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[Assistant] They did have more time to spend with the patients. They had access to the patients' families, and so they could figure out what people needed and provide those resources for them. My team and I call this culturally congruent coaching.


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[Assistant] To illustrate this concept of culturally congruent coaching, I want to tell you about one of our patients. I'll call her Ms. Bertha.


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[Assistant] So Ms. Bartha is an 83-year-old lady with diabetes and hypertension. She was assigned to Ann, her health coach in the church.


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[Assistant] Anne also happened to be a family friend to Ms. Bertha for many years, and they were fellow congregants.


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[Assistant] She told her that there were times when her medications made her feel weird and she wouldn't take them the way they were prescribed because she thought it was due to the medicines, but she didn't tell her doctor that.


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[Assistant] She also skipped out on some doctor appointments for a variety of reasons, but one of them was she wasn't doing better and she didn't want to make her doctor mad so she just didn't go.


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[Assistant] Anne talked to Ms. Bertha and asked her to bring her daughter in for the next visit, which she did. And at that visit,


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[Assistant] Anne was able to print out a log of all these stats that Ms. Bertha had been collecting, gave them to her and encouraged them to go see the doctor together, which they did.


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[Assistant] With that information, the doctor was able to make changes to Ms. Bertha's treatment.


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[Assistant] And like, within three months, Ms. Bertha's numbers were all in the green. Now no one was more excited or surprised than Ms. Bertha herself.


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[Assistant] Now Anne was successful as a health coach because she cared enough to go below the surface and probe Ms. Bertha's deep culture and was able to reach her at that level. She knew how to listen and she knew how to ask the right questions to get to what was needed. We all have


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[Assistant] Deep unconscious rules that drive the way we make our health decisions. That's our culture.


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[Assistant] The relationship and the conversation between Anne and Ms. Bertha illustrates what's possible when we have conversations with our patients.


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[Assistant] Our friends and our neighbors on a deep cultural level and personally, I'm beyond excited to think that with this simple concept of culturally common coaching, we could change the lives of 125 million Americans and many others across the world that are living with chronic diseases. Thank you.


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[Assistant] You know, it's great to be here. Let's get that right. Uhm, I don't think you guys realize how big this program is outside Australia. We work on the American MasterChef. But right now, the Australian version is a phenomenon. And the good news for me is that in this room is some serious talent.


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[Assistant] Every time you're standing still, do nothing, there's something wrong. Fill in those gaps, push yourself, and keep an option up your sleeve.


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[Assistant] So here we have a amazing array of ingredients that I grew up with.


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[Assistant] These scallops take seconds to cook. Screw them up and it's like eating the inside of a golf ball. The rack-o-lap.


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[Assistant] That's the best. That's the Rolls-Royce cut, okay? So from a chef's point of view, it won't get any better than that. If you're uncertain, using that cut, bypass it. It is so unforgiving.


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[Assistant] Right, all of you, get out your comfort zone. It's a competition. And I've traveled to taste greatness. Understood?


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[Assistant] What would I do? I'd go straight for the lamb. If you can show me that you can cook that lamb beautifully, pink, with a wonderful crust on there, you're gonna head further than the immunity, trust me. Right. Your 75 minutes starts now. Let's go.


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[Assistant] Pea puree maybe, roasted whole cauliflower, and then come up with an exciting lamb jus.


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[Assistant] And that money shot for me is slicing through that first rack of lamb. Pink, caramelize that fat down, and make that pea puree amazing.


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[Assistant] So you've got a cauliflower crust on the rack of lamb. Where did you see this? My mind.


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[Assistant] Don't find it around trimming it all, but the lamb needs to rest.


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[Assistant] Tick over. Pete Crosby, careful, you're SMP.


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[Assistant] Gina, focus on that lamp. Sure. Got me? Good luck.


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[Assistant] Gotcha. Where's the other two lamb chops? Where are they?


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[Assistant] Reese, you know, you're a daband in the bakery department. Uhm, so, bit of a shock for me. Seasoned.


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[Assistant] Beautifully on point. The lamb cooked, you know, superbly. You've got the balance absolutely spot on with the richness of the puree. Uhm, what would I change? Maybe take one layer of fat off. You can see just a little bit too much fat left in there. But you've nailed the hero. That's the lamb.


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[Assistant] Uhm, here's the thing, close your eyes, taste the magic, because the seasoning's on point. The flavor you've got out of the lamb, beautiful. But the dichotomy of the mixes of the cauliflower, breathtaking.


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[Assistant] We teach our cooks how to, you know, assemble cauliflower three, four, five ways like that. You've nailed it. But the jus and the tenderness of the lamb is absolutely spot on.


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[Assistant] Right, the next dish we'd like to taste belongs to Gina.


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[Assistant] Charming. Delicious. Lamb cooked hugely. But the seasoning's on point. But for me, clearly the lamb's the hero, but the Yorkshire pudding's the die for.


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[Assistant] Overcooked the lamb. We'd never eat that. It's grey, it's gone.


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[Assistant] The secret of a rack of lamb is in its resting. I said to you all, get it in, let it rest.


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[Assistant] But I'm dying to taste the scallop sauce with the leaves of the cauliflower, which I'd normally serve to my rabbit.


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[Assistant] Such a shame. Because the flavor profile is beautiful.


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[Assistant] And you had the guts to use the scallops, which weirdly were, because it's sweet. The leaves and the scallops on top of the lamb is the big hit for me.


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[Assistant] Young man, I'm gonna be honest with you. That is worth travelling 17,000 kilometers for, let me tell you. Delicious. Thank you. It's got, it's got hearts.


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[Assistant] The smartness with the beer batter and what you've done with the cauliflower, lamb nailed, sauce with the beer. You know, you've got balls, clearly. And you know how to dress food and turn chefs on.


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[Assistant] First of all, well done. All five of you. Five great dishes. Showed great finesse. A lot of confidence. And at this stage in competition, putting that on a plate now, man, it's gonna be a great year.


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[Assistant] Big question for me tonight is, will they fry and taste their blend first before they sandwich it together? Yeah, exactly. If they don't, it's on a tightrope, dangerous line. If they do, smart intuition of a cook.


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[Assistant] So, classic burger, great blend, extra fat in there, great seasoning. What are your spices up with? Uhm, I'm gonna put some, uhm, jalapeno jam on top.


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[Assistant] What about the fries? Any starch? On the side I'm going to do an onion ring. Okay, good. Good luck. Thank you. Sounds amazing.


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[Assistant] What about the sauce? Slaw, mayo, cilantro, where you going? Got the fries ready, the sides ready, but the lobsters still raw.


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[Assistant] It's 75 minutes, not seven and a half weeks. Yeah. Get that lobster cooked. Oh shit.


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[Assistant] Thank you. So, Samir, describe the burger, please.


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[Assistant] But even the bread is good. How you've made bread like that, toasted it, and got that to blend. You've got the ratios right. You've actually nailed the burger. And the seasoning and the heat's beautifully done.


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[Assistant] So that worries me, you're already apologizing. So what are you apologizing about?


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[Assistant] The actual burger is still raw. So, uh, yeaah.


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[Assistant] You know, could come out of any great gastropub. Love it.


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[Assistant] Onion rings are one of the best sides this evening. You got the heat. Spiciness. It does work. Yeaah. Really good.


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[Assistant] I came here to push you to get the best. So, dust yourselves down. Get a grip and focus. The journey back is way more exciting than the journey at the top. That's what's gonna make Australia's next MasterChef. Understood? Yes Chef. Understood? Yes Chef.


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[Assistant] Which makes me my perfectionist and I am a really harsh critic on myself.


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[Assistant] All of a sudden, butterflies and nerves kick in. Oh my gosh, you have to get this right, it's his dish. My hands start shaking and I start getting a little bit squiggly.


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[Assistant] I'm just in disbelief. Everyone else has done sugar cages. I need to get into the peaches. But I need to finish off my second sugar cage.


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[Assistant] I just need to get a move on right now. I can't think of anything else. I just need to really pace it.


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[Assistant] I remember tasting Darren's chocolate color. There's a really nice snap and it's super thin. It's no more than a millimeter. Where's Uda?


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[Assistant] I've gotta make sure that I control my nerves because if I break it, I've got nothing else. Go Jenny!


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[Assistant] My chocolate collar is too small for this wheel. So I cut it in half so that way I still get it on the plate.


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[Assistant] As I walk in to see the judges, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get the plating perfect.


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[Assistant] I know that I got all the elements onto the plate, so I'm still hoping that it's gonna be a great tasting.


