Gresham College Lectures

The image of the speechwriter in televised programmes (such as The Thick of It, The West Wing or Yes Minister) is something of a puppeteer, a sinister figure operating in the shadows, malevolently manipulating our political masters. Simon Lancaster believes that the successful speechwriter is less of a puppeteer and more of an impressionist.

In his talk, he will share a number of stories and anecdotes from his time as speechwriter, setting out how he captures someone else’s authentic voice and what happens when it goes wrong.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speechwriting-creating-authenticity

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Ever since classical antiquity, poets and playwrights have written about famous heroes and anti-heroes, lovers and politicians. But they have also yearned for posthumous fame themselves. How do they achieve it?

This final lecture will show how Shakespeare helped to immortalize the famous figures of ancient Greece and Rome, and how he in turn became famous after his death – as the classics were to Shakespeare, so Shakespeare became a classic. He is our classic.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-fame

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

The image of the speechwriter in televised programmes (such as The Thick of It, The West Wing or Yes Minister) is something of a puppeteer, a sinister figure operating in the shadows, malevolently manipulating our political masters. Simon Lancaster believes that the successful speechwriter is less of a puppeteer and more of an impressionist.

In his talk, he will share a number of stories and anecdotes from his time as speechwriter, setting out how he captures someone else's authentic voice and what happens when it goes wrong.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/speechwriting-creating-authenticity

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

In our post-truth age, facts often don’t seem to meet the deepest human longings. So do we need to go against facts, or beyond them? What does the relatively new discipline of the cognitive science of religion, which suggests that human beings are naturally religious, have to say about our human future? And where does this instinct come from?

Recent psychological research has looked at the importance of meaning to human beings, and how this works out in core questions about the relation of science and faith.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/facts-matter-but-they-arent-enough-science-faith-and-meaning-in-life

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Lung disease, heart disease, stroke, dementia and learning difficulties have been associated with different forms of air pollution including gasses and particulate matter. It is a difficult policy area because there is an economic and social cost to tackling it, so there is a trade-off.

This lecture will consider the evidence for different forms of air pollution causing diseases, and outline some of the potential solutions.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/air-pollution-its-impact-on-health-and-possible-solutions

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Ever since classical antiquity, poets and playwrights have written about famous heroes and anti-heroes, lovers and politicians. But they have also yearned for posthumous fame themselves. How do they achieve it?

This final lecture will show how Shakespeare helped to immortalize the famous figures of ancient Greece and Rome, and how he in turn became famous after his death - as the classics were to Shakespeare, so Shakespeare became a classic. He is our classic.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/shakespeares-fame

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

In our post-truth age, facts often don't seem to meet the deepest human longings. So do we need to go against facts, or beyond them? What does the relatively new discipline of the cognitive science of religion, which suggests that human beings are naturally religious, have to say about our human future? And where does this instinct come from?

Recent psychological research has looked at the importance of meaning to human beings, and how this works out in core questions about the relation of science and faith.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/facts-matter-but-they-arent-enough-science-faith-and-meaning-in-life

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show

The reception of moving pictures in 1894–96 has been much mythologised. Were spectators really frightened of an approaching train? Did they imagine seeing their departed relatives reanimated on screen? How much attention was actually paid to this new phenomenon among so many contemporary novelties and wonders? Moving pictures may not have been the innovation once claimed, but within a decade few could doubt that they had become a major force in changing the Edwardian world.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/what-really-happened-at-the-first-moving-picture-shows

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (5 May 1818) and 150 years since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the lecture will explore the possible affinity between Marx’s work in human history and Darwin’s in natural history. Enthusiasm for Darwin was shared by successive generations of Communists but Marx’s conception of a ‘natural human being’ was different.

In the new political and intellectual climate, Marx viewed competition as a product, not of ‘the struggle for existence’, but of private property and commercial society.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/karl-marx-200-years-on

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (5 May 1818) and 150 years since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the lecture will explore the possible affinity between Marx's work in human history and Darwin's in natural history. Enthusiasm for Darwin was shared by successive generations of Communists but Marx's conception of a 'natural human being' was different.

In the new political and intellectual climate, Marx viewed competition as a product, not of 'the struggle for existence', but of private property and commercial society.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/karl-marx-200-years-on

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Support the show