Gresham College Lectures

Eve was the original Evil Woman. She was tempted by Satan, introducing sin into the world. In turn, she seduced Adam, bringing the wrath of the Creator upon humanity for all eternity. From the 2nd century, Eve has been blamed for evil. The innocence of the Virgin Mary simply magnifies Eve's weakness and this continues to resonate in western texts. The fig-leaf covering Eve's genitals is a reminder of the carnality of evil as well as its feminine origins.A lecture by Joanna Bourke 8 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-eveGresham 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

Clinical practice is often seen as the acquisition and application of scientific knowledge to diagnose and treat diseases. Yet every patient is different. This lecture draws on a ten-year collaboration with a Savile Row tailor to explore 'bespoke' as a metaphor for clinical practice. Using this approach, the knowledge and skill of a practitioner must intersect with the needs of the patient to create a unique solution for each problem.With Joshua Byrne (bespoke tailor)A lecture by Roger Kneebone 7 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medicine-tailorGresham 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

At longer wavelengths than the normal optical wavelengths to which human eyes are normally sensitive, is the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio astronomy can tell us about the distribution of magnetic fields in the Universe, and reveal striking structures which have no comparable counterpart at visible wavelengths.A lecture by Katherine Blundell OBE 7 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/watching-radioGresham 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

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Friedrich Engels, his biographer Tristram Hunt looks at how both Engels and Karl Marx were deeply affected by their time in London in the second half of the 19th century. London, then the heart of the British Empire, transformed the thinking of these two revolutionary philosophers on finance, on working people's lives, on cities, and on women voting. Hunt will look at the remarkable personal and family lives of the 'The Old Londoners' as they became known, in their North London homes at Primrose Hill and Chalk Farm.A lecture by Dr Tristram Hunt 6 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/engels-marxGresham 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

Following the Beagle voyage, Darwin settled down to a quiet married life, relying on correspondence to gather facts. He wrote thousands of letters as he gathered facts to support his still-secret theory. Long before anyone had heard of evolution, Darwin produced four enormous books on barnacles, which helped establish his credentials (even his most committed opponents acknowledged that he couldn't be ignored). And the books were also Darwin's attempts to answer some complex questions about sex that will recur throughout the lectures.A lecture by Jim Endersby 5 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/darwin-barnaclesGresham 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 lecture by Joanna Bourke 8 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/evil-eveGresham 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

This lecture will focus on human rights and the wrongs of unexpected and/or sudden deaths in which the state is implicated.It will cover the importance of a proper death investigation, the impact on the family and state, how Magna Carta influences death investigations 800 years on, and current trends and statistics in state deaths. How does the state show it cares when deaths occur? Does the state learn lessons? How can the bereaved move on?A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC 1 OctoberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-killingGresham 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

We all need experts for things we can't do ourselves. And we are all on a path to becoming expert ourselves, whatever our areas of interest. But what does it mean to be expert? In his new book Expert: Understanding the Path to Mastery (Viking Penguin, 2020), Roger Kneebone explores these challenges. You can buy the book from Waterstones here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/expert/roger-kneebone/9780241392034This lecture summarises Roger's insights from his own experience as a clinician, his decades-long collaborations with extraordinary experts, and his Gresham Lecture series Performing Medicine, Performing Surgery.A lecture by Roger Kneebone 30 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/expertGresham 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

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre and the Dayton Accords resolution of the first two (Croatia and Bosnia) of the three Balkan wars of the 1990s. In examining the legacy of this conflict, Professor Nice will consider documents newly-released by the UK and US governments. Did the UK and US know what was coming and fail to act? Was the massacre the result of cold blooded politics that was never acknowledged?A lecture by Geoffrey Nice QC 29 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/srebrenicaGresham 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

This illustrated lecture will cover Newton's life and his mathematical and scientific labours in the context of 17th-century England, and feature his childhood in Lincolnshire, his university career in Cambridge and his later life in London as Master of the Royal Mint and President of the Royal Society. This lecture marks the launch of a Pitkin Guide on Isaac Newton.A lecture by Robin Wilson and Raymond Flood 28 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/isaac-newtons-worldGresham 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 which years does February have five Sundays? How many right-angled triangles with whole-number sides have a side of length 29? How many shuffles are needed to restore the order of the cards in a pack with two Jokers? Are any of the numbers 11, 111, 1111, 11111, . . . perfect squares? Can one construct a regular polygon with 100 sides if measuring is forbidden? How do prime numbers help to keep our credit cards secure?These are all questions in number theory, the branch of mathematics that's primarily concerned with our counting numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc. Of particular importance are the prime numbers, the 'building blocks' of our number system.The subject is an old one, dating back to the ancient Greeks, and for many years has been studied for its intrinsic beauty and elegance, not least because several of its challenges are so easy to state that everyone can understand them, and yet no-one has ever been able to resolve them.This lecture situates the above problems and puzzles in their historical context, drawing on the work of many of the greatest mathematicians of the past, such as Euclid, Fermat, Euler and Gauss. Indeed, as Gauss, sometimes described as the 'Prince of Mathematics', has claimed: Mathematics is the Queen of the Sciences, and Number Theory is the Queen of Mathematics.A lecture by Robin Wilson 28 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/number-theoryGresham 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