Gresham College Lectures

50:47

Cosmology’s Mad Idea: Inflation & the Creation of Our...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/10/06

Our expanding Universe only makes sense if, early on, it expanded rapidly in a period of cosmic inflation. In this lecture, we consider the evidence for this apparently arbitrary idea, and asks whether we are on the brink of finding inflation’s signature in our observation. As the story moves from theorist's blackboards to desert observatories, and from the cosmos’s first moments to the far future, we question the nature of the Universe, its eventual fate and even the form of scientific enqu...

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45:56

The Future of Creativity - Daniel Susskind

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/10/02

This lecture was recorded by Daniel Susskind on the 23nd of September 2026 Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is the Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College. He is also a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford University,...

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46:44

The Myth and Promise of the U.K. Jury Trial - Clive...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/29

The Lammy plan to eliminate half of U.K. criminal jury trials has provoked a rebellion among many lawmakers. Recent Palestine Action cases highlight the jury’s moral role, with several “perverse verdicts” acquitting activists despite clear evidence. Yet those charged with the lesser offence of “supporting” PA have been denied a jury trial and the chance of acquittal. Compared with U.S. constitutional protections, including impartial juries, vicinage rules, challenges to biased pools, and post...

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45:19

Is the HIV pandemic over? - Matt Higgins

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/25

A stark advert picturing a gravestone chiselled with ‘AIDS: DON’T DIE OF IGNORANCE’ captured the horror of this disease in the 1980s. Now, for HIV-infected people able to access anti-retroviral therapies, life expectancy is normal. How were these amazing medicines developed and how have they transformed lives? Why is it so difficult to eradicate HIV or to develop a vaccine to prevent infection? What does the future hold in the quest to stop the global scourge of AIDS? This lecture was recor...

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52:26

Cracking the Whip: Strings, Chains and Dinosaurs -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/22

This lecture was recorded by Alain Goriely on the 15th of September 2026 Alain Goriely is a mathematician with broad interests in mathematical methods, mechanics, sciences, and engineering. He is well known for his contributions to dynamical systems, mathematical biology, as well as fundamental and applied mechanics. He is particularly well known for the development of a mathematical theory of biological growth, culminating with his seminal monograph The Mathematics on Mechanics of Biologica...

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49:20

The Sky at Night, Tonight: A New View of the Changing...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/21

On a remote mountain top in Chile, scanning the sky with the largest astronomical camera ever built, the Vera Rubin Observatory is conducting the deepest and most sensitive survey of the sky yet. This lecture covers whatever it’s found in the previous week, from supernovae to asteroids, giving us a glimpse of science in action. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 14th of September 2026 Professor Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Re...

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49:35

Cello - In Search of a Voice - Kate Kennedy

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/15

How do we tell stories of past voices through a cello, the voice of its player? This lecture explores what it means to be separated from your voice, and to find it again. Dr Kate Kennedy traces a journey she took across Europe with her cello, to uncover the stories of instruments and their players. The result was a host of eccentric, sometimes tragic, always extraordinary accounts of silencing and survival, from the Auschwitz orchestra to a shipwreck, and even a cello full of bees. This...

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45:17

Why Do We Need Empathy? - Jane Shaw

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/11

This lecture was recorded by Jane Shaw on Monday, 07 Sep 2026. Professor Jane Shaw is Provost of Gresham College and Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Oxford. Professor Shaw was formerly Principal of Harris Manchester College and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She has also served as Dean for Religious Life and Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford; as Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco; and, prior to her time in California, she taught his...

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46:01

On the Nature of Time According to Modern Physics -...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/09/04

This is the Annual Sir Thomas Gresham Lecture. What does modern physics have to say about the meaning of time? Is it a fundamental feature of reality or merely an emergent property from something deeper? Does time flow, and is the present moment special when Einstein tells us that all times coexist. Where does the arrow of time come from if all the fundamental laws of physics are symmetric in time? This lecture will examine many of these issues and give our best guess answers as we understand...

