It’s play time on Start the Week. The mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy looks at the numbers behind the games we play, from Monopoly to rock paper scissors. In Around The World in 80 Games he shows how understanding maths can give you the edge, and why games are integral to human psychology and culture.
The historian Anthony Bale looks at game-playing in the medieval world. In A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, he finds travellers passing the time with dice and tric trac, as well as collecting pilgrim badges along the way.
Many of today’s most popular video games immerse players in historical settings, and the practice of collecting items along the way is nothing new to gamers. The co-director of the Games and Gaming Lab at the University of Glasgow, Jane Draycott, researches the historical authenticity of these online worlds, and especially the depiction of women.
And the mathematician G.T. Karber has taken his love of classic detective fiction and puzzles to create the murder-mystery riddle Murdle. A combination of Cluedo and Sudoku, what started as an online game is now a series of bestselling books. The latest is Murdle: More Killer Puzzles.
Producer: Katy Hickman
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Storytelling at the Edinburgh Festivals
British culture and European influence
Shame, Status and Self-invention
Deserts and the Nuclear Age
Altered Minds
Arundhati Roy on castes and outcasts
Survival and Destruction
Dark Satanic Mills
Jordan Peterson: Rules for Life
The Death of Democracy
Mysteries of the Universe
Life Is a Dream
1968: Radicals and Riots
The Good Samaritan
Faith and Doubt
Love and Loss
In Praise of Passion
Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead
Art and Civilisations
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The Modern West
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The Infinite Monkey Cage
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