Gresham College Courses

Shakespeare's Mathematical Life and Times - Mathematics in the Elizabethan Era

Discover how mathematical innovations of the Elizabethan era influenced Shakespeare's works, from arithmetic to astronomy, revealing the surprising intersection between numbers and the Bard's creative genius.

• YouTube
• 43 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Automation Anxiety - A History of Technology and Work Displacement

Explore the history of automation anxiety from Luddites to modern driverless car protests, examining why fears of technological unemployment persist despite economic growth.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 22 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Evoking Empathy through Animal Portraiture

Discover how photographer Tim Flach uses portraiture techniques to foster empathy with endangered animals, bridging art and conservation through powerful visual storytelling.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 4 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Why Do We Fear? - The Biology and Psychology of Human Fear

Explore the evolutionary biology of fear, from its survival benefits to phobias and thrill-seeking behaviors, and discover how understanding fear's mechanisms might help us manage it.

• YouTube
• 1 hour
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hitler, Jesus and How to Win a Culture War

Explore how Western moral values built around WWII memory are unraveling and discover why the resolution to our current cultural predicaments might be more hopeful than expected.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 5 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

AI Will Be Your Overlord - Faster, Brighter, Better Than You?

Explore AI's potential dominance over humanity, examining intelligence, consciousness, and the social implications of artificial superintelligence in this thought-provoking analysis.

• YouTube
• 50 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

A World Remade by Decolonization?

Explore how European empire collapse shaped our world through global history, examining persistent inequalities, violence, and why decolonization remains incomplete today.

• YouTube
• 49 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Shape of Hands - Symmetry, Chirality and Handedness

Explore chirality and handedness in nature, from DNA to seashells, uncovering how left-right asymmetry shapes physics, chemistry, biology, and the mysteries of natural structures.

• YouTube
• 58 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

How It Ends - What We Know about the Fate of the Universe

Explore the Universe's ultimate fate through modern cosmology, dark matter mysteries, and predictions spanning the next 100 billion years with insights into cosmic beginnings.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 1 minute
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Lessons from Guantánamo Bay - Legal Advocacy and Human Rights Challenges

Explore Guantánamo Bay's evolution from immigration detention to terror suspects, uncovering legal loopholes, torture exposure, and advocacy strategies that freed 98% innocent detainees.

• YouTube
• 53 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Shape of Hands - Symmetry, Chirality and Handedness

Explore the fascinating world of chirality and handedness in nature, from proteins to seashells, and uncover one of science's greatest mysteries about left and right structures.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 14 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

AI Will Be Your Overlord - Faster, Brighter, Better Than You?

Explore AI's potential dominance and its implications for human intelligence, consciousness, and society's future ethical challenges.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Earth - Our Planetary Life Support System

Explore Earth's interconnected systems through physics, discovering how energy flows and matter cycles sustain our planetary life support system in this engaging lecture.

• YouTube
• 46 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Shakespeare's Musical Fairies

Explore how Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream inspired centuries of musical adaptations from Mendelssohn to Britten, examining the fairy world's enduring musical appeal.

• YouTube
• 1 hour 58 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Does Net Zero Mean the End of Livestock Agriculture?

Explore how methane emissions from livestock are misrepresented in climate models and discover sustainable approaches to agriculture that can be compatible with climate stability and net zero goals.

• YouTube
• 51 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video