The Reith Lectures is a series of annual

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lectures given by leading figures of the day. They are commissioned by the

and broadcast on Radio 4 and the World Service. The lectures were inaugurated in 1948 to mark the historic contribution made to public service broadcasting by Lord Reith, the corporation's first director-general. Reith maintained that broadcasting should be a public service that aimed to enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. It is in this spirit that the BBC each year invites a leading figure to deliver the lectures. The aim is to advance public understanding and debate about issues of contemporary interest. The first Reith lecturer was the philosopher and later

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

. The first female lecturer was Dame Margery Perham in 1961. The youngest Reith lecturer was

Colin Blakemore Sir Colin Blakemore, , Hon (1 June 1944 – 27 June 2022) was a British neurobiologist, specialising in vision and the development of the brain. He was Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience and senior fellow of the Hong Kong Institute for Adv ...

, who was 32 in 1976 when he broadcast over six episodes on the brain and consciousness.

The Reith Lectures archive

In June 2011 BBC Radio 4 published its Reith Lectures archive. This included two podcasts featuring over 240 lectures from 1948 to the present day as well as streamed online audio, and the complete written transcripts of the entire Reith Lectures archive: * Podcast 1: Archive 1948–1975 * Podcast 2: Archive 1976–2012 * Transcripts 1948–2010 * In pictures The BBC found that some of the audio archive of the Reith Lectures was missing from its library and appealed to the public for copies of the missing lectures.

The Reith Lectures 1948–2020

1940s

* 1948

,
Authority and the Individual
' * 1949

Robert Birley Sir Robert Birley KCMG (14 July 1903 – 22 July 1982) was an English educationalist who was head master of Charterhouse School, then Eton College, and an anti-apartheid campaigner. He acquired the nickname "Red Robert", as even his moderate lib ...

,
Britain in Europe
'

1950s

* 1950 John Zachary Young,
Doubt and Certainty in Science
' * 1951 Lord Radcliffe,
Power and the State
' * 1952

Arnold J. Toynbee Arnold Joseph Toynbee (; 14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was an English historian, a philosopher of history, an author of numerous books and a research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's Colleg ...

,
The World and the West
' * 1953

Robert Oppenheimer J. Robert Oppenheimer (; April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was an American theoretical physicist. A professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is often ...

,
Science and the Common Understanding
' * 1954 Oliver Franks,
Britain and the Tide of World Affairs
' * 1955

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

,
The Englishness of English Art
' * 1956

Edward Victor Appleton Sir Edward Victor Appleton (6 September 1892 – 21 April 1965) was an English physicist, Nobel Prize winner (1947) and pioneer in radiophysics. He studied, and was also employed as a lab technician, at Bradford College from 1909 to 1911. He w ...

,
Science and the Nation
' * 1957

George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...

,
Russia, the Atom and the West
' * 1958

Bernard Lovell Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (31 August 19136 August 2012) was an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980. Early life and education Lovell was born at Oldland Comm ...

,
The Individual and the Universe
' * 1959 Peter Medawar,
The Future of Man
'

1960s

* 1960

Edgar Wind Edgar Wind (; 14 May 1900 – 12 September 1971) was a German-born British interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary art historian, specializing in iconology in the Renaissance era. He was a member of the school of art historians associated with Aby ...

,
Art and Anarchy
' * 1961

Margery Perham Dame Margery Freda Perham (6 September 1895 – 19 February 1982) was a British historian of, and writer on, African affairs.The Times, 22 February 1982, page 10. She was known especially for the intellectual force of her arguments in favour of Br ...

,
The Colonial Reckoning
' * 1962 George Carstairs,
This Island Now
' * 1963

Albert Sloman Sir Albert Edward Sloman (1921 – 28 July 2012) was the founding and longest serving Vice Chancellor of the University of Essex, UK. Background Albert Sloman was born in Cornwall and educated at Launceston College, before attending Wadham Coll ...