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[Assistant] Oh, I'm feeling really good. Uh, I think it went well. I felt under the pump and definitely pressure, and when I had to do the sugar cage a few times, I started to get a little bit flustered there, but the rest of it was really enjoyable.


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[Assistant] I've really enjoyed having Gordon in the kitchen this week. It's been a once in a lifetime opportunity.


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[Assistant] Let's do this, Lucky. Knowing that he has set this challenge, I'm excited, anxious, scared, all rolled into one.


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[Assistant] Oh my god. Delicious. That conch you made is out of this world.


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[Assistant] Grab your fingers, yeah, push it in, yeah, and catch it, and then yank it out. Yay! Wishbone!


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[Assistant] He seems so odd and strange.


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[Assistant] Every time Mo asked, Can we invite Badger today?


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[Assistant] Why do we see only one side of the moon? Cuz the other side is shy. Nah.


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[Assistant] Our moon takes about 27 days to rotate around its own axis and 27.3 days to revolve around the earth. This means the moon rotates around its axis at almost the same rate or speed as it revolves around the earth.


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[Assistant] Hence, the same side of the moon is constantly facing the Earth, making us see only one or same side of the moon.


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[Assistant] However, if the moon did not rotate on its axis, then we could see the other side of the moon.


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[Assistant] We would also see the other side, if the moon rotated in 13.5 days. That is, it made two rotations in one revolution.


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[Assistant] They'll be coming in thick and fast. You'll hear the machine going da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Printing out dockets like a proper, real cafe. The way it should be.


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[Assistant] So Red Team, who's the captain? Aldo!


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[Assistant] Blue team, who's it gonna be? Kristin. Fantastic.


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[Assistant] And that chicken salad is delicious. I mean the heat of the dressing but not too overpowering, the sweetness, the acidity, it's a cracker. It's done really well. And the chicken's been poached beautifully.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Well that's a cracking start from the blue team. Time to taste the red team's efforts. Can't wait.


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[Assistant] And making brioche, well, kudos to them because it's fantastic. That's the above and beyond. Is it crucial?


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[Assistant] It's good, uhm, and it's clever. I actually love the addition of watermelon in there because you get these pops of freshness.


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[Assistant] Right, let's get down to business. Blue team, let's see how you win.


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[Assistant] We were slightly confused because there was a certain sandiness about the dish and I think that would have come through something like samolina. But.


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[Assistant] Who cooked that? Hands up. Lisa and I. Wow. Kana Lisa, congratulations. Chicken poached beautifully.


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[Assistant] Samira's started to score the eggplants and she's doing a really good job. So I'm going to jump onto the broth and try and infuse as much flavour as I can. You know I love me a stock here.


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[Assistant] We're gonna be soaking shiitake mushrooms. And I add some soy, I add some mirin, a little bit of rice wine vinegar and some sugar. Got a lot of umami flavours in there. Oh, this smells so good. Yum. Sorry, I'm just gonna come in. Hi.


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[Assistant] With the agadashi eggplant, I'm putting six pieces into a bowl with about a ladle and a half of the broth.


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[Assistant] Samira and I have both tried this dish and we love the flavours.


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[Assistant] Awesome. The broth is amazing. I'm really, really happy with how it turned out. I just hope that we've hit the brief.


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[Assistant] And I'm worried that this is a little bit too outside of the box for brunch. So let me know when you need eggplant, Kristen.


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[Assistant] I think it's going to be quite the challenge and I'm looking forward to being put to the test.


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[Assistant] I'm thinking I need something sweet, something textural, but really high acid. And I'm looking at the vegetable tables.


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[Assistant] It's a bit scary because these crisps have to be lovely and crunchy.


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[Assistant] I've gotta block that out and I've just gotta get the food on the plate. It's a ballpark idea. I just don't know if this is going to throw the judges or if they're gonna be on board with the potato dessert.


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[Assistant] Potato dessert with the rosemary and ginger granita.


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[Assistant] I was flying by the seat of my pants and it pays off, just shows you take the risk. I'm a little bit bummed for Samira, but I'm stoked that the dish was received really well.


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[Assistant] The subject in this lecture is Edward Gibbon's great historical work on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Just to pause, what justification can there be for a course like this, a course on English literature,


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[Assistant] Trespassing, one might think, on the preserves of another discipline. Now one justification


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[Assistant] Is that term which has been used frequently in this course's discussion of 18th century literature, namely Augustanism. Now that term relates of course


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[Assistant] To the rule of the first Roman Emperor, Augustus, from the 27th year before Christ to the 14th year AD.


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[Assistant] And the golden age which Augustus presided over.


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[Assistant] Augustus instantly appears in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra as Octavian, a terribly nice person. Uh, but that's by the way. Now, this, the


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[Assistant] The rule of Augustus is where givens great history begin.


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[Assistant] Thereafter, for reasons which Gibbon describes, at great length and with massive scholarly apparatus, it was decline all the way.


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[Assistant] We'll examine some of the principle causes that Gibbon perceives for Rome's decline. Principally Christianity, interestingly enough. More about that later.


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[Assistant] Consider Given's initial description of the Augustan high point in the opening paragraph of the work.


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[Assistant] They forecast everything that follows and, and they chime exactly with the idealism which writers of English literature had in the middle of the 18th century. This is, this is how the great work begins. The beginning of the first chapter.


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[Assistant] In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy


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[Assistant] were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces.


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[Assistant] Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.


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[Assistant] The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence. The Roman Senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority and devolved on the emperor's all the executive powers of government.


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[Assistant] During a happy period of more than four score years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines.


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[Assistant] I love the way that Given weighs every word and the precision and the conversational way in which he writes. More of that later.


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[Assistant] Now the seven first centuries of Rome's rise, given notes parenthetically, don't interest him. The actual rise of the empire is something he almost doesn't have time for. He's interested at the high point and why that high point did not last. And he, he, he


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[Assistant] Talks about the decline as a rapid series of triumphs, but it was reserved


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[Assistant] For Augustus to relinquish the ambitious design of subduing the whole Earth.


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[Assistant] Augustus didn't really overextend Rome. The early years, the early centuries of Rome were those of expansion, of, of, of, as he says, of vanquishing and of valor, of actually sort of spreading the boundaries limitlessly in an Alexander of the Great way. More worlds to conquer. But what Augustus realized was something quite different.


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[Assistant] Augustus, Gibbon suggests, allowed Rome to turn away from that project of globe, global conquest. But, but if that's what


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[Assistant] Augustus was turning away from, from global conquest. What was he turning towards?


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[Assistant] He was turning towards Rome civilizing itself, creating its great institutional and cultural monuments, uhm, among which of course was, was literature.


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[Assistant] But did that turning away, that introversion back to this kind of civilizing mission, did that in some sense doom the empire?


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[Assistant] That is the great enigma which accompanies our reading of the history that follows.


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[Assistant] Now, a second justification for this raid that we're conducting on another discipline's territory, on history, is that


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[Assistant] At the time that Gibbon's great work was conceived, composed and published, the fences between disciplines were lower than they are today.


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[Assistant] One of the most striking features of writing a public discourse in the 18th century is that everything, whatever the genre or discipline, is literary.


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[Assistant] Sermons, such as Lawrence Stern's for instance, are literary. Science is literary. The Royal Society, in its opening manifesto, enjoined a close, naked, natural way of speaking. A literary style on scientists. Isaac Newton can be a literary style. Hymns are high literature.


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[Assistant] Political speeches, those of Edmund Burke for example, are as literary as anything Alexander Pope did. Let me just quote from Burke's speech to Parliament on conciliation with America. This is a year before the American Revolution and two years before Gibbon published the first volume of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.


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[Assistant] This is Burke speaking to his fellow parliamentarians.


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[Assistant] Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your government. They will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance.


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[Assistant] But let it be once understood that your government may be one thing and their privilege is another, that these two things may exist without any mutual relation, the cement is gone.


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[Assistant] Can one imagine any modern politician addressing Parliament, the House of Lords, Congress, or the Senate, using this elevated oratory? Does it sound to the ear like political science, or rather, what it surely is, high literature?


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[Assistant] But even, God help us, dictionary definitions as devised by Dr. Johnson are literary in the heyday of the 18th century. And if we credit Boswell, so is coffeehouse conversation literary in a way which our interchanges aren't.


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[Assistant] To summarize, a high literary age, and its tone was literary, and it articulated itself everywhere in the finest prose and poetry.


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[Assistant] And nowhere more so than in the field of scholarship we're looking at in this lecture, history.


