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PODCAST

Gresham College Lectures

Gresham College

Gresham College has been providing free public lectures since 1597, making us London"s oldest higher education institution. This podcast offers our recorded lectures that are free to access from the Gresham College website, or our YouTube channel.

education

All Episodes

59:40

First light: Revealing the Early Universe - Chris...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/07/02

The final lecture in the series returns to the theme of how insight is derived from observations, considering the cosmic microwave background.This oldest light in the Universe, emitted just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, contains the seeds of the structures we see around us, and tells us about conditions at the Universe's beginning.It will also consider how measurements of the Universe's expansion, made using the CMB, are leading to unexpected results, creating tension in modern

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70:54

Race, Disability & Education: Law's Uphill Battle -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/24

This lecture traces the history of race and disability law in the English education system. It examines the impact of discriminatory policies on Black children, children of colour, and disabled children, and how narratives around race and disability have changed.The lecture questions why inequality persists and explores possible solutions.This lecture was recorded by Leslie Thomas KC on 23rd May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, LondonThe transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham

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52:24

Logarithms: Mobile Phones, Modelling & Statistics?

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/20

Logarithms were perhaps once thought of as just an old-fashioned way to do sums on slide rules. But they underpin much of modern life, from modelling the COVID pandemic to Claude Shannon’s mathematical theory of information (which makes mobile phones a reality) and making sense of Cristiano Ronaldo’s crazy Instagram follower numbers.This lecture will explore the basics and history of logarithms, and then show how they are a natural way to represent many models and datasets.This lecture was recorded

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59:16

A Just and Inclusive Net Zero: Who should get there...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/17

Eventually, net zero needs to include everyone: for emissions to continue in half the world while the other half mops them up is both unsustainable and unfair. But this does not mean every country should reach net zero at the same time.Historical emitters like the UK should aim for net zero before the world as a whole, but a “staggered net zero” also carries risks for developing countries, lest they are left stranded in the race to a sustainable future.This lecture was recorded by Myles Allen on

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61:22

Asymmetric Information in Finance Explained -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/14

In every financial transaction, one side has more information than the other. For example, when someone buys a used car, the seller will know better than the buyer whether the car is a plum or a lemon. Does more information leave you better off?One of the fascinating ideas behind the concept of asymmetric information is that more information can lead to you being actually worse off.This lecture was recorded by Raghavendra Rau on 20th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, LondonThe transcript of the

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67:28

Is Music Infinite? - Milton Mermikides

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/12

This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any

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58:58

Twentieth-Century Divas: Julie Andrews - Dominic...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/06

Starring in My Fair Lady (1956), The Sound of Music (1965) and Cinderella (1957) gave Dame Julie Andrews unparalleled profile.These were among the most successful Broadway, Hollywood and TV musicals of their time. Yet following this golden decade, she made few films and appeared in no Broadway shows during her forties and fifties, typically an artist’s most productive period.How did she then become one of the most revered female stars of the late twentieth century?This lecture was recorded by

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54:31

Health after Extreme Cold, Heat, Storms and Floods -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/06/03

Weather and climate-related events can cause significant mortality and disability.Sudden cold, heat, storms and floods all present risks to health, especially to the most vulnerable. Even in countries with temperate climates like the UK, weather-related deaths can be in the thousands, for example cold snaps causing cardiovascular deaths. In countries with more extreme weather this can be much greater. Some can cause major social disruption.This lecture considers how weather events cause harm to

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63:37

How to Prove 1=0, And Other Maths Illusions - Sarah Hart

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/30

In this lecture I will show you some mathematical illusions: “proofs” that 1=0, that fractions don’t exist, and more. There are curious and important implications behind what’s going on.These “proofs” reveal some very common logical slips that can go unnoticed when we are trying to prove more plausible statements. And the stakes are high. As I’ll show you, once you have “proved” one false claim, you can prove absolutely any statement at all.This lecture was recorded by Sarah Hart on 14th May 2024 at

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60:07

Evolution Tomorrow and Beyond - Robin May

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/29

Evolution has led from amoebae to blue whales and from algae to giant redwoods. So what might it do in the future? What species might evolve in the next ten million years? How will evolutionary processes change as a result of human innovation and what are the risks of us getting it disastrously wrong? What might evolution look like if we ever set up home on another planet, or if inhabitants of other planets arrive here?This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 8th May 2024 at Barnard's Inn

