Comment 13 by Zeuglodon I just finished watching the entire lecture. I quite liked the bridges metaphor, though bridge four ("Public appreciation") didn't seem very clear to me. Was this in contrast to Matthew's presumption that it was too obvious to need pointing out to a public audience?

I'm glad you liked it :) Interesting question; I think that 4th bridge isn't so much about realising that it was worth bringing to a wider public attention but rather about actually achieving that attention (maybe that's a two-part bridge :)). That's something that Wallis's essay didn't do on its own when presented alongside Darwin's - it took a full and developed treatment by Darwin in his book to do so.

I also found the stuff about precise definitions of evolution and the gene pool near the end really interesting as I've only read small parts of Richards books, so that was new to me. The only whole one I've read so far is The Greatest Show On Earth and almost all of The God Delusion.