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[Assistant] Historians today write well, they write functionally, they write accurately, but they do not in general see themselves as great stylists on a pile with say Philip Roth or Salman Rushdie. Some of them indeed might think that would get in the way of doing history.


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[Assistant] For most it would seem irrelevant whether they, as the phrase goes, write like angels. Just as long as they get it right. That's what matters.


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[Assistant] But Edward Gibbon most definitely is a literary artist, as well as arguably one of the very greatest historians England has produced.


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[Assistant] But he's also, and this is my assertion in this lecture, one of the country's very greatest prose writers, up there with Jane Austen or William Tyndale.


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[Assistant] First, something about the man himself, Edward Gibbon. He was born in 1737.


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[Assistant] Into the land of gentry, like Fielding, for example. Like Stern, Gibbon's health was from childhood on poor. Had he been more robust, who knows he might have been a great politician, a judge, or a prince of the church. But his hold on the world was always weak.


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[Assistant] Which perhaps made that world particularly interesting to him.


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[Assistant] So, a retired life, one of study and books, was dictated by his fragile health. We can be grateful, perhaps, for that illness that made him what he was, a great writer.


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[Assistant] As a child, nursed by a devoted aunt.


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[Assistant] Gibbon developed the taste for books, which is still, he means always, always still the pleasure and glory of my life.


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[Assistant] He read voraciously. He was educated in a more or less desultory way at Oxford, but that place, rigid in its ways, had little to teach him. He learned a lot there, but it didn't teach him very much. The main source of his intellectual growth was overseas. He was imbibing.


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[Assistant] The spirit of the European and to a lesser extent the Scottish Enlightenment.


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[Assistant] What was that? Well, the Enlightenment was based on the notion that the universe was amenable. It was comprehensible by human reason.


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[Assistant] You could, you could, by looking and thinking, know everything that's worth knowing in life. Mind was king. It could spread light. How does Samuel Johnson's great poem begin?


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[Assistant] Let observation with extensive view survey mankind from China to Peru.


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[Assistant] And that's exactly what Edward Gibbon would do, but survey it from Rome to England and back again.


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[Assistant] Gibbon's great history is, apart from being a great history, a major monument of the English Enlightenment.


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[Assistant] There was a strange interlude in Gibbon's youth in 1753 when he converted to Roman Catholicism. A year later, after travel in Europe, he re-converted to Protestantism.


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[Assistant] Thereafter, it seems he was largely a skeptic about religion. You know, like that other great philosopher, historian David Hume.


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[Assistant] At the same period, he's still a young man, Gibbon fell in love with a Swiss girl. It fell through. And Gibbon would have no distractions.


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[Assistant] Had not his great predecessor, Francis Bacon said,


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[Assistant] He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly the best works and of greatest merit for the public have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men.


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[Assistant] Well, Gibbon would have no such impediments. There would be no Mrs. Gibbon and Little Gibbons. His work...


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[Assistant] As he noted in the preface to the fourth book, required health, perseverance and leisure. And no domestic distraction so vast was its scheme.


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[Assistant] If Lawrence Stern wittily exhibited the impossibility of compressing a single life into a printed book, how could the largest empire history had ever known be so recorded and so compressed? Nonetheless, Gibbon would do it. At the expense of his life, as it turned out, that he would do it.


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[Assistant] Now Gibbon's Steeping in Europe and Europe of the High Enlightenment continued with the Grand Tour. This in fact was the finishing element in a gentleman's education of his class. And momentously on that Grand Tour, his first experience of the eternal city, Rome.


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[Assistant] As he recalled later in a famous passage in his memoirs, this is what he wrote.


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[Assistant] I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the Eternal City.


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[Assistant] After a sleepless night, I trod, with a lofty step, the ruins of the forum. Each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye. And several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a


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[Assistant] Now, you'll note, even in that short, wonderful passage, the move from high, hot emotion to cool and minute ratiocination, as it was called.


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[Assistant] Was it, was Rome, in point of fact, eternal? It was surely ruined.


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[Assistant] It is said, given himself would record the fact that Roman emperors and generals riding back in triumph to Rome would have a slave behind them in the chariot reminding the hero of the day that he too must die. As he wrote and lived,


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[Assistant] Gibbons England, the England celebrated in James Thompson's anthem, Rule Britannia, do you remember that? Was elevating itself to a Roman level of imperial power.


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[Assistant] Givens history, like the skull on the desk, or the slave in the chariot, is a reminder that the greatest empires, even though they touch Augustine Heights, will fall. But why? How could something as solid as Rome dissolve into ruins? Now, this perhaps is to advance things. Suffice it, at this point, to say that


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[Assistant] It was precisely on the 15th of October 1764 that the 27 year old Edward Gibbon resolved, as he said,


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[Assistant] As I sat musing amidst the ruins of the capital while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind. That may be apocryphal.


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[Assistant] But it's important that Christianity is there somewhere as well. How was it that Christianity took over the ruins? Well, that in fact is one of the great narratives, one of the great sub-narratives in the history which follows.


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[Assistant] Back to Gibbon's life, his father died a couple of years later, when he was in his late twenties.


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[Assistant] And that's when Edward was in his late twenties. And this meant the young man could now set himself up as a rich scholar in London. It was very fortunate when a rich father died, because otherwise you might find yourself in a kind of


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[Assistant] He was, he moved to London where his research materials were in the newly established archive that would eventually become the British Library. In London he came to know figures like Dr. Johnson and all the other literary worthies and grandees of the time. They, they in fact were his first readership. They were his, in a sense, his coterie.


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[Assistant] And the power of the coterie, or the club as they called it, was immensely potent at this period.


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[Assistant] Gibbons' standing as a large land owner allowed him to slip easily into parliament, and as an MP, a weak, mildly progressive, but very energetic, it involved no duties, responsibilities, or vexatious calls on Gibbons' time whatsoever.


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[Assistant] The first volume of the history was published in 1777, while America was falling away. Was it, was this the fall of the English Empire? Who knows? Or who knew?


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[Assistant] At the same period as I say Edmund Burke was errating nobly on this subject in parliament.


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[Assistant] That first volume was commercially successful. The next two volumes appeared in 1781, and the final sixth volume was completed for publication in 1788.


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[Assistant] Given recorded the moment that his pen completed the great work, he's very good at annotating his own creativity.


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[Assistant] Heroic and vast enterprise exhausted a frame that had never been strong.


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[Assistant] He moved between Switzerland, which was then a centre of the European Enlightenment, and England, as his health failed in his last years. A whole range and battery of organic ailments assailed him, and he died in 1794. Relatively prematurely.


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[Assistant] Now, when one hails the history as a key text of the Enlightenment and given himself as a giant of the Enlightenment, what does one mean?


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[Assistant] Where precisely is one putting him for that judgement?


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[Assistant] Principally it means that he takes history beyond mere chronicle, calendar and record. You know, what happened, when, how and with what consequences and so on. He takes it into the more philosophical realm of what conclusions should we draw from our contemplation of history.


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[Assistant] What is the big picture that only the reflective mind can see?


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[Assistant] Research for Gibbon was not digging like a mole in hitherto unvisited archives and primary materials.


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[Assistant] What in fact historical research means to a typical doctoral student or practicing historian today. What history meant for Gibbon was applying the powers of a formidable mind like his to the facts as they were arranged in orderly style in front of him.


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[Assistant] Now, as it happens, he had higher scholarly standards than historians such as David Hume and Tobias Smollett, two historians of England, one primarily a philosopher, the other a novelist.


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[Assistant] But nonetheless, Gibbon remains a thinker.


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[Assistant] Not, not in fact, uh, as it were, a digger, an archaeologist, and thinking.


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[Assistant] And then expressing the conclusions of that thought in limpid, crystal clear prose of the highest eloquence. That was Gibbon's intention. That was his achievement as well.


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[Assistant] Enlightenment, or his, his enlightenment, his peculiar program of enlightenment.


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[Assistant] Now, Gibbon's subject was big, but so was his conclusion. And the most explosive reflection in Gibbon's great history of the rise and fall of Rome from the 1st century AD to the 15th century was


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[Assistant] The other Rome which erected itself on the ruins of the first Rome, Christianity that is, the Catholic Church, that entity with which since Henry VIII broke away had been a constant obsession in England.


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[Assistant] Very simply, given conceived that the first Roman Empire fell because, very simply, of moral corruption, self-indulgence, and the loss of civic virtue.


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[Assistant] It lost what had once made it great, the raw energy of its early conquests and the civilized moderation of Augustus.


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[Assistant] Christianity rose, not because it was God's plan that it should rise, but because it had just those qualities which over time the first Roman Empire had let slide.


