Magnetic fields have mysterious effects that can be dramatically counterintuitive, and they are ubiquitous throughout the Universe and can have influence on large scales. This lecture will explore how some of the exotic and energetic phenomena in the Universe can only be explained in terms of these magnetic fields that pervade space. A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.u...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min
In the late nineteenth century, highly contentious debates about prostitution were central to broader questions about women’s status within society, including their rights to property, entitlement to suffrage, and claims over their own bodies. Political scandals such as those over the 1860s Contagious Diseases Acts (which criminalized sex workers, not their customers) and the 1885 Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (which was the first exposé of child prostitution in the UK) not only reveal attitu...
Feb 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In the late nineteenth century, highly contentious debates about prostitution were central to broader questions about women’s status within society, including their rights to property, entitlement to suffrage, and claims over their own bodies. Political scandals such as those over the 1860s Contagious Diseases Acts (which criminalized sex workers, not their customers) and the 1885 Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon (which was the first exposé of child prostitution in the UK) not only reveal attitu...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Professor Eleanor Stride will discuss the history and development of cancer therapy from its origins in Ancient Egypt - when surgery was the only option to remove a tumour, to the more recent developments of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She will end by looking at present-day clinical trials that aim to harness the body’s own immune system to eliminate disease (immunotherapy). A lecture by Eleanor Stride The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham Coll...
Feb 24, 2022•50 min
The Deep Sea is Earth’s last great frontier. After almost 150 years of exploration and research we understand it is deep, dark and definitely different; but there remain large gaps in our knowledge that hinder progress in sustainable management of this vast system. New technology – from manned submersibles, to satellite measurements, acoustic systems, and artificial intelligence – is key to future research, and the next ten years promises to deliver a new age of deep-sea science. A lecture by Ke...
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr
This lecture will follow the tortuous path of Prokofiev’s transformation into a Soviet artist. Prokofiev had pursued his career abroad and returned to (Soviet) Russia as a major international celebrity. Even though he was willing, in principle, to write “music for the people”, he found it very difficult to meet the precise demands of the state. Prokofiev was one of the most highly honoured Soviet artists, but he was still hounded into near silence towards the end of his life. During the lecture,...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 15 min
The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 led to international disruption and a crisis in the post-war order. Domestically, weaker productivity growth, the squeeze on profits, and de-industrialisation led to conflict between capital and labour. Public finances came under strain and led to major changes associated with Thatcher and Reagan. The result was an intellectual revolution: a shift to neo-liberalism with a stress on individualism and incentives rather than collectivism and equality, and greater pow...
Feb 18, 2022•57 min
Tristan & Isolde, Romeo & Juliet, Pelléas & Mélisande are three pairs of lovers who have fired composers’ imaginations. Films like Love Story, Love Actually, and Shakespeare in Love are made all the more poignant by their musical scores. And where would The Beatles, 10cc, or Queen have been without All you need is love, I’m not in love, and Love of my life? This lecture shows how there is no emotion more likely to inspire musical creativity than love. A lecture by Jeremy Summerly The...
Feb 17, 2022•1 hr
From the Ancient Greeks onwards, proportion and mathematics has been central to our ideas of form and beauty. This lecture looks at the famous golden ratio, from Greek temples to spiral seashells, discussing where it appears in nature (and why), and how people have tried to pinpoint the 'perfect' proportions of the human body and face. It will also look at why A4 paper is the shape it is and what cookbooks have to do with the Rhind Papyrus. A lecture by Sarah Hart The transcript and downloadable...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Since the 1981 Brixton riots, many things have changed in British policing. However, Black people are still nine times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people, and three times more likely to be arrested; Black people are far more likely to be searched, arrested and prosecuted for using drugs, and yet are no more likely to use drugs than white people. This lecture explores the persistence of police racism and what we can do about it. A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC The transcript a...
