Leadership Lessons From Lockdown

0:00 // Introduction — Chinese independent documentary and the question of going globalUploaded 30-06-263:28 // The Sundance-K'Nex workshops — training Chinese filmmakers for overseas markets7:40 // Story as commodity — character-driven narrative and the three-act structure10:07 // The humanitarian industrial logic — NGOs, storytelling and the Open Society Foundation14:12 // Plastic China — the film, its subjects and its international success16:01 // How the film works — two families, a child's right to education and formal choices23:03 // The narrowing of focus — from structural critique to personal story28:12 // What the format does — harmonising contradiction rather than confronting it31:02 // Screening Plastic China in the UK — what audiences actually felt33:21 // Audience responses — moving, shocking, overwhelming36:10 // What viewers said they would do next — individual action over structural change38:02 // Political mimesis and its limits — affect that short-circuits critique40:16 // Worrying about China — liberal frameworks and the problem of difference43:14 // Conclusion — the compromises Chinese independent documentary makes to go globalWatch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/QJMOYmf0CmQThis lecture will focus on independently produced Chinese documentary cinema as it has entered the Anglophone industry market. Using “Plastic China” by the award-winning director Wang Jiuliang as a case study, I will explore what the implications of cross-border collaborations are for documentary form and content, and how this may encourage a particular set of viewer responses. This will allow me to locate the documentary form in relation to broader liberal arguments over China’s place in the world system and assess the limitations of this approach to “going global” for independent Chinese documentary.This lecture was recorded by Luke Robinson on the 27th of May 2026Luke Robinson is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in Film Studies in the Faculty of Media, Arts, and Humanitiies, University of Sussex.He is the author of Independent Chinese Documentary: From the Studio to the Street, and the co-editor of two further collections on Chinese film culture: (with Chris Berry) Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation and (with Chris Berry, Lydia Wu and Sabrina Yu) Chinese Independent Cinema: Past, Present, and a Questionable Future.His writing has appeared in books and journals including DV-made China, The New Chinese Documentary Movement, Vocal Projections, Screening China’s Soft Power, positions: Asia cultures critique, Film Studies, Screen, and Journal of Chinese Cinemas.Between 2019 and 2025 he was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project, “Independent Cinema in China: State, Market, and Film Culture”. One of the outcomes of this grant was the establishment of the Chinese Independent Film Archive, located at Newcastle University.The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/chinese-documentaryGresham 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 College's mission, please consider making a donation: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Website: https://gresham.ac.ukX: https://x.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollegeBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/greshamcollege.bsky.social TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greshamcollegeSupport Us: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/donate-today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In its passage from manuscript composition to audible performance, a musical work passes through the hands of editors, teachers, interpreters, recording engineers and many others, all of whom make decisions, often based on personal choices, and have to satisfy the tastes and needs of a changing public. With over a century of recorded sound as evidence, we can now assess the options and expectations of the modern performer, and measure these against the evidence available to the interpreter today, and the range of choices to be made.Uploaded 12-08-11The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-past-is-a-foreign-countryGresham 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.http://www.gresham.ac.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From The Merchant of Venice to The Taming of the Shrew, it's easy to see how Shakespeare's plays can cause offence to contemporary audiences. Is it harder to teach Shakespeare today than in the past? Have ideas about what is offensive in Shakespeare changed over time? Uploaded 11-06-26In this lecture, a team of Shakespeare scholars will look at the challenges and opportunities of teaching, editing and staging Shakespeare in our current 'age of offence'.A lecture by Adam Hansen and Monika Smialkowska 21 SeptemberThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/offensive-shakespeareGresham 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 (https://www.gresham.ac.uk/get-involved/support-us/make-donation/one-donation) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

00:07 | Introduction: Can We Manipulate Human Emotions?Uploaded 23-06-2600:52 | You've Already Done It — Since Birth01:57 | Personal Space as Emotional Manipulation03:04 | Lyndon Johnson and the Proximity Effect04:28 | Stress on the Tube: New York Subway Study06:45 | Smells and Mood: The Bakery Experiment08:46 | The Case For Emotional Manipulation: Hate Crime and Mental Health10:25 | The Case Against: Dictators, Abuse and Macbeth11:50 | Mood Stabilizers: Lithium and Lamotrigine13:47 | Antidepressants: How SSRIs Work18:22 | Psychoactive Drugs: MDMA, Ecstasy and Risk20:24 | Psilocybin and PTSD: Promising Clinical Trials21:56 | Military Use and Ethical Minefields23:32 | Cordyceps: The Fungus That Controls Ants25:58 | Rabies: A Virus That Lowers Serotonin27:47 | Toxoplasma Gondii: The Parasite in 1 in 3 of Us31:09 | Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neuralink34:52 | The Easiest Mood Hack: Your Diet36:01 | The Gut-Brain Axis and the Human Microbiome42:48 | Is Your Personality Really Yours — Or Your Bacteria's?Watch the Q and A session here: https://youtu.be/PWoDmVOSTTAWe think of emotions as being central to our characters and our sense of self. But emotions are the product of brain chemistry and, like most biological processes, are malleable. Thus far, our ability to artificially manipulate emotions has been extremely rudimentary, but we are on the cusp of a revolution in neuroscience that will open the door to powerful emotional manipulation. How can we navigate the ethical minefield that this will uncover, and what will it mean for our understanding of who we really are?This lecture was recorded by Robin May on the 20th of May 2026 at Barnard's Inn Hall, LondonProfessor of Infectious Disease at the University of Birmingham, and (interim) Chief Scientist at the UK Health Security Agency, Robin May was appointed Gresham Professor of Physic in May 2022. Between July 2020 and September 2025 he served as Chief Scientific Adviser at the Food Standards Agency (FSA).Professor May’s early training was in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, followed by a PhD on mammalian cell biology at University College London and the University of Birmingham. After postdoctoral research on gene silencing at the Hubrecht Laboratory, The Netherlands, he returned to the UK in 2005 to establish a research program on human infectious diseases. He was Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham from 2017-2020. The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/peoples-emotionsGresham 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/Website: https://gresham.ac.ukTwitter: https://twitter.com/greshamcollegeFacebook: https://facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: https://instagram.com/greshamcollege Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was during these years that British statesmen first came to appreciate that her international and economic position was under threat. The growth of German and American economic power exposed the fragility of Britain's hitherto unquestioned pre-eminence. Imperialism was the first response to decline, social reform the second. It was these years that saw the first stirrings of a new collectivism in the 'New Liberalism'.Uploaded 12-08-11The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-responses-to-decline-1895-1914Gresham 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://gresham.ac.uk/support/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices