PODCAST · society
Gresham College
by Gresham College
Gresham College was founded in 1597 and has been providing free lectures in the City of London for over 400 years. This four-century-old tradition continues today with three or more lectures a week available to watch on YouTube and our website. Gresham College is able to continue to offer free public lectures thanks to the generosity of our supporters. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/support/ Links: Support us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Twitter: https://twitter.com/gre
Episodes
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Human Livelihoods Depend on Wild Flowers: Kew's Millennium Seed Bank explained - Dr Robin Probert
In this talk Dr Robin Probert explains why human livelihoods depend so much on wild plant diversity. He outlines the current threats to wild plants across the globe and how Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership works to conserve plants and make seeds available for habitat repair, re-introduction...
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The Intertwined Impacts of Pollution and Inequality on Health
Pollution is a much more complex problem than many realise and cannot be resolved solely through global and regional agreements. Pollution is closely connected with behavioural and technology choices, production and consumption practices, industrial processes and pricing policies, financial and...
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Thomas Becket and London
'St Thomas has adorned…London by his rising and Canterbury by his setting'. Uploaded 11-06-26This lecture will explore how the influence of Thomas Becket permeated city life in medieval London until Henry VIII ordered the destruction of his shrine and the removal of his name from all liturgical...
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Can Gender Equality Help Solve Climate Change?
Is gender equality a key factor in tackling climate change? Many think so, and in this lecture Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will explain why in relation to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 is to 'achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls'. Uploaded 11-06-26When women…
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Darwin, Breeding and Barnacles
Following the Beagle voyage, Darwin settled down to a quiet married life, relying on correspondence to gather facts. Uploaded 11-06-26He wrote thousands of letters as he gathered facts to support his still-secret theory. Long before anyone had heard of evolution, Darwin produced four enormous…
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The Last Mile: Ensuring Access to Affordable Energy to Poor, Rural Communities
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? Uploaded 11-06-26Environment Professor Jacqueline McGlade will examine how renewable energy systems, ranging from large-scale hydroelectric dams…
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Political Spending on the Internet
FULBRIGHT LECTUREUploaded 10-06-26Government officials in the UK and the USA have struggled to find effective ways to regulate political spending on the internet. The question of appropriate regulation is challenging - both in practice and principle. Professor Ringhand discusses how officials in...
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The Postmodern Detective: Contemporary London Crime Fiction - Dr Jenny Bavidge
The urban detective has traditionally been a figure supremely able to penetrate the mysteries of the city, yet set apart from the populace he protects. Have recent London crime stories abandoned their confidence in the interpretative abilities of the detective? Can we still believe in omniscient...
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Trading Places and Travelling: Musical Legacies of the Hanseatic League - Dr Geoffrey Webber
The cities of Northern Europe developed their trading links with our own City of London. An important by product of their economic success was the flowering of culture in all these cities and their attraction of talent from other places.Uploaded 03-08-12The transcript and downloadable versions of...
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500 Years of Mathematics: Are We Living in a New Golden Age?
Much has happened in the 500 years since the birth of Thomas Gresham, and mathematics is no exception. Most mathematicians were then in awe of the Greeks and felt little had been done since. But the start of modern mathematics soon followed, marked by the solution of the cubic equation.…
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The life and legacy of Dr Edward Jenner FRS, pioneer of vaccination - Dr Tim Wallington
Known to many as "the father of immunology", Edward Jenner changed the path of world history on the 14th of May 1796 when he inoculated his gardener's 8-year-old son with cow pox, subsequently demonstrating that this induced immunity to smallpox by challenging him with smallpox infected material....
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Parliament and the Public: Strangers or Friends? - The Rt Hon John Bercow
How can the House of Commons engage more effectively with the public which it serves? Can modern technology assist this enterprise?Uploaded 24-07-12The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College...
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A History of the Breast
There has been a great deal of research on breast cancer, surgery, and implants. This lecture looks at changing ideas about the healthy breast. It explores notions of beauty, sexual pleasure, and age. Early maturation of girls, coupled with a greater focus on the breasts of older women, have had...
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Infections of the Abdominal Organs
Our gut is permanently full of large numbers of bacteria and other organisms but serious infections relatively rarely occur due to its extraordinary immune system. Infections of these organs can, however, occur in specific situations. Specialised bacteria and parasites can damage the gut or its...
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The Meaning, Value and Sanctity of Human Life
Recent advances in medical science have brought complex ethical dilemmas, particularly around the beginning of human lives (abortion, embryo research, IVF, gene therapy, stem cells) and its ending (switching off ventilators, persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 'dying with dignity' or assisted...
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Whatever Turns You On - Professor Glenn D. Wilson
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/citius-altius-fortius-records-medals-and-drug-takingUploaded 27-02-12Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition...
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Does The State Really Care When It Kills You?
