Curated playlist
Academics of University College London
- Tarnya CooperA miniature portrait of Elizabeth I turned up in a house clearance in 2012. Tarnya Cooper exhibited it.
- James Graham-CampbellJames Graham-Campbell studied Viking gold and silver found across Scotland. His 1995 catalogue spans AD 850 to 1100.
- John Lynch (historian)Historian John Lynch went from British Army service to decades studying Spanish America's revolutions.
- Demis HassabisDemis Hassabis changed one letter to turn a Greek word for butcher into his surname. He later won a Nobel Prize.
- Thomas William Rhys DavidsA Ceylon magistrate met Pali through a court document, then founded the Pali Text Society.
- James HeckmanAre people who join a program different from those who don't? James Heckman won a Nobel Prize for fixing that problem.
- Hannah FryHannah Fry told a BBC Four audience in 2018 that she was about to simulate a fatal outbreak across the whole United Kingdom. If the experiment worked, she said, it would "save lives when, not if, a real pandemic hits." The programme was…
- A. J. AyerA. J. Ayer once told Mike Tyson to talk like a rational man. The philosopher stepped in at a 1987 party.
- Roy PorterHistorian Roy Porter died while cycling, five months into retirement. He planned to learn the saxophone.
- Frank KermodeIn 1996, city refuse collectors carted off critic Frank Kermode's boxes of valuable books. He sued for £20,000.
- Henry MorleyCharles Dickens read Henry Morley's satirical articles and invited him to London in 1850.