Public lecture podcasts
395 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★ - 5 ratingsThe University of Bath podcasts are a series of public lectures available to download for free.
Enhance your understanding of subjects ranging from how babies develop to the workings of the universe. Learn from academics and business and industry experts.
The University of Bath is a leading UK insitution. We offer a distinctive blend of research-led teaching, an outstanding graduate employment record and personal development opportunties.
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Episodes
Prof Nancy Cartwright: Building a Case: What You Can Do with the Evidence
September 28, 2016 13:32 - 44 minutes - 41 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, noted philosopher Professor Nancy Cartwright of the University of Durham takes a serious look at the meaning of 'evidence', and how a case for effective policy can be built from it. This IPR Public Lecture took place on 14 September 2016, as part of the symposium Evidence and the Politics of Policymaking: where next?
Prof David Bailey: Brexit, UK automotive and implications for industrial policy
September 28, 2016 11:52 - 1 hour - 91.6 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Professor of Industrial Strategy at the Aston Business School David Bailey considers what Brexit might mean for the UK automotive sector, and in turn for industrial policy in the UK. This IPR Public Lecture took place on 07 September 2016
Daphne Jackson Trust Research Conference
August 12, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 133 MBDaphne Jackson Trust Fellows carry out novel research at post doctorial level across a wide spectrum of sciences and engineering disciplines. This conference showcased the fellows’ research and findings.
Gerald Walters Memorial Lecture - Right Reverend Peter Price
August 12, 2016 00:00 - 52 minutes - 60 MBIn the lecture, Right Reverend Peter Price - the 78th Bishop of Bath and Wells - spoke of his experience of peace and reconciliation including in the Middle East, Central and South America and Northern Ireland.
Stephen Kelly: Rewiring Britain’s Civil Service: lessons learnt as COO of Her Majesty’s Government
August 01, 2016 09:31 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Mr Stephen Kelly - CEO of Sage and former COO of Her Majesty's Government - shares the lessons he’s learnt from his time reforming and digitally transforming the civil service, and how he’s applied these in both public and private sectors. The talk centres around three key themes: the power of technology to change lives; the importance of connecting to stakeholders; and, finally but perhaps most importantly, making it meaningful. This IPR Public Lecture took place...
Science Research Showcase
July 25, 2016 09:15 - 2 hours - 199 MBPostgraduate students from Faculty of Science showcased their research at a Research Afternoon on Monday 6 June 2016. Students presented a series of ten minute talks and two-minute 'lightning' talks on topics ranging from the spread of information, to vaccines and MRSA.
Prof Janine Wedel: Meet The New Influence Elites
July 22, 2016 08:20 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture Professor Janine Wedel - IPR Global Chair and Professor in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University - introduces a new breed of influence elite that has emerged over the past several decades. In contrast to the 'power elites' described by sociologist C. Wright Mills a half century ago, she argues, the muscle of today’s influence elites resides at least as much in social networks as in command-and-control bureaucracy. Th...
Dr Jo Farrar: Transforming Public Services in a Time of Austerity
July 22, 2016 08:04 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Dr Jo Farrar - Chief Executive of Bath and North East Somerset Council - examines the changing nature of public services and how the transformation efforts of recent government administrations play out in the delivery of local services. She also considers how innovative use of data and technology can improve the performance of public services at a time of unprecedented budget reductions. Finally, Farrar discusses new approaches to the reform of local public servi...
The Rt Hon the Lord Willetts: Fairness Between The Generations
July 22, 2016 07:54 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, the Rt Hon Lord David Willetts updates the analysis in his book 'The Pinch', presenting the latest data on the widening gap between the baby boomer generation and their children. He also discusses various policy measures to redress the imbalance between the generations. This IPR Public Lecture took place on 20 April 2016
Sir John Beddington: Challenges Of The 21st Century: What Is Happening To The World?
July 22, 2016 07:48 - 1 hour - 64.3 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, former Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir John Beddington contests that, though change in the 21st Century is both fast and dramatic, some problems for the next few decades are both predictable and inexorable. Significant challenges exist driven by population growth, complex demography, urbanisation and increasing prosperity, all with a background of significant poverty. Climate change is happening, will continue and is a major risk multiplier. This lecture co...
