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 post in the early European-African encounters, through its significance during the trans-Atlantic trade and enslavement, to its later use as a modern colonial prison in the post-independence era. It also explores its connection to Ghana's liberation movement, particularly its role in imprisoning Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and other political leaders during their res...
Jul 15, 2025•46 min
This lecture considers ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from Carousel (1945). Perhaps Rodgers and Hammerstein’s most operatic song, it was originally written for Metropolitan Opera star Christine Johnson but has gone on to be recorded by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley and Marcus Mumford and sung at both the Last Night of the Proms and Liverpool Football Club. This lecture will include live performances by international soprano and Grammy Award winner Rebecca Evans CBE. This lecture was recorded by...
Jul 11, 2025•48 min
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 disposal of one tonne of carbon dioxide for every tonne still generated by burning fossil fuels. But how do we achieve this without overheating the planet or stoking political conflicts? This lecture presents a simple answer: make carbon dioxide disposal a licensing condition of the sale and use of fossil fuels. This lecture was recorded by Myles All...
Jul 08, 2025•49 min
Whether you are human or computer, viruses can ruin your day, so taking steps to avoid them is important. This lecture will ask whether there are similarities between human immunity and computer immunity? Can we use discoveries in one system to help protect against infections in the other? Might we one day take our laptops for regular vaccinations, or run a ‘software update’ on our own immune systems to avoid an emerging pathogen? This lecture was recorded by Robin May & Victoria Baines on 7...
Jul 04, 2025•50 min
Now over 50 years old, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon remains the perfect example of a concept album. Blending cyclical forms, jazz and modal harmony, experimental electronics, multi-layered guitars, studio techniques and haunting lyrics, this lecture will examine why this album has retained its popularity, critical success, and enduring influence. This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 12th June 2025 at Rich Mix, London. Milton Mermikides is Gresham Professor of Music. He is Asso...
Jul 01, 2025•52 min
How have lawgivers featured in modern revolutions? This lecture considers key moments in revolutions, including seventeenth-century Britain, eighteenth-century France and (what would become) the United States, and twentieth-century Iran. The appeal to lawgivers (including ancient ones from many cultures) in revolutionary visions and in consolidating new constitutions is a striking feature of modern politics. This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 5th June 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London...
Jun 27, 2025•50 min
The U.S. Constitution had to be formed through debate before it could be ratified. Mirroring this, a British constitution must emerge through debates held by the next generation. This lecture indicates schools are a good environment to foster this. For students, there are many contentious issues that tap into discussions at the heart of writing a constitution. Students being punished for swearing raises questions of limits to free speech. Students wishing to intervene when an unpopular peer is b...
Jun 24, 2025•37 min
The JWST is the most expensive and powerful telescope astronomers have ever constructed. Its launch in 2021 started a new phase in our exploration of the cosmos, with the observatory's golden mirrors producing instantly iconic images of the Solar System's giant planets, nearby star-forming regions and galaxies, and our distant universe. The lecture includes the latest news from its studies of the early universe, a place lit up by what appears to have been a much more spectacular burst of activit...
Jun 20, 2025•44 min
Why do smart people make dumb financial choices? This lecture explores the surprising link between our psychology and money mistakes. We will see how fear, overconfidence, and even our desire to be liked can cloud our judgment, especially when dealing with financial "experts". Learn how these psychological blind spots worsen conflicts of interest, and how to make smarter financial decisions, free from emotional influence. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 2nd June 2025 at Barnard's...
Jun 17, 2025•2 hr 8 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/hLBfAVyeMBs Throughout history, authorities have struggled to manage individuals’ urges to speak out against injustice and malpractice. IT has given us new means to obtain and publish data that others may wish to protect or even conceal. To some, those who hack and leak are heroes. To others, they are criminals. In an era of mass leaks and high-profile whistleblowing, who decides whether data thieves and hackers are to be protected or prosecuted? ...
Jun 13, 2025•52 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/3ntebbsM4Hw This lecture delves into musical forms which rely on the most economical of materials and concepts. From Steve Reich’s adoption of rhythmic cycles and phasing in Ewe drumming to the expressive power of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s music, we explore how profound effect can emerge from such apparent simplicity. This lecture unpacks the processes behind celebrated minimalist works and reveals the quiet and elegant mechanisms underpinning...
Jun 10, 2025•52 min
This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 14th May 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity. He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales. The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-pagan-witchcraft Gresham College has offered free publi...
Jun 06, 2025•45 min
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 civic identity and cultural values. From Machiavelli on Moses; to Rousseau on Solon, Lycurgus, and the need for a lawgiver to make a true social contract possible; to Nietzsche and his followers seeking a lawgiver who can be also poet and prophet, this lecture will explore the figure of the lawgiver and how it has been a center of debate in modern p...
Jun 03, 2025•44 min
Diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s are devastating neurological conditions that typically occur at old age and lead to systematic dementia and debilitating symptoms. The underlying mechanisms of these diseases are poorly understood. Yet, a striking feature of these conditions is the characteristic pattern of invasion throughout the brain, leading to well-codified disease stages associated with various cognitive deficits and pathologies. This lecture shows how mathematical modelling can ...
May 30, 2025•59 min
This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on 6th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Melissa Lane is Gresham Professor of Rhetoric. Melissa is also 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. Having previously held visiting appointments at Harvard,...
May 28, 2025•45 min
This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on 29th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Myles is the Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment. Myles is also is currently Director of the Oxford Net Zero initiative. He was awarded the Appleton Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics in 2010, and in 2022 a CBE for services to climate change attribution, prediction and net zero. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The transcript of the lecture is available from...