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[Assistant] What Gibbon calls the pure and austere morals of the Christians gave them eventual victory.


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[Assistant] Christian Rome retained its spiritual hardness, forged in terrible persecution and martyrdom, while Imperial Rome went soft.


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[Assistant] Christianity also, after it gained a foothold under Constantine, corroded the militancy of Rome. The Jewish religion


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[Assistant] Admirably fitted for defense, rights given, but it was never designed for conquest. It could survive triumphantly. It could survive the decay of the Roman Empire, and parasite-like, thrive on what was decaying underneath it, drawing sustenance from what it was insidiously destroying.


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[Assistant] This conclusion, this reflection was certainly not flattering to orthodox sensibilities in England in the late 18th century. Christianity.


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[Assistant] As Gibbon saw it, could never create an empire. It could only inherit one. Or it could inherit the corpse of one.


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[Assistant] The Christian virtue of passive suffering, turning the other cheek, was, as given so, disastrous to ancient Rome. Suckled as it was, you know, Romulus and Remus, remember, on wolf's milk, it could never survive on the milk of human kindness.


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[Assistant] Skeptical appraisal of Christianity is contained notably in the 15th and 16th books of the first 1777 volume. These chapters it was that led to Gibbon being branded heretic and from time to time in various places his magnum opus being banned as a corruptor of Christian faith.


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[Assistant] And this criticism provoked him, provoked Gibbon to write a passionate and eloquent vindication. But let's look at the fifteenth chapter. It opens.


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[Assistant] A candid but rational inquiry into the progress and establishment of Christianity may be considered as a very essential part of the history of the Roman Empire.


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[Assistant] While that great body was invaded by open violence or undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble religion gently insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigor from opposition, and finally erected the triumphant banner of the cross on the ruins of the capital.


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[Assistant] You'll notice that key phrase at the very opening, rational inquiry. This is the keynote, the starting line for what will follow. Exclude faith, hope and authority given instructs. Shine the bright light of reason on the facts as they lie in front of us.


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[Assistant] What follows in those two chapters, chapters 15 and 16, is incendiary in the highest degree. Even today to the modern reader, at points it reads like Swiftian satire.


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[Assistant] The first point to make is that Gibbon, civilized cosmopolitan that he was, had little affection for the ruggedness of the Jewish people. Now, antisemitism is one criticism which is frequently leveled at Gibbon.


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[Assistant] He does not like God's chosen people. Why, he suggests, would a rational deity not choose the English? Or if he had to, the French, for heaven's sake. What was God thinking of by choosing the Jews?


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[Assistant] It's in the matter of miracles that Gibbon waxes most deadly satirical, most swiftian.


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[Assistant] Why, he asks, with the most cultivated of sneers, did the Almighty reserve these proofs of his existence, miracles that is, for the convenience, that's Given's word, of the Israelites alone?


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[Assistant] My couple of striking miracles in Imperial Rome, or present day England, come to that, would speed up conversion no end, if we make it all Christian.


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[Assistant] Why, given us raising his eyes quizzically from the documentary evidence, do none of the historians of the early empire observe any of the extraordinary social and cosmic events recorded in the New Testament?


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[Assistant] Given assumes a mask of mock amazement as he continues his rational inquiry into this conundrum with the most wonderfully winning of prose. Let me, let me read some to you.


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[Assistant] How shall we excuse the supine inattention of the pagan and philosophic world to those evidences which were represented by the hand of omnipotence, not to their reason, but to their senses?


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[Assistant] During the age of Christ, of his apostles, and of their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed, the dead were raised, demons were expelled, and the laws of nature were frequently suspended for the benefit of the church.


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[Assistant] But the sages of Greece and Rome turned aside from the awful spectacle and, pursuing the ordinary occupations of life and study, appeared unconscious of any alterations in the moral or physical government of the world.


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[Assistant] Under the reign of Tiberius, the whole earth, or at least the celebrated province of the Roman Empire, was involved in a preternatural darkness of three hours.


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[Assistant] Even this miraculous event, which ought to have excited the wonder, the curiosity and the devotion of mankind, passed without notice in an age of science and history. It happened during the lifetime of Seneca and the elder Pliny, who must have experienced the immediate effects or received the earliest intelligence of the prodigy. He avoids the word miracle, by the way.


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[Assistant] Each of these philosophers, in a laborious work, have recorded all the great phenomena of nature, earthquakes, meteors, comets, and eclipses, which his indefatigable curiosity could collect. Both the one and the other have omitted to mention the greatest phenomenon to which the mortal eye has been witnessed since the creation of the globe.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's done with a kind of whole range of effects, which one must call high literary effects. What he's doing here is he, of course he's saying that, he's making a historian's point, that uhm, where is your evidence?


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[Assistant] The gospel asserts, the gospel records, but it gives no evidence, and if we look for collateral evidence, we cannot find it.


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[Assistant] And even the gospel account of the crucifixion, given in first, could be superstitious nonsense. Or, as he would say, it does not stand up to rational inquiry.


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[Assistant] Now, innumerable Christian apologists have confuted, perhaps even they've refuted, given over the ages. And our business in these lectures is not with matters of theological faith or biblical authority.


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[Assistant] Just as we need not be Puritans to love paradise lost as literature.


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[Assistant] Not as Christian doctrine which is what Milton intended. So whether we agree with Gibbon or not, one cannot but be astonished


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[Assistant] As I, I admit I'm astonished by the sinew, or one over perhaps more than astonished by the sinewy strength, the sheer rhetorical elegance, the forensic force and rhythm of his prose. It's great history.


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[Assistant] Yes, uhm, although I think few modern students would return to Gibbon's great work for the historical information it contains. At least it wouldn't be their first port of call. But undeniably, it's great writing. One will always, I think, return to it for that. Now, we have later more thorough


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[Assistant] I've given endures and gives it, I think, a prominence, which would mean that we put it, where do we shove it?


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[Assistant] Well, obviously we show that in, in history, but, but it also belongs, I think, to be in whatever Dewey...


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[Assistant] Decimal classification, one can find for it. It also belongs, uhm, in the great library of English literature.


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[Assistant] Also, I think this work tells us an awful lot about the 18th century. The 18th century


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[Assistant] Its literature is a literature of great confidence. They really did believe that they were recreating something which was equivalent, which was parallel, which was, if you like, even greater than what Augustus had done in those early years of the high point of the Roman Empire.


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[Assistant] But at the same time, there was that uneasiness, which I think is always there in Great Imperial Achievement. We are the masters. But then, there is always that slave behind you saying, well, remember, you too must die. Remember,


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[Assistant] Whatever else one says by way of praise for, for Gibbon's text.


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[Assistant] It seems to me that it was necessary that the, the 18th century, the Augustans needed the afterthought, the after reflection, let's put it that way, which Gibbon brings to the greatness of that time, the greatness which, as I say, we've seen articulated principally in literature.


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[Assistant] Growing up in central Wisconsin, I spent a lot of time outside. In the spring, I'd smell the heady fragrance of lilacs.


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[Assistant] In the summer, I loved the electric glow of fireflies as they would zip around on monkey nights. In the fall, the bogs were brimming with the bright red of cranberries.


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[Assistant] had its charms with a Christmassy bouquet emanating from pine trees. For me, nature's always been a source of wonder and inspiration.


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[Assistant] All the things that I just mentioned, from the scents of lilacs and pines to the bright red of cranberries and the glow of fireflies, have at least one thing in common. They're manufactured by enzymes. As I said, I grew up in Wisconsin, so of course I like cheese.


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[Assistant] Right here, I've got two tubes, and I'm going to add chymus into one of these. Just a second here.


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[Assistant] And it's binding to a protein there called casein. What it does then is it clips the casein. It's like a molecular scissors. It's that clipping action that causes the milk to curdle. So here we are in the kitchen working on this.


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[Assistant] If DNA is the blueprint of life, enzymes are the laborers that carry out its instructions. An enzyme is a protein. That's a catalyst. It speeds up or accelerates as a chemical reaction, just as the chymosin over here is accelerating the curdling of the milk.


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[Assistant] But it's not just about cheese. While enzymes do play an important role in the foods that we eat, they also are involved in everything from the health of an infant


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[Assistant] In an enzyme, these amino acids are strung together, like pearls on a necklace. It's really the identity of the amino acids, which letters are in that necklace, and in what order they are, what they spell out. That gives an enzyme its unique properties and differentiates from other enzymes.