This lecture will focus on human rights and the wrongs of unexpected and/or sudden deaths in which the state is implicated.Uploaded 11-06-26It will cover the importance of a proper death investigation, the impact on the family and state, how Magna Carta influences death investigations 800 years…
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Maeterlinck's Golaud: Between Shakespearean 'Sadism' and Emersonian Disquiet - François de Médicis
As title roles of both Maurice Maeterlinck's play and Claude Debussy's opera, Pelléas and Mélisande tend to monopolize the spotlight in most commentary. Nonetheless, major studies have demonstrated the centrality of Golaud and the unusual dramatic function of the violence he deploys, which...
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What Makes a Good Regulator? - Dame Suzi Leather
In the popular press, regulators tend to be portrayed as either hopelessly weak or as having assumed too much power. This is a natural outcome of their lying at the centre of one of the most profound political questions going: where, in a democracy, should the correct balance lie between freedom...
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Remember Me: Pachelbel, Purcell and Fauré - Professor Christopher Hogwood
An analysis of what makes the following music masterpieces: Pachelbel's Canon, Purcell's Dido's Lament, and Fauré's Violin Sonata.Uploaded 17-01-12Memorability is sometimes achieved by the simple technique of repetition, in addition to more high-flown inspiration. Some of the simplest sustaining...
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The Psychology of Politics - Professor Glenn D Wilson
Political affiliations reflect social class and upbringing but personality factors also contribute, including genetically determined traits like fear of uncertainty and novelty-seeking. Extreme positions may stem from dogmatism, hostility and intolerance of ambiguity.Uploaded 17-01-12The…
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Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1932) was more a personal than a political drama. All was well for the first two years after the opera's première in 1934, but shortly after Stalin went to a performance, it was vigorously condemned in the state press. The pretext was the opera's music, but it is more...
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Dumbing down or sharpening up? The Church's abandonment of the King James Version
Revd Colin Sedgwick urges a critical reconsideration of the place of the King James Bible within modern Christianity. Is its stylistic or literary merit upheld at the cost of accessibility or intelligibility? What are the alternatives?Uploaded 17-10-11The transcript and downloadable versions of…
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What has the City ever done for us? - The Lord Mayor of London, David Wootton
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Mayor, Alderman David Wootton, examines the role, contribution and connections of the City and business - fundamental elements of our community.Uploaded 25-07-12The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College...
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'Secrets and Lies' or the Truth about Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande - Katherine Bergeron
Katherine Bergeron focuses her attention on the last act of Pelléas. The narrative incongruities that surface in the unbroken final scene become the basis for a broader exploration of the question of truth (la vérité) that the opera itself raises.Uploaded 16-08-12This is a part of the conference,...
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Does Finance Benefit Society?
Since the financial crisis, there has been a strong view that the financial sector has little benefit for society. The stock market is not a net supplier of capital - as much money is spent on share buybacks as is raised from new issuance. Moreover, most stock market trading is speculative...
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Cruelty to Animals
Understanding changing relationships between human and non-human animals is central to our world today. Uploaded 10-06-26This lecture starts by looking at early-modern understandings of the nature of 'animal' and 'human' life, before turning to the rise of 'rights of animals'. It concludes by...
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Literary London Crime: The Dark Eyes of London - Cathi Unsworth
London is a city of secrets, a shifting, seething mass of intrigue, venality and violence, in constant cultural flux. The perfect setting for crime fiction - but how does the modern writer decode this centuries' old conurbation?Uploaded 26-07-12Cathi Unsworth investigates those authors who haunt...
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Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery
We all need experts for things we can't do ourselves. And we are all on a path to becoming expert ourselves, whatever our areas of interest. But what does it mean to be expert? Uploaded 11-06-26In his new book Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery (Viking Penguin, 2020), Roger Kneebone…
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Mining Volcanoes: Diamonds, Copper and Hot Water
Volcanoes provide many natural resources from which society can benefit. Diamonds and most of the world's copper are mined from eroded extinct volcanoes while many active volcanoes offer the possibility of extracting huge amounts of geothermal energy. The volcanic processes that transport…
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The City of London - Culture, Creativity and the Culture Mile
The 2020 Annual Lord Mayor's Gresham event will explore the value of culture for The City of London.Uploaded 10-06-26The City of London is not only a great place to do business but also has a rich and vibrant cultural offer making it a great place to live, learn, work and visit. It is home to a...
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A History of the Foot
The science of feet and footprints has a long, yet often forgotten, history. Uploaded 11-06-26In 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...
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Claude Debussy Concert - Sophie Bevan (soprano) and Sebastian Wybrew (piano)
A recital of the songs of Claude Debussy, by Alumni of the Royal College of Music: Sophie Bevan (soprano) and Sebastian Wybrew (piano). Pieces performed, with the poets used for the text by Debussy, include the following:Uploaded 17-08-12Stéphane Mallarmé (1842--1898)ApparitionTrois poèmes de...
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Berlioz's Requiem: The Grande Messe des Morts and the Absence of God - David Cairns
David Cairns delivers this lecture on Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts Op. 5 (Requiem), ahead of the City of London Festival performance of the piece by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Colin Davis, which took place at St. Paul's Cathedral.Uploaded 27-07-12The transcript...
