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May 2021
18m 1s

How to be mediocre

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Not everyone can be special, so should we embrace our mediocrity?

In a programme first broadcast in August 2016, Manuela Saragosa investigates the appeal of being average. She talks to mediocrity advocates and bloggers Krista O'Reilly-Davi-Digui from Alberta in Canada, and Mark Manson in the US. But what happens when whole societies embrace mediocrity at the expense of excellence? Italian philosopher Gloria Origgi explains the concept of "kakonomics'" - the economics of being bad.

(Picture of men holding balloons via Getty Images)

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