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[Assistant] Nowadays, we can make enzymes in microbes, and that could be like a bacteria or a yeast, for example. And the way we do this is we get a piece of DNA that codes for an enzyme that we're interested in, we insert that into the microbe, and we let the microbe use its own machinery, its own wherewithal, to produce that enzyme for us.


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[Assistant] And to me, what's really the fun part is trying to design an enzyme for a new application, arranging the atoms just so.


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[Assistant] Nowadays, we can harness the powers of directed evolution to design enzymes for custom purposes. And one of these is designing enzymes for doing applications in new areas, like laundry.


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[Assistant] So just as enzymes in your body can help you to break down the food that you eat, enzymes in your laundry detergent can help you to break down the stains on your clothes.


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[Assistant] Turns out that about 90 percent of the energy that goes into doing the wash is from water heating.


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[Assistant] And that's for good reason. The warmer water helps to get your clothes clean. But what if you were able to do the wash in cold water instead?


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[Assistant] So this is an example of such an enzyme right here on the screen. And what we can do is we can start playing with those amino acids, as I said, putting some letters in, taking some letters out, rearranging those. And in doing so, we can generate thousands of enzymes. And we can take those enzymes and we can test them in little plates like this.


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[Assistant] Some are worse, so we get rid of those, and then some are better. Those improved ones become our version 1.0s. Those are the enzymes that we want to carry forward, and we can repeat this cycle again and again. And it's the repetition of this cycle that lets us come up with a new enzyme, something that can do what we want.


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[Assistant] And after several cycles of this, we did come up with something new. So you can go to the supermarket today and you can buy a laundry detergent that lets you do the washing cold water because of enzymes like this here. And I want to show you how this one works too. So I've got ...


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[Assistant] Two more tubes here, and these are both milk again. And let me show you. I've got one that I'm going to add this enzyme to, and one that I'm going to add some water to. And that's the control, so nothing should happen in that tube. And the reason you might find it curious that I'm doing this with milk, but the reason that I'm doing this is because


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[Assistant] What you can do is you can extrapolate what it's doing in this milk to what it would be doing in your laundry. So this is kind of a way to visualize what would be happening. Okay, so those both went in. And I'm going to give this a quick zip as well.


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[Assistant] Well, what's on the horizon for enzyme design? Certainly, you need to look at it faster. There are now approaches for evolving enzymes that allow researchers to go through far more samples than you could in place like I just showed you.


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[Assistant] The consequence of ingesting phenylalanine for people with PKU is that they are subject to permanent intellectual disabilities. So it's a scary thing to have. Now, those of you with kids,


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[Assistant] Do you guys have kids here? Which ones have kids? A lot of you. So you may be familiar with PKUs because all children, all infants in the US are required to be tested for PKU. I remember when Anthony, my son, had his heel pricked to test for it.


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[Assistant] However, new enzymes may soon enable PKU patients to eat whatever they want. Recently, the FDA approved an enzyme designed


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[Assistant] To treat PKU. This is big news for patients, and it's actually very big news for the field of enzyme replacement therapy more generally, because there are other targets out there where this would be a good approach.


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[Assistant] When I read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and by the way, that's like this huge island of plastic somewhere between California and Hawaii, and about microplastics pretty much everywhere, it's upsetting. Plastics aren't going away anytime soon. But enzymes may help us in this area as well.


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[Assistant] Enzymes may also offer some help in capturing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Now there's no doubt these are major challenges and


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[Assistant] I'm thinking about doing this one at our next Kids to Work Day demo, but they can be a tough crowd, so we'll see.


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[Assistant] And then the other one I want to look at is this one. So these are the enzymes. Well, this is the enzyme for doing your laundry.


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[Assistant] Well, we've come a long way, considering the 7,000 year journey from enzymes and cheese making to the present day in enzyme design.


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[Assistant] We're really at a creative crossroads, and with enzymes, can edit what nature wrote, or write our own stories with amino acids. So next time you're outdoors on a muggy night,


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[Assistant] And you see a firefly. I hope you think of enzymes. They're doing amazing things for us today. And by design, they could be doing even more amazing things tomorrow. Thank you.


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[Assistant] And cross on foot. Then travel by bus to the capital.


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[Assistant] There's a bit of a New Zealand alliance going on. There's been some talk that the New Zealand boys want us out.


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[Assistant] So we've been working together with Tyson and Sal and Jared and Ash a lot. We are starting to find people that we do think are a little more honest. We just think a few of the New Zealand teams are just in it to win it.


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[Assistant] Can we ask some directions? They just point us randomly to the left somewhere. Where? Ah.


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[Assistant] Should we be worried that everyone's gone? No. Uuuh. Bro, I almost forgot I'm on a rise.


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[Assistant] Ah, thank you. Detour, climb up or drill down? Climb up. Okay.


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[Assistant] I'm calm. Oh yea, you seem real calm.


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[Assistant] Oh, we choose one! That one, I just was like, brain. Pick.


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[Assistant] The right one. Oh, that's a good time message.


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[Assistant] I honestly don't know how you're gonna do this. Don't worry about me, just you figure out how you're gonna do it and then I'll try and copy you. And if you want, I will try first. I came down because you needed to be confident. I just said I might be able to do it. If I fall, you're gonna save me. I'm terrified.


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[Assistant] I value not being a horrible person and I think that I have said some things that I wish I hadn't said.


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[Assistant] For the most part, the race was really fun. I don't want those fun times to be over. And I'm sad that they are.


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[Assistant] I don't feel bad about it. Chalk and cheese.


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[Assistant] I've never snowballed. Ever. Super pumped that I've done that. Like...


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[Assistant] Come out, one-horned buffalo! You are under arrest!


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[Assistant] I wasn't able to arrest him. We need more help.


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[Assistant] It's my first time in elimination, but I'm not letting that take over my mind today. I'm so determined and I don't give up, so I'm going in today fighting till the end.


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[Assistant] I'm at a loss. My taste buds have gone out the window.


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[Assistant] I know exactly what I wanna make today. I've tried this a few times at home and today I wanna take it to the next level. Okay.


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[Assistant] So what are you making? Uhm, I'm making my version of kinefe, a milk-set custard, infusing cardamom and a tiny bit of saffron. I'm gonna have that on my nest of kataipudo.


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[Assistant] Today I'm making my version of a knäfe. I don't have any rose water to work with for my dish today, so I make my own. I taste my rose water syrup.


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[Assistant] My aim with the Milk Sat Custard is not only flavour, but I wanna wobble.


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[Assistant] I put milk, sugar, some crushed cardamom pods, cornflour and a tiny pinch of saffron in a saucepan and whisk for my life.


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[Assistant] The next thing I have to do is cook my kataipi dough. I have to have a hot fry pan and I start piping spiral shapes.


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[Assistant] I really want this to be an addition to the dish that really sets it apart and I just need it to set in time.


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[Assistant] Walking my dish to the judges, I'm feeling so proud. If I go home today, I'm gonna be going home with my head held high.


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[Assistant] Uhm, today I've cooked my version of kenefe, which I've made my kataifi dough and fried it off with a cardamom and saffron milk-set custard and some nice soft-set Turkish delight with rose water.


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[Assistant] I'm pretty sure they'd be at the TV screen trying to make it.


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[Assistant] Almond Tarator is delicious as well. It's, um, it's a nice quick way of making it, which I always like as well, because when people are time poor, it's good to have quick recipes. I'm going in for another one.


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[Assistant] The other flavors are mixing with another flavor.


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[Assistant] The Wind in the Willows. Episode 27. Out of the Wild Wood.


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[Assistant] Mole and Badger returned to the kitchen. Rat was walking up and down in his coat. I want to get back to my river, said Rat.


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[Assistant] He pushed them through and waved goodbye. Otter piled some leaves to hide the hole.


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[Assistant] He said, Well, I'm going home, cried Otter. And he ran down a trail. The two friends started home. Suddenly, Mole stopped and sniffed.


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[Assistant] I'm really excited about today. I feel like I've come a really long way from how I started. I'm proud of my dishes.


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[Assistant] On top of that, I'm gonna do some compressed celery and apple. So I'm gonna be rushed for time today. And I love buffalo wings. I'm hanging my hat on this, so hopefully I can get that immunity pin.


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[Assistant] I'm compressing my celery and my apple before I'm doing my wings. I know it's just a garnish, but it needs to sit there for quite a while for the flavour of the liquid to go inside the bruce or the vegetable.


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[Assistant] I'm so busy with my apple and celery garnish that I forgot to marinate the wings.


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[Assistant] I really, really want this pin today, so I'm going to try the best I can to fix it.


