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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

Sally Marlow

Philip Dodd

Barry Smith

David Yelland

Shelina Janmohamed

Torquil MacLeod

Free Thinking: 2015 Festival: Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits Or a Drain on Society?

Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits Or a Drain on Society?

25/11/2015

2015 Festival

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, 2015 Festival, Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits Or a Drain on Society?

David Yelland, Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, Sally Marlow and Barry Smith discuss alcohol.

Addiction expert Dr Sally Marlow gives a talk about our attitudes to alcohol. She then joins a debate with Professor Barry Smith, David Yelland and Shelina Zahra Janmohamed.

Every day we read lurid headlines about alcohol abuse and the consequences of binge drinking for the young at home and abroad. But a deeper look reveals a complicated picture of alcohol use in Britain. Champagne is still linked with celebration, while pubs are closing up and down the country. University freshers' weeks are adjusting to reflect the increasing number of students who are teetotal - but doctors are reporting a rise in patients with liver damage. How should society accommodate people who drink to excess and those who don't want to drink at all?

Dr Sally Marlow from King's College, London is an expert in addiction. In a specially commissioned Free Thinking talk she explores the hypocrisy in society around alcohol.

Joining the debate chaired by Free Thinking presenter Philip Dodd are:

Professor Barry Smith - philosopher from the University of London's School of Advanced Study and wine columnist for Prospect magazine.

David Yelland - former editor of the Sun and a Trustee of Action on Addiction and Patron of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, author of Love in a Headscarf and Muslim women's activist, who blogs at Spirit 21 and who is a lifelong teetotaller.

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

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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Breathalysing Britain: Free Spirits Or a Drain on Society?

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