGlade's own research (published in 2020) on plastics in our seas. She will show that banning single-use plastics is not enough to safeguard the health of our oceans, and that what is needed is a complete redesign of global production systems. She will outline ways that we can work to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine res...
Apr 28, 2020•43 min
This final lecture will celebrate some of the great mathematical equations, and related algorithms, which have both changed the world as we know it and which are likely to change it in the future. The lecture will focus on a number of equations and algorithms including Laplace's Equation, the Navier-Stokes Equations, Schrödinger's equation, the Kalman Filter, the FFT, the Page Rank Algorithm, the Simplex method and the Conjugate Gradient Method, all of which are making a profound difference to t...
Apr 28, 2020•59 min
Dark matter and dark energy together make up 95% of our Universe. Yet, very little is known about them. This lecture will present the endeavours of cosmologists and particle physicists, as they attempt to explain the fundamental nature of these mysterious dark components. The existence of dark matter might open new vistas in particle physics, while dark energy might even hold the key to the multiverse. A lecture by Roberto Trotta 27 April The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture a...
Apr 27, 2020•42 min
One of the most dangerous phrases is "evidence shows that …", because you can almost always find evidence to support any viewpoint. Experts are similarly distrusted, because they may have motives other than the truth. These problems are particularly severe in the digital age where we are bombarded with data and supposed expert opinions. This talk will explain how to discern what and who to trust, how to know whether evidence is causation or just a correlation, and how to overcome the temptation ...
Apr 22, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Modernity kept seeping into ballet, a genre that had traditionally looked to a distant, mythical or magical past. First, the tutu gave way to an everyday tennis costume in Jeux by Debussy/Nijinsky, then ragtime rang out in Parade by Satie/Picasso, and in the 1920s Diaghilev decided staged a series of ballets drawn from contemporary life, and in particular, the French high society in which Diaghilev moved. Milhaud and Poulenc provided the sparkling scores, while Coco Chanel added her sparkling co...
Apr 07, 2020•56 min
Should a composer leave the listener wanting more, or must a musical ending be definitive? Is a 'fade out' actually a cop-out, and is a decisive ending preferable to an abrupt one? In short, is the object of a musical ending to bring an audience to its feet? And what about false endings? Do they excite or belittle the audience? This lecture will certainly not be the last word on the subject of musical endings, but it might, ironically, be a start. A lecture by Jeremy Summerly 2 April The transcr...
Apr 02, 2020•43 min
Nowhere in Europe have the wars of religion lasted longer than in Ireland. At the heart of this are two rival sets of memories of atrocities: above all, Protestants recall the massacres of the 1641 rebellion, and Catholics recall the massacres perpetrated by Oliver Cromwell in 1649. A lecture by Alec Ryrie 1 April The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/choosing-religious-atrocities Gres...
Apr 01, 2020•56 min
BOOK LAUNCH Business has lost the public's trust. Concerns that capitalism only serves the elites has led to major unrest throughout the world and the election of populist leaders. Many people claim we need to overhaul capitalism - but that may throw the baby out with the bathwater and harm the many good businesses that exist. This lecture, based on a brand new book, uses the highest-quality evidence to propose a new solution that works for both business and society, and a simple framework to pu...
Mar 30, 2020•57 min
Are humans fit to be gardeners of this planet? Today's biotechnology companies promote themselves in distinctly utopian ways, but increasing numbers of people find their claims difficult to reconcile with the daily evidence of the damage that technologies like intensive agriculture have done to this planet. This lecture explores these notions through an examination of the film Silent Running (1972), which imagined gardens in space, in which the last remnants of Earth's vegetation are preserved a...
Mar 23, 2020•51 min