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[Assistant] Uhm, that has some salt and pepper in it for seasoning and deep fry them. I really want to conquer this challenge today. Bring it on.


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[Assistant] I'm running around like crazy and I nearly took my bread sauce too far. I just need a little bit more stock in there.


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[Assistant] You need to motor. I do. I don't have a lot of time. Can I just take my wings and throw them straight into the hot oil? Come on.


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[Assistant] I've made three chicken wings, one for each of the judges. I know it's not a big dish, but it's enough to give them each a sense of what the dish is.


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[Assistant] I realise Shannon's gonna be tasting today.


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[Assistant] I've got three little drumettes on the plate and there's four judges.


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[Assistant] Drumettes on the plate and there's four judges. I completely forgot that Shannon Bennett would be tasting our food today.


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[Assistant] Busy day, hot sir, hot sir, let's move it.


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[Assistant] Welcome, what a beautiful blue sky day, the sun is shining, and today is a team challenge. And I'm sure you are wondering, what are we doing out here?


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[Assistant] Well, in a few short minutes, a few of you are gonna be heading off into the wide blue yonder. What?


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[Assistant] Right, so, captains, vice captains, remember what's at stake.


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[Assistant] The losing team, whole team, goes into the elimination.


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[Assistant] Straight off, straight off about I'm gonna say I'm really impressed with how that fish is cooked. Because it just pushes apart, it's just cooked through. Which is really beautiful. And I think the stock, that clarification, the slight saltiness, the clarity of flavour is really good. Yeah, it's great.


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[Assistant] You flew to one of Australia's best regional restaurants and had to memorise how to make four dishes.


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[Assistant] It was an almost insurmountable task. But guess what?


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[Assistant] We're finally up, uhm, slightly behind time with a couple of extra Z's.


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[Assistant] So after winning the first league, we got the two express passes, one for ourselves, and one that we could give away to another team. We were confident it put us in good stead.


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[Assistant] Johnny, you can be pretty full on. He's hugely competitive. We definitely have our moments. Let's go. Breathe in forward.


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[Assistant] The challenge was you had to level the pool table with, uh, slabs of wood, bits of rubber, and then it was play one of the local, uhm, sharks. They all look like sharks. They all look pretty good.


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[Assistant] We were leveling the table and I think Johnny was just starting to feel that this table was never going to get.


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[Assistant] Let's go, let's go, let's go. No, no, no, John. John. Johnny just sort of lost focus and just wanted to get, you know. I lost focus. Well, you wanted to go fishing all of a sudden.


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[Assistant] And we're not far off there. So the challenge was you had to level the pool table.


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[Assistant] Finally got it level, got our pull under the way and we had to sink five balls. This guy's gonna be a pull shark.


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[Assistant] One went in, Johnny smacked another one in and I had a third.


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[Assistant] And there's probably nothing worse than that, when you're sitting there, leg at a time, leg, leg, leg, and I just put it all down.


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[Assistant] Let's be honest, the Cambodians, they tell you what you want to hear. They're great salesmen.


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[Assistant] I've given her the advice to slow it down and try and get it right. It's going to be a hard one, but I reckon she's up to it.


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[Assistant] Me, Tyson and Daniel, we made a pact. There might be things down the track where if we get rid of too many Australian teams it could affect us. From now on in, it's us three. We're sick of the Kiwis winning everything.


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[Assistant] Relay? All I'm thinking about is white chocolate veloute. What a disaster. That can't happen again.


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[Assistant] We've got honeycomb, ice cream, macadamia crumb, and chocolate sauce. I still can't work out what the hero ingredient is.


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[Assistant] What do I make next? What do I have to keep fixing? Or what do I have to just do?


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[Assistant] I'm a bit confused. I've tasted everything our team has made and I still can't work out what the hero ingredient is.


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[Assistant] I gotta make the phablet pastry first for the tart. I got this dress.


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[Assistant] I don't have enough butter, which I just realized now. So I gotta half my recipe again.


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[Assistant] I'm feeling like I'm going at a right pace. I've got a lot of my elements kind of on the go at the moment.


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[Assistant] We're traveling to the western paradise to get scriptures from Buddha.


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[Assistant] Hehehehe, some rain. You couldn't even summon one drop. I'll try again!


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[Assistant] Wonderful. Now all the Buddhist monks will be free. And we can continue our journey.


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[Assistant] What's in the box? I think it's a peach pit.


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[Assistant] I was right. It is a peach pit.


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[Assistant] The next day in Kisangani. Keir and Rilla.


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[Assistant] Suddenly, Commander Zadak came into the office.


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[Assistant] And gave some letters to the man behind the table. He saw the two young people and stopped in front of them. You again, he said. What are you doing here? Kea stood up. Good morning, Commander.


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[Assistant] We're here because we want to see Earth Commander. I saw Earth Commander some minutes ago and talked to him about rain. Zadok said quietly, but he didn't listen. Your Captain Seru was here earlier this morning.


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[Assistant] And then at Rilla with his blue eyes, I'm not talking to Gog again. And you, Gog isn't going to listen to you. Be careful and good luck. Commander Zadak opened the door and left the office.


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[Assistant] Rilla looked at Kea. Earth Commander is a difficult man. I don't understand him. Everyone is afraid of him, Kea said. And Commander Zadak isn't going to help us. Kea and Rilla waited. They waited and waited. At nearly twelve o'clock, a guard came into the office.


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[Assistant] Come, he said. Kea and Rilla went with the guard. The house was big and old, with big windows and many doors. The guard went downstairs and opened one of the doors. There was nobody in the room. Wait here, the guard said and left.


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[Assistant] Belle liked expensive things. She carried a cat. The cat was black and white. Half its face was black. And half was white. Half its body was black. And half was white. Why are you here? Why do you want to see Earth, Commander? She asked.


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[Assistant] Rilla stood up. How do you do? She said.


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[Assistant] We want to talk to Earth Commander about the AOL. We have new numbers from the satellite. Belle's face was red. The AOL?


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[Assistant] Earth Commander knows about the AOL, and he is the best man. Excuse me. Kea said quietly. We want to help, Earth Commander. Belle began to laugh. Help? You? The cat jumped down and walked across the room. How can you help? Why can't you understand?


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[Assistant] Earth commander is working on the spaceship for Mars. It's difficult and expensive work.


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[Assistant] Two years ago, Adai wanted more money for the AOL, and Earth Commander sent him to the colony under the moon. Now you're talking about the AOL. Do you want to go to the moon too? The door opened again, and a different guard came in. Excuse me, Earth Commander is ready now. Belle stood up.


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[Assistant] You can see Earth Commander now. She said coldly. But you're going to be sorry.


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[Assistant] The guard opened a different door, and Belle and the cat went into a beautiful room with expensive, very old tables and chairs. Rilla and Kea went in behind them. There were no windows in the room, but a lot of pictures. There was Gog, the richest man on earth, and the worst man on earth.


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[Assistant] He was tall and fat and without much hair. He sat behind a big table with a television, three computers and five telephones. He watched the television and didn't look at Keir or Rilla. Two guards with guns stood behind him and two more guards stood near the door.


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[Assistant] Here they are, Belle said. They aren't friends, oh no.


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[Assistant] They want to talk about the AOL, of course. No one understands about Mars. That's all right, that's all right, Gog said quickly. And then he looked up. First at Rilla, and then at Kea. His eyes were cold and green. I know about you too, he said. Your captain told me about you.


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[Assistant] You're famous. Two children. You want to help Planet Earth. Is that right? He waited. The cat jumped onto his table and sat down in front of the television. Yes, Commander. Kea began. The AOL is breaking up. When? Tonight? Tomorrow?


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[Assistant] I heard this old story two years ago from a die.


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[Assistant] And the AOL is good for a hundred years. But the satellite, Kea, began again. Be quiet, Gog cried. I am Earth Commander.


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[Assistant] The guards moved behind Kea and Rilla, and Belle began to laugh. Goodbye, she said. You're not going to the moon. You're going to prison.


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[Assistant] You can talk about the holes in the AOL there.


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[Assistant] I have the absolute privilege of studying microbial lives in the Pacific Ocean.


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[Assistant] So we'll talk about microbes in a minute, but I first want to give you a sense of place, a sense of scale.


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[Assistant] The Pacific Ocean is our largest, deepest ocean basin. It covers 60 million square miles.


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[Assistant] If you took all the continents and you put them together in a little Pangea 2.0, they'd fit snug inside the Pacific, right, with room to spare. It's a massive ecosystem.


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[Assistant] In my research and really in the field of microbial oceanography as a whole,


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[Assistant] There's a theme that has emerged, and that theme is change.


