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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Start the Week

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

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Tom Sutcliffe

Helga Nowotny

David Willetts

Matthew Syed

Oliver Morton

Katy Hickman

Start the Week: Embracing Failure and Uncertainty

Embracing Failure and Uncertainty

02/11/2015

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, Embracing Failure and Uncertainty

Tom Sutcliffe with Helga Nowotny, David Willetts, Matthew Syed and Oliver Morton.

Tom Sutcliffe discusses the importance of uncertainty and failure with Helga Nowotny, David Willetts, Matthew Syed and Oliver Morton.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe discusses the importance of uncertainty and failure. The former head of the European Research Council Helga Nowotny argues research is fed by uncertainty and that any form of scientific inquiry may produce results that are ambiguous. She criticises policy makers for focusing on easy short-term solutions, but the former conservative MP and Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, understands the difficulty for governments in dealing with uncertainty. In his role at the think tank Resolution Foundation he's attempting to use analytical research to improve policy on living standards. Matthew Syed examines how a positive attitude to failure can lead to success in areas as diverse as sport, business, politics and healthcare. The failure of governments to come to an agreement on climate change will be discussed next month at a UN conference in Paris and Oliver Morton looks at whether the radical, yet uncertain, strategies of geo-engineering are the answer.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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