Gresham College Lectures

Recent studies from around the world show insects are disappearing fast. If this continues, this will have profound consequences for mankind and for our planet, for insects provide a myriad of vital ‘ecosystem services’, such as pollination, pest control, decomposition and recycling. 

This lecture looks at the causes of this crisis, at possible solutions including more sustainable farming systems, and at what we can do individually to create insect-friendly habitats.

A lecture by David Goulson

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

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

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Early Protestant empires in Asia – in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Taiwan and elsewhere – brought missionaries with them. Like their Catholic predecessors, they learned that winning converts was formidably difficult, especially in empires that were principally commercial. 

As this lecture will show, some concluded that the effort was futile; others grew increasingly coercive; but others still began to explore ways of learning from and with indigenous peoples. The results, for good or ill, set patterns that still affect the region today.

A lecture by Alec Ryrie

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

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

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England’s earliest chair of mathematics was that of Gresham College, founded in 1597, but who came next? 

The earliest University-based mathematics professorship was Oxford’s Savilian Chair of Geometry, founded in 1619. 

This illustrated lecture outlines the 400-year history of this Chair, from its beginnings to the present day, and features such figures as Henry Briggs, John Wallis, Edmond Halley, James Joseph Sylvester and G. H. Hardy.

A lecture by Robin Wilson

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

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

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It seems that fakes are everywhere – very few domains of social life are exempt from concerns about fakes and a general ‘crisis of authenticity’. While fakes are often considered worthless, this talk argues that fakes can signal blind spots in our understanding of health-related matters. 

This lecture draws on examples from the art world and discussion of fakes in films and what these can tell us about fakes in domains of health and medicine.

A lecture by Dr Patricia Kingori

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

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

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In this lecture we are going to look at how the supply chains in a wellbeing economy bring together local production of food and stewardship of nature. This approach, already followed by many indigenous peoples, has the potential to radically reshape supply chains across the world. 

Using examples from all around the world, the lecture will explore how placing nature’s value at the centre of production creates greater equality as well as resilience in the global food system.

A lecture by Jacqueline McGlade

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

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

As we build on the economic recovery from COVID-19, we need to put our people and our purpose at the heart of financial and professional services to rebuild a more sustainable and inclusive economy - investing in better.

Capitalising on client, customer and consumer demand for purpose driven businesses, the Lord Mayor’s Gresham Lecture 2022 will look at how we drive positive impact across the economy, driving sustainable finance and encourage more capital to contribute towards the UN’s SDGs through a vibrant impact investing market.

A lecture by The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Tony Burdon, Sir Ronald Cohen and Dame Elizabeth Corley

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/lord-mayor-22

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

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The tribulations of WWII (the “Great Patriotic War”) prompted a temporary liberalisation within Soviet culture. Images of horror and grief, formerly unacceptable, found their way into the wartime music of Soviet composers. The debate over Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony showed how the boundaries of Socialist Realism could be stretched, but also where the limits lay. 

The lecture will also discuss some works on Jewish themes (by Shostakovich, Weinberg and Gnessin) and their complex connection to the War and to the Holocaust.

A lecture by Marina Frolova-Walker

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

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

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Conic sections – the curves made by slicing through cones at various angles – were studied by the ancient Greeks, but because of their useful properties, have many real-world uses. Planets have elliptical orbits, projectiles move in parabolas, and cooling towers have hyperbolic cross-sections. But did you know that one of the most important curves in economics is a hyperbola? Or that ellipses are used to cure kidney stones?

A lecture by Sarah Hart

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

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

‘Hyper-globalisation’ and the power of finance culminated in the global financial crisis of 2008 that was potentially as severe as the Great Depression. The outcome was not public spending but austerity that hit the poor and Quantitative Easing that benefited the assets of the rich. The result was inequality and precarity, with barely any improvement in the standard of living for most by the time Covid hit. What signs are there of a much-needed transformation in attitudes to the economy?

A lecture by Martin Daunton

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

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

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Integral transforms are the most rarefied of analyses – only used by a subset of engineers and computer scientists; laboured over by many an undergraduate, usually with the accompanying moans; yet every computer, every electronic circuit is an incomprehensible jumble of wires without knowledge of integral transforms. 

The most common, the Fourier transform, is estimated to be the algorithm that is most computed in the world but what of Laplace and z-transforms? 

This lecture will explain without using daunting mathematics.

A lecture by Richard Harvey

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

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