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[Assistant] These microbial ecosystems are changing in real and measurable ways, and it is not that hard to see it. Oceans cover 70 percent of our planet, so ocean change is planetary change, and it all starts with microbes. Now, uh, I have two vignettes to share with you, and


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[Assistant] These are meant to be love stories to microbes. But I'll be honest that ...


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[Assistant] There's an aspect of it that's just a total bummer, and ...


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[Assistant] Beware, focus on the love, right? That's where I'm coming from. So the first thing to know is that


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[Assistant] The forests of the sea are microbial. And what I mean by that is that by and large, plants in the open ocean are microscopic.


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[Assistant] And they are much more abundant than we realize. So I'm going to show you some


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[Assistant] Mugshots of these organisms that I've collected over the years. These are the lowest rungs of the ocean food web.


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[Assistant] These are tiny plants and animals that come in a variety of shapes and sizes and colors and metabolisms. There are hundreds of thousands in a single milliliter of seawater. You are definitely swimming with them when you're in the ocean.


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[Assistant] They produce oxygen, they consume CO2 and they form the base of the food web on which every other form of ocean life is reliant. Now,


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[Assistant] I've spent about 500 days of my scientific life at sea, and a lot more in front of a computer or in the lab, so I feel compelled to tell you some of their stories. Let's start in the Pacific Northwest.


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[Assistant] This place is green. It is beautiful. These are blooms of phytoplankton that you can see from space along the west coast of the United States. It's an incredibly productive eco- ecosystem.


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[Assistant] This is where you go to salmon fish, halibut fish, whale watch. It's a beautiful part of our country.


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[Assistant] And here for 10 years, among other things, I studied the uplifting topic of harmful algal blooms. Right?


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[Assistant] These are blooms of toxin-producing phytoplankton that can contaminate food webs and accumulate in shellfish and fish that are harvested for human consumption.


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[Assistant] We were trying to understand why they bloom, where they bloom, when they bloom, so we could manage these harvests and protect human health. Now the problem is, the ocean's a moving target, and, uh,


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[Assistant] Much like some people in our lives, toxicity varies among the plankton.


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[Assistant] Alright, so to get around these challenges, we combined satellite remote sensing with


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[Assistant] Drones and gliders, regular sampling of the surf zone, and a lot of time at sea in small boats off the Oregon coast. And I don't know if many of you have had the opportunity to do that, but it is not easy. Uh, here's some poor students.


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[Assistant] And that allowed us to understand the patterns of these blooms and to build models to predict them.


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[Assistant] And what we found was that the risk of harmful algal blooms was tightly linked to aspects of climate. When I say climate, I don't mean weather, day to day. I mean long-term changes.


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[Assistant] These oscillations that you may have heard of, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, El Nino, they usually bring warm, dry winters to this region.


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[Assistant] But they also reduce the strength of the California current, which runs from the north to the south along the Pacific Northwest.


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[Assistant] And they warm the coastal ocean. These are the reds you're seeing in this plot. Warm anomalies, strong positive indices of the PDO.


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[Assistant] And when we have these changes in circulation and changes in temperature, the risk of harmful algal blooms is increased.


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[Assistant] But also salmon recruitment has decreased, and we see intrusions of invasive species like green crab.


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[Assistant] Alright, so these are ecological and economic impacts of climate.


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[Assistant] Now, if our models are right, the frequency and severity of these events are only going to get worse, right along with these warm anomalies. And to illustrate that,


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[Assistant] That bodes really well for harmful algal blooms and poorly for ecosystem health. Now, you may not care about shellfish.


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[Assistant] But these changes impact economically important fisheries, like crab and salmon. And they can impact the health of marine mammals, like whales. Right? And that might matter a little bit more. That might resonate. So ...


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[Assistant] There's your doomsday tale for the margins of the Pacific.


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[Assistant] Actually, these are really resilient ecosystems. They can absolutely bounce back if we give them a chance. The point is not to ignore the changes that we're seeing. Which brings me to my second vignette.


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[Assistant] I'm the new lead of a program called the Hawaiian Ocean Time Series. And this is a program that for 31 years has made this monthly pilgrimage to a spot called Station Aloha. It's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in the center of this vast swirling system of currents that we call the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.


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[Assistant] It's our largest ocean ecosystem. It's four times the size of the Amazon rainforest. It is warm in a good way. It is blue water. It's absolutely the type of place you want to dive in and swim. You cannot do that off of research boats because, you know, sharks. Google it.


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[Assistant] And here, since October of 1988, generations of researchers have made these monthly pilgrimages. We study the biology, the chemistry, the physics of the open ocean. We've measured the temperature from the surface to the seafloor. We've tracked the currents, traced the waves.


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[Assistant] We have, people have discovered new organisms here. People have created vast genomic libraries that have revolutionized what we think about the diversity of marine microorganisms.


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[Assistant] It's not just a place of discovery, but the important part about time series are they provide us a sense of history, a sense of context.


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[Assistant] And in 30 years of data, it's allowed us to separate the seasonal change and see the emergence of humanity's fingerprints on the natural world.


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[Assistant] There's another iconic time series in Hawaii, and that is the Keeling Curve. I hope you have all seen this.


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[Assistant] This time series has documented the rapid increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It's not just the number, it's the rate of increase. The rate of carbon dioxide increase in our atmosphere is unprecedented for our planet. And that has consequences for our oceans.


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[Assistant] Each one of these dots is a cruise. It represents people's lives over 30 years trying to make these measurements, and it took 30 years to be able to see this.


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[Assistant] CO2 rises in the atmosphere, CO2 rises in the ocean. That's the red line.


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[Assistant] A consequence of that is a fundamental change in the chemistry of seawater, a decline in pH. pH is on a log scale. Here's your blue line.


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[Assistant] So we've seen a 30 percent decline in pH in the surface ocean in this time series.


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[Assistant] That has impacts for organisms that need to feed, build shells, that changes growth rates, metabolic interactions, and it doesn't just impact plankton, it impacts ecosystems as large as coral reefs.


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[Assistant] Now one of the things we've been able to show in this time series is this is just skimming the surface.


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[Assistant] Increases in CO2 and a decline in pH are measured over the top 500 meters of the water column. I really find that to be profound.


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[Assistant] This is genuinely one of the most remote places on our planet.


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[Assistant] And we've impacted the top 500 meters of the water column.


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[Assistant] Harmful algal blooms, ocean acidification. That's not all, of course, you've heard of the rest.


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[Assistant] Sea level rise, eutrophication, melting of the polar ice caps, expansion of oxygen minimum zones, pollution, loss of biodiversity over fishing. Yea, it's hard for me to get a grad student. You can see this pitch is a difficult one, right?


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[Assistant] Again, I think these systems, these microbial ecosystems are immensely resilient. We just cannot go too far down this path.


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[Assistant] I personally believe that sustained observation of our oceans and our planet is the moral imperative for our generation of scientists. We are bearing witness.


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[Assistant] To the changes that are being inflicted upon our natural communities.


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[Assistant] And by doing so, it provides us the opportunity to adapt and enact global change, if we're willing.


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[Assistant] So the solutions to these problems are multi-tiered. It involves a portfolio of solutions, local change.


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[Assistant] But all the way up to voting for people who will protect our environment on a global scale.


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[Assistant] These organisms are small, abundant, ancient, and they are critical, sustaining our population and our planet.


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[Assistant] Yet we are on track to double our carbon dioxide emissions in the next 50 years. So the analogy that I use for that is like we are


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[Assistant] We're eating like we're still in our 20s, assuming there will be no consequences. But I'm a woman in her 40s, I know there are consequences for my fuel consumption, right?


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[Assistant] These oceans are very much alive. These ecosystems have not collapsed. But, well, except for the Arctic, we could talk about that.


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[Assistant] But the sustained observations that I've shared with you today, the work of generations of scientists, are pointing us to take better care of our oceans and to nurture the microbes that sustain us.


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[Assistant] And on that note, I want to end with a quote from one of my heroes, Jane Lubchenco. And this slide is appropriate.


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[Assistant] Yeah, run slow! I was in disbelief, I couldn't believe we lost.


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[Assistant] Come on, we can catch those girls easily. We've gotta catch the Kiwi Girls.


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[Assistant] That wasn't as graceful a job as could have been done, but it was fast and effective.


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[Assistant] We lost all that time going back to get the half ring and we thought we would definitely last. And when we got to the roadblock, we saw Tyson and Sally just arrived and we thought we still got a chance to get back into the game.