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49:27

Music of Sleep and Dreams - Milton Mermikides

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/08/21

This lecture was recorded by Professor Milton Mermikides on the 19th of June 2026 Milton Mermikides is a composer, guitarist, technologist, academic and educator in a wide range of musical styles and has collaborated with artists and scientists as diverse as Evelyn Glennie, Tim Minchin, Pat Martino, Peter Zinovieff, John Williams and Brian Eno. Son of a CERN nuclear physicist, he was raised with an enthusiasm for both the arts and sciences, an eclecticism which has been maintained throughout...

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53:07

The Morrigan: The Nightmare Queen - Ronald Hutton

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/08/07

This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on the 17th of June 2026 at Barnard'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...

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52:41

There Must be a Better Way: Thoughts on the Future of...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/08/04

This is the Annual Gray's Inn Reading 2026. The lecture was delivered within three months of Sir Andrew McFarlane’s retirement after 21 years on the Family Bench. Whilst the phrase ‘un-plugged’ may not be appropriate, it is anticipated that the lecturer will no longer feel restrained by judicial caution when commenting upon the future development of Family Justice. In addition to a focus on the future of adoption law and the need for significant reform in relation to the financial rights of c...

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52:18

Education - And Its Limits - Daniel Susskind

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/31

This lecture was recorded by Professor Daniel Susskind on the 26th of May 2026 Dr Daniel Susskind is a writer and economist. He explores the impact of technology, and particularly AI, on work and society. He is the Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College. He is also a Digital Fellow at the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, an Associate Member of the Economics Department at Oxford Univers...

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57:37

The White Knight: Ice - Helen Czerski

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/28

The polar regions are still some of the most inaccessible and least touched by humans, but they are deeply linked to the rest of Earth. We will cover the history of exploring them, the challenges of measuring this environment, and the current state of knowledge about the ice at both poles. We will also cover the likely future for the polar regions – the incentives driving different actions, what science suggests about the consequences, and coming events to look out for. This lecture wa...

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43:19

Cicero In and On Political Crises - Melissa Lane

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/24

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 11th of June 2026 Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil...

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50:18

Forging Better Futures for You and AI - Matt Jones

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/21

In this last lecture, I will work to wake us from the AI as Overlord spell. We will explore other possible futures, looking first look at the potential of AI fitting in with us: things we can chat to; humanoid robots; or even devices that draw on understandings of pets to make them more palatable and pleasing. Secondly, I’ll suggest a way to weave AI into everyday life: as a “simple” instrument to enable our souls to sing. This lecture was recorded by Professor Matt Jones on the 2nd of June ...

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44:41

Current Challenges to the US Constitution - Clive...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/17

The Americans are very proud of their written constitution. During the first 3/8 of President Trump’s second term of office, the constitution has been severely tested. Where has the Constitution succeeded in providing legal safeguards, clarity and stability, and where has it failed? How will the remainder of this presidency look? And what is coming after Trump? This lecture was recorded by Clive Stafford Smith on the 4th of June 2026 Clive Stafford Smith JD OBE is a dual UK-US nat...

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36:41

Shock of the Nude: Pioneering Women Artists and the...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/14

This lecture was recorded by Dr Di Wang on the 8th of June 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Dr Di Wang is an art historian and curator. Her work focuses on art and culture of East Asia from the late-nineteenth century to the present. Following her doctorate at the University of Oxford, she has taught as a departmental lecturer and research associate at the Department of History of Art at Oxford. Her first book project reveals the surprising entanglement of medicine, science, and revolutio...

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51:47

Pluto Isn’t a Planet - Chris Lintott

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/10

This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on the 3rd of June 2026 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 th...

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47:42

Plato to Polybius on Constitutional Change - Melissa...

Gresham College Lectures ·

2026/07/03

This lecture was recorded by Melissa Lane on the 28th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University and is also Associated Faculty in the Department of Classics and Department of Philosophy. Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. She studied for her first degree in Social Studies (awarded summa cum laude) at Harvard Unive...

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