Feb 11, 2022•1 hr 10 min
COVID-19, pandemic influenza and tuberculosis are examples of the remarkable ability of infections to use the respiratory route of transmission. Infections which use this route can often spread very quickly, especially in crowded indoor environments. Human behaviours and engineering should be seen as much a part of our defences against respiratory infections as drugs and vaccines. A lecture by Professor Sir Chris Whitty The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from t...
Feb 10, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Protestant settlers in the Americas believed it was their duty to convert indigenous peoples to the true Gospel. Yet the task proved unexpectedly difficult. The effort revealed and challenged deep European assumptions about culture and the nature of Christianity itself. From Massachusetts to Chile, Protestant would-be missionaries took roads that were paved mostly, but not entirely, with good intentions. This lecture will show where they led. A lecture by Alec Ryrie The transcript and downloadab...
Feb 09, 2022•1 hr
When was the last time you opened a file and noticed a computer glitch? “Never” is the usual answer. Yet the underlying hardware makes continual errors: disks make errors, the internet loses packets of data, wifi signals get corrupted and so on. This lecture is about the secrets of the mysterious invulnerability that is Error Control Coding: a way of storing or transmitting information such that it knows it has been corrupted and can correct itself. A lecture by Richard Harvey The transcript and...
Feb 07, 2022•57 min
Measuring distances to astronomical objects outside our Galaxy is a surprisingly hard challenge: it wasn't until 1923 that Edwin Hubble obtained proof that Andromeda is indeed a galaxy in its own right. Today, astronomers extend distance measurements in the cosmos to the edge of the visible Universe, building up a 'cosmic distance ladder' made of several rungs. This talk will explore a major conundrum of contemporary astronomy: as observations have become more precise, the distance ladder appear...
Feb 04, 2022•58 min
What has Brexit come to mean? This lecture will explain how the Brexit deal the UK and the EU ended up with came to be. It will then investigate the new relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, put in place by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement of December 2020. Finally, the lecture will look to the future, to elucidate what Brexit will go on to mean for politics and public policy within the United Kingdom. A lecture by Anand Menon The transcript and downloadable versions...
Feb 03, 2022•59 min
The Revolutionary tribunals in 1790s Paris; the Moscow show trials of the late 1930s; and the prosecution of conspirators in the assassination attempt on Hitler by the so-called “People’s Court”, are well-known examples of the way the law and its processes can be misused in totalitarian societies. These were trials designed to terrorize the population and solidify the power of the state. This lecture will explore how the courts can be the vehicles of despotic power. A lecture by Thomas Grant QC ...
Feb 02, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Christianity’s centre of gravity has shifted to the Global South. Prosperity churches, 'born again' politicians, prophets, healers and exorcists are now typical expressions of Christianity worldwide. What do these changes mean for our understanding of the world’s largest religion, in particular with regard to secularism, politics, and international development? Drawing on examples from Africa, the lecture shows how these movements challenge established notions of Christian doctrine and instituti...
Feb 01, 2022•58 min
How did the cosmos transition into space characterised by galaxies in a plethora of different shapes of great beauty? This lecture will consider what happens when groups of galaxies interact with one another and what happens when these galaxies collide and merge. A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/structures-universe Gresham College has been givin...
Jan 28, 2022•1 hr
Individuals and businesses make financial decisions all the time – whether to go to university, buy a house, build a factory, or train one’s workforce. All these decisions involve spending certain money now for uncertain benefits in the future. This lecture will provide a simple framework for deciding whether or not to take an investment. It will also highlight the mistakes that people frequently make when taking financial decisions, and simple ways to avoid them. A lecture by Alex Edmans The tr...