May 23, 2025•51 min
This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on 10th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London. Clive is the Gresham Professor of Law He is the founder and director of the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. He also teaches part time at Bristol Law School and Goldsmiths as well as running a summer programme for 35 students in Dorset, his home. He has received all kinds of awards in recognition of his work, including ...
May 22, 2025•46 min
This lecture was recorded by Alderman Alastair King on 14th April 2025 at Guildhall, London. Alastair King is the 696th Lord Mayor of the City of London His civic responsibilities began when he was first elected as Common Councillor for Queenhithe Ward in 1999 – giving him over 24 years’ uninterrupted service; he was appointed Deputy for the Ward in 2006and elected Alderman in 2016 – serving as Aldermanic Sheriff 2022-23. He sits on the Governing Bodies of the Bridewell Royal Hospital, the Samue...
May 22, 2025•57 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Y9JR7El863k Our alert systems for identifying safety and security threats have evolved over time. As the threat from wild animals diminished, the perceived threat from other humans increased. To defend our territories and our livelihoods, we began to gather intelligence on our enemies, in the hope that being forewarned would give us an advantage. This lecture explores our use of technologies that have allowed us to keep a closer watch, and the ing...
May 14, 2025•51 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/G_SpC_BV4jA In the late nineteenth century, Joseph Chamberlain transformed Birmingham with municipal enterprise and urban improvement, but in the last few years, local authorities have been facing serious financial difficulties, and some of the largest, such as Birmingham, have faced the equivalent of bankruptcy. This lecture will ask why British cities have lost the confident civic pride of the Victorian era and are now struggling to provide basi...
May 09, 2025•2 hr
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/qz9a4zXIFz0 The ancient Druids have long represented some of the most striking and controversial figures in ancient and medieval literature. In this lecture, we will look at the many different ways in which the modern imagination has been inspired by them, both as heroic ancestors and as demonic villains against whom civilisation can be defined. It traces the appearance of different kinds of Druidry as a part of Paganism, and suggests what the par...
May 06, 2025•55 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/PcNoOjT30VY Vaccination has changed the world, saving millions of lives and enabling us to eradicate a lethal disease for the first time in human history – not to mention their critical role in ending the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture explores how a vaccine actually works, why mRNA vaccines are truly groundbreaking and why we can’t simply vaccinate against everything. This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 26th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hal...
May 02, 2025•50 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/H8nG29pO_y4 Asteroids were for years considered 'celestial vermin' - objects which got in the way of more interesting fodder for astronomers. Now, they are central to our Solar System's story, representing the building blocks from which planets are made, and capable of telling us the history of the last five billion years. This lecture considers two missions - Lucy, which flies past asteroid Donald Johnson in April 2025, and OSIRIS-ReX, which rece...
Apr 28, 2025•47 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/-TsWDdeQK34 Composed by Jerry Herman of Hello, Dolly! fame, ‘I Am What I Am’ first appeared in the Broadway musical La Cage aux Folles (1983). As well as gaining importance as a gay anthem during the AIDS crisis, the song has gone on to become a hit for several Black divas including Gloria Gaynor and Shirley Bassey. This lecture was recorded by Dominic Broomfield-McHugh on 3rd of April 2025 at Conway Hall, London. Dominic Broomfield-McHugh is Gres...
Apr 25, 2025•45 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/9tcRtGh7hkM This lecture looks at debates and dialogues that characterise realist photography in Apartheid South Africa (1948-1994) examining the tensions between advocacy, propaganda and the ‘struggle’ on the one hand and the poetics of everyday life on the other. Figures from Ernest Cole and David Goldblatt to Zanele Muholi and Lebohang Kganye will be examined. This lecture was recorded by Tamar Garb on 25th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, Lon...
Apr 22, 2025•59 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/rKoYL4yrNsg Despite being cited as one of the most creative and influential guitarists of all time, and his tragically short life, Jimi Hendrix’s playing and composing are yet to be fully analysed. This lecture will demystify his diverse influences and reveal the full range of his extraordinary invention in terms of sonic sculpting, rhythmic feel, fretboard navigation, harmony, and composition. We explore this dazzling creativity from his early pl...
Apr 18, 2025•50 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/cjJSWgvHZKw This lecture puts forth the ethical and economic case for a basic income, enabling financial security and therefore a better quality of life for all. Financial insecurity affects one’s ability to make rational decisions – studies show it even lowers short-term IQ – making it even harder to improve one’s circumstances in the long run. Furthermore, unlike means-tested social assistance schemes like Universal Credit, a basic income does n...
Apr 15, 2025•35 min
Despite its quiet appearance, the brain is the seat of complicated wave dynamics. Indeed, cognitive processes are carried out through communications between neurons, leading to synchronisation and oscillations at different frequencies that can be recorded. Together, these oscillations also create waves that propagate through different regions. Apart from this electrical activity, the brain is also the siege of slow chemical waves that can cause migraine and mechanical waves arising from trauma. ...
Apr 11, 2025•56 min
The right to free expression is severely threatened in many places in the world, yet it has also never been so passionately defended. This lecture focuses on the recent history of banned literature. It considers the changing nature of literary censorship, arguments in defence of free expression, why literary writers have so frequently pushed the boundaries of the acceptable, and the impact of technology on censorship and free speech. This lecture was recorded by Rachel Potter on 12th March 2025 ...
Apr 04, 2025•46 min
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/0jSUfa0LQAo This lecture examines agency problems in various relationships, including between investors and fund managers, and within financial intermediaries. This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 3rd February 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Raghu is the Mercers School Memorial Professor of Business He is also the Sir Evelyn de Rothschild Professor of Finance at Cambridge Judge Business School. The transcript of the lecture is availa...
Apr 01, 2025•58 min
