One of the first executive orders issued by President Trump in January was EO 14164 designed to “restore the death penalty”, though actually aimed at far more (including making the prison conditions of those commuted by Biden reflect the “monstrosity” of their crimes). We will explore what this means for the 2,400 people on America’s death row, at the same time as reviewing the rising levels of innocent people being executed – my own ‘Post Mortem Project’ indicating that as many as 13 percent of those killed since 1976 have strong innocence cases. 

This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford-Smith on the 4th of December 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London

Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US national, the founder and director of  the Justice League a non-profit human rights training centre focused on fostering the next generation of advocates. 

He was the Senior Prefect at Radley College, where he studied maths and science; then a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he took a degree in Politics; and a Stone Merit Scholar each of his three years at Columbia Law School, graduating in 1984. 

He previously founded and directed the legal action charities Louisiana Capital Assistance Center (1993 in New Orleans) and Reprieve (1999 in London). Since 1984 he has tried many capital cases, and helped to represent over 400 people facing execution in the US and elsewhere. He also brought the first challenge to Guantánamo Bay, where he has secured the release of 85 detainees, and continues to assist the remaining 30.  In all five of the cases he has helped bring to the U.S. Supreme Court the petitioner has prevailed. 

He has recently taken on the case of Aafia Siddiqui, the woman who has most suffered from the US rendition-to-torture program – abducted with her three children. He continues to work on capital cases in the US, including a Post-Mortem Project where he is investigating the claims of innocence of 184 people executed since 1977.

Clive has published a number of books including Bad Men (2008, describing work in Guantánamo) and Injustice (2012, on the capital case of Kris Maharaj), both of which were short-listed for the Orwell Prize; and most recently The Far Side of the Moon (2023), deconstructing the parallel lives of his father and a client Larry Lonchar, both of whom were labelled Bipolar. He has many other publications, including manuals for the defence of capital cases, and law review articles about aspects of capital defence. He has worked on many films and documentaries, starting with Fourteen Days In May (1987), recently ranked as one of the top BBC documentaries of all time. 

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/trump-death

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During the fifty years since the launch of the Viking spacecraft to Mars, our view of the red planet has changed from hostile desert to a world which was once covered in water, and which may just possibly sustain life. Lavishly illustrated with the latest images from the fleet of spacecraft that have explored our neighbour, this lecture considers how Mars’ fate, like that of Earth, was set in the Solar System’s first billion years, and the chaotic environment the process of planet formation produced.

This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of December 2025 at Conway Hall, London

Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.

Having been educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College London, his research now ranges from understanding how galaxies form and evolve, to using machine learning to find the most unusual things in the Universe, to predicting the properties of visiting interstellar asteroids. He was the founder of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, which provides opportunities for more than two million online volunteers to contribute to scientific research, and which was the topic of his first book, 'The Crowd and the Cosmos’. His latest book is ‘Our Accidental Universe’.

Professor Lintott is best known for presenting the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program, and as an accomplished lecturer. Away from work, he cooks, suffers through being a fan of Torquay United and Somerset cricket, and spends time with a rescued lurcher, Mr Max. He can often be found at the helm of Oxford’s science comedy night, ‘Huh, That’s Funny’.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/mars-love

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today

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This lecture looks at the 'surreal' art of the Early Netherlandish painter Jheronimus Bosch within its historical and cultural context. Although Bosch’s terrifying visions of sin, death, and the hereafter may appear surreal today, especially his highly imaginative depictions of devils, they were tied to the religious attitudes and moralising texts of the period, such as the Ars moriendi, the Dance of Death, and Everyman. It is in this context that one should examine Bosch’s Haywain Triptych, Garden of Earthly Delights, and other works.

This lecture was recorded by Dr Sophie Oosterwijk FSA on the 10th of December 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.

Sophie is Vice President of The Church Monuments Society and was for many years editor of its journal Church Monuments. Born in Gouda (Netherlands), she is a recognised specialist in Early Netherlandish and Dutch art. After studying English at Leiden and Medieval Studies at York, she obtained two doctorates in Art History (Leicester) and English Literature (Leiden). She previously taught art history at the Universities of Leicester, Manchester and St Andrews.  

Since her return to the Netherlands, Sophie has been working as a freelance researcher and guest lecturer for the University of Cambridge, The Arts Society (formerly NADFAS), and other organisations. She has published widely, especially on death, the danse macabre and commemorative art. Her latest book, a co-edited volume entitled Writing, Dancing and Performing Death across Late Medieval Europe, is due to be published by Brill in 2025. 

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/hieronymus

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Hecate started as the ruling goddess of the Asian region of Caria, and got taken over by the Greeks as the only one able to operate in every realm of the cosmos. This then gave her special responsibility for travellers, doorways and restless ghosts. That slowly darkened her image, so that she became associated with the night, the moon, and magicians. By the Roman period, she was the goddess of sorcery par excellence, invoked for all sorts of enchantments, good or bad. In the late ancient worlds this also turned her into a saviour figure, enabling humans directly to contact the divine. This lecture traces that colourful journey.

This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 26th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London

Professor Hutton is Professor of History at the University of Bristol. He took degrees at Cambridge and then Oxford Universities, and was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He is now a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales, and has won awards for teaching and research.

He has lectured all over the world, authored twenty books and ninety-six essays, appeared in or presented scores of television and radio programmes, and sits on the editorial boards of six journals concerned with the history of religion and magic.