,
A University in the Making
' * 1964 Leon Bagrit,
The Age of Automation
' * 1965 Robert Gardiner,
World of Peoples
' * 1966 John K. Galbraith,
The New Industrial State
' * 1967 Edmund Leach,
A Runaway World
' * 1968

Lester Pearson Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian scholar, statesman, diplomat, and politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of ...

,
In the Family of Man
' * 1969

Frank Fraser Darling Sir Frank Fraser Darling FRSE (23 June 1903 – 22 October 1979) was an English ecologist, ornithologist, farmer, conservationist and author, who is strongly associated with the highlands and islands of Scotland. He gives his name to the Fraser ...

,
Wilderness and Plenty
'

1970s

* 1970

Donald Schon Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...

,
Change and Industrial Society
' * 1971 Richard Hoggart,
Only Connect
' * 1972

Andrew Shonfield Sir Andrew Akiba Shonfield (10 August 1917 – 23 January 1981) was a British economist best known for writing ''Modern Capitalism'' (1966), a book that documented the rise of long-term planning in postwar Europe. Shonfield's argument that plann ...

,
Europe: Journey to an Unknown Destination
' * 1973

Alastair Buchan Alastair Buchan (born 16 October 1955) is a British neurologist and researcher in stroke medicine. His main research interest is how to make neuroprotection a reality in the clinic. From October 2008 until January 2017, he served as the Dean of ...

,
Change Without War
' * 1974

Ralf Dahrendorf Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and a ...

,
The New Liberty
' * 1975

Daniel Boorstin Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004) was an American historian at the University of Chicago who wrote on many topics in American and world history. He was appointed the twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in ...

,
America and the World Experience
' * 1976

,
Mechanics of the Mind
' * 1977

A. H. Halsey Albert Henry 'Chelly' Halsey (13 April 1923 – 14 October 2014) was a British sociologist. He was Emeritus Professor of Social and Administrative Studies at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of ...

,
Change in British Society
' * 1978 Edward Norman,
Christianity and the World
' * 1979 Ali Mazrui,
The African Condition
'

1980s

* 1980 Professor Sir Ian Kennedy,
Unmasking Medicine
' * 1981

Laurence Martin Sir Laurence Woodward Martin (30 July 1928 – 24 April 2022) was a British academic who was the vice-chancellor of Newcastle University from 1978 to 1990. Life and career Martin was born on 30 July 1928 in Cornwall. Educated at St Austell Gram ...

,
The Two Edged Sword
' * 1982 Denis Donoghue,
The Arts Without Mystery
' * 1983 Douglas Wass,
Government and the Governed
' * 1984

John Searle John Rogers Searle (; born July 31, 1932) is an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. He began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1959, and was Willis S. and Mario ...

,
Minds, Brains and Science
' * 1985 David Henderson,
Innocence and Design
' * 1986 Lord McCluskey,
Law, Justice and Democracy
' * 1987

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic. Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...

,
The Survival of the Symphony
' * 1988 Geoffrey Hosking,
The Rediscovery of Politics
' * 1989

Jacques Darras Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

,
Beyond the Tunnel of History
'

1990s

* 1990

Jonathan Sacks Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks ( he, יונתן הנרי זקס, translit=Yona'tan Henry Zaks; 8 March 19487 November 2020) was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United He ...

,
The Persistence of Faith
' * 1991

Steve Jones Steve or Steven Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Steve Jones (English presenter) (born 1945), English musician, disk jockey, television presenter, and voice-over artist *Steve Jones (musician) (born 1955), English rock and roll guita ...

,
The Language of Genes
' * There was no lecture in 1992 because "the BBC simply couldn't find anyone to do them" * 1993 Edward Said,
Representation of the Intellectual
' * 1994 Marina Warner,
Managing Monsters
' * 1995

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...

