Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/Y9JR7El863kOur alert systems for identifying safety and security threats have evolved over time. As the threat from wild animals diminished, the perceived threat from other humans increased. To defend our territories and our livelihoods, we began to gather intelligence on our enemies, in the hope that being forewarned would give us an advantage. This lecture explores our use of technologies that have allowed us to keep a closer watch, and the ingenious methods that have been used to counter them. This lecture was recorded by Victoria Baines on 8th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Victoria is IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology.Victoria is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, a Senior Research Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group, and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. She is also Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020. She is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She serves on the Safety Advisory Board of Snapchat, the Advisory Board of cybersecurity provider Reliance Cyber, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-surveillance-worksGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show
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50:33
Why Are Cities Going Bankrupt? - Martin Daunton
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/G_SpC_BV4jAIn the late nineteenth century, Joseph Chamberlain transformed Birmingham with municipal enterprise and urban improvement, but in the last few years, local authorities have been facing serious financial difficulties, and some of the largest, such as Birmingham, have faced the equivalent of bankruptcy. This lecture will ask why British cities have lost the confident civic pride of the Victorian era and are now struggling to provide basic services from a limited financial base. Most importantly: What can be done to regenerate British towns and cities? This lecture was recorded by Martin Daunton on 24th April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Professor Martin Daunton is Visiting Gresham Professor of Economic History.He is a British academic and historian. He was Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, between 2004 and 2014. He is Emeritus Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.He has written two books on the history of taxation in Britain – Trusting Leviathan and Just Taxes, and co-edited with colleagues in Berlin a volume of essays on the political economy of public finance in leading OECD countries since the 1970s. His book The Economic Government of the World, 1933 to 2023 was published by Allen Lane in 2023.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/cities-bankruptGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show
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1:00:13
Modern Druids - Ronald Hutton
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/qz9a4zXIFz0The ancient Druids have long represented some of the most striking and controversial figures in ancient and medieval literature. In this lecture, we will look at the many different ways in which the modern imagination has been inspired by them, both as heroic ancestors and as demonic villains against whom civilisation can be defined. It traces the appearance of different kinds of Druidry as a part of Paganism, and suggests what the particular contribution of that Druidry to modern culture may be.This lecture was recorded by Ronald Hutton on 2nd April 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Ronald is the Gresham Professor of Divinity.He is also Professor of History at the University of Bristol and a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Society of Antiquaries and the Learned Society of Wales.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/modern-druidsGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show
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54:41
How Do Vaccines Work? - Robin May
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/PcNoOjT30VYVaccination has changed the world, saving millions of lives and enabling us to eradicate a lethal disease for the first time in human history – not to mention their critical role in ending the Covid-19 pandemic. This lecture explores how a vaccine actually works, why mRNA vaccines are truly groundbreaking and why we can’t simply vaccinate against everything. This lecture was recorded by Robin May on 26th March 2025 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.Robin is Gresham Professor of Physic.He is also Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Professor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/how-do-vaccines-workGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show
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50:18
Asteroid Adventures - Chris Lintott
Watch the Q&A session here: https://youtu.be/H8nG29pO_y4Asteroids were for years considered 'celestial vermin' - objects which got in the way of more interesting fodder for astronomers. Now, they are central to our Solar System's story, representing the building blocks from which planets are made, and capable of telling us the history of the last five billion years. This lecture considers two missions - Lucy, which flies past asteroid Donald Johnson in April 2025, and OSIRIS-ReX, which recently returned from threatening near-Earth asteroid Bennu bearing samples of this unusual world. This lecture was recorded by Chris Lintott on 23rd April 2025 at Conway Hall, LondonChris is Gresham Professor of Astronomy.He is also a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, and a Research Fellow at New College.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/asteroid-adventuresGresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todayWebsite: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-todaySupport the show
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.
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