Gresham College Lectures

A singer in a church of 450-650 was generally appointed in the same way as a gravedigger - too lowly to demand the bishop's attention. While the task of selecting a reader required the bishop to hear reports of the candidate's reputation for honest living and a presentation in a public ceremony, a singer who was often charged to voice the same divine words but in song could be admitted without any references or any codified rite of induction. Yet arrangements were increasingly made to school singers in the great metropolitan churches of the West, as will be demonstrated.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/schooling-singers-in-the-cathedrals

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 essence of life as we know it was produced in the first three minutes after the beginning of the universe. By this, I mean the stuff that we and the Earth are made of, particles of matter that we call baryons. But well before the baryons were created, the universe began from virtually nothing. There was empty space, and time, but no more. Yet within instants, thanks to the occurrence of quantum fluctuations, it attained its huge size, homogeneity and isotropy. The universe is enormous, it is relatively uniform when we smooth over the galaxies, and it looks the same in all directions. More remarkably, during this enormous inflation of space, the universe very early on developed the seeds from which all structure eventually formed.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-three-minutes-of-creation

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

Dickens is often credited with virtually inventing Christmas as we now know it and is in any case strongly identified with this festival. This is primarily owing to the immense and enduring popularity of his first ‘Christmas Book’, A Christmas Carol. In Prose (1843), but his subsequent seasonal offerings during the following quarter-century also contributed to this result. In this lecture I shall be looking at both contemporary and later responses to Dickens’s Christmas writings, and considering the extent to which he can be seen as the creator of the modern Christmas.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-founder-of-the-feast-dickens-and-christmas

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

Amongst all his astronomical allusions, Shakespeare demonstrates a deep knowledge of the night sky and its movements. Although he gives the conventional view of his age that astronomical events offer portents for human affairs, his characters sometimes take a sceptical view, and there are hints that he was aware of the new Copernican world-view that was taking hold during his lifetime. The lecture will be illustrated with quotations from Shakespeare’s plays. This lecture also marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 1616.

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

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

A singer in a church of 450-650 was generally appointed in the same way as a gravedigger - too lowly to demand the bishop's attention. While the task of selecting a reader required the bishop to hear reports of the candidate's reputation for honest living and a presentation in a public ceremony, a singer who was often charged to voice the same divine words but in song could be admitted without any references or any codified rite of induction. Yet arrangements were increasingly made to school singers in the great metropolitan churches of the West, as will be demonstrated.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/schooling-singers-in-the-cathedrals

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

FULBRIGHT LECTURE

In 1853, the German Physiologist Eduard Pflüger published the first in a series of startling experiments on living, decapitated frogs. He elicited behaviours in these compromised animals that seemed more than just reflexive - the behaviours seemed purposive. An ensuing controversy over whether these frogs could be considered genuinely conscious pitted the English polymath G.H. Lewes against T.H. Huxley. Their debate curiously intertwined empirical with a priori philosophical concerns, concerns which we will try to tease apart.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-curious-case-of-the-decapitated-frog

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 one built environment issue on which there is political consensus is an urgent need to build more houses. For many, especially in historic towns and villages, this has raised huge opposition. The housebuilders are branded vandals; their opponents NIMBYS. Heritage legislation was not designed to assess and control volume house building and many feel that what is proposed will destroy hundreds of years of history. Housebuilding and heritage can be reconciled, but at the moment far too few local authorities know how to do it.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/tough-choices-heritage-or-housing

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 essence of life as we know it was produced in the first three minutes after the beginning of the universe. By this, I mean the stuff that we and the Earth are made of, particles of matter that we call baryons. But well before the baryons were created, the universe began from virtually nothing. There was empty space, and time, but no more. Yet within instants, thanks to the occurrence of quantum fluctuations, it attained its huge size, homogeneity and isotropy. The universe is enormous, it is relatively uniform when we smooth over the galaxies, and it looks the same in all directions. More remarkably, during this enormous inflation of space, the universe very early on developed the seeds from which all structure eventually formed.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-first-three-minutes-of-creation

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

When should intervention take place to safeguard a child? Areas where harm may arise include children at risk of being radicalised; parents promoting terrorism; or planning or being groomed to travel to Syria (with or without their parents). But removal is not a ‘risk free’ option since it may appear to be victimisation; reinforce a perception of ‘them and us’; or radicalise those who were previously uninvolved. Emerging law and practice in this area will be examined.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/is-one-individuals-radicalism-anothers-right-to-free-speech

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

Dickens is often credited with virtually inventing Christmas as we now know it and is in any case strongly identified with this festival. This is primarily owing to the immense and enduring popularity of his first 'Christmas Book', A Christmas Carol. In Prose (1843), but his subsequent seasonal offerings during the following quarter-century also contributed to this result. In this lecture I shall be looking at both contemporary and later responses to Dickens's Christmas writings, and considering the extent to which he can be seen as the creator of the modern Christmas.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-founder-of-the-feast-dickens-and-christmas

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