He is currently working on the third volume of his biography of Oliver Cromwell. 

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/goddess-hecate

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today

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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 people. He highlights what China’s new de facto state ideology Xi Jinping Thought is in order to explain systematically Xi’s domestic and global ambitions. In short, what Xi seeks to do is to forge one country, one people, one ideology, one party and one leader’ to make China great again or to accomplish the China Dream of national rejuvenation.

This lecture was recorded by Professor Steve Tsang on the 27th of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.

Steve Tsang is Professor of China Studies and Director of the China Institute, SOAS, London. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford. 

He previously served as the Head of the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies and as Director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.  Before that he spent 29 years at Oxford University, where he earned his D.Phil. and worked as a Professorial Fellow, Dean, and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St Antony’s College. 

He has a broad area of research interest and has published extensively, including five single authored and fourteen collaborative books.  His latest (with Olivia Cheung) is The Political Thought of Xi Jinping (Oxford University Press, 2024).  He is currently completing a new book, ‘China’s Global Strategy under Xi Jinping’, which will be published by OUP in 2026. 

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/china-future

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/

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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 difficult times. There are simple and positive options to be followed. Not just a will and lasting power of attorney, but simple steps to being independent longer, staying at home longer and enjoying life longer. A little thought now, and hopefully with discussion with family members, will provide reassurance and peace of mind for all.

This lecture was recorded by Sir Peter Thornton KC on the 17th of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.

His Honour Sir Peter Thornton KC was a practising barrister in criminal and human rights law, a QC (now KC), founder member and head of Doughty Street Chambers in London, a Senior Circuit Judge at the Old Bailey (the Central Criminal Court) and judge in the High Court and Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).   

Sir Peter was the first Chief Coroner of England and Wales.   

He is now a Visiting Professor at King’s College London (where he teaches a course, Death investigation: coroners and inquests), a member of the Independent Expert Panel of the House of Commons, and an international trainer of coroners and judges with the Civil Service College, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Slynn Foundation.  

His latest book is The Later Years: The simple guide to organising the rest of your life (Bedford Square Publishers, 2025). He also conducts workshops on Life and lifestyle in the later years.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/later-years

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/

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Laughter is an incredibly powerful and yet mysterious emotion. We laugh with delight, but also surprise. We laugh at jokes, but also at embarrassment. Why? What subconscious signal is laughter intended to display? Why do we laugh when someone tickles us and what should we make of the fact that rodents do it too? And why is it that people’s sense of humour differs wildly and yet some drugs can send us all into fits of the giggles, even if there is nothing to laugh at?

This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 12th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London

Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA). 

Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020. 

Professor May continues his work on Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham. A Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Wolfson Royal Society Research Merit Fellow and Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Professor May specialises in research into human infectious diseases, with a particular focus on how pathogens survive and replicate within host organisms.

As the FSA’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor May provides expert scientific advice to the UK government and plays a critical role in helping to understand how scientific developments will shape the work of the FSA, as well as the strategic implications of any possible changes.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/why-laugh

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today

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Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Lv5h-Pp1r6s

Looking at the plant world, one discovers beautiful and fascinating structures in the shape and arrangement of leaves, stems and roots. Some are simple and symmetric, other features are arranged in elegant Fibonacci spirals, yet others exhibit fractal-like patterns. How are these structures created with such regularity and reproducibility? Such arrangements often follow simple rules that we can fully understand mathematically.

This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on 11th November 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.

Professor Alain Goriely FRS is Gresham Professor of Geometry.

He is also a mathematician known for dynamical systems, mathematical biology, and mechanics. He developed the mathematical theory of biological growth and is Director of the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. His work spans plant tendrils, seashells, umbilical cords, brain modelling, and applied mathematics outreach.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/shape-plants

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/

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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 say anything meaningful to each other. AI is not like us; the only way we can have a relationship with it is for us to become like it. We will look at how digital services are already making us machine-like; and, we explore how advanced AI-human fusions may undo our essential “humanness”.

This lecture was recorded by Matt Jones on the 25rd of November 2025 at Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.

Matt Jones is a computer scientist at Swansea University - and a Fellow of the British Computer Society - who works alongside colleagues from many other disciplines and directly with everyday folk across the world to explore the future of digital technologies. Over the last 30-plus years, this human-centred approach has led to novel approaches for, amongst other things,  mobile phone-based information searching and browsing, pedestrian navigation, voice assistants and deformable displays.  

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/ai-assimilation

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/

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Limitarianism holds that it is immoral to have personal wealth above a certain level. Is this idea compatible with capitalism? Defenders of capitalism have argued that it is not, whereas those who want to move beyond capitalism have urged defenders of limitarianism to clear up this issue. This lecture argues that limitarianism is compatible with some forms of capitalism, and that it would help the debate about the most desirable socio-economic system if we provide more clarity on how these concepts are used.

This lecture was recorded by Professor Ingrid Robeyns on the 5th of November 2025 at Bernard’s Inn Hall, London

Professor Ingrid Robeyns works on issues in contemporary political philosophy and applied ethics, and holds the Chair in Ethics of Institutions at the Ethics Institute of Utrecht University. She specialises in applied and "non-ideal" ethics, interdisciplinary research, and developing normative frameworks and methods. Additionally, she is affiliated as a visiting professor at the Center for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE.

The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/limitarianism

Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today
 
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