Wallace talks

A. NON-TECHNICAL TALKS & INTERVIEWS

David Attenborough"Wallace and the birds of paradise". Audio talk at the American Museum of Natural History in November 2013.

Bill Bailey (Comedian). Audio interview about Wallace and the making of bill's excellent 2 part series Jungle Hero about Wallace. Download the podcast by clicking HERE).

George Beccaloni (Natural History Museum, London). The Legacy of Wallace. Video of a talk about Wallace's life and work and his discovery of natural selection, given on the 25th August 2013 at Ancestor's Trail 2013.

George Beccaloni (Natural History Museum, London). Audio interview on RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland on 6th September 2013.

George Beccaloni & David AttenboroughAudio interview broadcast on BBC Radio 4 'Inside Science' on the 7th November 2013 - the 100th anniversary of Wallace's death.

George Beccaloni & Caroline Catchpole (Natural History Museum, London). Video presentation about Wallace and a behind-the-scenes look at the the London Natural History Museum's Wallace Archive. January 2013.

George Beccaloni & Jo Cooper (Natural History Museum, London). "Darwin, Wallace and the discovery of natural selection": an audio presentation given for "Nature Live" at The Natural History Museum, London, on July 1st 2008 - the 150th anniversary of announcement of Darwin and Wallace's discovery.

George Beccaloni, Ted Benton & Steve Jones. Audio interview with Melvyn Bragg on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time,  broadcast on 21 March 2013.

George Beccaloni & Ruth Benny: Video presentation about Wallace and the Wallace Correspondence Project entitled "Wallace Treasures from London's Natural History Museum" filmed on 9 January 2015 at the Natural History Museum, London. The video was publically screened on the 14th February at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, as part of their event a "Valentine to Alfred Russel Wallace".

Andrew Berry (Harvard University). "'An industrious and persevering traveler': Alfred Russel Wallace's extraordinary scientific journey". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Andrew Berry (Harvard University). Audio of talk given at Harvard Museum of Natural History's Alfred Russel Wallace Day on October 26 2013.

Andrew Berry (Harvard University). Audio interview. RadioWest, USA in December 2013.

Andrew Berry (Harvard University). "100 Years On: Alfred Russel Wallace". Video of a talk given at Sabancı University, Turkey, in 2013.

Andrew Berry (Harvard University). "Happy birthday Darwin and hello Alfred Wallace". Audio interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, August 29, 2009.

Greg Bole (Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Canada). "Alfred Russel Wallace: a journey into adventure, discovery, and evolution". Video of talk given on 15 February 2014.

Jim Costa (Highlands Biological Station & Western Carolina University): "Wallace and Darwin on the Evolutionary Trail". Video of a talk given on 14 February 2015 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, as part of their event a "Valentine to Alfred Russel Wallace".

Wade Davis (anthropologist and biologist). "Wallace's journey continues: Richard Evans Schultes' explorations 1941-1953". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Jared Diamond (UCLA, USA). "An update - biogeography in the Malay Archipelago" Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Oscar Flores Villela (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). "Alfred Russel Wallace, the last of the great Victorians (1823-1913)" a talk given on November 13, 2013. 

Tim Laman (wildlife photographer and field biologist). "In Wallace's footsteps - eight years in the pursuit of the birds-of-paradise". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Ed Larson (Pepperdine University). "Wallace's dilemma: the ongoing struggle to balance science and spirituality". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Richard Milner (AMNH, New York): "Wallace, Darwin, and Spiritualism: The Trial of the Spirit-Medium Henry Slade, 1876" . Video of a talk given on 14 February 2015 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, as part of their event a "Valentine to Alfred Russel Wallace".

James Moore (Open University, UK). Audio talk about Wallace's life and work. 2012.

Redmond O'Hanlon & Sandy Knapp. Audio interview on the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives in 2008.

David Quammen (Writer). "The man who wasn't Darwin". Audio interview by Kathleen Dunn on Wisconsin Public Radio, December 15, 2008.

Peter Raby (Wallace biographer). Audio interview for Scientific American in November 2013.

Peter Raby (Wallace biographer). Video of a talk entitled "Wallace the nomad", given on the 24th August 2013 at the Ancestor's Trail "Wallace in Bristol" event in 2013.

Edwin Scholes (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). "In Wallace's footsteps - eight years in the pursuit of the birds-of-paradise". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

Michael Shermer (Wallace biographer). In Charles Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace. Video of a talk given in 2002.

Michael Shermer (Wallace biographer). "Wallace's 'heretical' view of human evolution". Video of a talk given at UCLA's Alfred Russel Wallace Centenary Celebration on 15 November 2014.

John van Wyhe (University of Singapore). Video presentation. 2012. "Did Dawin steal the theory of evolution from Wallace?"