Prof Allyson Pollock: How Our NHS Is Being Abolished
July 22, 2016 07:38 - 1 hour - 79.1 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Professor Allyson Pollock - Professor of Public Health Research and Policy at Queen Mary University of London - shows how the government has abolished the NHS. She explains how the new structures will operate, what this means for patient access and what needs to be done about it. This IPR Public Lecture took place on 01 May 2014
The Curriculum Battleground: Keynote lecture by Dr Tristian Stobie
July 18, 2016 00:00 - 44 minutes - 67.3 MBIncreasing numbers of internationally branded schools serving local [rather than predominantly expatriate] populations and Ministries of Education engaged in educational reform, are adopting what they perceive as international best practice. This raises a number of questions and issues explored in this lecture. Is there such a thing as international best practice? Does globalization imply the need for a common curriculum and pedagogy in order to prepare students for the modern world? Should c...
Prof. Ian Kinchin Keynote lecture: Using knowledge structures in teaching to develop expert students
July 18, 2016 00:00 - 51 minutes - 102 MBThe way that knowledge is structured has implications for the way we teach. Where the information that is presented in lectures fails to represent the knowledge structure of the discipline, then students have to resort to rote learning of materials. Where the curriculum structure aligns with the structure of the discipline, then students will be learning in more authentic ways and will have access to powerful knowledge. To get to this point, teachers first need to consider the structure of th...
Harnessing Bio-based Materials for Greener Products
July 15, 2016 12:38 - 48 minutes - 55.4 MBCellulose, one of nature's most abundant polymers, is produced in significant quantities in many farmed crops. Yet it is not a human food source - so the use of cellulose in high value materials does not compete with, but potentially complements, food production. This lecture covered work afoot at the University's Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies into processing cellulose into high value materials that gives access to renewably-derived recyclable materials with a range of diverse ...
Inside Cancer
July 15, 2016 00:00 - 52 minutes - 59.8 MBDr Momna Hejmadi, Dr Andrew Chalmers and Dr Lorenzo Caggiano summarise some of the latest developments in cancer research. This lecture was delivered as part of our MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), 'Inside Cancer: how genes influence cancer development'. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/inside-cancer
It's no use reducing your footprint if you keep increasing the number of feet
July 15, 2016 00:00 - 37 minutes - 42.3 MBRoger Martin, Chair of Population Matters, delivers a lecture for the Institute for our Institute for Sustainable Energy & the Environment considering population growth and the environment.
Inaugural lecture: Obliged to be well? Healthy minds and active bodies in context of inequality
May 19, 2016 10:37 - 51 minutes - 58.7 MBIn this Inaugural lecture, Professor Simone Fullagar offers a sociocultural perspective on health, sport and active embodiment, to consider why and how the promotion of certain ideals of physical and mental health are not always 'good' for us. At the heart of this lecture are biopolitical and feminist questions concerning the complex effects of power relations (inequities relating to gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability) on our embodied experiences health and well-being. How m...
Professor Simone Fullagar inaugural lecture: Healthy minds and active bodies
May 18, 2016 00:00 - 51 minutes - 58.7 MBIn this Inaugural lecture, Professor Simone Fullagar offers a sociocultural perspective on health, sport and active embodiment, to consider why and how the promotion of certain ideals of physical and mental health are not always ‘good’ for us. At the heart of this lecture are biopolitical and feminist questions concerning the complex effects of power relations (inequities relating to gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, age, disAbility) on our embodied experiences health and well-being. How m...
Prof Robert Wade: How Income Inequality Puts Democracy - And Climate Change - At Risk
May 16, 2016 14:01 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Professor Robert H. Wade - Professor of Political Economy at the LSE - builds on Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis' dictum "We must make our choice. We may have democracy or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both". Professor Wade reports on recent evidence on the degree of income concentration at the top of OECD countries and the political costs of inequality, and asks: how should social democratic movements appeal for public...