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63:34

The Next Fifty Years of Tech - Dr Victoria Baines

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/28

Come take a ride in the Tech Time Machine and explore how IT may change our lives in the next fifty years. By employing techniques used by science fiction writers, we can imagine how Artificial Intelligence, extended reality, mobile connectivity, quantum computing, and others will develop.How will they converge, enable and accelerate each other? We can anticipate the opportunities and challenges technology may bring. Why should we fear disruption? Should we instead embrace it?This lecture was

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57:05

Musical Consonance and Dissonance: The Good, Bad and...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/24

What makes a piece of music challenging, bland, intriguing, beautiful or ugly?This lecture explores the concept of ‘musical flavour’ formed by intervallic, rhythmic and timbral components and how they contribute to a sense of consonance and dissonance.In particular we look at the interval vector, a system by which harmonic objects are analysed as a series of ‘handshakes’ between pitches, providing a measure of harmonic ‘bite’. The ‘Hendrix chord’ is used as a case study of such harmonic flavour.This

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65:22

Is it Aliens? The Most Unusual Star In The Galaxy -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/22

Boyajian's star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers' attention when it began to flicker alarmingly.We will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe.For this task, the involvement of large numbers of volunteers - citizen scientists - is essential, for example via the Zooniverse platform, which invites

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65:58

The Western Magical Tradition - Ronald Hutton

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/20

This lecture makes a survey of learned ceremonial magic in Europe throughout history and demonstrates that both of the customary claims made for it by practitioners since the Middle Ages are actually correct: that there is a continuous tradition of it and that it is ultimately derived from ancient Egypt.In doing so, it also shows what is distinctive about Western magic.This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 24th April 2024 at Barnard's Inn Hall, LondonThe transcript and downloadable

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56:45

Locating Queer History - Matt Cook

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/17

Queer urban life has changed dramatically in England over the last seventy years. Shifts in the economy, culture, attitudes, and technology have all played their part in this. London has often been used as the barometer for these shifts, suggesting they were experienced in similar ways across the nation.In an exploration of the queer contours of Leeds, Manchester, Brighton and Plymouth, this lecture takes issue with this assumption and shows how and why LGBTQ scenes, communities and identities could

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69:39

Refugees: English Law's Protection or Persecution? -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/15

How are refugees protected in English law?This lecture traces the history of refugee protection, the limits of the Refugee Convention, and changes to the law in recent decades that have made refugees’ lives increasingly difficult. The Government’s latest tranche of policies: the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Rwanda offshoring scheme, are particularly brutal.Is it time to reverse anti-refugee policies and create safe and legal routes for refugees to reach the UK, without a number cap?This

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63:54

The Geopolitical Risks of Climate Change - Myles Allen

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/13

Climate Change is predicted to spark increasing threats to food security and demands for climate reparations, fuelling geopolitical instability.Probably the greatest risk of all, is tension over solar geo-engineering: the idea of reflecting away sunlight deliberately to modify global climate.Recognizing solar geo-engineering as an inherently destabilising technology, because any such programme would inevitably be considered liable for bad weather everywhere, and ruling it out, would be very

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56:32

Sustainable Energy in Refugee Camps - Dr Sarah...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/09

Most of the world’s 102 million forcibly displaced people – refugees – lack access to reliable, affordable, sustainable energy. Attempts to provide such energy in refugee camps have been marred by governance challenges, and a lack of technical expertise within humanitarian organisations.But new research discussed in this lecture on the lived experience of refugees is helping cast a light on ways to address it. However, developing inclusive approaches and supporting refugee-led action on energy is no

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70:10

What went wrong in Latin America? - Martin Daunton

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/05/07

In the Great Depression, producers of food and raw materials complained that they received low prices and paid high prices for industrial imports. Latin America adopted ‘import substituting industrialisation’ to encourage production behind tariff barriers. This approach continued after the war as more countries gained independence.Did this policy result in inefficient industries and state regulation without delivering improved welfare? By the 1980s, the policy was in retreat with a turn to market

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65:33

Lead: A Toxic Legacy - Dr Ian Mudway

Gresham College Lectures ·

2024/04/29

Evidence that childhood lead exposure caused stunted intelligence and behavioural problems motivated efforts to ban lead in petrol, with the world finally eradicating leaded fuel in 2021.This is a public health success story, but it took a long time to force industry to take action. The lead released from historic emissions persists within the environment and there is emerging evidence of continuing health effects.The legacy of lead remains and will be explored in this lecture.This lecture was

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