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[Assistant] She's trying so hard. So Tiana's doing the roadblock and I looked behind me and Tyson and Sally still haven't left and I thought, we've got a chance. Tiana's just got to catch that sheep.


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[Assistant] Guys, one hour down, one hour to go! Come on!


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[Assistant] I can see the panic is starting to set in. Look at the clock, 30 minutes to go. You need to push harder. You need to work faster. You need to get this done. Come on, let's hustle. Come on, let's go guys.


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[Assistant] Are you taking part in Nonfiction November? This is an annual event on the internet where you just aim to challenge yourself to read slightly more nonfiction than you usually would. For you, that might mean that you just read one nonfiction book.


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[Assistant] Here on Book Break, we made a bunch of Nonfiction November themed videos last year, so I will link to those below. But I wanted to bring you something new. If you are taking part in Nonfiction November this year, and you want to see which books have come out in the last year that you might not have already got your hands on, this is the video for you.


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[Assistant] Starting with this chunky book here, this is God and Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou.


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[Assistant] This is a history of God and the way that God has been presented through centuries of religious beliefs. But what sets this book apart a little bit is this book focuses on God's physical body, which he has at various times through religious history been believed to have.


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[Assistant] She's just fantastic and also incredibly intelligent and this book is so well researched. So you will learn so much if you make this your non-fiction November challenge.


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[Assistant] Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zahner has been getting a ton of hype across BookTube, so this one would be a great one to read in Nonfiction November so you can join in with some of those conversations. This book actually started life as an essay that went viral called Crying in H Mart, and she then expanded this into a full memoir.


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[Assistant] It's about grief, it's about her grieving her mother, it's about her getting in touch with her cultural heritage through making food, Korean food that she remembers her mother making. It's about her exploring her own identity as a Korean American woman. It's also about music.


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[Assistant] Sister Sister by Candice Braithwaite is an essay collection full of essays about all the things that Candice Braithwaite wished someone had talked to her about when she was a young black girl growing up in London. So Candice Braithwaite is very straight talking but also really warm and funny and in this way she manages to navigate some really difficult conversations in this book.


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[Assistant] Broken Heartlands would be a really good one to pick up for anyone who's interested in politics. So you may have heard of the Red Wall, an area in the north of England and the Midlands, which historically has always voted Labour, but in the 2019 election, dramatically turned Conservative for the first time. So this is a road trip through 10 constituencies,


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[Assistant] So this is a dark, behind the scenes look at the world of ballet. The subtitle here is The Making of a Rogue Ballerina. Georgina Pascogon was the first Asian-American soloist with the New York City Ballet. An incredible achievement.


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[Assistant] And this book takes us through her story. It's a love letter to ballet, but it also exposes the darker side. It exposes the cutthroat mentality that exists in the world of ballet.


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[Assistant] And it also dives into the aftershocks of the Me Too movement. Georgina Pasko again remains one of the few ballerinas to be openly speaking up about sexual harassment. She also speaks openly about mental abuse and racism that in the past had been just ignored or dismissed.


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[Assistant] So this book means that you will never look at ballet quite the same way again. Then there's Manifesto by Bernardine Evaristo. She is the author of Girl, Woman, Other.


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[Assistant] And she is the first black woman to have won the Booker Prize. So this is her manifesto about never giving up, written by someone who has actually made history. I'm such a huge fan of Bernadine Evaristo's writing. Girl Woman Other, the Booker Prize winning book, is so, so worth picking up. I really recommend that.


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[Assistant] We're not talking about fiction today, we're talking about Manifesto, a really inspiring read.


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[Assistant] A book that is painfully relevant to all of us right now is Until Proven Safe. This is the history of quarantine. So this book looks back on quarantines that humans have imposed on themselves before.


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[Assistant] In this book, David Howard looks back 30 years into his past,


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[Assistant] When he went through what he now understands to be a psychotic breakdown, and he looks at the intersection of racism and mental health treatment. But of course we know now that David Hurwood went on to become the successful actor that he is today, so we also know that we're going to follow his path of recovery.


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[Assistant] While we're on the topic of moving memoirs, I've got here Lily's Promise, which was written by Holocaust survivor along with her grandson.


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[Assistant] Lily's story went viral early this year when she set out on a social media mission assisted by her grandson to track down the American soldier who had liberated her from Auschwitz and given her a banknote on which he had wished her good luck and happiness. This search made headlines around the world and finally gave Lily the chance


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[Assistant] To fulfill the promise that she had made herself back when she was still in Auschwitz. She had promised herself that if ever she was freed, she would tell the world her story.


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[Assistant] If you want to scare yourself and then reassure yourself, I recommend Scary Smart by Moe Gordat, which is all about the future of artificial intelligence. This book looks at the very very real threat that artificial intelligence poses to humanity, but it also looks at the solutions.


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[Assistant] And the best part is it puts those solutions in the hands of ordinary everyday readers like you and me.


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[Assistant] By 2049, there will be AI that is a billion times more intelligent than humans. But as scary as that sounds, machines are not the problem. This book gives us a blueprint for how we can save the future of humanity, protect those we love, and protect our planet.


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[Assistant] So first up here I've got A Funny Life by Michael McIntyre. This is Michael McIntyre's second autobiography. The first one took readers up to the moment where he got his first


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[Assistant] This book tells the story of Michael McIntyre navigating fame and success, the amazing achievements that he had along the way, and also some of the slightly embarrassing disasters. Of course it's written with Michael McIntyre's trademark hilarity, so this one will keep you laughing the whole way through.


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[Assistant] Or another suggestion for a funny non-fiction November title would be Theroux the Keyhole. So this is the latest book from Louis Theroux, and it is all about his life in lockdown, and it is surprisingly relatable. Louis Theroux is famous for interviewing some of the


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[Assistant] Most unusual and eccentric characters that our world has to offer, but during lockdown, there was no one to investigate but himself.


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[Assistant] Chapter 2 A Walk to Nowhere Early the next morning


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[Assistant] Abanaza arrived at Aladdin's house.


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[Assistant] And then he and Aladdin walked to the market.


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[Assistant] First of all, we must look at coats, Abanaza said.


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[Assistant] Soon Aladdin had an expensive new coat and he felt very happy. Then Abanaza and Aladdin walked through the market and looked at the shops. They drank coffee, talked to people, and had a very good dinner.


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[Assistant] It was a wonderful day for Aladdin. On Friday when the market was closed.


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[Assistant] Abanaza took Aladdin to the beautiful gardens in the city. They walked under the trees and talked about a shop for Aladdin.


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[Assistant] You are very good to me, uncle, Aladdin said. Abanaza smiled. But of course, he said, you are my brother's son. Now.


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[Assistant] Let us leave the city and go up into the hills.


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[Assistant] There is something wonderful there and you must see it. They left the gardens, walked past the Sultan's palace and out of the city up into the hills. They walked for a long time and Aladdin began to feel tired.


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[Assistant] It's not far now, said Abanaza.


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[Assistant] More beautiful than the garden of the Sultan's palace. At last Abanaza stopped. Here we are, he said. Aladdin looked.


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[Assistant] But he could see no gardens on the hills. Where is this garden, uncle? He said. First we must make a fire, said Abanaza. Aladdin did not understand.


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[Assistant] But he made a fire for his uncle on the ground.


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[Assistant] Then Abanaza took some powder out of a small box and put it on the fire.


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[Assistant] He closed his eyes and said, Abracadabra. At once, the sky went dark. Black smoke came from the fire and the ground under the fire began to open.


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[Assistant] Then the smoke went away, and in the ground there was now a big white stone with a ring in it. Aladdin was very afraid. He began to run away, but Abanaza took his arm and hit him on the head. For a minute or two,


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[Assistant] Aladdin could not speak or move. Then he cried,


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[Assistant] You must be a man now, not a child, said Abanaza. I am your father's brother, and you must obey me. Don't be afraid. In a short time,


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[Assistant] You're going to be a rich man. Now listen carefully. He took Aladdin's hand.


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[Assistant] Only you can move this stone.


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[Assistant] Put your hand on the ring and say your name and your father's name. Very afraid.


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[Assistant] Aladdin put his hand on the ring. It was not hot, but very cold. I am Aladdin, son of Mustafa, he said. The stone moved easily.


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[Assistant] Go down those stairs, Abanaza said.


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[Assistant] And then through four big rooms. In the last room...


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[Assistant] There is a door into a garden.


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[Assistant] And under one of the trees, there is a lamb.


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[Assistant] You can take some fruit from the trees, but first you must find the lamp. Bring the lamp to me. Please come with me, uncle, Aladdin said. No.