10-Minute Talks podcast

Professor Conor Gearty FBA asks whether there will be a public inquiry for the way in which the virus has played out in Britain and if so, what shape it will take.

Professor Fiona Williams FBA discusses the ways in which COVID-19 has amplified existing inequalities and created new insecurities.

Professor Joanna Bourke FBA outlines how the pandemic has exacerbated, not created, the problem of domestic and sexual violence in our society.

Professor David Hand FBA explores dark data in the context of COVID-19, the many ways in which we can be blind to missing data and how that can lead us to conclusions and actions that are mistaken, dangerous, or even disastrous.

Professor Kathleen Coleman FBA highlights certain paradoxes at the root of Roman civilisation, specifically those related to the staging of violent displays in the arena.

Professor Alec Ryrie FBA discusses the 18th-century writers who tried to mount a principled defence of the slave trade and how the arguments they used are uncomfortably reflected in the present.

Professor Richard English FBA asks four questions about religion and terrorism.

In this talk, Hew Strachan discusses the challenges the flu epidemic presents for the modern historian and provides some context for our own predicament today.

The President of the British Academy, Professor Sir David Cannadine, discusses Westminster Abbey’s unique place in history and its meaning, significance and impact within society both in Britain and beyond.

Professor Sarah Churchwell offers a brief history of “America First” and answers the perennial question of American fascism: can it happen here?

Professor Nancy Edwards FBA considers some remarkable archaeological monuments and how people lived in early medieval Wales.

Sir Richard Evans FBA explains how conspiracy theories, such as how Adolf Hitler supposedly didn’t die in 1945 but survived and lived into old age in Argentina, are constructed, amplified, and justified.

Professor Peter Bowler FBA discusses Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and how it suggests that there is no predetermined endpoint for humanity.

Professor David Livingstone FBA looks back in history, tracing links between earlier writings about climate and violence and contemporary thinking.

Professor Carole Hillenbrand FBA discusses the interest in discovering more about the phenomenon of the Crusades in the Middle Ages from Islamic perspectives.

Is Britain a part of Europe? To mark the publication of his book 'Britain and Europe in a Troubled World', Professor Vernon Bogdanor FBA untangles the history of Britain’s complex relationship with Europe.

Why was there no alliance to block Hitler from launching aggression in Europe? Professor Jonathan Haslam FBA argues that it was because Europe feared communism more than fascism.

The modern history of humiliation is different from the history of public shaming; both share certain features and practices but differ as to intentions and goals.

Professor Julian Hoppit FBA explores the geography of public finances in the United Kingdom over the last three centuries. Why do some places feel they pay too many taxes and get too little public expenditure?

Professor Tom Shakespeare FBA discusses how people with a range of physical and sensory disabilities in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia have achieved educational, employment and family success.

Professor M. M. McCabe FBA explain why, if a society is measured by how it treats its worst off, we have reason to think hard about how we manage the lives of those in prison. Philosophy – in particular, the collaborative doing of philosophy – has a role to play.

Professor Rajesh Chandy FBA discusses entrepreneurship and why it matters.

Professor Peter Mandler FBA talks about his new book "The Crisis of the Meritocracy" and Britain's transition to mass education from WWII onwards.

Cognitive neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott FBA introduces her pioneering research into laughter.

Professor Helen Small FBA considers the characteristic features of cynicism, its origins and development as a philosophical branch and what role it has played in public moralism, from the 19th century onward.

Professor Vivienne Shue FBA discusses the formulation, substance and political timing of the recently approved 14th Five Year Plan from the Chinese Communist Party.

Professor Sonia Livingstone FBA dispels some popular myths about screen time and offers evidence-based suggestions to help maximise digital opportunities for children and minimise the risks.

In this talk, Professor Robin Dunbar FBA discusses what friendship is and why it is important for our psychological and physical health.

Professor Antonella Sorace FBA outlines how there are still misconceptions about multilingualism and how this contributes to a lack of language skills in countries.