,
Sustainable City
' * 1996

Jean Aitchison Jean Margaret Aitchison (born 3 July 1938) is a Professor Emerita of Language and Communication in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Her main areas of interest i ...

,
The Language Web
' * 1997

Patricia Williams Patricia J. Williams (born August 28, 1951) is an American legal scholar and a proponent of critical race theory, a school of legal thought that emphasizes race as a fundamental determinant of the American legal system. Early life Williams recei ...

,
The Genealogy of Race
' * 1998 John Keegan,
War in Our World
' * 1999

Anthony Giddens Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is an English sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists and is t ...

,
The Runaway World
'

2000s

* 2000

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

, Sir John Browne,

Thomas Lovejoy Thomas Eugene Lovejoy III (August 22, 1941December 25, 2021) was an American ecologist who was President of the Amazon Biodiversity Center, a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and a university professor in the Environmental Science a ...

Gro Harlem Brundtland Gro Brundtland (; born Gro Harlem, 20 April 1939) is a Norwegian politician (Arbeiderpartiet), who served three terms as the 29th prime minister of Norway (1981, 1986–89, and 1990–96) and as the director-general of the World Health Organizati ...

Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva (born 5 November 1952) is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred to as "Gandhi ...

, Charles, Prince of Wales,
Respect for the Earth
' * 2001 Tom Kirkwood,
The End of Age
' * 2002

Onora O'Neill Onora Sylvia O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve (born 23 August 1941) is a British philosopher and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Early life and education Onora Sylvia O'Neill was born on 23 August 1941 in Aughafatten. The dau ...

,
A Question of Trust?
' * 2003

Vilayanur S. Ramachandran Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 10 August 1951) is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his wide-ranging experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a disti ...

,
The Emerging Mind
' * 2004

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

,
Climate of Fear
' * 2005

Lord Broers Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, (born 17 September 1938) is a British electrical engineer. In 1994 Broers was elected an international member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to electronic beam lithography and microsc ...

,
The Triumph of Technology
' * 2006

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...

,
In the Beginning was Sound
' * 2007 Jeffrey Sachs,
Bursting at the Seams
' * 2008 Professor Jonathan Spence,
Chinese Vistas
' * 2009

Michael Sandel Michael Joseph Sandel (; born March 5, 1953) is an American political philosophy, political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, where his course Justice was the unive ...

,
A New Citizenship
'

2010s

* 2010 Martin Rees, ''Scientific Horizons'' * 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...

and

Baroness Manningham-Buller Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

, ''Securing Freedom'' * 2012 Niall Ferguson, ''The Rule of Law and Its Enemies'' * 2013

Grayson Perry Grayson Perry (born 1960) is an English contemporary artist, writer and broadcaster. He is known for his ceramic vases, tapestries, and cross-dressing, as well as his observations of the contemporary arts scene, and for dissecting British "pre ...

, ''Playing to the Gallery'' * 2014 Atul Gawande, ''The Future of Medicine'' * 2015 Stephen Hawking's lecture was postponed because of illness * 2016 (March) Stephen Hawking, ''Do Black Holes Have No Hair?'' *2016 (October)

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah wa ...

, ''Mistaken Identities'' * 2017

Hilary Mantel Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...

, ''Resurrection: The Art And Craft'' * 2018 Margaret MacMillan, ''The Mark of Cain'' *2019 Jonathan Sumption, ''Law and the Decline of Politics''

2020s

*2020 Mark Carney, ''How We Get What We Value - From Moral to Market Sentiments'' *2021 Stuart J. Russell, ''Living with Artificial Intelligence'' *2022 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, ''Freedom of Speech'';

Lord Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the B ...

, ''Freedom of worship''; Darren McGarvey, ''Freedom from want''

References

External links

*
History

Listen to archived lectures
{{Portal bar, BBC, Radio 1948 establishments in the United Kingdom 1948 radio programme debuts Annual events in the United Kingdom BBC Radio 4 programmes BBC World Service programmes Lecture series Radio-related lists