Professor Nigel Wilding inaugural lecture: Monte Carlo or bust: smart simulation for serious science
May 16, 2016 00:00 - 52 minutes - 59.9 MBIn this inaugural lecture, Professor Nigel Wilding explores the computer simulation of changes of state in models for atoms and complex molecules. Predicting the phase behaviour of a material is a central goal of condensed matter science, and a pre-requisite for designing new materials with tailored or novel phase behaviour. Professor Wilding’s lecture outlined how computer simulation of phase behaviour now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with traditional approaches of experimental and analytical...
Prof David Stasavage: Taxing The Rich: A History Of Fiscal Fairness In The US And Europe
May 04, 2016 09:58 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture Professor David Stasavage - Julius Silver Professor and Chair in the Wilf Family Department of Politics at New York University - discusses his latest book: Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe. The book, and the lecture, draw on unparalleled evidence from 20 countries over the last two centuries to provide the broadest and most in-depth history of progressive taxation available. Stasavage explores the intellectual and polit...
Understanding barriers to evidence-based management
May 04, 2016 00:00 - 49 minutes - 56.9 MBConcerns about the gap between management research and management practice are long-standing and well-documented. Management practices do not seem to be based firmly on research evidence and the research produced by management researchers has limited impact on management practice. In his inaugural lecture, Professor Rob Briner argues that this gap is difficult to close and remains an intractable problem mainly because nobody is to blame. So, how can these barriers be overcome? What are the ...
Games without frontiers
May 04, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 72.5 MBA recording of Professor Charles Lees’ inaugural lecture that took place on 19 February 2014. In his lecture he discussed how coalition governments are formed and what they can achieve.
The Making of a Medicinal Chemist
May 04, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 71.5 MBIn this lecture, Professor Mike Threadgill explores the influences and inspirations that have led him to a career in academic medicinal chemistry and reviewed the research of his team over the years. Mike's work focuses on the application of medicinal chemistry for the development of new agents for diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This has led him to becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Society for Chemists and Biologists.
Global environmental protection: Success or failure?
April 15, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 73.7 MBIn Professor Michael Finus' inaugural lecture he highlights how economic theory, in particular game theory, can be used to analyse international agreements to tackle climate change.
Professor Dylan Thompson inaugural lecture: Why do we need physical activity and how much is enough?
March 23, 2016 15:02 - 55 minutes - 63.2 MBIn his inaugural lecture, Professor Dylan Thompson, highlights why physical activity today is more important than ever. The podcast covers some of the new approaches that are being used to determine the amount of exercise required for good health and points towards some practical recommendations that can help you today.
Professor Bill Durodié inaugural lecture: The politics of risk and resilience
March 16, 2016 11:54 - 54 minutes - 62.1 MBProfessor Bill Durodié's research looks at the causes and consequences of contemporary perceptions of risk, as well as how these are framed and communicated across a range of issues relating to security, science and society. In this podcast, his inaugural lecture at the University, he summarises the concept of "Risk Society" and focuses on the issue of risk perception society.
Professor Stephen Emmitt inaugural lecture: Living with Buildings
March 16, 2016 11:10 - 53 minutes - 61.1 MBProfessor Stephen Emmitt, from the University's Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering, delivers his inaugural lecture on 'living with buildings'. This puts forward an argument for improving the way in which architects manage design at a project and practice level - the architecture of practice. Professor Emmitt proposes that architects need to demonstrate the value of good design to their clients; something that can be achieved by (re) engaging with construction and applying effecti...
Professor Julie Barnett inaugural lecture: Social media and social science
March 15, 2016 00:00 - 44 minutes - 51.4 MBIn her inaugural lecture, Professor Julie Barnett from the University's Department of Psychology examines what can we learn from social media content and the way social media is used by individuals and organisations.
Mission into distant space
March 07, 2016 12:16 - 54 minutes - 62.4 MBIn this public lecture, astrophysicist Dr Chris North takes its audience on a journey through space to understand the most distant stars and galaxies, exploring the findings of the Herschel Space Observatory. Dr North has worked on a number of space missions and is currently part of the Herschel Observatory team, looking at far-infrared light from stars forming in our galaxy and across the Universe.