For other Wallace-related video presentations CLICK HERE

B. ACADEMIC TALKS 

1) AUDIO OF TALKS GIVEN AT A CONFERENCE ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF WALLACE AT THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON ON 22 NOVEMBER 2008 (see http://wallacefund.info/smn-conference-alfred-russel-wallace-podcasts-and-photos)These talks were recorded for the Scientific and Medical Network by Martin Redfern (Senior Producer in the BBC Radio Science Unit) and Martin and the SMN have kindly allowed the Wallace Fund to put copies of the sound files on this website. The talks are mp3 files of around 20MB each and you can download them by right clicking a link below and saving the file to your hard drive. They can then be played using any audio player (e.g. RealPlayer - http://uk.real.com/player/win/). 

i) Introduction by Aubrey Manning, followed by Alfred Russel Wallace: The Evolution of an Unforgotten Naturalist by Peter Raby [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

ii) Wallace, Darwin and the Discovery of Natural Selection by George Beccaloni [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

iii) Wallace, Darwin and the Discovery of Natural Selection - a New Interpretation of the Events by Roy Davies [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

iv) Wallace and Final Causes: Spiritualism, Evolution, and Beyond by Charles Smith [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

v) Alfred Russel Wallace as a Social Reformer by David Collard [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

vi) DISCUSSION [RIGHT CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD]

2) VIDEOS OF TALKS FROM A LECTURE SERIES "MORE THAN NATURAL SELECTION" AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, CANADA IN OCTOBER 2013:

i) The time travelers: Alfred Russel Wallace and Peter Kropotkin by Kathleen Lowrey (Associate Professor Anthropology University of Alberta). Interview with Kathleen Lowrey (or HERE)

ii) Alfred Russel Wallace, Mars, Extra-Terrestrials and the Nature of the Universe by Robert Smith (Professor, History and Classics University of Alberta). Interview with Robert Smith (or HERE)

iii) Alfred Russel Wallace, Collector by Andrew Berry (Lecturer on Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Harvard University). Interview with Andrew Berry (or HERE)

iv) Wallace on Science and the Problems of Progress by Martin Fichman (Professor, Department of Humanities York University). Interview with Martin Fichman (or HERE)

v) Other Worlds: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Cross-Cultures of Spiritualism by Christine Ferguson (Senior Lecturer, English Literature University of Glasgow). Interview with Christine Ferguson (or HERE)

3) AUDIO OF TALKS GIVEN AT A CONFERENCE "ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE AND HIS LEGACY" AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY LONDON, 21-22 OCTOBER 2013:

 i) Wallace’s life by George Beccaloni (Natural History Museum, UK)

ii) Wallace and Darwin: what really happened? by John van Wyhe (National University of Singapore, Singapore)

iii) Natural selection a la Wallace by Janet Browne (Harvard University, USA)

iv) Wallace and the limits to natural selection by Steve Jones (University College London, UK)

v) Early Humboldtian influences on Alfred Russel Wallace’s scheme of nature by Charles H. Smith (Western Kentucky University, USA)

vi) The modern biogeographical legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace by Lynne Parenti (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, USA)

vii) Wallace and colouration by Dick Vane-Wright (Natural History Musuem, UK)

viii) Colouration today by Tim Caro (University of California, Davis, USA)

ix) Wallace’s understanding of species and speciation by James Mallet (University College London and Harvard University, UK and USA)

x) Wallace, Darwin and female choice by Tim Birkhead (University of Sheffield, UK)

xi) Wallace and human evolution by (Ted Benton, University of Essex, UK)

xii) Old and new views on human evolution by Chris Stringer (Natural History Museum, UK)

xiii) Wallace and the universe by Martin Rees (University of Cambridge, UK)

xiv) The vaccination controversy by Leszek Borysiewicz (University of Cambridge, UK)

xv) Wallace, a social scientist’s perspective by David Stack (University of Reading, UK)

xvi) The Wallace legacy by Andrew Berry (Harvard University, USA)

4) VIDEOS OF THREE TALKS ABOUT WALLACE AT A SYMPOSIUM "WALLACE, ISLANDS, AND BIOGEOGRAPHY - 100 YEARS LATER" HELD IN ATLANTA, USA, ON THE 22nd NOVEMBER 2013.

5) A remarkably insightful talk about the development of Wallace's theory of natural selection by historian of science Jonathan Hodge (University of Leeds) given in November 2013. It is entitled "Why and how Wallace became the second Darwinian" and the audio can be heard HERE.

6) VIDEOS (IN SPANISH) OF EIGHT TALKS ABOUT WALLACE AT A SYMPOSIUM AT THE INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS NATURALES UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA (SOUTH AMERICA) ON THE 7TH NOVEMBER 2013:

i) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Presentación y Ciencia al Viento  

ii) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - "A Wonderful Life" (Xavier Marquínez)  

iii) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Wallace en la Amazonía (Camilo Torres Sánchez)

iv) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Aportes a la biogeografía (Daniel Miranda)

v) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Aportes a la entomología (Carlos Sarmiento)

vi) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Debate Darwin - Wallace (Eugenio Andrade y Joao Muñoz Durán)

vii) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Cien años de su Social Environment and Moral Progress

viii) Centenario de Alfred Russel Wallace - Sesión de preguntas

7) VIDEOS OF TALKS GIVEN AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY'S (NEW YORK) WALLACE CENTENARY CONFERENCE ON THE 12TH NOVEMBER 2013:

i) Errol Fuller on Victorian collectors.

ii) Richard Milner on Wallace, Spiritualism and the Slade Trial.

iii) Andrew Berry on Wallace's life of adventure.

iv) Jim Costa on Wallace, Darwin and natural selection.

v) Jim Costa on Wallace's Species Notebook.

vi) Lee Dugatkin on smashing Wallace's 'white picket fence'.

vii) Andrew Berry on Wallace and biogeography.

viii) Andrew Berry on Wallace and the 'problem of man'

ix) David Quammen on Wallace's magnificent quest.

x) Charles Smith on Wallace and final causes.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith