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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Free Thinking

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

BBC Radio 4

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

The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.

The ideas shaping our lives today - with leading artists and thinkers in extended interview and debate.

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival

Anne McElvoy

Margaret Heffernan

Matthew Syed

Cath Bishop

Christopher Frayling

Luke Mulhall

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: Putting Competition to the Test

Putting Competition to the Test

12/11/2015

2015 Festival

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, 2015 Festival, Putting Competition to the Test

Margaret Heffernan, Matthew Syed, Cath Bishop and Christopher Frayling explore success.

Anne McElvoy hosts a debate about success, asking what is both good and bad about competition. With Margaret Heffernan, Matthew Syed, Cath Bishop and Christopher Frayling.

From TV talent contests such as The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing to the pressures of school exams and job interviews - competition is at the heart of the way we live our lives. What can we learn from sports stars whose lives are geared to cultivating a healthy competitive instinct? Is the desire to be successful bringing out the best in us - or the worst?

Constructively and co-operatively arguing with Free Thinking presenter Anne McElvoy are:

Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur, CEO and author of A Bigger Prize: Why Competition isn't Everything and Willful Blindness

Matthew Syed, former England Table Tennis number one and Times columnist and author whose books include Bounce: The myth of talent and the power of practice and, most recently, Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success.

Cath Bishop, Olympic medallist and World Champion rower, worked as a British diplomat specialising in conflict issues, working in Bosnia and Iraq and is now a leadership speaker specialising in topics relating to high performance and resilience.

Christopher Frayling, author and broadcaster, former head of Arts Council England

Recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. 

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

Series of events from the 2015 Free Thinking festival. The theme is 'tearing up the rule book'

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