Jan 25, 2022•59 min
This lecture focuses on one of the watershed moments of Soviet music history: the censure of Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and the composer’s path through reform to rehabilitation. The Shostakovich story was only the tip of the iceberg, and almost all Soviet composers had to adjust their aesthetic and style at this point, unless they were prepared to languish in obscurity and poverty. Shostakovich's Songs on the Texts of English Poets is performed by Bass Ed Hawkins and the piani...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Do we own our own body parts? What can we do with them? Can we sell them and control what others do with them? People often say, "it’s my body", but the law is much more complex. This lecture explains the law on body part ownership, tracing it from the early legal cases through the body-snatching years of the Victorian period, to the present day. Should we use the law of property to regulate human tissue? A lecture by Imogen Goold The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are avail...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr
Does nature have a universal value? Can we consider natural capital as equivalent to financial capital? This lecture gives a brief history of value, exploring the similarities between historical arguments as to why the value of housework and nature are not reflected either in theory or in the system of national accounts and GDP. It will explore the difficulties with putting a value on nature, for example trying to make meaningful estimates of what contribution water makes to our lives. A lecture...
Jan 17, 2022•59 min
Some diseases are specialised in using sexual behaviour for transmission. Major pandemics including HIV and syphilis have been transmitted via this route, along with the cancer-causing infections Hepatitis B and HPV. Along with these are highly transmissible diseases such as gonorrhoea and herpes. Another way people share bodily fluids is via needles, and several diseases can be transmitted this way, including HIV and Hepatitis. Changing sexual behaviour is hard, so other methods have to be foun...
Jan 14, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Pornography reflects as well as creates sexual norms and practices. The period from the 1960s to the mid-1980s has been called the 'Golden Age of Porn'. An unexpurgated Lady Chatterley’s Lover was openly published in the UK and Linda Lovelace’s pornographic film Deep Throat (1972) went mainstream. Vigorous debates about morality, consent, and feminism erupted. The “porn wars” continue in popular culture and academic debates today. How has mainstream pornography changed? What is the role of techn...
Jan 07, 2022•54 min
This lecture takes a trip down Christmas's unique and emotionally complex memory lane via the Christmas Carol. Carols paint a colourful picture of the Christmas story itself, frequently by adapting pre-existing material. The crowded stable at Bethlehem appears simultaneously ancient and modern, as do the carols that commemorate the Nativity. Christmas is indelibly associated with our own childhood experiences at home, in church, or out in the cold. A lecture by Jeremy Summerly The transcript and...
Dec 09, 2021•53 min
Judges, who are typically drawn from privileged backgrounds, wield vast power over the lives of the most marginalised people in society. This lecture will explore the role of judicial racism in perpetuating injustice and inequality in the legal system. The Lammy Review found gross disparities sentencing for Black and white defendants - while also finding no systematic racial bias in juries' decisions to convict or acquit. What should we do about racism in the judiciary and the legal profession? ...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr
This lecture explores the destruction of libraries, archives and other knowledge, from Babylonian times until now, and its implications for society today. What are the motivations for destroying knowledge, and how have libraries and archives responded to these threats? What must we do now that knowledge is digital, and controlled by a small number of very powerful companies? A lecture by Richard Ovenden The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham Colleg...
Dec 02, 2021•1 hr
European Protestant and evangelical Christians did not have to look far to find 'infidels' in the 16th and 17th centuries: as well as the 'pagans' of northern Scandinavia, Jews were scattered across the continent and Muslim powers were all too close. This lecture will consider the repeated, and repeatedly failed, attempts to convert these peoples: some naively well-intentioned, some openly violent. Those bitter experiences would become a crucial lens through which Christians viewed global missio...
Dec 01, 2021•1 hr 1 min
For thousands of years, some men assumed that the original or ideal human type was male, with women being pictured as weaker or imperfect men. This ancient prejudice inspired fictions from E.T.A. Hoffman's The Sandman (1816) to Ira Levin's novel The Stepford Wives (1972). This lecture looks at fantasies of artificial women (usually seen by their male creators as superior to biological women) to examine the complex connections between science and assumptions about the supposed naturalness of gend...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr
Many major diseases are transmitted by food or drink. Cholera (water), brucellosis (milk), BSE/nvCJD, typhoid and many parasites are ingested as part of a normal diet. The more exotic the diet, the greater the range of possible infections. Water technology, sanitation, pasteurisation and animal husbandry can substantially reduce but not eliminate these diseases. A lecture by Chris Whitty The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https...
Nov 24, 2021•53 min