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Ongoing Translations of the Bible: Ancient and Modern - David Ford
Professor David Ford presents his research into the hermeneutics of Bible translation, as a part of the symposium marking the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible.Uploaded 17-10-11The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the full conference's...
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The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820: A Study in Terrorism
Two hundred years ago a group of conspirators assembled in a Cato Street stable in order to plan the massacre of the whole British cabinet at dinner and bring about revolution. Had they succeeded they would have achieved modern Britain's first terrorist atrocity. They were, however, moved by…
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Arise, Sir Isaac! Newton's London career
During the last thirty years of his life, Isaac Newton lived in London, where as head of the Royal Mint he moved in wealthy aristocratic circles, exerted substantial political influence, and profited financially from imperial trade and exploitation. To illustrate these themes, this lecture…
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Art and Power in the English Aristocratic House
The English Aristocracy is often seen as a rural elite concentrating its patronage of art and architecture in the countryside. Uploaded 10-06-26This lecture questions this view and shows how, from the sixteenth century, aristocratic families deployed their collections and commissioned their...
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Can Machines Be Conscious, and Would It Matter If They Were?
The question "Will AI artefacts ever be conscious?" was raised by Turing seventy years ago, and will not go away even though no one quite knows what it means, nor how we would know they were conscious if they were. Uploaded 10-06-26This lecture explores what its role might be, and the ways in…
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Resonances of Baudelaire in Debussy's Piano Music - Roy Howat
Roy Howat considers two Debussy piano pieces, "Les sons et les parfums" of 1910 and "Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon" of 1917, whose titles come from within Baudelaire poems Debussy set in 1889 ('Le balcon' and 'Harmonie du soir'). Like 'Clair de lune' and 'La fille aux cheveux de…
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Srebrenica: the New Evidence
2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and the Dayton Accords resolution of the first two (Croatia and Bosnia) of the three Balkan wars of the 1990s. Uploaded 11-06-26In examining the legacy of this conflict, Professor Nice will consider documents newly-released by the UK and…
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Brexit and the Future of Britain
At the time of writing, it appears that Britain will leave the European Union on 29th March at 11 pm British time, 12 midnight Continental time. How will Britain fare outside the European Union? And how will Brexit affect British politics? Will the Britain of 2020 become like the Britain of 1972,...
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The Pursuit of Happiness - Professor Glenn D Wilson
What makes us happy? Is it a genetic trait that we are stuck with, or a product of events unfolding in our living? Does it help to be rich? What can be done to overcome set-backs and and improve our sense of well being?Uploaded 14-11-11The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are...
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Reflections on the New Edition of Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande' - Professor David Grayson
Critical editing must of necessity concern itself with facts, many thousands of them, but the edition that is its object must be based on an understanding of the work itself, an understanding that may evolve during the editorial process. In this lecture, Professor David Grayson discusses some of...
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Improvising Medicine
Few patients like to think of their physicians or surgeons as improvisers. Yet clinical care is a human art where there will always be uncertainty. Though doctors spend years learning facts and gaining skills, each patient is unique and every situation holds surprises. Musicians also spend years…
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Maths and Sport: Strength and Power - Professor John D. Barrow
Top athletes seem to get bigger and bigger. How does size affect performance? Why do some sports have weight categories while others don't? What types of lever are employed in sports events like gymnastics and wrestling and how much force does a karate blow need to exert to break a brick? These…
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Vision and Values in a Volatile World - Professors Michael Mainelli and Ken Costa
We live in volatile times, as the Arab Spring and August riots in London have demonstrated. Professor Costa's lecture outlines an ethics of business best suited to dealing with this situation, an approach based on a morality of visions and values.The lecture was delivered by Professor Michael...
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How Will We Learn Maths in the Future?
Mathematics education is changing rapidly and a big driver for this is the use of new technology. In particular the widespread use of computers has transformed the way that we do mathematics, with computers not only able to mark exam papers, but also to do the algebra required to answer the...
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Debussy and the Independent Art Bookshop - Denis Herlin
In July 1893, a score for voice and piano of Debussy's La Damoiselle élue was published, with a decorative cover illustrated by Maurice Denis. The publisher of this editorial masterpiece was not, however, part of the music publishing world. It was published, in fact, by the composer and occultist...
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What Medicine Can Learn from Restaurants about Care
Medical care often frames patients as the passive 'recipients' of expert professional knowledge and skill. Uploaded 11-06-26This lecture explores what comes into view if we reframe clinical treatment as hospitality, and patients as guests. Drawing on collaborations with leading restaurants and...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Gresham College was founded in 1597 and has been providing free lectures in the City of London for over 400 years.
This four-century-old tradition continues today with three or more lectures a week available to watch on YouTube and our website.
Gresham College is able to continue to offer free public lectures thanks to the generosity of our supporters. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/support/
Links: Support us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Twitter: https://twitter.com/gre
HOSTED BY
Gresham College
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Gresham College currently has 317 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Gresham College was founded in 1597 and has been providing free lectures in the City of London for over 400 years. This four-century-old tradition continues today with three or more lectures a week available to watch on YouTube and our website. Gresham College is able to continue to offer free...
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