No promises, just possibilities
March 07, 2016 00:00 - 29 minutes - 34.2 MBIn this Designability lecture, Kate Allatt shares an inspiring story of about self-management, patient engagement, dignity and future assistive technology opportunities. Kate's motto is to never lower patient recovery expectations because there are no promises, just possibilities. She is the author of ‘Running Free – Breaking out of Locked In Syndrome' and 'Extraordinary Woman Winner 2011'.
Prof David Nutt: Time To Put Science At The Heart Of UK Drug And Alcohol Policy?
March 04, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 60.8 MBIn this IPR Public Lecture, Professor David Nutt - Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and Head of the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, as well as former Chair of the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs - explores the ways in which evidence is being misused to stop rational regulations for alcohol and tobacco and, simultaneously, to impose unnecessary and potentially harmful sanctions on other drugs. He also addresses new ways we can approac...
Professor Ed Feil inaugural lecture: How do you solve a problem like bacteria?
February 25, 2016 00:00 - 1 hour - 71.7 MBThe rise of the antibiotic “superbugs” such as MRSA and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and recent viral pandemics are all examples of the threats posed to human health by infectious disease. These impact severely on our crops and livestock, significantly increasing the challenges associated with sustaining food security on a global scale. In this lecture, Professor Ed Feil (Milner Centre for Evolution) reflects on how our current situation compares with our recent history and the scale of...
Timo Kivimäki inaugural lecture: New wars, protection of civilians & the transition of global order
February 04, 2016 00:00 - 43 minutes - 50 MBA recording of Professor Timo Kivimäki’s inaugural that delivered on 4 February 2016. In this lecture, he reveals the paradox of deadly solidarity and outlines a research program that aims to produce lessons on how global protection of civilians could work for peace.
Understanding behaviour and the built environment through engineering and design
October 28, 2015 00:00 - 42 minutes - 48.7 MBDr Jeremy Watson, Chief Scientist & Engineer at BRE presents the Third Biennial Lecture for the Department of Architecture & Civil Engineering on sustainability and ethics in the built environment.
How new cancer treatments are developed
October 21, 2015 00:00 - 51 minutes - 59 MBProstate Cancer (PC) is the most common male-specific form of cancer and the third most common form of cancer in the UK. Although cancer treatments are initially effective they become less effective and have significant disadvantages. Against this, there is an urgent need for better treatments. In this lecture, Dr Matthew Lloyd describes a number of different strategies to identify small molecules ('drugs') that can be used to stop the protein AMACR from working and therefore potentially be u...
What is high-altitude bioprospecting?
May 21, 2015 00:00 - 45 minutes - 20.8 MBLike the mutating cells it was trying to investigate, and through a serendipitous series of unrelated coincidences, what started out as a multi-disciplinary UK-based research project to explore the stratosphere using helium balloons somehow evolved and mutated into a high-powered rocketry based research collaboration with NASA Astrobiologists in the Nevada Desert. This high-octane talk by University of Bath researcher Dr Paul Shepherd explores the highs and lows of his journey into High Alt...
Professor Chris Brace inaugural lecture: The future of automotive propulsion
May 21, 2015 00:00 - 1 hour - 14.3 MBIn his inaugural lecture, Deputy Director of the PVRC in the University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Chris Brace discusses what the future holds for automotive propulsion. During the 20th century the growth of affordable personal mobility changed the way we live and work. Today the passenger car as we know it is under increasing pressure from changing expectations, including air quality, safety, sustainability and CO2. In addition, driver needs and expectations are cha...
Professor Peter Lambert inaugural lecture: The Priest, the Coup and the Party
February 26, 2015 00:00 - 46 minutes - 53.3 MBIn 2008 Fernando Lugo came to power in Paraguay promising a 'new dawn' based on social justice, democracy and greater empowerment of the country's poor but just four years later, with his reform programme in tatters. In his inaugural lecture, Professor Peter Lambert examines the failure of Lugo's reform programme through analysis of both immediate causes and wider factors related to domestic power relations and political culture. This in turn raises questions about the very nature of Paragu...
