Revisit: What does game playing teach us

University Challenge star Bobby Seagull, writer and critic Jordan Erica Webber, games consultant and researcher Dr Laura Mitchell, and British Museum curator Irving Finkel join Shahidha Bari in the Free Thinking studio to get out the playing cards and the board games and consider the value of play, competitiveness and game theory.

Bobby Seagull has published The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers. Irving Finkel has written Ancient Board Games, the Lewis Chessmen, Cuneiform, The Writing in Stone. He is on the Editorial Board of Board Games Studies and discovered the rules for the royal game of Ur.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

You might be interested in other discussions about The Way We Live Now in this playlist on the Free Thinking programme website which includes discussions about boredom, drugs and consiousness, what is speech and What Nietzche teaches us https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p072637b