Data scientist - heal thyself
November 19, 2014 00:00 - 49 minutes - 22.5 MB'Internet of Things' technologies have emerged over recent years as enabling technologies for life-long healthcare. Increasingly these technologies are seen as moving health from the hospital to the home, whilst at the same time shifting responsibility for health from the clinician to Computer Scientists and Engineers. The 27th Designability Annual Lecture, 'Data Scientist - heal thyself', explored the possible scenarios with this vision for data-led personalised medicine.
Professor David Galbreath inaugural lecture: Technology and the rise of boundless warfare
November 19, 2014 00:00 - 42 minutes - 19.3 MBProfessor Galbreath's inaugural lecture asked whether the evolution of technology requires us to be forever vigilant in the face of a new type of warfare. Against new threats to security, posed most recently by organisations like Islamic State, what is the current role for states, and what is the future for power and security, security and defence?
Professor David Miller inaugural lecture: Disembedded elites?
July 07, 2014 00:00 - 51 minutes - 23.4 MBIn his inaugural lecture, titled 'Disembedded elites? Policy communications and the transformation of elite networks', Professor David Miller reviewed the main writing on 'power elites' in the tradition of power structure research and asked what's changed with the advent of neoliberalism?
How to build a time machine
July 03, 2014 00:00 - 45 minutes - 20.9 MBWe think of time travel as fiction, but there is nothing in the laws of physics that prevents us building a time machine. What's more, relativity provides practical opportunities to travel through time. Listen back to Brian Clegg, author of 'Dice World, Gravity, A Brief History of Infinity, Inflight Science and Build Your Own Time Machine', talking about the potential solutions to time travel from our recent public lecture.
Stage space and characterisation in Caribbean yard plays
July 03, 2014 00:00 - 1 hour - 27.3 MBThis lecture from Dr Lynette Goddard (Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London) focuses on the tradition of the Caribbean yard play to examine how the organisation of stage space relates to the experiences of the characters.
Taming the Somerset Levels
June 25, 2014 00:00 - 55 minutes - 25.2 MBThe Levels and Moors are an enormous floodplain in the heart of Somerset and for tens of thousands of years were an ever changing mix of different wetland habitats. In this podcast, archaeologist and historian, Dr Richard Brunning, explores how the present day landscape was largely created and 'tamed' in the early medieval period after the Roman conquest.
What you get is what you expect
June 25, 2014 00:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBPain is a major health care problem worldwide. It affects the well-being of millions of individuals, and its financial burden upon our societies is considerable. Pain is not a simple reflection of the degree of tissue-damage, it is strongly influenced by expectations and beliefs individuals hold about pain and their ability to cope with it. In this lecture, Dr Katja Wiech from the Centre for Pain Research, talks about research into how expectations can influence the outcome of pain treatment.
Professor Richie Gill inaugural lecture: What is wrong with knee replacement?
June 17, 2014 00:00 - 50 minutes - 23.1 MBModern knee replacement is a highly successful operation, relieving the pain and disability of knee osteoarthritis. However, it has limitations and these, combined with the changes in population demographics, present significant challenges for both current and future healthcare systems. Professor Richie Gill's inaugural lecture 'What is wrong with knee replacement?' explores these issues and the research being done to overcome them.
End of the NHS?
June 16, 2014 00:00 - 1 hour - 40.3 MBDelivered by Professor Allyson Pollock, public health research and policy specialist at Queen Mary, University of London, this IPR lecture explored major changes and challenges to the NHS through government reform, what this means for patient access and what needs to be done about it.
Churches, place names and landscape architecture
April 15, 2014 00:00 - 57 minutes - 26.4 MBLocal historian and archaeologist, Dr Simon Draper, discusses place names and their links to Anglo-Saxon landscape architecture for a number of Wessex communities in this Minerva series lecture (formally known as GULP). From the 7th century onwards, what was the meaning of place names like 'bury' and why were they significant?
Artificial photosynthesis
April 15, 2014 00:00 - 50 minutes - 22.8 MBHow can government, industry and business better work together to invest in long-term research to harness solar energy and transform carbon dioxide into energy fuel? In this lecture, Global Chair at the University, Professor Geoffrey Ozin talks about using carbon dioxide as a source of fuel rather than treating it as a waste product and pioneering advances in nano-chemistry.